Chapter 255: Bo Qiaohui 67
Seeing that the plan was hopeless, he turned his attention to Che'er?
Bo Qiaohui felt amused. Her status as the eldest princess seemed noble, but in reality it was like a castle in the air, all thanks to her younger brother the emperor and her biological mother the empress dowager.
Even in history, after the death of Liu Qi and Dou Yifang, the once glorious Princess Guantao had to accept the new waves that beat her, the old waves, on the beach.
But at least she had a glorious time, which was much better than others.
"The Queen is very busy, how could I bother her rashly? I just heard some gossip recently and wanted to remind her."
"Gossip? What kind of gossip is going on in the palace? How come I don't know?" Dou Yifang, who was drinking tea with the emperor, heard this and asked her daughter in confusion, "What is it about?"
"What else could it be? It's naturally the Crown Prince's marriage."
Guan Tao deliberately raised his sleeve to cover half of his face and laughed sarcastically, "It's funny how ignorant those palace servants are. Seeing that the Empress summoned Nianxue a few times, they all said that the Empress wanted to choose Nianxue as her Queen."
"Mother, don't you think this is funny?"
It's no wonder Guan Tao didn't believe it. Although Zhou Nianxue had a father with great military achievements and a mother with close ties to the palace, she was the only daughter in the family. Once Zhou Yafu died, this girl's value would be reduced by half.
Besides, their family has never had any contact with other branches, and since she is all alone, it seems that marrying her is not a good idea no matter how you look at it.
However, Bo Qiaohui couldn't help but pursed her lips and smiled. She looked at Dou Yifang and saw that the Queen Mother looked at her daughter with even more doubt, her misty eyes full of confusion:
"What's so funny about this? I raised Nianxue under my care. Her appearance, personality, and abilities are all top-notch, not to mention she's the child of General Zhou and Xue Yuan. I think this person is a perfect fit."
That's right, for Dou Yifang, family background is never the first priority when choosing a daughter-in-law, or even the most important one. Personal qualities are her first criterion for judgment.
Otherwise, in her previous life, she would not have agreed to let a distant relative chosen by the declining Bo family be the queen.
"But Queen, isn't it too early to choose a wife for Che'er now?"
"Your Highness, you may not know that General Zhou's old illness relapsed a few days ago. Although his life is not in danger, it has reminded me." Bo Qiaohui sighed, "Although the Zhou family is now glorious, General Zhou is an old man after all. If something happens..." I'm afraid we are too far away from the palace to do anything."
"Let's settle it first. If nothing goes wrong, we'll be happy. If something does go wrong, we can take action to bring Aunt Xueyuan and the others into the palace to prevent people outside from bullying them."
"You've been very thoughtful," Dou Yifang nodded at first, but she still felt a little worried when she saw the emperor: "What about Che'er and Nianxue themselves?"
"Well, wait for Nianxue to come to the palace tomorrow, and you can take a look at the matchmaking that your daughter-in-law has made."
Guan Tao, who was originally unconvinced, suddenly brightened up his eyes and stopped talking about what he was about to say. He made up his mind to dress up Gillian beautifully tomorrow and make her Gillian the most beautiful among all the girls.
Zhou Nianxue, huh, an orphan girl without brothers wants to compete with this princess’ daughter, she doesn’t deserve it!
"It's a nice day outside. Your Majesty, please help me take a walk outside."
While Guantao was still in a daze, Dou Yifang had already stood up with the help of a cane. Liu Qi held her right hand before Dou Yifang finished speaking, and the two of them walked out first.
Guan Tao glanced at them, then at the Queen who was half a step behind, and then he followed them. He whispered with a half-smile, "Are you not following because you're afraid that the Queen Mother will vent her anger on you too?"
"What does the Princess mean?"
"Tsk tsk, that's boring. You don't think I'm like those women who are stuck in the backyard all day, and know nothing about what's going on outside, do you?"
Guan Tao smiled and said a name: "Liu Wu."
However, Bo Qiaohui remained expressionless. She simply nodded and said, "Her Royal Highness is well-informed, but if the Princess truly knows about this, she would be wise to exercise caution."
"Isn't it that Liu Wu, in his fiefdom, built large-scale projects and recruited talented people, has a tendency to imitate the rebellious Shubi?"
When Guantao said this, Liu Qi had also picked out some of Liu Wu's crimes and told them to the empress dowager, and what he said was almost the same as what Guantao said.
Guantao became even more proud upon seeing this. If the Empress Dowager and the Emperor had not been right in front of her, she would have directly signaled the Queen to abandon such powerful relatives. Was she crazy?
"Did Wu'er really do so many wrong things?"
Dou Yifang grabbed the emperor's sleeve in a panic, "He was so well behaved when he was little, how could he become like this now?"
"This is not Wu'er's fault. In the past, he had you, the Queen Mother, to take care of him in Chang'an, and later, his uncle always gave him advice. But now that his uncle is gone, and we are far away, Wu'er will inevitably be led astray by those with ulterior motives."
Liu Qi was now completely transformed into a loving brother. He patted the Queen Mother's bony hand, his eyes full of pity: "I didn't want to punish him, but now the court is in an uproar. Everyone is talking about how I severely punished the princes during the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, and they want me to deal with things with the same severity as before."
"But, but he is your brother after all." Dou Yifang shook her head as soon as she said this. She seemed to become even more hunched over, and her words were weak: "Forget it, you...just spare his life, and you can do whatever you want with the rest."
"Don't worry, mother. When Wu'er arrives in Chang'an, I will not let him suffer any injustice. I will still let him live in the palace so that he won't be offended by ignorant people."
Dou Yifang nodded repeatedly after hearing this. She was truly concerned about her youngest son. When she heard that Wu'er could live in the palace in the future, she felt much better. Her attitude towards Liu Qi was not as harsh as before.
"That's good too. Mother is old now, and Wu'er will be counting on you as his brother from now on."
Bo Qiaohui lowered her head, hiding the sarcastic smile on her lips. The son Dou Yifang relied on was already terminally ill, and yet she knew nothing about him being right beside her. And yet she still expected him to take care of his disrespectful brother.
Since Liu Qi could overcome all difficulties to allow Liu Wu to live in the palace, why couldn't he forgive Liu Wu's crime? It was simply because this was his own idea, and those so-called opposing ministers were just puppets obeying his orders.
One is so biased to the core that he doesn't even realize it, and the other is so hypocritical that he doesn't care at all.
This mother and son are so interesting.
"What Queen Mother said is really interesting. How can Liu Wu be considered a brother? Queen Mother only cares about her own children, but she rushes to care for other people's children."
Guan Tao complained to her indignantly, "Fortunately, Liu Wu made a mistake on his own, otherwise the Queen Mother would have wanted the Emperor to pass the crown prince position to her precious Wu'er."
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