The Empress glanced down at the young Crown Prince, whose innocent eyes blinked: "Mother, time for bed."
The empress carried her son into the room, took off his clothes and shoes, and put him down.
The little prince closed his eyes and fell asleep, unlike other children who cried and fussed.
The times I wake up, go to bed, eat, go out, and learn to walk are incredibly fixed every day.
The emperor was delighted to see how well-behaved his son was.
He pulled the Empress aside and quietly led her to the outer room, whispering, "Your Majesty, look how well-behaved our son is! Let him sleep by himself, let's go for a stroll in the Imperial Garden. It feels like it's been so many years since I've been able to stroll with Your Majesty."
Empress Xue smiled and nodded.
The couple went for a stroll in the Imperial Garden together.
The emperor's harem was not large. In the past, apart from Consort Lin who was rather arrogant, the others were all very low-key. Now that Consort Lin had fallen from power with Prime Minister Lin, the palace seemed to be inhabited only by the emperor and empress.
The emperor hadn't held a selection of concubines for many years. Whenever his ministers brought it up, he would have someone else choose for him, but not for himself. Instead, he would have his concubines choose wives for their sons. Some of the concubines' children were still young, and the candidates for the imperial concubines were all over fourteen years old. How could they choose a wife for their son who was several years older?
Therefore, after the concubines joined forces to send letters to their families and after the downfall of Prince Qu Lin, the calls for the emperor to select concubines have diminished in recent years.
Now that the emperor has appointed a crown prince, there's even less chance of him having to select a concubine.
His life with the Empress was getting better and better.
The concubines who had once been favored by the emperor, who either had princes or princesses, almost never liked to stroll around in front of the emperor.
Concubines who did not have princes or princesses, but were younger, would appear before the emperor, but he would ignore them and often demote them. When there was no rank left to demote them, he would punish them by confining them to their quarters.
In this way, these concubines completely understood the emperor's mindset, resulting in the fact that the only women in his sight now were palace maids and the empress.
He didn't mind at all.
Apart from Empress Xue, probably no one knew what the emperor was thinking.
He planned to start preparing for his fake death after the crown prince turned ten. At that time, he would make good arrangements for the women in the palace. Those with sons could go to their sons' places to become imperial concubines. Those with princesses could stay in the palace to live out their old age or go out to live on their own. Those without children could leave the palace if they wanted to, and if they wanted to stay, he would set up a place and allocate a sum of money to support them.
He will not force these women to do anything; it will be entirely up to them to choose.
The couple strolled through the garden and chatted, and their conversation drifted to the marriages of several princes and princesses.
To date, the fifth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh princes, as well as the fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth princesses, are still unmarried.
The eldest, the Fifth Prince, is the same age as Gu Nian, already twenty, while the youngest, the Eleventh Prince, is thirteen.
After that, there was only the young prince.
You can tell from the child's age how hard the emperor tried to be a ruler during the time when he was being held back by Prime Minister Lin and Prince Qu.
After winning over Prime Minister Lin, he gradually gained power, but he became very perfunctory in his efforts to ensure the continuation of the royal family line.
The emperor told the empress that he wanted to marry a princess to the west, and then marry a princess from the west to the fifth and ninth princes respectively.
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