Prime Minister Zhou was not a fool. The fact that the emperor issued an edict to reinstate him was enough to show that his eldest son had been working for the emperor all these years, and the emperor trusted him far more than himself, the prime minister of the current dynasty.

But for so many years he has been allowing his legitimate wife to suppress his illegitimate son. Even he himself has ignored him many times when he was in trouble in order to support his legitimate son. Although the relationship between father and son has not reached the point of being strangers, the father-son relationship is so weak that it can almost be ignored.

Suddenly he remembered the deal he had made with Wei Junhang earlier. He swayed and finally understood what his last meaningful look meant.

That's the look of looking at a fool!

"Master, Master, something terrible has happened, something terrible has happened!!" The panicked voice of the housekeeper rang out from outside along with his hurried footsteps. He tried hard to swallow the sweet taste in his throat and scolded, "How can you be so loud and shouting!!"

"Master, this is bad. His Majesty has just issued an imperial decree to welcome Princess Rui back to the palace as the original wife!"

Prime Minister Zhou jumped up from the armchair, and before he could say anything, he lost his breath and fell to the ground with a thud.

"Master..."

Earlier, rumors that Princess Rui was still alive had been flying around, but there had been no strong evidence, and no one dared to ask Emperor Yuanyou for confirmation, so the matter had been passed on as both true and false.

Now this imperial edict has clearly stated that those earlier rumors were not real.

The then Princess Zhao of Rui is still alive and is about to be welcomed back to the palace by Emperor Yuanyou as his original wife.

The emperor's first wife is the empress, isn't she? In this case, where does this put Empress Zhou in the palace?

Immediately, some court officials expressed on the spot that this was absolutely inappropriate. There was already a queen in the palace, and welcoming Princess Rui back with the same ceremony as the queen, wouldn't that be a mess?

If Zhao was welcomed into the palace as the first wife this time, would it be the Queen Zhou's turn to give way to the virtuous next time? Queen Zhou had been the Queen for many years and had never been known to have done anything immoral. Could it be that because Zhao had come back to life, the Queen would be deposed?

Naturally, there were also court officials who disagreed.

Princess Rui is your Majesty's original wife, so what's wrong with welcoming her back with the ceremony of an original wife?

Both sides immediately refused to give in and neither side was willing to submit.

However, Emperor Yuanyou had already made up his mind and would not tolerate any objection from his officials, so he simply ignored them and issued the decree.

At this moment, the court and the public were in an uproar, and all eyes fell on the Zhou residence.

Your Majesty's move is a blatant slap in the face of Queen Zhou and the Zhou family!

Everyone was waiting for Prime Minister Zhou to come forward, but they would have thought that by then he was already powerless and completely ill in bed.

Shen Xinyan was also shocked when she heard the news. She didn't expect that the emperor would welcome back Princess Rui with such fanfare. But... the ceremony for the original wife?

She shook her head. Although many ladies in the capital secretly spoke of His Majesty's deep love for Princess Rui, no matter how much the court officials objected, they insisted on giving her the respect that a legitimate wife deserved.

But she didn't think so.

What if I welcome her back as my wife? What happens after I welcome her back? How do I place her? Your Majesty already has someone else as his wife. Even though Queen Zhou has a thousand faults and a thousand faults, her title of Queen was conferred by Your Majesty himself.

In fact, combined with the earlier rumors that Princess Rui was still alive, she had reason to suspect that His Majesty had always known that Princess Rui was not dead. If this was the case, it was not someone else but himself who caused Princess Rui to be in such an embarrassing situation today.

Of course, these were just her guesses, and she would not tell anyone else. She also had no say in the affairs between the Emperor and the Princess Rui.

No matter how others objected, in the end, on an auspicious day chosen by the Qintianjian, Princess Zhao of Rui was solemnly welcomed into the palace as the queen.

As everyone expected, a fierce debate broke out again in the court over the position of Princess Rui. After all, there was only one position of Empress, but the emperor had two "legal wives". It was really a case of each of them having their own reasons and no one could convince the other.

Some people believe that the Princess of Rui was the original wife of the previous emperor, and the legitimate Princess of Rui in the court. When His Royal Highness succeeded to the throne, she should be the empress because of her husband's status. Empress Zhou was just the concubine of the King of Rui. She was mistakenly named the empress because she was believed to have passed away. Now that the wife has returned, the position of empress naturally returns to the original owner.

Some people insisted that the empress was the mother of the country and could not be replaced at will. No matter what the circumstances were, since Empress Zhou was now the empress and had never done anything wrong, how could she be deposed so easily?

Neither side gave in and the argument continued until they were red in the face.

Wei Junhang mentioned these things when he was chatting with Shen Xinyan and his wife. Shen Xinyan just listened and didn't take it too seriously.

After all, whether the empress's surname was Zhou or Zhao had nothing to do with her.

She said the same thing to Wei Junhang, who burst out laughing and kissed her hard on the face.

Shen Xinyan covered her face and glared at him in reproach.

"But to be honest, Princess Rui's life was too miserable. The Zhao family... Alas, a good family was broken up like this because of a villain." Thinking of the unjustly killed prefect Zhao and the Zhao family, Shen Xinyan couldn't help but sigh.

"I wonder if the Zhao family has any descendants?"

"Your Majesty has been trying his best to find the descendants of the Zhao family. I believe that news will be reported back soon. However, the lineage of Zhao Quanzhong may be broken. We can only see if we can continue through a side branch to maintain the incense." Wei Junhang stroked her long hair gently and did not hide it from her.

"So many years have passed, it probably is hard to say. Could it be that Prefect Zhao has no legitimate children?" Shen Xinyan asked again.

"We had an only son, but he died with Madam Zhao." Wei Junhang felt a little regretful when talking about the child.

If only that child could survive!

However, the cliff was so high that even Madam Zhao died, so how could a little girl like that escape? She might have already been buried in the ground along with those loyal servants who were never found.

"Prince, Lai Fu is here to report that the Duke is looking for you!" Xia He came in to report.

When he heard his master calling him, Wei Junhang stood up in a hurry, quickly straightened his clothes, said "I'll be back soon" and strode away.

Shen Xinyan found it a little funny.

How is this different from a naughty boy meeting his stern father?

In fact, except for the eldest princess, no one in the mansion was not afraid of the Duke. Even her daughter, who was always crazy, was very honest in front of the Duke. Not to mention doing something weird, she didn't even dare to say a few words.

"Let's go quickly and don't keep father waiting for too long." Seeing Lai Fu waiting outside the door, Wei Junhang said without thinking.

Lai Fu followed him for a long distance before jogging to catch up with him and said in a low voice, "Sir, it's not the Duke who's looking for you, but His Majesty!"

Wei Junhang stopped, glared at him unhappily, and cursed: "Let him look for it, why is he using my father to scare others?"

Lai Fu laughed and said, "If the Duke says so, the Crown Prince will be more agile."

Wei Junhang was too lazy to pay attention to him.

***

"Prince Cheng has run away!" Emperor Yuanyou said as soon as he saw him.

Wei Junhang was stunned: "He ran away? With so many people guarding him, he could run away?"

Emperor Yuanyou said bitterly: "Who would have thought that old man would have a trick up his sleeve! I was careless this time!"

"This is like letting a tiger return to the mountains! Although the whole world belongs to the king, it is not easy to find someone who is hiding on purpose." Wei Junhang's face was solemn.

Emperor Yuanyou knew it very well, but he did not expect that Prince Cheng would risk his own life to leave behind a backup plan and send people to rescue his eldest son. Now, Prince Cheng's son might have already escaped with the last bit of strength he had left.

If you don't remove the roots of the weeds, you will only suffer endless troubles!

"Now that things have come to this, we can only slowly send people to look for it." Wei Junhang was helpless.

Emperor Yuanyou rubbed his forehead with a headache. After a moment, he said bitterly: "She just said in front of the court officials that she wants to make Zhou her empress..."

Wei Junhang was a little surprised, but it seemed to be within his expectations.

"I have failed her..."

Wei Junhang remained silent.

Everyone had to do everything back then, but now things have changed and circumstances have changed. To bring up those things many years ago would be of no help except to add to the melancholy.

Emperor Yuanyou was extremely disappointed. She was obviously his original wife, but she had to hide in the dark all these years, fearing that Prince Cheng's family would find out that she was still alive, which would alert them and make it even more difficult to overturn the case in the future.

But now that everything has settled, he just wants to send them back to their respective places. Is that not possible?

After a long while, he sighed, collected his emotions, and said slowly, "There is one more thing. The maid of Madam Zhao Shao remembered a few days ago that when the assassin of Prince Cheng arrived, Madam Zhao Shao seemed to have sensed something and ordered the housekeeper Zhao Bao to take the young son and the wet nurse back to the capital by another route. But I remember that you did not find the bodies of Zhao Bao and Young Master Zhao that year?"

"Your Majesty means..."

"I suspect that Zhao Quanzhong's only son may still be alive!"

"Is there any evidence?"

"Yes, Zhao Bao is still alive!"

Wei Junhang's eyes widened in shock: "What about him? Where is he?"

In the East Palace, Zhao sat by the window. The maid beside her said with some disapproval, "Your Majesty, why should you give in? You are the wife of Prince Rui granted by the late emperor, so you should be the empress."

Zhao smiled but said nothing.

The late emperor bestowed the title on her? She was actually given death by the late emperor!

If I continue to talk about the "bestowed title" by that tyrant emperor, wouldn't that just annoy me to death?

Without the protection of the family, what good would it be even if she was the queen? It would be better to show weakness first, take the initiative to give in, and increase the guilt of His Majesty towards her mother and son. Sometimes, a man's guilt is more reliable and more useful than his oath.

Only by firmly grasping his guilt can she be more confident in gaining more for herself and her son.

What's more, Zhou has been running the palace for many years, so how could she, a newcomer, easily shake her?

What does the position of queen mean? Only the one who laughs last is the real winner!

After more than half a month of arguing, the outcome of the rear position finally came to fruition.

Because Princess Rui repeatedly gave in, Emperor Yuanyou had no choice but to issue an edict to confer the title of Noble Consort on Zhao with the title "Rui". The former Princess Rui became the current Noble Consort Rui.

When this decree was issued, the whole government and the public were shocked.

The word "Rui" was the title of your majesty when he was still a prince, but now it is given to Concubine Zhao. What does it mean? It means that in your majesty's mind, Concubine Zhao is his legal wife!

What shocked the court officials even more was yet to come.

Emperor Yuanyou also issued an edict to posthumously confer the title of Duke Cheng'en on the noble concubine's father and the title of Marquis Zhongyi on the noble concubine's brother Zhao Quanzhong.

As soon as the decree was issued, the court officials knelt in the hall and begged His Majesty to revoke the decree.

The title of Duke Cheng'en was a grace given to the maternal family of the current empress, but now it has been given to Concubine Ruigui. This is simply absurd!

Emperor Yuanyou turned away without paying any attention.

However, people in the government and the public have figured out the trick.

The title of empress was given to Zhou, but I'm afraid Your Majesty intends to keep the real title of empress for Zhao.

In this struggle, was it the Zhou faction that won, or the Zhao faction? No one dared to say.

With the addition of a noble concubine in the palace, the imperial edicts from various prefectures naturally had to be presented to the emperor. Although she was only a noble concubine, anyone with a discerning eye could see that this noble concubine was the first person in his majesty's heart. If she hadn't given in, she might have been able to take the throne of empress.

Before entering the palace, the Imperial Concubine suddenly issued an order, saying that she wanted to meet the younger generation of each mansion. Everyone guessed her thoughts, and brought the most proud young people in the mansion into the palace together.

In the Duke of Ying's mansion, because of the imperial concubine's favor, the three sisters-in-law each brought their children and followed the eldest princess into the palace.

"Aunt, please stand up quickly!" Taking advantage of the opportunity when Concubine Rui Gui came down and personally helped the Grand Princess up, Shen Xinyan couldn't help but look at her out of curiosity.

This legendary woman, whose makeup at that time could attract ladies in Beijing to imitate, and who went through many hardships and finally returned to the world's attention, is someone that everyone can't help but be curious about.

However, when she met a pair of beautiful smiling eyes, she was completely stunned.

Yuwei? No!

The eyes are still the same beautiful eyes that people can't forget at first sight, but the appearance is completely different.

But when she thought of "Madam Yan" who suddenly passed away due to illness a few days ago, she began to have vague guesses in her mind.

Since entering the palace, Yan has been like an invisible person, so no one cared about her "death". When Shen Xinyan reported it to the Grand Princess, she just said "I know" and said nothing more.

The Grand Princess naturally looked down upon a childless concubine who entered the palace in such a shameful manner.

After the formalities, the younger generation was asked to come forward and pay their respects to the Imperial Concubine. Zhao smiled and accepted their gifts one by one. After the youngest, Wei Yingzhi, left, she no longer saw the other younger generations of the Duke of Ying's Mansion. She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Where is the child I bumped into last time? Why isn't he here? Isn't he the child of the Duke of England?

She didn't know why, but even though they only met once, she felt an indescribable sense of familiarity towards the child.

The mother and child have been separated for many years, and the biological child in the palace has become alienated from her and is no longer the child who used to love and act coquettishly towards her mother.

Every time she met the distant look of the Emperor's eldest son, her hatred for the late Emperor and Prince Cheng deepened.