Chapter 100 The fake prince ascends the throne as emperor!
The emperor then personally cut mooncakes for other princes and court officials whom his favorite concubine favored. The mooncakes for everyone else were about the same size, except for Si Yuan's, which was slightly bigger, second only to the one in Zhou Xi's hand.
In other words, when such a big mooncake was divided, Zhou Xi and Si Yuan were the ones who got the two biggest pieces, which seemed to show the emperor's special regard and favor for them.
Si Yuan and Zhou Xi stole the limelight at this Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet and also attracted enough hatred. After all, who doesn’t have a jealous heart?
After dividing the mooncakes, feeling the envious and jealous gazes of the people around them, Si Yuan and Zhou Xi looked at each other imperceptibly. Because both of them were "valued and favored" by the emperor, their seats were not far from the emperor, and the distance between them was naturally not far. They could exchange glances, and the tacit understanding between father and son was sufficient.
Si Yuan and Zhou Xi both understood that the emperor was deliberately praising them to death in order to draw hatred for them and make them a target to attract fire.
However, the emperor's behavior was exactly what they wanted.
The more the emperor shows favor towards them now, the less likely others will suspect that they were responsible for his sudden death later.
Others would think that since the emperor loves and trusts them so much, the prince is almost certainly the next emperor. Even if the prince is powerful, the emperor has never suppressed him. So what motive does the prince have to murder the emperor?
The Duke of England is extremely trusted and favored by the Emperor, and holds the highest position among the ministers. Even if the new Crown Prince ascends the throne, he cannot give the Duke of England a higher position, and the Duke of England has no motive to murder the Emperor.
The emperor was completely unaware that Si Yuan and Zhou Xi had already begun preparing a suitable time for his death. He was looking at the balanced situation he had created with a bit of complacency in his heart. He looked at the Crown Prince and the Duke of England, who were enjoying great glory but were unaware that they were the targets he had set up and were destined to die. He was consciously in control of the overall situation, and everything was in the grasp of the emperor.
The emperor looked around at the people at the palace banquet with a smug look on his face. When his eyes fell on the eldest prince who was drinking alone, he quickly glanced away with a bit of disgust.
Although the emperor spared the Chen family and the eldest prince because of Empress Dowager Chen, he couldn't help but dislike this eldest son when he thought that the eldest prince colluded with the Chen family to covet his throne.
When the emperor's eyes fell on the second prince, he felt a little disgusted and didn't want to look at this son.
The Second Prince had no brotherly feelings towards him for reporting the First Prince, and he was also clear about the Second Prince's purpose in reporting the First Prince, which was nothing more than wanting to eliminate his competitor and take the throne himself. He was also an unfilial son who coveted his throne!
The emperor is so hypocritical. He now thinks that the second prince has no brotherly love for reporting the eldest prince, but if he knew that the second prince had evidence but did not report the eldest prince because of brotherly love, he would think that the second prince was protecting his brother and was unfilial to him as his father.
The emperor was hypocritical but at the same time he refused to admit it. He thought he was a great father and that the princes should be filial to him and not covet his throne.
The emperor's eyes fell on his two sons who were sitting next to Si Yuan and were brought into the palace by Si Yuan to attend the palace banquet: the legitimate son Zhou Jing and the illegitimate son Zhou Ming.
Zhou Jing was sitting in his seat with a gloomy face, and he ignored anyone who tried to talk to him.
Zhou Ming, who was beside him and had just been canonized as the Prince of England by the emperor, had a much kinder complexion, a gentle and elegant appearance, was polite to others, and had a smile on his face, making people feel like spring breeze.
The emperor felt distressed when he saw Zhou Jing looking like he was being excluded.
He had originally agreed with Si Yuan to keep it a secret from Zhou Jing, using this method to motivate Zhou Jing to study hard and make progress every day. But when he saw that everyone thought Zhou Jing had lost power and turned to curry favor with a bastard, the emperor was even angrier than Zhou Jing himself.
So the emperor, who was so angry that he lost his mind, immediately forgot what he had discussed with Si Yuan before, and said to Zhou Jing directly: "Jing'er, come and sit next to me."
In order to prevent his beloved son from suffering any injustice, the emperor decided to personally support Zhou Jing.
It was such an honor for Zhou Jing, the legitimate son who failed to become the crown prince, to be called by the emperor to sit next to him.
And it was so embarrassing that Zhou Ming, the legitimate prince, was not even looked at by the emperor.
When Si Yuan saw this scene, his face remained calm and he sneered in his heart. He knew that the emperor could not hold back.
Today he specially brought Zhou Jing and Zhou Ming into the palace to attend the palace banquet, just to make the emperor unable to control himself.
What Si Yuan said to the emperor before, such as appointing someone else as the crown prince to motivate the unwilling Zhou Jing to study hard, was simply because he didn't want to appoint Zhou Jing as the crown prince. He didn't really want to motivate Zhou Jing to study hard and make progress every day.
So after the imperial edict to appoint the crown prince came down, Si Yuan's attitude towards Zhou Jing did not change at all, and he did not allow the people in the Duke of Ying's mansion to change their attitude towards Zhou Jing.
In the Duke of England's mansion, Zhou Jing felt that his status had not changed. At home, he was still the same as before. He could study when he wanted to and skip classes when he didn't want to. Only Zhou Ming was forced to study.
Therefore, Zhou Jing did not feel that there was any difference in not becoming the crown prince, nor did he realize the seriousness of the matter.
But Zhou Jing did not just stay in the British Duke's Mansion. He would go out to play and meet other family members. No matter those people were those who once envied and jealous of him, or those who really cared about whether he could inherit the British Dukedom, they would intentionally or unintentionally show that their attitude towards him was not as good as before.
Zhou Jing clearly felt that his status had declined and he was not as popular as before. Even his old rivals mocked him without hesitation: "Do you think you are still the legitimate son of the Duke of Ying? Now the Duke of Ying's mansion has already established a prince. When the family is divided in the future, you will be a waste that was driven out of the mansion by your eldest brother!"
This blatant mockery made Zhou Jing's eyes red, and he rushed up to fight with the man.
Because he and this person often fought, the elders in both families were used to it and did not think that the younger generations' fighting was a big deal, as nothing happened anyway.
But Zhou Jing couldn't get over this matter. The mocking words of his old rival kept echoing in his mind and he could not forget them.
He suddenly realized what it meant to lose the position of crown prince, and he went home to look for his father and made a fuss, but to no avail.
Then Zhou Jing became gloomy, and he isolated himself from the others and ignored them. He didn't think at all that it was because of his lack of knowledge that he lost the position of Crown Prince. It was obvious that his father favored the eldest son out of wedlock.
Zhou Jing, who was full of resentment, even felt that the reason he was treated almost the same as the Crown Prince Zhou Ming in the mansion was only because he was the legitimate son and his father felt a little guilty towards him and treated him well.
This time when attending the palace banquet, Zhou Jing deliberately put on a gloomy face in front of the emperor, waiting for the emperor who doted on him to ask him why he was sad, and then he could severely accuse his hypocritical half-brother in front of His Majesty.
However, what Zhou Jing did not expect was that the emperor did not ask him why he was sad at all, but just called him to sit next to him and chat.
The emperor did not ask, only because he knew the real "inside story" of appointing someone else as the Prince of Yingguo. He promised Si Yuan to keep it a secret from Zhou Jing, so the emperor felt a little guilty when he saw Zhou Jing's sad and gloomy look.
Moreover, the emperor had already imagined that Zhou Jing was in this state because he was bullied. He began to think about how to support Zhou Jing and make those who bullied Zhou Jing pay the price.
Although Zhou Jing was a little presumptuous in front of the emperor who doted on him, he had an instinctive respect for the emperor since he had lived in an environment where imperial power was supreme since he was a child. So he didn't dare to complain casually unless the emperor asked. After all, he had nothing to rely on now, only the emperor's illusory favor.
In his heart, Zhou Jing had some resentment towards the emperor which he dared not express. After all, although Si Yuan had requested for Zhou Ming's title of crown prince, it was also the emperor who agreed to confer the title.
If the emperor really wanted to leave the position of crown prince to him, why didn't he refuse his father's request to appoint Zhou Ming as crown prince?
However, Zhou Jing did not dare to show this resentment and dissatisfaction at all. He sat beside the emperor and spoke witty words to praise and please the emperor, making the emperor laugh.
It’s not that Zhou Jing can’t read people’s expressions, nor that he doesn’t know how to please people. It just depends on whether he is willing to do so.
The interaction between Zhou Jing and the emperor caught the eyes of everyone. Those who were interested could not help but begin to re-evaluate the value of Zhou Jing, the legitimate son of the Duke of England, and no one dared to underestimate Zhou Jing anymore.
Zhou Jing's value was indeed greatly reduced after he lost his position as the Crown Prince of the Duke of Yingguo, but if he could gain the emperor's favor and help, what would the position of Crown Prince mean to him? The emperor could award him another title at any time if he wished.
Zhou Ming looked at his younger brother, who was acting so gloriously beside the emperor, and secretly clenched his fists, feeling a little uneasy.
When Zhou Ming received the imperial edict appointing him as the Prince of England, he couldn't believe that this pie in the sky had fallen into his mouth.
Before the birth of the legitimate son, Zhou Ming, as the eldest son, had always been valued by the Duchess of England, who had not yet passed away, and was even raised by the Duchess of England herself.
After all, the Duke of England was fighting on the battlefield at the time, and it was inevitable that something bad might happen to him one day. As the eldest son, Zhou Ming would be the next pillar of the Duke of England's mansion.
Later, the Duchess of England died during childbirth, and the appearance of Zhou Jing made Zhou Ming's identity awkward. Fortunately, the Duke of England's mansion was very strict in household management, and there would never be any case of a servant bullying his master. Although he was in an awkward situation, he still had everything that the eldest son of the Duke of England's mansion should have.
Zhou Ming knew that he would have to rely on his own abilities after the family separated in the future, so he studied extra hard and seriously. He felt that his best future was to enter the officialdom and rise step by step under the care of his father. He never thought that he could surpass the legitimate son and become the Prince of England.
With such a big pie falling into his mouth, Zhou Ming felt uneasy. He studied harder and wanted to become better so that he could be worthy of the status of the prince, offset the disadvantage of being a bastard's son, and prevent his father from being criticized for favoring a bastard over a legitimate son.
Now, seeing how Zhou Jing was valued and cared for by the emperor, Zhou Ming was worried that the emperor would suddenly change his mind and take back the crown prince position bestowed on him and give it to Zhou Jing.
Although Zhou Ming had not dared to covet the position of crown prince after the birth of his legitimate son, now that he has obtained the position, he certainly does not want to give it to his legitimate brother.
After all, apart from being the legitimate son, how can the younger brother compare to him when he is not good at either literature or martial arts?
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