Just when everyone thought Empress Xie was going to bring up the matter of appointing a crown prince, Empress Xie gave Ye Kunlin a proper smile and said, "Today is such a happy day, why doesn't the Emperor have a triple celebration?"
Ye Kunlin's face seemed to show a hint of amusement when he heard this. "What does the Queen mean by this?"
Empress Xie: "I think we can ask the daughters of various families to perform their talents on stage and select the best ones—"
As she spoke, Empress Xie glanced at the audience below, and amidst everyone's nervous yet slightly expectant gazes, she slowly spoke, "What do you think of giving concubines to the princes who haven't married or given birth to children?"
After that, Empress Xie continued, "I would also like to take this opportunity to have Prince Duan marry two concubines, so that Prince Duan's mansion can continue to have more children."
A concubine is actually also a concubine. The queen used the word "marry" just to give those ministers some respect. After all, a woman who can enter the palace and become a concubine of the prince will not have a low status.
In particular, the main purpose of today's queen is to select a concubine for Prince Duan.
As for Prince Duan having children? So what?
The royal family has never been averse to having many offspring, but the emperor now has only two grandchildren - the prince Ye Yucheng of Prince Duan's Mansion and the little princess Ye Shuhan of Prince Yu's Mansion.
When Empress Xie made this suggestion, some people had known about it for a long time, while others had just found out, so the reactions of the people below were different.
Su Jingchu obviously remembered that Empress Xie had reminded her about choosing a concubine for Prince Duan at the Spring Banquet, and her face looked very bad.
Some women and their families who had no idea that a concubine would be chosen today and who were determined to marry into the royal family, now had shining eyes and were eager to try.
Another person lowered his eyes slightly, his eyes full of sadness.
This person was none other than Wu Yunran, one of the concubine candidates that Empress Xie had chosen today.
Speaking of Wu Yunran, we have to mention the military power of the Longyuan Kingdom.
The Longyuan Kingdom is located in the center of this continent, bordering neighboring countries on all four sides, so the military power is divided into five parts.
Among them, the northwest army is in the hands of the War King Ye Cangming, the southeast military power is in the hands of Duke Chen Lao, the northern camp outside the capital is in the hands of Emperor Cheng Liang, the northeastern military power is in the hands of the fierce general Yue Youliang, and the general of the southwest garrison is Wu Yunran's father, now the powerful general Wu Di.
It is worth mentioning that the Southwest Army was actually controlled by the Rong family in the past, but the Rong family later fell into decline and was replaced by the Wu family.
As the daughter of Wu Di, one of the five generals, Wu Yunran knew that her marriage would not be too bad, and marrying into the royal family would not be a difficult task. Therefore, she practiced music, chess, calligraphy and painting diligently since she was a child, and now she has some fame in Beijing.
And this is simply because Wu Yunran doesn't like to stand out, otherwise she would have a place as a talented woman... Of course, this is what she and the people in her house think.
But for Wu Yunran, it was difficult to decide which prince to marry.
After all, no matter who she marries, she will only be a concubine. Although the title of concubine sounds nice, she is just a concubine after all.
Naturally, the fourth prince, King Huai Ye Xuqi, had never married, but she had never considered marrying a sickly girl.
How could she, who was carefully trained, not have ambition?
As for the others, although she liked Ye Changyou, the legitimate prince, the most, she had never made up her mind.
It was not until the Queen sent someone to tell her that she intended to make her the Prince of Duan's concubine that she made up her mind to marry Ye Changyou.
But, this was my thought before entering the palace today.
What happened in the palace today made Wu Yunran feel a little more repulsed towards Ye Changyou.
Not to mention the cowardice and frustration that Prince Duan felt today when facing Prince Zhan and Princess Zhan, the mere fact that Prince Duan might be a homosexual made her retreat a little.
According to the Queen's wishes, she should be the first to appear today and make a big splash so that she can seek the Emperor's grace to become Prince Duan's concubine.
However, if Prince Duan is a homosexual... she really can't accept it.
She felt sick at the thought of Prince Duan pressing a man under him, or a man pressing her under him. How could she marry such a man?
As for those princes, except for the young and marginal figure Seventh Prince who remained low-key and silent, none of the others except Ye Changyou showed any enthusiasm.
Naturally, no one stood up to reject the Queen's proposal at this time.
Ye Kunlin said upon hearing this, "I think the Queen's suggestion is very good. I also want to see the talents of the daughters of your beloved ministers."
Now that Ye Kunlin had spoken, the talent show was a done deal.
Although it had not been revealed before that there would be a talent show today, the wives of officials had prepared several outfits for their daughters before entering the palace, just in case. After all, performing at a palace banquet was not a strange thing, and it happened every time.
The difference is that this time, if she performs her talent at the palace banquet, she may be chosen as a concubine and become a royal daughter-in-law, which is even more exciting, and those costumes will come in handy.
However, after the performance in the palace was over, when the emperor asked who would be the first to perform, there was silence from the audience.
Because no one wants or dares to be the first to go on stage.
If you don’t have absolute confidence, who would dare to be the first to go on stage?
But the person who dared to go on stage first - Wu Yunran - did not want to be the first.
Queen Xie's eyes had long been on Wu Yunran, but Wu Yunran didn't react at all, which made Queen Xie embarrassed and angry.
She had already sent someone to inform Wu Yunran to be the first to go on stage so that she could ask for grace for the prince and make her a concubine as soon as possible.
But she is not moving now. What does that mean? As the queen, how could she not understand?
How dare she, Wu Yunran, look down on her own son?
For a moment, Queen Xie was very angry.
The fact that no one was the first to go on stage made the scene a little cold and the atmosphere a little awkward.
But Ye Kunlin, the emperor, didn't seem to be in a hurry at all. He just kept stuffing delicious snacks into Zhenfei's hands.
At first, Zuo Qinglan continued, but later she couldn't hold on any longer, so she glared at Ye Kunlin, and Ye Kunlin stopped.
Others naturally didn't dare to watch the little movements here. Queen Xie didn't have the heart to watch, and the Queen Mother saw it but pretended not to see it. However, Su Liyue secretly saw all of this.
The atmosphere between the emperor and Concubine Zhen was clearly one of love and harmony. She felt like she was being force-fed a basket of dog food.
But if that was the case, why was Concubine Zhen imprisoned for thirteen years and no one mentioned her for thirteen years?
Besides, there is the matter of Prime Minister Su wanting Ye Cangming's tiger talisman - if the emperor really loves Zhenfei, shouldn't he love Ye Cangming, the 'fruit of love', as well?
Su Liyue felt that she was becoming increasingly confused about everything going on in the royal family.
While Su Liyue was quietly watching the interaction between Concubine Zhen and the Emperor, someone was looking at her with some malicious expression.
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