Chu Yuan looked in the direction of the voice and saw a woman dressed in the robes of a princess staring at her with hostility from below the main seat on her right.
Those words just now came from her mouth, filled with deep sarcasm and hostility towards Chu Yuan.
Chu Yuan flipped through the original owner's memories and immediately remembered who this person was. Wasn't she the only princess consort of this dynasty, the birth mother of Dugu Pingting?
The reason why Princess Xiaoyao dislikes Chu Yuan so much is because when she was first brought back to Huaxu Kingdom, Prince Xiaoyao saw that she was beautiful and jokingly asked the emperor for her. This made Princess Xiaoyao extremely jealous, and even after so many years, she still can't let go of her.
This princess's heart must be barely bigger than a pinhead!
Chu Yuan was very affectionate. "Your Highness, today is the Empress Dowager's birthday. Don't you find it taboo to talk about the fall of a country? My Ji Yun City is now a large city with abundant resources. What's wrong with me, the daughter of the former city lord, coming to congratulate the Empress Dowager on her birthday?"
As she spoke, Chu Yuan slowly knelt down in the direction of the Empress Dowager and uttered a few words of birthday wishes in a resounding voice.
Perhaps because her words were relatively novel, the Empress Dowager didn't take it too seriously. She raised her hand and said indifferently, "Get up. She's just a child. Why make such a fuss?"
Princess Xiaoyao was instantly humiliated, and her dislike for Chu Yuan only intensified!
He muttered, “Your Majesty, since it’s the Empress Dowager’s birthday today, why don’t you grant Ji Yun the title she deserves? After all, her father presented her to the emperor back then. You thought she was too young and wanted to raise her for a few more years. Now Ji Yun is almost eighteen. In the capital, girls her age are either married or betrothed long ago. Your indifference is not good for her, but a blatant betrayal.”
As long as Chu Yuan doesn't get married, the carefree princess will never feel at ease.
Because Chu Yuan and Fu Shun often competed with each other and liked to tease the young men from noble families who were not yet engaged, many of the ladies who were qualified to sit at the banquet also chimed in with their opinions when the Princess Consort of Xiaoyao spoke up.
"Yes, Consort Ji Yun is intelligent and beautiful, a rare beauty. It is truly inappropriate for her to waste her youth like this."
Everyone keeps calling her "Princess Ji Yun," which to some extent confirms Chu Yuan's "identity."
Chu Yuan glanced at the silent Dugu Jue. What, was he planning to just listen like this?
Let these women push her towards his father, the emperor?
A fake friendship built under the influence of aphrodisiacs is definitely unreliable, isn't it!
"Your Majesty..." Chu Yuan was about to argue when Princess Xiaoyao forcibly interrupted her, "Ji Yun, as a child, are you going to disobey your elders and disrespect the monarch? If you do, you will be disloyal and unfilial!"
Two harsh words were thrown out, leaving people breathless.
Princess Xiaoyao wasn't finished. She curled her lips into a meaningful smile. "Ji Yun, if I remember correctly, the women in your clan are all very fertile, right? For example, your mother gave birth to seven of your brothers and you, didn't she? Isn't that exactly the kind of virtuous woman our Dugu family needs—a woman who is good at bearing children!"
Chu Yuan, "..."
Damn, I really want to kill someone!
The key point is that if others heard these words, they would just laugh at them at most, but when they reached the ears of the Empress Dowager, her mood immediately changed.
"Xuancheng's wife, are you telling the truth? Is Ji Yun really that fertile?"
"Of course! How could I possibly deceive Your Majesty?"
I knew the Empress Dowager had a strange temper and wouldn't listen to either soft or hard approaches. The only thing that bothered her most was the issue of having offspring. She could be persuaded with just a few words.
Princess Xiaoyao said smugly, "If you just ask anyone, you'll know that what I said is true."
Not only did Ji Yun's mother have many children, but her mother's sisters also had at least three or four children each, indicating that Ji Yun must have inherited this ability.
Chu Yuan never expected that one day her amazing attribute would be seen through at a glance!
The Empress Dowager immediately found Chu Yuan much more pleasing to the eye. She glanced at the Emperor without making a sound and tentatively said, "Your Majesty, perhaps..."
Before she could finish speaking, the emperor interrupted her, "Is the Empress Dowager also joining in this nonsense?"
I'm almost forty years old, and I don't have the skin to take a girl who's not even twenty.
Besides, aren't there enough women in the imperial harem?
Tall or short, fat or thin, what kind of person don't we have?
Why force another one on me? It gives me a headache!
That's why Dugu Tianxiong wasn't interested in women. If it were any other emperor, he wouldn't care about the age difference.
Most emperors held the belief that there were no women in the world they couldn't have, only women they didn't want.
Many men in their fifties and sixties are still holding beauty pageants and sleeping with young women who have just reached marriageable age, whose grandchildren are older than them!
"But Your Majesty, you must also consider the well-being of the nation," the Empress Dowager said earnestly.
Chu Yuan repeatedly tried to signal to Dugu Jue, hoping he would speak on her behalf, but Dugu Jue remained as still as a dead man, only drinking and drinking. In the end, Chu Yuan gave up on him and decided to remain calm and observe the situation.
Unexpectedly, Dugu Tianxiong was quite democratic and actually thought to ask for her opinion. "Ji Yun, do you understand what the Empress Dowager means? I really don't want the harem to have another resentful woman, so I'm asking you, do you have someone you like?"
Back then, I clashed with your father on the battlefield. We were enemies in name only, but I admired him from the bottom of my heart, which is why I agreed to bring you to the capital.
"Don't be afraid. If you have someone you like, just tell me. I won't mistreat an orphan like you!"
Chu Yuan smiled and said, "Your Majesty, Ji Yun does indeed have someone she admires."
Even the dead Dugu Jue, in the end, still had to rely on herself.
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