The next day.
Guan Zhiyue set off from the Guan residence to return to the palace at the beginning of the morning. Because the journey home was quite long, Guan Zhiyue had to leave early to return to her cold palace before attending court.
She stayed for fifteen days straight, fifteen days at the Guan residence. The Emperor must be quite displeased with her, right? What royal wife could stay at her parents' home for so long?
Li Qishang returned to the palace on the fifth day. However, he was busy asking his elder brother for money, so he went back much earlier. The hot pot restaurant is currently under renovation and is waiting to open in December. So for the past two weeks, he has been busy taking care of everything.
The first thing Guan Zhiyue did after returning to the palace was to check on the progress of the reclamation of the more than 180 acres of mountain land in the harem, and then to see how the vegetables in the abandoned courtyard of her own palace were growing.
"Liu Dequan, you've finished clearing these fifty acres of land, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, everything is done. Everyone has nothing to do now. What do you think we need to do next?"
Guan Zhiyue stood on the hillside behind the mountain and said with a smile, "Then let's turn the whole hillside into terraced fields. I think that should be able to retain water when it snows this year."
"Your Majesty, this is a wonderful idea! Our hillside can be turned into fertile fields!"
"That's good. Then let's get to work with Eunuch Liu and the people below! This terraced field project should be much faster than the land reclamation, right?" Guan Zhiyue glanced at the barren slope and then at Liu Dequan, who was looking down.
Liu Dequan quickly and respectfully replied, "Yes, Your Majesty, rest assured that all the renovations will be completed before the snowfall."
"Then I'll have to trouble you, Eunuch Liu, but you should also be careful."
"Yes, Your Majesty, please rest assured."
"Mm!" Guan Zhiyue nodded gently, then helped Bilian back to the Cold Palace.
However, the area around the Summer Palace was in complete chaos, with all the talk revolving around various rumors and gossip about Guan Zhiyue and Li Qishang.
"Your Majesty, it is utterly ridiculous for the Prince of Xiaoyao and the Empress to return to the Guan family together. A woman who is so ignorant of etiquette and upbringing is not worthy of being an Empress!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, please punish the Empress!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, and there's also Prince Xiaoyao. Prince Xiaoyao has now reached adulthood and it's time for him to leave the palace and establish his own residence. Your Majesty, please make a decision as soon as possible!"
"Your Majesty, I also believe that Prince Xiaoyao should leave the palace and establish a new residence."
"Your Majesty, I believe the Empress should be deposed and a new one should be appointed!"
"Your Majesty, you can no longer cover this up, Your Majesty..."
"Your Majesty, we agree!"
Li Qiji was already having a splitting headache from all the noise. These officials were still chattering on and on. Hua Quan and Ji Wu, standing on either side, were getting so annoyed that they wanted to rush down and slap them. Let them talk nonsense. They just love to ramble on.
Just as all the ministers knelt down and begged the emperor to depose the empress, Li Qishang swaggered in from outside, fanning himself with a smile on his face.
"Shang Yao, I was wondering why this area was so noisy, like a vegetable market. Oh, it turns out it wasn't like that at all. Aren't these all the ministers of our Southern Ding Kingdom?"
"What are you all doing? Why are you all kneeling? Brother, are you punishing them again?"
Li Qiji was even angrier as he watched his younger brother walk in from outside. This was simply outrageous! The ministers were discussing his brother's affairs, and now his brother was provoking them. Wasn't this just asking for trouble?
What are you doing here?
"Qi Shang wasn't really keen on coming, but I happened to pass by and heard the commotion, so I came to see if my brother had been coerced by these powerful ministers again, and what earth-shattering thing he was about to do." Li Qi Shang looked at the kneeling ministers with some displeasure.
"Your Highness, what do you mean by this?"
Li Qishang turned his head and saw an advisor kneeling on the ground standing up and shouting at him.
"Oh, isn't this Lord Liu? Who are you going to be smearing today, Lord Liu?"
"Oh, you just called me 'Your Majesty,' so you're not going to try and ruin my reputation today, are you?"
"However, I have only recently returned to the palace and should not have offended Lord Liu, should I? We have nothing to do with each other, so what is your purpose in coming here to impeach me?"
Lord Liu was so frightened by Li Qishang that he didn't dare to speak. He lowered his head and lay on the ground like a quail. This Prince Xiaoyao was too terrifying, too terrifying. Why was he so terrifying?
"I heard you're going to depose my imperial sister-in-law?"
"Then let me ask you, where has my sister-in-law offended you? You're not only thinking of impeaching me, but also ganging up to bully my sister-in-law?"
Li Qishang spoke each word with force and conviction, each word striking a chord in the hearts of the ministers, leaving them utterly ashamed.
However, some people, unafraid of death, stepped forward to remonstrate: "Your Highness, you are already of legal age, yet you are still involved with the Empress. Do you think this is the behavior of an upright and honorable gentleman?"
"You even went back to your parents' home with the Empress. Do you know what that means?"
"This is shameless, lacking in manners, and disregarding conventional etiquette."
"You two must have been secretly colluding and doing some shady business." The kneeling officials began to fabricate accusations one by one, their words becoming increasingly offensive, which made Li Qiji, who was sitting above, unable to contain his anger.
"How dare you! How can you presume to speak ill of us members of the royal family? The reason I remained silent was to see if you had any conscience and knew how to repent. But now, you're getting more and more outrageous."
"Guards! Drag those ministers who just insulted the royal family out and give them fifty strokes of the cane. Remove them from their current positions and demote them to the ninth rank."
The ninth rank is the lowest among all officials, excluding those who are not even in the official ranks. Being demoted from a high-ranking official in the imperial court to the lowest rank means that one's career in office has come to an end.
Those five or six officials were filled with regret. They knew they shouldn't have made such a careless arrangement. They were filled with remorse.
"What, do the other adults have anything else to say?"
The officials kneeling on the ground all fell silent, no one daring to say anything more. They all kept quiet. Hua Quan glanced at the kneeling people, then at the Emperor. Seeing that the Emperor had nodded, he stood in front and shouted loudly, "If you have something to say, speak up; otherwise, the court is adjourned!"
The officials on the ground shouted in unison, "Respectfully seeing off the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"
Li Qishang followed his brother to Chengqian Palace.
"Li Qishang, look what you've done!"
Hearing that this was the first time his brother had ever been angry, Li Qishang quickly knelt down in front of him with a thud and whispered, "Your Majesty, I did this for your sake. Think about it, when Your Majesty's wife first married you, you banished her to the Cold Palace and ignored her completely. When she gets home, General Guan and his family will definitely ask about her. I went with her to show that our royal family values this daughter-in-law, so..."
Li Qiji no longer wanted to hear his brother's explanation, because he knew his brother had hit the nail on the head. He knew he had wronged her, but...
"Alright, get up! You can go now, I have things to take care of."
Li Qishang quickly and sensibly withdrew, then happily went to find his mother.
Li Qiji slumped in his chair, seemingly lost in thought. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Guan Zhiyue's image and the words of the Imperial Advisor.
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