That's true. Even someone as ordinary as her could guess that something was wrong. Chu Yanxi is so smart, she must know it too.
Chen Xiao was relieved to know that the two mission takers were doing well.
Only then did she remember Qianyun's current situation. As an mutant, her lifespan had already ended, and she shouldn't have had the chance to go back. It was Xixi who gave her the opportunity to become a mission taker, allowing her to experience a life again.
But unlike the other mission takers, she had nowhere to go and could not stay after the mission ended.
Remembering what Xixi had said before, Qianyun was originally sleeping in her space, but now she has been discovered and taken away by the main god, and her current situation is unknown.
As for the vanished Li Yuan, no one knows where he went.
Seeing Xi Xi's worried expression, Chen Xiao knew that Xi Xi was also unaware of the situation, so he suppressed his questions and asked about Rong Chao: "After Ning Qianyun passed away, what became of Rong Chao?"
Xi Xi first gave her host a long rant: "That dog-like emperor during the Xinrong era was absolutely disgusting. Not only did he imprison his childhood sweetheart and wife in a dark room, but he also secretly tortured and humiliated her for thirty-six years. When he went out incognito, he would take every woman he met as a concubine, forcibly marrying commoners and taking other men's wives. After bringing them back to the palace, he would only sleep with them and not care about anything else."
"Even a month after Yin Yuyao's 'death,' he couldn't wait to take her younger sister as Consort Yao. A year later, Consort Yao gave birth to the Eighth Prince. The Emperor was so happy that he went to tell Yin Yuyao, but then he made the Eighth Prince a 'false prince.' With the words 'Yao' and 'false' in the name, Consort Yao naturally understood the Emperor's intentions. Already living in her sister's shadow, she turned to the dark side, and the entire harem began to be filled with undercurrents."
"It took Consort Yao seven years of hard work to finally become the Empress, and her eighth son became the Crown Prince."
Xi Xi didn't go into details, but she could guess how Consort Yao had done it.
When Consort Yao became Empress, it was the twentieth year of the Xinrong era. At that time, the emperor had already begun to pursue the elixir of immortality, and he no longer took concubines or set foot in the harem. He also did not care about the princes and princesses, and even the administration of the court was delegated to the prime minister. Only after the officials jointly petitioned to establish a crown prince did the emperor begin to pay attention to his son.
Then they discovered that the twin princes, the eldest and second princes, were dead. The two legitimate sons, the third and fifth princes, were also dead. The fourth prince died young, and the sixth prince was the former crown prince. The seventh prince committed suicide in front of his birth mother, the virtuous concubine; the ninth prince's birth mother was a lowly palace maid. The tenth prince was mentally challenged and had long been banished to his fiefdom; the eleventh prince was only one year old, and his character was still unknown.
In the end, only the eighth prince born to Consort Yao was suitable.
The emperor had no choice but to make the eighth prince the crown prince and elevate Consort Yao to empress.
Having both held high positions for a long time, the emperor naturally knew what he had done to his good empress. Relying on her power, she had forced him into a vulnerable position. But he did not give up. Soon, the emperor began to visit the inner palace again, favoring his concubines and trying to produce more sons.
The Empress, on the other hand, calmly raised the Eighth Prince and coldly observed the Emperor's actions.
Clearly, the Empress had painstakingly cultivated her power over the years and was finally beginning to use her brother's influence and connections to pressure the Emperor to appoint a Crown Prince. She was naturally very confident in this and had long had ways to deal with the Emperor's behavior.
Sure enough, for the next twelve years, despite the emperor's tireless efforts in the harem, he not only failed to produce a single son, but also a daughter, with not a single concubine becoming pregnant.
In the thirty-second year of the Xinrong era, the emperor brought back a pregnant woman from outside the palace. He treated her with utmost care, preventing anyone from getting close, and the atmosphere in the entire harem began to become eerie. A year later, the woman gave birth to a daughter. Although the emperor was initially dissatisfied, he eventually accepted the daughter after a celestial phenomenon.
The Empress was very pleased with this, and even generously bestowed a posthumous title upon the deceased woman. She also suggested to the Emperor that a title be granted to the little princess. Such blatant behavior angered the Emperor. Now that his son was no longer a possibility, and he only had this little daughter by his side, he came up with a way to annoy the Empress. He pretended to be extremely fond of the little daughter, bestowing upon her the title of Princess Wuyou and loudly proclaiming her as a lucky star for the dynasty.
Suddenly, Princess Wuyou's name became more famous than the Crown Prince's, while the Crown Prince's reputation quietly turned sour. Some fearless "commoners" even said that Princess Wuyou could be the Crown Prince, and this absurd statement was agreed upon by the vast majority of people.
However, the emperor did not take any action and continued to dote on Princess Wuyou. Some people in the court began to talk about this, thinking that the emperor might really want to make Princess Wuyou the crown prince. The empress originally did not take it to heart, but after the emperor proposed to her that she adopt a child, the empress could no longer ignore this strange favor and began to hate Princess Wuyou.
During the fifteen years that the emperor doted on Princess Wuyou, no one knew his true feelings until after his death.
In the early part of the forty-eighth year of the Xin Rong reign, the emperor died.
He had eleven sons and twenty daughters in his lifetime. Of the princesses, only ten are still alive, and only three remain in the Rong Dynasty: the eldest and second princesses who returned to the court after their marriage alliances, and the youngest princess, Wuyou. The rest of the princesses are still in the countries where they were married.
As for the princes, the competition was even fiercer, with only three surviving: the Crown Prince born to the current Empress, the disabled sixth prince, Prince Min, born to Consort Shu, and the mentally challenged tenth prince, Prince Yu, born to Consort Xin.
The sixth prince's birth mother, Consort Shu, was the daughter of the Minister of Justice, the niece of the deceased Empress Dowager, and the emperor's cousin. Because she was the emperor's concubine during his time as a prince, and because the sixth prince was quick-witted and possessed great strategic talent, he was made crown prince. However, due to an accident, Consort Shu passed away, and the sixth prince became disabled in both legs and unable to have sexual relations. Therefore, he was deposed as crown prince and instead granted the title of Prince Min, along with a pardon from death. Consort Shu was posthumously honored as Imperial Noble Consort Shu, and was buried with the emperor after her death.
The tenth prince's mother, Consort Xin, was of humble origin. She was a country girl brought back by the emperor during one of his incognito travels. She was exceptionally beautiful and lively, and upon entering the palace, she served the emperor for a month straight, attracting the attention of many concubines. After enjoying the emperor's favor, Consort Xin gave birth to the tenth prince after ten months of pregnancy. However, the prince turned out to be mentally challenged, and Consort Xin never received the emperor's favor again. Later, when the tenth prince was fifteen, he was enfeoffed as the Prince of Yu and went to his fiefdom. Consort Xin, exceptionally, accompanied him.
...
Just one week after Princess Wuyou's death, the eldest princess went to the palace alone.
Only the Empress and the Crown Prince were in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. They sat together on the dragon throne, looking down at the eldest princess.
The Empress is now in her sixties, the eldest princess is past forty, and the Crown Prince is thirty-five. None of them are as young and innocent as they used to be, not to mention the eldest princess's blood relation to the two of them, a typical 'double marriage'.
Therefore, the three of them did not have the tense atmosphere that people imagined. Instead, they looked at each other and talked calmly, creating an eerily harmonious atmosphere.
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