Reborn: Femme Fatale First Daughter (PART 2)

Chapter 319-320

Chapter 319 Conflict in the Harem Initiated By Fifth Princess

Actually, Emperor Zongwen did not want his Fifth Princess to marry Bai Yichen. She had been by his side for many years and was the daughter of the Empress, which naturally meant that she should be used to maximize the interest of herself and the imperial family. If she was to marry, she should definitely marry Bai Yihao, the Crown Prince. The two families were relatives, to begin with, and the marriage between two cousins would naturally strengthen the relations between the two families. When the next Crown Prince of Yan Kingdom was born, his bloodline would be closer to the Qin Kingdom, greatly benefiting the Qin Kingdom.

However, it seemed that only he was interested in this matter. His sister, who was born from a different mother, never requested for her son to marry the Princess of Qin Kingdom. However, she did send in a letter requesting the First Prince to marry Fifth Princess instead. Emperor Zongwen knew that something was amiss and that this matter was probably related to the woman in Cining Palace.

Hence, he paid no attention to Yan Kingdom First Prince’s request for marriage. If Bai Yichen appeared too desperate, he would just send a random princess over for marriage as he did not want to satisfy the desires of the Yan Kingdom and that woman in Cining Palace. He was sure that there must be a devious plan being plotted behind his back. As the woman in Cining palace was his birth mother, he could not act as he wished as well.

However, he did not expect Fifth Princess to fall into a scandal herself and ruin her reputation in front of everyone, especially Bai Yihao. With the Bai brothers both in the know of the affair, it would never be possible for Bai Yihao to marry her while Bai Yichen would insist on the marriage. There was no other way other than to marry Fifth Princess to Bai Yichen.

However, Emperor Zongwen was not as naive as Fifth Princess, for he smelt the scent of conspiracy. He identified the plotter as Bai Yichen.

Who would benefit the most from this matter?!

The answer was undoubtedly the First Prince of Yan Kingdom. If not for this matter, Emperor Zongwen would never marry Fifth Princess over to him. If there was a need to marry a princess over to him, there were plenty of concubines’ daughters in the harem for the Emperor to choose. All of them were less prestigious and irreplaceable than Fifth Princess.

Emperor Zongwen’s mood turned gloomy at the thought of being tricked by Bai Yichen.

On the second day following the scandal, a bunch of palaces next to Cining Palace was set on fire. Even though Cining Palace was unaffected, Empress Dowager was so terrified that she fell sick. Immediately, fleets of imperial doctors were sent into Cining Palace, afraid of any slight injury that Empress Dowager would have. The Emperor sent orders that any untreated mishap to Empress Dowager would mean the death of the doctors.

Compared to the bustling Cining Palace, Tianfeng Palace was like a deserted land.

The Emperor’s orders came early, chiding its owner for her lack of virtues that caused disarrangements in the harem, with the heavens even damaging Empress Dowager’s Cining Palace. The order was for the Empress to write a reflection letter, and to let Consort Su and Consort Wen help her with harem affairs, citing sympathy on her heavy workload as an excuse.

The true reason was to constraint the monopoly of power that the Empress had in the harem by using Consort Su and Consort Wen to restrict her power in the harem. That was a slap to the face to the Empress’ family.

Everyone knew that disarrangement in the harem and anger of the heavens were all excuses made by Emperor Zongwen to punish the Empress for Fifth Princess’ matter. Since she was to be married to the Yan Kingdom as a representative of the Qin Kingdom, one could not naturally be impolite about the matter. Since a fire erupted in the palace, he naturally blamed that on the Empress.