Manly Lady ✓

76.

I have yet to preview this, so it must have a lot of typos and wrong grammars, please bear with it for the mean time :)

Encounter

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AFTER two months of traditional recuperation, Yan Gen was immediately invited to the imperial palace to bring Jinhai with him to visit. It was not just Noble Consort Su who wants to see the child again but also the Empress Dowager who was so delighted by the news and couldn't wait to hold the child in her arms.

       Jinhai was after all, the first grandson of the Emperor, the second prince already has two daughters.

       The invitation came out as a surprise for Yan Gen, it wasn't long ago since the palace forbid anyone to personally visit, even the imperial court meetings was held up for a few weeks, and the emperor didn't make an appearance for months. Suddenly, the palace is now open for visits?

       Did the emperor regain his health? But he still didn't make a public appearance, the ministers are still obliged to write a report to him every few days however. It can be because they're trying to lighten up the atmosphere since the victorious army's return or it can also be because of Zhu Deming. What's the use of an old Emperor who couldn't govern his Empire properly anymore when there are many potential heirs who can govern way better than him? The emperor has already left out his youthful sharp mind.

       The ministers, at the moment, are arguing to themselves which princes they will side on. The largest faction used to be the first prince and the second prince. Unfortunately for the latter, he was overthrown by the one he wished to get raid of right after the third prince was thrown into the prison upon falling into their many schemes.

       Now the princes factions were reduced to two. The strong faction of the first prince, Zhu Deming, ever since he started his military campaigns, even threatening the Emperor's throne and the rising faction of the favored fifth prince ever since his interference of civil activities to this current war of battling two frontlines.

       Though the fifth prince was favored greatly by the Emperor, probably because he's his last son, he made no indication of passing the dragon throne to him.

     As for the fourth prince, Zhu Hai, who has always love peace, clearly made his stand in the imperial court from the very beginning. Always avoiding conflict by going to seclusion and staying out of the public eyes. Thus, when the battle for the dragon throne made another dangerous wave at the suspicion that the emperor is sick and is nearing his time, the fourth prince immediately asked to be relocated and have his own fiefdom, far away from the imperial capital.

       With his wife, Li Mei. In the original novel, although Zhu Hai loved peace, he doesn't want to get out of the capital, he doesn't believe that his brothers will eventually targeted him if he stays in the capital. Hence, he was eventually beheaded under the pretext that he wants to covet the dragon throne.

       Things were escalating too fast and it was getting out of control. Yan Gen doesn't know if he's really inside a novel or in another dimension that has similar names of the characters in the novel he had read in the past.

       Li Mei married Zhu Hai and was already far away from the capital. Then how the hell will Zhu Mingli get the dragon throne? The female lead served a critical role for his ascension, she was his spy inside the palace.