With Prince Qi falling out of favor with Emperor Jingming, the court officials and nobles naturally noticed. As a result, Prince Lu, Prince Shu, and Prince Yan instantly became the focus of everyone’s attention.
Prince Lu returned to his mansion in high spirits and said to Princess Lu, “Come drink with me.”
Princess Lu furrowed her brows, “Does Your Highness have good news?”
Prince Lu sat down, smiling brightly, “You can tell already? Indeed, I’m in a good mood today.”
“Why don’t you tell me about it, so I can share in your happiness?”
Prince Lu grew excited, “I thought that becoming a commandery prince meant I’d have to lower my head to those few, but unexpectedly, I’ve become prominent. Today, I met several people who were quite polite to me. Even when I was a prince before, I never saw them act like this—”
Princess Lu rolled her eyes, “Don’t take others’ politeness too seriously, Your Highness.”
Hearing this, Prince Lu became unhappy, “The Eighth and Fourth Brothers have lost favor one after another. Only I, the Sixth Brother, and the Seventh Brother remain unscathed. Think about it, among us three, I’m the oldest. What’s wrong with people showing me respect?”
“Your Highness means—”
Prince Lu smiled smugly, “Why should I remain just a commandery prince? Who knows, with some luck, I might even become the Crown Prince—”
Princess Lu burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
Princess Lu stopped laughing and glanced at Prince Lu with a murderous look, “I advise Your Highness not to indulge in wild fantasies. Is becoming the Crown Prince a matter of luck? Not to mention others, just look at Prince Qi. After years of patience and caution, he was cast aside by the Emperor for unknown reasons. Does Your Highness think you can be more patient than Prince Qi? Or do you want to become someone like Prince Qi?”
Prince Lu shuddered and quickly shook his head.
He didn’t want to be like the Fourth Brother. He still held a lifelong grudge for being made a scapegoat as a child.
For someone like the Fourth Brother, he only wanted to spit in disgust.
Fearing Prince Lu might not give up, Princess Lu continued, “I am Your Highness’s wife. Whether you rise to great heights or lose your life, I’ll accept it. But what about our daughter?”
She stroked her belly, “Moreover, there’s another one here—”
“What did you say?” Prince Lu was startled, then overjoyed. He embraced Princess Lu and kissed her, “Does this mean I’m going to have a son?”
Princess Lu turned her head to avoid the kiss, “Who knows if it’s a boy or a girl… Even if it’s a boy, so what? If Your Highness foolishly meddles, having a son will only bring suffering—”
Prince Lu hastily said, “I won’t meddle, I won’t!”
Princess Lu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
This man blooms at the slightest hint of sunshine, without the brains to avoid courting death. Wasn’t this just joking with the lives of the whole family?
After a while, Prince Lu calmed his excitement and said with an embarrassed smile, “Since you’re with child, I’ll sleep in the study. Um… not too many, just arrange for one beauty to keep me company.”
“Not too many?” Princess Lu glanced at Prince Lu sideways.
Prince Lu felt this was a rare opportunity, and benefits must be seized. He laughed dryly, “One isn’t too many, right?”
“No, it’s quite many.”
“Huh?”
Princess Lu pulled out a pair of scissors from her embroidery basket and slammed them in front of Prince Lu, sneering, “Your Highness is thinking quite a lot!”
Soon, screams could be heard from inside the room.
The maids standing guard outside kept their eyes lowered, appearing accustomed to such scenes.
Compared to the chaos in Prince Lu’s mansion, Prince Shu’s residence was much quieter.
Prince Shu didn’t get along with Princess Shu, so naturally, he wouldn’t confide in her at this time. Instead, he shut himself in his study, pondering recent events.
The more he thought, the more anxious he became.
That day, the Seventh Brother was first called into the palace and scolded, then the Fourth Brother was summoned, and afterward, officials supporting the Fourth Brother suffered heavy blows… Was the Fourth Brother’s misfortune related to the Seventh Brother?
And that incident with the Eighth Brother was clearly the Seventh Brother’s scheme, yet the Fifth Brother eagerly took credit for it — thinking of Prince Lu’s stupidity, Prince Shu shook his head.
Looking at it this way, he and the Seventh Brother had the best chances.
After a brief moment of excitement, Prince Shu realized a terrifying fact: did this mean he would have to directly confront the Seventh Brother?
No, no, he wasn’t fully prepared yet. He couldn’t openly oppose the Seventh Brother now.
Prince Shu shut himself in his study for half a day before finally concluding: that he still needed to prepare slowly. Let the Seventh Brother have his moment of glory for now.
Meanwhile, at the Earl of Dongping’s residence, Second Master Jiang was again counting on his fingers: Prince Lu, Prince Shu, Prince Yan… Hiss, Prince Yan’s chances seemed even greater now!
Second Master Jiang’s jealousy towards the eldest branch of the family swelled another notch.
Jealous as he was, sucking up was necessary. Second Master Jiang decided to bring a jug of wine to drink with his elder brother.
At the Duke of Anguo’s mansion, the Duke of Anguo solemnly instructed his wife, Lady Wei, “Don’t reveal Prince Qi’s situation to my mother’s side. We shouldn’t worry her in her old age.”
Lady Wei nodded, asking anxiously, “Your Grace, what should we do from now on—”
The Duke of Anguo sneered, “What do you mean, what should we do? We’ll continue as we always have. Even before my sister entered the palace as a consort, we were already a hereditary ducal family. Do we need to chase after the path of becoming imperial in-laws for some vague notion?”
“But—”
“There are no buts. You should also put aside those thoughts. Managing the ducal household properly is what’s important.” The Duke of Anguo warned Lady Wei, his mind made up.
Although he had always been unwilling to meddle in the struggle for succession, the Duke of Anguo’s family was Prince Qi’s maternal family, naturally seen as Prince Qi’s supporters in the eyes of the world. If Prince Qi were to clash fiercely with another prince and lose, the Duke of Anguo’s family might suffer consequences.
But now, things were a bit different.
Prince Yan’s chances were growing. If Prince Yan were to ascend the throne, the Duke of Anguo’s family would still be his maternal family by blood relation, even if Prince Yan was registered under the Empress’s name. This fact couldn’t be denied.
As long as the Duke of Anguo’s family didn’t act excessively, Prince Yan had no reason to move against them.
And if Prince Yan were to lose to another prince, since he was registered under the Empress’s name, the prince who ascended wouldn’t have issues with the Duke of Anguo’s family either.
After much consideration, the Duke of Anguo concluded that whether Prince Yan fiercely competed with other princes or not, it wouldn’t greatly affect his family. However, if Prince Qi were to do so, the Duke of Anguo’s family might lose their heads along with him.
Hmm, it was best to leave Prince Qi as he was.
As Prince Qi’s maternal uncle, the Duke of Anguo once again firmly resolved not to support Prince Qi.
If the opportunity arose, subtly helping Prince Yan a bit wouldn’t be a bad idea.
“As for Noble Consort Xian’s side, when you enter the palace to pay respects, advise her well. Staying content with her lot is the path to blessings.”
Lady Wei agreed. The next day, she entered the palace to visit Noble Consort Xian, but her words were quite different.
“Has Your Grace heard about Prince Qi’s situation?”
Hearing Lady Wei’s question, Noble Consort Xian’s heart sank, but she asked calmly, “What’s happened to Zhangr?”
She had received news of the Empress Dowager’s collapse on the first day of the fourth month, but couldn’t inquire further after that.
With the Empress Dowager and Empress present, for consorts, some news was more difficult to obtain inside the palace than outside.
Because of this, Noble Consort Xian had been waiting for news from Prince Qi these past few days, but Prince Qi had yet to enter the palace to pay his respects to her.
Lady Wei’s eyes flickered as she lowered her voice, “It’s being said that Prince Qi has fallen out of favor—”