Something happened. This is not going to be bloody.

Mrs. Tian bowed and saluted, saying:

"I pay my respects to the Emperor and the Empress."

When Mrs. Tian leaned forward to salute, Tian Shuyu could not help but move sideways to avoid the salute. Then he stepped forward to help his mother up.

Zhou Leng raised his hand and said, "There is no need for so many formalities today. Come in and have dinner."

The palace maids and eunuchs were all standing guard outside the palace. Today, no one was needed to serve them or pick up food for them. The four of them treated it as a rare family dinner. However, they still had to do a routine poison test before the dinner.

Except for Mrs. Tian who seemed a little nervous, the other four people ate and chatted naturally.

After dinner, Zhou Leng left, and the emperor considerately returned to his own bedroom, leaving the space for the mother and son whom he had not seen for a long time.

The queen dismissed the palace maids, leaving only the mother and daughter in the room.

Mrs. Tian looked her daughter up and down and saw that she had no sad expression on her face. She was wearing silk and satin, and the hair ornaments she had never seen were all of a kind she had never seen before. She nodded with satisfaction and said:

"Your Highness, it seems that you haven't changed much. Are you living well in the palace?"

Tian Shuyu went forward and took her mother's hand as she did before. They sat on the couch together. She carefully told her mother about what happened after she entered the palace. She shyly told her mother about the emperor's current special favor. Her tone was sweet as she said:

"Mother, the emperor is the best man I have ever seen. Not only is he handsome and elegant, but he is also a man of character. The emperor and I have many common hobbies. We paint and read together. When I play the piano, he listens attentively beside me. We also wrote a daily diary together to record the things we did together."

Mrs. Tian was already past the age of a young girl, and when she heard her daughter say that, she was more worried. That was the emperor! Now her daughter was a little younger and had a beautiful appearance, so she was quite favored. But if she got older, her beauty would fade and she would lose favor. At that time, how happy she was now, how miserable she would be in the future.

Mrs. Tian looked at her daughter's happy face and expression, and she thought of her daughter's pregnancy, so she said cryptically:

"Now that you are pregnant, if the emperor stays in another palace, please don't be upset and take care of your body. Being a woman is a little harder. You must learn to be generous and learn to comfort yourself. You have known since childhood that in addition to you brothers and sisters, there are also illegitimate children in the Tian Mansion. I shouldn't say these things now, but I want you to know that you must take care of yourself in everything."

Tian Shuyu's expression did not change at all. She looked at Mrs. Tian and said:

"Mother, I know all this, but the emperor is too good, I can't keep my heart, I can only hope that this relationship will last a little longer. Now I am Shu Yu and he is A Ze. If one day I become the queen and he becomes the emperor, I can also be the master of my own harem."

Mrs. Tian nodded with satisfaction and distress, and then said:

"Although your Majesty lives comfortably in the palace, you must be more careful with your address. You cannot call yourself "I" all day long, and you cannot always address the current emperor by his name. These are against the rules."

Tian Shuyu said coquettishly:

"Mother, I call you this in front of you. Can I still be so arrogant and call myself this palace in front of my biological mother? I really can't do it. Mother, please stay in the palace for a few more days. Anyway, with the Queen Mother's decree, no one in the palace dares to say anything more."

Speaking of the Queen Mother, Mrs. Tian asked worriedly:

"I heard from outside the palace that the Queen Mother is quite powerful. Have you ever had any conflicts?"

Tian Shuyu was a little serious at this moment. She said:

"Mother, the Queen Mother is the most powerful woman I have ever seen. What she does benefits the people. How could she argue with me for a piece of tile in the harem? Don't say such things in the future."

Mrs. Tian knew she had said something wrong and changed the subject. She stayed in the palace for five days before leaving. After all, it was not a good idea to stay there for long, as she had a large family to support.

*****

Time flies by as Da Qi becomes more and more prosperous.

The smooth promotion and development of the imperial examination system brought great benefits to the people at the bottom of the society in Da Qi.

Five years have passed.

Half of the country's low-level officials have been replaced by scholars who passed the imperial examinations.

Many of these people who passed the imperial examinations first were retainers of aristocratic families. They disdained to fight with other officials at the lower level and instead wanted to do well on their own and get promoted.

The major replacement of officials rooted at the grassroots level has brought about earth-shaking changes to the poor people of the country.

After all, compared with those hereditary officials, these officials are more able to do things impartially.

Zhou Leng and Gao Ze started the second five-year plan, land reform, and the abolition of the Ding tax.

In the past, everyone had to pay a head tax. No matter whether your family had land or not, as long as you had a male child, you had to pay the tax. This resulted in many families not being able to separate their families and not having more children.

Ding tax is one of the main taxes in the country. If Ding tax is abolished, taxes will have to be increased from other aspects.

Zhou Leng knew that she couldn't eat a watermelon in one bite, so she first increased taxes on businesses and recruited retired veterans to set up a special inspection team.

Nowadays, many businesses on the market are owned by wealthy families and officials, who use connections to avoid taxes.

The people from the Inspectorate Temple specifically collect taxes from these businesses, and once they are verified, they will have to pay the business taxes for the past five years.

This time, the mother and son are going to touch the businessmen's cake. After all, there are many collusion between officials and businessmen. However, even if there is collusion, the officials will not go against the Inspectorate for the sake of the businessmen.

Da Qi will only get better and better with the efforts of mother and son.

There have also been changes in the harem during these five years.

Although there were no new concubines entering the palace, the only three remaining concubines all had children.

Queen Tian Shuyu had two sons, a boy and a girl. The boy was the eldest prince, named Gao Jiacheng. He was a chubby little guy. Because he was the first child, he received the most attention from the three giants in the palace.

Gao Jiacheng, now five years old, looks more like his mother, but his personality is unique and it is hard to tell who he resembles.

The queen's second child is a girl, the eldest princess in the palace, who is three years old this year. Gao Ze named her Gao Huan and gave her the title of Princess Shengping.

After the emperor and empress had two sons, the empress dowager did not say anything, but the officials in the court were dissatisfied.

Many nosy censors began to advise, saying that since there were already legitimate sons and daughters, the prince was the foundation of the country, and it was time to open up the harem and hold another beauty show.

Gao Ze didn't want to participate in the selection, which was a waste of money and time, and also meaningless. So he went to the other two concubines' palaces to get more.

This incident did not affect the relationship between the emperor and the empress.

Because she had two children to take care of, the queen devoted most of her energy to the children, and she adapted well to the emperor sleeping with other concubines.

Chu Yuan has a daughter, who is the second princess in the palace. She is two years old this year. Gao Ze named her Gao Miao, and she has no title yet.

Li Mingyue has a son, the second prince in the palace. He is also two years old this year and is named Gao Jiazhang.

With more young masters in the palace, the imperial garden has become lively.

However, as a cold queen mother, Zhou Leng treated all her grandchildren equally and paid no special attention to any of them. What she wanted to do was to find an emperor for them when they grew up.