In the years of famine, I led a comfortable life with my husband

Xu Chao then lowered his head to check, his hands gripping the papers tighter and tighter.

"Your Majesty, this... this is not true, this is not true at all. This must have been fabricated by Xie Chengjin to frame me. It must be..." Xu Chao became unusually flustered.

As if he had found a way out, he suddenly turned towards Xie Chengjin and said, "It's all you, Xie Chengjin! You really have a good way. To frame me, you even managed to forge something like this!"

Xie Chengjin shrugged, not fearing Xu Chao at all. "Prime Minister, what do you mean by that? I, Xie Chengjin, never do anything that would wrongly accuse anyone. These are all approved by the government. Could it be that I forged an official document? Your Excellency, please don't be provoked and make random accusations from here."

"Enough!" The emperor could no longer bear it and shouted, "Xu Chao! The evidence is overwhelming and it's all laid out before you. What else do you have to say?"

"Your Majesty, please understand. Your humble servant, Duan Duan, would never do such a thing." Xu Chao said with tears in his eyes, as if everyone was wronging him.

The emperor was already very angry at this time, and the other ministers did not dare to say a word, let alone defend Xu Chao. Those people under Xu Chao had been dealt with by the emperor long ago, and there were not many left. Those people now dared not make a sound, for fear of getting into trouble. For a moment, no one stood up to speak for Xu Chao.

Xu Chao was extremely angry, but this was in the Golden Palace and he could do nothing. He could only hope that the emperor would turn things around.

But how could it be so simple? The emperor had long wanted to deal with Xu Chao, and how could he miss such a good opportunity?

Xu Chao wanted to say something else but was interrupted by the emperor. "There are witnesses and evidences here, Xu Chao. I value you so much, but I didn't expect you to do such a disrespectful thing. In this case, in my opinion, you don't need to be the prime minister anymore!" The emperor waved his hand and dismissed Xu Chao from his position as prime minister.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I have been wronged, Your Majesty... I hope Your Majesty can see clearly..." When Xu Chao heard this, he was completely panicked. The power of the prime minister was deprived, which was more painful than killing him.

"Xu Chao, I am only doing this for the contributions you have made to the country over the years. Otherwise, with what you have done, you would deserve to die a hundred times!" The emperor snorted coldly, unmoved.

The emperor paused, looking at Xu Chao with an extremely cruel look. His next words were tantamount to sentencing Xu Chao to death. "Come here, pass on my decree. From today on, Xu Chao is dismissed from his position as first-rank prime minister and demoted to fourth-rank vice minister. From now on, Xu Chao is not allowed to leave the palace without my permission!"

Xu Chao's face turned completely pale. He was dismissed from office and confined to his house. The emperor really only spared Xu Chao's life. Xu Chao collapsed to the ground and let the guards drag him out.

Seeing this, the emperor's expression eased a little. "What happened to Xu Chao today can be regarded as a warning. You'd better think twice in the future. If anyone does this again, don't blame me for being rude to you!" The emperor glanced at the ministers who were standing there with their heads down and dared not speak, and then he smiled with satisfaction.

"My dear ministers, do you have anything else to report?" The emperor asked slowly, supporting his head.

The ministers below were silent for a moment, and no one stood up to say a word.

The emperor was very satisfied with the result and stood up. "Since there is nothing else to do, let's adjourn the court."

After saying this, the emperor left the Golden Palace.

Only when the emperor disappeared from the Golden Palace did the ministers breathe a sigh of relief.

Everyone looked at each other, and saw the joy of surviving the disaster in each other's eyes. However, Xie Chengjin was out of tune with them. He walked past the ministers with an expressionless and calm face, not caring at all about their pointing fingers at him.

But just as Xie Chengjin was about to step out of the Golden Palace, someone called out to him from behind, "Master Xie, please stay."

Xie Chengjin stopped, turned around with some impatience, and saw several familiar ministers walking towards him.

Xie Chengjin pursed his lips, then he remembered who these people were.

They were originally people around Xu Chao, but now that Xu Chao has fallen, they are all people who curry favor with the powerful, so naturally they want to win over people who will overthrow Xu Chao.

Ministers came to Xie Chengjin one after another. Xie Chengjin subconsciously put on a distant smile and listened quietly to the chatter of people around him.

After hearing the end, Xie Chengjin became a little impatient. After all, these people were just flattering and trying to win over Xie Chengjin.

Xie Chengjin naturally would not let go of the opportunity that was delivered to his doorstep. Faced with the olive branches thrown by these people, Xie Chengjin naturally accepted them all.

By the time he had dealt with these ministers, Xie Chengjin was already exhausted.

There was no peace in the harem either. The news of Xu Chao's dismissal from office naturally spread to the harem. If the people in the harem had restrained their targeting of Concubine Wan before, it was because Xu Chao was the prime minister.

But now Xu Chao had completely lost the chance to turn the tables, and everyone in the harem could no longer hold back.

Wanpin had no time to take care of these things. After all, she had a miscarriage before and was still recovering. In addition, Xu Chao had an accident, and Wanpin was so frightened that she fainted.

The palace maid called the imperial physician to take Concubine Wan's pulse. After a long time, the imperial physician could not give any good solution.

"A bunch of quacks, you..." The maidservant beside Wanpin wanted to scold the imperial physician, but was stopped by Wanpin who had just woken up. "Ahem, shut up, you are being rude to the imperial physician. Please leave. I know my own body very well."

After sending the imperial physician away, Wanpin finally said to the maidservant beside her, "Is what happened with father true?"

The maid pursed her lips and nodded, "Your Majesty, the Prime Minister..." Before she could finish her words, the maid started crying.

But they don't have much time to be sad now. Before Concubine Wan has recovered from her grief, she has become the object of ridicule by everyone in the harem.

A few days later, Concubine Wan was still in a daze. The double blow of losing her son and her family's loss of power made Concubine Wan lose her appetite and unable to sleep.

Even so, other people in the palace were still unwilling to let Wanpin have an easy time. They never provoked Wanpin in front of her, but they attacked her behind her back.

Some people didn't want to bring the war to themselves, but didn't want to see Wanpin have an easy time, so they simply started with Su Zhizhi and secretly drugged Wanpin's food.

Su Zhizhi knew nothing about this. By the time she found out, Concubine Wan had already been poisoned and was lying on the bed with a pale face.