The Return of the King: A Generation of Prodigies

"Your Majesty, I still have a lot of government affairs to attend to, so I won't keep you here."

Having said everything that needed to be said, Shen Tianjiao was too lazy to waste any more words with Li Rui and simply ordered him to leave.

Li Rui smiled awkwardly and touched his nose. "Then I'll go back first. When my father-in-law comes back, I'll host a family dinner to welcome him personally."

After watching Li Rui leave, Shen Tianjiao finally let out the anger she had been holding back for a long time, and she almost punched a hole in the table.

"Calm down, calm down. There's no need to be angry with such a scumbag. Anger is harmful to your health." Qiong Niang appeared in time to stop Shen Tianjiao's anger and saved the table that was about to break.

Shen Tianjiao let out a breath and calmed herself down. Although her temper wasn't very good before, it was within the controllable range. But now she wanted to lose her temper and curse people every day. This shows that handling government affairs until late at night every day can really drive people crazy.

After taking a sip of tea, Shen Tianjiao asked, "Have you brought everyone back?"

"Well, I got them all back." Qiong Niang poured Shen Tianjiao a cup of hot tea. Shen Tianjiao didn't like drinking cold tea. Even in the hot summer, she had to drink hot tea.

"Lock up those two servants first. As for whether the girl can be saved, it's still unclear, but with Dongyang watching over her, she should be able to survive."

Qiong Niang now has a blind confidence in everyone in Yuxiu Palace, and always feels that as long as they are there, there will be no problems that cannot be solved.

"Which palace is this from? How dare they dump a body into the lake in broad daylight?"

In fact, there were many such daring people in the palace, not only those concubines who were favored by the emperor, but also those eunuchs and palace maids who were in power. Because they were protected by their masters, they could do any evil things.

This is not the first day that Shen Tianjiao has been the queen. She has seen many of these dirty and vicious things, and has even experienced many of them herself.

However, Shen Tianjiao did not think that this was natural. In her opinion, although there was a distinction between master and servant, it was only a difference in status.

If these slaves committed a crime, they could be sentenced after a fair and impartial trial, and they could be beaten to death on the spot or dealt with in other ways.

But like now, arbitrarily beating and killing and dealing with things secretly means that the master has a secret that cannot be revealed and is shifting the blame of his own mistakes onto others. This is called taking human life lightly, which Shen Tianjiao cannot tolerate.

"It's that one from the White Fox Palace. Ugly people are really the cause of all the mischief. She's been disfigured and powerless for so long, yet she's still restless and is still making trouble. She's gone too far and has completely ruined herself this time."

The white fox mentioned by Qiong Niang left very unpleasant memories in the memories of both her and Shen Tianjiao.

The White Fox's real name is Tian Qingqing. She is the daughter of a sixth-rank official. Her aunt was born into a prostitute family, so she was brought up with a prostitute-like air. Her speech and behavior are frivolous. In addition, she has a pair of seductive fox eyes, and her whole body is whiter than ordinary people, so she got the nickname White Fox.

She was not selected to enter the palace. She was given to Li Rui by someone else in order to please him.

But this woman is only beautiful but has no brains. Once she is favored by the emperor, she becomes complacent and doesn't take anyone seriously.

She openly provoked and humiliated everyone in the palace, including Shen Tianjiao, causing a lot of trouble for everyone in the harem.

Li Rui will pamper her, but the women in the harem will not let her go. Each of them is of nobler birth than her, and has powerful backers behind them. Why would they give in to a woman who doesn't know how to advance or retreat and is arrogant?

So all kinds of calculations followed one after another, and soon this woman, who had once been in the limelight and was promoted from a beauty to Rupin by Li Rui shortly after entering the palace, lost Li Rui's favor and became a rat crossing the street in the harem.

Feng Yuanyuan is a naturally jealous person. If someone gets a little favor from Li Rui, she would want to kill them. What's more, what about this ignorant woman who wants to replace her?

So as soon as Tian Qingqing fell out of favor, Feng Yuanyuan found an excuse to have her face disfigured, making her lose the capital to regain favor.

The reason why Feng Yuanyuan did not kill Tian Qingqing directly, but spared her life and allowed her to live in the harem until now was because of Li Minghua.

Li Minghua, who was still young at that time, had a high fever for several days without knowing the cause.

In order to accumulate blessings for her son, Feng Yuanyuan, who has always been cruel and ruthless, became a good person and let Tian Qingqing go.

If it weren't for this trip today, Shen Tianjiao would have completely forgotten about this woman.

Shen Tianjiao frowned and thought for a long time, always feeling that today's matter was not that simple.

On the day Tian Qingqing fell out of favor, her title was downgraded from Rupin to beauty. As a beauty, it was impossible for her to become the master of a palace.

Although Tian Qingqing moved out of her previous residence, she moved to Yuzhuyuan, which was a remote and deserted place, but she was the only one living there.

This is a treatment that is simply impossible for a woman who has fallen out of favor. So who is the power behind Tian Qingqing?

"Who took advantage of the banquet to give Tian Qingqing to Li Rui? It's been so long, I really can't remember."

When Shen Tianjiao asked this, Qiong Niang naturally knew that there must be something going on. Otherwise, Shen Tianjiao would not pay attention to a woman whom she had not taken seriously in the past.

"That banquet was hosted by Princess Yuyao. She had been married for many years but had no children. She finally had a daughter, so naturally she treasured her very much."

"When her daughter's full moon banquet was held, her husband Su Wenzhi came to the palace to ask for grace and asked Li Rui to go to the princess's residence to bless his daughter and pray for her."

"Although Li Yuyao was not born into a high family and was not particularly favored, her husband was from the Su family, one of the top ten families in the capital. Many of the Su family members served as officials in the court."

"The late emperor married Li Yuyao to Su Wenzhi, the eldest son of the Su family, probably to weaken the Su family's power. After all, by marrying the princess and becoming her consort, Su Wenzhi would lose his eligibility to serve as an official in the court, which was a significant blow to the Su family."

"Li Rui agreed to go because he gave the Su family face, and it was naturally to appease the Su family."

"The Su family hosted the banquet, but the guests were sent by someone else. It was Zhou Haibei, the then Chief Censor and now the Minister of Justice."

"Minister of Justice Zhou Haibei?" The image of that unattractive, short, skinny old man immediately emerged in Shen Tianjiao's mind.

Zhou Haibei is usually a completely invisible figure in the court. He does not fight, argue, or speak, and does not take sides or engage in party struggles. But no one expected that he would rise to power in this way.

"Yes, that's the Minister of Justice, Zhou Haibei, the one everyone jokingly calls the 'living dead'."

In addition to what has been said above, there is one more thing about Zhou Haibei, who served as the Minister of Justice. He did not take care of things. As the Minister of Justice, he only showed up at the yamen every day and did not take care of any other matters, leaving them all to the people below.

But it is this person who has been sitting on the position of Minister of Justice and has been so stable that no one has been able to shake his position. This is undoubtedly a mystery.

If you say that Zhou Haibei can hold on to his position because of his incompetence and low-keyness, I'm afraid no one will believe it, right?

"Send someone to investigate Zhou Haibei, the Su family, and Li Yuyao's princess residence."

She didn’t think so before, but now Shen Tianjiao feels that Zhou Haibei is not an ordinary person, and the secret hidden behind him may be even bigger than that of Concubine Jing.

Shen Tianjiao couldn't help but sigh. These troublemakers came in waves, not giving her a chance to breathe.

"Okay, I'll arrange someone to check it out right away." Qiong Niang's execution ability is impeccable. She always does it immediately without any delay after Shen Tianjiao gives an order.

Before dinner, Li Minghua's portrait was brought to Shen Tianjiao.

Shen Tianjiao looked carefully at the portrait of Li Minghua and felt that he looked familiar, but she couldn't remember who he looked like.

Li Minghua is said to be the son of Feng Yuanyuan and Li Rui. Although the personalities of these two people are not very good, it has to be said that their looks are absolutely impeccable.

However, the little fat boy in the portrait perfectly avoided all the advantages in appearance of his parents. In short, Li Minghua, Feng Yuanyuan, and Li Rui do not look alike at all.

Just looking at the portrait, you would never guess that Li Minghua is the child of Feng Yuanyuan and Li Rui.

This made Shen Tianjiao confused. Although it was impossible for a child to perfectly inherit the good looks of his parents, it was absolutely impossible for him to not inherit any of them.

Unless, a bold idea popped up in Shen Tianjiao's mind, unless Li Minghua was not born to Feng Yuanyuan, or perhaps not born to Feng Yuanyuan and Li Rui.

When this idea appeared in Shen Tianjiao's mind, she was shocked.

But this idea doesn't make sense. Feng Yuanyuan has always been favored. Although there is a rift between her and Li Rui now, it was not the case before.

There was no reason for her to have an affair with someone else just to have a son when she was still in the emperor's favor and risked being banished to the cold palace and exiled with her entire family. She was not a fool and she knew what was important.

With Feng Yuanyuan's current status, even if she has no children, no one can easily shake her position.

If she has no children, the worst that can happen is that she can adopt a child from other concubines and raise him by her side.

Although Li Rui has very few offspring now, it does not mean that he will not have children in the future. Feng Yuanyuan does not need to put herself and her family in danger for the sake of a child.

Then there is only one possibility, that Li Minghua is not Feng Yuanyuan's biological son, but this idea does not seem to be true.

Before giving birth to Li Minghua, Feng Yuanyuan had two miscarriages due to accidents and physical reasons.

Although the child was not born safely, this also proved that Feng Yuanyuan had no physical problems and was able to give birth. As long as she took good care of herself, she could still have a child. There was no need for her to raise a child who had no blood relationship with Li Rui.

Instead of raising a child who has no blood relationship with Li Rui, she might as well hope that another concubine would get pregnant and give birth to a child and then adopt the child.

As for why Feng Yuanyuan would not adopt Li Muyang, it was naturally because she was guilty. Li Muyang's biological mother was killed by her harshness. Raising Li Muyang by her side was like burying a bomb in the sky. If it exploded in the future, she and the Feng family would definitely be killed without a burial place.

The more Shen Tianjiao thought about it, the more confused her mind became. These things were really too complicated. She needed to calm down and sit down to sort out the clues. Only then could she find the answer.

Shen Tianjiao stood up and stretched, then turned and walked outside. She planned to go outside to breathe some fresh air and change her mind.

It is getting dark outside now. Although it is summer already, it is not too hot so far this summer. The cool breeze at night is still very comfortable.

Shen Tianjiao looked up at the sky. Although it was not a full moon night tonight, there were still many stars in the sky, and the starlight was so bright and spectacular.

Just as Shen Tianjiao was lost in thought while appreciating the beauty of the night, noisy laughter from afar interrupted the peaceful beauty.

Shen Tianjiao looked up and saw her beloved son Li Muyang, catching fireflies with Qiu Tong and several little girls.

Seeing Qiu Tong, Shen Tianjiao's heart suddenly moved. Lover's Gu, yes, it was Lover's Gu.

She had just forgotten about the love poison. Hongying described the consequences of planting the love poison as so serious, so could the love poison be the beginning of the whole thing?

Thinking of this, Shen Tianjiao hurriedly shouted, "Qiuting, come here."

Hearing Shen Tianjiao's call, Qiu Tong immediately ran over, "Master, what's wrong?"

"Go, go quickly, and interrogate Hongying again. Ask her what she has hidden besides what she said last time about the love poison."

Shen Tianjiao had a vague feeling that this love poison was the key to solving the mystery.

"Yes, I'll go right away." Qiu Tong turned and left.

"Mother, look." Li Muyang also ran over and raised the firefly lantern in his hand as if presenting a treasure. "Is it beautiful? This is a gift from your son."

Shen Tianjiao took the firefly lantern from Li Muyang, touched his head, and said with a smile: "Well, it's beautiful. Mother likes it very much."

When Li Muyang heard Shen Tianjiao say that she liked the firefly lantern he gave her, his eyes narrowed into slits with joy.

"Let's go and accompany mother to dinner." Shen Tianjiao picked up Li Muyang. Because the child was taken care of too well recently, he not only grew a lot taller, but also gained a lot of weight.

If things continue like this, Shen Tianjiao will soon not be able to hold him anymore, so she should hold him more while he is still young and can still be held.