The Eldest Daughter Reborn: She Provoked the Obsessive Crown Prince and Couldn't Escape

"If anything happens to the Empress or this child, the entire palace will be punished!" Yuan Li looked down at everyone in the hall, and the concubines all fell silent.

While Fu Luan was pregnant, Yarkand sent a letter from the Western Regions, expressing that his young Khatun was willing to become the adopted daughter of the Empress of Great Wei!

As for Fu Luan, she merely mentioned it casually during a meal with Yuan Li, and Yuan Li immediately bestowed lavish rewards upon Yarkand and Princess Miaoze.

Yarkand was bestowed the title of "Loyal and Brave Khan" for saving the Empress of the Great Wei Dynasty on several occasions, and was the head of the "Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions".

Princess Miaoze, known as "Little Khotoun", was given the title of "Grand Princess of Dunhuang" due to her marriage alliance, childbirth, and adoption by the Empress.

From then on, she received a salary from Dunhuang and was no longer a princess with only a beautiful name, nor was she a "discarded child" of the court!

With two imperial edicts issued simultaneously, Yarkand immediately promoted his junior khan to "khan"; the court further bestowed upon the Grand Princess of Dunhuang the title of "Loyal and Brave Heavenly Kin khan." With the Great Wei as their backing, the other thirty-five kingdoms all respected the Yarkand couple; the civil war in the Western Regions was stopped without losing a single soldier.

The newly empowered Grand Princess of Dunhuang swiftly severed ties with her lover, dedicating herself to supporting the Great Wei Dynasty and fulfilling her duties as a princess sent for a political marriage in the Western Regions. Under her influence, the people of the Western Regions ceased to oppress the Han Chinese people on the border.

When powerful enemies such as the Xianbei and Rouran wanted to attack the Great Wei, the Western Regions resisted the large-scale attack and became a powerful barrier for the Great Wei in the desert; and the Grand Princess of Dunhuang, like the Fu family, became Fu Luan's supporter.

No other concubine in the palace could rival Fu Luan in terms of favor and power; even if some concubines tried to use scheming tactics, it was all in vain!

Until Fu Luan gave birth, Yuan Li stayed in Changqiu Palace every day, treating the other concubines as if they didn't exist.

Seven months later, Fu Luan gave birth to twins. Before the children were even named, Yuan Li immediately bestowed the title of Princess Wei upon his daughter and the title of Crown Prince upon his son.

A princess bestowed with the name of the Great Wei Kingdom—this is the first and only one since the founding of the Great Wei. If even a daughter receives such treatment, one can imagine the profound status of Fu Luan in Yuan Li's heart!

“There is already a crown prince in the court. It all depends on which of your brothers has a daughter first. Then the crown prince will have a crown princess!” Yuan Li hugged his daughter as soon as court was over, his eyes full of love.

He wished he could hold his two children even when attending court, as if he were a young man becoming a father for the first time.

Fu Luan didn't speak, but instead sighed. Seeing her frown, Yuan Li quickly asked, "Are you feeling unwell again?"

"You never let me investigate the matter of your previous coma. Now that I think about it, it's possible that there was something wrong with the horses that were sent as tribute from the Western Regions!"

Fu Luan then laughed and said, "Those are all top-quality Wusun horses, the best of the best! If we send people out to buy them, it might take ten years to collect all 120 of them!"

"I was thinking... could we... just drop the marriage between the eldest daughter of the Fu family and the Crown Prince?"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Li stopped in his tracks. "Why is that?"

Fu Luan quickly replied, "The founding emperor set this ancestral precept with good intentions, out of gratitude for the Fu family's past battles alongside him and the establishment of this vast empire."

"But later... Your Majesty, why do you think my elder brother would rather have his daughter take her mother's surname than become the readily available 'future father-in-law'?"

Yuan Li pondered for a moment, then replied, "Naturally...it's a custom of the Fu family?"

Fu Luan shook her head: "Customs are customs, but most people—like my father—would rather exploit loopholes in the ancestral precepts of the Great Wei Dynasty, or even commit the crime of deceiving the emperor, to pretend that I am the 'eldest daughter of the Fu family,' so that he can profit from it according to the ancestral precepts of the Great Wei Dynasty."

“Since my elder brother has been appointed as a Grand General and granted the title of Marquis of Yongning, he must not be a person who is indifferent to fame and fortune. As long as he follows the ancestral teachings of the Great Wei, his daughter will become the Crown Princess, and he himself will be able to enjoy endless wealth and honor!”

"Even so, he made excuses to refuse, didn't he? He loved his daughter and couldn't bear to trade her for wealth! Not just him, I imagine his other brothers felt the same way..."

Seeing that Yuan Li remained silent, Fu Luan continued, "I have something very disrespectful to say. Not only my family, but also other branches of the Fu family, are trying to prevent their daughters from entering the Eastern Palace."

"They might even bring in a dead baby girl from outside when the eldest daughter is born, claiming that this is a twin pregnancy, with the eldest daughter dying and the second daughter surviving!"

Yuan Li sneered, "Since becoming the Crown Princess is such a disservice to your Fu family's daughters, why do you still want to become the Empress? Why not just give up the Empress's position? Anyway, there are plenty of people in my harem who would risk their lives for the Empress's position!"

Yuan Li spoke her mind readily, but regretted it as soon as it left her mouth. Fu Luan smiled and said, "Does Your Majesty not remember why I entered the palace to become Empress?"

"I'm afraid not only His Majesty remembers, and I remember, but even Xiao Jiu in the afterlife remembers!"

Although their voices were not loud, the child still started crying. Yuan Li frantically tried to soothe his daughter, but the princess continued to cry; it wasn't until she was in Fu Luan's arms that she stopped crying and started to smile.

After calming down, Yuan Li thought about how Fu Luan had brought glory to the Great Wei in the past, and then thought about how she was slandered by rumors and framed by concubines after entering the palace.

I was reminded even more of that night at the Marquis of Chang'an's residence, of what he used as bait to make her his bride...

He couldn't help but sigh, "Children are always closer to their mothers! If it weren't for A-Luan, I..."

Fu Luan sneered, "Your Majesty, I dare not accept such empty praise! If Your Majesty truly cares for me, you should give me a straight answer about what happened just now, even if it's just to refute my words! Don't leave me waiting in vain!"

Yuan Li closed his eyes slightly and said softly, "But this is, after all, an ancestral precept, I..."

Fu Luan disagreed: "You are the emperor, the ruler of all people, the monarch of the country. How can you be held back by the words of your ancestors?"

"Your Majesty, why don't you look through the history books of our Great Wei Dynasty and see how the emperors of the past treated the Fu family?"

"If everyone truly took the ancestral precepts and the Fu family seriously, the Fu family wouldn't have only had two empresses in hundreds of years—Empress Shizu and I! Where have all those 'eldest daughters of the Fu family' who became crown princesses but failed to become empresses gone?!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Li fell silent. Fu Luan was absolutely right! When the founding emperor wrote "the eldest daughter of the Fu family must become the crown princess" into the ancestral precepts of the Great Wei Dynasty, his original intention was to win over and reward her, but more importantly, it was an alliance between the Yuan and Fu families.

However, as the Fu family's power grew, the Yuan family, as the royal family, had to become wary of them.

They established many rules to separate the Fu family members and prevent them from living together, and they also added many hurdles to the ancestral precept of "marriage alliances"—

For example, "Even if the daughter of the head of the Fu family is born later, she is superior to the daughters of collateral or branch families";

For example, "Daughters born to wives who were promoted from concubines, mistresses, or slaves to become legal wives, even if they are the eldest legitimate daughters, cannot become the Crown Princess"...

As Fu Luan said, the Fu family was extremely cautious about making their eldest daughter the Crown Princess; not only did they not rush to do so, but they even resorted to various means to avoid entering the Eastern Palace.

To the imperial court and others, this was a "favor" bestowed upon the Fu family; but to the Fu family members, it was treated as an attempt to avoid disaster!

Yuan Li pondered for a while, looked at Fu Luan, and then pinched her daughter's rosy cheeks. Princess Wei smiled sweetly, looking incredibly cute.

Yuan Li couldn't help but sigh, "Children are indeed closer to their mothers! She rarely smiles so sweetly when I hold her."

"Ah Luan, this matter concerns the ancestral precepts of the Great Wei Dynasty. Ah Luan, could you grant me some time? The ancestral rules are not so easily changed..."