Marrying the Crown Prince

Far away, the Queen of Chu, who was leisurely sunbathing and picking her teeth, sneezed.

She touched her arm and felt something was strange: it wasn't cold at all.

Seeing that the person had left, Wei Yi hurriedly closed the door to the bedroom.

With his sight and sound cut off, Emperor Chenze could no longer hold on and collapsed, gasping for breath.

Wei Yi rushed forward to pat him on the back to help him catch his breath, while Zhou Zhou instructed the two people inside the room, "Quickly, go to the side hall and fetch Physician Zhang."

Indeed, these two are Zhou Zhou's trump cards, which is why she dared to let them in.

These two were prepared by Zhou Zhou long ago; they were carefully selected from among the spies that Emperor Chenze had been cultivating for a long time.

One was skilled in ventriloquism, and the other bore a striking resemblance to Emperor Chenze.

Of course, five points was not enough, so Zhou Zhou called over a skilled painter to paint a face on the person, making the five-point resemblance appear as seven points.

Whether or not it will be discovered depends on luck.

After all, Emperor Chenze had been ill, so it was understandable that his physique and appearance would change slightly.

Furthermore, even the imperial concubines were not allowed to stare directly at the emperor's face.

Therefore, Zhou Zhou decided to take a gamble.

Clearly, she made the right bet, because no one could tell it wasn't Emperor Chenze's voice before the screen fell down.

What Zhou Zhou didn't expect was that Emperor Chenze, who had been unconscious all day yesterday, actually woke up today and even took control of the situation.

This was an unexpected surprise.

She touched the bracelet on her wrist and thought to herself: Thank God, I'm always able to escape danger.

Indeed, good luck has helped Zhou Zhou solve countless troubles.

Zhang Ling entered quickly and immediately fed Emperor Chenze an anti-inflammatory pill.

I don't know if it's because Emperor Chenze has recovered, or if the medicine is working so quickly.

He resumed his previous demeanor, but his eyes were full of admiration as he looked at Zhou Zhou. However, his words were not of agreement: "You're far too bold."

“Those who want to know who is behind this have no choice but to take risks. Fortunately, Father woke up in time,” Zhou Zhou replied. “And thankfully, we finally know who is behind all this.”

After speaking, Zhou Zhou told Emperor Chenze about the cooperation between Qixi Kingdom and Yunqin Kingdom.

"So that's how it is," Emperor Chenze quickly sorted out his thoughts. "It was my fault. I never expected that Consort Shu's greed would be so great."

Indeed, in Consort Shu's opinion, the Crown Prince was weak and sickly, the Third Prince, Prince Chong'an, was a weak-willed person, and the Fifth Prince, Prince Xuanping, was a reckless fool who only knew how to charge around.

So why can't her son earn it?

So when the people from Yunqin came looking for her, she nodded.

To test her standing in Emperor Chenze's eyes, she plotted to drug Zhou Zhou at his birthday banquet.

As a result, Emperor Chenze, and even everyone in the harem, chose to believe in her character.

There was nothing she could do; whenever she saw a palace servant feeling unwell, she would order her maid or eunuch to go and inquire about their well-being and then help them through the difficult time.

How could such a kind-hearted person with a compassionate heart commit such heinous acts as drugging and poisoning?

She obtained the most potent poison in the world from the Yunqin people, ordered someone to put the poison into Emperor Chenze's teacup, and then had him frame Prince Chong'an, killing two birds with one stone.

Subsequently, Consort Shu, without hesitation, informed the people of Ling Kingdom, through the introduction of Yun Qin Kingdom, about the approximate time when Li Ziyan would leave the capital for the Northern Region and return from the Northern Region to the capital.

The Ling Kingdom and the Chen Kingdom have a long-standing feud, and she believed that the people of the Ling Kingdom would not remain unmoved.

Incidentally, when Su and Cao of Qixi Kingdom were vying for Li Zixi's hand in marriage, an assassin from Qixi Kingdom came to assassinate Li Ziyan, the crown prince of Chen Kingdom.

This was also done by the Yunqin Kingdom, in order to sabotage the marriage alliance between the two countries.

Clearly, he achieved his goal.

So when the Qin Kingdom came to them asking to borrow a road and offering a reward, Su and Cao knew they were dealing with a tiger for its skin, but they still chose to gamble.

Because his country and his people were so poor, he had to take a gamble.

Anyway, it's the Yunqin people and the Chen Kingdom who are fighting like dogs, and the Qixi Kingdom is just sitting on the sidelines watching the tigers fight.

Of course, it would be even better if one could find some bargains and profit from them.

Seeing that Emperor Chenze shared similar thoughts, Zhou Zhou asked, "Father, how do you plan to punish Consort Shu's faction?"

"Keep it locked up for now, no rush," Emperor Chenze replied.

Are you really not in a hurry?

No, it's not.

The reason for keeping her locked up was to lure the snake out of its hole, to see if Consort Shu would continue to spread messages, so as to find out just how many spies were in the palace.

In truth, the Imperial Concubine's mistake today was an undeserved disaster.

Because Emperor Chenze wanted to find a reason to imprison Consort Shu, but... the Imperial Concubine and Consort Shu were of equal rank and had done the same wrong thing.

No, to be precise, the Imperial Concubine did even more foolish things.

Anyway, for this reason and that reason, Emperor Chenze had no choice but to imprison the Imperial Concubine as well.

After talking for a while, Chief Physician Zhang came in with the medicine. "Your Majesty, this medicine was prepared earlier. I just warmed it up. Please drink it while it's hot, eat something, and then rest."

There's no other way. If Emperor Chenze wants to live a long life, there's no other way but to keep him on medication, let him rest, and not worry about him so much.

Look at that turtle, crawling there motionless, how long can it live?

"Mm." Emperor Chenze nodded.

Wei Yi took the bowl, and Emperor Chenze took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and swallowed it in large gulps.

Empress Chu glanced at Zhou Zhou, whose face was gloomy, then at Zhang Ling, who looked grief-stricken, and then at Wei Yi, who was forcing medicine on her and looked fierce...

She blinked: My daughter-in-law is so ruthless? So capable? She actually managed to persuade Wei Yi and that old bastard Zhang Ling to give the Emperor poison.

So... am I going to be promoted to Empress Dowager?

Zhou Zhou's face was gloomy because recent events had been truly terrible; Zhang Ling looked grief-stricken because he had just taken Emperor Chenze's pulse and knew clearly what was wrong with him...

As for Wei Yi, it was entirely up to Empress Chu's imagination; he didn't think his expression was anything like a fierce demon.