Quick Transmigration: Saving That Cannon Fodder

The emperor at the head of the table was so angry that his face turned black.

This Pei Ming is truly useless; the emperor knows he brought back a male concubine.

In order to control Zhao Qizhen and Zhao Qiyu, the emperor wanted to see the Pei family fight against Zhao Qiyu after she married into the Pei family, thereby diverting the ambitions of the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister's mansion.

He could have turned a blind eye, as long as he could control Zhao Qiyu, taking a male concubine wouldn't have been a big deal.

But Pei Ming, that fool, had to cause such a mess at this time. The imperial edict he drafted out of consideration for Prince Pei's kindness had to be nullified now.

Below him were the Prime Minister, the Crown Prince, and all the civil and military officials watching. His previous intention to marry a prince had long been a source of suspicion. If it weren't for Prince Pei's dying words, he, as emperor, would certainly have been criticized.

The Imperial Censor stepped forward, knelt on the ground, and shouted:

"Your Majesty, Prince Yu is the Empress's son and the first prince. If we entrust him to the wrong person, how will the world view this? Where will this leave the royal family's reputation?"

"Your Majesty, I dare to request that you rescind your decree."

The officials behind him knelt down in unison, shouting, "Your Majesty, please reconsider!"

The emperor's face darkened, and he suddenly grabbed the memorial on the table and threw it at Pei Ming, who was kneeling in front of him.

Pei Ming dared not dodge; the memorial was thrown in his face, and he could only kowtow.

"Your Majesty, I deserve to die a thousand deaths."

Faced with the emperor's fury and the impeachment from the court officials, Pei Ming broke out in a cold sweat.

He woke up in the morning and was pulled to the court by the Crown Prince's men. On the way there, he saw paintings everywhere on the street, depicting him and Bai Xu in the study the night before.

In the imperial court, the people impeached him for having an affair before his marriage, betraying the emperor's favor, being disloyal to Prince Yu, and being morally corrupt, among other things.

He didn't even have time to think about the fire at the Pei residence last night.

Last night, for some reason, he suddenly became delirious and even did *that* with Bai Xu in front of everyone. In the end, his mother poured cold water on him.

When I woke up again, it was broad daylight, and I was still in the inn.

Zhao Qiyu then knelt on the ground, his voice seemingly tinged with sorrow:

"Father, I cannot accept Pei Ming. I beg you to agree to dissolve the engagement."

People would only pity him for his appearance. It's absurd enough for a man to marry another man, but this man did something so scandalous before the wedding for another man.

The Crown Prince's faction wished they could drag Pei Ming out and behead him; such a person was simply a disgrace to the court.

The other princes, who used to love to contradict the Crown Prince, fell silent. The Second Prince and the Sixth Prince, who had always disliked Zhao Qiyu, also dared not speak at this moment.

They were also afraid that the emperor might go mad again one day and marry them off arbitrarily.

The Great Yue Kingdom currently has only one princess, the eldest princess Zhao Qiyuan, but she has already married a prince consort and gone to her fiefdom.

If some country suddenly decides to ask for the prince's hand in marriage, who knows if the emperor will agree?

After Zhao Qiyu was betrothed, the princes were filled with anxiety and fear. Things calmed down considerably during this period, except for the second prince, Zhao Qitao, who hired an assassin to kill him.

That time, Crown Prince Zhao Qizhen did not find the mastermind behind the murder, but he did shut down the assassin's den and the money exchange behind it.

Both the Assassin's Guild and the money exchange were owned by Zhao Qitao. This time, they caused Zhao Qitao to suffer heavy losses, so he dared not make any more big moves.

No one spoke up for Pei Ming, and the emperor grew increasingly angry. He pointed at Pei Ming and said:

"Back then, it was your grandfather who requested the imperial decree, but now you have betrayed the promise I made to him."

"Now I have no choice but to comply with your wishes. Effective immediately, the imperial decree for the marriage between the Third Prince and Pei Ming is null and void."

An official drafted the imperial edict, the emperor affixed his seal, and a eunuch read it aloud.

After the imperial edict was read, the emperor turned and left.

Everyone assumed he was angry because Pei Ming had angered him, but only the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister knew that he was angry because the plan had failed.

The Crown Prince told everyone to rise, and if there was nothing else, he dismissed the court.

Too lazy to care about Pei Ming, he helped Zhao Qiyu up and comforted him, "You've been wronged. When we go to the Empress Dowager's palace later, I'll have someone prepare your favorite pastries for you."

“Brother, I’m fine. General Pei has found a good wife, and I won’t separate them.”

This is the imperial palace, and it's not appropriate for the prime minister and his entourage to come over and speak. He nodded to them and left.

In the Empress's palace, a teacup was smashed to the ground.

"The Pei family is really arrogant, daring to play tricks on me. Do they really think my son is easy to bully?"

"Your Majesty, please calm down," a palace maid whispered.

The empress stared at the green chrysanthemums before her, her eyes blazing with fury that seemed to materialize.

"How can I calm down? We were husband and wife, yet he disregarded all shame and still tried to scheme against my Xiaoyu."

Her voice lowered further: "How could I not hate it?"

The palace maid Dongshuang lit calming incense, trying to soothe her mistress's emotions.

The door was pushed open, and the chief eunuch Li Ren walked in.

"How is it?" the Empress asked.

Li Ren replied, "Your Majesty, please calm down. His Majesty has already issued an imperial decree announcing the marriage. Our Third Prince is unharmed."

The Empress breathed a sigh of relief, but her furrowed brows remained furrowed.

She didn't need to worry about the Crown Prince's affairs. The Emperor wouldn't dare to interfere in the Crown Prince's marriage, and besides, the Crown Prince already had a fiancé.

The Empress was extremely fortunate. When her eldest daughter came of age, she found a top scholar to be her husband and sent them to their fiefdom a couple of years ago.

In this way, the emperor would not be able to threaten them.

The most dangerous person now is Zhao Qiyu, since the Empress herself has never married the man she loves.

The emperor forced her to marry him back then, when the man she loved was just an unknown, poor scholar.

As the daughter of the Prime Minister's family, she was not free to choose her own path. It was the current emperor who sought the marriage by imperial decree, and the Prime Minister's family had no choice but to accept it.

With the help of the Prime Minister's mansion, he ascended the throne, and the Empress had her first daughter, Zhao Qiyuan. At that time, she genuinely wanted to live a good life.

Unfortunately, after she became pregnant with the crown prince the following year, the emperor began a large-scale selection of concubines, and countless women entered the harem.

After that, the emperor rarely came. Even on the night the crown prince was born, the emperor stayed in the palace of a concubine.

Then came the birth of Consort De's second son, and the Empress became pregnant with Zhao Qiyu at the same time.

When Crown Prince Zhao Qizhen was a child, he could see his father, the Emperor, often. The Emperor would occasionally play with him, and because he was the eldest son of the legitimate wife, he was well taken care of.

Only Zhao Qiyu, from pregnancy to birth, and even her first birthday banquet, was only seen by the emperor from afar.

At that time, the favored Consort Shu had just given birth to the fourth prince, and the emperor often held the fourth prince in his arms.

Recalling the past, the Empress's eyes were filled with frost.

Poor Xiaoyu, who was only three years old at the time, even dreamed of being held by her father.

Even now, at twenty years old, the emperor has rarely hugged him or even spoken to him.

Now they are even trying to harm him again and again. Whenever the Empress thinks of Zhao Qiyu's grievances, she feels hatred in her heart.