After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

"His surname is Zhang, and he is the cousin of that Lord Zhang. I don't know his given name."

Cheng Xiaoan pushed Li Meiniang away, slowly got up, took off his outer garment to reveal the monk's robe underneath, crossed his legs, and slowly sat down.

"According to my information, Lord Zhang Qi has no cousin. His family is poor, and when he went to the capital to take the imperial examination, his mother in his hometown died of illness. He had no relatives in the clan, and it was a neighbor who smelled the odor and helped with the burial. Where did this cousin come from?"

According to him, he was the son of Lord Zhang's uncle, a posthumous child, born after his mother remarried and moved elsewhere. He was not recorded in the Zhang family genealogy, so apart from him and Lord Zhang himself, no one knew his true identity.

The year Zhang Qi was transferred to Tingzhou, his stepfather passed away. After his mother told him about his origins, she sent him to Tingzhou with a letter and a token to seek refuge with Zhang Qi. After reading the letter and the token, Zhang Qi took him in as a page.

A pageboy?

In his eyes, he was just a servant.

He thought that finding Zhang Qi and recognizing his kinship would lead to an official position, but instead, he ended up being someone else's servant. He harbored resentment towards Zhang Qi in his heart, but outwardly expressed gratitude. There was no other reason than that he was helpless and alone in Tingzhou, and by following Zhang Qi as a page, at least he wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing.

As Tingzhou grew wealthier, Zhang Qi's prestige also increased. Merchants, eager to curry favor with Zhang Qi, went to great lengths to find his page, profiting from the situation. When Zhang Qi discovered this, he was severely reprimanded. Zhang Qi, already petty and filled with resentment towards Zhang Qi, felt he had suffered alongside him while being denied any enjoyment of the good fortune. Enraged, he left Tingzhou with all the gold and silver he had collected.

Five years after being transferred to Tingzhou, Zhang Qi returned to the capital, rising to a high position. His cousin, seeing an opportunity for advancement, also went to the capital. He visited Zhang's residence and tried every means to see Zhang Qi, but the meeting ended badly. Later, he managed to enter the palace.

"A eunuch? He was castrated?"

Cheng Xiaoan shook his head: "He must have used money to get away with it; he's a fake eunuch."

Cheng Xiaoan continued, "He's a wicked man who always takes the crooked path. He heard the rumors outside and thought that Lord Zhang had an improper relationship with the Empress Dowager. He's thinking of going to the palace to find an opportunity to replace Lord Zhang."

“Replace?” Lu Zhiyuan put down the chestnut she had broken open. “He wants to replace Lord Zhang as the Empress Dowager’s lover? Is he good-looking? Does he look like that Lord Zhang? The fact that the Empress Dowager fell in love with Lord Zhang at first sight means that Lord Zhang is quite good-looking.”

Xie Yubai coughed lightly: "Lord Zhang is not only good-looking."

Cheng Xiaoan said, “I have never met that Lord Zhang. I was too young to meet him when he was in Tingzhou. But according to that person, he looked nothing like Lord Zhang when he was young. But after he turned thirty, he looked about seven-tenths like him. If he deliberately imitated him, he could reach eight-tenths. We always met at night, in dim candlelight, with shadows everywhere. He didn’t want me to see his true face clearly. He wasn’t ugly, of medium height, with very fair skin. He spoke slowly, but with a coldness about him, like someone who had crawled out of the ground.”

Cheng Xiaoan narrowed his eyes: "He entered the palace not only to replace Lord Zhang as the Empress Dowager's lover, but also to completely replace Lord Zhang and become the most powerful minister in Beiliang."

Xie Yubai gave a light hum: "More ambitious than me. The most powerful minister in Beiliang, since the founding of Beiliang, no civil official has dared to covet this title."

Lu Zhiyuan: "Second Uncle, you have to do your best! The number one powerful minister, that sounds so cool!"

Xie Yubai: "It is bitter. How can a powerful minister be so easy to be? The number one powerful minister, do you really think this official position is so easy to hold? If possible, I would like to be a leisurely official. Not in the sense of being virtuous, but in the sense of being idle. Once officials are idle, it means that the country is peaceful and prosperous, the people are rich and happy."

Cheng Xiaoan: "Lord Xie is a true official. People like him are just rats in the gutter. Rats are countless and hard to get rid of. They spread germs and their bites hurt a lot."

Xie Yubai nodded in agreement: "Replacing Lord Zhang in the palace? He underestimated the palace."

Cheng Xiaoan said, "Ordinary people have no idea what the palace or the imperial city looks like. He only learned after entering the palace that officials from outside the palace were not allowed to enter the inner palace without permission, and that Lord Zhang and the Empress Dowager had no affair. They only met occasionally in the Emperor's Hall of Diligent Governance. How could a mere eunuch like him enter there? He was in the palace for several years, doing very well, but he never even saw the Empress Dowager. It wasn't until Zhang Qi requested to become a monk at Huguo Temple."

Lu Zhiyuan swung her little feet: "Is the matter at Huguo Temple related to him?"

Cheng Xiaoan sighed deeply: "It's not just related to him; all these things started because of him. When Lord Zhang became a monk, the Empress Dowager couldn't bear to leave and frequently visited the temple. He bribed the head eunuch in the palace to accompany her as a junior eunuch. Lord Zhang didn't want to see the Empress Dowager, but given her status, he had no choice. He seized the opportunity, bribed a palace maid, and slipped a drug into the tea between the Empress Dowager and Lord Zhang. Taking advantage of the chaos, he used Lord Zhang's identity to... until the Empress Dowager became pregnant and sought out Lord Zhang, he was still completely bewildered. Only after seeing him did Lord Zhang understand what was going on with the Empress Dowager's pregnancy."

Lu Zhiyuan wore a smug, gossipy expression: "Lord Zhang did this because of this matter..."

"Lord Zhang explained to the Empress Dowager, but she didn't believe him, thinking he didn't want to keep their child and feared it would harm her as Empress Dowager. Afterwards, the Empress Dowager went to the Royal Villa under the pretext of recuperating, and Lord Zhang, as the abbot of Huguo Temple, naturally couldn't see her. Later, the Empress Dowager sent the child to Huguo Temple, and Lord Zhang could only go along with it, tacitly accepting that the child was his, and raising him as his teacher. Lord Zhang didn't die of illness; he was poisoned by a slow-acting poison, perhaps the same poison he was poisoned with was exactly the same as mine."

“Lord Zhang’s poisoning must be because he thwarted that person’s plan.” Lu Zhiyuan laid out the chestnut shells. “He wanted to replace Lord Zhang, but Lord Zhang went to Huguo Temple to become a monk. He didn’t want to be a monk, so he took advantage of the Empress Dowager’s obsession with Lord Zhang to do something for his own benefit. According to his plan, the Empress Dowager would definitely give birth to that child and raise it carefully. When the child grows up, he would find a way to get rid of the current Crown Prince, and the Empress Dowager would definitely support her own youngest son to ascend the throne. At that time, he would reveal his identity and force Lord Zhang to admit in public that he was impotent, and then he would naturally become the Emperor Emeritus.”

Lu Zhiyuan crushed a chestnut shell: "A good plan, a good scheme, but a bit stupid. This isn't a storybook, the Empress Dowager isn't omnipotent, and the Emperor and Empress aren't controlled by a mere eunuch. I think he's just ruined his brain by reading too many storybooks in his spare time, and his ideas are all wild and unrealistic."

Liu Ying couldn't help but ask, "I also read storybooks, how come I didn't ruin my head?"

Lu Zhiyuan jumped off the table, stood on tiptoe, and rubbed her face: "Because my Liuying is smart, she knows that reading storybooks is just for fun and shouldn't be taken seriously."