The cousin's family is extremely wealthy; she deserves to be a concubine.

Shui looked back at the emperor with disbelief and even a hint of madness. “Prince Yue? I’ve heard of him once or twice. I suppose he’s the son Your Majesty recently recognized.”

Then, she looked at the emperor with a strange gaze and said, "I'm quite curious, Your Majesty, how did you determine that the Moon Prince is your biological son?"

"Twins are usually almost identical. But Empress Jiang was so lucky that her children resembled their father more than their mother, and their second child resembled their mother more than their father."

She truly has good fortune that others can only envy!

The emperor's face darkened. "Shui, what exactly are you trying to say?"

If the late empress had truly been lucky, she wouldn't have kept one and abandoned the other.

Shui's words were clearly sarcastic and had a hidden meaning.

She seemed oblivious to the emperor's anger, and said lazily, "I didn't mean to provoke you on purpose. I was just afraid that you and the late emperor would scheme against each other your whole lives, only to end up causing the Pei family's empire to change hands."

"I'm afraid that after you die, I won't have the face to meet your ancestors of the Pei family."

"We were old friends, I was just trying to give you a friendly reminder."

Ignoring the emperor's murderous glare, Shui continued, "Your Majesty, haven't you always said that my Leng clan is ambitious? Then how could there not be any of our spies in Empress Jiang's palace?"

"Guess who that little prince who was sent away was? And where is he now?"

The emperor stared at the Shui family member expressionlessly, and declared firmly, "That child is the current Moon King!"

Shui was not intimidated in the slightest and scoffed, "Who can prove it?"

"The Jiang family as accomplices?"

"A jade pendant?"

"A face that resembles Empress Jiang?"

"Your Majesty, would you like to hear just how absurd and ridiculous these so-called pieces of evidence are?"

"I am quite curious, how did His Majesty manage to allow someone of unknown origin to bear the royal surname in the face of such poor testimony?"

"If we had known it was so simple, why would my Leng clan have been accused of treason by the late emperor?"

"Wouldn't it be even easier for the Leng family to pull off a 'switcheroo' move?"

"Your Majesty, am I right or wrong?"

The emperor inevitably recalled the entire process of recognizing Pei Huaiji. He looked at Jiang Yulai standing to the side and said, "You were the one who was in charge of investigating the background of the Moon King."

"Now that the Shui clan has questions about the Moon King's origins, Commander Jiang, please have a kind heart and explain it to her."

Commander Jiang received the order and immediately answered Shui's questions.

Shui Shi succinctly pointed out the flaw in their argument, "Who said that the dead child was necessarily from the Jiang family? Was His Majesty present, or was Commander Jiang present? How could you be so certain!"

"Have you ever seen anyone in this world who treats an adopted son better than their own? Especially an adopted son who will bring disaster to the family."

"In my opinion, this is clearly a conspiracy by the Jiang family. They used the omen of Empress Jiang's twin pregnancy to carry out a deceptive scheme."

"Otherwise, a twin would never have been able to reappear in the public eye."

"Do you not care about Empress Jiang's reputation? Do you not care about the Jiang family's honor? Do you not care about the Second Prince's future?"

"The reason is that there are greater interests behind this, which motivates them to take the risk."

"Commander Jiang, I know that your Imperial Prison rarely has wrongful convictions. But can you guarantee that every case you handle is 100% without error?"

"Jade pendants can be counterfeited and given away. The Jiang family is involved in this, and it's even more likely that they are crying wolf."

"You should know that during that period, the number of infants in the Jiang family was neither more nor less, but there was a stillborn infant who was secretly buried, and very few people knew about it."

"If it's just to treat Jiang's mother's mental breakdown, then there will be countless opportunities to reveal the truth to her later."

But what is the truth?

"The fact is that Jiang Huaiji is Jiang Huaiji, and has never been Pei Huaiji."

"It's just a carefully crafted smokescreen by the Chiang family for you fake-smart but real fools, and you actually believed it?"

After speaking, she looked at the emperor with a mocking expression, "Your Majesty, when will you write the imperial edict of succession for Prince Yue?"

"I, this old woman, will try to live to see that day, so I can see for myself what it really means for maternal relatives to wield power!"

The emperor suppressed his doubts, but his face remained impassive. He looked at Lady Shui and asked, "So what?"

"Could it be that because of your fallacies, I have no choice but the fourth prince?" It's just one less candidate, and besides, he never included the Moon King in his list of successors in the first place.

"Take the third son for example, he's just fond of beautiful women, does that mean he can't be the ruler of a country?"

"And then there's the second son. Even if there's something wrong with him, he's studied the art of rulership since childhood and already has a legitimate son. He's the most suitable candidate to be a ruler."

"If all else fails, there's still the eldest brother. Although he's mediocre in every way, he's good enough to maintain the status quo."

After listing these points, the emperor reiterated to the Shui family, "Fourth Prince, it's not that I didn't give him a chance. It's that you wolves with ambition have ruined his future."

"If he has anyone to blame, it's you."

"Enough. I must have been confused today, actually thinking of coming to talk to someone as ill-intentioned as you. I've only brought trouble upon myself."

"Stop it!"

After saying that, he strode out of the imperial prison.

Just as the emperor was about to disappear, Lady Shui suddenly said, "I bet the name field in His Majesty's decree of abdication is still blank!"

The emperor's hand, gripping the imperial edict, tightened.

But as he walked out of the imperial prison, his steps were perfectly steady, though the words that came out of his mouth were chilling: "I never knew that the methods used in the imperial prison had become so lenient?"

Despite the Emperor's hint, the Shui clan was not afraid of the impending darkness.

Today, the emperor himself delivered this opportunity to our doorstep.

If she didn't interfere and profit from it, she would be letting down His Majesty's extraordinary favor towards her!

"Hahahaha..." Even after the emperor had walked a long way, he could still seem to hear the Shui family's arrogance.

However, Jiang Yulai, while respectfully seeing the emperor off, still noticed a subtle clue.

The emperor was so flustered that he even forgot to instruct Jiang Yulai whether to thoroughly investigate the background of the Moon King again.

Judging from His Majesty's meaning, perhaps whether Pei Huaiji is of royal blood or not is not as important as the world thinks.

For a moment, Jiang Yulai, the heartless head of the imperial prison, actually felt a pang of pity for Pei Huaiji.

It turns out that the Moon King was granted the title of king early on, not as a favor, but as a concession.

Hua Sirong received the news the next day that the emperor had chosen to go to the imperial prison.

Although the incident happened suddenly, and the imperial prison was under Jiang Yulai's control, Hua Sirong still managed to grasp about 50-60% of the conversation between the emperor and the Shui family.

The rest is up to guessing.

However, Shui's last sentence was heard very clearly.