Chapter 99: The Arranged Marriage Storm

  Thank you for the pink votes from Lan Tianyu, thank you for getting lost in Xiang's year, thank you for losing the ability to love and rewarding Ping'an symbol, thank you for Feng Guoliu Xiang 01, thank you for Xiao Yang's toe reward zongzi...

  Upon hearing Shuijingchen's words, Qingjin was taken aback for a moment before smiling and continuing to ask: "When are you returning to the capital?"

  "Unknown. The water mirror dust is facing the faint and serene Qing Jin's return path."

  "Oh, I see. In that case, I won't bother saying goodbye to you then. Take care..." Qingjin said with a smile as she spoke to Shuiming in front of the water mirror.

  Seeing Qingjin's smiling face, Shuijingchen fell silent, perhaps for the rest of his life, he would never meet her again. Thinking so, he raised his head and said to Qingjin for the last time: "You take care too!"

  Qing Jin understood the meaning of Shui Jing Chen's words and nodded calmly in front of him.

  The Imperial Palace, on the Golden Throne

  Due to the upcoming grand wedding of the Sixth Prince, Ning Wang, the entire court should be filled with joy and festivity. However, today's imperial court is not like that at all. The atmosphere on the imperial court is tense, Emperor Ming's face looks unpleasant, his eyebrows furrowed as he glares at the officials below the jade steps, visibly on the verge of great anger.

  However, those ministers who were afraid of the emperor's power on ordinary days looked at the emperor who was already furious and one by one stood up like loyal and good generals who had transcended life and death, silently protesting against the Ming Emperor.

  The Emperor's face grew increasingly unsightly as more and more officials stood up, his voice laced with thin anger: "How is it that all of you think I am unjust, wanting to rebel?"

  The minister kneeling in the front heard the faint anger in Emperor Ming's voice, raised his head and spoke to Emperor Ming: "Your Majesty, we dare not, but we know that Gu Huaiyi should be the first to save the emperor. However, Gu Huaiyi is the younger brother of Anji Marquis Gu Huaili, and the successor of Anji Marquis is Gu Huaili. Your Majesty's kindness in granting marriage to the sixth prince for Gu Huaiyi's daughter was indeed benevolent, but it is not proper for Your Majesty to grant marriage to Ning Wangye's wife for Gu Huaiyi's daughter again, and then grant marriage to Anji Marquis Gu Huaili's daughter as a side concubine to Jing Wang. According to the ancestral family law, there is an order of seniority, with the elder being respected. The Anji Marquis Gu Huaili should be respected and noble, please Your Majesty reconsider!"

  "Your Majesty, we implore you to reconsider—" The chief minister finished speaking and the officials behind him immediately knelt down in unison, their voices shaking the heavens.

  It's no wonder, really. They didn't want to offend the enraged Emperor Ming either, but among the officials in the court, almost all of them were the eldest sons of their families. The marriage between Gu Huaiyi and Gu Huairu's daughter obviously infringed on their interests, so they hadn't come forward immediately before, just waiting for Emperor Ming's explanation. However, with Ning Wang's big wedding approaching, Emperor Ming seemed to have no intention of mentioning this matter at all, so they had no choice but to come forward, under the banner of pleading for An Ji Hou, actually wanting Emperor Ming to give them an explanation and maintain their own interests.

  "How dare you! Are you forcing me?" Emperor Ming was furious.

  "We dare not—" The officials bowed their heads.

  "How dare you? I think none of you are afraid, all of you are pretending to be stupid... Alright. Very well... Gu Huai Li, come and tell me, are you satisfied with the marriage I have bestowed upon you?"

  Gu Huali heard the voice of Emperor Ming. He trembled and slowly raised his head, stuttering to Emperor Ming: "Your Majesty, I... I..."

  Looking at Gu Huai's stuttering appearance, Emperor Ming waved his sleeve and said, "Alright, I'll ask you. Did your eldest daughter have a marriage arrangement before?"

  "Your Majesty, even if the daughter of Duke Anguo had a previous marriage, the Anguo Mansion is still the Anguo Mansion." A senior official next to him heard Ming Emperor's question and didn't wait for Gu Huai to respond. He slowly opened his mouth and replied to Ming Emperor, the implication was self-evident.

  The Emperor glared at the old minister and replied in a voice full of anger: "You mean that I, the emperor, have wronged Anji Marquis Gu Haili? Originally, this was my family matter, and I didn't want to tell you about it. Since all of you have doubts about me, I will clarify it for you." He then pulled out a memorial from the imperial desk and handed it to his personal eunuch, Zhang Gonggong.

  Zhang Gonggong took the memorial from Emperor Ming with both hands, walked down the jade steps, and handed it to the minister who was kneeling in front of him. The minister looked at the memorial and then passed it to the person next to him. The person next to him looked at it and then passed it to the person behind him. After all the ministers had read the memorial, Zhang Gonggong held it and returned to Emperor Ming's side.

  Upon seeing Zhang Gonggong standing beside him again, Emperor Ming looked at the officials below and continued to speak: "I originally intended to arrange a marriage for Gu Huaiyi's daughter with Ning Wang as his concubine. However, Gu Huaiyi's daughter already had an engagement, but after I investigated, it turned out that the person she was engaged to was actually someone from an enemy country disguising themselves. I sympathize with the Anji Houfu being deceived, and although Gu Gong is mediocre, he is loyal to the emperor and loves his country. Gu Gong's daughter is intelligent by nature, so I wanted to choose a superior son of a noble family for her to marry..."

  "It was I who requested the Emperor's permission for this marriage. In the past, I had a chance encounter with the daughter of Duke Anji and had some feelings for her. Later, I heard that she was already engaged, which left me with regret. It wasn't until I found out that the engagement was false that I specifically asked the Emperor to grant me the daughter of Duke Anji as my concubine." Long Hanshan spoke up calmly.

  All the ministers heard Long Han's words and whispered to each other.

  "Do you still have any doubts, Imperial Noble?" Emperor Ming asked calmly and tonelessly to the officials below after Long Han Yuan finished speaking.

  However, the many ministers who were already familiar with Emperor Ming knew that he was going to settle accounts with them. They all knelt down in front of Emperor Ming on the Golden Throne and said in unison: "Your subjects know their guilt, Your Majesty please forgive us!"

  "It's good that you know your fault! You and others have been gathering and shouting in the Golden Palace for no reason, all officials will be fined three months' salary, dismiss the court!" The Emperor Ming's voice was not angry but powerful.

  "Escorting the Emperor——"

  The Emperor Ming looked at the ministers who were lowering their heads, and as he stood up to leave, the thin anger on his face was gone, replaced by a slight curve of his lips, showing that he was in an extremely good mood.

  The Empress Dowager's Palace

  The Empress Dowager spoke to Emperor Ming, who was in a very good mood, saying: "The Emperor has never thought of marrying off Gu Huaiyi's daughter to a noble family!"

  The Emperor Ming heard the Empress Dowager's words and put down the teacup in his hand, responding to the Empress Dowager: "It is still the Empress Dowager who understands me."

  "But I still don't understand, since Nangong has that intention, why doesn't the Emperor just go along with it?" The Empress Dowager asked in puzzlement.

  "The Empress Dowager should understand that Gu Huaiyi saved my life, and I want to reuse the Anji Marquis's estate. Of course, it is impossible to marry the daughter of the Anji Marquis to a foreign country, and..." Emperor Ming said this and stopped.

  "Is His Majesty considering your family?" The Empress Dowager replied calmly.

  When the Empress Dowager finished speaking, Emperor Ming stood up from his seat, with his hands behind his back, and said to the Empress Dowager: "The events of that year were our imperial family's fault towards your family. I also know about your family's loyalty. However, your family retreated to Lingnan without coming out. Recently, a secret report came from the military, saying that your family's accumulated prestige in the military still exists. Moreover, Gu Qingyu, the daughter of Gu Huairen, is your family's only granddaughter. I must be cautious."

  "Who did the Emperor originally plan to arrange for Gu Qingjin to marry?"

  "The most suitable one is naturally Shu Yuan, but Gu Qingjin had already been betrothed before, although the engagement was fake, it still has some impact. I think about it over and over again, and I only feel that the Crown Prince's consort is quite suitable." Emperor Ming said to Empress Dowager without hiding anything.

  "The Crown Prince's concubine, isn't that a good thing? Then how did the Emperor end up betrothing that little girl to Han Yuan again?" The Empress Dowager asked with interest.

  When the empress dowager asked, Ming Emperor thought of things before, and he was also a little surprised. This son, Long Han Yuan, was not particularly noticed at first, but somehow this son began to enter his line of sight, especially in the past two years. He became more and more satisfied with Long Han Yuan, thinking that this son was very capable and didn't form cliques or factions. The only thing he thought was bad was that this son was too cold.

  He never thought that one day this cold and silent son would run to him and say that he had a crush on a woman and wanted to marry her as his concubine. If it were any other son who came to him with such words, he would definitely be furious. As a royal descendant, how could he indulge in romantic love?

  But it was Long HanYuan, the person he thought would be least moved by emotions. As a result, not only did he not get angry, but he also let his third son continue speaking with a good attitude.

  When this son said that the woman was actually Anji Hou's legitimate daughter, Gu Qingjin, Ming Emperor's heart moved. In fact, after Gu Huaiyi saved his life, a detailed investigation of Anji Hou's mansion had been placed on his desk, and he knew that Anji Hou's mansion and Jun's family were relatives when he was obviously stunned.

  But unexpectedly, Gu Huaiyi's legitimate daughter had already been engaged, and it was not long before he returned to Beijing after his imperial conquest. As the emperor, he couldn't help but suspect that there might be some conspiracy behind this.

  So he had someone investigate and unexpectedly found some things. When he learned that Gu Qingjin was the niece of the Jun family, he couldn't let her marry into a noble family or a foreign country. Thinking of Gu Huaiyi who saved him, he really wanted to reuse Gu Huaiyi, but since the Anji Marquis's residence and the Jun family were related, he had to consider carefully.

  Thinking of Gu Huaiyi's talent being abandoned like this, he felt it was a pity. Just as he was in a dilemma, the information he had obtained made him feel a shock. Gu Qingjin's engagement was fake, so he could openly issue an imperial decree to let Gu Qingjin marry into the royal family, and Gu Huaiyi could also be used openly and fairly.

  Moreover, it also solved the reason why he couldn't make Gu Qingjin his official wife. The background of the Jun family destined that he couldn't let Gu Qingjin become the official wife of the prince. Putting her outside made him uneasy, and since Gu Qingjin had a fake marriage contract with someone from Nanjiang, he had a reason to give her a slightly lower status.

  He first thought of the crown prince's concubine, but thinking that the empress's family had already given the crown prince a considerable amount of power, and the crown prince had become somewhat restless in recent years, he ruled out the crown prince.

  After ruling out the crown prince, he was thinking of marrying off Gu Qingjin to which son when his third son came along, saying he had taken a liking to a woman and requested an arranged marriage, with the object of his affections being none other than Gu Qingjin herself.