Before the Emperor could reply, the Empress Dowager’s tone remained calm and casual:
“Speaking of which, Crown Prince Mingzhao has also come of age, and his marriage has yet to be settled. This Empress Dowager observes that the spring light at today’s Spring Banquet is perfect, why not settle it as well, bringing double happiness.”
She slightly tilted her head, as if pondering. “Qin Zhiwei, daughter of Qin Wangzhi, Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites—This Empress Dowager finds that child to be of dignified character and from an upright and honest family, quite a match for Crown Prince Mingzhao. Emperor, what are your thoughts?”
…What?!
Before one wave subsided, another rose!
It’s not a daughter of the Shen family?!
This thought sharply pierced the minds of countless high officials and nobles simultaneously. Even Empress Shen, who had been striving to maintain her composure, suddenly tightened her grip on the armrest of the Phoenix Throne, her knuckles turning white, and the elegant smile on her face showed its first faint cracks of forced pretense.
Shen Jingshu, the legitimate granddaughter of Duke Chengen’s Manor, the Empress Dowager’s grandniece from her maternal family, and Empress Shen’s own niece, had been meticulously raised since childhood according to the standards of a future Mother of the Nation. She was practically the unspoken, predetermined candidate for the next Crown Princess. This was the cornerstone of the Shen family’s three consecutive generations of empresses and their burgeoning power, as well as an unspoken “rule” acknowledged by the court and public.
Yet, today, the Empress Dowager herself was breaking this “rule”?!
Deep in Emperor Xuanyuan Chenhao’s pupils, a sudden contraction occurred. His gaze towards the Empress Dowager was filled with extreme shock, and a rapidly spreading, cold realization.
That’s it.
The Shen family.
From his grandmother’s generation, a daughter of the Shen family had presided over the Central Palace, and with his Empress, it was already the third generation. As a result, the Shen family’s maternal relatives had grown powerful, dominating the Imperial Court, and his maternal uncle, the current Prime Minister Shen Zhongheng, wielded immense influence. If his legitimate eldest son, the future Crown Prince, were to marry another Shen family daughter, then the Shen family’s power would become irrevocably intertwined with the Xuanyuan Imperial power, perhaps even… surpassing it.
He had delayed establishing a Crown Prince and formally betrothing a Crown Princess to Crown Prince Mingzhao for so long; this hesitation and apprehension were clearly seen by the Empress Dowager.
Now, the Empress Dowager was proactively proposing a non-Shen family daughter for Crown Prince Mingzhao’s marriage.
This was not a simple choice of spouse.
This was a political statement, a power balance, the Empress Dowager signaling to him, and to the court, that the Shen family’s expansion should cease. The bottom line of Imperial power was not to be crossed.
…So that’s how it is.
In a flash of lightning, Xuanyuan Chenhao’s mind raced. His tumultuous emotions, which had been shaken by the Empress Dowager’s two successive “thunderbolts,” now suddenly cleared, and he glimpsed the cold chess strategy hidden beneath that kind and gentle face.
The Empress Dowager was making a concession.
At the cost of giving up on a Shen family daughter continuing to preside over the Eastern Palace and extending their claim to the empress’s position, she was proactively severing the excessively swelling tentacles of her maternal relatives, offering him, the Emperor, a gesture of reconciliation and support. This was explicitly telling him: the Emperor’s apprehension towards the Shen family, she saw it, and she approved. The bottom line of Imperial power, she would help him define.
But at the same time—
Xuanyuan Chenhao’s gaze subtly swept over the Second Prince, whose face was ashen and still in disbelief, and the Daughter of the Xie family, who remained kneeling in the hall, as if frozen by invisible ice.
The Empress Dowager’s other profound intention was also laid bare.
She did not want the Second Prince Xuanyuan Jingting, born of Consort Qi, to marry Xie Lanyin.
What was the Xie family? A century-old leader of the “pure stream” faction, with disciples and old acquaintances spread throughout the court and public, and even in-laws who held military power. If such an important force, which could have been a crucial check against the Shen family for the Emperor, were to completely align with the ambitious Second Prince, whose maternal family was already powerful, due to a marriage…
What immense obstacle would that create for Crown Prince Mingzhao’s future path to the throne? The balance of the court situation would instantly collapse, and the intensity of factional strife would likely far exceed today’s.
Therefore, the Empress Dowager chose to pull the rug out from under them.
By betrothing Xie Lanyin to Zhan Shuo, an Imperial Guard commander who, though a trusted confidant of the Emperor, had a relatively simple background and no deep ties to the civil official group or the princes’ factions. This move both served the superficial purpose of “preserving reputation and chastity and repaying the kindness of saving a life,” silencing public opinion, and completely extinguishing the Second Prince’s, and indeed other factions’, hope of seizing the Xie family’s support through marriage.
On the other hand, betrothing a daughter of a “pure stream” civil official—not from the Shen family—to Crown Prince Mingzhao was both to appease the Shen family, who might be unsettled by the severance of their empress lineage (Look, I am not completely suppressing you, merely changing the method of cooperation), and, more importantly, to pave a safer, “purer” path for Crown Prince Mingzhao as the heir apparent: a wife whose family power was moderate, capable of assisting without becoming too strong, and crucially, having been severed from the Shen family, he would not be constrained by dual maternal relatives after ascending the throne.
Killing several birds with one stone, with meticulous planning.
The憋闷 (stifling frustration) and shocked anger that had arisen in Xuanyuan Chenhao’s chest due to the Empress Dowager’s sudden intervention gradually gave way to a cold, almost admiring solemnity.
Ginger is spicier when it’s old, after all.
If the Crown Princess was no longer a Shen family daughter, then the aspect of Crown Prince Mingzhao that his Father Emperor most feared—his deep entanglement with powerful maternal relatives—would fade. His status as the legitimate eldest son, as a candidate for the future Crown Prince, seemed… no longer so “unsuitable.”
First Prince Xuanyuan Mingzhao himself, at this moment, had lost all color in his face, then slowly regained it. He lowered his eyelashes, concealing the momentary surge of turbulent emotions in his eyes. He was the legitimate eldest son, taught from a young age to be steady and benevolent, the undisputed choice for Crown Prince. But he also knew that half of the Shen family’s blood flowed in his veins, which was both an honor and a shackles.
His maternal grandfather’s family’s excessive power had long been a thorn in his Father Emperor’s side.
This seemingly “demoted” marriage, perhaps… was the key to unlocking these shackles, and the beginning of his Father Emperor truly being willing to propel him towards the position of heir apparent.
However, the cost of this “beginning” was the sacrifice of his own choice in marriage, and the complete severance of the Shen family’s path to continued control of the empress’s position.
His hand, hidden in his sleeve, slowly tightened, then slowly relaxed. When he looked up again, there was only the obedient and calm waiting befitting an imperial eldest son.
The Empress Dowager’s gaze calmly swept across the entire hall, taking in the Emperor’s sudden realization and struggle, the Empress’s strained composure, and the wonderfully incredulous expressions on everyone’s faces.
She seemed to have merely done something utterly ordinary, picking up her teacup and quietly awaiting the Emperor’s reply.
Xie Lanyin’s fate took a sharp turn, intertwining with the astonishing upheaval in the selection of the Crown Princess. This was no longer just a Spring Banquet, but a deep pool stirred by the Empress Dowager herself, concerning the direction of the Imperial Court for decades to come. Everyone held their breath, awaiting the Emperor’s final decision.
And Xie Lanyin, at the center of the storm, still knelt on the cold ground. The Empress Dowager’s “grace” froze her like ice, and the greater political turmoil around her made her realize that she was merely a tiny chess piece at the mercy of monstrous waves.
Zhan Shuo maintained his lowered gaze, like the most silent and unyielding reef in the hall. Only Xiang Da, his close aide who knew his temperament well, could discern a hint of imminent tension from the almost frozen lines of his profile and the sudden cessation of his finger caressing the wine cup.
The Empress Dowager… wants to betroth Xie Lanyin to me?
Could that anonymous letter have come from the Empress Dowager?
The moment this thought exploded in Zhan Shuo’s mind, it brought not honor or amorous thoughts, but biting cold and rapidly escalating vigilance. He almost immediately saw through the chilling political calculations behind this “grace.”
Preserving reputation and chastity? Repaying kindness?
Heh. Nothing but the most grandiose fig leaf.
What an exquisite move—killing three birds with one stone, no, four birds—it appeased the Emperor’s apprehension about the Shen family’s growing power; it struck a blow against the Second Prince’s faction’s potential expansion; it bound him, this “knife,” even more tightly to the Imperial chariot, possibly even sowing discord in his already distant relationship with the Second Prince; and the final ‘bird’ was the most terrifying, placing him under the magnifying glass of the Xie family and its associated forces. Could he still be the pure, obedient, and uninhibited knife in the Emperor’s hand?
As for Xie Lanyin herself?
Marry her?!
Zhan Shuo’s heart was a complex mix of emotions.