Chapter 1168

Chapter 1169

Xia Yuanqiu asked: "Have you noticed something is wrong in this street?"

Zhu Yan said: "It's really not right, I can see a lot of familiar faces."

Xia Yuanqiu hurriedly asked: "Oh? Who is it?"

"It's my elder brother's men, it seems they can't help it anymore." Zhu Yan said lightly.

Xia Yuanqiu had never heard Zhu Yan mention his other brothers, and it seemed that they rarely communicated with each other on weekdays.

"What does your elder brother want to do?" Xia Yuanqiu asked.

Jiang Xin hurriedly said: "Does this need to be said? It must be his elder brother who wants to seize his crown prince and is planning to do something sinister."

Zhu Yan shook his head: "That's not the case. My eldest brother is not someone who is greedy for fame, wealth and power. He likes peace and freedom. He lives away from the world all the year round. He doesn't participate in the struggle between the court and China. He will never fight for the throne unless—"

"Unless what?" Xia Yuanqiu asked, seeing a hint of worry in Zhu Yan's eyes.

"Unless he is coerced into doing something he doesn't want to do."

Jiang Xin said: "He is an imposing prince, who dares to coerce him? Unless this person doesn't want to live anymore, or the power is already overwhelming."

Zhu Yan looked at Xia Yuanqiu and said, "Yuanqiu, do you still remember the one who lived in Yaohua Palace back then?"

Xia Yuanqiu nodded: "I remember, former Empress Zhou."

"That's right, it's the Zhou family. She has a fierce nature and a paranoid personality. Since she got married, her father has been very indifferent to her. In addition, when she was young, she fell into the ice pool and hurt her body. She couldn't conceive. At that time, the father was still It's just a prince. In order to consolidate her position in the palace, she took advantage of a banquet to get drunk and stuffed her father and her dowry maid into the room. Although it was only that one time, the maid was pregnant with a child. Originally, according to the ancestral system, this child cannot be kept, the Zhou family is the head of the house, and the mistress has not given birth, and those other monsters will definitely not be able to give birth."

"However, Mrs. Zhou ignored dissuasion and let the maid give birth to a child. It was a boy. She was not to mention how happy she was at that time, and immediately asked someone to take the child to her yard to raise it. After a while, the newborn The servant girl who gave birth to the child suddenly died of illness."

Jiang Xin interrupted and said angrily: "I'm afraid he didn't die of illness, but that Zhou family killed him."

Xia Yuanqiu glared at Jiang Xin, and said, "Don't keep interrupting, let Zhu Yan finish talking."

Jiang Xin stuck out her tongue towards Xia Yuanqiu, stopped interrupting, and listened carefully to Zhu Yan's slow narration.

"This child is the first child of the father. Zhou thought that after having a child, the father would often go to her courtyard. It was true at the beginning. The father was a father at the beginning, and he loved the elder brother very much. From time to time, I went to sit in Zhou's courtyard to tease the children, but unfortunately, the good times didn't last long, and the child was not yet one year old. The first emperor made the decision and accepted two concubines for his father. They were all pregnant, and gave birth to sons one after another, and because the concubine's status is not low, the children born are naturally extraordinarily noble. In comparison, the children in her courtyard seem to be of low status. Although the child born by the servant girl is raised by the aunt's side, this bloodline cannot be changed at all."

"Later, father was sent to a neighboring country as a hostage, and she gradually became indifferent to elder brother, even loathed her, so when father returned to court, elder brother became very withdrawn, didn't like to talk to others, and was timid. Afraid of trouble, the emperor no longer likes the eldest son, and Zhou's attitude towards him is even worse than before."