On the journey back, Shen Miao thought about Empress Xian De’s words and her heart could not calm down for a long time.

Consort Jing was at a stage that ‘mother and child was safe’ and Empress Xian De did not have any wrongs because of the matter, thus everything looked like it had ended satisfactory but Shen Miao felt that something was not quite right. Upon returning back to the residence of Prince Rui, the skies was almost about to brighten and thus it was too late to sleep, moreover Shen Miao did not have any mood to rest.

When Jing Zhe and Gu Yi saw it, they instructed the small kitchens to make some sweet soup for the both of them. When Shen Miao and Xie Jing Xing returned to the room, the doors were locked and they sat in front of the table before Shen Miao looked at Xie Jing Xing, “Consort Jing is pregnant. What will the Lu family do?”

It was reasonable to say that Consort Jing’ child was very precious since Emperor Yong Le did not have other children and if she was carrying a son then if there was no accidents, the future position of the Monarch would logically go to the child in Consort Jing’s womb. Logically it would be like this but from Empress Xian De’s words, this was not so, which made the matter somewhat thought provoking. Could it be that Emperor Yong Le still had other children otherwise how could it be so? The Lu family current had no fear due to Consort Jing but was Emperor Yong Le’s plans for the Lu family this shallow?

Shen Miao did not feel that it was possible.

When Xie Jing Xing heard those words, he said plainly, “Imperial Older Brother has taken action against the Lu family. There is no difference if one survive or not.”

Those words meant that the child in Consort Jing’s womb was one matter and the Lu family’s ending was another. At least Consort Jing would temporarily save her life with the child but the Lu family would fall according to plan.

Shen Miao frowned, “I spoke to Her Ladyship the Empress and felt somewhat strange. One heard that Her Ladyship the Empress had a miscarriage and it was caused by Consort Jing. Not mentioning if it was intentional or not, no matter how magnanimous Her Ladyship the Empress is, how could she watch Consort Jing living safely and well for so many years?”

Xie Jing Xing was pouring a cup of tea for her and his actions paused when he heard those words.

Shen Miao stared at him, “Tell me honestly why the Emperor do not have any children till now? Was it deliberate or without any choice?”

No matter how she thought, she felt that it was just too strange for Emperor Yong Le not to have any children. Every Emperor, be it if he was a wise Monarch or incapable ruler, would want to have more children. The more children there is, the more checks and balances there would be and the Imperial court would be more stable. Even Fu Xiu Yi did not have a shortage of children. Previous Shen Miao felt that it was strange that Emperor Yong Le was so outstanding in court and the commoners lived and work in peace, so how would the court be unstable now? She then understood when she knew about the reason of descendants. Just because of one point, which was that Emperor Yong Le did not have any children, the court would be rather vocal. Speaking of which, Emperor Yong Le was considered very capable. If it was any other Emperor, if they did not have son, one feared that they would long be gone and demoted to an ordinary person, much less keeping the power balance for years.

Xie Jing Xing looked back at Shen Miao after a long time and his gaze was somewhat strange, “You really want to know?”

“Ever since you were brought back unconscious from the Imperial Hunt, I felt that some things would change but at that time I just arrived in Long Ye and did not know much of the situation in Great Liang and thus was unable help in anything. Thus other than going to Feng Tou Zhuang to look for that person, one was unable to help in anything.” Shen Miao said, “I do not like being passive. If there is a day that you have to do something big, I would find that I am useless. But I do not have any knowledge so even if I have the heart to help, how could I even help?”

Xie Jing Xing looked at her for a while and he suddenly sighed. Half of the sigh was gratification and the other half was teasing as he stroked her head, “Not only our Jiao Jiao can scheme against others, she can also be considerate of others.”

Shen Miao brushed his hands away, “You can’t always let me be a rice worm that only knows how to eat.”

“I dared not underestimate you.” Xie Jing Xing smiled, “Since you want to know, I will not conceal it. You told me that you had a realistic dream and that dream was very tragic. Now what I will be telling you is not a dream but things that indeed happened.”

“It would take at least half a year with fast horses to reach Ding capital from Long Ye. Did you always want to know how I became the son of the Marquis of Lin An? Even though one knew of one’s identity for so many years, one did not return to Great Liang. It was not because I did not want to return but I could not return.” The gaze in his eyes gradually became sharper.

Xie Jing Xing’s real name was Xie Yuan and his styled name was Jing Xing, the meaning was from the phrase of ‘behold a tall mountain that have an upright scenery (高山仰止，景行行止)’. That meant that the person who gave him the name had hope that he could be a noble and upright person. Not mentioning if the meaning of those words were achieved but the person who gave that name had deep love for him.

The person who gave him the name was his Imperial Father, Emperor Xiao Wu, Xie Yi Long but the one who gave his styled name was his Imperial Mother, Empress Jing Xian, Empress Xiao.

Originally Emperor Xiao Wu was the most outstanding Emperor of the dynasty of Great Liang. He had military power in his hands, calmed the four seas, was very handsome and heroic. If there was one thing not good, it was because he was the youngest son and the Imperial family of Great Liang would only pass the throne to the eldest and not the younger ones and this was the rules since the beginning. However Xie Yi Long was too outstanding and the more outstanding a person was, one would not even put such light matters in his eyes and it was difficult to press his ambition down. It was unfortunate that Xie Yi Long was the former and in addition, the Crown Prince at that time was inferior to him so Xie Jing Xing embarked on the route to fight for the heir apparent at the end.

The route to fight for the heir apparent was very smooth for Xie Yi Long as he had the innate advantage. He was the son of the Empress and had many meritorious military accomplishments thus Xie Yi Long devised a plan to frame his blooded Eldest Brother, the Crown Prince and angered his Imperial Mother to death, controlled his Father and successfully ascend to the Imperial throne and became Emperor Xiao Wu.

In the journey of the fight for the heir apparent, one was bound to give up some things, like family relations and like love. At that time Xie Yi Long felt that all these were not important as he was an ambitious person so he married the daughter of the Prime Minister Xiao’s family. The Xiao family was the head of the civil officials and by marrying the Xiao family’s daughter, he could win the majority of Great Liang’s civil officials’ aristocratic families. Moreover the daughter of the Xiao family was an exceptionally beauty and was intelligent and magnanimous. There was no disadvantage of having an intelligent beauty so this marriage was extremely advantageous.

After ascending to the Imperial throne, Emperor Xiao Wu and Empress Jing Xian had proper respect and concern for one another and Emperor Xiao Wu was a wise Monarch and Empress Jing Xian was famously virtuous under Heavens and it looked ideal. Not long later Empress Jing Xian gave birth to Xie Chi and he became the Crown Prince. Originally Great Liang’s land had gradually expanded and the strength of the nation had gradually became the strongest among the three country so everything looked blissful.

But the most difficult thing to retain in this world was remain unchanged.

Empress Xiao was married to Emperor Yong Le when there was chaos and the husband and wife complemented each other in literary and military knowledge. Xie Yi Long had ambitions and Empress Xiao was composed. Xie Yi Long had high level of means and methods and Empress Xiao was resourceful and intelligent.

However when the enemies outside gradually disappeared, the spear would be aimed at the people around.

Emperor Xiao Wu was one with ambitions. At the beginning he used many means and ways to gain the throne and his ambitions came from his desire. He gradually became suspicious that the Xiao family had the intentions to be the relatives that weld power. The more Empress Xiao was virtuous and intelligent, the more suspicions Emperor Xiao Wu had. In order to balance off the power of the Xiao family, Emperor Xiao Wu opened up the Inner Palace. There were a number of aristocratic families in the Xiao family and he promoted them and let the Xiao family fight with them and in the Inner Palace, he let Empress Xiao fight with those women from the aristocratic families.

Empress Xiao was intelligent and proper. After marriage, she had always been adhering the family teachings of treating one’s husband as Heavens and in addition Xie Yi Long was an outstanding talent among people, they had gotten along for many years. However all those mess of women started to give birth to Princes and rack one’s brains to even threaten Xie Chi’s position of the Crown Prince and finally Empress Xiao could no longer sit back and ignore it.

Every female, even the weakest of all female, would all become a beast in order to protect one’s child, moreover Empress Xiao was not a weak white rabbit. In Xiao family, an aristocratic family, for her to become the most outstanding Young Lady, naturally she had brains, thus she started to counterattack strongly.

To be able to walk with Emperor Xiao Wu over from the chaotic days, Empress Xiao’s ability naturally could not be underestimated. How could those rich, beautiful and delicate females could compete? It was just inviting humiliation to oneself. Xie Chi was safe and sound and Empress Xiao was repeatedly victorious. She had shown her strength and her brains were extremely good that it shocked those female and no one dared to act rashly.

However the intelligent Empress Xiao would also make a mistake. The more outstanding she was, the more upset Emperor Xiao Wu was.

Emperor Xiao Wu became more guarded against her and even began to find her mistakes. At the beginning it was only placing some opponents for Empress Xiao in the Palace then he would watch on coldly at their battles. At the end, it was consciously be bias with the other party and whatever Empress Xiao did was wrong. He also started to directly suppress the Xiao family without hesitation.

Empress Xiao felt very upset but she had thought that Emperor Xiao Wu was her husband and one would be confused at some point in one’s life. She only need to protect her position and let Xie Chi grow up safe and sound and watch as Xie Chi smoothly succeeded in ruling the country.

Who knew that those females would have ideas on Xie Chi?

At that period of time, Emperor Xiao Wu suddenly warmed up to Empress Xiao and Empress Xiao did not why he behaved as such. After not long, Prime Minister Xiao suddenly took the initiative to resign from his post.

Xie Yi Long was one who had good means and methods. Even though the Xiao family was vicious, they could not compete with Xie Yi Long. It took a few hundred years for the Xiao family to have a Empress from their family, for this Empress, the Xiao family would not hesitate to sacrifice themselves.

When Empress Xiao knew of the matter, it was already too late. She then know that all the warm nights were only an act of XIe Yi Long’s schemes and felt nauseating but she did not think that she would be pregnant.

This flesh in her womb was different from Xie Chi as it came to this world by Xie Yi Long’s deliberate and hypocritical schemes. When Empress Xiao was pregnant, she would often think that if it was a son, he must not be like his Father. He could have ambitions and create crafty plots and machinations but he could not make use of another’s sincere heart. That was the most despicable behavior and was also the most shameful thing.

After getting pregnant, there were many areas that became inconvenient for Empress Xiao but she did not expect someone to take advantage of her current situation and take action upon Xie Chi.

Xie Chi was drugged.