Chapter 320 - Party Poopers (1/2)

Prince Yi's words stunned everyone in the room and they all looked to the Emperor.

The Emperor on the hand seemed unfazed and he calmly went, ”I am glad to see you finally have the will to settle down... But now is not the time, we will discuss this at a later time.”

This seemed to be good enough for Princess Nalan and she was about to stand up when Prince Yi grabbed her arm and held her down, frowning up at the Emperor. He had not come here expecting the Emperor to simply nod in agreement.

Therefore, he had naturally come ready to work to achieve compliance. He could not allow the Emperor to brush him off right now, could not give him the opportunity to manipulate things in the shadows. It needed to be resolved now and publicly, this was the best chance for him to have his way.

So Prince Yi cupped his hands and bowed again and pressed on, ”Your majesty, not so long ago, in this very hall, you made a promise to immediately decree my marriage once I informed you of the woman of my choice...I have now informed you, so I ask that you do as promised.” He empathetically requested, kowtowing for extra measure.

The Emperor knit his brows in slight confusion at the mention of said ”promise” that he apparently had made. But it only took him a few seconds to recall the exact ”promissory” incident that Prince Yi was referring to.

The main hall was silent as onlookers watched the scene playing out before them with avid interest for various reasons - some with worry, confusion, apprehension, while others such as Prime minister Zhao were quite pleased with this turn of events...anything to ruin this farce of a celebration was considered good news to him.

While most of the guests in the hall at the moment had actually been in attendance during the incident, not many were paying attention at that point, and even then not many would have put any weight on the very brief cordial conversation that Prince Yi had deemed to be a contract.

But Prime minister Zhao had been paying a bit too much attention at that time and it took a few seconds to recall. After all, it was during what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life until the Emperor ruined it by causing a show with ”handpicking” Lei Xing.

Prime minister Zhao had been unhappy about that fact and so had been closely scrutinizing the Emperor at the time trying to figure out what was his meaning by picking Lei Xing that way. If he wanted the girl, he could have easily picked her beforehand.

What's more, there was no way it was simply a coincidence that she happened to be Defense minister Lei's daughter. He actually never believed in the anonymous nonsense the Empress dowager was touting. So he was convinced that it all meant something and considering where they were right now, he was right.

That day, after the chosen concubines had left for the inner palace, the Emperor and Prince Yi had a brief exchange discussing marital affairs.

Prince Yi had feigned joy and congratulated the Emepror, while the Emperor being polite had feigned some interest in Prince Yi's own marital affairs, and in a gesture of goodwill, he had urged his brother to choose a princess consort and offhandedly said he would decree Prince Yi's marriage once his choice was made.

So that was it, of course, the Emperor did not actually mean those words. But he had said them and the Emperor's words were not only law but were as good as gold and could not simply be retracted...in theory.

Back then, Prince Yi did not seem to care about the Emperor's goodwill gesture and had swiftly made his exit. Prime minister Zhao understood Prince Yi's was disappointed. After all, his daughter was now out of Prince Yi's reach, and the marriage bond, he had been aiming at for years was no longer possible.

It was obvious to Prime minister Zhao that Prince Yi had been trying to get in his good graces by antagonizing Defense minister Lei's daughter.

And in all honestly, Prime minister Zhao had started to entertain the thoughts of Prince Yi lately since the Emperor seems to have become a muddle-headed fool...but then now it seemed Prince Yi too was also becoming a fool.

How disappointing. He was certain that the late Emepror was turning in his grave watching his children falling so short of greatness. Women seemed to be the great weakness of the men of the Jun clan, each generation seemed to lose their heads over women.

The grandfather refused to take a second Empress, the father had his lifelong obsession with the Empress dowager and the current Emperor, he did not even to think about, and now Prince Yi...such a disappointment!