Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine

n away.
If Yueyue leaves my side as well, I…”

   Sun Mang took his wife’s hand and frowned.
“Don’t be afraid, I won’t let mother take Yueyue away.”

   “But…”

   “Xian Ge’er is almost five years old.
Once he turns five, I’ll have him move to the front yard.
As for mother’s side, I’ll talk to her.
Don’t worry.” 

   Since her husband had already said this, Qiao-shi could only nod with tears in her eyes.

   The next day, Emperor Hongjing’s imperial decree arrived at Wang Family Manor.

   When the news came out, everyone was shocked.
What surprised everyone even more, was that the Wang Family simply accepted the decree without doing anything else.
No matter how the outsiders asked, the Wang Family kept their mouths shut.

   For a while, rumours spread throughout the capital.
These rumours were all about how the Wang Family raised three daughters who were about to marry into the imperial family.
For those who didn’t understand the situation, they’d naturally admire how capable the Wang Family was.
As for those who did understand, it was inevitable for all sorts of ideas to take root in their minds.

   Some said the Wang Family was coerced.
Others said the Wang Family was extremely scheming for withdrawing from the marriage to Hui Wang Shizi and directly marrying Hui Wang instead.
However, this action was still difficult for many to understand.

   All in all, some of the words being passed around were particularly nasty.

   The Wang Family suffered from the rumours.
Elder Wang reported to Emperor Hongjing that he was ill and had to stay at home behind closed doors to recuperate.
The Wang Family faded out of the eyes of the public overnight, but the impact of this incident was undoubtedly huge.

   Seeing that the Wang Family was about to collapse, it was inevitable that some had thoughts of wanting to replace them.
With this, the court turned even more chaotic.
However, the Wang Family had great influence and was only remaining low-key to stay out of the limelight.
Now that so many wanted to cross the line, naturally, it was impossible for them to sit still and not fight back.

   This autumn was undoubtedly a chaotic one.
The civil servants who had always worked together started attacking each other and dividing into factions.
Countless people took advantage of this opportunity to fish in troubled waters.
When the civil officers shed all senses of pretence, they were no better than the military officers.
Rolling up their sleeves and taking off their official hats, they almost started a fight in the middle of the court.
It wasn’t until Emperor Hongjing exploded with anger did they stop.

   In the end, the strength of the Wang Family was greatly damaged, and Elder Wang submitted a memorandum asking to resign.

   The Wang Family, a behemoth that stood in the court for decades, finally collapsed.
Naturally, there were other rising stars.
Perhaps they would even end up in the same boat as the Wang family, but this was a matter for the future.
Many were aware that the journey to the peak of officialdom was fraught with danger, but no one could resist the sweetness of power.

   As chaos continued to reign in court, the circumstances of the various princes were also different.

   Ever since what happened at the Mid-Autumn Festival, Hui Wang began to stay inside his house without leaving.
Yong Wang also kept a low profile, while Hui Wang Shizi, Zhao Zuo, started running into the palace more and more diligently.
On the other hand, An Wang changed from his previous style and suddenly became more high-profile.
He adopted an attitude of being courteous and considerate to those with talents and soon, court officials began to gather around him.

   Meanwhile, there was another person in the limelight, Jin Wang.
This was because Jin Wang did something that utterly dumbfounded everyone.

   This matter was related to the second task Jin Wang took on.

   This task was related to Anqing Gongzhu³.

   Anqing Gongzhu was the aunt of the current emperor.
Although she wasn’t the late emperor’s full-blooded sister, out of all the siblings, only Anqing Gongzhu remained.
Given her distinguished status and high level of seniority, Emperor Hongjing usually treated her quite well.

   In the past, when Anqing Gongzhu was still young, she was a smart person who knew how to distinguish right from wrong.
Now, who knew if it was because she was getting old and muddleheaded, but it was common to see her using her power to bully others, attracting a lot of criticism.

   Once a gongzhu gets married, she’d move into her own manor.
The construction of the gongzhu manors were all regulated, but Anqing Gongzhu Manor, like herself, had existed for too long.
Anqing Gongzhu was already seventy-five years old.
Her manor was built the year she married, which was when she was eighteen.
It has already been more than fifty years.

   Soon after the marriage between Anqing Gongzhu and her fuma, she gave birth to a son.
The son then grew up and gave birth to a grandson, then the grandson gave birth to a great-grandson.
The most important thing was that Anqing Gongzhu could give birth.
She alone gave birth to five sons and two daughters, not to mention the children borne by the two concubines of her fuma.
Once her five sons grew up and got married, the household was divided into five branches.
Each of her sons was the head of a branch and they continued to reproduce.