Chapter 898: The Young Empress (35)

Even Su Qing had been pushed into second place.

By now, the entire harem knew that the Empress's most favored consort was Nan Yunchuan—Young Master Nan. His favor was unrivaled, unmatched by anyone else.

Ranked second was Su Qing, Young Master Su.

As for the Imperial Consort, whose family background was among the most distinguished in the kingdom, he could only be placed third.

【Host, several of your consorts who previously went looking for trouble with Nan Yunchuan have already been won over by him. Nan Yunchuan is currently persuading them to send messages to their families. He wants to create cooperation between forces inside and outside the palace.】

With the system's surveillance, it was safe to say that no one could escape Tang Guo's notice.

Nan Yunchuan's favored status was naturally bound to provoke resentment.

An ordinary man would likely spend his time fighting with rivals or flaunting his superiority.

Nan Yunchuan was different.

His goals were different.

The more people came looking for trouble, the more opportunities he and Su Qing had to recruit them into their faction.

【Host, what are you going to do?】

"Repeat yesterday's events for me."

After listening to the system's summary, Tang Guo quickly understood the situation.

The matter was actually quite simple.

Consort Li couldn't stand seeing Nan Yunchuan enjoying so much favor. Relying on the fact that he came from a respectable family, he had attempted to teach Nan Yunchuan a lesson.

Unexpectedly, after their confrontation, he had gained no advantage whatsoever.

He had originally assumed Nan Yunchuan would retaliate against him.

What he never expected was that Nan Yunchuan had entirely different plans.

In truth, the people Nan Yunchuan chose to recruit were carefully selected.

Every one of them was a man who had suffered oppression at the hands of women during childhood.

Those humiliations had left deep scars.

As a result, they were particularly susceptible to Nan Yunchuan's rhetoric.

It could be said that before entering the palace, he had already thoroughly investigated nearly everyone inside it.

The reason they had initially targeted Imperial Consort Jing Cheng and the Jing family was precisely because the men of the Jing family had grown up under relatively normal circumstances within the Western Saint Kingdom.

The men of the Jing household lived quite comfortably and were rarely mistreated.

Naturally, such people could never be recruited to their cause.

Without a shared objective, and with the Jing family being staunch royalists, the only option was to eliminate them.

Consort Li was completely different.

Although his father was the principal spouse of the household, Consort Li had spent his youth being mocked simply because he was male.

Only after becoming one of the Empress's consorts had his family finally stopped ridiculing and bullying him.

Now that Nan Yunchuan had brought up those old grievances, all of the pain and resentment from the past resurfaced.

Naturally, he boarded Nan Yunchuan's ship without much resistance.

After reviewing everything, Tang Guo fell silent for a moment.

Then she called out,

"Chief Steward."

"Your Majesty, what are your orders?"

"Issue a decree. Consort Li is to be confined to the Cold Palace."

The Chief Steward was stunned.

She had completely lost track of the Empress's methods lately.

And she had followed Her Majesty since childhood.

As expected, the thoughts of a sovereign were impossible for ordinary people to understand.

"Consort Li openly offended Yunchuan."

A faint smile appeared on Tang Guo's lips.

"I am displeased."

A chill ran down the Chief Steward's spine.

Somehow, she felt that wasn't the real reason.

Still, everything within the palace was ultimately decided by the Empress.

"At once, Your Majesty."

"Wait."

The Chief Steward immediately turned back.

Tang Guo had already walked over to her desk.

Picking up a piece of silk, she quickly wrote several words upon it.

"Deliver this secretly to Minister Li. Once she sees it, she won't care why Consort Li was sent to the Cold Palace."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The system happened to catch a glimpse of the writing on the silk.

It contained only a single straightforward sentence:

"Minister Li, I was unaware that Consort Li harbored ambitions of overthrowing female rule in the Western Saint Kingdom."

The system shuddered.

Minister Li was a woman who thoroughly enjoyed the privileges and authority granted by the current system.

If she learned what Consort Li had been doing...

She would probably want to slap him to death herself.
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