Chapter 367: Chapter 367

According to the imperial edict, the noble title conferments were roughly as follows.

The Eldest Young Master and Third Prince remained Commandery Princes as before, respectively granted the titles "Zhi" and "Cheng."

To be honest, these titles were somewhat fitting to their personalities.

The Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Princes were all made Beile.

Following them, the Eighth and Ninth Princes were made Beizi, but that wasn't all - the Tenth Prince behind them, reportedly considered for his deceased mother Imperial Noble Consort Wenxi, was specially granted the Beile title, skipping over his two elder brothers ahead of him.

On the surface, this arrangement seemed to follow proper seniority order and appeared quite reasonable, as if showing no particular favor or dislike toward any specific imperial son.

But in reality? As the Eighth Prince who had accompanied the imperial expedition in the thirty-fifth year and had repeatedly achieved accomplishments since his marriage this past year, being made the same Beizi as the Ninth Prince - who had almost no achievements to his name and spent his days idling around without doing proper work - was already quite irritating.

Moreover, there was also a younger brother behind him, also from a great clan, who did nothing at all yet beautifully received the Beile title, pressing down on him from above.

Even An Ning couldn't help but shed a tear of sympathy for that Eighth Prince.

This situation vividly demonstrated how distressing it could be to offend an emperor with a narrow mind who was prone to transferring his anger.

Yet precisely because of this battle, under such unfair treatment, one had to ask - did the Eighth Prince dare to slack off?

No, not only did he not dare to slack off.

As an ambitious prince, in order to reverse his own father the Emperor's "prejudice," from now on the Eighth Prince could only exert even more effort, not daring to relax even slightly.

After all, given this biological father's nature, it was entirely possible for him to remain a Beizi for his entire life!

Watching his brothers rise to high positions while he himself remained the lowest-ranking Beizi for life - that would be utterly ridiculous!

What a ruthless man! An Ning couldn't help thinking to herself.

The facts were indeed so. Forcing a smile to see off the eunuch who came to announce the edict, once the person had left, Yin Si's smile instantly fell from his face.

The Emperor, truly ruthless!

Seeing her husband , Guo Luoluo at his side felt her heart tremble, and she hurried forward a step to carefully help him up:

Complaints aside, when An Ning next saw this couple was at the investiture ceremony. Also coming to offer congratulations was Lu Baozhu, who had now become the wife of Prince Gong's heir.

"Congratulations, aunt... oh no, congratulations, Imperial Noble Consort! Aunt, you don't know how incredibly happy mother was when she learned about this!"

As if completely unaffected by the Lu Family's affairs, holding her pair of children in her arms, Baozhu's face now showed pure, unadulterated joy.

As for Guo Luoluo, witnessing all this before her eyes - from daughter of a convicted official to current Imperial Noble Consort, with every ceremonial detail being solemn and meticulously prepared, each aspect revealing the Emperor's intentions - and then looking at this Imperial Noble Consort who was over thirty yet whose beauty not only hadn't faded but had instead gained more mature charm and allure...

Unlike the enthusiastic sentiments of the other princess consorts, thinking of her own husband's current situation, the Eighth Princess Consort's heart grew increasingly heavy.

Secretly, she felt growing dissatisfaction toward that mother-in-law in Yonghe Palace.

With such striking beauty, either one should avoid making them an enemy altogether, or once having taken action, one absolutely shouldn't give the other party any chance to rise back up.

Now look what happened - the mother herself was fine, but the karmic debts were all borne by her husband.

Thinking of her husband's hardships over this past year, when in Yonghe Palace facing this mother-in-law, Guo Luoluo found it difficult to even force a smile on her face at that time.

When the other mentioned the matter of heirs, she even responded impatiently:

"Mother, your servant and my husband are still young, having been married for just over a year. We're in no hurry about heirs yet!"

But in her heart she couldn't help thinking, whose fault was this? If not for this person, her husband wouldn't have been running around everywhere over this past year, constantly busy with official duties...

Half an hour later, seeing her so perfunctory, the already sparse smile on Guwalgiya's face instantly vanished.

But then, as if remembering something, she forced a smile again and ordered the palace servants to brew fresh tea.

After all, she was the mother-in-law, and for her husband's sake, Guo Luoluo ultimately couldn't go too far, so she soon picked up the teacup again...

Only then did Guwalgiya feel relieved in her heart.

No matter how much she disliked this daughter-in-law, given the circumstances, Guwalgiya thought to herself that it would be better for Xiao Ba to have a child. At least he wouldn't be scolded by Kangxi for being controlled by others.

Thinking of the upcoming grandchild, Consort Shu's face unconsciously showed a bit more smile.

Little did she know that the moment the Eighth Princess Consort stepped out of the palace gate, without saying a word, she immediately threw the handkerchief that had touched the tea to a maid beside her:

Seeing her princess consort being so cautious, the maid beside her was clearly somewhat puzzled:

"Princess Consort, this is Yonghe Palace. No matter what, Consort Shu is the Beizi's biological mother. However you look at it, she wouldn't take action against you, Princess Consort."

Unfortunately, the Guo Luoluo before her clearly didn't think so: "As the saying goes, better safe than sorry. Mother has never liked this daughter-in-law to begin with, and her unusual enthusiasm today was already somewhat strange!"

"Besides, back then the Imperial Noble Consort had no interaction with her either, but did that stop mother from taking action against her?"

And the most vicious kind at that - destroying someone's ability to have children. Thinking of this, Guo Luoluo didn't hesitate in the slightest, immediately ordering the maid beside her to secretly take the handkerchief to find a familiar physician.

Initially the Eighth Princess Consort hadn't paid it much mind, merely being subconsciously cautious because of that person's past record. Who would have thought that half an hour later, this very handkerchief actually revealed a problem.

"Princess Consort, this handkerchief indeed shows traces of unknown medication. But as for what exactly it is, I beg your pardon for my limited knowledge and shallow learning..."

Hearing her maid's report, in that instant, Guo Luoluo's face turned three shades colder than the snow outside the window.