In the afternoon the next day, the empress dowager was seating in her main hall with portraits of all the candidates splayed on a table in front of her, as well as several maids lined up in front of her, each holding the collective submissions of a candidate on a tray, and were stepping forward one after another while on the direction of Ling mama, who was standing beside the empress dowager. There were two servants who were currently holding up a piece for the viewing of the dowager at the foot of the short steps to where the dowager was seated on her throne seat. As the dowager was scrutinizing a piece of work, an eunuch announced the arrival of the emperor and all the servants moved to the side. She looked up and saw the doors open and her son strutted in and then bowed slightly in greeting to her.

"Mother, you sent for me." The emperor calmly said as he eyes scanned the crowd in the room.

"You're here. Come up and take a seat." She smiled and waved him up. The emperor climbed up the short steps and sat on the seat on the left of his mother. A maid stepped up and served him some tea.

The emperor took a sip and the empress dowager excitedly asked, "How do like this tea?"

"It is very good."

"It is a new blend I made. Since you like it, I will have some sent over." She said with a smile.

"Thank you, mother." The emperor said and then looked around and asked, "What is this about?"

"Oh, I wanted us to review the candidates' work and then discuss the results." She said and then motioned for the servants to continue to display the work and they continued.

The emperor frowned and then looked at his mother, "Mother, you can just choose as you like."

"Even then, I still need to take your opinion into account. After all, you are the one getting married." The empress dowager flatly said, her smile was gone.

"I don't have any opinions on this. I have a lot of work waiting, I won't bother you anymore." The emperor said as he got up, bowed and turned to leave.

"Stop!" The empress dowager screamed and the emperor stopped, he closed his eyes and sighed and then turned around to face his mother. "All of you get out!" The empress dowager commanded. The servants all bowed and quickly left the hall and closed the door, leaving only the emperor and the empress dowager facing each other.

"Mother, I - "

The empress dowager quickly interrupted him, "Is this your way of blaming me for not raising you?"

The emperor furrowed his brows and sighed, "Mother I don't blame you for anything."

"Did you think I didn't want to raise you? Did you ever think of what sort of life I have lived all these years, especially knowing that that wretched woman was raising my child? A son I had birthed and painstakingly raised for 5 years?! Do you have any idea?!" The empress dowager said enraged.

"Mother, please calm down. I know that you have suffered and will do my best to make up for your suffering, that is why I have worked so hard all these years up to this point..." The emperor said trying to calm her down.

"What is the point of you working hard, if you do not have offsprings to pass your throne to?! You need to start having children...or do you not see the vultures lurking around you, waiting for you to make a mistake so they can pull you down! If you are not anxious to solidify our rule, I am!"

"He does not have any children either..." The emperor flatly said.

"But he has concubines! Do you think he stayed in the capital all this time because he really likes that meager position he is in?!" The empress dowager scoffed and continued, "Or because he wants to "assist" your rule? What rubbish!! How foolish are you?!! I will not have Long country scum ruling over me! Never, I will never allow that! Do you hear me?!" The empress dowager shouted as her face contorted with rage and tears welling up in her eyes.

The emperor looked at his mother with somber eyes, "Mother, I am also a Long country person too."

"No! You are not and you will never be! I birthed you into this world and so you are not a Long person and you will never be, understand? Never mistake that, you are a Xia person and that is all! Anything else and I will..." The empress dowager caught herself and looked at her son wide-eyed.

...anything else and you will try to kill me again?...

The emperor looked down and then laughed to himself a little and looked up at her with a gentle smile and said, "I will take my leave now. As for the rest, you can do as you deem fit." He finished and turned and left. The empress dowager sat on her high seat and watched her son leave, her eyes storming with anger, hurt, rage and sadness.

...The more I look at him, the more he resembles that demon...

***

The emperor entered the royal study and sat on his throne chair and was in deep thought with a frown, ignoring the memorials in front of him.

...Was there really a point to all these years of struggling? Nothing has changed...

"Emperor, Emperor...Emperor!" He flinched when the table was banged and looked up with a frown and saw that it was Lei Yong and relaxed his expression.

"Oh, you're here." The emperor said sitting upright and picked up a memorial and opened it to read.

Lei Yong looked at the emperor's seemingly calm expression and asked, "Is it the empress dowager again?"

The Emperor glanced up at him, and then dropped the memorial and then slouched on the throne and quietly said, "My mother has a lot of resentment...I don't know how to reconcile it."

"Oh." Lei Yong said as he leaned back on the edge of the table and faced forward, with his back facing the emperor. The emperor seeing his back, smiled slightly and then sighed, his eyes became saddened as he stared blankly at nothing, delving into his thoughts. Lei Yong had discovered earlier on, about fifteen years ago when they had first met that the emperor was the sort to always hide his hurt from others and would never reveal it when someone else was watching. At that time, his birth mother had been confined to the cold palace and he had moved into the empress's palace. Lei Yong had been amongst the group of noble sons sent over to the empress for her to pick the little prince's playmate. Of course, while the position is called a playmate, it is a very important position, as the playmate could possibly grow up to become a close assistant and a trusted aide to him. Lei Yong, at that time, was 7 years old and had gotten lost while he had wandered off to explore and ended up following the sound of whimpering to a small corner and stumbled on the little prince who looked at him calmly and imperially with no tears on his face, but his red eyes gave him away, Lei Yong could tell that he was obviously putting on a brave front, he must have hurriedly wiped his tears when he heard his footsteps.

The two boys looked at each skeptically for a while. Lei Yong looked at the little boy's clothes and guessed he must be 4th prince. He walked up to him, smiled and teased, "What are you crying about?"

The little prince froze and looked at him blankly and then bent his head and said, "I am not crying, I don't cry."

Lei Yong had not expected this sort of reaction from a prince and so he laughed and said, "Ohh, then it must have been the sound of your twin ghost..."

The little prince looked up and said with a frown, "What sort of nonsense are you saying?"

"What? Are you scared?" Lei Yong teased.

"Of course not." The little prince's frown deepened and he tilted his head to the side.

Lei Yong patted his head, and the little prince's eyes widened in shock and he stiffened, "It's okay to cry, sometimes we need to..." The little prince looked up and saw that Lei Yong was staring fixedly at something off to the side. He bit his lip and looked down and his tears silently fell. The two stood like that for a while, one patting the other's head and was seemingly captivated by the wall on the side, while the other bent down in silence.

"...Yong!" The emperor pushed Lei Yong, causing him to almost fall. "Are you asleep?"

"Ah? No, no. I was just thinking." Lei Yong said with a laugh.

"Thinking about?" The emperor curiously asked.

Lei Yong simply said, "Nothing in particular." and then went down the steps and took a seat.

The emperor looked at him skeptically, then let it go and asked with a raised eyebrow, "So what brought you here? I thought you've been avoiding me these days."

"Of course not. It's just I've been very busy lately. Settling the returning military is not an easy affair."

...Of course, the real reason is because Xing er' is in this competition, I didn't want her to have any problems later...and frankly, I wouldn't have come here if not for father pushing me...

The emperor nodded and seriously asked, "How is that going? Any problems?"

"No, it's going well."

"That's good. How is the investigation going?"

"We still haven't found any trace of Prince Rui. We lost his trace in Licheng city and have not been able to find his whereabouts. I fear he may have escaped to his country already."

"I doubt it. Keep looking." The emperor calmly said.

"Your majesty, what do plan to do once you find him? Kill him?"

"Hasn't this country seen enough war already? It is time for peace."

"Then you want to negotiate a peace treaty with him?" Lei Yong asked standing up.

"No, of course not. That will be exposing our weakness. A small prince, even though he has potential in the future, right now cannot be the bearer of a treaty considering his failure in the last battle. Not only did he suffer a crushing defeat at our hands, but then he made the mistake of getting himself captured as well. What foothold can such a prince hold in court right now? If I try to negotiate a peace treaty through him, it would make us appear desperate and raise suspicions as to why we would be negotiating a peace treaty when we seemingly have the upper hand. This country needs time to recover, thirty years of fighting wars are enough."

"So you're just going to let this impasse stand?" Lei Yong asked, resuming his seat.

"For now. Of course, it would be best if they approach us for the treaty themselves." The emperor said with a smirk.

Lei Yong looked at the emperor quizzically, "You have a plan?"

"I wouldn't call it plan, but a guess." The emperor said with a smile, "As for that Prince Rui, if you find him just secretly protect him. He needs to arrive in his country safe and sound."

"Alright. I will pass on your orders." Lei Yong said as he got up and bowed. Turned to leave and then stopped and turned back to the emperor, "I am curious about something."

"Okay, ask."

"Why did you ask that, um, that Lady Yin was it? that question?"

The emperor blinked and then thought for a moment and answered, "No reason...I was just curious, I guess."

"Oh." Lei Yong was quiet for a while and then hesitantly asked, "..then have the concubines been selected?"

The emperor frowned, "Who knows."

"Shouldn't you?" Lei Yong said looking at him confused.

"I am not interested and so left it up to my mother."

"I see..." Lei Yong said looking down with a slight frown and appeared to be thinking.

The emperor raised an eyebrow and watched his friend, then got up and came down the steps and looked at him skeptically. Lei Yong seeing this, looked at the emperor with a guarded expression and asked, "What?"

The emperor smirked, "Hmm, you seem to be quite interested about the selection of the concubines....Is there a girl you fancy amongst them? It is high time for you to get married too, and you're even older than me, it's definitely time. Tell me, who is it that awakened your dead heart? I will ensure that she gets blacklisted. You can trust me!" The emperor finished patting his chest.

"It is nothing like that! I was just asking casually...Anyway, the issue of Prince Rui is an urgent matter, I will go now and immediately see to it." Lei Yong quickly said, bowed and sped off. He could hear the sound of the emperor's laughter behind him and frowned.

...This little brat has grown up to be such a...