After their minds were read, the entire court trembled with fear.

Chapter 30 One-Character Poem—Draw!

[Recently, the Empress has been pressuring us to have a baby quite intensely.]

Prince Duan and the Crown Prince are brothers from the same father and mother, with Prince Duan being only three years younger than the Crown Prince.

But look how old that grandson of the emperor who fell into the latrine is! He's so big.

Besides that one, there are several other imperial grandsons in the Eastern Palace.

Look again, Prince Duan doesn't have a single child.

The Empress was anxious, but after urging Prince Duan for decades, he ignored her completely, so she decided to set her sights on Prince Duan's wife.

[The Princess Consort of Duan, who was being pressured to have a child for the first time, was flustered. Previously, the Prince of Duan had always stopped her, but now that it had fallen on her, she felt that her carefree life for so long might be coming to an end.]

[But Princess Duan, who really didn't want to have children, wanted to subtly reveal to the old emperor that Prince Duan's increasingly strong homosexual tendencies were a problem.]

[They were trying to dissuade the Empress and the old Emperor from having children, since the Prince of Duan had little chance of becoming Emperor anyway, so whether he had children or not didn't matter much.]

The Vice Minister of War closed his eyes in despair: What a good daughter she is! Her method is so subtle.

Shen Zhiyi looked at Princess Duan with undisguised disapproval in her eyes.

I haven't seen someone this stupid in a long time.

The Vice Minister of War glared at Shen Zhiyi with annoyance.

What's wrong with his daughter being stupid?

You, Shen Zhiyi, are more like stupid; you can't even hide your thoughts.

[Even dumber than me.]

Vice Minister of War: ...

[They don't want a divorce, but they also don't want children. First of all, it's very difficult to have both in this world. Even among so-called DINK (Double Income No Kids) couples in modern times, very few can stick to it. Those men, since they're not the ones who give birth to the children, often change their mindset after a few years and want a child.]

Prince Duan felt wronged: But he was gay.

Oh, and whatever you do, don't believe those guys who say they like men. Do you know how "wives of gay men" came about? Their purpose is twofold: first, to cover for their parents; second, they might be used to have children later. In any case, they're not good people.

Prince Duan felt even more aggrieved: Actually, he had no interest in children!

As the saying goes, a man's words are deceitful. If he's not interested now, what about later? Even when a man is seventy or eighty, he can still have a baby. In any case, it's always the woman who suffers.

Shen Zhiyi became increasingly angry as she spoke.

So what does this scoundrel want? If he doesn't want children, he should stay single!

If you don't want a divorce, then be prepared that a child will eventually be born.

The Vice Minister of War trembled, covered his daughter's mouth, and kowtowed heavily to the old emperor.

"Your Majesty, I have served you faithfully, and though I have not rendered any great service, I have certainly endured much hardship. I beg Your Majesty to issue a decree for a divorce."

"Father, um."

Princess Duan was slapped away by the Vice Minister of War.

Wow, this Vice Minister of War really loves his child!

But then again, you've neither made any contributions nor put in any effort.

The old emperor thought about it carefully and realized that it was indeed the case.

But now, in the eyes of outsiders, the fault lies entirely with his son.

Stop it.

The Vice Minister of War really knows how to pat himself on the back.

Among the Six Ministries, the Ministry of War was actually a relatively leisurely place, with few opportunities to achieve great merit or endure hardship.

Previously, Shen Zhiyi had always thought that the Ministry of War was just as busy as the Ministry of Personnel, since it was a place that managed the military, and who would have thought it would be so leisurely.

Military power was in the hands of the old emperor. The Ministry of War was only responsible for training soldiers, managing their salaries, and appointing and dismissing military officers—not much work, but hard labor.

[Damn, he looks much more relaxed than me.]

Shen Zhiyi gritted her teeth.

At this moment, a daily schedule of the Vice Minister of War was displayed above everyone's heads.

She got angrier and angrier the more she looked at it.

Why? Why?!

Aside from having to get up early every morning for court, this guy has absolutely nothing else to do.

[Oh, after court, I'll first brew myself some hot tea, then have some snacks, then read a book, and it'll be lunchtime. After lunch, I'll take a nap, then brew some more tea, then go to the drill ground to check on the soldiers' training, chat a bit, and then I can go home!]

Shen Zhiyi was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred!

This is the kind of life she dreamed of within the system.

Instead of the current situation where serving a ruler is like serving a tiger, and it's exhausting!

I got home so early!

How relaxing! This is the kind of life I love!

At this moment, the officials from the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Justice in the front courtyard showed the exact same look as Shen Zhiyi.

Some excited individuals even grabbed familiar colleagues from the Ministry of War standing next to them.

"All you do all day is drink tea and chat?"

The Ministry of War official shrugged and said, "No, that's not it."

The Ministry of War—such a sensitive place, who would dare to take any action?

If the Ministry of War gets too busy, it's like it's putting itself in a bad light with the Emperor.

The real power to command troops rests entirely with the emperor. The Ministry of War merely issues orders as a formality. Besides, there haven't been any battles recently, so they don't even have anyone to issue orders to. They can only drink tea and stroll around.

Shen Zhiyi felt resentful; even watching the fun wasn't interesting anymore.

The old emperor seriously reflected on whether he had been too exploitative of Shen Zhiyi, but then he realized that the Ministry of War was simply too idle.

We need to find them something to do.

How to keep the people in the Ministry of War busy without threatening their military power is a good question worth considering.

The old emperor, unable to come up with a solution for the time being, decided to deal with the troublesome matter at hand first.

First, he arranged for Prince Duan and Princess Duan to divorce, and then he dealt with his several younger brothers and sisters who had appeared out of nowhere.

If it weren't for the fact that many ministers already knew about this, according to the old emperor's method, such matters should have remained secret forever.

But with so many people knowing about it, settling them in is also a troublesome matter.

The old emperor was extremely annoyed by the thought of his father, who was still restless even after death.

a few days later.

When Yang Hao and her husband, who had just woken up, learned that all the children they had adopted over the years were actually the old emperor's younger brothers and sisters, they were dumbfounded.

The old emperor happened to send the Dragon Scale Guards to investigate, but they couldn't find anything out.

On the contrary, the things that are found out are not suitable to be said.

He simply bestowed honors upon Yang Hao and his wife, then allowed his younger siblings to be recognized as members of the family, and arbitrarily granted them titles and monthly stipends. This matter was thus temporarily put to rest.

Wait, I almost forgot something.

The old emperor had Chen Decai bring up the brambles and hand them to Yang Hao and her husband, solemnly saying, "The brambles haven't been pulled yet."

Mr. and Mrs. Yang refused to accept it no matter what they said.

“Even princes are subject to the same laws as commoners. The second son did something wrong, and you are his elders, so why can’t you smoke him?”

[Yes, yes, you are still the old emperor's elders, what's wrong with you smoking?]

Yang Hao and his wife's eyes widened in surprise.

What was that sound just now?!

The old emperor smiled mysteriously.

A single-word poem—draw!