On the Difficulties of Escape in Ancient Times

The new emperor has ascended the throne, and General Li is now the Minister of War. Although he is still a second-rank official, he has real power.

Li Yan is also one of the six deputy commanders of the Imperial Guards, and Li Yuan also works in the Hanlin Academy. The Li family is indeed now favored by the emperor.

Therefore, even if Madam Li brought her sister-in-law from her natal family to add dowry, Madam Zhou was very unwilling, but she did not turn them away.

This morning, she heard from the servants that her mother-in-law had come with her two daughters-in-law. Even though one of them was her own daughter, she still had to go out to greet them.

Even though she looked down on Grandma Li's background, she was willing to let Xiao become a guest of honor in the Zhou Mansion just because she had saved her two daughters.

So when she saw Xiao Xiao was about to bow to her, she quickly stepped forward to hold her hand, smiling and saying, "Grandma, don't be so polite. You are such a beautiful lady. It makes people happy to see you. You must come here often."

This is also true. When Xiao Xiao came to visit, she would of course smile. There was light in her eyes when she looked at people, which made people happy when they saw her.

Xiao Xiao didn't dare to be arrogant. Even though her hands were held by her, she still knelt down and smiled sweetly: "As long as Madam doesn't mind, I will come often."

"That's good. We are in-laws," Madam Zhou clapped her hands and then greeted Madam Li: "Mother-in-law, we should interact more often, right?"

Who made the men in Li's mansion so ambitious, while the men in Zhou's mansion were not?
Now her eldest daughter is going to be the queen. In order to ensure the stability of her eldest daughter's position as queen, she dare not offend the emperor's favorite.

After all, the eldest daughter of the family is a widow who remarried. In addition, the new emperor is nearly forty years old, so it is uncertain whether the eldest daughter can give birth to children in the future.

Regardless of whether the girl can give birth in the future, it is a matter of life and death.

In other words, ordinary officials would be ecstatic if the girl in their house became the queen.

Unlike the Zhou Mansion, although the aunt was only a princess before, she was like a queen. However, in order not to hinder the princess, the Zhou Mansion exercised strict discipline on the people in the mansion.

Therefore, although the children of the Zhou family did not have great prospects, the reputation of the Zhou family was good.

Now that the eldest daughter has become the queen and the prince has already started a family, the first wife must be wishing that her daughter will not be able to give birth to a legitimate son in the future.

It can be said that the fact that the new emperor wanted to marry his own daughter had caused a rift between the first and second branches of the Zhou family.

But what makes them depressed is that the Zhou family is not powerful and has always been dutiful. Why does the new emperor want to cause internal strife in the Zhou family?

Therefore, they now have to win over their youngest daughter's in-laws.

Especially Xiao's husband, who originally followed the prince, but now holds the position of deputy commander of the Imperial Guards, which makes them even more confused. They can only say that the emperor's mind is unfathomable.

Xiao Xiao first drank some tea in the main courtyard and heard the two ladies gossiping. Then the housekeeper came and reported that some relatives from Madam Zhou's family were outside to add to the dowry.

Mrs. Zhou had no choice but to let her youngest daughter accompany them to meet her eldest daughter while she went to receive the guests herself.

Who asked them to ask Mrs. Li’s sister-in-law to add makeup yesterday?

The old lady said last night that visits from relatives are inevitable and no longer strict precautions are taken. Just accept the additional dowry, but as for whether the young lady can meet the eldest girl, that depends on her decision.

In fact, Mrs. Li felt a little guilty and short of breath facing the future empress.

When I saw her, I remembered that I almost kicked her out before.

Even though no one knew about this except them, she still felt a little uneasy every time she saw Miss Zhou with a reserved look on her face.

But when Miss Zhou enters the palace in the future, she will inevitably have contact with him, so now she can only get familiar with him first.

He came in, said hello, said a few polite words, and left under the pretext of taking a walk in the yard.

Although Xiao Zhou was curious about what her elder sister wanted to say to Xiao Xiao, she did not dare to go against her elder sister's wishes, so she simply accompanied her mother-in-law to appreciate the flowers.

"Congratulations, young lady." Xiao Xiao took the opportunity to present the gift list: "I am a rough person, but I would like to show off my knowledge of culture for once and prepare some Ru kiln porcelain for you." The Li family has not yet been divided. According to common sense, Madam Li has already given generous gifts, so Xiao Xiao does not need to prepare any gifts.

But if Xiao Xiao wanted to give it to her, Mrs. Li would not refuse.

"Then I won't be polite." Miss Zhou took the gift list and looked at it, then smiled: "Thank you, Madam, for the expense."

Xiao Xiao thought: It didn't cost me much, it just took some effort.

Miss Zhou looked at her without blinking and asked, "Xiao Xiao, do you think I can live to the end of my life in the palace?"

Xiao Xiao couldn't laugh anymore when she heard this.

She and Miss Zhou are really not that familiar with each other, right?

How should she respond to such a question?

Xiao Xiao stared at her with eyes wide open: "Fortunately, I have a good heart and a lot of courage. If someone else heard what you said, they would probably be scared to death."

She suspected that Miss Zhou was suffering from pre-marital depression, but unfortunately the man was the most powerful person in the world.

No, he can only be called the Supreme of the South.

Xiao Xiao hesitated for a moment, then continued, "The new emperor has just ascended the throne, and all the civil and military officials have gathered in the court. The emperor must have thought it over carefully and thought you were suitable for the position of empress, so he asked to marry you."

She said this to tell Miss Zhou that there would definitely be opposing opinions in the court, and that the new emperor had put a lot of thought into marrying her in order to suppress the officials who had objections.

Miss Zhou smiled faintly: "Others have said this to me before, but now I hear you say it too, and I am still happy to hear it."

Xiao Xiao thought to herself: You are happy, but I am restless, afraid that you will say something shocking again.

If she had known this earlier, she would have brought her mother-in-law here with her so that she wouldn't have heard these scary words.

Fortunately, Miss Zhou did not say anything shocking again, but instead asked about the gossip outside about her remarriage.

When Xiao Xiao spoke to her, she was really on her toes, fearing that she might say something wrong.

She finally understood what it meant to be on pins and needles.

That was exactly how she was at that moment.

This short half hour felt like a year to her.

Even so, Miss Zhou still refused to let her go: "I heard that you are very good at archery. It just so happens that I also know a little bit. How about we compete?"

Xiao Xiao readily agreed: "Okay."

Talking to her was too much of a brain-worker, she would rather go shooting arrows.

The Zhou Mansion also has a small martial arts training ground, which is about two acres in size. It is not known whether the Zhou family cleared the grounds in advance or no one likes this place. Anyway, when they brought their maids here, there was no one here.

Miss Zhou's archery skills were beyond Xiao Xiao's expectation. Although not every arrow hit the target, she only missed three out of the twenty arrows.

Of course Xiao Xiao didn't give in to her, instead she was even better than her.

"Your arrows are really good." Miss Zhou was also a good match, and she felt even more happy: "Let's have another match when we have a chance." (End of this chapter)