After the wrong flirtation, I became the villain's favorite

The night banquet in the palace has just ended.

The emperor returned to the harem and, according to ancestral custom, had to stay up all night in the queen's palace on New Year's Eve. But when he thought of the queen, he could only think of her red eyes from crying and her increasingly crazy words.

I really don't want to go.

The tallow candle was crackling and the emperor stared at the flame in a daze.

The eunuch outside the palace gate bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, the Empress said that she has a headache and is not fit to meet you..."

The emperor was distracted for a moment, thought for a while, and said with relief, "I understand. Let the queen take good care of herself."

The young couple had been together for decades, and at a moment like this, their tacit understanding made people smile bitterly.

Xiao Huang's departure finally made the emperor and empress completely lose their hearts.

The emperor felt a tightness in his chest. Just now at the banquet, the civil officials in the cabinet did not forget to force him to appoint a crown prince in an indirect way.

He had some selfish thoughts and was always conflicted.

That child, his and Jia Niang's child, looks really like his mother.

He had seen him from afar and really wanted to recognize him.

But Jia Niang once said that she would never see him again, and even their child was given the surname Xie.

The emperor pinched his brows, feeling that he was getting increasingly ill in recent years. He took out the jade ring from the secret compartment, and the two characters "Xi Zheng" engraved on it became more and more rounded as he rubbed it.

Xi Zheng is his courtesy name.

The emperor's voice was weary. "That boy did a good job in the North, didn't he?"

When the old lady heard this, she was startled, knelt down and dared not say a word.

"He is a second-rank general, and he earned his title himself." The emperor said, feeling somewhat relieved. Although the title was conferred by him personally, he did not have any selfish motives in mind.

The emperor looked at the old eunuch kneeling on the ground, "What do you think?"

The old eunuch knew that he could not escape the emperor's questioning, so he raised his head and said, "Your Majesty... General Xiao Tan's reputation is not right, so his words will not flow. He must not be the choice of the crown prince."

The emperor was somewhat happy, because thanks to his eldest son Xiao Xuan who gave him the imperial surname, Xie Tan was able to change his surname back to Xiao. No matter how you look at it, it was like returning to one's roots.

He felt a little uncomfortable again, as if it was neither right nor reasonable... It was this sentence that stood between him and Lan Jia back then.

Jia Niang.

Jia Niang should have been his, what does it have to do with the Xie family?

He went over what happened back then in his mind many times, and the more he thought about it, the more confused he became. It was obvious that Jia Niang had a mutual understanding with him first, so how could she have been given to Xie Zhihuan by him by mistake?

Lan Jia was a concubine waiting to be selected in the palace. She was a gentle, tactful and elegant person, and he liked her at first sight. However, the queen's mother's family was so prominent that she did not allow him to choose someone he truly liked.

She lost the election, but he thought it was okay, there were plenty of ways to get her into the palace.

Before he had the chance to do it, that day Xie Zhihuan came to the palace and begged him to grant the marriage. Xie Zhihuan had made great contributions, so the marriage should be granted. However, he didn't know that the person Xie Zhihuan wanted was Lan Jia.

His wife.

He gave it to another man with his own hands.

The emperor heaved a long sigh, and his old body leaned weakly on the pillow, finally relieving himself of the slight drunkenness he had just felt.

When he learned that Lan Jia had been married to a minister by his own hands, his heart was filled with anger, regret, and indignation at being fooled.

Why was Jia Niang granted marriage openly, but he, as the emperor, had no idea who he was marrying?

He had studied the trick in this matter thoroughly, and it was just as he thought. The Queen did not want to have a favorite concubine before she entered the imperial palace. The Queen Mother was traumatized by the fact that the previous Emperor favored Concubine Tong, and she would never tolerate a concubine who might disrupt the government.

The emperor is ruthless. If he had feelings and favoritism, no one would tolerate it.

After all, he was too young at the time and did not know how to hide his feelings, so he exposed his love for Jia Niang in front of everyone too early.

He originally wanted to suppress his feelings for her, but who knew that the feeling of being unable to be loved was so unbearable. He overestimated his ability to bear it. Regret and remorse eroded his heart day and night. Why couldn't he do whatever he wanted after becoming an emperor?

Gradually, I developed inner demons.

The Xie family is noble and is the leader of the clear-minded literati. If he seizes the wife of a minister today, he can seize the wives of all the scholars in the world tomorrow. He has just ascended the throne, so he must not do this.

But the demon in his heart was hard to get rid of. On the eve of Xie Zhihuan and Lan Jia's wedding, he was overwhelmed by jealousy and regret and impulsively forced himself on her.

She bit her lip, her eyes were empty, her tears and resentment pierced his heart, "Your Majesty, you treat me like this, have you ever thought about how I will survive in this world in the future?"

"Why don't you marry me?"

He had no choice. Even as an emperor he had to consider the etiquette and laws of the world. He couldn't marry her!

"I just want to ask you one question: Do you have feelings for me?" he asked.

She stopped crying and looked at him coldly, as if his impulsiveness just now had finally washed away her last bit of reluctance and love for him. "Your Majesty, if you can't even keep me, do you still want my heart?"

Before he left, she wanted to commit suicide. The emperor could only be ruthless and said, "If you commit suicide and something goes wrong, I will execute all twelve members of your Lan family."

In the days that followed, the emperor was tormented by his conscience and his longing for Jia Niang.

It was not until the news of Jia Niang's death came that the emperor realized that he had truly missed her. Both the love and the hate had disappeared with her departure.

What was left to him was regret that he had no one to confide in during the long night and the growing longing.

Even if he gained the whole world, there would still be someone whom he could never get in his lifetime. The thought of it was painful, and this pain was endless and unresponsive, and it almost crushed him.

She left him a message saying that the child's surname was Xie and she would never see him again.

But he knew that it was her and his child.

It had just snowed, and the ground in the palace was covered with a thin layer of snow. There was a sense of loneliness and desolation. The emperor had grown old, and he was staggering along the long corridor of the harem. His once tall and majestic body was now hunched over. The chilly breath penetrated his lungs, making them cold and stinging.

Before I knew it, I had arrived at Rongfei's palace.

Rong Fei looks 70% similar to Jia Niang. She was the woman he found after he had established his foothold in the court. As soon as she entered the palace, she was made a concubine and was the most favored in the harem for a long time.

She is neither arrogant nor impetuous, but gentle and kind, and she does not take advantage of her favor to become proud. This gentle appearance is really very similar to Jia Niang.

But she did not have Jia Niang's stubborn and pretending to be strong, nor did she have Jia Niang's sad eyes that seemed to resent and love him at the same time.

When Concubine Rong saw the emperor coming, she hurried out of the palace to greet him, a little confused, "Your Majesty, why are you here at this time?"

Tonight is New Year's Eve, the emperor and the empress should stay up together.

The emperor looked at Rong Fei's jet-black hair. If he didn't look at her eyes, her nose, lips, and the curve of her neck were all very similar to Jia Niang. His heart softened, and he felt sour and astringent, and indescribably uncomfortable.

The emperor rarely asked to stand up, but leaned over to help Rong Fei up, "I will rest here with you tonight."

Concubine Rong was flattered.

Before the emperor came, she had already taken off her hairpins and went to bed without even putting on makeup. Rong Fei was embarrassed and ashamed, "I haven't washed my hair yet, I don't have the face to see the emperor..."

She did not dress up tonight, which allowed the emperor to see the young Jia Niang of the past. His clenched heart relaxed a lot, and while he was drunk, he wanted to be more unrestrained.

Just treat her as Jia Niang and have a nice talk with her.

The emperor murmured, "What do you think of the eldest brother? The sixth brother is too diligent and capable..."

"Who do you think I should make the crown prince?"

Without saying a word, Concubine Rong knelt down tremblingly.