On the way to escape famine, my parents divorced

(Thanks to book friend 20220730140627196 for voting 3 monthly tickets.)
The Xingsheng Building in the city's capital is three stories high, with four doors open. Just standing outside and looking at it, you can tell it's an upscale place.

Li Shiyue, who had been standing at the door for a while, was struggling internally.

"Well, I always feel that if I go to the palace to buy information about the interpersonal relationships, I will be a little sorry for Yan Jiuniang."

After much thought and preparation, Li Shiyue finally went in.

The first floor of Xingsheng Building is a trading place for bulk goods. If you want to buy or sell information, you have to take a sign and go to the second floor.

The five rooms on the left upstairs are for selling news, and the five rooms on the right are for buying news.

Li Shiyue took the sign and entered the third room on the right.

As soon as I entered, a middle-aged man with a short beard standing behind a tall cabinet looked at me with a smile.

"Dear guest, what would you like to buy?"

Li Shiyue directly asked for information about the interpersonal relationships in the Zhenbei Palace. The man's expression did not change at all after listening to what Li Shiyue said. He even said, "Do you want the distinguished guest to be of high class? Middle class? Or low class?"

Seeing Li Shiyue's puzzled expression, the man explained, "The news in our building is divided into three levels. The top level is the most detailed and updated most timely; the middle level is the second; and the bottom level is the worst."

After asking the price, Li Shiyue made a big investment and bought a copy of the top-quality news. He saw the man climbing up the ladder and rummaging through the cabinet at the back. Then he took out a booklet bound in yellow paper.

"Dear guest, there is a room on the right. You can read the news in it for one hour, but you are not allowed to copy it.

After half an hour, just put the booklet in the tray in the room, and when you come out, someone will lead you out."

Li Shiyue took the booklet from the man and walked to the right. There were a row of small houses inside. She randomly chose one and went in.

With the door closed, the room is only two feet square, so only one person can sit in it.

If I were a bit more muscular, I'm afraid I would just have to stand.

Li Shiyue was thin, so she sat down. She used the light coming through the high window in the small room to read the booklet covered with words written densely on the jute paper.

She carefully read the information written in the booklet twice, and had a further speculation in her mind about what happened in the palace today.

According to what was written in the booklet, we can only say that today's situation was either set up by Prince Zhenbei himself, or by other concubines with children in the backyard of King Zhenbei, except for the princess.

If it is the King of Zhenbei, then the King of Zhenbei’s motive lies in the military power in Liu Tan’s hands!
The reputation of the Xuanjia Army was well-known in Anton, but the only general recognized by the Xuanjia Army was Liu Tan.

His son's military power is greater than that of his father. How can the King of Zhenbei tolerate this if he is a little narrow-minded?

Even though the entire Dalong Dynasty has temporarily entered a period of stability with less war, judging from the obvious signs of chaos before, how many years can the world remain peaceful?

At this time, it is natural for people to want to accumulate strength and take control of the military power into their own hands.

Therefore, King Zhenbei certainly had a motive.

If successful, he could easily take away Liu Tan's military power, and replace the crown prince, leaving the crown prince position to the son born to his favorite concubine.

Yes, it was written in the booklet that before the King of Zhenbei was crowned, he married the eldest daughter of a third-rank civil official as his principal wife. One year after the marriage, the principal wife died while giving birth, leaving behind only a baby girl.

Now, the baby girl has already married and has given birth to two children.

When the princess died, he naturally had to remarry. But at that time, the Prince of Zhenbei had already been granted the title of Prince of Andong, and Emperor Xianzong Liu Chun had already begun to seek immortality, so the Prince of Zhenbei had not yet found a suitable wife with a suitable family background.

But not remarrying doesn't mean that the King of Zhenbei is short of women.

At this time, the mother of the eldest son Liu Tan was taken into the palace by the King of Zhenbei. Liu Tan's mother was the concubine daughter of the then Protector of Andong.

When Liu Tan was born, Prince Zhenbei married his second wife, Princess Zhao Changying.

Zhao Changying was from a noble family in Guanlong. His grandfather was the Minister of the Central Secretariat and had the ability to see the emperor directly and make secret reports.

But for some reason, Zhao Changying had not been pregnant for many years after she got married. However, the Prince of Zhenbei was not idle. The concubines in the palace had already given birth to three daughters and two sons for him.

At the same time, he also hooked up with a widow from a scholarly family.

This woman is Yan Xuefei, the mother of Yan Jiuniang.

The worst thing was that when Prince Zhenbei first met Yan Xuefei, he applied for the job of a live-in son-in-law with the intention of just having fun.

He even got married to Yan Xuefei and lived like a commoner couple for about a month before revealing his true identity.

"How about I take you as my concubine?"

The Prince of Zhenbei originally thought that the position of Xu Yanxuefei as a concubine was already a great favor to this official lady from a scholarly family.

But how could he have imagined that Yan Jiuniang's mother was not the kind of person who would accept things passively!

If she were, she wouldn't have insisted on marrying a son-in-law after being a widow, against all odds.

Mother Yan directly picked up the broom and swept King Zhenbei out of the house.

But after more than a month, the missed menstrual period made Yan's mother realize that she might be pregnant. She invited a doctor to her home, and found out that she was pregnant.

Upon hearing the news, the Prince of Zhenbei came again to take a concubine. In a rage, Yan's mother put the golden hairpin on her head against her neck and screamed at the Prince of Zhenbei: "I, Yan Xuefei, will never be a concubine! If you force me again, let me die!"

At this point, the King of Zhenbei gave up the idea of taking Yan Xuefei as a concubine, and instead wanted to keep Yan's mother as a mistress.

Unexpectedly, Yan's mother refused to listen and took her dowry to a nunnery on the mountain to become a Buddhist nun. Later, when she was about to give birth, Yan's mother returned to the Yan family.

After Yan Jiuniang was born, she took her mother Yan's surname Yan and followed the Yan family's ranking, so she was Yan Jiuniang.

When Yan Jiuniang was four years old, Princess Zhao Changying finally became pregnant and gave birth to Liu Shu in February of the following year.

When Liu Shu was five years old, the King of Zhenbei wrote to him and requested that he be made the crown prince.

At the same time, the concubine Zhou of the Zhenbei King gave birth to another son.

This concubine Zhou is the one mentioned in the booklet, the apple of the eye of Prince Zhenbei and his most beloved concubine.

Li Shiyue looked at the summary on the last page of the booklet: "The King of Zhenbei is now forty-two years old, with seven sons and seven daughters. The eldest, second, third, and fourth daughters are all married;
The eldest son was married, and the second and third sons were born to concubines. After they grew up, they got married and were sent to serve as officials in other places.

The remaining four sons and three daughters are still unmarried.”

Finally, Li Shiyue concluded: "If it wasn't for the Zhenbei King himself setting the trap, the most likely person to set up the trap in the palace today would be the concubine Zhou who has two sons." (End of this chapter)