"You brat, you've ruined me!"

"How dare this brat use us as a foil to compare with that person above! This is a sure - fire way to get us in trouble!"

Without further thought, before the person could finish speaking, they both stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, please see clearly. We firmly and solemnly support Your Majesty's decision.

Moreover, the Young Master is still young and should eat more. Unlike us adults who are strong and healthy, it doesn't matter if we stand."

The Right Prime Minister, Xu Su, also chimed in, "Yes, Your Majesty. What the Left Prime Minister said is right. I also think it's fine for the Young Master to attend court like this. I'm still young and I like to stand during court sessions."

Yue Fuguang nodded secretly and complained, "Yeah, do you think I, an immortal, want to come to this lousy court? Is my warm bed not warm enough or are the days of waking up naturally not comfortable enough?"

The system also agreed, [Yeah, Master is still young. Getting up so early makes me, little Zhuzhu, feel so sorry for you. Alas! Being a mortal is really hard!]

Yue Fuguang highly agreed, "Life here is indeed tough. There's nothing good. Oh well, I'm here to endure hardships, not to enjoy myself. I know that! Just consider this as a kind of spiritual practice!"

[Master, those who impeached you just now clearly aren't good people. No, I can't swallow this insult.

Wait, let me check if they've done any bad deeds. If so, I'll strike them with a thunderbolt! See if they still dare to bully you.]

Yue Fuguang quickly stopped it, "Little Zhuzhu, don't act rashly. If he's a bad person, we'll expose all the bad things he's done. You mustn't create a thunderbolt out of the blue. It'll scare ordinary people."

Hearing their conversation, everyone who could hear their thoughts was shocked and broke out in a cold sweat.

They all cast sympathetic glances at Zhao Xu, the Chief Censor who led the impeachment, and Feng Kun and Zhu Xin, the Deputy Directors of the Ministry of Rites.

It would be okay if these three were clean. But if not...

With the two prime ministers coming out to support, this matter was settled, and others began to present their reports.

Just then, the system's cheerful voice came, so loud that it even drowned out the voice of the lord who was speaking.

Of course, this was only for those who could hear the thoughts.

Those who couldn't hear saw that when Lord Wu was presenting his report, several lords around him frowned at the same time, and they looked puzzled.

They listened carefully and thought there was nothing wrong with what Lord Wu said. Why were these lords frowning?

Could there be something wrong with what Lord Wu said? But wasn't this confirmed with the emperor long ago?

The emperor has already agreed. How dare you oppose it?

On closer inspection, it could be found that those who frowned were all from the "sick" group, and there seemed to be a few new ones today.

These people were still complaining with them yesterday. Were they infected today?

[Master, I've found that this Chief Censor, Zhao Xu, is quite something. Don't be fooled by his serious and old - fashioned appearance, acting like he's the most upright and etiquette - abiding person in the Great Yan Dynasty. In fact, he's a hypocrite, a real beast in human clothing!]

Yue Fuguang was instantly intrigued and couldn't help asking, "Tell me in detail. How is this Lord Zhao, Zhao Xu, a beast in human clothing?"

[This Lord Zhao comes from a poor family. He was able to pass the imperial examination smoothly only because he married a concubine - born daughter of a salt merchant.

Because of this, he was afraid of being accused of coveting the woman's dowry, so he created an image of a man who fell in love with his wife at first sight and remained faithful to her after marriage.]

Even though his wife had not borne any children after three years of marriage, he did not take a concubine, which earned him an excellent reputation.

Zhao Xu relied on the dowry of his first wife to advance from a scholar to a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination). After achieving success, he lived up to the saying, "Once on shore, kick away the boat."

Shortly after passing the Jinshi examination, he began to despise his humble wife, who was from a merchant family, believing that she was unworthy of being the wife of a Jinshi.

Moreover, he didn't want his colleagues to know that he had passed the imperial examinations with the help of his wife's dowry, so he restricted his wife from attending any banquets among the wives of his colleagues.

At this time, Zhao Xu presented himself among his colleagues as a man of integrity, incorruptible and ungreedy for material desires.

Then, in the year when he passed the Jinshi examination, his humble wife died of a cold, leaving behind a five - year - old daughter and a two - year - old son.

Now that his low - status wife was finally gone, Zhao Xu was eager to marry a noble lady from the capital. Unfortunately, he was of ordinary appearance, and his only assets were his late wife's dowry. With two children in tow, no noble lady of any status would consider marrying him.

As time passed, nearly a year had gone by. He was not good at managing finances and had to deal with social interactions among his colleagues. He was also overly generous to maintain his facade.

In less than a year, most of his late wife's dowry had been squandered. Just when his finances were on the verge of collapse, his father - in - law came to him.

It turned out that at this time, his wife's family suspected that their daughter's death was suspicious and used this as leverage to force Zhao Xu to marry a daughter from the Qian family.

A more euphemistic way to put it was that the maternal family felt sorry for the two children left by their deceased daughter and arranged for the younger sister to marry in to take care of the young children.

To avoid any complications and having no better options, Zhao Xu had no choice but to remarry the youngest legitimate daughter of a salt merchant, who brought an even more generous dowry.

"This guy is just a gigolo. He even harmed his first wife to climb higher on the social ladder. I don't see where he's 'playboyish' at all," someone said.

"Master, please listen to me patiently. With the dowry of his current wife, Zhao Xu suddenly became wealthy again.

He looked down on people from poor families in his bones and was jealous of the aristocratic families. He spent the dowries of his two wives without a shred of guilt and kept taking concubines one after another.

He was also a regular at brothels, but always put on an air of being upright and noble on the surface.

His act deceived quite a few people, especially his colleagues from poor backgrounds like him.

Of course, he also secretly befriended some illegitimate sons or side branches of the aristocratic families.

Three years ago, a colleague with a wealthy family got into trouble. All the men in his family were exiled to the borderlands, and the women were sent to the music and dance academy.

Among them was the beautiful and well - pampered legitimate eldest daughter, who was sixteen years old. She was on the verge of getting married but was publicly jilted by her fiancé's family because of the family's misfortune.

As a result, she was sent to the music and dance academy along with the other women in the family.

Zhao Xu had long had evil intentions towards the girl who always called him uncle. He had only dared to secretly envy her family because of their good background.

Now that her family was in trouble and the girl had entered the music and dance academy, he saw his chance.

So, with his sweet talk and deception, Lord Zhao Xu became the girl's first lover.

Later, he pulled strings and found ways to fake the girl's death and got her out of the brothel, making her his seventh concubine.

The friend who helped him was none other than Feng Kun and Zhu Xin, who had just echoed his words earlier. These two assumed Zhao Xu was acting out of loyalty to his exiled friend, Lord Cai, by scheming to rescue the man's daughter.

Little did they know Zhao Xu was purely driven by lust, reveling in the corruption of once-privileged "noble ladies"—it fed his insatiable thirst for conquest and vanity.

Once he brought these women into his household, nightly debauchery ensued. The most outrageous part? He often demanded two or three concubines to serve him simultaneously. Despite his deceptively slender appearance, his haggard frame betrayed a body ravaged by excess.

Seven concubines at home, two more stashed away outside—tsk tsk...