Chapter 854

With a divorce letter, Chu Shao Yang and Chen Ning became strangers. Then Chen Ning was married off to East Qin, traveling tens of thousands of miles. She would never see her son again.

Empress Dowager Zhou had finally gotten rid of one of her worries.

But thinking of Chen Ning's appearance, she couldn't help feeling pity for her son. Such a good girl had actually married off to East Qin, that East Qin Crown Prince was truly luckier than her son!

Empress Dowager Zhou shook her head and threw all her thoughts to the back of her head. There were still three days, so she had to make arrangements. She had to find a talented and beautiful girl to be her son's empress.

*

The emperor was going to choose an empress!

This news seemed to grow wings as it spread through the streets of the capital in a single night, causing an uproar in the capital.

Moreover, they also heard that the palace was going to hold a garden party in three days. All the talented girls in the capital would receive invitations, regardless of their family background. As long as the girl was talented, they would have a chance of being invited to the palace.

This information made the young ladies of prominent families extremely resentful, because they now had many more powerful competitors. However, it made the young ladies of commoner families cheer. They never dreamed that they would have the opportunity to enter the palace, and now this opportunity was right in front of them.

As long as they received the invitation and entered the palace, they would have a chance to obtain the emperor's favour. If they could enter the emperor's eyes, they would become phoenixes, going from a common girl to the empress of the world.

This was simply the dream of every girl!

Especially when they heard that the empress selection would focus on talent and not appearance. So, these girls who did not have outstanding looks were all secretly happy. In these three days, they did not let go of their books. They wanted to show off their talents at the garden party and amaze the world with a single move.

But those beautiful girls weren't discouraged. Although they valued talent and not appearance, how could they enter the emperor's eyes with only talent and virtue? Which man in this world did not like a delicate and beautiful face? They rushed to make new clothes and jewelry, hoping to attract the emperor's attention with their peerless beauty on that day.

In a single night, all the bookstores, embroidery shops, and jewelry stores were filled with young girls. They were thin and fat, wearing red and green, attracting the eyes of countless people.

The crowd surrounded these young girls and discussed who was more beautiful, who was more talented, and who had more hope of entering the Middle Palace.

*

Three days later, all the young girls who received invitations arrived at the palace gates early. Then they were sent to the royal garden in a sedan chair.

Whether they were beautiful or ugly, all the young girls were dressed beautifully with pearls around them. In all these years, this was the first time there were so many young girls in the palace. The palace guards and eunuchs couldn't even look at them.

The young girls walked in groups of twos and threes, strolling in the Imperial Garden. They greeted each other politely with a smile, exchanging pleasantries. However, their smiles were insincere. Their faces were harmonious, but their hearts were not.

They only knew that the Emperor would choose one of them to be the Empress today, but they didn't know how he would choose. Every one of them was anxious and fearful, and at the same time harbored deep hostility towards the young girl beside them. They wanted to find out the truth from each other's words, but they also wanted to conceal their own strength. They schemed and schemed against each other, fighting endlessly.