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Thus, regarding that ritual debate fought in the name of filial piety, he and Prime Minister each took a half-step back: though he did not need to address his biological father as uncle, and his posthumous title was changed from prince to emperor, and he was welcomed from the fief, he could not enter Imperial Ancestral Temple and was instead housed in Imperial Outer Temple in the capital.

His birth father, Emperor Changxian, had a peculiar title that proved he was the emperor's biological father, yet it could not be officially verified.

The first round of confrontation was not initiated by him, yet he suffered a crushing defeat. Prime Minister suspected that his personal rule showed disrespect toward Late Emperor, and therefore monopolized state affairs completely; he bided his time, only studying and never questioning. For the second round of confrontation, he made ample preparations—whether it was the military command of Dongxu Mansion or the support of the court, in the end he needed someone like Zhu Cong to stir up trouble, someone who could cast aside the empty courtesies of ruler and subject, and who was not afraid of drowning in the spittle of pedantic scholars or being called a shameless flatterer.

He admitted that this was precisely why he had set his sights on Zhu Bafu.

She indeed lived up to expectations, stirring things up all the way until Prime Minister could not sleep peacefully, from revising rebellious poetry to taking sides in Autumn Examination. He should have been happy, glad that someone did the things for him that were inconvenient for him to do, but he could no longer treat her like other chess pieces; he could not casually discard her on the chessboard. He wanted to pick this chess piece up off the chessboard, tuck her