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"So Lord Pan was looking down on Minister Zhu for her humble background." The Holy Emperor smiled again, this time without mockery, even his brows touched by a soft halo as he openly cast his gaze upon Zhu Bafu kneeling in the hall. "No matter, her status in days to come will surely prevent Lord Pan from finding anything inappropriate about her acting on Zhen's behalf today."

These words meant one thing to the civil and military officials, but an entirely different thing to the few who knew Zhu Bafu's true identity. Zhu Bafu subconsciously glanced back at Long Ang, who had rambled on to her before the audience about sleeping in the imperial tombs and whatnot, only to see him give a slight nod and bow to her, his lips parting silently to mouth the two words: "Congratulations." Looking back up, she anxiously peeked at the Holy Emperor, running straight into his unmasked, determined gaze.

He had said it before: she did not need to be noble, for he would naturally make her noble; she did not need a grand status, for he would naturally grant her one.

Since they had agreed to forget his ungraceful and substandard confession, then she would forget it. It was a dark chapter of the past he had no wish to recall, and from now on, he would act instead of speak. Since she wished to be used by him to offset those petty romances, he would let her shine in the position he deemed most fitting. To welcome the Imperial Father's memorial tablet back to the Imperial Ancestral Temple on behalf of the emperor required none other than the Empress, and it was also time for his biological father to see the daughter-in-law he had chosen. After all, she was the only