As long as Emperor Lin was sound of mind, it was unthinkable for him to demote the current crown prince and to promote another in his place.
So, why did the mother, who forced her son to kill his pet rabbit today, think that she still had a chance at seizing the throne?
Lin Feilu pondered for a while. If there was anyone in the Imperial Harem that could cling to such thoughts and possessed the confidence to realize them, then it could only be Noble Consort Ruan.
The very same person whom Concubine Xu, the woman who fell ill from Lin Feilu's scare tactics, used to associate with.
There were two noble consorts in the Imperial Harem: first, there was the daughter of the Chancellor of the Left – Noble Consort Ruan. She was an unsurpassed beauty among her generation and was known as the Crown Jewel of the Imperial Harem. The other would be Noble Consort Xi, the younger sister of Zhenbei's Great General. She was an aloof person who was very proud of her family's prestige.
(T/N: A Chancellor of the Left is in modern terms equivalent to a Prime Minister. There is also a Chancellor of the Right, which is the Deputy Prime Minister. Depending on which dynasty, sometimes the Right Chancellor is higher ranking than the Left.)
Both noble consorts were favored by the emperor. Their families were equally powerful. The only difference was that Noble Consort Xi had no children while Noble Consort Ruan gave birth to the eldest prince Lin Ting.
By Great Lin Empire's tradition, the eldest son born to the Empress would succeed the throne. The sons of the emperor's concubines were considered second to the sons of the empress; and even then, only the eldest could succeed the throne.
The third prince was the crown prince while the first prince was the eldest son of the Emperor.
If anything were to happen to the crown prince, the next person in the line of succession would undoubtedly be the eldest prince.
Looks like I got it wrong this afternoon.
He wasn't my Third Brother, but my Eldest Brother.
There were rumors that mentioned Noble Consort Ruan had an aggressive and domineering personality. Taking advantage of the emperor's favor, she was even more fearless. However, Emperor Lin loved this part of her personality and he had even once praised her for being 'straightforward and frank'. Although the concubines in the Imperial Harem respected her authority, they were not afraid of her because Noble Consort Ruan was very outspoken. Her likes and dislikes would be clearly written on her face and she would never resort to plotting behind other people's backs.
Before, when Lin Feilu heard all of this, she thought that this noble consort was not the scheming type. She assumed this noble consort only managed to reach her current rank purely by her good fortune.
However, now that she knew that Noble Consort Ruan was the instigator to the rabbit-killing incident, Lin Feilu felt that the stories did not match.
Was this ruthless approach to parenting something a simple-minded person was capable of teaching?
Lin Feilu was delightfully surprised that there were other actresses than herself in this Imperial Harem.
After organizing her thoughts, Lin Feilu was intrigued by her new findings. But when she recollected her memories of the crying boy she met today, she could not help but to sigh. Since his mother had such ambitions, his future would surely be difficult.
♠♠♠
Lin Zhanyuan became very fond of the little rabbit.
Since he was born, he had never been outside of the house. He also had never made any friends. Due to his lower than average intelligence, there were many things in this world that he did not know or recognize.
Now he had this little rabbit who could run, jump and move. It also had soft, snow white fur and it looked very cute. A lone rabbit had opened the door to a new world for him. Apart from its eating and sleeping times, he would sit next to the rabbit's nest and play with it every single day.
The little rabbit nibbled on the vegetables quietly as he in turn, watched quietly.
When the little rabbit was hopping around in the yard, he would run after it, playing happily all day.
With him taking care of the little rabbit with such care, it also saved Lin Feilu a lot of effort. When eldest prince Lin Ting comes to visit his pet, he would be very pleased to see that it had grown fatter.