Chapter 4
Chapter 4
However, Consort Shu did not quite believe me.
She looked at me suspiciously.
“Since when were you so kind?”
I yawned and said lazily, “It’s not entirely for your sake. Some time ago, His Majesty nearly took a new woman into the palace…”
Consort Shu’s expression turned serious.
She had heard a little about Consort An’s younger sister as well. If His Majesty had not suddenly broken out in hives, the matter might truly have gone through.
“But what does that have to do with me?”
I sneered.
“What does it have to do with you? Everything.”
“Clearly, we haven’t served His Majesty well enough. That’s why he has time to let his thoughts wander. Shouldn’t we put more effort into attending to the Emperor?”
“Yesterday, I worked hard enough to wring His Majesty dry. Today, you do your part properly. Don’t disappoint me.”
Consort Shu’s face turned crimson. She stood up and spat lightly.
“How can you be so vulgar?”
Consort Shu was a learned woman, unlike me, who had never amounted to much in either letters or arms.
In my previous life, her father and brothers were thrown into prison by the Emperor.
All she knew to do was kneel before the Emperor’s palace with the imperial edict in which The Late Emperor had praised her family’s loyalty and righteousness, begging His Majesty to show mercy, saying her father and brothers could never possibly rebel.
Unfortunately, His Majesty refused to see her.
After her father and brothers died, she starved herself to death to prove their innocence.
I had gone to such lengths to climb higher.
Part of it, at least, was because I feared being disposed of by the Emperor on a whim.
At least the Empress was the Emperor’s wife.
If he disposed of his wife casually, the officials at court would have plenty to say about it.
I scoffed.
“We’ve been in the palace for three years, yet not one of us has borne His Majesty a child.”
“Don’t you want to know whether His Majesty is the problem, or whether we are?”
“Besides, disaster is about to fall on your family.”
“If you become pregnant, you might even be able to save your father and brothers’ lives.”
Consort Shu turned pale with shock.
“What did you say?”
Only then did I act as if I had let something slip and hurriedly covered my mouth.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You did!”
“I did not. Consort Shu, don’t try to slander me. I’m leaving.”
I hurriedly slipped away.
Consort Shu was stubborn to the bone. If I told her outright that the Emperor was going to deal with her father and brothers, she definitely would not believe me.
But if suspicion took root and she went to investigate on her own, she would believe it for certain.
Sure enough, that very night, my maid said Consort Shu’s palace called for water several times and did not settle down until the third watch.
When I heard that, I was furious.
I had only managed to cling to His Majesty until the second watch.
Yet Consort Shu had actually battled His Majesty all the way to the third watch.
Could it be that she had more tricks and techniques than I did?
I had actually lost to Consort Shu!
Damn it!
Consort Shu monopolized His Majesty for several days in a row.
Her favor was so great it made others’ eyes go red with envy.
A few days later, she came to my palace with a grave expression.
After I dismissed everyone around us, she suddenly collapsed into a chair as if all the strength had drained from her body.
Her face was pale, and broken shards of tears glimmered in her eyes.
“Elder Sister, you were right. His Majesty really does intend to move against my father and brothers. He truly means to kill them.”
“But why? My father and brothers have always been loyal. My Song Clan has produced loyal officials for generations…”
I hurriedly cut her off.
“Stop, stop, don’t say any more.”
I could recite the rest of her speech by heart.
My ancestors helped His Majesty conquer the realm.
My grandfather was The Late Emperor’s Grand Tutor, and after his death, his spirit tablet was enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
My father was The Late Emperor’s study companion and stayed by The Late Emperor’s side for decades…
In my previous life, Consort Shu had repeated those words hundreds of times, hoarse from crying, and not once had they moved the Emperor’s heart.
I said, “Have you considered that perhaps he thinks your family is in the way?”
Consort Shu stood up agitatedly. “But my father is loyal to the bone. He supported His Majesty’s ascension to the throne with his own hands.”
“The first thing a cripple throws away after he can walk is his crutch.”
Consort Shu sank helplessly back into the chair and burst into mournful sobs.
“What should I do? If I die, will that…”
“Your death won’t help. His Majesty liking to sleep with you and wanting to kill your whole family are two different matters.”
Consort Shu choked. She lifted her reddened eyes and glared at me.
“Then what do you say I should do?”
I sighed.
“That depends on whether your father and brothers want their lives, or their offices.”
Consort Shu understood at once. She fell into thought.
“Even if I tell them, my father and brothers may not believe me.”
I took a bracelet of prayer beads from my wrist and handed it to her.
“Take this. Have your father bring the bracelet to my father. My father will tell him everything.”
That wretched Emperor was so vile.
He had handed the task of investigating Consort Shu’s father and brothers to my father. Although my father had found nothing at all, as long as he told them about this, Consort Shu’s father and brothers would lose heart.
These great Confucian scholars valued nothing more than devoting themselves completely until death.
Consort Shu’s father and brothers wanted to be Zhuge Liang.
Unfortunately, the Emperor was no Liu Bei.
Sooner or later, they would recognize reality.
And once they saw it clearly, that would be the moment they gave up hope.