Edited by Elanor

Teng Yun looked at the bowl of fish soup on the table and said, “There was fish soup at noon as well.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” said Xiu Yao. “You’re from Feng Country, and most Feng people like freshwater fish dishes the most, so the kitchen made an effort to prepare fish soup for you as often as possible.”

Teng Yun frowned. Others just thought that the Empress was ugly, and because she was the mother of the country, they didn’t dare look closer to examine the Empress’ face. They couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with her.

But Teng Yun, how could he be oblivious? These purple and red swelling on his face obviously weren’t something that naturally occurred.

Fish causes body heat and it could cause or aggravate sickness. Having the fish soup every day would only make the swelling on his face even more painful.

Teng Yun did not drink the fish soup. But people in the Palace weren’t all fools. If someone really wanted to harm him, they could use other methods, other than giving him fish soup.

Xiu Yao didn’t understand why the Empress wouldn’t drink the soup. Teng Yun lightly said, “It’s salty.”

After the evening meal, the Little Crown Prince came again, looking extremely reluctant and unwilling to be there. Acting tough, he reasoned, “If Father hadn’t asked me to come, I wouldn’t have come here.”

Teng Yun merely said, “Xiu Yao, pour tea for the Crown Prince.”

“I am not drinking,” Xue Pei said, “I’ve come, so I can say I’ve come if he asks. I’m not staying here even for a moment longer.”

Actually, Teng Yun had already heard about that. Perhaps, Xue Junliang had deliberately sent the little prince to come and tell the news, in order to incite jealousy from the Empress. But Xue Junliang, of course, had miscounted Teng Yun. Teng Yun wasn’t a little consort striving to earn favors; he obviously wasn’t going to be jealous. He’d love to see Xue Junliang try.

In Teng Yun’s heart, only when Xue Junliang’s harem was in complete confusion and chaos, would he feel refreshed.

The little prince saw that despite his news, the Empress was calm and gentle. He fought to keep a smile on his face and said, “I heard that it was Defei who proposed that Mother should be present at the court tomorrow, and Father readily agreed… Defei also said… She said that you should wear a veil to cover your face so as to not scare Marquis Wannian.”

Teng Yun inwardly snorted. He hadn’t met this Defei, he didn’t know if Defei was as arrogant and domineering as rumored, but her being favoured was most probably true. Xue Junliang must definitely know about what generally happened inside the Imperial Harem, especially if Defei was bullying the Empress. Since he knew but did nothing about it, it could only mean that it had his tacit approval.

“Thank Defei on my behalf for her kindness.”

The little Crown Prince was stunned by these words. With his mood to mock the Empress gone, he excused himself.

—

Xue Junliang did indeed go to Defei’s Yuxiu Palace. In the beginning, Defei was a little apprehensive that the Emperor really had changed his temperament and started favoring the Ugly Empress. Her concern hadn’t yet bloomed into full-blown anxiety when Xue Junliang announced he was planning to visit Yuxiu Palace that evening.

Defei instantly felt her suspicions were unnecessary and superfluous. That ugly and hideous Empress; no matter how smart and clever she was, she was still ghastly. And which Emperor did not judge a person by her appearance.

In order to capture Xue Junliang’s heart, Defei took great pains to entertain him. In one evening, she did everything from dancing to playing the zither. She pulled out all the stops, frantically trying to entice Xue Junliang.

By her estimation, after three rounds of performances, Emperor Xue should be pretty drunk. At this time, Defei planned to pretend she was also drunk, then throw herself into the Emperor’s arms and coax him into bed.

However, her expectations were only wishful thinking and did not come into fruitification. Xue Junliang drank a lot of wine but he was certainly not drunk. Still, Defei gritted her teeth and pretended to be drunk. She was about to snuggle into Xue Junliang’s embrace when someone reported that Head Servant, Jiang Yu, requested an audience.

This late at night, His Majesty was alone with his consort in her bedchamber. Naturally, even if it was an important business, it should wait, right? But unexpectedly, Xue Emperor immediately ordered Jiang Yu to come inside, while telling Defei to go to the inner room so she wouldn’t disturb them.

Jiang Yu came in, and after saluting Xue Junliang, he said, “Reporting to Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has returned from Yunfeng Palace. This old servant had been following him, Crown Prince’s words were exactly as Your Majesty had expected, but the Empress remained unmoved.”

Xue Junliang leaned on the big chair, holding the wine cup in his hand, glanced at the slightly flickering candle on the table, smiled and said, “It seems that I really underestimated her before.”

Just as he finished saying this, he suddenly had an interesting thought, “Being the single heir, the Crown Prince has been spoiled for these many years, what do you think of letting him follow the Empress?”

Jiang Yu lowered his head and replied, “Your Majesty is wise, this is a good way. According to this old servant’s foolish opinion, though His Highness Crown Prince is intelligent, he is inevitably a little arrogant. Her Majesty the Empress’ temperament can help subdue him a bit.”

“Alright,” Xue Junliang threw his cup on the table and unfolded his long body up, “Then it’s settled… It’s getting late, let Defei rest early.”

After he finished speaking, he strode out of Yuxiu Palace.

When Defei came out of the inner room, she couldn’t see even Xue Junliang’s shadow. Only Jiang Yu was alone in the outer room. Jiang Yu relayed Emperor Xue’s words and then excused himself.

—

Although it would be a difficult situation for her Empress, Xiu Yao still nursed a glimmer of hope. Also, the Empress was her mistress, if it wasn’t up to her to dress the Empress sincerely, who else would bother?

Xiu Yao couldn’t sleep a wink last night in her excitement, she paced outside, afraid of waking up the Empress. Teng Yun’s face was hurting the whole night. Also, this wasn’t his home so he wasn’t comfortable. He was always a light-sleeper, too. Hearing Xiu Yao pacing back and forth, he shouted at her before she finally quieted down.

At dawn, Xiu Yao started helping Teng Yun to dress. This part was extremely uncomfortable for Teng Yun. Since he was nineteen, he’d started donning his leather armor by himself. He ate and slept with his soldiers everyday. He didn’t like being served by people. This was especially uncomfortable, because Xiu Yao would keep muttering things like, “Your Majesty, does this look good?”, “This dress will compliment your waist.”, or “Which hairstyle would be suitable?”

Xiu Yao fussed with Teng Yun’s head for one hour. By the time she finally finished, Teng Yun had used the whole time as an exercise of reigning his temper.

Teng Yun had just finished dressing up, when the Little Crown Prince came.

Xue Junliang indeed had been baiting Teng Yun. But his intention was only to test the Ugly Empress by using both Defei and the Crown Prince. He didn’t intend to make things difficult for the Empress, hence he sent the Crown Prince to accompany her.

The Crown Prince’s status in Xue Country was undoubtedly high. Emperor Xue sending the prince to the Empress’ Palace to accompany her to the hall, was to let everybody see she wasn’t an ordinary woman.

The court officials’ hearts were brimming with apprehension. They had seen for themselves how the Crown Prince and the Empress’ relationship was very close, just like biological mother and son.

Today was the day of change, the day people of the Imperial Harem felt alarmed that the Empress still had the Phoenix Seal, also had brought the Crown Prince to her side.