Refusing to Serve Me? Then Off With Your Head!

Chapter 47 A Virtuous Empress?

Behind the emperor's back, E Huang laughed so happily, "Your Ladyship, this servant has never seen the emperor that shocked before.... With how embarrassing they were, His Majesty probably will not spare them much look from now on! This is a highly-skilled move from you, Your Ladyship!"

Cough.... Honestly, I just thought that those concubines felt too confined in the palace and had no idea how they could spend their energy. That was why they kept figuring out ways to torture their servants, and that was also why the murder cases never stopped.

However, what I did not get was why the emperor hugged me when I was in a similar sweaty, embarrassing situation yet actually reacted with such disgust when he saw those concubines.

A pleasant feeling slowly rose within me. I drank the tonic E Huang gave me and it actually tasted a little sweet.

3 months later, the concubines were like flowers during fall. The usually ostentatiously dressed concubines now had tanned skins. Since they did not want sweat to ruin their make-ups, they now came over with bare faces. Besides, concubines were usually not allowed to dress more excessively than the empress and since I hated dressing up..... If one looked from afar, Feng Zhao Wen's back palace was really refreshing and clean.

General Hu Guo entered the palace to visit the empress dowager and bumped into Consort De along the way. He almost did not recognized his own daughter. If Consort De had not called him Father, he would have thought she was a low-ranked concubine who did not receive favor.

The back palace had always been intricately connected to the court.

Right now, General Hu Guo was only an empty title. On the first court session after His Majesty got married to me, General Hu Guo was made to completely hand over his power to His Majesty. General Hu Guo used to control 1/3 of the Great Qi's troops and now those troops were completely under the emperor's control.

Though the power struggle in court more or less had it's effect to the concubines, it did not had anything to do with me. Though His Majesty would occasionally bully me and locked the door while doing so, I no longer fawned after him like I used to.

Feng Zhao Wen really regretted that. When the servants were not around, he would sigh to me, "If zhen had known this earlier on, zhen wouldn't have married you. Zhen would have glued you to Zhong Hua Palace as a maid instead, see if you would still dare to fight zhen then. Nowadays, even begging you to make zhen tea is hard!"

"Your Majesty has hands and feet, must you order me about for you to be happy?" I casually strolled passed the imperial desk and buried myself in his chest. I took the memorial on his hand and gave it a look. Complicated text filled the memorial. I massaged his temples in sympathy, "If you are in a battlefield and received this kind of report, it will hinder the military operation. These rotten people only know to write excessive allusions to appear well-learned."

His phoenix eyes twinkled as he held me tight against him, giving me a fierce kiss. Once my face was filled with saliva, he spoke in appreciation, "No wonder people praised the empress, calling the empress wise and sympathetic, virtuous and frugal. Ever since you took control of the harem, the expenditure of the entire back palace has reduced greatly. If any of them dares to write like this anymore, we should throw the memorial back to them and ask them to rewrite it; they need to use simple and straightforward sentences so that the content of the memorial is accurate and concise!"

He swept all the memorials down the table with one hand before placing me on top of the table. He looked like he was going to take off my clothes.

However, I was interested in what he was saying, so I refused to fulfill his wish. I grabbed his belt and refused to let go, "Someone really praised me? Are you sure they weren't scolding me?"

The way His Majesty stared at me was like how a proud Father would look at his accomplished daughter, he looked pretty arrogant and proud as he spoke, "Speaking about that, it was all due to General Hu Guo."

Turned out that after General Hu Guo bumped into Consort De, he listened to some gossip in the empress dowager's palace. Relying on his past merit, he blasted me while attending the morning court the next day. He said I was cruel to the concubines and kept on deducting their allowances. He basically painted me as a jealous, poisonous and non-virtuous mother of the kingdom.

The emperor's defense was very short; he compared the expenditures of when the empress dowager was in power to mine. He even invited the Head of Imperial Physicians over to back up his claim.

Making those concubines run was only to keep them fit. The Head of Imperial Physicians was the witness to that. The concubines were rarely sick these days and thus reduced the expenditure for medicines.

Then, the supervisor eunuchs and female officials were summoned. They told the court of my penchant for plain dresses and my dislike of make-up. The concubines were impressed and followed the empress' lead and thus cut off the spending for dresses and make-ups. I did not cut off their allowances.

In the blink of an eye, the court was in an uproar. The officials praised me and called me a virtuous empress.

There were wars for many years. It had been 3 years since the last war; the common people had only returned to their hometown and it was only recently that the court was unified, they naturally wouldn't dare to raise the tax. All those barren agricultural lands had become tax-free for three years. The treasury being empty was not a mere lie that Feng Zhao Wen gave the empress dowager, it was true.

I really needed to thank the old General. He cared too much for his daughter and in the end helped me became smart and virtuous in front of the other ministers.

I was too complacent in my worldly dawdle that I failed to recognize the wisdom and virtue in me. I angrily pulled at His Majesty's ear, "Will you still dare to say you regretted marrying bengong?"

He scoffed before lifting me up and carrying me to the dragon bed. There were traces of smiles in his eyes, "You are pasting gold onto your own face. You are too used to posing as a man, that's why you do not like make up and ostentatious dresses." Then, he bitterly pointed an accusing finger towards me, "The concubines in zhen's harem are really pitiful. They used to dress so prettily; just one look at them and one's heart will be pleased. They used to be so pleasing to the eyes. Nowadays, they are dressed in ashen grey. And now, they have to run everyday. They might as well be men..... Zhen has a really hard life as an emperor!"

I laced my hands around his neck and bit him on the lips, "What 'hard life' are you talking about?"

He was very cooperative and obediently answered me, "Being able to marry such a virtuous empress is zhen's fortune!" The two of us rolled around on the dragon bed; the situation was absurd and funny at the same time. The moment our eyes locked, we burst into laughter.

He outstretched his arm and placed me against his chest as he laughed without restrains. He scrutinized me before incredulously saying, "You.... A virtuous empress?"

Serene: This chapter was brought to you by Anna!