Arc 5.9 Empress of Four Kingdoms
"What did you just say," by this point, Emperor Li had already thrown out his polite speech as he narrowed his almost golden eyes, glowering down at the younger Emperor before him.
Hua Shen stood tall and dignified, unlike what would be expected of other youngsters his age especially in front of a monarch. Well, as tall and dignified as possible with his chin resting atop Li Feifei's head and his strong arms wrapped possessively around her waist.
Because Li Feifei was about a head and a half shorter than he was, his back was slightly slouched forward, but he was still able to maintain a regal aura tantamount to Emperor Li's.
The young Emperor of Hua flashed a childish smile towards the Emperor of Li, "Imperial Father-in-law, this son-in-law asked for Fei-er's hand in marriage and hoped to merge our two kingdoms."
"WHAT. I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT ONE MORE TIME, " Emperor Li smashed his jade cup down onto the small table before him, shattering both the table and the cup upon impact.
But none of that seemed to bother Hua Shen as the youngster remained oblivious, "Imperial Father-in-law, this son-in-law asked for Fei-er's hand in marriage and hoped to merge our two kingdoms."
He even added a finishing line as if he and Li Feifei had already done the deed and they had no choice but to continue on with the marriage, "Imperial Father-in-law, please give us your blessing."
Emperor Li wanted to cough blood but had to maintain his majestic air as the highest in seniority within the throne room at this moment.
Seeing as this shameless upstart emperor's face was too thick, Emperor Li instead turned to his daughter and his eyes and tone of voice softened considerably.
"What are Fei-er's thoughts about this marriage? It's okay to be truthful."
Li Feifei inwardly raised a brow as she thought, Father, if this one were to be truthful you would certainly have a heart attack and die, which is not good for my side mission. After all, the truth is that my soul is already pregnant with this devil's child ah.
But she forced herself to blush as she directed her gaze to the floor and meekly replied, "Imperial Father, Fei-er feels that Shen-gege is much better than General Long."
Hearing this, Emperor Li's smile froze. Actually, his entire being froze in disbelief and despair. But Li Feifei was also royalty and tried to give him rational reasons.
"If Li and Hua form a permanent alliance, the citizens will only prosper and never suffer. Imperial Father, this princess will guarantee that our citizens of Li will never suffer in the hands of Hua."
The emperor sighed, "Fei-er. Father is ashamed to admit that father doesn't care about them right now as much as father cares for Fei-er's happiness. Emperor Hua Shen, is an emperor. Do you understand?"
What he didn't need to say was that Emperors always had to take in concubines whether they wanted to or not. Even him, who only wanted to stay faithful to his beloved Empress couldn't shy away from his duty as the ruler of a nation.
He didn't want his only daughter to suffer such a fate as having to fight other venomous snakes in the Imperial Harem. His own was already a pesky existence and the only one causing all the trouble was one lone concubine, what more if one should speak of Hua Shen.
Emperor Li only knew that Hua Shen was still young and full of vigor. He may be passionate over his daughter now, but who could say that he would still favor her even in the future after tasting all the women he could get in his own Imperial Harem?
And the worst part was that if she were to marry, a married daughter was like spilt water. There was no way he could help her out because she'd be in Hua and who knew if the information he could get on her would remain accurate?
Li Feifei wanted to say, What kind of woman hasn't this devil tasted? But she knew that would only make Emperor Li disapprove of him even more, so she kept her mouth shut.
Instead, she snorted as mannerly as she could, "Imperial Father, don't worry. If Ah Shen were to ever wrong this princess, this princess will make sure to bring your grandchild and all of Hua back to Li to settle with a better man."
In other words, if Hua Shen dared to put her child in danger by getting together with a harem full of skanks, Li Feifei wouldn't hesitate to become the main character to those generic Chinese novels, "My Runaway Consort," "Wait, Empress, Come Back!" or even "Empress Running Away With the Baby."
Hearing this, Emperor Li was extremely joyful and pleased as he laughed heartily and his complexion had lightened up as opposed to when he'd been speaking to Hua Shen.
Contrarily, Hua Shen's face was dark as he had a major case of deja vu. It seemed he hadn't taught his wife well enough how much he loved her as she still believed he would leave her for another. Even worse, that he would endanger their child in such a way.
And why did she always have to add at the end the fact that she would find another man to raise their child? He gnashed his teeth at the thought of another man together with his baby and child.
Before Emperor Li could get any happier because of the likelihood of such a thing happening was expectantly high, Hua Shen burst his bubble as he tightened his arms around Li Feifei's waist with a smile that wasn't quite a smile when he looked up at Emperor Li, "That's right, Imperial Father-in-law doesn't have to worry about anything. This son-in-law will promise that if son-in-law ever takes in any concubines, then Fei-er, our child, and Hua will all return to Imperial Father-in-law without even a single struggle from son-in-law. Please record it in history, Imperial Father-in-law, so that if that day should come, Imperial Father-in-law can enact justice upon son-in-law."
Not that that day would ever come.
Thus, this promise was especially easy for him to make.
As for the day those officials would dare to throw a random woman at him, that would be the day they lost their places in the imperial court with the addition of the extermination of nine generations.
Rather than seeming like a ruler who didn't care for his kingdom, Emperor Li felt that Hua Shen at the moment was more like a a devoted husband yet also a decisive ruler capable of either lifting or dooming his kingdom by will.
Such a ruler, he would seem whimsical but at the same time he knew what he did and didn't want and drew a very clear line between the two.
In fact, Hua Shen didn't have to promise such a thing as Emperor Li knew the consequence wouldn't be too pretty for their reputations often times. Also, just the reassurance that his cute daughter was not blindly in love with the young emperor was already plenty for him to allow her to step into this marriage.
After all, he knew that she wanted to. At first, he was reluctant because he was afraid she was being tricked by Hua Shen. However, he started to feel pity towards the young emperor when he noticed his daughter's indifference and Hua Shen's insistence to the point of making such a tough compromise. As a fellow Emperor, he knew how heavy the promise Hua Shen had just made truly was.
As for the fact that the arrogant little emperor had been referring to him as "Imperial Father-in-law" for a while now, Li Yunzhi had decided to ignore it through selective hearing.
And as to why this young emperor was so adamant on wedding his precious daughter, Emperor Li at first attached it to the fact that the two powerhouse kingdoms would finally have a chance of uniting all four kingdoms and this was Hua Shen's goal. However, after witnessing for himself Emperor Hua's clinginess towards his daughter he felt that there was probably more to it.
Actually, Li Feifei had made it pretty obvious that she was the more ambitious of the two. In fact it wouldn't surprise him if she was the one who proposed to Hua Shen when nobody was looking as the young emperor was known to be no different from a child and it would be more likely that his daughter had manipulated him instead!
She clearly wanted Hua and Li to merge together to unite the four kingdoms. In this way, it was true that the people would suffer the least and Emperor Li wasn't dumb.
He knew that there were bound to be more ambitious people in the other kingdoms. The first one to strike would suffer the least, especially with such favorable circumstances as what Hua Shen was currently offering.
It's just... He didn't want to let his cute daughter go ah! At least, not so fast. It was only recently that she had started to interact with him more.
In the past, she would hole herself up in her room to practice the four arts, detaching herself from the rest of the family. He had assumed it was because she knew she would have to marry some day and thus she didn't want to become too attached to them.
But ever since she had gone out to meet General Long that day and came back with General Bai's daughter, she had opened up and started to show more personality.
Previously, she had seemed like a perfectly groomed princess. Despite all of their pampering, she still prioritized the kingdom and its people above her own happiness as she only prepared herself for an arranged marriage without any feelings.
Emperor Li felt conflicted as this was the first time his daughter had ever been so serious with him enough to refer to herself with her title. He couldn't just deny her wish so heartlessly. Not to mention, the young emperor had promised what even he as an older emperor did not dare to do.
As for whether or not he would keep his word, it went without saying as his scribe had already recorded everything and he wouldn't let Hua Shen wrong his Li family.
After a considerably long moment of silence, Emperor Li finally sighed, "Fine. But if Fei-er ever comes back to Zhen in tears, Hua will be no more."
Hua Shen smiled brightly as he shamelessly hugged Li Feifei in front of the emperor, "Imperial Father-in-law doesn't have to worry! This son-in-law will never wrong Fei-er."
Then, before Emperor Li could recover from having given away his daughter's hand in marriage so unexpectedly, Hua Shen dropped another bomb,
"We will be departing back to Hua in two day's time."
He needed to make her ex-fiancé realize what the word ex-fiance truly meant.
But before Emperor Li could protest to Hua Shen's unreasonable demand, Li Feifei already agreed to him because she was tired of Li kingdom.
In the end, Emperor Li just felt that it was good that Hua's new emperor was a young and easily-influenced young man as his daughter had plenty of opportunities to establish her position in his heart.
He didn't mean it in the way that she should heartlessly use him for her own means, but that she should worm her way into his heart so he could never bear to hurt her in the future.
If only he knew that Li Feifei already had a full grasp over Hua Shen, but who would have been able to know such a thing as the two weren't supposed to know each other to begin with.
WOW I don't know how to write the pre-conquest part of this arc, so I'm sorry if it's boring or doesn't make much sense 😥😧
on another note, next two chapters we got some...goodies 😎