Arc 5.22 Empress of Four Kingdoms
The two princes only accompanied Hua Shen and Li Feifei as far as the palace gates before returning to their own residences within the capital. They needed their rest after managing for three weeks straight without rest, the aftermath of Hua Shen's coup and his tyrannical court management.
Before they left, Hua Tishen did not forget to drop in a small notice with a wink, "The Empress Dowager has invited some guests and is currently attending to them at her palace."
This was to inadvertently alert Li Feifei of the Empress Dowager's dissatisfaction with herself. There was also the hidden message that the Empress Dowager had been busying herself while Hua Shen was not around to continue pruning her wings.
Normally, Hua Shen would be more than capable enough to get rid of the Empress Dowager and simultaneously maintaining his image, but he was preoccupied with the news Zero constantly brought to him about Li Feifei's antics. However, now that he was back with the naughty wife in his arms he no longer had to worry about anything else.
There were two main reasons the entourage had to step inside the palace. Obviously, Hua Shen was the Emperor. The palace was his home and he had left the throne empty for over three weeks.
The second reason was that as the newly crowned Empress and the only member of the harem for the rest of this dynasty, Li Feifei had to greet the Empress Dowager.
Everything was rather anti-climactic. There was no dramatic scene of imperial guards lining up to greet the Emperor, nor was there any special fanfare with drums, music, and whatnot. In fact, it was entirely empty with only the occasional guards making their rounds around the palace. The only person that was required to lead them into the palace was Zero, who was the head eunuch and Hua Shen's personal eunuch, so even the palace maids and eunuchs were relatively scarce in comparison to Li Kingdom's palace.
It wasn't surprising as Hua Shen was completely independent and having others doing the work for him would only slow him down.
When they arrived at the expansive and lavishly designed palace belonging to the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager was sitting with three young, female guests. They were laughing pleasantly in the room. The laughter was so sweet and enchanting that Li Feifei's ears felt as if they'd been tickled.
Hua Shen did not miss her reaction, and his face abruptly darkened. His brows furrowed slightly, and a frown was tugging down on his thin lips as his hands tightened their grip on Li Feifei's in resentment, causing Li Feifei to laugh mirthfully before consolingly rubbing her thumb on the back of his hand. Her efforts proved to be successful as Hua Shen noticeably relaxed.
When Hua Shen and Li Feifei entered, the three girls immediately stood and bowed their heads with red faces. After all, Hua Shen was the most handsome man they'd ever seen, and they were the same age as he was.
"Greetings to His Majesty, the Emperor! Greetings to Her Majesty, the Empress!"
At this point in time, Li Feifei planned to stick around to see how much this group of four could amuse her.
No one in this kingdom knew the original Li Feifei, so OOC was not a possibility and both she and Hua Shen didn't give a damn about showing filial piety to a two-dimensional Empress Dowager. The only other people who knew her were her four maidservants, which she had ordered to wait for her at her new Empress's Palace. Long Zheng was in Hua for a variety of reasons; he had been sent away to consult with the other renown generals of Hua.
Then again, Long Zheng never knew the original Li Feifei either. The only Li Feifei he knew was the current Li Feifei.
"Please sit," Li Feifei's melodious voice resounded softly throughout the palace hall, causing the unprepared girls and the Empress Dowager to freeze in astonishment before quickly recomposing themselves.
When they sat down, the girls didn't forget to take a few glances at Li Feifei's figure. Even though it seemed theoretically impossible as Li Feifei was a walking bundle of layers and layers of fabric, they had to admit that the red wedding dress only added to her allure and the veil covering her visage added on an air of seductive mystery.
Of course, the Empress Dowager was already not pleased with this child of hers that had ruined all of her plans the moment he turned against his now dead ex-fiancée. Now that he brought some foreign woman home, how could she show any goodwill? Even more laughable was the fact that Li Feifei was older than her son.
Despite their earlier faltering, the girls that the Empress Dowager had invited were not ordinary. In fact, two of them were twins from the eastern artistic Shi Kingdom and the other was from the western Zhao Kingdom known for their excellent trade networking. Since Hua Shen had cut off all of her arms and legs from the Hua Kingdom, she simply had to look outside of Hua! It wasn't as if he could deride her, as he took in a foreign woman himself.
The time Hua Shen had left was long enough for her to reach out for the foreign forces. In fact, the girls currently in the hall were daughters of the emissaries that had been waiting for a hearing from Hua Shen for a long while now.
The intention behind them bringing their daughters was obvious. The emissaries were not just any ministers in their respective kingdoms, either. The Shi Kingdom had sent over their most esteemed and only prime minister and his twin daughters, while the Zhao Kingdom had sent over their celebrated navy commander and his only daughter.
They were all the same age as Hua Shen, and in the Empress Dowager's opinion, they were much more suited to him than Li Feifei in age and resources.
This thought was enough for anyone to confidently say that age truly wore one down. How could anyone's qualification best Li Feifei's? Li Feifei was not only a princess; her father would unquestionably give her the entire kingdom on a silver platter the moment she asked for it ah! Not only that, but the fact that Li was also a military kingdom was enough to entice all of the ministers of Hua whether or not they were interested in the unification of the four kingdoms!
Unfortunately, girls tended to believe that they were better than everyone else. This was only further strengthened by the Empress Dowager's encouraging remarks prior to Hua Shen's and Li Feifei's arrival. As some small gossip had passed around amongst the group of women with Hua Shen sitting silently attending to Li Feifei, Li Feifei had long taken off her veil and revealed her flawless face. Although the girls were envious of her beauty, they couldn't help but sneer at the Empress Dowager's callous statement as she "thoughtfully" advised Hua Shen.
"Ah Shen should think about taking in a few Imperial Concubines. After all, there will always be a time when the flowers in the garden will wilt. That is why it is customary that the Emperor always takes in fresh buds every year or half-year."
As she spoke of wilting flowers and whatnot, Li Feifei did not miss the Empress Dowager's eyes full of mockery glancing her way. In response, Li Feifei simply covered her mouth with her hand as she let out a tired and unamused yawn. Even someone like her, who did not excel in poetry, could understand what the Empress Dowager was implying. However, it really did not matter because it was true. She was older than the Empress Dowager's great-great-grandma ah!
But what was even more of a shocker was that her man was even older than all of this world's dynasties combined!
Unlike Li Feifei's uncaring and dismissive attitude, however, Hua Shen felt that he should be the only one who could make his baby suffer a loss no matter how big or small. How could he let the Empress Dowager go? He knew Li Feifei was waiting for the other girls in the room to throw in some punches, so they could get slapped in the face later, but he wanted to at least get one slap in himself.
With an unprecedentedly chilly countenance, Hua Shen did not even turn towards the Empress Dowager as he warned her, "Dowager, zhen did not give you permission to call zhen by name."
Stunned by the sudden threatening tone, the Empress Dowager's fingers started trembling when she remembered how Hua Shen had handled the ministers that had colluded with her. No matter how hard she tried to calm herself, she couldn't stop her hands from shaking, so she held them together and slipped them underneath the table.
Unfortunately for her, her pale face that was whiter than a piece of printing paper gave away her inner fright. Even the younger girls sitting by her side had noticed her abnormality.
Although all of the girls were aware that the Empress Dowager was definitely frightened beyond belief, they couldn't directly speak to the Emperor without being given permission much less rebuke him for having gone too far!
Instead, one of the twins worriedly sidled up to her, "Imperial Mother, what's wrong?"
The Empress Dowager had given all three of them permission to call her their mother. This was to spite the new Empress who hadn't been given the same right, as well as to openly show their intent in competing against her for the Emperor's favor.
But how could the Empress Dowager answer? She was terrified to the point that she couldn't even blink, much less open her mouth to speak. It was only after a tense silence of over five minutes had gone by that she finally let out a long and loud breath. Yet, she still didn't dare to speak again.
She knew that the only words that would come out of her mouth would be considered offensive, and she didn't want to provoke that demon of a son of hers after personally witnessing what he was capable of.
No, he wasn't her son at all. The Empress Dowager had concluded inside that Hua Shen was a monster who bathed in the blood of all he deemed even the slightest bit unpleasant.
Seeing as the Empress Dowager had restored her complexion somewhat, the girls also relaxed their anxiety.
Hua Shen's statement had derailed their talk of marriage, so they were slightly bitter. While the girl from Zhao and the twin from earlier had managed to hold in their dissatisfaction, the other twin was slightly more impulsive and couldn't help but unleash her disapproval towards Li Feifei since she didn't dare do so towards Hua Shen.
"It seems as if the flower has already wilted, not even able to brighten up this small corner of the kingdom. What use is a flower that cannot do its duty?"
Even though she didn't explicitly denounce Li Feifei, but everyone in the room was aware she was deriding Li Feifei. In fact, she did not only call Li Feifei an old lady but also unfilial and useless as she didn't even attempt to console the Empress Dowager.
The silence of the two other girls only meant that they had agreed. In fact, when Li Feifei swept her indifferent eyes across their figures it wasn't hard to tell that they were waiting for the impulsive one to do her job. It seemed that there always had to be one reckless clown in order to highlight the more "sensible" ones in the vicinity.
The farce had gone on for longer than she thought it would and it was even more boring than she'd hoped as well.
What happened to the promised inner-palace schemes with poisoned teas and cakes? And what the hell is this talk about flowers ah?! When the fuck did I say I was a goddamn flower?
Resolved to finally get out and have some actual fun elsewhere, Li Feifei laughed lightly but there was no mirth in her eyes. This wasn't even enough to be called a show, as she was expecting some high-level shit. But all she got was some pretty poetry and a white-faced mother.
"That's right," she unexpectedly agreed to the twin's derisive remark, "What good could a mere flower do? Wine is better than a useless flower. Flowers wilt over time and are easily crushed by the strong. But the older the wine, the more satisfying it is to those young and old alike."
Li Feifei turned to face her devil whose eyes had never strayed from her from the moment they'd stepped in the hall with a charming smile that couldn't be more genuine yet fake at the same time, "Right, Ah Shen?"
Hua Shen smiled brightly at the endearing name his wife called him by even if it wasn't his real name and rubbed the back of her smaller and smooth hand. It seemed that it was time for them to leave. It was obvious his baby's thirst for entertainment had not been satiated during their time here. Fortunately, they weren't staying long in this boring kingdom for very long.
In actuality, Hua was only boring because he'd already settled all of the matters beforehand. The only fun they'd get in this world would be conquering the other two kingdoms and ruining the longstanding and boring peace.
"En, Fei-er is right. The older the wine, the more satisfying it is."
To this sudden shift in subject from flowers to wine, the group of four were at first flabbergasted. Then, when they realized the innuendo, even the Empress Dowager who had gone through wind and rain couldn't help but flush.
What was this brazenness?!
The Empress and the Emperor were shamelessly making an indecent comparison ah!
The Empress Dowager only blushed harder because she wanted to associate herself with the wine, but Li Feifei was ruthless.
"Ah, there are so many flowers in the garden. On the other hand, highly fermented wine is truly rare and exquisite," her eyes looked down mockingly at the four flowers before her as she stood ready to leave.
Hua Shen wasn't idle. He had long since risen and had pulled Li Feifei so that she leaned heavily against his body as he supported her. They didn't even bother waiting for confirmation to leave.
"Dowager, after such a long journey, Fei-er is very tired."
The Empress Dowager, who had regained some spirit due to the anger she felt towards Li Feifei's words, sneered.
"Such a weak wine wouldn't be able to satisfy a dragon."
Hua Shen shamelessly took back his words, "Actually, Fei-er is still full of energy and it was really zhen that was tired. Zhen wanted to sleep and wants Fei-er to take care of zhen properly as a wife should."
His hand rubbed her waist suggestively as he said so and his voice had deepened, huskily laced with seductiveness.
The young ladies blushed profusely and enviously watched on as they walked out.
Before he stepped completely through the doorway, Hua Shen acted as if he'd only just remembered, "Oh yeah. Zhen has decreed to never take in any concubines in this lifetime, only loving Fei-er forever."
The implied meaning behind his words did not need to be said aloud as the three girls stared at his back in disappointment and longing. They also wanted a man like that who would love only them in this lifetime.
Angry that her son had not given her any face, Empress Dowager kicked out the three girls and locked herself inside her palace for three days.
Unfortunately, even that couldn't save her from her fate. When her doors were unlocked after three days had passed, only the overwhelming smell of a rotting corpse enhanced by the internal heating of the room could be smelt.