Chapter 137 - Grape Flavored Imperial Gong (16)
Translated by Hua Li ^_^
“A ger?”
Gou Liang looked at Xu Fei with curiosity.
Xu Fei appeared slimmer than the average man, but his frame was much broader than the original host’s. His features were handsome and well-defined, but perhaps deliberately tanned, his honey-colored skin adding a touch of masculinity.
If not for the system’s prompt, Gou Liang wouldn’t have noticed that Xu Fei, like the original host, had falsely reported his gender.
If he remembered correctly, Xu Fei was the same age as the Emperor. Ten years ago, he would have just entered his initial heat period…
It was said that Xu Fei was utterly devoted to the Emperor. Could he have special feelings for the Emperor?
It wasn’t Gou Liang boasting, but few who had seen the true face of the heavenly sovereign could keep their hearts guarded. Besides, Xu Fei had witnessed the young Emperor’s decisive and ambitious rise.
Gou Liang often regretted not having witnessed the Emperor’s glorious rise to power. Feeling a bit jealous, he quickly noticed a mark on Xu Fei’s neck and dismissed his previous speculation.
Just as he wanted to take a closer look, he heard a slight warning cough from above.
“Ahem.”
The Emperor cleared his throat. Seeing Gou Liang look back at him, the Emperor couldn’t help but glare at him.
Daring to be distracted by another man in front of him! His courage was growing!
Gou Liang smiled sheepishly, and the Emperor said calmly, “Rise.”
Xu Fei, efficient as always, stood up and took out a doc.u.ment from his sleeve as he rose. “Your Majesty, I have established a total of 372 businesses in Yangzhou and Guangzhou, covering grain, textiles, cosmetics, restaurants, and brothels. All revenues and expenditures have been detailed. Please review them.”
Before Eunuch Tong could move, Gou Liang had already stood up from his seat.
A pair of clean white hands reached out. Xu Fei was startled for a moment and then met Gou Liang’s smiling face.
“Thank you.”
Seeing that neither the Emperor nor Eunuch Tong made any gesture, Xu Fei hid his surprise.
Gou Liang handed over the doc.u.ment and, ignoring the Emperor’s expression, walked back to Xu Fei.
Xu Fei was a bit surprised by his forward behavior, but knowing the Emperor was not a stickler for rules, he wasn’t too shocked and smiled. “I presume this must be Minister Chu? I’ve heard about a talented scholar serving His Majesty, reputed to be the most handsome man in the capital. Seeing you today, I find the reputation well-deserved.”
“Minister Xu flatters me,” Gou Liang replied. “I have long admired you. Meeting you today is truly a privilege. Back when you were making waves in Yangzhou and Guangzhou, corrupt officials trembled at the mention of your name. I have always admired you and often looked up to you as a role model before I entered the court. I still have much to learn from you.”
He was speaking the truth. Not only the original host, but many young scholars with great ambitions admired Xu Fei back then and aspired to be like him.
However…
Gou Liang leaned closer and whispered, “Minister Xu, your neck is not properly covered.”
Xu Fei, modestly replying, “Minister Chu, you overpraise me. In terms of talent, I am far inferior to—” He froze, instinctively pulling his neck back.
“Chu Mo!”
The Emperor’s voice dropped several degrees, seeing him so close to Xu Fei.
Gou Liang turned around, “My apologies, Your Majesty.”
Sitting back obediently, he maintained a serious demeanor, trying to look well-behaved and attentive.
The Emperor glared at him and then addressed Xu Fei in his usual tone, “Minister Xu, you have done well. These years of hard work will be rewarded.”
Xu Fei expressed his grat.i.tude and then, with some hesitation, said, “Your Majesty, I have just returned to the capital, and my spouse is not yet settled. He knows nothing about the capital and may face some difficulties. I request permission to take my leave and will come to pay my respects another day.”
The Emperor, eager to remove someone who had caught Gou Liang’s attention and admiration, was more than happy to grant the request. He not only allowed Xu Fei to leave but also instructed him to bring his spouse next time—so that Gou Liang would know that a married man was nothing special!
Once Xu Fei left, the Emperor set the doc.u.ment aside and strode over to Gou Liang.
“What’s so fascinating about Xu Fei that makes you linger so? Tell me, so I can understand.”
He embraced Gou Liang possessively, biting his ear to make his displeasure clear.
Gou Liang answered indirectly, “I heard Minister Xu’s spouse isn’t very good-looking. But judging by his anxiousness earlier, it seems they have a good relationship?”
The Emperor showed little interest in the matter, merely commenting, “Since Minister Xu has married that ger, regardless of his appearance, he should take on the responsibilities of a man.”
“You seem to understand him well.”
“What’s this, is my Xiao Keng’er jealous?”
The Emperor smiled, but Gou Liang didn’t respond. Instead, he leaned in and whispered something in his ear, causing the Emperor to look surprised.
Given what he knew of Xu Fei, the man was even more proper than Gou Liang when dealing with outsiders. It was unexpected to see him appear before the Emperor with a barely concealed love bite on his neck.
However, the Emperor wasn’t particularly concerned.
Realizing that Gou Liang had only looked at Xu Fei a few times because of this, the Emperor magnanimously let it go and took the doc.u.ment Xu Fei had handed over to review it with Gou Liang.
Xu Fei had spent five years, with the Emperor’s strong support, purging corruption in Yangzhou and Guangzhou. He had stayed in Yangzhou ostensibly to prevent a backlash from local gentry and n.o.bility, but in reality, he was setting up businesses for the Emperor.
Back when the Emperor was dealing with the officials in Yangzhou, he had suffered a setback due to the collusion between corrupt officials and merchants.
Many businesses were implicated and merchants fled, causing commercial chaos and skyrocketing prices, nearly destabilizing Yangzhou and Guangzhou, bringing great suffering to the people.
Since then, the Emperor had paid more attention to economic matters.
Apart from salt and iron, he began to interfere in critical sectors related to people’s livelihoods, such as grain and textiles. However, he did not do this in the name of the court but had Xu Fei secretly manage these enterprises. By now, they were beginning to take shape.
Gou Liang nodded approvingly. Despite the low status of merchants, the empire was already highly prosperous, and rulers who truly underestimated commerce would eventually face consequences.
Seeing the Emperor growing impatient with the accounts, Gou Liang offered to handle it.
He was skilled in bookkeeping. Back when the Gou family’s business was booming, Gou Liang didn’t need to manage operations, but he still had to review the year-end accounts.
Compared to that workload, Xu Fei’s businesses were a small matter.
Meanwhile, Xu Fei hurried back to his residence, intending to confront his spouse. However, upon entering the room, he saw a tall figure grabbing a smaller person and placing them on the bed, clearly up to no good!
“What are you doing?”
Xu Fei shouted.
The tall figure, startled, let go. Xu Fei then saw that the person being placed on the bed was his thirteen-year-old nephew, and his expression changed dramatically.
“You, how dare you!”
Xu Fei, furious and shocked, didn’t know whether to scold the person for infidelity or for involving his nephew. His face flushed with anger.
His spouse, Liu Jia, was startled and quickly said, “Listen to me, it’s not what you think!”
Xu Fei, eyes red with anger, glared at the liar, “Do you take me for a fool?”
Liu Jia grabbed his hand, urgently explaining, “It’s really not what you think! I was quietly staying in the room when this troublemaker suddenly barged in and lifted my forehead cloth, insisting on seeing how faint my flower marking had become. I forgot to draw it today, so I had to knock him out. I was just about to put him on the bed when you came in.”
Xu Fei glanced at his forehead—Liu Jia’s forehead was smooth, with no trace of the flower marking, proving he was indeed a man.
Knowing he wouldn’t dare lie, Xu Fei stopped scolding and frowned, “Didn’t I tell you to be cautious in the capital and always draw on the flower marking?”
Liu Jia, relieved that he was no longer angry, complained, “What kind of troublesome people does your family have? This one is bad enough, but especially your father’s spouse, who is younger than you, looks at me like I’m a pile of dung—”
Seeing Xu Fei’s glare, Liu Jia corrected himself, “Fine, fine, I’ll be polite. He looks at me like I’m a world-cla.s.s beauty, alright?”
Xu Fei couldn’t help but laugh.
However, Liu Jia, seeing his gentle demeanor, wasn’t happy and sourly said, “You don’t know how much trouble I’ve had here. You left me in this den of wolves and tigers while you ran off to meet an old flame—”
“What nonsense are you talking about!”
Xu Fei interrupted him.
Liu Jia, equally upset, retorted, “What nonsense? If you didn’t still have feelings for the Emperor, why would you rush to the palace as soon as we arrived in the capital without even looking at our residence? You can’t forget him, can you? Even after all these years, during your heat periods, you still call out his name. Do you think I’m dead?”
“Shut up!”
Xu Fei’s initial joy was completely replaced by anger. “How long ago was that? Are you looking to bring up old accounts? Back then, it was you who insisted on clinging to me, I never begged you! And I’ve never wronged you over the years. Since marrying you, have I ever called out anyone else’s name? How many times have I told you that my visits to the palace are for official business? You’ve caused enough trouble, now shut your filthy mouth and don’t go too far!”
Liu Jia persisted, “But you’ve never said you fancy me.”
Xu Fei looked at him. “You want to hear it?”
Liu Jia’s ears perked up, only to hear Xu Fei coldly say, “Keep dreaming!”
Liu Jia realized he had gone too far and had genuinely angered him, so he quickly lowered himself and apologized.
Liu Jia had always been shameless, and Xu Fei couldn’t do anything about it. Soon enough, his anger dissipated.
However, he still remembered the embarra.s.sment caused by the visible marks that forced him to leave the palace hurriedly. He pushed away Liu Jia’s arm and said, “Didn’t I tell you not to leave marks in visible places? Do you know how much face I lost today because of you?”
Liu Jia chuckled. “Oh, did the Emperor see? Now your old flame should know you’re taken.”
He did it on purpose. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have spent so much effort yesterday on the carriage, leaving Xu Fei with all those marks.
He wanted everyone to know—whether it was the Emperor, who Xu Fei once fancied, or those who wished to become Xu Fei’s concubine—that Xu Fei was his.
“Old flame my a.s.s! Why don’t you go die!”
Xu Fei was so angry he gritted his teeth. The usually refined man even swore, “How many times have I told you that the Emperor doesn’t know I once… And the Emperor is the Emperor, show some respect in your speech. If this gets out, I’ll be the first to take your head!”
Liu Jia said, “You’re worried about me? Don’t worry, I keep my mouth shut in front of others.”
Xu Fei didn’t care about his well-being!
Pushing him away, Xu Fei pretended to be impatient. “Go draw your flower mark. Be careful this time, don’t have it look different every day.”
Liu Jia, hugging him, said, “If I draw it to look like yours, it won’t turn out differently. Let me take another look here, so I don’t mess it up.”
Xu Fei struggled, “Stop it. We still need to see my father later.”
Liu Jia said, “There’s still time, it won’t delay things.”
Xu Fei angrily said, “Is this the only thing on your mind? If you like it so much, why don’t you lie down and let me do it!”
The tall and burly Liu Jia shamelessly said, “Sure, if you can get me pregnant, I’ll lie down and let you do whatever you want.”
“Pfft—”
Gou Liang, hearing this, burst into laughter.
Eunuch Tong, who had just served him tea, was startled. The Emperor immediately stepped over, “Did you get burned?”
“No… hahaha!”
Gou Liang looked up at the worried Emperor, and couldn’t help but imagine the Emperor saying, “If you can get me pregnant,” which made him laugh even harder.
Supporting the laughing and swaying Gou Liang with one hand, and taking the ointment from the trembling Eunuch Tong with the other, the Emperor, both amused and annoyed, said, “What did you see that made you laugh like this? Be careful not to eat the ointment.”
Gou Liang felt regretful that he couldn’t share the joke with him.
The next day, Xu Fei indeed brought Liu Jia to court. Hearing his self-introduction, Gou Liang almost burst out laughing.
Yes, the tall and burly, notoriously ugly husband of Xu Fei had a particularly beautiful and elegant name: Liu Jiaren (Liu the Beauty).
Gou Liang had the system check the backgrounds of Xu Fei and Liu Jia yesterday.
Ruining someone’s livelihood is like killing their parents, and Xu Fei had offended many people in Yangzhou and Guangzhou, suffering numerous a.s.sa.s.sination attempts.
Liu Jia was also an a.s.sa.s.sin, sent to take Xu Fei’s life.
With his skills, Xu Fei should have been dead that night. However, it happened to be a time when Xu Fei was in his heat period.
Unlike the original host, Xu Fei was more open-minded. He was using a device to relieve himself when Liu Jia arrived. After witnessing this, Liu Jia wiped his mouth, retired from the a.s.sa.s.sination business, and started secretly following Xu Fei, watching him day and night.
Later, during another a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on Xu Fei, Liu Jia saved him.
Not only that, he shamelessly forged a fake ident.i.ty as “Liu Jiaren” (Liu the Beauty), creating a scenario where he was publicly molested by Xu Fei.
Xu Fei pitied him for being “too ugly” and scorned by others. Afraid he might really take his own life after being disgraced, Xu Fei reluctantly married him.
Later, Liu Jia revealed his true nature, and Xu Fei became the now quick-tempered and foul-mouthed official he is today.
Seeing the burly Liu Jia introduce himself as “Liu Jiaren,” the Emperor also felt it was an eyesore. After exchanging a few words with Xu Fei and giving Liu Jia the customary rewards, he dismissed Xu Fei, who wanted to present his husband to the Royal n.o.ble Consort.
Turning around, Gou Liang asked the Emperor, “Your Majesty said yesterday that once a husband is married, he shouldn’t be judged by his appearance. If I looked like that, Your Majesty wouldn’t despise me either, right?”
The Emperor paused suspiciously and then forced a smile, “Of course.”
*
Xu Fei and the Royal n.o.ble Consort were brothers.
Because their biological mother was not favored in the household and died early, the two brothers had a tough time growing up in the Xu family, supporting each other and developing a bond closer than most.
Because of this, when Xu Fei learned that his elder brother was chosen as the Royal n.o.ble Consort, he quietly buried his own feelings and volunteered to go to Yangzhou.
It had been nearly ten years since the brothers had seen each other. Upon meeting, the Royal n.o.ble Consort cried bitterly out of longing and then, upon seeing Liu Jia, cried again out of sadness, dissolving any sense of estrangement Xu Fei might have felt.
Once he calmed down, the Royal n.o.ble Consort had Liu Jia taken away before asking Xu Fei, “Is this Liu Jiaren really a ger?”
Xu Fei shook his head. There was no need to hide the truth from his brother.
The Royal n.o.ble Consort breathed a sigh of relief, “If he’s willing to endure such disgrace for you, his feelings must be genuine. Now I can be at ease.”
Xu Fei blushed slightly and said, “I’m fine, Brother, don’t worry about me. How about you? Are you doing well in the palace? Is His Majesty treating you well?”
The Royal n.o.ble Consort’s expression changed, and he bitterly smiled, “You were right back then. His Majesty’s heart is set on the world, with no room for personal feelings. Once I realized that, how could I not wake up? But I’m already in this palace, born a member of the royal family, and even in death, I cannot leave.”
Xu Fei was shocked, “Brother, why would you say such things?”
The Royal n.o.ble Consort whispered, “There’s no need to hide it from you. His Majesty… has never touched me. Though I hold the highest position among the four consorts, I have hardly seen His Majesty a few times.”
“How… how can this be?” Xu Fei was astonished.
The Royal n.o.ble Consort shook his head, “Not just me, when has anyone in the harem ever caught his eye? I thought he was truly cold-hearted, but now it seems we simply don’t interest him.”
Xu Fei was puzzled.
The Royal n.o.ble Consort lowered his voice even more, “One day, I saw him releasing a lantern on the tower. Written on the lantern were the words: ‘This life, I will not fail you; for eternity, I promise you…’ I recognized His Majesty’s handwriting.”
After a long pause, the Royal n.o.ble Consort sighed, “I never thought anyone could make him so infatuated.”
Xu Fei was equally surprised. In a flash, he recalled how the Emperor had meticulously reminded Gou Liang to be careful with his tea yesterday. From his memory, the Emperor was never such a detail-oriented person.
Could it be that the one he liked was… a man?!
At the same time.
In the library, the Empress was hiding behind a bookshelf, covering his mouth, watching the swaying bookshelf in front of him. A man’s voice, dripping with seduction, whispered, “Ah, Your Majesty, be gentle, not there…”
The Emperor’s amused voice replied, “Xiao Keng’er, don’t hide.”
The one called Xiao Keng’er firmly refused, yet his tone carried a hint of coquettishness, “Really, no. I have an appointment with Scholar w.a.n.g.”
The Emperor said, “What’s so good about that old man that he always drags you out!”
Xiao Keng’er giggled, “The books in his collection, some are not even in the library.”
As they walked into the light, the Empress saw clearly that the so-called “Xiao Keng’er” was the same young Hanlin who had spoiled his plans and caused him to be confined!
The Empress collapsed in a corner, clutching his wildly beating heart, unable to believe what he had just witnessed: the Emperor… actually liked men?!
The Empress gritted his teeth in hatred. How could this be allowed!
Three days later, the Ministry of Works reported that the imperial mausoleum had been largely repaired.
Seizing the opportunity while the Emperor was out of the palace visiting the mausoleum, the Empress had someone bring Gou Liang to Fengqi Palace.