Chapter 614: Reprimand
Translator: Henyce Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Who made you angry again?” Emperor Minghua pretended to walk into the room casually.
He glanced around and saw that there was already an empty medicine bowl beside the bed. He heaved a sigh of relief.
At least this ancestor was willing to take her medicine.
In the past, when she was sick, he would always urge her to take her medicine. She would only be willing to give in and drink a little when she was too annoyed by him.
Empress Qin didn’t care about Emperor Minghua, but this time, because he didn’t do anything overboard to the children, Empress Qin s dislike for him lessened.
However, it was impossible to be pleasant to him.
“Whoever made me angry isn’t worthy of Your Majesty’s attention.”‘ Empress Qin pretended to be tired and asked Hua Hong to lower the pillow behind her and slid under the blanket.
“Your body has just recovered. Don’t lie down for too long in case you feel dizzy. It’s better to go out for a walk. Recently, many flowers have bloomed in the Imperial Garden, and there’s your favorite.’” Emperor Minghua continued, “Royal Brother also gave me two pots of high-quality Wei Violets previously. They’re blooming well now. Why don’t you go and take a look?”
When Empress Qin heard this, she sat up and looked at Emperor Minghua coldly. “Emperor Minghua is in a good mood. Hers still in the mood to look at peonies. Do you know that many spies have already been found in the Eastern Desert Kingdom? Previously, they caused trouble at the border and almost overturned one of our cities. Many commoners were implicated and displaced. Do you know how many commoners can be fed with the money spent on a pot of Wei Violet?”
When Emperor Minghua heard Empress Qin say this, he had a headache. The Empress was good at everything, but she was too serious.
She treated her career much more importantly than herself. The reason why Emperor Minghua only slept so little every day was because Empress Qin always had to work hard in the past and exhausted her body.
At that time, Emperor Minghua’s heart ached, but Empress Qin did not listen to his advice.
He couldn’t stand it and took on more things. Now, he had completely offended Empress Qin.
Feeling that he was a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t who wanted to take all her responsibilities away from her, the conflict between the two of them deepened.
“You can t blame me for this. It’s Royal Brother.” When Empress Qin’s cold gaze landed on him, Emperor Minghua quickly changed his words. “King Xiaoyao had nothing to do all day, so he thought of this method to stay in the greenhouse every day. It s not considered a waste of natural resources. Many of the flowers and plants he raised were sold to other countries. The taxes handed over to the national treasury from his business every year are not small.”
King Xiaoyao was very good at doing business. His flowers and plants were delicate and precious to begin with, and it was very difficult to raise them. Moreover, the weather in many places in the other countries was very bad. Even if they were raised delicately, they would easily be damaged.
However, King Xiaoyao wanted to promote and praise flowers and plants in those places, and even advocated the elegant practice of n.o.bles cultivating flowers and plants. As a result, many aristocrats from other regions developed a fondness for purchasing delicate and precious flowers.
They would all wilt not long after being taken away, but they would still spend a high price to buy it from King Xiaoyao.
After a while, the profits gained from this business increased to an impressive amount. King Xiaoyao handed most of this money to the national treasury to maintain the people’s livelihood.
After all, the richest people in the Great Chang Nation were Empress Qin and Emperor Minghua. Their money came from their respective clans, but the national treasury was in a state of loss for the long term. Therefore, it was very appropriate for King Xiaoyao’s money to be sent over.
Empress Qin looked at Emperor Minghua with a hint of suspicion in her eyes. “When did your relationship with King Xiaoyao become so good?”
Ever since King Xiaoyao’s leg was broken, his entire personality had become unreasonable.
The three of them were originally good friends from their childhood. Later on, Emperor Minghua was forced to ascend the throne, King Xiaoyao’s legs were crippled, and one of the twins given birth by Empress Qin was dead. After that series of events, the relationship between the three of them turned a little subtle.
Outsiders said that if the previous Emperor had not suddenly caused such a commotion, the one who should have ascended the throne would have been King Xiaoyao. If not for the fact that King Xiaoyao had been plotted against, the throne would have been handed over to him.
Therefore, the two brothers became enemies. People even said that the word “Xiaoyao” was Emperor Minghua”s warning to King Xiaoyao, hoping that he would become an idle prince and not care about the politics of the court.
But only the three of them knew that this was not the case.
There was no need to tell outsiders about the specific entanglements.
“Dur relationship has always been very good.” Emperor Minghua laughed and said to Empress Qin, “I think Huai’er’s fiancee is really not bad. You were so cold to that little girl previously. I’m afraid you scared her. That little girl looks so blessed. Speaking of which, I realized that there seemed to be a golden pattern in her eyes previously. Isn’t she very similar to your good friend back then?11
At the mention of that person, Empress Qin’s gaze suddenly turned cold. “If there’s nothing else, Your Majesty, you can leave. Your humble servant is going to rest.”
When he heard Empress Qin addressing herself as ‘your humble servant’ again, Emperor Minghua regretted it in his heart. If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have mentioned that person.
Speaking of which, there were not only three of them back then. There was a fourth person. She was a very lively girl. She was good-looking, had a pleasant voice, was kind, and was outstandingly capable. Everyone who had seen her liked her.
Later on, for some reason, that girl suddenly disappeared. King Xiaoyao was even in a daze for a period of time. Empress Qin treated her as a good friend, and her departure without saying goodbye dealt a huge blow to Empress Qin.
Was there a relationship between that little girl called Ah Yu and that girl called Ah Ruan back then?
“Why aren’t you leaving? Do you want me to go out and leave this room to Your Majesty?” Seeing Emperor Minghua sitting there thinking, Empress Qin immediately wanted to get off the bed, but Emperor Minghua hurriedly stopped her.
“Alright, alright, alright, I’ll leave. Remember to take those medicines.” Seeing Empress Qin glaring at him. Emperor Minghua laughed in his heart and said, “This time, I’m not the one who’s asking you to do this. Before Huai’er and Ah Yu left, they said that they wanted Aunt Empress to take good care of herself. When you recover, they want to bring you to Hu Family Village to visit. They said that the scenery there is most suitable for recuperation, but your body is weak now—”
Before Emperor Minghua could finish speaking, he saw that Empress Qin had already shrunk into the bed and was covering her head with the blanket.
Emperor Minghua:Alright.
Emperor Minghua returned to the Qinchen Palace and called Eunuch Chang De over to ask, “Is the Imperial Examination going to release the rankings? Send Little Xi over to take a look. If Huai’er is on the rankings, inform me first.”
Eunuch Chang De: “Your Majesty, the rankings will only be released in two days.”
“Oh, go and investigate if Huai’er has encountered any trouble outside recently. It’s not just Huai’er. If Ah Yu is in trouble too, help them. The two children are still young. They can’t be wronged,” Emperor Minghua said as he recalled Empress Qin’s previous instructions.
Eunuch Chang De thought that since the Emperor already knew Qin Huai’s ident.i.ty, how could Duke Yong Manor treat him badly?
Not to mention that the little girl called Ah Yu had somehow caught the Empress Dowager’s eye. This morning, she even sent two housekeepers to deliver some small ornaments to their family.
The Empress Dowager had sent someone to Emperor Minghua with great fanfare to ask for instructions. She also asked her servants to leave through the main palace door. Along the way, countless officials heard and saw her.
Now, who didn’t know that she was the person the Empress Dowager liked?
Eunuch Chang De shook his head in his heart. Perhaps he was missing something, so he couldn’t understand the thoughts of these n.o.bles.
In the end, he still went to do as instructed.
In Duke An Manor, Little Feng was carried back by a group of people.
He bled non-stop along the way. When he arrived at Duke An Manor, he had already become listless.
However, at least the bleeding had stopped. It was just a huge loss of blood.
Old Duke An had four sons and three daughters. His sons were all officials in the court. Among them, his second son was serving in the Ministry of Rites, and Little Feng was his youngest son.
When his second daughter-in-law saw Little Feng being carried back covered in blood, she fainted on the spot. When she woke up, she cried and went to look for Old Duke An and the d.u.c.h.ess.
“Father, Mother, you have to stand up for Little Feng!” The second daughter-in-law’s eyes were filled with hatred. “I don’t know where this crazy dog came from, but he actually bullied Little Feng to this extent. If we don’t avenge Little Feng, who knows what the outside world will say about our Duke An Manor!”
Displeasure flashed across the old Madam’s eyes. Her second daughter-in-law’s words were too unpleasant, but they were not unreasonable.
Just as everyone was asking the servants what was going on, they heard someone shouting outside.
“His Highness is back!”
The person who returned was King Xiaoyao, who was sitting in a wheelchair. Recently, for some reason, King Xiaoyao, who was originally living in seclusion, had begun to go our frequently.
The second daughter-in-law rushed over and knelt in front of King Xiaoyao. “Your Highness, you have to stand up for our Little Feng!”
Unexpectedly, King Xiaoyao snorted coldly. He took out something from his pocket and threw it to the ground. “Explain to me first. What is the meaning of this?”
Seeing the thing on the ground, the second daughter-in-law’s pupils dilated, and her face was filled with fear..