Chapter 888 Replaceable Concubines and Indispensable Empress
It was depressing and silent in the palace hall.
Those clever imperial concubines all cast a mocking look at Beauty Wu, who was kneeling on the ground. This woman, who fought against them for the Emperor’s favor a few days ago, fell out of favor from now on.
Anyway, she deserved that because of her ignorance. Everyone knew that they could only have fantasies of Prince Chen in their mind, but Beauty Wu even wanted to hook up with him! Didn’t she realize how beautiful Princess Chen standing beside him was? How could she be so confident to seduce Prince Chen in front of his wife?
It was said for a long time that Prince Chen had no interest in flirting with beautiful women. And everyone took it to heart. Unexpectedly, such a stupid person like Beauty Wu dared to tempt him, and she even did that in front of Prince Chen’s newlywed wife. How ignorant she was to do such a thing!
Many imperial concubines secretly felt pity for her and thought Beauty Wu was stupid.
“Come and take Beauty Wu to Cold Palace,” the Empress ordered in a cold voice. She had been sullen since Chu Liuchen left.
Two nannies showed up to take Beauty Wu away.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I’m innocent! What Prince Chen said was an unfounded rumor. Please check it out, Your Majesty!” Beauty Wu moved back to avoid being caught by the two nannies and defended herself with tears.
But the Empress was unmoved and waved her hand to motion for the two nannies.
The two nannies reached out to draw her again. This time, Beauty Wu couldn’t avoid them and was dragged away.
“Your Majesty, I’m one of His Majesty’s people. You can’t punish me like this. I want to see His Majesty. He’ll forgive me…” Beauty Wu cried out for help while struggling.
However, no one paid attention to her. Then the hall became quiet again. At this time, the Empress was not in the mood to entertain other imperial concubines. She waved her hand and motioned for them to leave.
All the imperial concubines got up quickly, said goodbye to the Empress, and then left the Phoenix Palace.
After everyone left, the Empress suddenly grabbed the teacup beside her and threw it to the ground. The teacup broke into pieces.
“Your Majesty!” The servants all knelt in a panic. Some of them happened to kneel on the shards of porcelain, but they dare not to speak a word or make a move when the blood oozed from their knees.
“Your Majesty, His Majesty may come later!” a trusted eunuch reminded the Empress carefully.
“All of you leave now!” the Empress suppressed her anger and said coldly.
The palace servants did not dare to hesitate and left at once. Only the trusted eunuch stayed.
“He is just a prince. How dare he treat me like that!” the Empress said harshly after all the palace servants left. Now that no one else was around, she did not need to hide her emotions anymore.
“Please calm down, Your Majesty,” said the eunuch.
The Empress was so angry that she pointed in the direction of the Palace of Benevolent Peace and scolded, “Calm down? How can I? What does he think I am? He comes to visit me and leaves all as he pleases! Who does he think he is? He is just an ill person. Does he consider himself as the…”
The eunuch knelt down and said in a hurry, “Please be discreet in word, Your Majesty!”
His voice was much sharper than usual, which made the Empress come to her senses at once. She took a deep breath and tried hard to suppress the fire in her heart.
She was extremely furious though. In the past, she might care less about it. But today, with so many imperial concubines present, he didn’t show any respect to her, the master of the harem. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
However, she was rational enough. As the Empress in office for so many years, she knew that she should be calm at this time.
“I know! You can stand up.” She waved her hand to motion for the trusted eunuch to get up. Then, she turned to look in the direction of the Palace of Benevolent Peace. “As long as that old woman is still alive, I will never be able to dominate the harem! The little b.a.s.t.a.r.d has always been disrespectful to me and embarra.s.sed me several times…”
“Your Majesty, Prince Chen is such a kid. You don’t have to be angry. It should be Beauty Wu’s fault. She is such a disgraceful woman that she dared to seduce Prince Chen just now! She had no awareness of the difference between herself and Prince Chen. How could he be seduced by her?” The trusted eunuch comforted.
“Useless fool!” the Empress said angrily. She had intended to keep Shao Wanru here today and teach her a lesson, but Beauty Wu ruined her plan.
If Beauty Wu hadn’t talked on her own initiative, it wouldn’t have ended like that. Beauty Wu deserved the punishment! She thought that she could turn the tables on others after being favored by the Emperor for a few days. She didn’t know what an insignificant role she was. There had never been a shortage of favored beauties in the Imperial Palace, but few of them had ever won the Emperor’s heart.
Did she think that she had married into n.o.bility?
“Don’t be angry. Your Majesty. Since Beauty Wu has done such a thing in front of all the imperial concubines, it was for the good of His Majesty that you punished her like that. If His Majesty blames you, you can’t explain it with such a reason. What’s more, Prince Chen is the victim…” the eunuch said with a smile.
The Empress understood what he meant and slowly calmed down, but after thinking for a while, she still felt a little indignant.
“Prince Yue and Prince Zhou haven’t got married yet, but His Majesty pays all his attention to Prince Chen, the third prince, and arranged his marriage before all his elder brothers’. What will others think of Prince Zhou?”
It had been the convention that the elder was always the first. How could he break the rule?
It was not just the matter of the marriage. Who got married first was not what the Empress cared about the most. She was afraid that after the Emperor broke the rule, he might also break the rule in pa.s.sing over the throne. As long as she thought of this, the Empress would not be in a good mood.
“No need to worry, Your Majesty. Prince Chen got married first because he is in poor health. If it weren’t for his weak health, the Emperor and Empress Dowager might not have proposed his marriage so early. Every official understands it though no one says so!” the eunuch said with a smile.
His words comforted the Empress, who later showed a faint smile on her face, but then she became angry again and said, “But Princess Chen escaped from my plan!”
“Your Majesty, she could escape this time, but she can’t the next time! Since she has married Prince Chen, she will enter the Imperial Palace from time to time. And you are an elder of Prince Chen, so he has to visit you. Then you can always know where Princess Chen is!” The trusted eunuch was very smart and kept saying what the Empress liked hearing, which made the Empress very happy. She nodded and felt that it was reasonable.
She had plenty of opportunities to deal with Shao Wanru. Chu Liuchen was in poor health and had to be in court, so he didn’t have much time to be with Shao Wanru. It wouldn’t take too much effort for her to deal with Shao Wanru.
She was eager to oppress Shao Wanru because she wanted to deal with Chu Liuchen. So many years pa.s.sed; Chu Liuchen not only kept well but was also getting better and better in health. The Empress had never found his other weaknesses. Since he had agreed to marry Shao Wanru, maybe Shao Wanru was his only weakness.
After all, Chu Liuchen didn’t even have a woman for so many years. No matter how charming the woman sent to him was, she would be thrown out in the end or even lose her life.
Years of fighting against Chu Liuchen had made the Empress conclude that Chu Liuchen was not a tenderhearted person. “He’s very cold-blooded.” But she didn’t know whether Shao Wanru was different from other women to Chu Liuchen or she was just made use of by him.
But no matter what it was, the Empress thought that it might be a breakthrough to start with Shao Wanru…
“Well… let’s put it aside for the time being…” The Empress nodded. She would inevitably have some conflicts with Shao Wanru. However, it was very simple to deal with a girl who was not yet 15 years old. As long as Chu Liuchen was not around her, she could take action at any time…
“The Empress doesn’t like me, does she?” Shao Wanru sat in Chu Liuchen’s arms and asked in the palace sedan chair.
“Certainly she doesn’t!” Chu Liuchen said indifferently, “If you don’t want to see her, you don’t have to go to visit her. If you are not with me next time, you can go directly to see Imperial Grandmother. She doesn’t dare to be presumptuous in front of Imperial Grandmother!”
He was fiddling with the silk ribbon around her waist with his slender fingers.
Shao Wanru wanted to give him a bite. That was the Empress of the country! How could she not visit her as she wished? Moreover, she was their elder of n.o.ble status. If she ignored her, it would be a big crime.
“That’s the Empress!” Shao Wanru squinted at him, pursed her cherry lips, and said unhappily.
She showed a perplexed expression on her small face, which made her inexplicably cute. Chu Liuchen reached out to pinch her pink and tender cheek.
“Ah!” Shao Wanru slapped off his naughty hand and reached out to protect her face. She glared at him with her bright watery eyes and said, “It hurts!”
“I didn’t use much strength. I just touched it slightly.” Seeing a red handprint on Shao Wanru’s cheek, Chu Liuchen regretted it. He didn’t feel that he had used too much strength, but the little beauty’s cheek was as tender as tofu, and it turned red once it was touched, which seemed to be hurting her.
“Touch? No, you used a lot of strength, Your Highness!” Shao Wanru complained angrily. Her bright eyes seemed to be able to talk and were silently accusing Chu Liuchen, which instantly softened Chu Liuchen’s heart. He felt his heart was filled with a feeling of sweetness and sourness, with his eyes becoming gentle.
“Okay, it’s my fault. Zhuozhuo, don’t be angry. Come on, let me have a look. It turned red!” Chu Liuchen said with a smile and pulled Shao Wanru’s hand. But this time, he didn’t dare to use strength. His little princess was like dough, and marks could be easily left on her once she was touched.
“Don’t look, don’t look!” Shao Wanru hurriedly covered her face and struggled to push his hands away. Her face was flushed. In the past, Chu Liuchen was cold, but now he was so unabashed. Was he really the Crown Prince she saw in her last life?
Couldn’t be that his soul had been changed, could it?
Finally, Shao Wanru pushed away his fumbling hands. She was shy and angry now. Just now, he kissed her on the lips several times when she was off guard. If they hadn’t been in the Palace, she might have cried out loud. However, he seemed to be satisfied, leaning back and smiling lazily.
“Do you want to know why the Empress dislikes you?”