The Ugly Empress

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Teng Yun and Xue Pei heard someone clapping, they turned and saw Xue Junliang coming over laughing, “Empress is actually a female hero, I"ve been underestimating you.”

Then he turned to address Xue Pei, “So you"ll be serving her now?”

Xue Pei had no way of escaping it, with an embarra.s.sed expression on his face, he said with a small voice, “I will.”

Xue Junliang turned from Xue Pei back to Teng Yun and said, “Aifei, I come here to find you, I"ve got something to discuss with you.”

Hearing this, Xue Pei knowingly excused himself, but was stopped by Xue Junliang.

Xue Junliang said, “Teng Country"s Minister Shang is escorting the Eldest Princess to form a marriage alliance, what do Aifei think about it?”

Teng Yun was a bit surprised, he was silent for a moment then lightly said, “Chen-qie doesn"t dare meddling with a country"s matter.”

[T/N : Chen-qie literally means ‘this servant-wife‘. Used by a king"s wives including the Empress when talking to the king.]

Xue Junliang laughed, “I want to negotiate a peace with Teng, also as Aifei had said, there is really no need to chase a cornered enemy. After so many years fighting, my Xue Country soldiers are exhausted, it"s a good opportunity to recuperate.”

Hearing this, Teng Yun sighed with relief, but he knew Xue Country needed to back off in order to regroup, and this peace wouldn"t last long. Once Xue Country"s military power recovered, next agenda was the destroying of Teng Country.

Teng Yun also knew the reason Xue Junliang wasn"t attacking Teng Country right now, was because he had another concern. Xue Junliang didn"t want to place all of his energy onto Teng Country while Feng Country was sitting at the side nursing their own ambitions. If Feng launched a sneak attack, it would be too easy to cause harm to both Xue and Teng.

Xue Junliang saw the Empress saying nothing, instantly he felt happier. Now he was sure there was nothing out of ordinary about this Empress. He"d been perturbed by her, after all someone who wasn"t from the same family usually had different way of thinking, so he was determined to find this woman"s flaws and weaknesses.

He"d deliberately told the Empress that Teng Country wanted to form a marriage alliance. As the mistress of the Imperial Harem, the empress must feared that her position would be shaken. Thinking the Empress was mulling over the possibility of a new favorite concubine, Xue Junliang inwardly laughed. This Empress was still a woman, nothing extraordinary.

Xue Junliang smiled and said, “Aifei, as an Empress, I need you to help with the preparation of welcoming the new wife. Teng Country is very sincere in their intention, they even sent Minister Shang to personally escort the Princess, we cannot let people down.”

Teng Yun inwardly snorted, of course he could see Xue Junliang"s hidden meaning. They hadn"t been enemies for ten years for nothing.

But when he thought of Teng Country"s Eldest Princess, Teng Yun couldn"t help sighing regretfully. Since ancient times, there had been many dubious affairs between the royal families. Especially in troubled times like Teng Country had right now, something like that could happen too many times to count.

Teng Country"s Eldest Princess, Teng Qianyi was well-known as Teng"s most talented maiden. Most people a.s.sociated her name with talent and education, but they ignored that Teng Qianyi and Teng w.a.n.g were having an affair.

When their taboo relationship was first discovered, in order to appease the protesters, Teng w.a.n.g sent his eldest daughter to a temporary residence to pray. Only after the situations gradually pa.s.sed, Teng w.a.n.g took Teng Qianyi back, never mentioning about what had happened.

[T/N : Nope, you"re not reading it wrong. Teng w.a.n.g had an intimate relationship with his own daughter.]

The royal family and other n.o.blemen naturally avoided mentioning this topic. The chancellors didn"t dare pet.i.tioning Teng w.a.n.g about this shameful thing. In the end, the affair became a well-known secret.

There shouldn"t be a way this matter was known in Xue Country. Xue Junliang must have only thought that Teng Qianyi was a talented woman, didn"t know the whole truth about her.

Teng Yun was a bit guilty, but how would he dare mentioning it? If Xue Junliang knew that Teng"s Eldest Princess was no longer a pure jade but an adulterer, he"d be angry. He would surely lash out on Teng Shang who escorted her, and would proceed on attacking Teng.

Teng Yun could immediately see the flaw in Teng w.a.n.g sending Minister Shang to escort the princess. He saw that his own father had never trusted Teng Shang; sending him to escort this dirty princess, he would definitely be killed if the matter was exposed.

Teng Yun sighed deeply, his father had only thought of getting rid of Teng Shang, and had never spared a thought how Xue Junliang"s wrath would affect Teng Country.

As the Empress kept her mouth closed, Xue Junliang"s mood became even more pleasant. Other people might feel happy to have opponent, but for a king, it was better if everyone just surrendered to him.

“Aifei should start preparing, if you think you can"t handle it, just tell me.”

Finished talking, Xue Junliang turned to go and asked Jiang Yu to send a decree to Marquis Wannian for entering the palace.

The Little Crown Prince had been listening from the side. He was young, but he actually already understood many things so naturally he realized his father was subtly trying to keep the ugly empress in check.

[T/N : it was written ‘下马威 xià mǎ wēi‘, which could mean ‘putting someone in their place by flexing a little muscle." I think Xue Junliang meant to keep the empress down since he disliked not knowing what other people was thinking. I don"t know what other sentence I should use. T_T]

Since that moment of realization, though on the surface the Crown Prince didn"t show it, he started to treat Teng Yun differently. He thought that his father putting the Empress in charge of welcoming the new wife was inevitable yet still unreasonable.

Xue Pei never said it, but he decided he would get a bit closer to the Empress.

—

As soon as Xue Houyang handed over his summoning letter, Xue w.a.n.g called him to enter. Inside, Xue Junliang was sitting in the study room by the fireplace.

Xue Junliang handed Teng w.a.n.g"s letter to him and asked, “What do you think?”

Xue Houyang unfolded the letter and read it quickly, the he said, “Just as Your Majesty had predicted, Teng w.a.n.g deliberately sent Teng Shang into our death trap.”

“But we must first find a good reason for killing Teng Shang, we can"t act too reckless. What"s more, Teng Shang is famous among the scholars. If we kill him for no reason, people will label us unjust killers.”

Xue Houyang pondered a bit and obviously felt that Xue w.a.n.g was right, but he just couldn"t think of one good reason. He could kill in battles no problem, but bureaucracy really didn"t suit him.

“Because Minister Shang is coming to personally escort the princess, Houyang, I want you to welcome him at the city gate.”

“Chen-di will do as ordered.”

“You and him are old acquaintances on battlefields, but this time we"re not fighting. We are to welcome and treat the guests as equals. We cannot let Teng people feel inferior.”

“Your Majesty need not worry, Houyang will not disappoint you.”

—

Teng Yun had been suffering because he wanted to save Teng Shang but couldn"t. He even considered sneaking out of the palace at the same time Teng Shang entered Xue territory. He was neither a Feng nor Xue person, he was still Teng Yun, and it was impossible for him to just sit by and do nothing.

But the problem was, he couldn"t tell Teng Shang who he was, because who would believe him? And he couldn"t turn to Teng Shang for shelters either, because he knew just one wrong step could end with both of them killed.

Also with a face like this; a face this ugly would stand out in the crowds. If people took a single glance at his face and recognized him, let alone escaping, he wouldn"t be able to evade an arrest.

Teng Yun kept sending Xiu Yao to inquire after Teng Country"s envoy, but Xiu Yao wasn"t too willing about it. She thought that all was well as long as the Empress sat still in the Inner Palace. But she didn"t dare defy orders, so she still go find information though half-heartedly.

Jiang Yu came a few times to deliver gifts for the Empress, but her true purpose was to pry gossips from Xiu Yao. Xiu Yao was not a total fool, she knew her livelihood depended on Her Majesty, so how would she dare saying that the Empress had been seeking information about Teng Shang? Xiu Yao instead complained to Jiang Yu that after she knew Da w.a.n.g wanted to welcome a new wife, the Empress had been sincerely working on the preparations. But it was evident that she wasn"t happy, so please Xue w.a.n.g be considerate towards Her Majesty"s feeling as a woman.

When Xue Junliang heard Jiang Yu"s reports, added with the good praises from the Crown Prince, he felt that he should be more kind to the Empress.

Though her face was so ugly, the Empress was educated on the arts of war, and able to teach and handle Xue Pei well. So Xue Junliang had originally thought to give the Empress red dates  as gifts.

[T/N : Red dates or red jujubes (Hongzao). Why in the world did he want to give red dates? Was it some expensive fruit only kings could eat? Or was Hongzao a metaphor of something?]

Since the ancient times, it was a know fact that a king loved beauties. Xue w.a.n.g, too, of course didn"t really want to bed the ugly empress, but he had to let Jiang Yu invite the Empress to accompany Xue w.a.n.g for a meal.

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