The secret guard didn’t say anything else and silently withdrew from the study. The subordinates all hoped that Lu Cong would move as soon as possible to remove Zhao Wen, that idiot ruler, to prevent the long delay from causing trouble.
Yet Lu Cong had not moved after a long time, so what was he waiting for?
The secret guard couldn’t understand, but if he could understand what Lu Cong was thinking, he’d be a general as well.
Lu Cong was sitting alone in the study and for no reason at all remembered the young man he met at Nanfeng Pavilion. Until he left the Nanfeng Pavilion, he didn’t know what that little groom looked like, but those eyes made him like it very much. In the dark, he still felt a bit familiar, but he couldn’t remember it for a while.
In the Nanfeng Pavilion today, he was hot-headed and acted on impulse, so he had come up with the idea of booking that young man. After coming back, he thought about it, if he was really interested in that person, he could be taken to the mansion. It wouldn’t be bad to have such a person.
But he couldn’t figure out what he meant to that young man.
Lu Cong felt that he needed to calm down and see if he’d been bewitched first and then he could decide what to do with him.
Lin Mengyue was guarding outside Chu Xia’s bedroom. She was now pregnant with a child and thought that Chu Xia wouldn’t let her just stand there, so he’d call her in later, but Lin Mengyue waited for almost an hour, and there was no movement in the bedroom. The emperor seemed to have completely forgotten that she was here.
But he asked the palace man to move the chair out again, and, watching the sky getting dark and the evening wind blowing, he was worried that she would be cold and sent her a cloak, too.
His current actions were too contradictory. Lin Mengyue always felt that she had Zhao Wen in her palm, but now she couldn’t see him clearly either.
Lin Mengyue sat on the chair brought by an attendant and looked up at the sky above her head, coloured by the twilight. If the emperor really knew about her affair, he wouldn’t be this indifferent.
What happened to His Majesty?
The imperial concubine shook the fan she was holding in her hand and suddenly turned her head to ask the eunuch beside her, “Do you know where His Majesty went when he left the palace today?”
“This…” The eunuch shook his head. His Majesty only brought two hidden guards out of the palace, and when those two hidden guards came back they ran off to who knows where. He said to the imperial concubine, “I don’t know.”
Lin Mengyue knew that the eunuch in front of her would not dare to lie to her. As long as these palace people and eunuchs had a bit of a brain, they’d all know that the most important thing to survive in this palace was to please the imperial concubine, and those who had no brain, who died not long after entering the palace, had become lonely souls in this towering palace.
Although His Majesty’s temper seemed to have gotten better in the past two days, he had always been fickle and no one knew what he’d be like in another few days. He had neglected the imperial concubine these days, but he had not favoured other beauties. She was pregnant with His Majesty’s child. Compared to the other women, she was different after all.
Smart people knew how to choose in this situation.
After a while, another young eunuch came out of the bedroom. The imperial concubine stood up subconsciously, thinking that the emperor finally agreed to see her, but she heard the young eunuch say: “Your Highness, Your Highness, His Majesty has already gone to sleep.”
The imperial concubine froze in place. Since she’d entered the palace, her life had been smooth-sailing. Even a concubine who was slightly favoured in front of the Emperor, she could kill at will and the emperor would not criticise her. She covered the sky with one hand in the palace. As long as she wanted it, there was nothing she couldn’t get.
Today, the emperor made her lose so much face. Lin Mengyue hadn’t been this angry in a long time. She tightly clenched the fan in her hand. It took a while before she managed to suppress the anger in her heart and make her voice sound normal as she asked: “He went to sleep?”
“Yes.”
She had waited for him here for so long, yet he was able to sleep. The imperial concubine was so angry that teeth gnashed together and the palace maid beside her knelt on the ground to let her calm her anger.
Lin Mengyue returned to her palace with a belly full of anger. There was something strange about this whole affair. She hoped that the child would be born smoothly, and she would no longer have to look at the face of the dog emperor.
She sat on the collapsed bed and the more she thought about it, the more angry she was, and she smashed a lot of jade. The palace attendants, who heard the sounds of things breaking, knelt on the ground and held their breaths, for fear that if they upset this imperial concubine, they would pay for it with their lives.
The beauties in the harem who had been bullied by the imperial concubine for many years did not show any happiness after learning of this. They were just playthings for the emperor in his free time. Surrounded by the imperial concubine’s spies, if they dared to show a little schadenfreude, the imperial concubine would make them suffer.
This huge harem looked calm on the surface, but the waves were rough below.
“Be careful these days ah, don’t hang out in front of His Majesty if you have nothing to do.” The secret guard thought of the way His Majesty looked at him when he sent His Majesty back to the palace, which made him feel terrified.
The secret guard was thinking a bit too much. Chu Xia was just expressing regret at that time. He regretted that he did not bring the secret guards with him when he entered the Nanfeng Pavilion, which led to a very passive situation for him later, because he was afraid of being killed by Lu Cong unknowingly, and he didn’t dare to reveal his identity at all.
The secret guard looked at his brothers and urged, “Especially the sixth and thirteenth, stay away from His Majesty during this time.”
“What’s going on?”
The secret guard looked around and lowered his voice. “I suspect that His Majesty has become a cut-sleeve.”
“What? A cut-sleeve?”
“How can that be!”
The secret guards voiced their disbelief one after the other. His Majesty enjoyed fun times with the beauties in his harems day in and day out, how could he be a cutsleeve?
“I’m being serious. Do you know what His Majesty did out of the palace today?”
His brothers cooperatively asked what he was doing.
The secret immediately told them that he saw His Majesty enter the Nanfeng Pavilion, and he stayed in it for a long time before coming out. His Majesty must be tired of playing with beautiful women and wanted to play with men.
Thinking about it this way, His Majesty also had a reason for ignoring the imperial concubine recently.
All the hidden guards only felt that their butts were a little cold, so they should not show their faces in front of the emperor in the future.
Chu Xia didn’t sleep long. After waking up, he sat on the bed, eating the pastries the imperial kitchen had sent up, thinking about how long he could still be the emperor. Nearby, a pile of memorials was placed on the table. Chu Xia had read two pages before going to bed. All of them were flattering and also quite low-quality; it was a bit disgusting. He pushed these memorials aside and closed his eyes to sleep.
There was no one available in the court. He wanted to clear the court and be a better emperor, but he had no way to start.
It’s better to wait for death in peace ba.
Chu Xia knocked himself on the head. Originally, he thought that he could enjoy himself with the status of emperor, but unfortunately, there was that stupid lock.
He remembered that in the Nanfeng Pavilion today, Lu Cong said that he wanted to take him. If Lu Cong was not joking, then he would definitely go to the Nanfeng Pavilion to find people in the future.
If Lu Cong found out that he was the one who was in the Nanfeng Pavilion that day, would he become angry and directly rebel and kill him?
Chu Xia’s head hurt. This emperor had the title of emperor, but he couldn’t do anything. He thought he would be able to sit on a beautiful man and have a great time, but he ended up wearing a lock on his body.
He lifted the curtain beside the bed and told the eunuch beside him, “Get someone from within the Heavenly Prison.”
The eunuch immediately leaned over and asked him with a flattering expression: “What is His Majesty looking for?”
When Chu Xia asked this, the eunuch subconsciously thought that he had taken a fancy to some beauty in the prison.
But no. He held his chin for a while and said to the eunuch: “A good-looking one, preferably with eyes like mine.” If he’s too ugly, he might scare Lu Cong.
Like His Majesty. The eunuch realised that his guess just now might not be right. He raised his head and snuck a glance at Chu Xia, wanting to see what His Majesty’s eyes looked like. When he realised what he was doing, he gave himself a mental slap and quickly lowered his head, hoping that His Majesty did not notice his transgression just now.
Chu Xia wasn’t at ease with these people and got up from the bed, saying, “Forget it, it’s better for me to pick one ba.”
He first went to the Heavenly Prison. Most of the prisoners in the Heavenly Prison were tortured badly, and they didn’t look suitable. He went to the palace’s xinzheku to pick and choose, and finally found a man with rather similar eyes to him.
Chu Xia ordered the palace officials: “Send him to Nanfeng Pavilion and tell the owner of the Nanfeng Pavilion that Chu-gongzi sent him. He will know what to do.”
The palace man thought he’d be killed once captured, but Chu Xia just sent him to Nanfeng pavilion, which made him a little panicked.
Is a place like Nanfeng Pavilion more terrifying than death?
The next morning at court, Lu Cong still did not come. Chu Xia and the courtiers were well aware of his condition, but no one dared to mention it. Only after the court, someone asked to see Chu Xia and encouraged Chu Xia to kill Lu Cong and also talked about some past events between Lu Cong and the imperial concubine Lin Mengyue.
If the original owner heard these words here, he would be so angry that he would not be able to eat, but Chu Xia didn’t care.
The original owner had become increasingly stupid and unscrupulous over the years. Those who really hoped for his good were demoted and killed by him. The remaining people’s hearts became cold and they resigned and returned to their hometowns. Now most of the court officials in power had their own little schemes and no one would give their life for such a stupid emperor.
Chu Xia touched his chest. Now that everything that should be arranged had been arranged, the rest was up to fate ba.
Lu Cong, Lu Cong…
The system gave Chu Xia more detailed information about Lu Cong. Lu Cong is the eldest son of the Marquis of Beijing1 and his mother was the Marquis’ first wife. She and the Marquis didn’t marry for love. Their marriage was a scheme from beginning to end, but his mother fell in love with the Marquis early, while the Marquis hated her to death because of this binding marriage.
As soon as she became pregnant, the Marquis took his childhood sweetheart home and let her be a flat wife. Lu Cong’s mother couldn’t stand the stimulation and became crazy from then on. After Lu Cong was born, she became even more seriously ill and almost threw the two-month-old Lu Cong into a pond to drown him. The Marquis knew what was happening in the mansion, but never stopped it. He wished that the mother and son would die together in the backyard.
Lu Cong grew up little by little under her abuse. When she was occasionally sober, this woman would hold Lu Cong in her arms, talk to him about the past, stingily give him a little bit of tenderness, and then return to her original state and continue to abuse him..
Lu Cong grew up in this environment until he was fourteen years old. When his mother died, perhaps thinking of the previous years, she felt guilty and hoped that Lu Cong would be happy. Before she died, she called Lu Cong’s fiancée Lin Mengyue and told her to treat Lu Cong better in the future.
However, this fiancée had been having peculiar thoughts for a while now. She knew that Lu Cong’s life in the Marquis’ mansion wasn’t even as good as that of a servant. Naturally she would not want to marry Lu Cong in accordance with the marriage contract. Since the Heavens blessed her with such an appearance, she would definitely not let her live a mediocre life with such a person.
Later, as expected, Lin Mengyue was snatched into the palace by the original owner and became a high-ranking concubine. However, her engagement with Lu Cong was always a thorn in her heart. In order to remove this thorn, she tried to kill Lu Cong several times, but she failed in the end.
Chu Xia went through all these past events carefully. Lu Cong’s life had not been easy. He now had enough power to overthrow the original owner, but he had endured it until now without taking action. If something is strange, there must be a demon. Chu Xia always felt that he still had some tricks to use on him.
Chu Xia put the quilt over his head and fell asleep again soon. This time he had a dream. In the dream, there was Lan Que on the left and Bai Yan on the right, kneeling in front of him and calling him Your Majesty the Emperor.
Chu Xia smiled from one ear to the other. He waved to them and told his two beloved concubines to come up and sleep with him. When the two beloved concubines came up, Chu Xia also woke up.
It felt a little uncomfortable down there, and Chu Xia stared at the lock for a long time.
If I am guilty, please let the law punish me instead of putting a lock on me!
He was so angry that he hammered the bed. When the palace attendants outside heard the banging sound on his bed, they shivered in fright and knelt on the ground. After a while, the emperor settled down and there was no sound, and they quietly stood up again.
The next few days passed peacefully, except that Chu Xia would bring several locksmiths into the palace every day and let them study the locks on his body.
They brainstormed for several days but made no progress.
In the general’s mansion, when Xiao Tianheng came in, Lu Cong was sitting behind his desk writing. He leaned over and said, “Let me see what you’ve written.”
“Chu Xia?” Xiao Tianheng thought that even if Lu Cong was free to write names on paper, he would also be able to write Lin Mengyue’s name. Where did this Chu Xia come from? He had never heard this name around Lu Cong. He asked Lu Cong: “Who is this person ah?”
Lu Cong put down the brush in his hand, turned over the paper with Chu Xia’s name written on it, and placed it on the table. He didn’t give Xiao Tianheng an answer and instead asked Xiao Tianheng: “What are you doing here?”
Xiao Tianheng chuckled, took out a thumb-sized jade pendant from his sleeve, and handed it over to Lu Cong. “This is your pendant, put it away.”
Lu Cong looked at it. This was indeed given to Lin Mengyue by his mother that year. He accepted the pendant and said to Xiao Tianheng: “Thank you.”
“Is there any need to thank me? Didn’t you accompany me to the Nanfeng Pavilion?”
His worries were not superfluous at all. Sure enough, his father heard of him going to Nanfeng Pavilion that day, and chased him around the mansion twice with a stick. Later, he said that he went with Lu Cong, and his father put down the thick stick.
Xiao Tianheng thought of the stick, and now he was still frightened. He patted his chest and said to Lu Cong: “Oh, that’s right, I also heard that the imperial concubine went to see the emperor yesterday, but the emperor did not see her and fell asleep in his bedroom. The imperial concubine was so angry that she lost her temper and smashed a lot of things.”
Xiao Tianheng also went to meet his sweetheart by the way. Li’er and the little sisters who entered the palace with her were doing well during this time and were not bullied, so he was completely relieved. After Xiao Tianheng left, Lu Cong turned over the white paper on the table again. He cooled off for a couple days, but still couldn’t understand the relationship between himself and Chu Xia. He finally came to the Nanfeng Pavilion and asked for Chu Xia by name.
The boss brought the person Chu Xia sent to Lu Cong with his face covered and only his eyes exposed. But Lu Cong only took one look and said: “That isn’t this person.”
Sure enough, the boss thought so. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and heard Lu Cong ask coldly: “Where is he?”
The boss was shocked by Lu Cong’s gaze. “He, he…”
He stammered around for a long time, but the boss couldn’t come up with a complete sentence.
“Where did he go?” Lu Cong asked.
The boss felt that he was too wronged. How would he know where that Chu-gongzi went? Thinking of what Chu Xia sent someone to explain to him, the boss said to Lu Cong: “He and Zhou-gongzi went out.”
Lu Cong sneered. “Zhou-gongzi? Didn’t I already book him?”
The sweat from the boss’s back almost soaked his clothes. “Well, he said he’d see Zhou-gongzi for the last time today and make a clean break with him.”
Lu Cong found a window seat in the lobby and sat down. “I’ll wait for him to come back.”
To be on the safe side, Chu Xia kept someone in the Nanfeng Pavilion that day, and when he received the news, he quickly changed into plain clothes and left the palace.
Why could Lu Cong, who had obviously never seen his face, recognise him?
Chu Xia didn’t have time to think about it and rushed all the way to the Nanfeng Pavilion, but when he arrived at the place, he suddenly felt he was simply sick.
With his identity, he’d die sooner or later. Why is he sending himself to Lu Cong now? Did he want to die a worse death?
He must have made this decision because he couldn’t vent his anger and his anger rushed into his head.
Chu Xia came to Lu Cong wearing a mask that only showed his eyes. Lu Cong glanced at him and asked: “All cleaned up with that Zhou-gongzi?”
Chu Xia let out an en. It seemed as though there was endless agony within his voice.
Lu Cong felt a pang in his heart. He stretched out his hand to lift Chu Xia’s chin and looked straight into his eyes, as if he wanted to see through his soul.
He asked him, word for word: “Can’t get over him?”
notes:
1. beijing: 北靖 (unlike the city – 北京)
what is the correct english word for reserving a prostitute anyway. book? take for oneself? contract? i don’t know brothel jargon even in my mother tongue help
chu xia get a version of your husband that’s not checking off all the boxes in the tragic backstory bingo challenge failed (3/3 so far)
jam translations 