Chapter 251：I'm Cold

After dinner, there was still an hour before he had to return to the palace, so Zhou Yun Sheng deliberately called Zhao Bi Xuan's younger brother, Zhao Ji Dong, over to ask about his schooling. Zhao Ji Dong was very knowledgeable, and his personality was impeccable, even though it was his first time facing a holy figure, he was neither overly humble nor overbearing, his attitude calm.

Zhou Yun Sheng remembered that in the last life, he came third in the Imperial examinations, and with the Emperor's support, he climbed all the way to the top of his career. Although he didn't get the Marquess Wen Yuan title, he used his own abilities to become a high ranked official.

However, while working for Zhou Yun Sheng, he also served the Gong Prince, even the order for the Gong Prince to send troops to the capital to rescue the king were his writings. Written with stunning rhetoric and enlightenment, he attracted a large number of literati followers.

In this rebirth, Zhou Yun Sheng intended to raise him up, directly giving him the Marquess Wen Yuan title. The title that should belong to the first wife's youngest son was snatched away by a common born son, and a concubine that was promoted to second wife was also openly suppressing the first wife, the arrogant Marchioness Wen Yuan would certainly not be able to take this lying down.

With abnormal treatment of sons of the first wife and common born sons as the source of family strife, Zhou Yun Sheng just needed to have the Wen Yuan March cut their interests from one another, brewing mutual hatred, then Zhao Xuan would naturally choose the best team.

If he still insisted on supporting the Gong Prince afterwards, Zhou Yun Sheng would really have nothing more to say, he could only admit that he was his true love, and directly leave this world to save on embarrassment.

The more he thought about this, the more sullen he felt, Zhou Yun Sheng simply glanced over Zhao Ji Dong's schooling and ordered the imperial carriage to be prepared.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, how is Ji Dong's learning? Is he very undisciplined?" Zhao Bi Xuan walked up to his side and probed. Her younger brother would soon participate in the Imperial examinations, if he could get one or two compliments from the Emperor, it would definitely be an asset.

"Ji Dong is very knowledgeable and talented." Zhou Yun Sheng forcefully pulled up the corners of his mouth.

During their chat, the imperial carriage was prepared, Zhou Yun Sheng lifted a foot to step onto the raised steps then paused slightly, beckoning to Zhao Xuan, who was kneeling in front of the door, "Duke Yu Gou, come here."

Zhao Xuan frowned and walked over, bowing, "Your Majesty, is there something you need?"

"I am aware of my confused behavior today, my dear courtier has no need to agonize over this matter, forget as soon as possible." Zhou Yun Sheng lifted a hand to the man's shoulder and lowered his voice, "Do you understand?"

Zhao Xuan pushed down the anger in his heart and respectfully replied, "Yes, this small official understands."

Zhou Yun Sheng put on a smile that didn't reach his eyes and turned into the imperial carriage. Was Zhao Xuan really a virtuous person? In the past lives, before the two even expressed mutual love, the man would get hard as soon as he saw him, even while playing a virtuous character.

In this 'virtuous' life, his indifferent reaction to his seduction made Zhou Yun Sheng almost bleed out while comforting himself with his own hand. This debt was written in stone, sooner or later, he'd make Zhao Xuan taste this torment!

"Back to the palace." He snapped out an order.

———–

Openly promoting a concubine to a second wife, this was a challenge to the clan's system of rites, many officials wrote letters of admonition, but Zhou Yun Sheng suppressed them with his power, and things finally calmed down half a month later.

Zhou Yun Sheng has always been industrious and hard-working, in his past life as the Emperor of Da Qi, he'd wanted to carefully manage the country, but he was helpless against the villain system, which only gave him outlandish tasks such as 'Summon Zhao Bi Xuan to wait upon you in bed', 'Send assassins after Qi Jin Yu', 'Provoke the Empress Dowager's hatred' and so on. Unexpectedly, time to manage the country's affairs were never set aside for him.

The system also made him hand over a few big cases to Qi Jin Yu, allowing Qi Jin Yu to earn fierce public approval, completely forcing Zhou Yun Sheng down the path of death.

This life, with no system to control him, as long as he sat on the throne he needed to manage this turbulent country to a state of prosperity. He spent a month probing, gaining a clear understanding of the direction the tide of civil and military officials was flowing, then began a bold and decisive rectification.

As a result, the courtiers found their days becoming insufferable. In the past, the imperial court's morning roll call only required them to stand in the palace hall and fill the numbers, then the Emperor would casually ask for a few details and toss the important matters to a few ministers to deal with, then return to his palace to accompany his Imperial Consort.

But now, the ministers had to hand over the account books within two minutes of the door opening and wait until he read them, then he dealt with each matter one by one in order of priority, and also handed the responsibility to a specifically chosen minister .

If the governmental affair was not resolved within the arranged time, the minister's name would be recorded by the Emperor and the Ministry of Appointments, then forget about a promotion, it'd be a blessing if they weren't demoted.

In this way, after one month, the imperial court's atmosphere was changed beyond recognition, there was no more fishing in troubled waters and the disorder of sinecures, as long as the Emperor ordered it, it would be carried out, making the people concealing ulterior motives feel apprehensive.

[Fishing in troubled waters- take advantage of a crisis for personal gain]

[Sinecures- Wikipedia "an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service."]

This day, the Minister of Revenue fell into some bad luck. Because of clearly poor management, some of the sliver in the storehouse went missing, so the Emperor pulled him out front and was rigorously scolding him, he'd even smashed an ink stone during his ferocious outburst, dying the Minster of Revenue in ink.

The Emperor's majesty was flourishing day by day, and his sharp words drew more blood than a blade. The reprimanded courtier resembled a lowly quail, and the rest all had dropping heads and shoulders, afraid to breathe.

However, Zhao Xuan was the exception, hidden behind the crowd of senior officials, he spied on the Emperor's face through the gap. He told him to forget the events of that day, but it was etched into his memories, how could he forget?

Almost every night, he dreamt of that scene, allowing himself to push the incomparably beautiful Emperor down into that soft couch. He was the ruler of Da Qi, his bones were naturally very arrogant, he glared at him in indignation while crying tears of frustration, and sometimes, he'd bite his lips in-between uneven moans, red blood spilling, making Zhao Xuan's own blood boil, and he'd lose his self-control.

Once, he even dreamt that he made love to the Emperor on the large dragon throne, almost crushing his thin waist as he entered him from behind. The man glared back at him, his eyes burning with humiliation, but also ignited in desire. Zhao Xuan roared in madness and bit his neck then, leaving behind a mark that seemed to overflow with blood beads.

Despite the crazy dreams, he always woke up to emptiness and boredom, so Zhao Xuan felt very irritable recently, and only seeing the Emperor's handsome face every day and hearing his calm or angry voice in the imperial court could make him feel a little calmer.

Currently, because of his anger, the Emperor's cheeks were flushed red, and his pitch black eyes seemed to glitter like cold stars, his expression was unexpectedly exactly like in his dreams.

If his frown had some pleasure with a hint of pain, it'd be even better. Zhao Xuan's expression was solemn, but his chest was burning with raging lust, if he wasn't using his internal force to suppress his body, he feared he would climax on the spot. The Emperor apparently felt his line of sight, so he immediately lowered his head, quickly curbing the fervor in his eyes.

Zhou Yun Sheng felt someone ogling him, but whenever he looked in his lover's direction, he always had his head bowed, his attitude resembling reverence, no different than the rest of the courtiers. After reacting a few times, he lost interest, withdrawing from the imperial court after punishing the offending courtier.

The Emperor left, and the courtiers sighed in relief as if receiving amnesty, getting up from the ground and chatting in groups of twos and threes. Zhao Xuan walked up to the Minister of Revenue, gestured to his forehead where the smashed ink stone had left a red imprint, and asked, "Master Wang, are you all right?"

"It's nothing, the Emperor was being merciful." Master Wang laughed bitterly and waved his hand, noticed that his lapel was stained in ink, and quickly took his leave.

Zhao Xuan stood in place, pondering over that person's angry, flushed red cheeks and bright shining eyes, his heart throbbing, morbidly thinking, if he got angry at me, will he also reach for something to smash over my head? That would definitely feel amazing. He walked aimlessly, his mind filled with all sorts of erotic scenes, unconsciously arriving at the palace gate.

"This subordinate greets the Grand General!" A simple and honest young man enthusiastically approached him.

"Meng Kang, how have you been recently?" Zhao Xuan immediately put away his fantasies and looked the boy up and down, seeing his court dress, his pupils contracted for a moment. Imperial front guard, that person actually appointed Meng Kang as an imperial front guard? He was just a boy barely out of puberty, why did he fancy him so much?

"Replying to the Grand General, this subordinate has been in very good health recently. I just got an assignment, I'm on duty today." Meng Kang tugged on his new court dress, flushing in embarrassment. Serving as an Imperial front guard was like crashing headfirst into great fortune, and his speed of promotion and his opportunities were greater than others.

Truly, as long as the Emperor said a word, rising up in the world wasn't difficult. Therefore, he lived very comfortably recently, and that previously infallible Wu Chang March was now too afraid to bother him, this kindness from the Emperor really was a great blessing.

"You're now an imperial front guard, you're no longer under my command. Since you're on duty, you need to quickly go back to work. We'll go out for celebratory drinks on your day off." Zhao Xuan smiled amiably and slapped the boy's shoulder.

Meng Kang nodded enthusiastically and turned away.

Zhao Xuan stared at his tall back for a long time, his easy expression gradually becoming gloomy.

————-

Zhou Yun Sheng walked to Feng Yi Palace immediately after leaving the imperial court, but Zhao Bi Xuan didn't come out to greet him. She was reclining on a soft couch by the window, reading a title record, her posture very relaxed.

"What are you looking at?" Zhou Yun Sheng took the list and scanned it, not mentioning her discourteous behavior.

"I'm helping my sister find a betrothed. I think Ji Gou Duchy's eldest son is not bad. He not only looks proper, his talent and learning is very extraordinary, he ought to be a good match." Zhao Bi Xuan raised a lily-white hand to cover up her slight smirk.

Duke Ji Guo's eldest son? His looks and learning were indeed very good, and his mother was the noble Yu Min Princess. He really seemed to be a good marriage partner, but in fact, he was born impotent, he was incapable of sexual intercourse. In the whole of Da Qi, no more than 10 people knew of this matter, but Zhao Bi Xuan, who was buried deep inside the palace, was somehow aware of this, who would believe that she had no one backing her?

Qi Jin Yu's feelings for Zhao Bi Xuan was really awfully deep. He was fully aware that the person she was scheming against was Zhao Xuan's sister, but he didn't even try to stop her, who knew how Zhao Xuan would react if he found out.

Should he or should he not agree? Thinking of Zhao Xuan's coffin face, Zhou Yun Sheng smiled mischievously, then pointed to the list and said, "Then it's settled as the Ji Guo Duchy. I'll pass down an imperial decree in a few days."

"I thank the Emperor for his kindness in my sister's place." Zhao Bi Xuan put on an act of accepting a blessing, her lips pulling up in a slight smile of schadenfreude.

Zhou Yun Sheng was tired of seeing her gloating expressions, he tossed the list onto the table and sighed, "My sixth younger brother is already 18 years old this year, he also ought to take a wife. You have some time, why don't you visit the Empress Dowager and ask her if she has a suitable person in mind. I have already started making arrangements."

Zhao Bi Xuan's smile instantly froze, after taking two slow deep breaths, she whispered an agreement. Zhou Yun Sheng still refused to let her get away, without delay, he brought her with him to the Ci Ning Palace to have an audience. The Empress Dowager was resting her aged body on a couch, cuddling and playing with the chubby Second Prince, her smile filled with love. Noticing the two approaching, she kept the same expression, but the warmth in her eyes faded.