CH 26

I finally remembered I had yet to greet her, I quickly kneeled, “Consort Shun-niangniang, please forgive me, this servant deserves the punishment of ten thousand deaths.”

“You may rise, it is of no consequence.” Her voice was also very warm, “I think it is not the first time that Liu-gonggong and I have met?”

I thought about it more closely, aside from that day I hadn’t seen her before, unless she meant that day?

“Niangniang, please forgive me, this servant does not remember….”

“The day of the consort selection, you were standing besides the Emperor, I snuck a glance from outside and saw you.” Consort Shun said as she signalled for everyone to retreat, and then suddenly her expression changed and she whispered, “The Emperor grabbed your butt.”

I immediately blushed and I became incredibly anxious, “Niangniang, please forgive me, it’s not what you think. This servant is just a eunuch, the Emperor would do no such thing.”

I was already starting to talk nonsense, how could Consort Shun possibly have seen that, how can I explain this? She wasn’t going to see me as a love rival now right? But right now I had no intention of gaining favour with the Emperor, plus I was a eunuch, there was no way I could enter the imperial harem, Consort Shun would unlikely go that far right.

After that I heard Consort Shun laugh lightly, “Liu-gonggong need not fear, I was just teasing you, look how petrified you are.”

I thought to myself, I was almost scared to death, this Consort Shun-niangniang really knows how to tease.

After that she didn’t say much else and asked me to leave, she completely baffled me, I had no idea which part was real and which part was fake.

On the way to Yangxin Palace I encountered the Emperor, when he saw me he directly jumped off the palanquin making Yuan Moshu’s face change colour.

I quickly ran forward, “Your Majesty, please be careful.”

The Emperor frowned and grabbed my collar, twisting me around, “Did she hit you?”

I immediately realised he was talking about Consort Shun, I quickly waved my hand, “Responding to Your Majesty, no she didn’t.”

The Emperor finally let go of me and then turned to pinch my cheek, “You were clever today, you knew to come and let me know.”

I blinked at him, and then shyly pointed at the eunuchs behind him, the Emperor finally let go of me, he looked forward and said, “Head to morning court.”

So it turned out that in order to save me the Emperor did not even manage to make it to morning court.

I couldn’t contain the delight building up in my heart, and couldn’t care anymore about what Consort Shun had said.

The hall was already filled with civil and military officials who had been waiting for a while. I followed the Emperor the whole way and fanned him.

Today, the grand officials put forth the most regarding the disturbance in the small kingdoms by the border stations, apparently there were two or three small kingdoms which were fighting over land and quite a few Shangqi citizens had been caught in the crossfire.

General Wu’s faction thought that the situation was not situation since they were just small kingdoms, even together, they were not Shangqi’s opponent1Forgot if I said but if it wasn’t obvious, this fake place that is ancient China-like is called Shangqi, but He da-ren believed that this matter must not be taken lightly. The Emperor had not been in power for long, the other countries were probably still in doubt, he believed that importance should be placed on this matter and the best solution would be to send someone to negotiate.

Although I didn’t understand fully, I also thought that He da-ren was right, one must never lower one’s guard.

As expected, the Emperor said that this matter needed to be discussed further and then he ended the morning court.

Originally the Emperor wanted to return to Yangxin Palace but mid-way, one of the eunuchs from the Empress Dowager came to call him over, he made me go with him. I was very angry about this, the people I wanted to see the least were the Empress Dowager and the Consort Dowager because I thought that they were the two hardest people to deal with in the entire palace, perhaps even the Emperor was helpless against the two of them.

But I could not disobey the Emperor, I could only do my best to make myself invisible.

But how could I possibly hide from the Empress Dowager’s piercing eyes, when she saw me, her first words were, “Your Majesty, why have you yet to deal with this little eunuch?”

Oh ~~~ She was being so blunt in front of me, giving me goosebumps.

The Emperor seemed to answer on purpose, “Empress Dowager need not worry, this little eunuch is fun, I will play with him for another few months.”

At that moment, I didn’t know if he was being serious or lying….

Afterwards, Consort Shun arrived, I finally understand, it was because the Empress Dowager had seen that for the last two days, the Emperor had gone over to the Imperial Concubine Shu’s palace, and had come over especially to create an opportunity for Consort Shun to see the Emperor.

It seemed the Empress Dowager was rather satisfied by the Consort Shun and wanted her to be promoted to Empress.

I stood at the side, not daring to move a muscle, I wished that I could find a water jar to hide myself in, the best would be if I couldn’t even hear what they were saying.

“Your Majesty, it’s the Consort Shun’s birthday today.” The Empress Dowager made an eye signal to the Consort Shun.

Consort Shun added, “Oh I’ve troubled Mother Empress to even remember such a thing.”

Oh, so that’s why, I flattened my mouth. It seemed that tonight the Emperor would be going over to see Consort Shun-niangniang.

Who knew that the Emperor would say, “But tonight I have a lot of memorials to read through, perhaps I will even sleep in Qianqing Palace tonight, something has happened at the borderlands, perhaps we will have to send someone over there.” The Emperor purposely showed his distress, “Mother Empress, could I ask you to accompany Consort Shun today?”

Consort Shun’s face did not really change at all, but the Empress Dowager was a little displeased, however, since the Emperor was diligent dealing with official affairs, she couldn’t make him spend time with his consort at the expense of the country right?

Therefore the Empress Dowager could only watch as the Emperor dragged me away….