CH 2

The maidservants who were waiting outside the room, hoping to see some jokes were shocked by the slap and hurriedly withdrew with their hands down.

Teng Yun was exhausted. That one slap had drained all his strength. He sat on the bed and raised a hand to cover his eyes. When his hand grazed his swollen cheekbone, it stung painfully. 

Teng Yun had no idea what was going on with this ugly empress. If she was born ugly, why would her face hurt when it was touched? Clearly it was some kind of wound.

But he did not have the strength to think about it right now. In fact, he felt that he had almost broken this borrowed shell by using too much force. He sat paralyzed on the bed, and even trying to regain his breathing was quite an effort.

Teng Yun fell asleep unconsciously and had a lot of strange dreams. In his dream, he saw himself being appointed as a general and went to war for ten years before he eventually was captured and killed. He also dreamed that his country was conquered by Xue Junliang, while Teng Country was in the middle of ceaseless civil war. And finally, his country perished altogether.

Teng Yun woke up sweating. From outside his room, he could faintly hear some noise and commotion. With a frown, Teng Yun got up from the bed. As soon as he pushed the door open, the maidservant waiting outside greeted him. 

The maidservant in peach-colored clothing, now sporting a swollen cheek and looking a little scared, said, “Empress… is there something you need? Xiu Yao will help you.”

Teng Yun said nothing and just looked at her. Xiu Yao shivered, she could still feel her cheek throbbing in pain. Had she said anything wrong again? She did not think so.

In fact, it wasn’t that Xiu Yao had said anything wrong. But Teng Yun thought it was strange that a maidservant would stop an Empress when she wanted to go outside.

Teng Yun didn’t know about this Ugly Empress’ reputation. Emperor Xue and Defei had always treated her as a joke, so Defei took this opportunity and ordered people to spread rumors that although the Empress was a noblewoman, her manners weren’t so noble, what if she would threaten people?

From then on, this sorry excuse of an Empress was put into her chamber and was restricted to go outside.

Xiu Yao didn’t dare stop the Empress. After all, His Majesty didn’t especially prohibit this Empress from going outside. Also, the Empress was still the mistress of the Imperial Harem. Defei might be arrogant and relying on the favor given by His Majesty, but her rank was still lower. 

As they stepped outside the room, Teng Yun asked, “Why is it so noisy?”

“Answering to Your Majesty,” having learned her lesson, Xiu Yao respectfully answered, “Today was the day His Majesty executed the prisoner from Teng Country, so everyone seemed to be gathered in the flower garden to drink in celebration.”

“Oh…”

Suddenly, Teng Yun lost his voice as his heart froze; it was getting harder to maintain his calm, “Then… the prisoner’s body, has it been sent back to Teng Country?” 

“No, it hasn’t.” Xiu Yao said, “This servant heard that envoys weren’t allowed to bring the corpse back to Teng Country. His Majesty has already ordered a grand funeral.”

“Grand funeral? Grand funeral…”

Teng Yun almost laughed out loud. Xue Junliang was for sure asserting his power. He killed a Great General, the Prince of an enemy country by his own hands, then arranged the corpse to be buried here? Was he trying to show mercy?

For Teng Yun, this wasn’t a show of generosity. As a Teng citizen, if he could choose, he absolutely wouldn’t want to stay in this hostile land even after his death. 

“Your Majesty? What is wrong? If you are feeling unwell, I will call the imperial physicians.”

Xiu Yao saw the Empress was swaying and quickly went to help. Although Xiu Yao usually belittled and talked rudely to the Empress, there was still a reason this ugly woman was crowned and could sit firmly as the head of the Imperial Harem. Her younger brother was Feng Country’s king.

Therefore, Xiu Yao still had to take care of this ugly empress.

Teng Yun steadied his feet and said, “Let’s go outside.” 

This time, Xiu Yao obediently followed behind, not daring to have any ideas again.

As soon as the two of them walked out of the door of the hall, they saw someone in bright yellow attire coming from a distance. The person was small and it seemed to be a child.

He was wearing a small yellow robe with a pair of small blue-black boots on his feet. He was walking fast with hands clasped behind his back. A nervous-looking servant followed closely behind him.

When they walked closer, Teng Yun could hear the old servant saying, “Crown Prince, please walk slowly… Walk slowly… If you collide with someone, you’ll be in trouble!” 

The little child said, “Who dares to collide with me? I want to see this famous Empress.”

By their faintly-heard conversation, Teng Yun could guess that this little Crown Prince had especially come here to find something to nitpick.

Arguably, the Empress was Xue Junliang’s legal wife and the head of the Imperial Harem, the Crown Prince should still call her ‘Empress Mother’ even though she was not his biological mother. But obviously this newborn calf of a prince thought he was higher than an Ugly Empress.

When Teng Yun heard the news of ‘his own’ death, his heart had become cold as ice. Now that his identity was that of a different person, how could he be loyal to this country? Yet, Teng Yun was still not reconciled… 

And at this moment someone came looking to find fault with him. Just as well, Teng Yun could use this opportunity to vent his anger.

The Little Crown Prince walked forward casually, but just as he started to walk up the bottom step, only then did he look up and found Teng Yun standing right at the gate.

Although the little prince said that he was not afraid of anything, he was actually just a seven to eight years old child. When he saw the first side of Teng Yun, he took two steps back so abruptly that, if not for the old servant catching him, his butt would have been planted on the steps and would have rolled down.

Teng Yun was amused to see the little prince looking at his face with a peculiar expression. In fact, when he first saw himself in the bronze mirror, he too, got a fright and couldn’t believe his eyes. His face was bruised black and blue, his cheeks were swollen, and there were even bloodstain-like marks, which almost squeezed his eyes shut. 

But the little Crown Prince didn’t have Teng Yun’s experience and wisdom of seeing the world, so he could only stare blankly for a long while. Gradually he calmed down and sneered, “She is not scary, just appalling.”

The old servant behind him, who actually knew about etiquette, was afraid the little prince didn’t know how to control his speech. He immediately knelt down and said, “This old servant pays respect to Your Majesty, the Empress.”

“Jiang Yu, get up.” The Little Crown Prince glared at the old servant.

The servant with cautious speech and thoughtful deeds was called Jiang Yu. He was the Head Internal Servant of the Imperial Palace who had served Xue Junliang himself. Later on, because the Xue Emperor loved his only son very much, sent Jiang Yu to serve the Crown Prince. 

Teng Yun said nothing, so Jiang Yu didn’t dare get up. The little Crown Prince became more and more dissatisfied that his own servant didn’t listen to his words. He said, “Jiang Yu, why do you kneel for her? Our mighty Xue Country shouldn’t need to be afraid of this Ugly Empress. She was just here because of a marriage alliance. We’ve already conquered Teng Country, it’s only a matter of time before we conquer Feng Country too.”

Hearing this, Teng Yun laughed coldly and said, “Crown Prince, have you ever studied books?”

The little prince raised his chin to Teng Yun, looked him in the eye and said, “Of course I’ve studied books. Do you think I’m illiterate?”

“That’s strange.” Teng Yun said, “If you are educated, how come you speak nonsense like an uneducated child?”