After Transmigrating Into A Eunuch, I Became Famous In The Harem - Chapter 20

The crackling of the charcoal fire echoed in the still air.

Shao Yin lowered her gaze, her eyes resting on the Empress’s slightly open neckline.

The Empress’s skin glowed with a luminous radiance, its cold pallor tinged with a bluish hue. Her prominent collarbones rose and fell with each breath, blurring Shao Yin’s vision.

As Guan Zhixian traced the line of her eyebrow with a brush, Shao Yin blurted out her thoughts, “No matter how I adorn myself, I could never match even half of the Imperial Consort’s beauty.”

Guan Zhixian paused, her gaze slowly moving from the end of Shao Yin’s eyebrow to the depths of her eyes, piercing through Shao Yin’s gaze.

Shao Yin instinctively met her gaze, their eyes locking.

They stood so close that their breaths mingled, the atmosphere between them turning intimate and suggestive.

Guan Zhixian suppressed the tenderness in her eyes, a faint smile playing on her lips. “Do you think I’m angry because you’re more beautiful than I am?”

Shao Yin’s eyes shimmered in the candlelight, her painted eyebrows framing a face far more radiant than before.

The candlelight traced the contours of her delicate features, and Guan Zhixian found herself thinking that, indeed, Shao Yin was more beautiful than she was.

Shao Yin’s heart skipped a beat. “This servant knows that the Empress isn’t angry with my appearance. It’s just that… I’m unwilling to… to grovel before the Emperor.”

Guan Zhixian raised her hand, gently grasping Shao Yin’s chin. As she gazed at the refined beauty she had helped enhance, her heart trembled.

She felt as if a fierce beast were about to burst from her chest.

Indescribable thoughts and tangled emotions ravaged her mind, eroding her rationality.

Finally, Guan Zhixian’s delicate fingertips traced the line of Shao Yin’s jaw. Softly, she murmured, “When I escorted my younger sister to her wedding, I felt something like this. I never approved of her husband, and now her life is only mediocre at best.”
Perhaps it was this lingering regret, perhaps because she saw Shao Yin as a sister, that stirred this bitter, overwhelming emotion, churning in her chest.

Shao Yin’s heart softened. She had never imagined that in this world, where survival was so difficult, someone would willingly protect her.

She murmured softly, “Your Majesty the Empress.”

The voice, light and delicate, sent a shiver through Guan Zhixian’s heart.

The tangled mess in her mind seemed on the verge of revealing its true nature.

A gentle knock came from the door. Su Zhongjie’s voice called from outside, “Your Majesty the Empress, His Majesty the Emperor is on his way.”

Guan Zhixian’s composure tightened. She straightened Shao Yin’s hat, brushed aside a stray lock of hair from her forehead, and tucked it beneath the hat. “There’s no need for such precautions,” she murmured.

That stray hair, as if hooked, made Shao Yin’s face even more captivating.

She didn’t want the Emperor to see too much.

******

Before long, the Emperor arrived at Kunning Palace.

All the palace attendants knelt and bowed in greeting, respectfully welcoming the Emperor’s arrival.

The Emperor’s gaze instantly landed on Shao Yin.

Perhaps it was the pristine moonlight, reflecting off the snow and illuminating Shao Yin’s face. The Emperor felt that Shao Yin looked even more ethereally beautiful today, her snow-white complexion accentuated by her alluring red lips.

She seemed more delicate and ephemeral than the snow itself, evoking a tender affection.

The Emperor immediately stepped forward and personally helped Shao Yin rise from beside the Empress. “Yin’er, it’s been too long since we last met.”

Shao Yin kept her head lowered, averting her gaze and even gently extricated herself from the Emperor’s grasp.

The Emperor grew slightly anxious.

Guan Zhixian promptly rose and said to the Emperor, “Your Majesty, it’s cold out here. Why not go inside first?”

The Emperor was displeased by the Empress’s interruption.

Before he could rebuke her, Shao Yin stepped aside and said, “Your Majesty, please go inside first.”

The Emperor’s expression softened immediately. “You always know how to please me, Yin’er.”

With that, he strode into the palace.

The Empress, following behind the Emperor, turned to glance at Shao Yin.

Under that single look, Shao Yin’s racing heart instantly settled back into her chest.

Back inside the hall, the Emperor ate some pastries with Shao Yin attending to him, yet his gaze remained cold and displeased toward the Empress.

Shao Yin broke the silence. “Your Majesty, are you displeased?”

The Emperor scoffed coldly. “How could I be pleased?”

Though he was answering Shao Yin, his glare remained fixed on the Empress. “If the Empress’s father and brothers would only fulfill their duties as subjects and stop constantly pressuring me, I would be quite pleased.”

Guan Zhixian immediately knelt to offer her apologies.

Shao Yin’s eyes, reflecting the flickering candlelight, held a warm pool of confusion as she stared at the Emperor. “What have the Empress’s father and brothers done?”

The Emperor didn’t hesitate to discuss such political matters with Shao Yin. After all, she had served in the Imperial Study for three months as a eunuch—what secrets could she not handle?

He said, “It’s those so-called loyal ministers. To secure military funds, they’re actually trying to allow merchants to trade with those beyond the pass. They claim it’s about making money from them, but who knows what they’re truly plotting? It’s as if they want to give everything our dynasty possesses to those outsiders.”

“If we rely on merchants to raise substantial funds this time, what will they think of themselves? Won’t they believe the court can only depend on them for military funding?”

Shao Yin couldn’t understand why the Emperor held such a view. She expected him to offer deeper insights and reasoning.

As a modern woman from the 21st century, she fully understood the importance of commerce to a nation’s economy. She also knew that allowing merchants to accumulate too much power could lead ruthless capitalists to undermine the very foundations of the state.

However, she suspected that the Empress’s father and brothers, who were overseeing this matter, would have their own prudent measures and decisions in place. They wouldn’t make the grave mistake of fostering a class of ancient capitalists.

Given the current level of productivity, even in a feudal society, merchants’ status wouldn’t rise above that of scholars, farmers, and artisans simply because of this reform.

She poured the Emperor a cup of clear tea, her elegantly painted eyes, carefully adorned by Guan Zhixian, curving slightly as she gazed at him.

The Emperor, who had always loved her but been unable to possess her, hadn’t seen her in many days. Now, he found his Yin’er even more breathtakingly beautiful than before.

Shao Yin placed the tea in the Emperor’s hand and gently advised, “I’ve heard you’ve been troubled by these matters, Your Majesty. But I don’t understand what’s wrong with agreeing to their requests.”

“If we agree, they won’t pester Your Majesty any further, and we can secure the funds needed for the military. Once we have enough money, we can reclaim the power we’ve granted to those merchants and restore them to their proper place. Wouldn’t that be ideal?”

“Our dynasty possesses vast lands and abundant resources. How could those foreigners beyond our borders ever exhaust our wealth?”

She picked up another pastry and fed it to the Emperor. “It would be a waste if Your Majesty’s health suffers because of this.”

Her every movement carried the delicate charm of a willow swaying in the breeze, and she radiated a fragrance colder than winter snow. She was still as considerate as ever, and the Emperor found himself regaining some of the pleasure he’d felt during their three months together.

He even longed to have her by his side again.
Having reached this conclusion, the Emperor declared, “You’ve served in the Empress’s Palace for some time now. The Empress Dowager hasn’t mentioned the harem in ages, and the memorials reaching the Imperial Study have dwindled.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll agree to their proposal regarding commercial taxes and bring Shao Yin back to the Imperial Study. How about that?”

The Empress immediately looked up, knowing this couldn’t be good.

If the Emperor brought Shao Yin back to the Imperial Study, how could she protect her?

Unexpectedly, the Emperor’s eyes landed on her, his voice carrying the weight of supreme imperial authority as he pressed her: “Empress, what is your opinion?”

A flicker of smugness and mockery flashed in the Emperor’s eyes.

So what if the Empress’s father and brothers had pressured him on state affairs? So what if he had ultimately compromised?

In this Imperial Harem, he would vent all his pent-up anger on the Empress. As she looked up at him, a hint of anger flickering beneath the coolness in her eyes, the Emperor felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction.

Did the Empress think that by trying to remove his people from the palace, she was somehow restraining him?

In this palace, everything still operated according to his imperial will.

The Emperor’s spirits suddenly soared. For the moment, the nagging advice from his trusted ministers about the drawbacks of commercial taxes seemed less important.

He had originally thought that if the Empress was perceptive, he would spend the night favoring her and Shao Yin within the palace.

But it seemed the Empress was unwilling.

It didn’t matter. Suppressing the Empress pleased him more than sleeping with her. With thousands of beauties in the Imperial Harem, couldn’t he find at least two willing to serve him?

He left with a smile, leaving behind only silence.

The moment he stepped out of the hall, the oppressive pressure in the room instantly vanished.

The Empress closed her eyes, her heavy breaths pressing down on her heart.
Shao Yin turned to look at the Empress, seeing her still kneeling. She immediately moved forward to help her up.

But unexpectedly, the Empress grabbed her hand, yanking her down. One arm tightened around Shao Yin’s waist, pulling her into a tight embrace, while the other hand clamped onto Shao Yin’s neck.

Su Zhongjie, having escorted the Emperor away, was about to enter the Empress’s Palace with Ruyi to attend to her. But what he saw instead was the Empress gripping Shao Yin by the throat, as if she intended to strangle her.

Ruyi’s eyes widened in shock. Eunuch Su pulled her back, even thoughtfully closing the door behind them to leave the Empress and Shao Yin alone.

Ruyi still wanted to rush in. “Eunuch Su!”

Su Zhongjie pulled her back. “Don’t tell me you still want to go in and rescue Shao Yin?”

“You need to understand, this is connected to court politics!”

“Besides, the Empress might not actually punish Shao Yin. After all these years serving her, don’t you know her character?”

Ruyi finally calmed down, but she still looked anxiously at the palace doors.

*******

Inside the room, Guan Zhixian stood imposingly, like an iron wall, trapping Shao Yin in her arms. She gripped Shao Yin by the throat, forcing her to look up. “I will not allow you to leave Kunning Palace!”

A dangerous smile played on her lips, but her eyes remained cold and detached.

Yet Shao Yin noticed that the Empress’s cold, detached face, rather than becoming frightening due to her imposing demeanor and dangerous smile, had instead taken on an indescribable allure.

Her voice trembling, Shao Yin said, “I don’t want to leave either.”

She had never wanted to leave the Imperial Harem and return to the Emperor’s side.

The Empress’s possessiveness was now undeniable. “You’d better mean that,” she said coldly.

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