My Wife is a Frustrating Genius!!! - Chapter 64

Sitting on the throne, the old emperor looked down at the kneeling figures below. Following the direction pointed by the young eunuch, his gaze fell upon the person who had taken his daughter away.

“Is that him?” The old emperor raised his hand to point at Lu Jiahe, then turned to look at his wife behind the screen and asked.

Seeing this, the empress lifted the gauze curtain in front of her and nodded affirmatively at him.

Seeing that the person had been confirmed, the old emperor turned around and looked at Lu Jiahe with a meaningful expression.

“Rise.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Upon hearing the emperor’s words, the kneeling scholars all expressed their gratitude and stood up.

Leaning back on the dragon throne, the old emperor kept his gaze fixed on Lu Jiahe. “Is the Tanhua (third-place scholar) present?”

He had originally intended to make the person who had wronged his daughter continue kneeling as a form of punishment. But then he thought, what if his daughter saw the bruises on the other’s knees and felt distressed? Forget it, forget it.

“Your Majesty, he is here,” the young eunuch beside him replied promptly upon hearing the emperor’s words, glancing at the Tanhua standing next to him.

Upon hearing the old emperor call her name, Lu Jiahe couldn’t help but shiver. She didn’t know why, but the moment she heard his voice, her legs went weak with fear.

The old emperor nodded upon hearing the response. First, he followed the protocol and commended the Zhuangyuan (top scholar) and others before calling Lu Jiahe, the Tanhua, to step forward.

“I heard that the Tanhua is the youngest among this year’s imperial examination candidates. May I ask where you are from and whether you are married?”

Here it comes.

Lu Jiahe had long known that the emperor had a habit of arranging for the Tanhua to become his daughter’s consort. Many, in pursuit of a better future, were willing to abandon their devoted wives just to climb into the princess’s bed.

“Your Majesty, I am from Bianjing City and already have a virtuous wife at home,” Lu Jiahe replied respectfully, cupping her hands in front of her.

The old emperor sighed softly upon hearing this. “So, you’re already married. I had originally intended to take you as my son-in-law. In that case, do you think the Zhuangyuan would be suitable to become the consort of my eldest princess?”

With that, the old emperor narrowed his eyes and carefully observed the expression on Lu Jiahe’s face. He wasn’t sure whether the other party knew his daughter’s true identity and wanted to use this opportunity to probe further.

Hearing this, Lu Jiahe glanced at the Zhuangyuan standing not far away. “That would be excellent!”

“Hmph,” the old emperor snorted coldly but could tell from the other’s reaction that they didn’t know his daughter’s identity. “What? Are you so unwilling to become my son-in-law?”

Hearing the anger in the emperor’s tone, Lu Jiahe hurriedly knelt down to explain. “My wife and I are deeply devoted to each other. I would never do something as dishonorable as abandoning her and our child.”

Wife and child?

The old emperor and the empress behind the screen were startled upon hearing this. Had their daughter, who had run away from home for so long, already had a child?

“Hmph! I am the ruler of ten thousand people. How could I not even have the authority to decide your marriage?”

Without waiting for Lu Jiahe to respond, the old emperor immediately issued an oral decree, betrothing the eldest princess to Tanhua Lu Jiahe.

No matter how good-tempered Lu Jiahe was, she could not possibly agree to this.

Thus, the old and the young, the great and the small, began arguing back and forth right there in the court.

As the sun set in the west, the palace gates slowly opened, and a large crowd who had come to see the emperor filed out.

Lu An, like the other servants and attendants, stood on either side of the palace gates, peering inside. After waiting for a long time, the crowd had dispersed, but he still hadn’t seen his young master emerge.

Frowning, he debated whether to spend some money to ask the soldiers at the gate to inquire for him. Just as he had made up his mind and was about to step forward, he heard a creaking sound coming from the palace entrance.

“Is the Tanhua’s attendant here?” a soldier carrying a bamboo stretcher called out, scanning the area from the palace gate.

Lu An spotted his young master lying face down on the stretcher, his head drooping, and hurriedly ran over to ask, “Young Master! What happened to you?”

Hearing this, Lu Jiahe glanced at Lu An but didn’t want to answer. Instead, he turned his head away.

The soldiers carrying the stretcher, observing their interaction, realized this was indeed the Tanhua’s attendant. One of them spoke up, “You’re the Tanhua’s attendant, right? Lead the way quickly. The Tanhua has been caned and needs to return home to recuperate.”

“What?! Caned?” Lu An exclaimed in shock, staring at the armored soldier before him.

He glanced at his young master and, not daring to waste another second, led the soldiers carrying Lu Jiahe back to the Lu residence.

“Young Mistress! Young Mistress!”

Cheng Yi, who had been waiting inside the residence, hurriedly rose upon hearing Lu An’s voice and went to the outer hall with Guo’er.

She had assumed Lu Jiahe’s visit to the palace was merely to receive an official appointment. Never did she expect him to be carried back by several imperial guards.

“What happened?” Cheng Yi asked anxiously, rushing forward to check on Lu Jiahe, who lay despondently on the stretcher.

The imperial guard captain knew Lu Jiahe’s status was unusual, but he was still taken aback to see the princess here. No wonder he only received five strokes after arguing with the emperor in court all day in front of so many officials.

Muttering to himself as he watched the couple leaning against each other, the captain then instructed his men to carry Lu Jiahe into the room and place him on the bed.

“Lady, this is medicine bestowed by the emperor for the Tanhua. It’s effective for injuries on the buttocks. Please remember to apply it on time,” the guard said, handing the small box of medicine to the princess.

Cheng Yi took the box, studying it with a furrowed brow for a moment before retrieving her purse and pulling out several silver notes to hand to the guard. “Thank you for bringing my husband back. Please accept this.”

“No, no, you’re too kind,” the guard captain said, stepping back to maintain distance.

“Please take it. Don’t be polite. Consider it my token of gratitude and payment for your efforts,” Cheng Yi insisted, pressing the silver notes into the speaking soldier’s hand. “By the way, do you know why my husband was caned?”

If an ordinary person had asked such a question, the guard captain would have rebuked them sternly. But since the person before him was their princess, who had been away from the palace for months, he naturally shared everything he knew.

“I’ve told you all I know. This is the imperial decree bestowed upon the Tanhua by the emperor. Please accept it,” the guard captain said, picking up the orange-yellow decree and presenting it respectfully with both hands to his princess.

Lu Jiahe, who had been lying quietly, immediately propped herself up upon hearing the words “imperial edict.” She glanced at the object in the other person’s hand, then snatched the edict and flung it forcefully toward the door.

“Lu Jiahe! What are you doing?” Cheng Yi was so startled her heart raced. She glanced at the several imperial guards standing in the room, then hurried to the door to retrieve the edict.

“I don’t want it! I refuse!” Lu Jiahe supported herself with her hands, her eyes red with anger as she glared at Cheng Yi.

Noticing something was amiss, Cheng Yi dismissed the imperial guards, closed the door, and walked to the bedside to carefully inquire about what had happened in the palace that day.

“Let’s return to Bianjing. I don’t want to be an official anymore,” Lu Jiahe said, lying on the bed and looking at her wife with a pitiful expression.

The reason she had dared to defy the old emperor in front of so many people in the court earlier was that her heart was already completely filled with the woman before her.

She knew the hardships her mother had endured in the past, so even if she were to die, she didn’t want Cheng Yi to suffer a lifetime of heartache over her betrayal.

Cheng Yi had learned quite a few characters from Lu Jiahe recently, so when she unrolled the imperial edict and read its contents, she understood why Lu Jiahe had dared to throw it in front of the imperial guards.

“Aren’t you afraid the old emperor will get angry and have our heads chopped off?” Cheng Yi sat by the bed, stroking Lu Jiahe’s head as if comforting a child.

Lu Jiahe wiped the tears from the corner of her eye. “Then I’d haunt him even as a ghost.”

“You little rascal,” Cheng Yi chuckled. “It’s fine. We’re legally married. Even if he forces you to marry that so-called princess, we’re not afraid. If he goes too far, we’ll file a complaint against him at the Jingzhao Yin’s office.” With that, she tossed the edict onto the table.

Hearing Cheng Yi’s words, Lu Jiahe’s emotions eased a bit. “Can we really sue the emperor? Would it implicate you and Grandmother?”

“Don’t worry,” Cheng Yi reassured her. “The law applies equally to the emperor and the common people. Besides, if he really wanted to harm us, he wouldn’t have just given you five lashes.” She pulled the blanket over Lu Jiahe, then changed into the short sleeves she had made back in Bianjing. “You must be hungry. What would you like to eat? I’ll make it for you.”

Though Cheng Yi also wondered why the old emperor had only given Lu Jiahe five lashes, she didn’t want to say too much before they had a clear understanding of the situation, lest Lu Jiahe go out and argue with someone and accidentally reveal something.

Because of the day’s events, Lu Jiahe didn’t have much of an appetite. But not wanting to disappoint her wife, she suggested a couple of simple dishes.

Before leaving the room, Cheng Yi, worried that Lu Jiahe might feel bored alone, casually handed her a storybook and then went out to cook.

The hidden guard eavesdropping on the roof, seeing that it was getting late, leaped down from the eaves and hurried toward the palace gate.

“That unfilial daughter! She even wants to sue me at the Jingzhao Yin’s office,” the old emperor fumed, slamming the table after hearing the reports from the imperial guards and the hidden guard. “I only punished him to vent her anger!”

Seeing the old emperor so furious he was about to faint, the empress beside him immediately reached out to pat his chest and soothe his anger. “Alright now, I think the young couple is quite loving. Why did you have to go and hit him for no reason? What if you scared the baby in Yi’er’s belly?”

Upon hearing this, the old emperor glared at the empress indignantly before sitting down in his chair, trying hard to calm his emotions.

“Enough of this! Tomorrow, make sure to have someone bring Yi’er back to the palace immediately. She’s pregnant, yet she’s still out there. What kind of impression does that give?” The more the old emperor thought about it, the angrier he became. His daughter was a jewel of the heavens, and now, for the sake of an outsider, she was threatening to sue him at the capital magistrate’s office.