The Fearless Empress - Chapter 13

The palace servants worked quickly, promptly bringing the four treasures of the study.

The young empress was dumbfounded. What had just happened?

They had clearly been talking about a white moonlight, how had it suddenly shifted to paper and brush?

She instinctively swallowed and glanced outside. If she ran now, she might still make it.

As she shifted her legs, someone suddenly appeared before her. Cheng Sangyi stared at her with a darkened expression. “I’ve heard the empress is highly learned. Why not compose a poem for me?”

“No, the rumors outside are false. I can’t do it,” the young empress replied innocently, blinking her eyes, her fair face adorned with a smile. “Don’t believe the nonsense people say.”

Cheng Sangyi sneered and continued, “Fine. Then write your name for me.”

The young empress: “…” She was doomed.

“Your Majesty, are you in a bad mood today?” She made no move to pick up the brush, her hands secretly forming a seal inside her sleeves. But just as she was about to chant the incantation, she stopped herself.

No. She couldn’t use magic on her.

Cheng Sangyi lowered her gaze slightly, her anger faintly visible. Yet her self-control was impeccable, and she swiftly suppressed her rage. “My mood is excellent. Why won’t the empress pick up the brush?”

Seeing no way out, the young empress decided to come clean. “I can’t write. I don’t know how to read!”

The words nearly made Cheng Sangyi collapse in fury.

Her empress had been chosen by the court officials, the most dignified, virtuous, and brilliantly talented woman. And yet, the Gu family had sent her an utter fool.

“Gu Yunchu no, wait. Are you even Gu Yunchu?” Cheng Sangyi trembled slightly, her lips curling in silent derision. “The Gu family dares to deceive me like this.”

There was one more thing she couldn’t bring herself to say.

The hall fell abruptly silent, but the young empress remained unafraid, casually spinning a lie. “I am Gu Yunchu. But before entering the palace, I went to the mountains to burn incense and hit my head. I don’t remember anything now. You know appearances can’t lie, go ask the Gu family. I really am Gu Yunchu.”

“Is that so?” Cheng Sangyi naturally didn’t believe her, her eyes icy with disdain. “What else have you done? How dare you still meet my gaze?”

The young empress felt a headache coming on. She pressed her dry lips together before finally speaking. “I, at least I helped you. I was the one who found Zhao Kangyi for the Jiangnan grain case. I solved such a huge problem! If you’re willing, I can do even more for you.”

A towering rage surged in Cheng Sangyi’s heart, impossible to suppress any longer. Instinctively, she grabbed a teacup from the table and hurled it to the ground. “Gu Yunchu!”

The furious roar sent all the palace maids and eunuchs inside and outside the hall to their knees, heads bowed, not daring to look up.

The young empress glanced around and instinctively knelt as well, whispering, “I didn’t mean to. They kept pushing me. And besides, I can make it up to you. I promise, I’ll…”

She paused, then quickly added, “I’ll go through fire and water for you, devote myself entirely until my dying breath.”

“Shut your mouth!” Cheng Sangyi roared.

The young empress clamped her lips shut again, covering her ears with her hands and sighing in resignation, not daring to speak another word.

Cheng Sangyi was so furious she felt weak. She sat back down, propping her forehead with one hand. In this second life, she had thought she could change her fate. Yet in less than half a month, she had already been outmaneuvered.

The more she thought about it, the more powerless she felt. If she couldn’t even handle a mere girl, how could she ever change her own predicament?

As her thoughts settled, self-loathing crept in loathing her own incompetence.

She had been reborn into this life, so why was she still so passive?

The young queen knelt rigidly at the feet of the empress, sighing repeatedly, wanting to speak but not daring to.

After a long, oppressive silence, she quietly tugged at Cheng Sangyi’s skirt. “I was wrong. From now on, if you tell me to go east, I won’t go west.”

Cheng Sangyi pushed her hand away in disgust. “I can depose you.”

“Then depose me! Haven’t you realized I could be an asset to you?” The young queen scoffed. “I’m not bad-looking either. Even if you don’t like me, I won’t be a burden by your side. But if you replace me, do you think another woman would help you?”

Without Gu Yunzhu, there would still be other women entering the palace. That was why Cheng Sangyi had been so eager to fill the positions of the four consorts back then.

She couldn’t afford to be reckless!

Cheng Sangyi quickly regained her composure, looking down at the carefree yet childish girl. “How did you get into the Ministry of Justice?”

“I’m skilled,” the young queen muttered gloomily.

Cheng Sangyi frowned. With skills like that, she wouldn’t dare sleep at night. She said to Gu Yunzhu, “From now on, you are not to enter my bedchamber without my permission.”

As she spoke, her gaze fell on Gu Yunzhu’s legs. “Run again, and I’ll break your legs.”

The young queen ignored the threat and grinned. “Fine, I’ll agree to that. But if I come to see you, you can’t refuse me.”

Cheng Sangyi glared. “Who’s the emperor here?”

The young queen wilted again. “You are.”

“Good that you know your place.” Cheng Sangyi snorted softly. The matter at hand was far more pressing. She quickly made up her mind but still asked Gu Yunzhu, “Is it true about the Empress Dowager raising troops?”

“I don’t know about troops, but there were a lot of men in one of the tents.” The young queen slumped, kneeling on her own legs in frustration.

Here she was, sitting comfortably, while she had to kneel. How humiliating.

Cheng Sangyi focused. Compared to the young queen’s shameless behavior, she was far more concerned about the Empress Dowager’s secret army. In her past life, she hadn’t known about this.

They’ve hidden it well.

She addressed the kneeling figure below. “Have your people investigate. I want a detailed report.”

“A detailed report?” The young queen was dumbfounded. What exactly did that entail?

She pressed urgently, “Explain it properly. What exactly should I look for? How am I supposed to know?”

What an idiot. Cheng Sangyi couldn’t hold back and rapped her on the forehead. “Where are these soldiers from? How did they get there? Understand?”

The young queen let out an “Oh.” That wasn’t hard. She could just make a trip there at night.

With that thought, she started to rise.

Cheng Sangyi frowned. “Did I say you could get up? Kneel.”

The young queen: “…” She had already agreed to help. Why was she being so unreasonable?

Though she grumbled inwardly, she obediently knelt straight again, rubbing her sore knees. “How long do I have to kneel?”

“Until I’m no longer angry.” Cheng Sangyi’s face was deathly pale whether from fury over the Empress Dowager’s secret army or the young queen’s antics.

The young queen seethed but didn’t dare rise, sighing as she remained on her knees.

At this critical moment, she didn’t know how to defuse the situation.

Fine. She tugged at Cheng Sangyi’s skirt again. “At least have some pity for a beauty.”

“Gu Yunzhu, are you even a beauty?” Cheng Sangyi sneered, slapping her hand away without mercy. “Can’t even kneel properly. Should I find someone to teach you?”

The little empress bared her teeth at her, “You’ll regret this. At worst, you can just kill me.”

“Oh? When you were being so brazenly lustful, did it never occur to you that I might find out and implicate the entire Gu family?” Cheng Sangyi leaned down, her slender fingers lifting the empress’s chin, forcing her to meet those icy eyes. “Gu Yunchu, what you’ve done deserves death a thousand times over.”

“Wait, wait I’d better kneel.” The little empress was frightened. She had come to repay a kindness, not to avenge the Gu family.

Forced to lift her chin, she felt the fingers gripping her with extraordinary force, as if they meant to crush her jaw.

“It hurts, it really hurts…” She cried out dramatically, hoping to evoke some pity.

Little did she know that Cheng Sangyi was notoriously cold-hearted. Hearing this, she only tightened her grip. “Gu Yunchu, I’d like to take a knife and slice your face open inch by inch.”

Her words carried no discernible anger, but her cheeks flushed slightly. She truly wanted to kill Gu Yunchu then no one would ever know.

Reason pulled her back. Gu Yunchu wasn’t wrong if not her, someone else would have entered the palace as empress. The position would never remain vacant.

She released Gu Yunchu, staring coldly at her before instructing the palace maid, “Keep an eye on the empress. Don’t let her get up.”

The little empress: “…” Not only did she leave, but she also assigned someone to watch me?

As soon as she looked up, the woman before her stood effortlessly and strode away.

Panicked, she turned to grab Cheng Sangyi, but the palace maid blocked her. “Your Highness, kneel properly!”

Kneel what? Cheng Sangyi was already gone.

The little empress gritted her teeth. If Cheng Sangyi forgot about her, she might have to kneel all night.

This was a disaster!

The woman was already far away, beyond calling back. The little empress gave up, her head drooping as she deeply regretted her impulsive actions.

Fine, she’d kneel.

One hour passed tolerably.

By the second hour, she peeked at the palace maid beside her. “When will she be back?”

“Who does Your Highness mean by ‘she’?” The palace maid’s expression was stern, utterly humorless.

“His Majesty, of course.”

“His Majesty’s whereabouts are not for us to speculate upon.”

Now it was the little empress’s turn to nearly faint from frustration. This woman was clearly doing it on purpose.

Tomorrow, they’d surely gossip behind her back, saying things like:
“Your Highness, how did you provoke His Majesty this time?”
“Your Highness, what exactly happened? Do tell.”

After feasting on so much gossip, she had finally become the main course!

She wouldn’t leave her chambers tomorrow.

No, even if she didn’t, the concubines would come looking for her. There was no escape.

The little empress deflated, slouching slightly only for the palace maid to immediately chide her: “Your Highness, mind your kneeling posture.”

Kneeling posture?

What posture was needed for kneeling? Comfort was all that mattered!

After leaving the bedchamber, Cheng Sangyi summoned her confidant and quietly headed to the imperial mausoleum. In her past life, the truth had been so tightly concealed this time, it wouldn’t be easy to uncover either.

Admittedly, Gu Yunchu had provided quite a bit of assistance.

At this thought, some of her anger dissipated.

After a long night’s work, the moon hung high, and the palace was silent.

Only when she set down the vermilion brush did exhaustion finally hit her. Rubbing her temples, she reached for the brush again when the palace maid softly reminded her, “Your Majesty, it’s midnight. The empress is still in your bedchamber.”

Cheng Sangyi frowned. “She hasn’t left?”

Would she really be that obedient?

They might have already run away by now. It would be strange if they stayed.

“Your Majesty, they haven’t left,” the court lady whispered. “They’re kneeling.”

Cheng Sangyi: “…”

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