Chapter 25: The Empress Dowager Picking a Fight? Bold Wuhuan Claps Back at the Empress Dowager Too

Feng Changye looked coldly at Zhu Wuhuan, who had fallen hard to the ground, and listened to her inner thoughts.

He thought, How do I “not seem human”? If any woman throws herself at me, I’m supposed to tenderly catch her in my arms—then I count as “human”?

Weren’t you just complaining that I, with a harem at my command, am filthy?

Let me show you with actions: I am not filthy, and none of you women are getting anywhere near me!

With several pairs of eyes on her as she lay there in a sorry heap, Zhu Wuhuan felt both humiliated and in pain. She forced herself to appear calm and pushed herself up.

Inwardly, she kept grumbling to the system—

【An emperor and an empress dowager—two people so exalted—yet neither has a single maid waiting on them here! If there were a maid present, at least someone would help me up! I wouldn’t have to clamber up like this in disgrace…】

Anger flared again, and she couldn’t help cursing Feng Changye as a dog tyrant.

The system soothed her: 【Don’t worry, stand up on your own! Why haggle with a cut-sleeve? He’s keeping himself pure for his eunuch Yuan. How could he allow a woman to sully his unsullied body?】

Zhu Wuhuan was instantly coaxed into good humor, almost to the point of laughing out loud.

Right—how can I compete with a cut-sleeve?

A moment ago, she had kneeled for so long, and in this tyrant’s eyes she still didn’t compare to those few seconds Eunuch Yuan knelt. Fine, fine—get used to it; that’s standard procedure.

In every BL novel, isn’t the female supporting role treated coldly and mercilessly by the main couple?

The leading gong and shou are the true pair; I’m just cannon-fodder.

Calm down. Calm down.

“…” Hearing Zhu Wuhuan and the system, Feng Changye’s face turned dark as still water.

It took everything he had not to stretch out his leg and stomp this woman to death where she lay.

Even though he controlled the urge, he still cursed in his heart.

Wretches!

If I don’t kill you both, I am not Feng Changye!

Sooner or later, once I’ve squeezed every last drop of value from you, I will hack you to pieces!

He drew a deep breath and pressed down all emotion in an instant.

Looking at the now-upright Zhu Wuhuan, he perfunctorily pulled a handkerchief from his robe and handed it over.

“Did the Empress hurt herself? I’ve spent too long on guard against assassins; when someone lunges at me, I instinctively dodge.”

“Your consort is not hurt.”

Taking the handkerchief, Zhu Wuhuan wiped her hands, head lowered, and said coolly, “But Your Majesty should be more considerate of delicate flowers in the future. What if one of your ladies is pregnant one day—one fall like that, and your imperial heir might be lost.”

The Empress Dowager immediately frowned when she heard this. “Insolence! Are you cursing the Emperor?”

Zhu Wuhuan stopped wiping, turned her eyes toward the Empress Dowager, and blinked innocently.

“Mother, I’m merely following in your footsteps!”

She spoke with complete seriousness.

“You just now knew nothing of the matter, yet you instantly concluded that His Majesty’s lawfully wedded wife had been unchaste and strayed, eager for the whole realm to know that His Majesty wears a splendid green hat!”

“I thought, you must dislike His Majesty very much to trample his face into the dirt like that!”

“So naturally I must keep pace with you and be a little rude to His Majesty as well—perhaps then I might win your favor, and you won’t falsely accuse me of being unchaste.”

This barrage left Feng Changye greatly astonished!

He lifted his head, incredulous at this woman’s flagrant nerve.

A daughter-in-law daring to talk back to her mother-in-law like this—such impudence would earn a slap even in a commoner’s household, no?

Much less in the imperial family, where her mother-in-law was the current Empress Dowager—

An Empress Dowager whom even he, the Emperor, must respect!

Yet despite his astonishment, he couldn’t help feeling pleased.

He did respect his mother, but her constant favoritism toward the Jin Prince often left him stifled!

As a son, it was not his place to reproach his mother, so he could only swallow the frustration!

Now, hearing Zhu Wuhuan—who looked “soft and weak”—speak words that cut like steel, he felt thoroughly refreshed!

Like drinking iced dew in the height of summer—cool from the inside out!

“Insolence!”

If Feng Changye felt delighted, the Empress Dowager was livid.

She could hardly believe that the Empress, who used to hardly dare breathe in her presence, now dared to talk back this way!

It was outrageous! Infuriating! Simply unforgivable!

Face pale with fury, she shouted:

“Zhu Wuhuan! Who gave you the courage to speak to Us like that? Do you not put Us in your eyes at all? No respect for your elders—so this is the Zhu family’s upbringing? We are not only your mother-in-law—we are the mother of the Son of Heaven! How dare you…you deserve death!”

After berating Zhu Wuhuan, she abruptly turned on Feng Changye.

“Emperor, your Empress defies your mother, and you stand there indifferent?”

She let out a cold laugh. “Or is it that you and your Empress act as one heart, and her words are the very ones you’ve held in for long? Have you long harbored dissatisfaction with Us?”

Feng Changye cupped his hands in salute. “Please quell your anger, Mother. Your son does not dare.”

The Empress Dowager sneered. “We see little that you dare not! If you truly have no such thoughts, why have you not immediately ordered punishment for this wretch who shows Us no respect!”

Off to the side, Zhu Wuhuan was full of reluctant admiration for the Empress Dowager.

Now that was some top-tier skill at making a mountain out of a molehill!

But she was no helpless little lamb.

She wasn’t going to bleat and cry; she was a wolf who would howl back!

She cast a covert glance down at the foot of the rockery, at Grand Academician Chen’s family standing straight and proper, as well as all the palace maids and eunuchs.

The Empress Dowager wasn’t alone here. No matter how she fussed, she couldn’t kill Zhu Wuhuan to silence her with so many witnesses!

Then let’s blow it up big.

As the saying goes, “Risking one’s own skin, one dares pull the Emperor from his horse.”

She might be a worthless shard the Empress Dowager could smash at any time—but this shard could drag down the precious jade that was the Jin Prince and die together with him!

Let’s see if this overbearing Empress Dowager could stand having the reputation of her cherished younger son ruined!

Resolved, Zhu Wuhuan became a drama queen in an instant.

Tears in her eyes, she looked at Feng Changye.

She raised her voice so those below could hear clearly—

“Your Majesty, I was insolent—how could I speak the truth? I should keep my mouth shut and play the mute!”

“Since Mother has spoken, then Your Majesty should obey her at once—have Ji Yunzhang seize me and parade me through the streets!”

“Be sure to send the Imperial Guards along the route, beating gongs and drums and announcing my crimes to the world! Tell the people that I was personally caught by the Empress Dowager in the act—a vile woman secretly having relations with the Jin Prince, unfit to be mother of the realm!”