Chapter 30: Empress, Do You Want Us to Favor You?

“Shall We… tomorrow night, go to Changle Palace and favor you?”

“…”

Zhu Wuhuan, already stunned by how things had developed, nearly swore aloud at his final words!

What the hell!

Big brother, is this supposed to be a blessing or a punishment?!

Who wants your favor!

You’re a cut-sleeve—how exactly are you supposed to favor a woman?

Don’t tell me when the lamps go out, you’ll do as those BL novels describe—sending a guard to “serve” your empress while you keep your body pure for Eunuch Yuan. Wouldn’t I be the one at a loss then?

She forcibly swallowed the urge to curse, raised her head, and looked at Feng Changye with an expression of guilt.

“Your Majesty, before entering the palace, this concubine once had an old bond with the Jin Prince. Even if Your Majesty is generous enough to overlook it, this concubine no longer has the face to remain by your side.”

She bowed deeply once more. “This concubine is unworthy to be your empress. Please, Your Majesty, depose me!”

Hearing her inner thoughts, Feng Changye was so enraged he nearly ascended to the heavens on the spot!

What kind of idiotic novel would ever have a guard sleep with his wife? Who in their right mind would do such a disgraceful thing?

He would never lower himself so far!

Suppressing his fury, he forced a calm, gentle expression as he gazed at this infuriating woman.

“The Empress need not dwell on the past. For the very fact that today you risked yourself to expose the Jin Prince’s wolfish ambitions on Our behalf, We know you bear him no affection!”

Seeing she was about to speak again, his eyes narrowed, voice laced with warning.

“Empress, if you mention deposing again, then We will truly believe you are still infatuated with the Jin Prince. That seeing him confined, you wish to share in his fate!”

“…”

Zhu Wuhuan shut her mouth immediately.

This damn tyrant! He’d blocked every escape route.

Being deposed for past affections was one thing—but still clinging to the Jin Prince? That was another matter entirely.

The former would only mean the tyrant was petty and jealous.

The latter would brand her faithless, an adulteress deserving a cup of poison!

Listening to her inner voice, Feng Changye felt thoroughly refreshed!

Heh—so it wasn’t always him being angered half to death by her. He could rattle her to madness too!

A draw. Satisfying!

Smirking, he turned toward the Grand Academician’s study.

“Empress, come along.”
“Yes.”

Zhu Wuhuan ground her teeth as she followed, seething.

Infuriating! Absolutely infuriating!

Her one escape route had been cut off by him just like that!

No—she had to keep fighting. She had to find another way out of the palace cage.

She had offended the Empress Dowager, and she couldn’t outmatch the tyrant. She couldn’t stay in the palace waiting for death!

Lingnan awaited her to uncover its riches!

The navy awaited her to train it!

…

A quarter-hour later, the Left and Right Chancellors, five of the six ministers (all but the Minister of War), and four great generals assembled in the Grand Academician’s study.

Feng Changye sat at the head, the others in two rows at his sides.

He gestured to Grand Academician Chen. “Chen Aiqing, tell Our ministers what happened today.”

“Yes.”

Chen glanced at the Empress sitting beside the Emperor, then wiped cold sweat from his forehead.

To recount in public the supposed affair between the Empress and the Jin Prince—what a damned fate for him!

Would the Empress hold it against him?

Biting the bullet, he nervously narrated the sequence of events.

The eleven high officials, who had not been present earlier, were stunned when they heard that the Emperor and Empress Dowager had personally witnessed the Empress and Jin Prince together in the Chen family’s garden. They all turned, incredulous, to look at the Empress.

Surely not?

If she truly had an affair, how could she still be calmly seated at the Emperor’s side? Wouldn’t she already have been punished?

They listened on.

Hearing how the Empress Dowager had openly accused the Empress of infidelity, they frowned.

To shield the Jin Prince by smearing the Empress—such blatant favoritism! What did that make the Emperor feel like?

Then came the moment when the Empress raised her voice in the general’s garden, declaring it was for the Zhu family’s loyalty that she risked herself to test the Jin Prince—and could now prove his disloyalty.

At that, every minister’s expression turned grave.

So this was why the Emperor had summoned them urgently!

The Jin Prince harbored treasonous intent.

Feng Changye lifted a hand, cutting Chen short before he reached the part about he and the Empress together driving the Empress Dowager into a faint. That much need not be spoken aloud.

“Chen Aiqing, have Ji Yunzhang bring in the Jin Prince.”

Chen gratefully took the order and hurried out.

Feng Changye’s gaze swept the assembled officials.

“The Jin Prince’s disloyalty—We have long suspected it. Thus, when We learned he would visit the Zhu general’s manor, We ordered Ji Yunzhang to hide in the shadows and listen to all he said there.”

“And so, the words exchanged between the Jin Prince and the Empress in the garden—Ji Yunzhang heard every one.”

“Now We will have Ji Yunzhang enter, so that the Jin Prince, the Empress, and Ji Yunzhang may confront each other. Then, Our eleven ministers may judge for themselves whether the Jin Prince’s words and deeds reveal disloyalty.”

The ministers rose as one, bowing.

“We obey, Your Majesty.”

Soon, footsteps sounded at the door.

Chen reentered with Ji Yunzhang at one side, the Jin Prince between them.

Chen and Ji saluted Feng Changye. The Jin Prince also kowtowed, expression calm.

But while the others were bidden to rise, the Jin Prince remained kneeling.

His fingers clenched tightly inside his sleeve. He lifted his head with a bitter smile.

“Elder Brother has always feared me—I know it well. But I never thought Elder Brother would stoop to using your own Empress to frame me, just to see me dead…”

He let his sorrowful gaze linger on Zhu Wuhuan for a moment before closing his eyes, feigning despair.

“If Elder Brother wishes to slander me today, then do as you will. I have no shame before Heaven!”

Watching him still put on a show, hoping to slip away, Feng Changye sneered coldly.

He signaled Ji Yunzhang to begin.

“Your Majesty, my lords—please.”

Ji Yunzhang produced a small, rough notebook from his robes.

As an intelligence officer, he always carried one, along with a charcoal stylus in a bamboo tube.

When eavesdropping, there was too much to remember, so he would jot down key words at speed. Later, when reporting, he could rely on the notes to recall precisely what had been said.

Now, consulting his notebook, he began to recount the conversation between the Jin Prince and the Empress word for word.