Chapter 242: Untitled
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
ng Fuyao waved her hand and leaned slightly, smiling as she looked at her, not saying a word.
Liu Pin had gotten impatient and could only slap herself again. ng Fuyao remained motionless and smiled slightly without saying a word until the skin on Liu Pin’s face was bruised and inflad.
Finally, ng Fuyao slowly said, “Why is Sister Liu so afraid? I’ve just finished running around and haven’t even caught my breath when you start slapping yourself… what’s the point?”
Liu Pin collapsed onto the ground, tears streaming out of her face as she heard the heartless person add, “Aiya, look at this tender and smooth skin, how ugly it is after being slapped…”
Liu Pin didn’t even have the energy to cry anymore and stayed on the floor, her heart filled with hatred, yet she didn’t dare to show it on her face as she heard the Empress’ footsteps; she sounded like she was leaving the courtyard.
Liu Pin couldn’t help but feel relieved when the Empress suddenly turned back and said, “Ah, I haven’t settled the official matters yet.”
Everyone looked at ng Fuyao expectantly as she turned to the lady-in-waiting beside her and asked, “What’s the punishnt for insulting the nation’s mother?”
The lady-in-waiting curtsied and replied, “Replying Your Grace, the punishnt is death by suicide, along with the elimination of the criminal’s maternal family.”
She responded calmly, but when everyone heard her, they began to tremble, and Liu Pin shrank back imdiately.
ng Fuyao smiled brightly at her and said warmly, “That’s why I said, Sister Liu, you were being too extre. Whatever cri you committed will be punished by the law, so why are you so anxious over getting beaten? Wouldn’t it be redundant?”
Death by suicide…
All the concubines’ faces paled; they never imagined that just Liu Pin would cower beneath ng Fuyao, not even daring to raise her head as she looked at her fearfully. When her gaze t ng Fuyao’s cold and composed gaze, her heart instantly sank to the very bottom. She could only open her mouth.
ng Fuyao continued smiling as she gazed at her—She heard that Liu Shilang doted on this daughter of his imnsely and even didn’t want to send her into the palace back then. What would he think if he saw the scene today?
“No——” Liu Pin finally managed to gather a response from the blow and launched herself forward as she grabbed ng Fuyao’s robes and sobbed. “Your Grace, Your Grace, I am guilty, forgive , Your Grace, spare ——”
“Who said I wanted you dead?” ng Fuyao’s words comforted, then frightened Liu Pin repeatedly and she felt ntally and emotionally exhausted after blow upon blow. She remained kneeling on the ground as she heard the Empress announce with an extrely tragic tone, “Good karma falls upon those who show rcy, even though you flagrantly insulted my family, to take one’s life just because of a few sentences, it won’t do… It won’t do…”
Liu Pin watched her with a shell-shocked expression. She did not dare rejoice—who knew when sothing scary would co out of that mouth again?
“However, that mouth of yours is really terrible, truly terrible. I’ve heard that you used to take pleasure in treating your servants and relatives like a joke?” Without looking at her, ng Fuyao’s gaze swept across all the concubines. “Speaking too much and without thinking will cause the end of your life sooner or later. I can’t bear to see you go down that path, so how about this, I’ll help you…”
She adjusted her sleeve lazily and said, “… Sew your mouth shut.”
The entire hall fell silent, and several weak-hearted concubines started crying in fright. Liu Pin slowly raised her head and glanced at ng Fuyao, who was looking back down at her and smiling. Then, her body swayed, and she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
ng Fuyao kicked her aside and swept the hall again. She called a girl over, “Yang Chongrong, co here.”
The girl who had been called turned pale. Not daring to stand up, she crawled over on her knees and stuttered, “Y-your Grace…”
“I’ll have to trouble you with sewing Liu Pin’s mouth,” ng Fuyao said simply. “Since you are on good terms with her, you naturally know the severity of the situation lest other people perform shoddily and ruin Sister Liu’s face.”
Yang Chongrong’s face looked worse than Liu Pin’s as she knelt on the ground for a long ti before finally whispering, “… Yes.”
“Go to that hut to do it, don’t scare the sisters here.” ng Fuyao nodded satisfactorily and indicated for the eunuch to take them away.
She waved a hand, and a eunuch carried a burning hot branding iron in as well, the boiling red and sizzling object was like a bloody ghost’s eye, and all the concubines clenched their mouths tightly shut as if their lips were being pressed by that horrendous thing. They felt a burning sensation on their lips that traveled all the way down to the bottom of their hearts.
They watched with bated breath as the eunuch closed the door, and after a while, terrible screams could be heard from the hut.
The piercing screams tore at their hearts; imnse pain was like a terrifying black hole, it could send a person’s ntal health spiraling into sowhere unknown. Thereafter, a faint stench of urine and blood drifted from the hut.
There was a deadly silence. If ng Fuyao didn’t speak, everyone dared not speak either and maintained an absolute silence as they listened to the screams coming from the consorts that had given her nothing but trouble.
The rest of the concubines remained kneeling, their faces ashen as they trembled. Several concubines fainted directly, and below so of the concubines, a bodily fluid could be seen leaking out.
Ping—
The door of the hut from which terrible screams and cries were heard suddenly swung open as Yang Chongrong flew out, her hair a terrible ss and her eyes bloodshot as she scread, “I can’t do it—I can’t do it—Forgive —Forgive —”
She didn’t even greet ng Fuyao nor did she turn to look at anyone as she sprinted out wildly all the way until she banged into the fountain in the courtyard, stumbling for a mont before running again.
“Yang Chongrong is a coward, send her back. She doesn’t need to co out anymore.”
All the concubines listened to her with their heads buried—the two consorts were the most powerful among all of them, and they were usually the closest to the Emperor and today, Her Grace had settled them in one go. The Empress’ intent was clear.
ng Fuyao sat upon the steps as she watched Yang Chongrong run. She couldn’t help but frown slightly—she hadn’t intended to be so cruel, she just wanted Shadow Blade to scare them a little; could he really have done sothing terrifying?
She glanced at the concubines gathered in the courtyard—they were all fine specins of the fairer sex and were definitely worthy of being called a consort, unlike the ones who just wanted the world to burn. When the Regent King selected concubines for Xuanyuan Min, the only requirent was that they had to be beautiful, so beautiful such that the Emperor would beco deeply srized by them. Co to think of it, these ladies were rather pitiful too, they had beco their families’ sacrificial pawns, unable to have children, the only entertainnt they had was to gossip about each other.
When Xuanyuan Min discussed with her to beco a fake empress, in the end, he just didn’t want a real empress to control him. As for the others, if she could handle these concubines and stop them from spreading baseless rumors, then that would be the best.
He wasn’t clear about ng Fuyao’s threshold and didn’t have very high hopes for her, but he didn’t expect that she would actually be this useful? Regardless of who was using who, she also wanted to use this status as Empress to change Xuanyuan’s political scene.
‘Create chaos, but not too much chaos, or else Zong Yue will be troubled when I hand the nation over to him…’ ng Fuyao’s eyebrows creased together in thought.
She raised her chin and called out lazily, “Attention, my sisters.”
All the concubines hurriedly turned to look at her.
‘The harem has the responsibility to support His Majesty on internal affairs, in the past, I was not around, and you have all been too relaxed, but now, discipline must be restored,” ng Fuyao announced. “From this day on, every alternate day, you will stay with and do embroidery to create handmade handicrafts to serve as rewards for ritorious officials. This is also a way to express gratitude on behalf of the royal family.”
Everyone present protested silently. Do it themselves? Every alternate day? Embroidery was alright, but even weaving as well? These concubines all ca from distinguished families in Xuanyuan and were spoilt as young mistresses at ho, they had never done sothing so laborious before! And yet, the Empress’ reason was righteous and reasonable, to the point that they had no way to protest against it. Even if the Regent King ca, he wouldn’t be able to help much in matters of the harem.
Seeing that she had fully convinced the concubines, ng Fuyao nodded and said, “All of you may leave.”
Then, she turned around and went into the inner palace. ‘The conflict is probably over now, right?’
Several highly-ranked concubines had seen everything that happened in the courtyard that morning and imdiately sucked in their arrogant expressions and stared at ng Fuyao fearfully, alard at the Empress’ cruelty, yet ng Fuyao treated them warmly as she suddenly said, “Noble Concubine.”
The Noble Concubine, who had been extrely smug about criticizing Jian Xue earlier, jumped at being called and hurriedly bowed.
“I heard His Majesty ntion yesterday that there was a flood in the southern region, and the head of state spared no expense in rescuing the victims and faced the situation in an orderly manner, and now he has been promoted to Stock Minister. In addition to his rit, I should also give you a promotion.” ng Fuyao smiled slightly. “You shall beco a consort, the Noble Consort.”
“Thank you, Your Grace!” The Noble Consort hurriedly thanked her with unexpected glee.
ng Fuyao waved a hand and smiled. “I’ve already said before that a concubine’s promotion is directly related to her family’s honor. Actually, when the family contributes to the nation, the concubine will also have a share of the glory. Since all of you here are all highly regarded ladies, there will always be a chance in the future.”
‘Everyone has a chance,’ thought Concubine Tao as a flash of jealousy appeared on her face. Her father was a great scholar and had always been at political loggerheads with the Noble Consort’s father, now that the Noble Concubine had been promoted to Noble Consort, and she was still stuck as a concubine, how could she swallow this down?
The Noble Consort stood up as everyone gazed at her in envy. The Xuanyuan regi was truly complicated; the ga that the Emperor played under the scrutiny of the Regent King was a tightrope. The imperial court was divided into two sides with each having their own plans as the Regent King watched from his tower, holding the two sides tightly in his hands.
ng Fuyao pretended not to notice as she sipped at her tea. Suddenly, she asked, “Why is the Consort of Virtue not here?”
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