Your Majesty is Poisonous – Chapter 146
by Little PandaThe Empress Dowager Refuses
Yao Xi had barely stepped out of the study when she ran into Emperor Ming Cheng.
“This slave… no, this slave-girl greets Your Majesty.” Yao Xi curtsied to the Emperor, her feet unconsciously shuffling backward toward the wall. The incident at Princess Zhen’s palace had caused such an uproar that the fact she was a woman would soon be common knowledge. She would have to get used to presenting herself as one.
Emperor Ming Cheng stopped, studied Yao Xi for a moment, and said with a frown, “If you’re a girl, how did you end up in the palace as a eunuch?”
The fake eunuch business had wounded him too deeply. A man who hadn’t been fully castrated1 could sneak into the palace, and a woman like Yao Xi could sneak in too. For Wan Bi’s sake, even if he wouldn’t punish Yao Xi for this, he at least needed to find out how she had gotten into the palace. If anyone in the various directorates had been negligent or had deceived their sovereign, heads would roll and crimes would be punished — no leniency would be shown.
“Your Majesty, this slave-girl was drugged, rendered unconscious, and abducted into the palace.” Yao Xi kept her head down and told the truth. The story of how she entered the palace was a long one, but since the Emperor was asking, she had to establish that she was an innocent victim.
Emperor Ming Cheng was puzzled. A pretty girl like Yao Xi could fetch a good price anywhere — what was the point of selling her into the palace as a eunuch? How much could that even be worth? He sensed this matter was not so simple and was about to ask more when a dry cough came from the direction of the study — Wan Bi.
“Enough, you may go now.” Emperor Ming Cheng waved dismissively at Yao Xi, his tone much gentler. He understood Wan Bi’s meaning — she was afraid he would frighten Yao Xi.
“This slave-girl takes her leave.” Yao Xi felt as though she had been granted amnesty and hurried out of the main hall.
The palace maid stationed outside the main hall eyed her female attire with a strange look. Yao Xi had no time to explain — she offered an awkward smile and detoured to the duty room.
The duty room door was half open. Yao Xi turned sideways and slipped inside.
The room reeked of blood. Meng Li’an lay on the bed with his eyes closed, his face drained of all color, his lips tinged purple.
The palace maid Ping’er was scrubbing blood from the floor with a rag. Seeing someone enter, she glanced at the hem of the skirt — the fabric and workmanship were those of a master’s garments. She knelt and performed a curtsy. “This slave-girl greets—” Ping’er looked up to see which master it was, only to find that the person before her looked a bit like — Yao Xi?
“Ping’er-jiejie. It’s me.” Yao Xi blushed crimson.
“Eunuch Yao?” Ping’er recognized Yao Xi’s voice. She was confused — Eunuch Yao dressed up like this, was it some little game with Her Highness the Empress Dowager? Or some personal quirk? The latter seemed far more likely. No wonder the eunuch quarters were full of perverts! Ping’er’s gaze toward Yao Xi acquired a thread of disdain.
Yao Xi pointed at Meng Li’an on the bed and asked softly, “Is he all right?”
“The Imperial Physician looked at him. Said it’s a good thing this child has a strong constitution — lost all that blood and he’s still fine.” Ping’er tossed the rag into the bucket.
Yao Xi nodded, relieved. She glanced again at the skinny Meng Li’an lying on the bed — she really couldn’t see any sign of a strong constitution!
Not wanting to disturb Meng Li’an, Yao Xi didn’t linger in the duty room. She left and headed toward Princess Longyi’s quarters. The Yao family’s affairs were something she would have to face sooner or later. Perhaps it was all fate — the Yao family had lost Yao Xian but found her instead, and she had lost her parents only to encounter the Yao family.
When the palace maid at Longyi Palace went in to announce Yao Xi to Yao Shuanglan, she wasn’t sure whether to call her Eunuch Yao or Miss Yao, and so she said, “Your Highness, Yao Xi is here.”
Yao Shuanglan, who had been busy at her embroidery frame, immediately set down her needlework and rushed out to greet her. She had barely reached the eaves of the hall when she saw Yao Xi standing in the courtyard in women’s clothes. Yao Xi was looking back at her, her eyes timid.
“Come inside, let’s talk.” Yao Shuanglan descended the stone steps and warmly took Yao Xi’s arm.
Yao Xi lowered her head shyly and let Yao Shuanglan lead her inside.
After sitting in a chair by the tea table, Yao Xi glanced around the room and said awkwardly, “Is Her Highness the Princess not in?” She didn’t know how to bring up the matter of their shared family history, so she changed the subject.
“Has the Empress Dowager told you anything?” Yao Shuanglan suddenly wasn’t sure whether Yao Xi had come to see her or to see Longyi, and she wasn’t sure whether the Empress Dowager had told Yao Xi that she was a daughter of the Yao family.
Yao Xi tugged at her sleeve and nodded.
Yao Shuanglan smiled through tears. She had a thousand things she wanted to say to her meimei, yet in an instant, she didn’t know where to begin. Her gaze stayed fixed on Yao Xi. Seeing Yao Xi sitting with her head bowed, too shy to look at her, fidgeting with the embroidery on her cuff, a trace of bitterness welled up in her heart.
The two sat in silence for a long while. Then, as if gathering her courage, Yao Xi looked up at Yao Shuanglan and murmured, “Jiejie.”
“I’m here!” The tears Yao Shuanglan had been holding back came flooding out. “The Empress Dowager said you don’t remember anything from when you were little?”
Yao Xi pulled out a silk handkerchief and leaned forward, wiping Yao Shuanglan’s tears as she said, “It’s all right. Jiejie can tell me.”
“All right.”
When Wan Bi saw Emperor Ming Cheng enter the study, she glanced at him and said, “Meng Delai has been detained?”
“Yes. But why did Your Highness want Us not to rush to punish him?” Emperor Ming Cheng sat down in the chair across from Wan Bi. Had Wan Bi not warned him in advance, he would have loved to order Cao Yue to finish off Meng Delai on the spot.
“This bereaved one was afraid Your Majesty might kill him in a moment of rage.” Wan Bi lifted her teacup and said unhurriedly.
Emperor Ming Cheng’s expression tightened, and he said with some displeasure, “Does Your Highness think Meng Delai’s crimes don’t warrant death?”
“Of course he deserves to die.” Meng Delai had nearly killed her dear Xi girl — death was too good for him. Wan Bi took a sip of tea and said, “But wouldn’t it be better to use his worthless life to restore the innocence of a loyal official? Your Majesty knows that Yao Hezheng was framed in the Shu family massacre case back then. Why keep him in the Southern Frontier all this time?”
“Your Highness means that since Meng Delai deserves to die anyway, We might as well pin the Shu family case on him and clear Yao Hezheng’s name — killing two birds with one stone?” Emperor Ming Cheng said, somewhat troubled. “But doing so wouldn’t just protect Yao Hezheng — it would also protect the real culprit who framed him! If Meng Delai takes the fall, the case can never be truly reopened.”
The Emperor had another concern as well. He had decreed that the entire Yao family be sent to the Southern Frontier — nominally as punishment, but actually to protect them in secret. If the real culprit remained at large, what was to stop someone from framing Yao Hezheng again if his family rashly returned to the capital?
“Didn’t Your Majesty just ask Yao Xi why a girl like her ended up in the palace as a eunuch?” Wan Bi set down her teacup and looked up at Emperor Ming Cheng. “Because Yao Xi looks remarkably like someone — Yao Hezheng’s son, Yao Xian.”
Wan Bi started from how the eunuch Liu Fu had used Yao Xian’s portrait to find the Sun family. She told Emperor Ming Cheng everything — how Yao Xi had entered the palace, why she had been brought in, and why Lady Lin had died.
“This bereaved one believes whoever had Yao Xi bought into the palace must have had this in mind. Get an uncastrated man who looked remarkably like Yao Xian to enter the palace under Yao Xian’s identity, then frame him for something like having an affair with a consort or — like today — assaulting a princess. Would Your Majesty still side with the Yao family and protect them then? But unfortunately, that person was one move short2. Yao Xi wasn’t a boy but a girl — the eunuch Liu Fu who bought her was fooled.”
Emperor Ming Cheng asked, puzzled, “Why not just send Yao Xian into the palace directly? Once inside, with his disgraced status, he surely wouldn’t dare speak up.”
“People who look alike are not easy to find. For that person to resort to such a scheme, Yao Xian must already be dead.” Wan Bi continued, “That person didn’t go directly after Yao Hezheng, but targeted his only son instead. Someone who could casually plant Yao Xi in the palace could just as easily promote Liu Fu to Supervisor in the Directorate of Ceremonial. Who does Your Majesty think that person is?”
Emperor Ming Cheng recalled that Meng Delai’s only son, Meng Guangshen, had been imprisoned for embezzling military pay and had soon died miserably in prison. Meng Delai had harbored a grudge against the one who reported him — Yao Hezheng. Among the Twenty-Four Directorates, aside from Tang Huaili, the person with the most influence was Meng Delai. “Meng Delai?”
“Has Your Majesty ever wondered why Meng Delai threatened Feng Zhen into framing Yao Xi?” Wan Bi sneered. “He was closing the net. Didn’t Your Majesty nearly kill Yao Xi? If someone had told you Yao Xi was Yao Xian, you might have turned your wrath on the Yao family. Meng Delai calculated correctly — but alas, Yao Xi is a girl.” But alas, Yao Xi was her girl — and no one would touch her.
Emperor Ming Cheng slumped back in his chair, processing the information Wan Bi had given him.
“This bereaved one told Your Majesty not to rush to punish Meng Delai — and not only for Yao Hezheng’s sake. Meng Delai has many followers. The Eastern Depot and the Twenty-Four Directorates are full of his people. If we’re going to root them out, we need to do it thoroughly. Have Your Majesty’s men escort Meng Delai back to his private residence. Send a few Imperial Physicians along, and announce that Meng Delai is gravely ill. Then see who comes to visit, bring gifts, or deliver medicine. Even if the web is too large to cut clean, Your Majesty will at least have a sense of who’s involved.” Wan Bi said earnestly.
“Mm, mm.” The more Wan Bi looked out for him, the guiltier Emperor Ming Cheng felt. “What We said in Zhen’er’s room was truly just angry talk. Your Highness shouldn’t take it to heart.”
“Then call me Mother Empress — let me hear it.” Wan Bi raised an eyebrow.
Emperor Ming Cheng opened his mouth but simply couldn’t say it. He had to change the subject. “Since that girl Yao Xi was abducted into the palace, We think it would be best to let her return home to her family as soon as possible, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Oh, right. This bereaved one hasn’t told Your Majesty about Yao Xi’s background yet, has she?” Wan Bi, who had talked herself dry, took another sip of tea and told Emperor Ming Cheng the full story of Yao Xi’s background. “Your Majesty should bring the Yao family back to the capital soon. Shu Yongfang, who testified against Yao Hezheng back then, was surely eliminated by Meng Delai long ago. Your Majesty needn’t pursue that case to the very bottom.”
“Yao Xi is Yao Xian’s twin sister?” Emperor Ming Cheng was too stunned to speak. Yao Xi was Shuanglan’s sister? He had ruined Shuanglan’s entire life over a misunderstanding, and on top of that, he had nearly put her sister to death in a fit of rage??
“Your Highness said before that We should reward Yao Xi, didn’t you?” Emperor Ming Cheng wanted to make amends. He owed the Yao family too much.
A hint of a smile finally appeared on Wan Bi’s face. “How does Your Majesty plan to reward the Xi girl?”
Emperor Ming Cheng said with utmost sincerity, “We intend to adopt Yao Xi as Our sworn sister and title her Princess Jingping. We had assumed Yao Xi was Your Highness’s male favorite. Seeing how indulgently Your Highness treated her, We thought it rather improper — but on reflection, Your Highness must dote on that girl as a daughter.”
Daughter? Wan Bi’s face went completely dark.
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