Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Zhen’s fault

” You are here?” Zhai Heng raised his head from the memorandum that he was reading as Yu Lingyun walked in, however, upon seeing his drooping appearance he frowned and further asked, ” What happened why are you looking like that? Did the Empress make things difficult for you?”

Zhai Tianyu was working on the new army strategy upon hearing his brother’s question, he took raised his head and looked at Yu Lingyun, the Empress dowager and the Liu family has been keeping an eye on him from the day he rose to the throne, fortunately, his childhood friend and cousin Ji Yue was there to screen his actions, an hour ago he went inside Ji Yue’s courtyard and then walked out of there while wearing a guards uniform, he knew that he should have gone to the Empress’s courtyard since it was their wedding night but breathing the same air as someone from the Liu family was simply impossible for him to do so.

That was why he went to Ji Yue instead of visiting Liu Hui Ying, anyway he was famous for his treacherous, fickle and debaucher nature, no one was going to suspect anything. Of course, he might receive blatant criticism from his grandmother but he was willing to listen to it.

Yu Lingyun let out an exaggerated sigh as he slumped on the chair in front of Zhai Tianyu and threw his head back. ” Making things difficult for me will be putting it lightly, she was jumped on me like a fierce tigress I was afraid that if I stayed even a minute there, I will lose my life and my manhood altogether.”

” What kind of things are you spouting?” Zhai Heng admonished him lightly as he shot a glance at the Emperor who was looking at Yu Lingyun with a frown.

” I am not saying nonsense!” Yu Lingyun set up straight as he looked at his two friends and colleagues. ” You know when I went to the Empress’s courtyard to let her know that she was granted amnesty, do you know what she did?”

” Threw a vase at you?” guessed Zhai Heng.

.....

” No, she must have scolded him,” said Zhai Tianyu, he knew Liu Hui Ying before marriage and had a good understanding of her spoiled nature, she was the princess of the Liu family and her father was known for his corrupt activities used to favour her to high heavens as far as he heard the rumours Father Liu has decorated the entire room of his daughter with gold, silver and antiques. ” Most probably said some rude things and lashed out on the soldiers.”

But Yu Lingyun simply shook his head and said, ” You are wrong. She didn’t lash out at me, she was angry but totally rational, she straight up looked me in the eyes and asked, what crime did she commit for her to be granted amnesty?”

This time both Zhai Heng and Zhai Tianyu placed the scrolls in their hands down as they looked at Yu Lingyun.

” Did she really say that?” as far as Zhai Tianyu knew the Empress was a childish, easy-to-manipulate person, there were two reasons he sanctioned this marriage, number one, he wanted to get the Liu family off his back. These days they have been clamouring a lot in the court and the second reason was to make use of the Empress’s foolishness and discard both Liu Hui Ying and the Liu family but for these two things to work he needed Liu Hui Ying to be as irrational and arrogant as she was before getting married to him. In case she suddenly start to act smart what was he going to do?

” Of course, she said that, do you think I will lie to you?” Yu Lingyun placed one arm on the table and enunciated each word as he looked at Zhai Tianyu with a slightly offended expression.

” No, it’s just that if the Empress is not like the soft persimmon as I thought she is then all our plans are going to be ruined,” what was more he even took away the title that Ji Yue deserved from her all to get rid of the Liu family if he couldn’t get rid of the Empress and her maternal family, how will he look Ji Yue in the eyes?

” If the Empress is really not acting as we want her to then it’s going to be troublesome,” said Zhai Heng fretfully, the reason Zhai Tianyu didn’t visit the Empress was not only because he didn’t want to stay in the same room as someone from the Liu family but also because he wanted the Empress to blow up her top and act unreasonably that way Zhai Tianyu would have been able to scold the Liu family on the pretext of them not teaching their daughter how to be big-hearted and act in accordance with how yin was supposed to respect the yang.

That way they would have knocked the Liu family down a notch or two.

But if the Empress was calm then the person to be criticised will be Zhai Tianyu!

Zhai Tianyu’s eyes flashed and his knuckles turned white because he was clenching his fists so tight, he was able to already imagine how the Liu family was going to use this matter tomorrow morning in the court and taunt both him and the Ji family ministers, they will also make use of what happened tonight to drag Ji Yue in the mud along with him. ” We underestimated the Empress, she is smarter than we thought. Of course, someone from the Liu family can never be, after all, it’s Zhen’s fault that Zhen believed her to be easily manipulated.”

” There is no need to get angry, your majesty,” said Zhai Heng as he reached his hand towards his younger brother’s shoulder and patted him lightly. ” The Empress might be able to stop herself today but I am sure that once she sees you giving out favour to everyone other than her, she will definitely blow up.”

” Zhen–”

“I doubt that,” before Zhai Tianyu could say anything, Yu Lingyun snickered. ” I bet the Empress will be truly happy if he never visits her.”

Both brothers turned to look at Yu Lingyun as Zhai Heng frowned and said, ” what do you mean by that?”

Yu Lingyun looked left and right before whistling at the guards who were keeping guard on the roof and said, ” Leave us for a while,” only when he sensed that the two guards were gone, did he lean toward Zhai Tianyu and Zhai Heng as he whispered, ” The Empress is allergic to men.”