In the imperial palace.

The Purple Cloud Palace.

Consort Hui, one of the four noble consorts of the Western Palace, was reclining on a soft couch, letting the palace maids beside her read a play script to her.

She had her eyes closed, breathing evenly, as if she had fallen asleep while listening. But when the palace maid stopped, she slowly opened her mouth and spoke in a clear, gentle and languid voice, "Keep reading."

This Consort Hui was the eldest daughter of the Xinyuan Marquis Mansion and the elder sister of Xie Ming.

She had a three-part resemblance to Xie Ming between her brows and eyes. At a glance, one could see that they had a close blood relationship. But unlike Xie Ming, who had completely inherited the dazzlingly beautiful appearance of Madam Xie, her beauty was gentle and graceful, neither flamboyant nor timid, just like her conduct in the palace, which was impeccable.

With her extremely high emotional intelligence, illustrious family background, and the favor of Emperor Wen Xiao, Consort Hui's status in the palace had become more and more stable in recent years. In addition, she entered the palace late and only had a two-year-old princess at her knees, so she did not participate in this battle for the crown prince, which could be considered a rare case of being content with one's lot.

In short, Consort Hui was living a very comfortable life in the harem these days. Except for having to put on a smile from time to time and stay on her toes to deal with Emperor Wen Xiao, no one in the entire harem, except for the empress, dared to make trouble for her.

However, this Consort Hui, who could be considered a winner in life, had not been in a very good mood recently.

The reason was not the trivial and annoying things in the palace, but it was related to Consort Hui's only brother by blood, Xie Ming.

A few days ago, Emperor Wen Xiao granted a favor and allowed her mother, Madam Xie, to enter the palace to reunite with her. At that time, Madam Xie had vaguely revealed to her the things between Xie Ming and Prince Su.

She knew about Prince Su, or rather, there was no one in the palace who did not know or fear Prince Su. She was better off. Those consorts with princes, upon hearing about the miserable appearance of the Second Prince being kicked and beaten black and blue, were all on tenterhooks, fearing that one day their own sons would also offend Prince Su like the Second Prince and be unreasonably taught a lesson by him.

Emperor Wen Xiao was a very gentle person on the surface. In recent years, even though the Second Prince had done many foolish things, he only called him over to reprimand him a few times and punished him by deducting some of his salary, never laying a hand on him. But Prince Su was different. He directly bypassed Emperor Wen Xiao and beat the Second Prince mercilessly.

What was even more unsettling was that even though his own son was beaten, judging from Emperor Wen Xiao's attitude, he still sided with Prince Su who had done the beating.

Under the heavens and above the court, how many people were not living under the control of the Son of Heaven?

Especially in a place like the harem, the emperor's favor was their lifeline, so these consorts had an even deeper sense of Prince Su's current power compared to the officials.

When she heard the rumors outside the palace that her brother was involved with Prince Su, Consort Hui immediately felt a sense of unease in her heart. Although in this day and age, it was not uncommon for men to be intimate with each other, it was generally accepted that the one with the lower family status between the two men would often end up getting the short end of the stick.

Although their Xinyuan Marquis Mansion could be considered one of the top families in the capital, compared to Prince Su, who was in the prime of the emperor's favor, they still did not have much of an advantage.

Not to mention anything else, just by looking at the worry between her mother's brows that she could not hide when she spoke of this matter, she knew that this matter would probably not end well.

Consort Hui sighed worriedly.

The rest was nothing. The most feared thing was that Prince Su had taken a liking to her brother and wanted to marry him into the Prince Su Mansion.

It was known that as a man, after marrying another man, one had to be faithful to one's husband like those women and could not take concubines, naturally unable to leave an heir.

But her brother was the only seedling of their marquis mansion.

What her mother, Madam Xie, had in mind was that if Prince Su really had the intention to forcibly marry Xie Ming, they would have Xie Ming take a few concubines beforehand to leave an incense stick for the Xinyuan Marquis Mansion no matter what.

As for her mother's plan, Consort Hui did not have much hope.

Although many families allowed male spouses to have children with concubines before getting married, Consort Hui had an intuitive feeling that Prince Su did not seem to be such a generous person.

Do not underestimate women's intuition, especially those women who were used to fighting in the palace. Most of the time, intuition was quite accurate.

"Your Highness," the palace maid stopped reading after finishing a play script and asked in a crisp voice, "Does this servant continue reading? What does Your Highness want to hear next?"

Consort Hui propped her head with her hand, not even opening her eyes, and said, "You're tired. Have someone else come and read. Just read the part in 'Xu Sanniang Seeking Her Husband' where Xu Sanniang and Liu Gongzi are separated by force. No need to read the ending where they get married."

The palace maids looked at each other and saw puzzlement in each other's eyes.

People listened to play scripts to hear the happy ending and feel good. Why did their mistress specifically request to hear the most heart-wrenching and saddening part of the entire play?

However, the thoughts of the nobles were not something they could presume to guess, so soon another little palace maid obediently continued reading the play script.

Today was not a good day. Halfway through Consort Hui listening to the play script, a palace maid came in and reported in a low voice that Emperor Wen Xiao had arrived.

Consort Hui had no choice but to reluctantly get up from the soft couch and sit in front of the dressing mirror, letting the palace maids carefully tidy her up. With a graceful demeanor, she went out to greet Emperor Wen Xiao.

Emperor Wen Xiao was tall and slender, with a scholarly face, looking like a gentle scholar. He was usually very mild-tempered and rarely lost his temper.

However, this did not mean that he was an easy emperor to handle. He just did not show it on the surface.

Consort Hui was clear in her heart. A dog that bites does not bark. How could a man who had been an emperor for so many years and had firmly controlled the entire court for more than a decade be a truly harmless person?

Today, Emperor Wen Xiao seemed to be even more gentle to her than usual. Not only did he help her up with a face full of tenderness, but he also personally cracked a few walnuts for her. His words were extremely intimate. When he left, he even bestowed a few precious pieces of jewelry.

Consort Hui's face showed just the right amount of surprise and delight, and she even skillfully agreed with Emperor Wen Xiao a few times during their casual conversation, occasionally smiling and acting coquettishly. In the end, she sent Emperor Wen Xiao off from the Purple Cloud Palace with a reluctant expression, perfectly cooperating with his performance.

However, after seeing off the emperor and returning to her own bedchamber, the smile on Consort Hui's face faded. She glanced indifferently at the dazzling, exquisite jewelry that would make a group of concubines green with envy if worn out, without a trace of joy in her eyes.

The little palace maid standing behind her felt that something was off with the atmosphere. She stole a glance upwards, only to be glared at by the senior palace maid, and hurriedly lowered her head again.

After a while, Consort Hui sighed softly and instructed the maids, "Put these away, and you may all leave. Shaoyun, stay behind."

The group of young maids lowered their heads and left, leaving only Consort Hui and her personal senior maid in the room. The senior maid helped her sit on the edge of the bed and knelt on the ground to massage her legs.

"Your Highness, please take care of your health and don't be too upset. The young master is well taken care of by the Marquis and Madam."

Consort Hui took a sip of the bitter tea and said slowly, "Judging from today's situation, the Emperor has made up his mind. What can Father and Mother do? Can they really go against the Emperor's will?"

It was impossible for Emperor Wen Xiao's visit today, showering her with great affection, to be unrelated to the recent matters concerning Prince Su and her younger brother.

In many cases, the Emperor's behavior in the harem and his attitude towards the concubines were determined by the affairs of the court. This rule was especially applicable to the rational and somewhat ruthless Emperor Wen Xiao.

Although Emperor Wen Xiao did not mention a word about Prince Su's matter throughout the entire time, his high-profile approach to show concern for her with a compensatory attitude had already made his stance on this matter very clear.

At this time, the rewards for Marquis Xinyuan's residence must have also arrived.

Although the approach was gentle, every action of Emperor Wen Xiao today was strongly hinting to her that the Marquis Xinyuan's residence no longer had any room to intervene in the matter between Prince Su and Xie Ming, even though Xie Ming was their only legitimate son.

The Emperor's heart was ultimately biased. The entire Marquis Xinyuan's residence combined still could not compare to Prince Su's position in the Emperor's heart.

Perhaps in a few days, the imperial decree of the bestowed marriage would be issued.

The senior maid also fell silent for a while, then continued to persuade her in a soft voice, "But what's the use of Your Highness being upset here? What's meant to come will eventually come. All Your Highness can do is to stay safe and sound in the palace. If the young master is bullied in the future, Your Highness can still support him."

This senior maid had grown up with Consort Hui since childhood. When Consort Hui was still the legitimate daughter of the Xie family, she couldn't get along with her half-sisters, and this maid was the closest to her. It was no exaggeration to say that the two had a sisterly relationship, so the senior maid could speak to her about many things without much reservation.

Consort Hui laughed lightly, "You have such a big mouth and no sense of propriety. How could I have the ability to support someone in front of Prince Su?"

The senior maid also laughed, "Your Highness, don't worry. I heard that Prince Su dotes on the young master very much. In fact, this servant feels that the young master is such a delicate person, he deserves to be pampered like this to be happy."

Consort Hui knew she was trying to comfort her and said, "Alright, you're good at coaxing people. Help me rest, the Emperor probably won't come tonight."

Actually, she didn't think that Xie Ming couldn't be with a man, and she didn't value the issue of the Marquis Xinyuan's offspring as much as her parents did. It was just that when she thought about her younger brother, whom she had loved and cherished since childhood, being ruined by that scoundrel Prince Su, and that her brother would probably have to suffer more in the future due to the difference in their status, she was so angry that her liver ached.

Not to mention, if Prince Su were to take concubines in the future, would her proud younger brother be able to endure it?

How did the young master of their marquis mansion, who had been pampered and spoiled, end up having to compete with a group of concubines for a man's favor?

Just casually imagining that scene made her want to smash the cup in her hand on Prince Su's dog head!

And Prince Su, who was currently being cursed at in the heart of his beloved's biological elder sister, was actually not having a good time either.

After Emperor Wen Xiao had shown his goodwill to Consort Hui, he sent someone to summon Prince Su into the palace.

Although he had finally chosen to go along with Prince Su's insistence and found a way to seek the hand of the young master of Marquis Xinyuan's residence for this overage unmarried imperial brother, this matter was indeed not handled well by them. He couldn't help but feel guilty towards the Marquis Xinyuan's residence.

The rewards sent to Consort Hui and the Marquis Xinyuan's residence, although precious, probably couldn't effectively appease the Marquis Xinyuan's residence, who didn't lack these things.

So he thought about how he could truly compensate the Marquis Xinyuan's residence.

For the current Marquis Xinyuan's residence, since they could no longer avoid the fact that their son was going to marry into Prince Su Mansion, what they were most concerned about was undoubtedly the issue of the Marquis Xinyuan's offspring.

Therefore, Emperor Wen Xiao summoned Prince Su, thinking of letting him personally arrange this matter, so that the Marquis Xinyuan's residence could feel their sincere intention to compensate, and their hearts could be more or less balanced.

He had already found suitable candidates, all from families with clean backgrounds. After giving birth to children for Xie Ming, they would have nothing to do with them and would definitely not leave any future troubles.

However, he didn't expect that as soon as Prince Su heard half of what he said, his face immediately turned as black as the bottom of a pot. No matter how Emperor Wen Xiao tried to persuade him with reason and emotion, he firmly held onto the word "no" and refused to budge.

Emperor Wen Xiao... Emperor Wen Xiao wanted to hit someone!

He was the one working hard! He was also the one being scolded by both sides!

Although Consort Hui and Marquis Xinyuan didn't show anything on the surface, who knew how much they were cursing him in their hearts!

This imperial brother of his, who only knew how to sit and wait for his wife, not only didn't help, but also caused trouble and dragged him down!

Prince Su also wanted to hit someone!

Sending women to his beloved's bed and making his beloved have children with them!

Just thinking about that kind of scene, he wished he could directly tear those women apart!

Author's Note:

Emperor Wen Xiao: Stupid brother, let's perish together (#｀皿´)

Prince Su: (▼ヘ▼#)