Seventy-second bowl of soup (nine)
To be honest, it doesn't matter how you mess around when you go to court, he is the emperor anyway. But once the empress mother found out about this, the cheeky little emperor would inevitably get flustered. He quietly took a step back and prepared to run away, but the chief eunuch beside the empress saw him, first grinned, and then shouted in a shrill voice: "Your Majesty is here—"
When you arrive, you will arrive. What are you calling so loudly? What's the use? The little emperor slandered in his heart, but his face was calm, and he nodded to the manager. Walking around the screen, he saw Queen Mother Wei sitting at the table, looking at him expressionlessly.
The little emperor has long been used to this expression, he knows better than anyone else that appearance cannot prove a person's quality. Looking at the indifferent queen mother, she is actually gentler than anyone else, but some seemingly gentle people are more cruel than anyone else.
He still retains the habits he had when he was a child, but he is wearing a dragon robe, so he can't just sit on the ground like he was when he was a child. Moreover, there were quite a few servants present, the little emperor still had to face, especially in front of the empress dowager.
"I'm back, Queen Mother!" He sat next to Queen Mother Wei, took a snack from the plate in front of her, and squinted his eyes to stare at Hua Zhi: "Did Aunt Hua Zhi speak ill of me again?"
Hua Zhi watched him grow up, she was not afraid of him at all, and said with a smile: "The servant told the empress that your majesty has grown up and reached the age of choosing a concubine!"
When the little emperor heard it, he immediately forgot everything he was thinking, and the corner of his mouth twitched: "Those stubborn old people won't come to find the queen mother, will they?"
"Come with three meals a day, they are not bothered, and Ai's family is bothered." Queen Mother Wei was really annoyed enough, the ministers did not dare to provoke the little emperor for fear of being beaten, so there are not so many taboos with her, after all, she is He is ruthless, but only to those who have a different heart. These ministers are all loyal, and the Empress Dowager Wei can't ask someone to pull them out to beat the board like the little emperor.
They are all the pillars of the country, what is the system.
The little emperor slapped the table and stood up: "I'm going to flatten them!"
"emperor."
The little emperor immediately stood still, not daring to move, and said eagerly, "Mother."
"They are right, you are indeed at the age of choosing a concubine."
The little emperor really didn't want to choose a concubine. He felt that he was still a child. If he chose a concubine, in the words of the ministers, he would really grow up. Then wouldn't he be able to play a rogue like this in the future? How can that work! "Mother, I heard that my father married you when he was twenty years old."
He seldom mentioned the late emperor, and the Empress Dowager Wei never took the initiative to tell him. Now that the little emperor mentioned the late emperor, her eyes became vivid. How many years, never think of that person again. After a while, Empress Dowager Wei said: "How can the first emperor compare with you? He had just ascended the throne not long ago, his foundation was not stable, and he had no support from his family. It can be said that he was walking on thin ice. You are much happier than him. A few side concubines, the Ai family just took the title of his main wife."
The little emperor stared at the Empress Dowager Wei strangely, always feeling that there was something in her tone that he didn't understand. "Queen, do you want me to choose a concubine?"
"You are the emperor, but Aijia is not." And she has no desire to hold her grandson or not, she can do anything, as long as the little emperor is happy, she can do anything. "It's just how long you can delay this matter, sooner or later you have to choose."
The little emperor scratched his head: "It's not that I don't know, it's just that they keep forcing me, the more I don't want to do it."
Maybe he inherited the cold-blooded side of his mother, who has no expectation of so-called love. He didn't like any of the delicate and beautiful maids in the palace. He already understood the relationship between men and women, but he didn't have the need for that. For the little emperor, state affairs are the most important.
Like his father, he is a born emperor, but compared to his father, the little emperor is more upright, tolerant and principled.
Well, although sometimes it's a little messed up.
The Empress Dowager Wei smiled slightly, she never smiled, and the occasional smiles were always directed at the little emperor. Just like when she was a child, she pinched the little emperor's face with her hands: "You are in your position, and you should do what you do. You must always remember that you are the emperor." It is okay to be self-willed, arrogant and even moody, but you must always understand the most important thing. What is the important stuff.
It is the country, the world, and the people.
Not love, not ego.
Now that he has enjoyed such glory and is admired by all the people, he must repay it, and he should not be dominant.
The little emperor listened to the Empress Dowager Wei very much. He went back and thought about it all night. The next day, he announced that he would choose a concubine. I'm usually too out of tune, so it's rare to take the advice of old stubborn people and make them look like this
The selection of concubines is handled by the Ministry of Etiquette, and the Empress Dowager Wei does not participate in it. As early as when the government was handed over to the little emperor, she stopped meddling in world affairs. In the past, many people thought that she, Ji Sichen, had a different heart, but who knew that she didn't take power too seriously
She just... wanted to take away the most important thing from that person, that's all.
Your Majesty, you lost, did you see it
The Ministry of Rituals is very efficient. The Empress Dowager Wei looked at the roster and thought there was nothing wrong with it. The empress and the fourth concubine were chosen by the little emperor himself. They should be the type he likes, right? After all, they are all people who are likely to spend a lifetime together, and they still have to be pleasing to the eye.
But Empress Dowager Wei may not have imagined that the little emperor was not selected according to his own favorite type at all. What kind of strength does he think can be seen from each portrait? Just hang it on the beam, grab the dart with both hands and shoot it whizzingly. The position is written on the dart, and whoever hits it will be the one.
Fortunately, these noble ladies don't know how they got their status, otherwise they would have to cry to death, feeling that they were insulted.
When I went to greet the queen mother on the first day, all the concubines were worried. No one knew the reputation of this iron-blooded queen mother. It is said that she was an extremely powerful figure when she was young. The reason why the barbarians dare not invade and the reason why the common people can live and work in peace and contentment is all thanks to the Empress Dowager Wei.
But the Empress Dowager Wei has not appeared for many years, and they were raised in a deep boudoir, so they have never been lucky enough to see each other. So everyone is panicking, what will the empress dowager look like? Will it be too fierce? If they behave badly, will they be beheaded? I heard that the Empress Dowager cut off a series of heads without blinking her eyes.
Empress Dowager Wei didn't know what these little girls were thinking, if she knew, she would definitely show it—forget it, she must have no expression.
After the emperor died, she never showed any expression. The person she loved is dead, as if it took away her soul, and now it is not Wei Qinghuan, but Queen Mother Wei who is alive.
Contrary to the expectations of the concubines, the Empress Dowager looked very young, and even surpassed them in terms of beauty, but the feeling of coldness made one's heart palpitate, but she was not as murderous as in the legend.
Empress Dowager Wei didn't have any thoughts about this group of "daughter-in-laws", she just said a few words to ask them to serve the little emperor well in the future, and then asked them to step down and not use it to greet her in the future, including the queen.
But the queen insisted on coming every day. When Huazhi rejected her on the first day, she still had tears in her eyes, and asked Huazhi tremblingly: "It's because the concubine did not do well. Does the queen mother not want to see the concubine?"
The Empress Dowager Wei was not someone who would be moved by tears. Even the late Emperor couldn't force her to do something she didn't want to do, let alone a crying queen
Sometimes she faintly thinks back to the past, and feels that she used to be a queen, but she never cried like this, because crying is useless, and those who don't love you will not pity you because of your tears, even if you marry as you wish, The one you love won't get a happy ending in the end.
The queen ate a lot of rejections, and finally she didn't come, but after a few months, she came to the queen mother crying, and threatened that if the queen mother didn't see her, she would hit her head to death!
Hua Zhi had no choice but to report back to the Empress Dowager Mingwei. She thought that the empress would be so hard-hearted that she would not care about it, but she let the empress come in instead.
The queen cried as soon as she came in, "Mother queen! Mother queen!"
It can be seen that she is a girl who is pampered at home, so she will feel uncomfortable even if she is not happy. Empress Dowager Wei lowered her eyes: "It's not proper for the majestic mother of a country to make a lot of noise outside."
The empress widened her tearful eyes: "How can the empress mother speak like this, can't the empress mother understand the pain in the heart of the concubine?"
What pain can you have? The Empress Dowager Wei glanced at her indifferently. She knew that the little emperor treated the empress with great courtesy, and he could never find fault. The empress came from a well-known scholarly family and would not fight for power. The concubine kept herself safe, why did she cry so hard that she couldn't survive
Seeing that Empress Dowager Wei didn't answer her words, the queen sniffed: "Mother, the concubines are really sad. After thinking about it, there is no one to talk to in this palace except the mother. It is really distressing."
Hua Zhi felt that she couldn't sit idly by, otherwise the chat would be impossible, so she continued, "Why is the Empress crying?"
She thought of many possibilities in her heart, for example, someone was framed, someone wanted to be framed, and someone was going to be framed, but who knew that the first sentence out of the queen's nose after crying for a long time was: "Your Majesty, he Went to Concubine De's place!"
As soon as this sentence came out, Huazhi almost couldn't hold the teapot that was going to change the Queen Mother Wei's tea. The corner of her mouth twitched, thinking that she had heard it wrong, "The empress is so sad because her majesty was not in Fengyi Palace last night. Overnight?"
"Your Majesty was not like this before. Your Majesty has always been by my side!" the queen said with her eyes wide open, she was so naive even when she was injured.