"Uncle Emperor!"
The moment he saw the emperor, Wenren Qingluo raced toward him like a wild horse freed from its reins and threw himself into his arms.
"What brings you two little monkeys to the palace?"
The emperor's expression softened. Wenren Qiao's two children were simplehearted and said whatever was on their minds. They were far less trouble than his own sons and daughters in the palace.
That was why he always wore the face of a stern father before his own children.
Yet before Wenren Qiao's children, he became gentle again.
"Uncle, where's the jade horse you promised me last time? I've waited two whole days at home, and you still haven't sent it over."
Without the slightest embarrassment or fear, Wenren Qingluo held out his chubby little hand and demanded his present from the emperor.
The chief eunuch attending nearby could not help chuckling at his brazen manner.
His Majesty spent every day in this palace with his nerves stretched taut. Only when he saw the Prince of Beiping's family could he be himself again-the man who could laugh when he wanted to laugh and cry when he wanted to cry.
[Salty Fish System: Host, host, I've detected some juicy gossip about your emperor. Want to hear it?]
[Let's hear it.]
The emperor had been teasing Wenren Qingluo in his arms when he suddenly heard Wenren Luoshui and an unfamiliar voice.
He looked toward her, only to discover that she had not opened her mouth.
Still, he was rather curious about the gossip that cold, emotionless voice had mentioned.
So he quieted his mind and eavesdropped.
[Salty Fish System: Your emperor is quite an interesting fellow.]
[Stop keeping me in suspense and tell me the gossip you found. We'll gossip in secret, just the two of us. We won't tell anyone else.]
The emperor: ...
Should he speak up and remind this silly child that he could overhear their gossip too?
Never mind, never mind. As an emperor, surely he was entitled to a few secrets nobody else knew?
[Salty Fish System: Back when your emperor was courting the empress, he actually tried climbing through her bedroom window in the middle of the night. But two wolfdogs her family kept chased him all around the courtyard. He tried to climb over the wall to escape, but a dog caught his trousers in its teeth and yanked them straight off. Just then, the empress woke up from the noise, opened her door, and was greeted by a bare, gleaming-white backside.]
[Pfft, hahahahahaha! I can picture it so clearly! Hahahahahahaha!]
After hearing the system's gossip, Wenren Luoshui laughed in her head like a rooster that could not stop crowing.
The emperor's face darkened.
He had indeed done that. In the end, it was the empress who had whistled the two wolfdogs away.
She had even sneaked into her elder brother's room and stolen a pair of trousers for him.
Otherwise, he probably would have had to run back to the palace with his backside bare.
But how did that cold, emotionless voice know?
This was a treasured memory between him and the empress. He had never even told that bastard Wenren Qiao.
Sunlight streamed through the window and spilled across the desk, forming a lovely arc of light.
"Father~"
A woman's shrill wail carried all the way from outside the door to the emperor's ears.
Before the emperor could put away his gentle expression, a fiery-red figure raced up to him.
"What's wrong, Little Seven?"
The emperor rubbed his faintly aching forehead but still asked patiently.
The seventh princess clung to his leg, looking on the verge of tears.
"Father, I'm still young. I don't want to marry yet."
[Salty Fish System: This seventh princess is so pitiful.]
[How could that be? Seventh Sister is the daughter of the empress Uncle Emperor loves most. You could say his love for the empress extends even to the crows on her roof. How could Uncle Emperor possibly let her fall on hard times?]
The seventh princess, who had come to cry to the emperor, heard a cold, emotionless voice say that her life would become miserable. At first, she had only been pretending to cry to soften her father's heart.
Now?
Now her fake tears became real, and her sobs grew louder and louder.
The emperor knew his daughter well. He had been so calm at first because he knew she was putting on an act.
Now, seeing her cry so hard she could barely breathe, he felt both heartbroken and exasperated.
If he could have borne to shout at his youngest daughter and Wenren Luoshui, he would have told these two little tyrants to shut up long ago.
If the seventh princess kept crying, the emperor feared the empress would charge straight into his study.
[Salty Fish System: The seventh princess's tragedy was caused by her own father.]
The system seemed deeply sympathetic to the seventh princess's plight. When it mentioned the emperor, its tone was distinctly displeased.
[Why? Uncle Emperor loves the eldest princess and the seventh princess so much. How could he possibly let them get hurt?]
[Salty Fish System: Your emperor is indeed a rare enlightened ruler when it comes to politics, but he places too much weight on his ties to those who helped him when he was down and out. Like your family of oddballs, and the Guangping Marquis Estate.]
Just say what you have to say. Why drag my family into it?
The emperor: The Guangping Marquis Estate?
This time, he had merely let slip that he wanted Little Seven to marry into the Guangping Marquis Estate. Ever since she found out, she had come to cry before him every day.
According to the information he had obtained, the current young marquis of the Guangping Marquis Estate might not have been a brilliant young talent, but he was quite capable of preserving the family's legacy.
Moreover, he had no bedchamber maids or concubines. With such a partner who kept himself unsullied, the emperor truly did not know what Little Seven had to complain about.
[Salty Fish System: When your emperor was still a prince, the old madam of the Guangping Marquis Estate once helped him. He has always felt grateful to her, so he has given the Guangping Marquis Estate plenty of preferential treatment over the years.]
The emperor nodded repeatedly as he listened to the system.
He was precisely that sort of good emperor who knew to repay kindness.
[Salty Fish System: But what he doesn't know is that, apart from that old madam, the entire Guangping Marquis Estate is rotten through and through. Never mind the others-take the young marquis the emperor has his eye on. He's eighteen this year, yet he doesn't have a single bedchamber maid or concubine.]
I know that too. This young marquis has quite a good reputation in Capital City.
It was said that quite a few young ladies from distinguished families in Capital City wanted to marry him. After all, in this era, men without wives or concubines in their chambers were exceedingly rare.
[Salty Fish System: But the reason he has no concubines or bedchamber maids is that he likes men. In the terms used here, he has a taste for men.]
Wenren Luoshui: ...
Now that's earth-shattering gossip!
The seventh princess had been unwilling to marry into the Guangping Marquis Estate merely because she felt she and the young marquis were incompatible. Every time she saw him, she felt uneasy.
That was why she had come to her father every day, hoping he would postpone her marriage.
Who would have thought this young marquis had such wild tastes in private?!
The emperor was also utterly shocked!
The Li Kingdom was open-minded. When it came to men loving men, people's attitude was that they did not understand it but respected the choice.
But if this young marquis truly dared to conceal the matter from him, and continued deceiving him even after he had expressed his wish to marry a princess into their family, then he could not blame the emperor for showing an iron face and no mercy!