Wisps of smoke drifted from the incense burner into the air, drawing a slender line that looked like the legendary rope to heaven.
Wenren Luoshui woke in bed. Seeing her get up, her personal maid, Yin Xing, immediately came over to help her.
"Your Highness, you were absolutely magnificent today! Everyone outside is saying the old princess consort is so vicious that she tried to drive you to your death right there in the street."
Yin Xing spoke with dancing brows and sparkling eyes. Had she not remembered that she needed to support her mistress, she would probably have thrown in some gestures too.
"What does the old princess consort have to say about it?"
Wenren Luoshui got up and poured herself a cup of cold tea. She had barely drunk any water all day, and her throat was so dry it practically smoked.
"Hehe, I heard that after the old princess consort learned what people were saying, she was so furious she smashed an entire tea set."
"That old lady! How does she still have such a terrible temper?"
"Daughter, hurry, hurry! Come outside to receive the imperial decree."
Before Wenren Luoshui could finish her cold tea, the Prince of Beiping and his consort came rushing in from outside, grabbed her, and dragged her out.
"Wait, Father, Mother, what imperial decree? Why would our family be getting an imperial decree today?"
"How would I know?"
"Why ask so many questions? Anyway, my brother would never screw me over."
Well, that was the Prince of Beiping's trust in the emperor for you. Had the emperor been deeply suspicious by nature, he would probably have died without even knowing what had gotten him killed.
She followed the Prince of Beiping and his wife to the main hall, where a palace eunuch was already waiting with the imperial decree.
The family knelt to receive it. In his shrill voice, the eunuch first recited a string of conventional compliments. Only the last two sentences mattered.
In short, the emperor had decided to give Wenren Luoshui an insignificant post as a female official and ordered her to attend morning court at the palace starting tomorrow.
Wenren Luoshui: ...
Was this not utterly ridiculous?
She had enjoyed fifteen carefree years, and her lifelong ambition was to be a giant rice weevil, living off others.
Now an imperial decree had dropped out of nowhere, just as abruptly declaring that she would be given an official post.
Although the Li Kingdom's second emperor had been a woman, that was because the founding emperor's sons had all died while he was fighting his wars.
Only one daughter had remained. After becoming emperor, he had tried hard for a full fifteen years, yet not a single consort in his harem had borne him so much as one child.
Meanwhile, the princess's abilities had gradually won recognition. Unwilling to hand the realm he had fought so hard to win over to another member of the imperial clan, he had begun grooming her.
After ascending the throne, this Female Emperor had immediately launched reforms, opening schools for women and allowing them to sit the imperial examinations just like men.
By the middle of her reign, male and female officials at court had reached a ratio of one to one.
Unfortunately, the Female Emperor had only two children in her lifetime, both boys. When she died, she had passed the throne to her eldest son.
The Li Kingdom still had female officials, but there were very few of them now.
Never in her wildest dreams had Wenren Luoshui imagined that the emperor's regard for the Prince of Beiping would extend this far!
He had actually promoted her, the capital's famously decorative vase, to an official post!
After the eunuch who delivered the decree left, Wenren Luoshui collapsed on the floor like rubber melted in the sun.
Attending court in ancient times meant getting up before dawn!
Boohoo, my lovely days of sleeping until I wake up naturally!
You're about to leave me behind!
Your Majesty, why couldn't you wait until my little brother grew up and give this honor to him instead?
Early the next morning, before the stars in the sky had gone home, the Prince of Beiping hauled Wenren Luoshui out from under her covers.
"Stop sleeping! If you keep this up, you'll be late for court."
"Oh. Then I won't go."
Wenren Luoshui answered the voice beside her ear groggily, wanting only to send whoever it was away.
"Aah!"
Pain shot through her ear, jolting her awake.
With tear-filled eyes, she looked at her own father and mother standing before her.
"I told you that you wouldn't be able to wake her."
"Hehe, as expected of my wife. Only you can keep our children in line."
Wenren Luoshui: ...
Am I part of your little game here?
Reluctant though she was, if Wenren Luoshui failed to attend, she would be refusing to give the emperor face.
If the emperor lost his temper and had her whole family killed, wouldn't the female lead's family get to scoop up the spoils for nothing?
Under her mother's watchful gaze, Wenren Luoshui and the Prince of Beiping swung into their saddles.
Among the straight-backed, vigorous officials, Wenren Luoshui and Wenren Qiao were unmistakably the odd ones out.
The two of them rode listlessly, their heads bobbing like chicks pecking at grain.
The emperor was eagerly anticipating morning court. After hearing that girl Wenren Luoshui's inner voice yesterday, he had been furious, but then another thought had struck him: if he made her an official, wouldn't he be able to learn these court officials' little secrets without even deploying his covert guards?
Then he could promote more capable people and send those who occupied the latrine without taking a shit home to amuse themselves as soon as possible.
And so, with a sweep of his brush, the emperor had given his dear brother's daughter a minor official post with little practical purpose.
After all their years together, he knew his brother's family and their temperaments very well.
Once, he had suggested giving Wenren Qiao an official post. It had frightened him so badly that he had not entered the palace to visit him for a full six months.
His son and daughter had inherited his temperament too. All day long, they thought of nothing but how to empty the emperor's little private treasury and how to have fun.
Whenever he questioned them about their studies, each was better than the other at playing a cowering quail. Yet no matter how he scolded them, they simply listened in silence, then came running back the next day, full of energy, to play with him.
Their inability to hold a grudge was also exactly like their father's.
They arrived at the palace beneath the stars and moon, then joined the ministers in bowing to the emperor.
The Prince of Beiping almost never attended court. Today, not only had he come, he had brought his daughter too.
Quite a few people were curious to see what kind of joke this famously eccentric father-daughter pair would make of themselves at morning court.
The eunuch had just finished announcing, "Those with matters to report, present them. If there are none, court is dismissed."
The Crown Prince's Tutor stepped out from the ranks of civil officials and presented a memorial. The eunuch took it and delivered it to the emperor.
After reading it, the emperor flew into a rage!
"Hmph! What a Guangping Marquis Estate! They've deceived those above and below them for all these years! Guards, confiscate the Guangping Marquis Estate's property at once!"
The emperor's fury left everyone attending morning court trembling, terrified that they might be caught in it.
Wenren Luoshui opened the system to check how the emperor had learned of the Guangping Marquis Estate's crimes. She discovered that last night, a boy imprisoned and sexually abused by the estate's Young Marquis had risked his life to escape and gone to the Court of Judicial Review to lodge a complaint.
The Minister of the Court of Judicial Review was an upright man. After hearing the boy who had escaped at the risk of his life recount everything he had seen, heard, and endured, he had immediately led men to the Guangping Marquis Estate.
The Court of Judicial Review's sudden arrival had caught the people of the Marquis's Residence completely off guard. All the delicate-featured boys the Marquis's Residence had bought and locked up in its rear courtyard were rescued.
Accustomed to comfortable lives, the people of the Guangping Marquis Estate spilled everything they knew after a little intimidation from the Court of Judicial Review.
Even the "Marquis of Guangping's" beloved concubine had revealed everything he had done over the years.
Lord Xu, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, was a pupil of the Crown Prince's Tutor. Realizing how serious the matter was, he had gone to knock on his teacher's door that very night after collecting all the testimonies.
The memorial in the emperor's hands contained the evidence Lord Xu had obtained through overnight interrogations.
On an ordinary morning, government men stormed into the Guangping Marquis Estate, which had enjoyed a century of glory, confiscated its property, and sent the entire family into exile.