After Father and I had settled on a plan with the emperor, we had yet to leave the Imperial Study when we saw the chief eunuch enter with a rather strained expression.
"Your Majesty, the empress dowager requests your presence and the commandery princess's at her palace."
Uh-oh!
If I remember correctly, this empress dowager is best friends with my step-grandmother. Looks like my step-grandmother went running to her about Uncle Emperor giving me an official post.
The empress dowager really lives up to her origins as a concubine's daughter. She doesn't even know that the inner palace must not interfere in politics. I bet she's summoned us for two reasons: to lecture the emperor and to make him give Wenren Shuang an official post too.
As Wenren Luoshui silently grumbled about why the empress dowager had summoned her, the emperor stood beside her with his eyes lowered.
People said there were no parents in this world who did not love their children. Perhaps he had simply been born with little luck when it came to parental affection.
Not only had he never received his imperial father's love, but his mother had also refused to spare him even a shred of maternal affection.
After all these years, he had long since grown used to it.
They arrived at the empress dowager's chambers and paid their respects, but she still did not tell them to rise.
Sitting beside the empress dowager, Wenren Shuang curled her lips into a smug smile.
She was the female lead of this world. What did it matter how much the emperor valued some cannon fodder who did not even qualify as a supporting female character?
Didn't the emperor still have to obey the empress dowager?
"Emperor, you've been behaving with less and less propriety lately!"
The empress dowager's voice rang out imperiously, but to my ears, it sounded rather lacking in confidence.
The only reason she dared speak to the emperor with such an attitude was that she believed her beloved younger son had died at his hands, and therefore felt he owed her.
Melon-Eating System: Huh? Host, why did you come to see the empress dowager?
Having finished its training, the system had just come back online when it discovered that I was in the empress dowager's palace.
It certainly wasn't my idea! The empress dowager wanted to teach the emperor and me a lesson, so she summoned us both!
Wenren Luoshui answered the system's question listlessly. Truth be told, she wanted to complain about her father even more.
He had no fondness whatsoever for the empress dowager. Upon hearing that he was not among those she wished to see, he promptly abandoned all sense of paternal responsibility, left his daughter behind, and fled the palace alone.
With a father so devoid of affection for his daughter, Wenren Luoshui was going to sever their father-daughter relationship for one minute. No, better make it ten.
Melon-Eating System: Hahahaha, you're in for it, Host~ After her birth family fell into trouble, she was banished to the Cold Palace, and she killed her younger son by dropping him, this empress dowager developed a mental illness. She looks quite normal on the surface, but whenever someone refuses to do as she demands, she goes berserk. Good luck, Host! Hope the crazed empress dowager doesn't hurt you.
After delivering that obnoxious little speech, the system went offline again.
Wenren Luoshui: ...
So the empress dowager's younger son died because she dropped him herself?
And she still pinned his death on the emperor?
Someone so outrageously biased could actually develop a mental illness?
Wenren Luoshui silently grumbled that the empress dowager's mental illness had come about in a baffling way.
Beside her, the truth struck the emperor so hard that his entire worldview nearly collapsed.
He had always believed his mother's erratic temper was the result of her personality, background, and experiences.
Now he was being told that his mother had actually been ill for a long time.
He did not know what sort of illness a mental illness was.
But judging from the way that cold voice had spoken with such relish at the prospect of a spectacle, it probably was not easy to treat.
While the emperor was still pondering whether any of the imperial physicians could treat a mental illness, the empress dowager noticed that he had gone a long time without answering her.
She snatched up a teacup and hurled it at him.
The emperor was no obedient little darling in front of the empress dowager, either. He leaned slightly to one side, and the teacup flew past his ear.
With a crash, it shattered on the floor of the empress dowager's chambers.
Seeing that the emperor had actually dared dodge the teacup she threw, the empress dowager's head began to ache again, wave after wave, as though someone were inside her skull playing cat's cradle with her nerves.
Her mood, which had been fairly good, instantly soured. Looking at the emperor, she found him utterly irritating!
Why had it been her sweet, obedient younger son who died?
Why hadn't the Late Emperor taken this unfilial son with him when he passed away?
Why was her life so bitter?
A flood of questions that soured her mood surged into her mind.
The emperor stood right before her, watching his mother's expression shift from its initial calm to distortion and madness.
After all these years, he was used to it, even though he had overheard young Luoshui's thoughts saying that his mother acted this way because she was ill.
But given the empress dowager's current attitude toward him, if he told her to her face that he wanted to summon an imperial physician for her, she might genuinely pick up a knife and chase him down with it.
For some reason, the empress dowager always believed that the emperor spent every day wishing she would die.
Wenren Shuang, who had been sitting beside the empress dowager, went over and gently patted her back to soothe her.
Under Wenren Shuang's soothing touch, the empress dowager's splitting headache eased somewhat.
"Emperor, since you can give an official post to the capital's famous ornamental commandery princess for no reason at all, you should give Shuang'er one too. She is far more capable than that girl."
Heh, heh, heh. Just as expected.
Come to think of it, isn't this younger cousin of mine a transmigrated female lead? Why doesn't she take the imperial examinations? Entering court through the examinations would make an even sharper contrast with me, wouldn't it?
Salty Fish System: Host, when there's a shortcut available, who wants to bury themselves in miserable hard work?
True enough! But does the empress dowager really not know that the inner palace must not interfere in politics? Even if she was born a concubine's daughter, after spending all these years in the palace, she should at least understand its rules of survival, shouldn't she?
Wait, didn't you go offline?
Salty Fish System: My friends aren't back yet, so I came to keep you company.
Heh, heh, heh.
Salty Fish System: You know, the empress dowager has actually been pretty lucky throughout her life. Before she entered the palace, her legitimate elder sister protected her. Later, they entered the palace together, and her sister was immediately made a consort. Although she herself was only a Lady of Handsome Fairness, her sister continued protecting her at every turn. The only rough patch was when her birth family fell into trouble, her sister killed herself to prove her innocence, and she was thrown into the Cold Palace. After that, her son-the current emperor-protected her, so she really never learned how to navigate the palace's power struggles.
In the emperor's childhood memories, his mother had actually been an innocent, lively woman.
Only later had she gradually changed, becoming like a different person whenever she saw him.
When he was little, he would reflect on whether he had done something to make his mother turn out this way.
Now he was already accustomed to the way his mother found fault with him at every turn.
In short, if his mother wanted to lecture him, he would let her. The power to make decisions remained in his hands.
Even if the empress dowager scolded him until her voice went hoarse, it would be useless as long as he refused to yield.
Even setting him aside, there were all the court ministers. He treated his mother with respect in every aspect of daily life. If the empress dowager wanted to accuse him of being unfilial, she would still need someone to believe her.
"Mother, Wenren Luoshui was appointed as a female official because Emperor Taizu once decreed that every prince he personally ennobled must receive some official post, provided they committed no act of grave treason. That includes their eldest legitimate sons or daughters."