Noble Consort Chen's residence was called Hanzhang Hall. It stood in the deepest part of the inner palace, closest to the emperor's Hall of Supreme Ultimate.
The location alone spoke volumes.
When Gu Moran arrived, Noble Consort Chen had just gotten up and was sitting before her dressing table, letting a palace maid comb her hair.
When the maidservant saw the Third Prince, she merely bowed and stepped aside.
"Mother."
Gu Moran stepped through the hall doors with his standard wastrel's smile already in place: three parts fawning, three parts acting spoiled, and four parts begging for a beating.
Noble Consort Chen glanced at him in the bronze mirror without turning around.
"So early? Didn't sleep last night?"
"I did, I did. Slept like a log."
"Your eyes are red."
Gu Moran grinned, found a chair beside the dressing table, and sat down. Making himself at home, he picked up a pastry from the table.
"Mother, did the imperial kitchens just send these osmanthus cakes? They taste good."
Noble Consort Chen waved her hand, and the palace maids and the old matron combing her hair all withdrew.
The doors closed, leaving mother and son alone.
Noble Consort Chen turned around and sized up her son.
She was thirty-seven this year, but she had taken good care of herself and looked barely into her twenties.
Her phoenix eyes held authority, and her brows and eyes were like a painting. Once called the greatest beauty in the capital, she now wielded more power than the empress herself, and that took more than a pretty face.
"Go on. What is it?"
"I want to start a family."
Noble Consort Chen picked up her teacup and took an unhurried sip.
"Which family's daughter has caught your eye?"
Gu Moran swallowed the pastry and counted on his fingers.
"Su Yao, the chancellor's daughter."
Noble Consort Chen didn't lift an eyelid.
"Shen Ling'er, Elder Shen's granddaughter from the Imperial Medical Bureau."
The teacup remained motionless in her hand.
"Murong Xue, the Northern Territory princess who came for a marriage alliance."
Her hand paused on the cup.
"Liu Ruyan of the Flower-Between Pavilion."
The teacup hung suspended in midair.
"Lin Qingdai, the grand commandant's daughter."
Noble Consort Chen's gaze finally shifted away from her teacup.
"Xie Wanqing, the daughter of the Imperial Academy's chancellor."
The hall fell silent for three seconds.
Throughout those three seconds, the teacup in Noble Consort Chen's hand didn't move a hair. She held it steadier than any trained palace maid.
Then she slowly set it down.
The porcelain met the saucer without making a sound.
"All of them?"
"All of them."
"Six?"
"Six."
Noble Consort Chen looked at him.
Her gaze was complicated.
It held neither the shock Gu Moran had expected nor the anger he had prepared himself to face.
There was scrutiny, inquiry, and a trace of something he couldn't understand.
"Mo'er, tell me."
Noble Consort Chen's voice had grown level, so level that she didn't sound like a mother who had just heard her son wanted to marry six women at once.
"Is this a passing fancy, or have you thought it through?"
Gu Moran leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other, keeping up his wastrel act for now.
"What do you think, Mother?"
"I think you've thought it through."
"Then I have."
"Your reason."
"I'm young and drawn to beauty, my heart's aflutter with spring, and I fall in love with every woman I see. I can't help myself."
Noble Consort Chen didn't answer. She just looked at him for a long time.
Long enough for the hairs on Gu Moran's back to start rising.
He had long known his mother was no simple woman.
Keeping the empress under her thumb in the inner palace for twenty years and enjoying the emperor's exclusive favor took more than looks and scheming.
Her eyes could see through people.
"When you caused trouble before, you really were being reckless," Noble Consort Chen finally said. "Drinking and making a scene in Pingkang Ward was reckless. Cursing a teacher at the Imperial Academy's gates was reckless. Chasing your father's pet crane around the imperial gardens last month was reckless too."
"But this isn't recklessness."
She rose, walked up to Gu Moran, and took his chin in her hand, turning it slightly as though trying to identify something.
"Your eyes have changed."
Gu Moran's heart skipped a beat.
His smile stayed in place, and his tongue remained as slick as ever.
"You must be mistaken, Mother. My eyes have always been like this-big and bright, just like yours."
Noble Consort Chen released him, stepped back, and returned to her seat at the dressing table.
Silence lasted a full ten breaths.
Then she smiled.
There was a trace of something in it that Gu Moran couldn't read at all.
"All right."
She rose, straightened her clothes, and headed for the doors.
"I'll take you to see your father."
Gu Moran followed her, alarm bells clanging in his head.
She had agreed too quickly.
Six marriage decrees, granting marriages to six families at once-any normal mother's first reaction to that should have been to give her son a beating.
But Noble Consort Chen hadn't even scolded him.
Not only had she not stopped him, she had offered to take him to see the emperor.
The system panel flashed in the upper right corner of his vision.
A line of small gray text appeared, then vanished.
[Noble Consort Chen's attitude is abnormal. Is it connected to the abnormal origins marker? Insufficient data. Analysis currently unavailable.]
He had no time to think further.
Noble Consort Chen had already left the hall, four personal palace maids following her, heading straight for the Hall of Supreme Ultimate.
Mother and son passed through three palace gates, one behind the other.
The eunuchs and palace maids they met along the way lowered their heads and bowed, secretly stealing sidelong glances at their expressions, trying to guess something from them.
They couldn't guess a thing.
Noble Consort Chen walked just as she always did, dignified and graceful, looking neither left nor right.
Gu Moran walked half a step behind her, hands tucked into his sleeves and a smile on his lips, looking every bit the dissolute rascal the entire capital knew.
They reached the Hall of Supreme Ultimate.
Gao Fu, the eunuch outside the hall, felt his legs go weak at the sight of the two of them.
It was nothing unusual for Noble Consort Chen to visit the Hall of Supreme Ultimate, but bringing the Third Prince with her was another matter.
The last time had been three years ago, after the Third Prince had smashed a bronze cauldron passed down from the previous dynasty. The emperor had seized him by the ear and scolded him for half an hour.
"Your Noble Consort, Your Highness, His Majesty is reviewing memorials..."
"Out of the way." Noble Consort Chen didn't even break stride.
Gao Fu stepped aside.
The hall doors opened, and the scent of ambergris incense washed over them.
The emperor sat behind the dragon desk, a memorial in his hand and his brows knotted tight.
When he saw Noble Consort Chen enter, his brows relaxed.
When he saw Gu Moran following her, they knotted up again.
"My beloved consort, you're here? What's this unfilial son doing here with you? What trouble has he caused now?"
Noble Consort Chen bowed, sat down on the cushioned couch beside the dragon desk, and picked up the tea a eunuch offered her. Then she spoke leisurely.
"He hasn't caused trouble. It's good news."
"What good news could come from him?" The emperor set down the memorial. "Last time, he chased my crane around the imperial gardens and nearly drove that red-crowned crane into the moat to drown. My crane!"
"Father." Gu Moran walked up to the dragon desk and dropped straight to his knees.
He knelt swiftly and cleanly, his knees striking the golden floor tiles with a thud.
The emperor was stunned by the sight.
He could count on one hand the number of times this son had knelt in his entire life.
"What are you doing?"
"I have a request I would like Father to grant."
"Speak."
"I want to start a family."
The emperor's expression softened. He leaned back in his chair, looking almost gratified.
"You've finally seen the light? Which family's daughter has caught your eye?"
Gu Moran pulled the folded sheet of xuan paper from his sleeve and held it over his head with both hands.
"Six."
The emperor took the paper and unfolded it.
He read down the list, line by line.
His hand stopped when he reached the second name.
At the fourth, he looked up at Gu Moran.
At the sixth, he put the paper down.
Every eunuch and palace maid in the hall held their breath at once.
"All of them?"
Gu Moran kowtowed, his voice clear and bright.
"I'm young and drawn to beauty. I beg Father to grant my wish."
The emperor said nothing. He picked up the paper and read it through again.
"The chancellor's legitimate daughter, the Imperial Medical Bureau's granddaughter, the Northern Territory princess here for a marriage alliance, the Flower-Between Pavilion's courtesan queen, the grand commandant's daughter, and the Imperial Academy chancellor's daughter."
After reciting the six names, the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Are you trying to marry wives or start a rebellion?"
"I have no interest in rebellion, only in beautiful women. Otherwise, when Father wanted to make me crown prince back then, I would have agreed long ago. Why would I have settled for being Prince Yi?"
"With the way you behave, you certainly don't deserve the position of crown prince! I was a fool back then!"
"But do you know what stands behind these six?
The chancellor, the Imperial Medical Bureau, the Northern Frontier Envoy Delegation, the grand commandant's household, the Imperial Academy, and a pleasure house.
You want to stuff half the court's realm and a brothel into your rear courtyard?"
"Besides, four of those families are old retainers who helped me ascend the throne. How am I supposed to bring it up?"
"That's why I need Father to grant the marriages. If I go ask for their hands myself, they won't give me the time of day."
"Father, I'm serious this time. I'll treat them well. If nothing else works, I'll promise each of them one condition."
The emperor rolled his eyes, left speechless by that.
He turned to Noble Consort Chen on the cushioned couch.
"My beloved consort, what do you think?"
Noble Consort Chen set down her teacup and smiled gently.
"Your Majesty, Mo'er is no longer young. It's time he started a family. I think they really are all good families."
"Leaving the courtesan queen aside, the other five are indeed good families, but put them together and you have a powder keg!"
"Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven. A marriage decree is an act of heavenly grace. Which family would dare object?"
"Ran'er may behave recklessly, but he's simple at heart. These people can protect him."
The emperor opened his mouth and found he had no answer to that.
That's right.
After I'm gone, will the new emperor be able to tolerate Ran'er?
But if I agree, what if...?
He looked again at Gu Moran, still kneeling on the floor, and stared at him for a long while.
Forget it. Useless thing-even if he married six heavenly fairies, he couldn't overturn the heavens!