The Emperor and Empress’s Mutual Resentment

Synopsis: The Empress is spoiled rotten, and there are no other imperial consorts in the palace. The Emperor and Empress have always been deeply devoted to one another, the very picture of a match made in heaven. Over eighteen years, they have had three sons and raised two daughters together. The founding ancestors of the Northern Dynasty followed Emperor Wu of Han’s precedent of crowning a crown prince and executing Consort Gouyi, establishing the ancestral rule that when the son became exalted, the mother must die. Any imperial consort whose child was designated Crown Prince was put to death, lest women seize power and their maternal families dominate the court. Once the rule was established, every generation followed it. Until the Emperor, Wei Qing, made an exception for his Empress, Li Zhu, simply because he was hopelessly partial to her. When their eldest son was born, Li Zhu emerged completely unscathed. When the boy was later invested as Crown Prince, she still walked away with her life intact. No one expected that, after returning victorious from war, the Emperor would be ambushed and struck by an arrow on his journey home. By middle age, his life hung by a thread. With the mother still healthy and the son still young, there was simply no more time to delay the inevitable. The old ministers urged him to put the morally depraved “demon empress,” Li Zhu, to death as soon as possible. Then, while the ailing Emperor lay bedridden, a young palace servant came to report from behind the curtain. “The Empress left her door open for someone late last night. She lit only a single colored-glass lamp. And the man who entered her chambers was… the Crown Prince, Xiao.” The gravely ill Wei Qing slammed the memorial onto the floor. “Disgraceful!” That was his own son. So furious was he that he coughed up blood. Within days, his condition became hopeless. He issued an edict ordering her to accompany him in death, granting her a length of white silk with which to hang herself. She lifted her head, utterly righteous. “If I die and Your Majesty somehow manages not to die, won’t I be the one getting the raw end of the deal?” She tried every trick in the book—pouting, wheedling, throwing tantrums—but he refused to yield an inch. So she started cursing him outright. “You old bastard! It’s all because you’re dying young and dragging me down with you!” Still, that wasn’t enough. She moved on to threats and bribes. “Tonight, I’ll stand right here and see whether Your Majesty has the nerve to issue that decree. If you dare, I’ll strangle you myself!” The woman was shameless and ruthless, determined to anger him to death before he could give the order. So she confessed that during the year he had been away fighting, she had taken a handsome companion to fill the emptiness and give her somewhere to pour all the longing she felt for him, day and night. Unexpectedly, she managed to anger him back to health. When he eventually stood before her again, she merely blinked. “I knew Your Majesty loved me best. You wouldn’t really hold this against me, would you?” — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Emperor and Empress’s Mutual Resentment — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠