“How could that be? I’m not that idle,” Wen Meier said. “I was just thinking about the poem my son wrote for me and accidentally wandered here.”
She proudly held up the poem and showed it off to Feng Zhao.
“Your Majesty, why don’t you take a look and appraise it?”
Feng Zhao couldn’t be bothered with her.
She still had serious matters to attend to and simply lifted her foot to leave.
But Wen Meier would not let her go. In her heart, even though she had accidentally lost the throne, her son was still outstanding—far more talented than Xiao Hongyi, who had barely read any books since childhood.
“Your Majesty, has His Majesty ever written poetry for you?” she asked.
Feng Zhao paused. She understood immediately—Wen Meier was trying to regain the upper hand and would not give up until she achieved her goal.
“So what if he has? And so what if he hasn’t?”
Wen Meier toyed with the paper in her hand.
“If he has, Your Majesty can bring it out and we can compare them to see whose is better. If he hasn’t, then Your Majesty should take this seriously. The eldest prince has been writing poetry since he was three. His Majesty is five now, isn’t he?”
She smiled smugly.
“Your Majesty, if you truly cannot find a suitable tutor, you can tell me. I know quite a few learned scholars and can introduce them to you. Perhaps in the future His Majesty will even be able to write poetry for you.”
“Hah.”
Feng Zhao let out a cold laugh and turned to look directly at Wen Meier.
“The emperor is of priceless status. How could he casually write poetry? If he writes anything, it should be in memorials and imperial edicts. Mere poems are not worth mentioning!”
Wen Meier mocked Xiao Hongyi for lacking education and not knowing poetry, while Feng Zhao responded by pointing out that her son, despite all his supposed talent, was still only a prince—unlike Xiao Hongyi, who was already the emperor.
“Consort Wen,” Feng Zhao said coldly, “my son is the emperor now. No matter how well you raise the eldest prince, when he comes of age, he will still serve under my son. With that in mind, do you still think there is anything worth boasting about?”
There is only one ruler in the world. Everyone else is a subject.
After speaking, Feng Zhao strode away, leaving Wen Meier behind. Enraged, Wen Meier crumpled the poem in her hand and threw it to the ground.
“Feng Zhao! You think you can command my son? Dream on!”
..
When Feng Zhao arrived at the Hall of Governance, she saw Nie Huai teaching Xiao Hongyi.
As expected of Qin Sang’s last disciple, his explanations were orderly and precise. Every question he posed to Xiao Hongyi had a clear purpose.
Standing at the door, Feng Zhao listened for a while and even felt she was learning something about this ancient world herself.
She did not interrupt them, simply watching quietly. Especially seeing Xiao Hongyi in a bright yellow dragon robe, sitting seriously on the dragon throne, all her earlier irritation from Wen Meier completely disappeared.
Her child—no matter how late he started—would not be inferior.
“Mother!!”
The dragon throne faced the entrance. Xiao Hongyi looked up from his book and immediately saw Feng Zhao standing at the door. He quickly jumped down to greet her.
“This son pays respects to Mother. May Mother be blessed with peace and good fortune.”
Dressed in dragon robes, he bowed. The Empress Dowager was the only person in the empire to whom the emperor would still formally bow.
Feng Zhao accepted the salute and asked, “How is your study going?”
Xiao Hongyi answered excitedly, “Very well! I understand everything! I’ve never understood anything this clearly before!”
With Nie Huai teaching him, he finally realized how poor Yuan Chao’s instruction had been.
Feng Zhao then looked to Nie Huai for confirmation.
Nie Huai had already known from Zhongnan Mountain that Xiao Hongyi was talented; after actually teaching him, he realized just how intelligent he truly was.
Hearing Nie Huai praise him, Xiao Hongyi felt both proud and shy.
“By the way, Mother, why did you come today? Is there something you need from me?”
To cultivate Xiao Hongyi’s independence and prevent him from always relying on others, Feng Zhao rarely came to the Hall of Governance unless necessary.
She did not mention the unpleasant encounter with Wen Meier. Instead, she activated the Translation Eye and walked to the dragon desk piled high with memorials.
“I came to review memorials,” she said, opening one.
With the help of the “Translation Eye” and the “History Book,” Feng Zhao discovered something astonishing: when she opened a memorial, a kind of connection formed between them.
Specifically, once she opened a memorial, the Translation Eye would automatically translate it and send the content into the History Book for searching, instantly producing the best answer. This saved her the trouble of translating first and then manually inputting the result into the History Book.
Now, she could understand everything the moment she opened a memorial.
She no longer needed to spend all day on this task and could do much more.
Unfortunately, her joy did not last long—she was soon faced with one identical memorial after another, and her expression darkened again.
Noticing her mood, Xiao Hongyi stood on tiptoe, trying to see what she was reading. But he was too short and could not see anything.
“Mother, what are you reading? What does it say?”
He knew he could not handle state affairs, so he did not interfere. He simply waited for Feng Zhao to deal with the memorials, and thus had no idea what they contained.
Feng Zhao took a deep breath, almost unable to stop herself from tearing the memorial apart. Looking at his curious eyes, she asked seriously,
“Do you really want to see it? Even if the contents are unpleasant and might upset you?”
Without hesitation, Xiao Hongyi replied, “I want to see!”
He already had a sense of responsibility, so he was prepared to face anything.
“Alright.”
Feng Zhao handed him the memorial. The moment he looked at it, his brows immediately furrowed. After reading it, his entire face scrunched up.
“What do they mean? Are they saying the imperial tutor is not good enough?”
Feng Zhao replied, “They’re saying both I and your tutor are not good enough.”
The memorials all claimed Nie Huai was unqualified, accusing Feng Zhao of recklessly appointing someone who hadn’t even taken the imperial examination to teach the emperor.
The entire document insulted Feng Zhao, insulted Nie Huai, and even subtly mocked Xiao Hongyi for being uneducated—a typical Wen family tactic.
They intended to destroy every path Feng Zhao was building for Xiao Hongyi.
Even if they did not yet take Nie Huai seriously, they still wanted to crush him early and undermine Feng Zhao’s authority.
Nie Huai did not expect that only two days after entering the palace, so many officials would already submit memorials against him.
“Your Majesty, since they doubt my ability and use this to attack you and His Majesty, perhaps I should take the imperial examination,” he said.
Nie Huai had never planned to enter officialdom, so he had never taken the exams to prove himself. He did not expect this would cause such trouble.
“Even if you pass the spring examination and become top scholar this year, the Wen family will still have other methods,” Feng Zhao said. “There is no need for you to waste time on this. Teaching the emperor properly is what matters most right now.”
As for Wen Chenglin, that old fox—she would deal with him herself.