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Spring Once More chapter 25
(Traditional Chinese cover scanned by Dairytea)
Chapter Twenty-five
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Spring Once More by ayszhang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The imperial intelligence agency sure is powerful. The first thing the emperor greets me with is, “We heard you had an assassin in your manor? How is your hand, anything severe?”
I answer politely that I’m fine while he picks up a lump of something
from the table, shakes it out and sighs. It turns out to be a strip of white
cloth with messy, red writing on it. The emperor asks with a cocked brow, “Do you
know what this is?”
No, pray tell!
He squeezes it and punches the table. “It’s a blood letter[1]
written by the imperial father-in-law! The
empress’ sister was kidnapped this morning!”
“Oh, really!”
I’m so delighted that I forget to be surprised.
“Kidnapped,”
he snorts. “What lies! Does he think we are stupid?! Evidently she eloped with
some manservant! Kidnapped?”
I rub my
nose. I didn’t take the imperial sister to be such a brave woman. Sixteen years
old and already eloping. Wow, the heavens are smiling down on me.
“You’re
happy?” I can hear his teeth grinding. “Well we are stressed! The imperial
brother-in-law came this morning with his father’s blood letter
requesting our edict to exterminate his entire clan. The empress knelt before
Qianqing Palace asking for an annulment of marriage. Why, does it look like we
are a tyrant?!”
I’m here
still taking in the wonderful news that she ran away.
The emperor
continues his rant. “The prince’s bride elopes with a manservant before the
edict of marriage has been released – where has the dignity of our
house gone! Even if we were to forgive them, the empress dowager would not. In
that case, we shall do as they ask. The empress shall be declassed as a
civilian, and the Zhou house exterminated!”
I shiver. “My
dear brother, Your Majesty, you can do no such thing!” For heaven’s sake, it’s partly my fault that she eloped in the first
place. If this gets out of hand, it’s no joke. “The empress is after all the
mother of the nation. You can’t just annul the marriage like that.
Needless to say, the imperial sister running off isn’t the fault of her mom and
dad. My brother, you must be calm.”
“Calm?” His
other brow cocks up. “You’re asking us to be calm! If you hadn’t gone to see
that moronic spectacle, none of this would have happened! Apparently the
imperial sister’s lover was waiting below the tower for the silk ball, and it
was Prince Tai who elbowed him aside!”
I dab my
forehead.
“Now we are
stuck in this mess with nowhere to go. All below heaven knows that you, Prince
Tai, caught the imperial sister’s silk ball. The empress dowager will return
the day after tomorrow from her pilgrimage to Long’an Temple. Where is our
dignity as the royal family?! What do we say to the empress dowager?! There’s
nothing we can do other than do over the empress and the Zhou house!”
I dab my forehead
again. “Nothing…nothing can save the situation?”
He laughs
wryly. “You have something?!”
“Well, well.”
I dab my forehead once more. “There might be something, but I dunno…”
His eyes glimmer,
and he hisses out between his teeth, “Speak!”
I clear my
throat. “The situation now is all caused by the elopement of the imperial
sister. As long as she doesn’t
elope, then our dignity is saved. If the
imperial father can tolerate all else, then the problem is easily solved.”The emperor
sits down on his throne. “Continue.”
I look up at
him. “No need to chase after her. Let her live with her lover. Imperial
Sister-in-Law is but a title. As long as the imperial father-in-law announces that she died due to sudden ailments, the problem is no more.”
“What you’re saying is,” he confirms while stroking his moustache,
“ask the imperial father not to publicize this fiasco and simply fool the people and the
empress dowager into believing in her sudden death. If so, the problems will solve themselves!”
“Your Majesty’s wisdom knows no bounds!” I flatter with a smile. Damn, I
sound just like those eunuchs in the historical dramas!
The emperor nods accordingly. “Very well, it is a plan.” But my victory
won’t come that easily. “However, it is not detailed enough.”
Not detailed enough? He rubs his moustache watching me and suddenly
smirks. “The imperial father-in-law has worked tirelessly for the country and
the people until his old age. The Zhou house is also the empress’ natal home,
so we must grant them the appropriate honours.”
I chuckle nervously. “Well, Brother, why don’t you figure all that out yourself. And if you will excuse me…”
“Rush not.”
White teeth flash from beneath his moustache. “My grants won’t work without you,
so listen well to my words. Regardless, the imperial sister will be your
princess. Dead or alive, you shall take her hand in marriage!”
[1]
A blood letter is written by biting the skin on one’s index finger and writing
with the blood to show the sincerity of the message.
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Spring Once More by ayszhang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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