Chapter 110.3: Moron, Surrounded By a Pack of Wolves

Le Cheng Emperor coldly swept Li Ru Yu a glance, clearly telling you, what ‘the imperial prestige cannot be disregarded’ truly means. Then, when looking again to Cheng Junwang, his gaze also penetrated with disdain, “Cheng Junwang, enjoying the salary of a junwang, not thinking to cultivate one’s character and govern one’s family, raising a daughter yet not educating. Today, the junwang rank will be demoted to a duke’s, hoping in the future, one educates one’s children more. If similar things were to happen again, one certainly will be punished severely.”

“This subject, thanks your Majesty for the magnanimous favor.” Cheng Junwang kneeled over onto the ground, unable to get up for a long time.

He rather didn’t commit foolery like Li Ru Yu. At this time, by obediently accepting the imperial decree, one perhaps can still leave some surface-level sentiments. If he were to do anything rebellious, then maybe he’ll get demoted to the end.

“This matter will end here.” Le Cheng Emperor got up and walked before that imperial great-uncle.

That old wangye hurriedly stood up, as Le Cheng Emperor reached out to support him. “Thanking your Majesty.”

“Imperial great-uncle, these words are too serious, today’s matter has rather exhausted imperial great-uncle for coming all this way.”

(T/N: Forgot to clarify, this great uncle is Le Cheng Emperor’s grandfather’s younger brother, it’s obvious from the chinese familial address but that always gets lost in translation.)

“For such a thing to have happened in the imperial family, as a member of the imperial family, naturally no one’s face glowed. However, your Majesty handled it appropriately, so there’s no need for us old fellas to say anything.” Even if as someone of the imperial clan, with relatively high authority in certain aspects, one similarly still needed to know one’s limits. Matters that require his Majesty to take care of, one best not meddle in. If you dare rely on your elderly age to play the elder, you definitely won’t have a good end.

Originally, this matter should’ve been given to the Empress to take care of, but the matter was brought out by Luo Pei Shan. Moreover, he wasn’t idle at all these last few days. If you thought that Cheng Junwang dropping in rank was purely due to not educating his daughter properly, then you would be gravely mistaken. People that want to have Cheng Junwang pushed down weren’t in the minority. Aside from because Cheng Junwang wasn’t very well liked, how was this not necessarily a struggle between factions. Speaking from the surface, Cheng Junwang was the Ding Duke Manor’s son-in-law, so naturally someone that belongs to the Empress and Kang Qinwang’s faction. Then that way, having the Empress handle this matter wasn’t very appropriate. As a result, there was the decision of having Le Cheng Emperor personally handle this matter.

When the ‘entertainment’ was over, the imperial consorts and concubines, as well as members of the imperial clan, all respectively left. As for the princes, whether it was going look for their respective mothers, or going take care of official business, or leaving the palace to take care of their own matter, that was their own business. As long as it didn’t affect one’s proper duties, Le Cheng Emperor was also too lazy to bother with them.

Luo Old Madam rather wanted to immediately take Jing Wan out of the palace, but Le Cheng Emperor already said, he wanted to look for Jing Wan for a chat. Thus, Luo Old Madam remained in Kunyi Palace.

Just as Le Cheng Emperor was about to step out of Kunyi Palace, he suddenly stopped, “Empress, titled madams getting troubled when entering the palace, this kind of thing, this emperor doesn’t want to see a second time.”

“Yes, your Majesty.” This kind of thing didn’t just appear in Kunyi Palace. But with Le Cheng Emperor’s word, the Empress naturally won’t be lenient in the least when tidying up the inner palace. If others can break apart her people, then she as the master of the inner palace, breaking apart the people of other palaces wasn’t hard either.

During the time in which Luo Old Madam left the palace to go change, Kang Qinwang originally was thinking of using this time to take his leave, but the Empress called out to stop him, “My son, how about letting Luo third miss become your second wangfei? She’s fourteen this year, just so happening to reach marriageable age next year, and by that time, you will also be able to remarry a wangfei.”

Kang Qinwang was surprised. He originally wanted to say, isn’t Luo third miss’s status a little too low, but thinking again, even if he wanted to marry a high status noble daughter, at present, there weren’t any that were suitable either. Besides, it was just a second wangfei, so having a lower status might be even better. Another advantage was that the threat towards the di son left behind by the original first wife will be relatively much lower. And most importantly, the things decided by his imperial mother, how was it something he was capable of saying no to. “Imperial mother can just decide everything.”

The Empress apathetically looked to him, “This empress knows what you’re thinking, you disdain her low status, but the other party may not necessarily take a fancy to you either. Don’t assume that all the young ladies in the world all yearn for the imperial family. Besides, it’s not just us that is eyeing this young lady. Her status although is low, but there are plenty of young masters and gentlemen suitable in family status for her to freely pick from. One can tell from the previous Chen Zheng Min that when it comes to picking a husband for her, the first thing the Luo family looks at isn’t family status. And because of that matter from the Grand Elder Princess Manor, her social status has doubled. Today, during the court exam, that situation, you also saw, your imperial father has already praised her considerably. The high ranking families that seek to marry her aren’t in the minority either. To want to have her become your second wangfei, the difficulty is quite high.”

“Then, what should we do now? Asking imperial mother to give directions.”

“Prior to meeting this young lady, this empress actually had set one’s heart on Yi Lin marrying her, but after meeting her, perhaps letting her become your wangfei is more fitting. Setting aside her family background, this young lady is definitely more presentable than that previous wangfei of yours.”

Kang Qinwang never thought that his imperial mother had such a high evaluation of Luo third miss, but he believed his imperial mother’s foresight. Very rarely would she make an error in judgement. “Imperial mother………”

“Su-shi, after seeing the person, similarly won’t give up easily. Moreover, with Yi Jia marrying into the Luo family, they naturally will further want to have this young lady grasped in their palm. Su-shi’s main family doesn’t have any suitable young men, but her outer relatives[1]

does. Her older (male) cousin, the Right Commander-in-Chief, still has a di son, and he’s also extremely outstanding. Right now, we aren’t able to do anything either, so for the time being, just calmly observe any changes. After all, this matter, the Luo family’s attitude is extremely vital. You need to know, unless your imperial father issues a decree to bestow a marriage, otherwise, it is all possible for the Luo family to refuse the marriage. But in reality, your imperial father similarly understands this young lady’s vast entanglements, so for him to be able to just sit and watch, not leaning to help any one side, was already not bad. While Luo Old Madam is still in Kunyi Palace, this empress will try to feel out her intentions. For the time being, you go to your imperial father’s side. If your other brothers all aren’t present, then you can also go take care of your own business, but so long as there’s one present, you all need to stay behind.”

That’s why, for the sake of maximizing one’s benefits, for people like them, never mind just ‘exchanging marriages’[2], this kind of thing, even if they needed to swap a few more, it was all doable.

“Yes, imperial mother.” Just as Kang Qinwang was about to leave, he recalled something again, “Imperial mother, your palace’s chief eunuch……….”

“What, my son thinks that this empress just has this one useable chief eunuch?”

“This son thought too much, this son will take one’s leave.”

“It’s only just a chief eunuch. Losing one, this empress can still raise ten more.” Towards this bit, the Empress was quite indifferent. If losing one person really was able to affect her Kunyi Palace’s overall order, then there was no need for her to be the Empress anymore.

When Noble Consort Su was taking her two sons to Yucui Palace, she was also speaking with them about Jing Wan’s marriage. Just as the Empress had guessed, Noble Consort Su’s main choice was precisely her older cousin’s di son, “On the Empress’s side, the previous first choice was most likely Sun Yi Lin, but now, the Empress probably further wants Luo third miss to be her daughter-in-law.”

That’s why, the women of the imperial harem, no one was that far off from the other.

Li Hong Yuan appeared to be absentmindedly listening on the surface, but in his heart and beneath his eyes, it was all condensed with violent storms. Although he knew that with Wan Wan having her engagement cancelled now, she will meet with many covetous schemes, but personally hearing these people have Wan Wan married to this one, and betrothed to that one, never once considering Wan Wan’s own thoughts, and further disregarding her happiness, he couldn’t help but overflow with rage. Although, these things, whether they considered or not, Wan Wan in the end would still only be his, but whether they considered or not affected Li Hong Yuan’s feelings towards them. If when they schemed against Wan Wan, they’d considered for her, then when he starts sorting out people, perhaps he will go lighter.

“Yuan’er, what are you thinking about?” As Noble Consort Su spoke, she suddenly turned to look towards Li Hong Yuan.

“Bored.”

“This consort also feels that you must have been truly bored lately, else you wouldn’t have entered the palace today.”

[1] Basically her relatives of different surname. Main family would be referring to her maiden family, the Su clan, while the outer relatives would be like her maternal relatives, or other cousins with different surnames.

[2] This term is explained more in detail in chapter 106 part 2 (I think). Basically it’s marrying between families that were already in-laws to begin with.

T/N: It’s actually really fun to translate the Empress and Noble Consort Su parts, these two can read each other and guess each other’s moves so well. It’s like watching two pros play chess.