Chapter 1236: Chapter 1235: Tearing Off the Mask
"Empress Dowager, the Emperor has arrived!" an Old Sister reported.
The Empress Dowager suddenly opened her eyes.
"The Emperor?"
She gave a cold smile: "So quick to arrive!"
Lady Xia, do you think by telling the Emperor you can escape this calamity?
Mighty Great Chu, with a dignified ruler, the harem only has a dozen legitimate concubines.
Even without me stepping forward, someone else would, how much advantage can you really gain?
This time, even the heavens won’t help you!
The Empress Dowager respectfully bowed to Buddha, slowly rose and calmly walked towards the main hall.
Zhao Junyao was already waiting here.
He was dressed in a sapphire blue robe, standing in the middle of the grand hall with a grim face, emanating coldness throughout.
He was like a frozen statue, or a sharp sword ready to unsheathe and kill at any moment.
The Empress Dowager saw him immediately upon entering the door, looking icy and like he was about to interrogate her, and couldn’t help but curl her lips into a cold smile.
Before she could speak, Zhao Junyao, with a dark face, bit his teeth and greeted.
"Greetings to Mother!"
The Empress Dowager calmly laid her hand on the Palace Attendant and sat at the high seat in peace.
After a while, she leisurely spoke.
"Why does the Imperial Son have the time to visit me today?" Her voice was neither loud nor soft, her tone neither cold nor warm.
Zhao Junyao sneered coldly.
"For what reason, Mother surely knows!"
The Empress Dowager snorted coldly.
"I do not know; please enlighten me, Emperor!"
Her voice slightly softened, but the gunpowder smell thickened.
Zhao Junyao glanced at the surrounding Palace Attendants, his meaning obvious.
Yet the Empress Dowager feigned ignorance.
"Emperor, they are all our people, feel free to speak!"
Seeing the Empress Dowager’s attitude, Zhao Junyao’s last bit of patience was thoroughly exhausted.
He could no longer care about anything else, and roared coldly.
"Everyone leave me!"
"Yes!"
The Palace Attendants did not dare disobey the Emperor, each left as if escaping.
The room was left with only mother and son.
The Empress Dowager showed no fear, knowing she was his real mother.
The Great Chu Dynasty ruled with benevolence and filial piety, she bet he wouldn’t dare do anything to her!
Thus, she sneered and ridiculed.
"The Emperor has quite a temper today!"
Zhao Junyao couldn’t help but move forward and glare with anger.
"Mother, I just want to clarify one fact!"
"Why do you repeatedly stuff people into my harem, what exactly is your intention?!"
"In your heart, do you even consider me as your son?!"
Zhao Junyao’s heart was already dead, his curiosity was out of curiosity alone.
Hoping for the Empress Dowager’s change of heart is no more than hoping for the unification of the world.
It’s ultimately a pipe dream, a laughingstock.
Seeing Zhao Junyao’s aggressive stance and line of questioning, the Empress Dowager could no longer endure.
She stood up briskly and retorted righteously.
"Then the Emperor’s intent on destroying me and your maternal family, what is that about?"
"From our ancestor Emperor to now, in these hundred years, which maternal family hasn’t enjoyed imperial favoritism and protection?"
"Why is it that only the Shih Family cannot?"
"If you disregard the bond with Wanxin from your youth, that’s one thing, but the Shih Family is your maternal family, no matter how impossible it may be to annihilate them, you are simply..."
Zhao Junyao sneered coldly.
"So mother harbors resentment over this, but what does this have to do with the Empress?!"
"If mother has any grudge, it should be vented on me, do not implicate others!"
The Empress Dowager stepped closer to him, looked at him with the sharpest gaze, and said disdainfully.
"Implicate others? Haha!"
"The Empress is indeed a legitimate daughter-in-law of mine, how could she be someone else?"
"Unexpectedly, the Emperor also has people he cares about?"
"You take no regard for your maternal family, yet you hold dear the Empress’s few scandalous brothers that could never measure up!"
"A child born of a small family, you promptly ennobled him as marquis!"
"A boy in his twenties who’s not even married, you appointed as Prefect of Jiangnan!"
"Aren’t you afraid of becoming the laughingstock of the world?!"
The Empress Dowager was so furious her eyes became hazy.
Zhao Junyao, however, sneered coldly.
"The harem should not interfere with politics, has mother forgotten?!"
"Besides, the kingdom has its laws, and the home has its rules, if the King breaks the law, he is punished just like a commoner, not to mention an Imperial Officer?!"
"The Shih Family deserves their severe punishment, I have a clear conscience!"
"You...!!"
The Empress Dowager was so angry she fumed.
But moments later, she suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hahaha..."
"What a fitting phrase, ’if the King breaks the law, he is punished just like a commoner’!"
"Then what crime is committed when you drove your paternal uncle to death and killed your cousin?!"
"What did they do wrong that you must eradicate them so completely?!"
"Oh, and what about the hundreds of Jiangnan officials, what wrong did they commit?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Junyao was deeply displeased.
"They brought this on themselves!"
"Mother, you are the Empress Dowager, more noble than all women under heaven!"
"In the future, you should peacefully enjoy your blessings, there’s no need for you to meddle in the affairs of the court or the harem!"
The Empress Dowager laughed heartily again.
"Indeed, I forgot you have a heart of stone, cold and unfeeling!"
"However..."
"You are the Emperor, I cannot manage your affairs, but as for the Empress..."
"I am her mother-in-law!"
"The Empress models virtue across the land, an example for all women, if her reputation is tarnished..."
The Empress Dowager’s gaze grew sharper.
Zhao Junyao was startled, fearing this most.
"What do you intend to do?!"
The Empress Dowager squinted her eyes.
"Is my Imperial Son so anxious? It seems this Empress... I really must make good use of her!"
Finished speaking, she turned to walk to the high seat, sat comfortably, and her gaze returned to serenity, as if she made a decision.
Zhao Junyao felt an alarm in his heart.
"What do you want exactly?"
"What are you still dissatisfied with?!"
The Empress Dowager sneered coldly.
"You need not be nervous!"
"What I seek is merely the wish of all mothers under the heavens!"
"Imperial Son, you are my only child!"
"I just hope you and I can be of one mind!"
"In the Imperial family, there shouldn’t be emotions!"
"Have you forgotten your father’s dying instructions?"
"What you should do most is to evenly distribute favor and have many descendants!"
Zhao Junyao squinted his eyes.
"If you told these principles ten years ago, I might still believe them!"
"But now... hmpf!"
The Empress Dowager sneered coldly.
"Believe it or not, it is up to you!"
"Otherwise, do you really think that I, an old woman halfway to be buried, have any other demands?"
Zhao Junyao stared at her for a long time before saying coldly.
"Hard to say!"
He also grew tired of circling around with her, and spoke directly.
"I will not agree to this selection!"
"The Jiangnan matter is unresolved, the court must hold a special exam to select talents, I do not have the energy!"
The Empress Dowager was not afraid in the slightest and spoke confidently.
"The grand selection is a tradition of our ancestors, Imperial Son has already delayed it for a year!"
"This year, no matter what, it cannot be delayed any further!"
"Moreover, these matters of the harem should not be your worry, only the Empress should manage them!"
"Besides..."
The Empress Dowager gave a sinister smile.
