Chapter 242: Untitled

Meng Fuyao waved her hand and leaned slightly, smiling as she looked at her, not saying a word.

Liu Pin had gotten impatient and could only slap herself again. Meng Fuyao remained motionless and smiled slightly without saying a word until the skin on Liu Pin’s face was bruised and inflamed.

Finally, Meng Fuyao slowly said, “Why is Sister Liu so afraid? I’ve just finished running around and haven’t even caught my breath when you start slapping yourself… what’s the point?”

Liu Pin collapsed onto the ground, tears streaming out of her face as she heard the heartless person add, “Aiya, look at this tender and smooth skin, how ugly it is after being slapped…”

Liu Pin didn’t even have the energy to cry anymore and stayed on the floor, her heart filled with hatred, yet she didn’t dare to show it on her face as she heard the Empress’ footsteps; she sounded like she was leaving the courtyard.

Liu Pin couldn’t help but feel relieved when the Empress suddenly turned back and said, “Ah, I haven’t settled the official matters yet.”

Everyone looked at Meng Fuyao expectantly as she turned to the lady-in-waiting beside her and asked, “What’s the punishment for insulting the nation’s mother?”

The lady-in-waiting curtsied and replied, “Replying Your Grace, the punishment is death by suicide, along with the elimination of the criminal’s maternal family.”

She responded calmly, but when everyone heard her, they began to tremble, and Liu Pin shrank back immediately.

Meng Fuyao smiled brightly at her and said warmly, “That’s why I said, Sister Liu, you were being too extreme. Whatever crime you committed will be punished by the law, so why are you so anxious over getting beaten? Wouldn’t it be redundant?”

Death by suicide…

All the concubines’ faces paled; they never imagined that just Liu Pin would cower beneath Meng Fuyao, not even daring to raise her head as she looked at her fearfully. When her gaze met Meng Fuyao’s cold and composed gaze, her heart instantly sank to the very bottom. She could only open her mouth.

Meng Fuyao continued smiling as she gazed at her—She heard that Liu Shilang doted on this daughter of his immensely and even didn’t want to send her into the palace back then. What would he think if he saw the scene today?

“No——” Liu Pin finally managed to gather a response from the blow and launched herself forward as she grabbed Meng Fuyao’s robes and sobbed. “Your Grace, Your Grace, I am guilty, forgive me, Your Grace, spare me——”

“Who said I wanted you dead?” Meng Fuyao’s words comforted, then frightened Liu Pin repeatedly and she felt mentally and emotionally exhausted after blow upon blow. She remained kneeling on the ground as she heard the Empress announce with an extremely tragic tone, “Good karma falls upon those who show mercy, even though you flagrantly insulted my family, to take one’s life just because of a few sentences, it won’t do… It won’t do…”

Liu Pin watched her with a shell-shocked expression. She did not dare rejoice—who knew when something scary would come out of that mouth again?

“However, that mouth of yours is really terrible, truly terrible. I’ve heard that you used to take pleasure in treating your servants and relatives like a joke?” Without looking at her, Meng Fuyao’s gaze swept across all the concubines. “Speaking too much and without thinking will cause the end of your life sooner or later. I can’t bear to see you go down that path, so how about this, I’ll help you…”

She adjusted her sleeve lazily and said, “… Sew your mouth shut.”

The entire hall fell silent, and several weak-hearted concubines started crying in fright. Liu Pin slowly raised her head and glanced at Meng Fuyao, who was looking back down at her and smiling. Then, her body swayed, and she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Meng Fuyao kicked her aside and swept the hall again. She called a girl over, “Yang Chongrong, come here.”

The girl who had been called turned pale. Not daring to stand up, she crawled over on her knees and stuttered, “Y-your Grace…”

“I’ll have to trouble you with sewing Liu Pin’s mouth,” Meng Fuyao said simply. “Since you are on good terms with her, you naturally know the severity of the situation lest other people perform shoddily and ruin Sister Liu’s face.”

Yang Chongrong’s face looked worse than Liu Pin’s as she knelt on the ground for a long time before finally whispering, “… Yes.”

“Go to that hut to do it, don’t scare the sisters here.” Meng Fuyao nodded satisfactorily and indicated for the eunuch to take them away.

She waved a hand, and a eunuch carried a burning hot branding iron in as well, the boiling red and sizzling object was like a bloody ghost’s eye, and all the concubines clenched their mouths tightly shut as if their lips were being pressed by that horrendous thing. They felt a burning sensation on their lips that traveled all the way down to the bottom of their hearts.

They watched with bated breath as the eunuch closed the door, and after a while, terrible screams could be heard from the hut.

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The piercing screams tore at their hearts; immense pain was like a terrifying black hole, it could send a person’s mental health spiraling into somewhere unknown. Thereafter, a faint stench of urine and blood drifted from the hut.

There was a deadly silence. If Meng Fuyao didn’t speak, everyone dared not speak either and maintained an absolute silence as they listened to the screams coming from the consorts that had given her nothing but trouble.

The rest of the concubines remained kneeling, their faces ashen as they trembled. Several concubines fainted directly, and below some of the concubines, a bodily fluid could be seen leaking out.

Ping—

The door of the hut from which terrible screams and cries were heard suddenly swung open as Yang Chongrong flew out, her hair a terrible mess and her eyes bloodshot as she screamed, “I can’t do it—I can’t do it—Forgive me—Forgive me—”

She didn’t even greet Meng Fuyao nor did she turn to look at anyone as she sprinted out wildly all the way until she banged into the fountain in the courtyard, stumbling for a moment before running again.

“Yang Chongrong is a coward, send her back. She doesn’t need to come out anymore.”

All the concubines listened to her with their heads buried—the two consorts were the most powerful among all of them, and they were usually the closest to the Emperor and today, Her Grace had settled them in one go. The Empress’ intent was clear.

Meng Fuyao sat upon the steps as she watched Yang Chongrong run. She couldn’t help but frown slightly—she hadn’t intended to be so cruel, she just wanted Shadow Blade to scare them a little; could he really have done something terrifying?

She glanced at the concubines gathered in the courtyard—they were all fine specimens of the fairer sex and were definitely worthy of being called a consort, unlike the ones who just wanted the world to burn. When the Regent King selected concubines for Xuanyuan Min, the only requirement was that they had to be beautiful, so beautiful such that the Emperor would become deeply mesmerized by them. Come to think of it, these ladies were rather pitiful too, they had become their families’ sacrificial pawns, unable to have children, the only entertainment they had was to gossip about each other.

When Xuanyuan Min discussed with her to become a fake empress, in the end, he just didn’t want a real empress to control him. As for the others, if she could handle these concubines and stop them from spreading baseless rumors, then that would be the best.

He wasn’t clear about Meng Fuyao’s threshold and didn’t have very high hopes for her, but he didn’t expect that she would actually be this useful? Regardless of who was using who, she also wanted to use this status as Empress to change Xuanyuan’s political scene.

‘Create chaos, but not too much chaos, or else Zong Yue will be troubled when I hand the nation over to him…’ Meng Fuyao’s eyebrows creased together in thought.

She raised her chin and called out lazily, “Attention, my sisters.”

All the concubines hurriedly turned to look at her.

‘The harem has the responsibility to support His Majesty on internal affairs, in the past, I was not around, and you have all been too relaxed, but now, discipline must be restored,” Meng Fuyao announced. “From this day on, every alternate day, you will stay with me and do embroidery to create handmade handicrafts to serve as rewards for meritorious officials. This is also a way to express gratitude on behalf of the royal family.”

Everyone present protested silently. Do it themselves? Every alternate day? Embroidery was alright, but even weaving as well? These concubines all came from distinguished families in Xuanyuan and were spoilt as young mistresses at home, they had never done something so laborious before! And yet, the Empress’ reason was righteous and reasonable, to the point that they had no way to protest against it. Even if the Regent King came, he wouldn’t be able to help much in matters of the harem.

Seeing that she had fully convinced the concubines, Meng Fuyao nodded and said, “All of you may leave.”

Then, she turned around and went into the inner palace. ‘The conflict is probably over now, right?’

Several highly-ranked concubines had seen everything that happened in the courtyard that morning and immediately sucked in their arrogant expressions and stared at Meng Fuyao fearfully, alarmed at the Empress’ cruelty, yet Meng Fuyao treated them warmly as she suddenly said, “Noble Concubine.”

The Noble Concubine, who had been extremely smug about criticizing Jian Xue earlier, jumped at being called and hurriedly bowed.

“I heard His Majesty mention yesterday that there was a flood in the southern region, and the head of state spared no expense in rescuing the victims and faced the situation in an orderly manner, and now he has been promoted to Stock Minister. In addition to his merit, I should also give you a promotion.” Meng Fuyao smiled slightly. “You shall become a consort, the Noble Consort.”

“Thank you, Your Grace!” The Noble Consort hurriedly thanked her with unexpected glee.

Meng Fuyao waved a hand and smiled. “I’ve already said before that a concubine’s promotion is directly related to her family’s honor. Actually, when the family contributes to the nation, the concubine will also have a share of the glory. Since all of you here are all highly regarded ladies, there will always be a chance in the future.”

‘Everyone has a chance,’ thought Concubine Tao as a flash of jealousy appeared on her face. Her father was a great scholar and had always been at political loggerheads with the Noble Consort’s father, now that the Noble Concubine had been promoted to Noble Consort, and she was still stuck as a concubine, how could she swallow this down?

The Noble Consort stood up as everyone gazed at her in envy. The Xuanyuan regime was truly complicated; the game that the Emperor played under the scrutiny of the Regent King was a tightrope. The imperial court was divided into two sides with each having their own plans as the Regent King watched from his tower, holding the two sides tightly in his hands.

Meng Fuyao pretended not to notice as she sipped at her tea. Suddenly, she asked, “Why is the Consort of Virtue not here?”