Everyone in the Harem Has a Cheat Except Me - Chapter 6

In the end, the Virtuous Consort left in a storm of tears. After she was gone, Qin Jun turned to the empress with a complicated look. Perhaps he’d heard some private thought of hers.

“You’ve worked hard, Empress,” he said.

She smiled. “As mistress of the six palaces, it is my duty.”

She thought he meant what had happened today. I suspected he meant the former life she remembered, though he could hardly say so aloud.

“You may return, then.” Qin Jun told the chief eunuch, “Didn’t a shipment of porcelain just arrive from Yunzhou? Choose a few interesting pieces and send them to the empress’s palace.”

Yunzhou was her home. She froze briefly, then thanked him with her usual composure. There was no pleasure in her eyes.

After she left, Qin Jun dismissed his attendants. When we were alone, he sighed. “The empress… Was I out of my mind in that other life?”

I couldn’t be bothered to answer. “If there’s nothing else, I’m going back.” I started toward the door, but he was quicker. He caught me and pulled me aside.

“You’re already here. Stay and chat.”

I said nothing, merely glanced at the memorials on his desk. He caught my meaning at once and cleared his throat. “One must balance work and rest.”

Fine. He was the emperor; he made the rules. “How many taels of silver is this chat worth?”

He stared at me. “After all these years, that’s how you treat me?”

I held his gaze without a word. At a loss, he searched his person for money. Finding none, he removed the jade pendant he wore and set it before me.

I beamed. “Of course, Your Majesty. What would you like to discuss?”

He sighed again. “What could I possibly have been thinking in my former life? I don’t love the empress, but her family has helped me greatly, and she has never failed in her duties as mother of the nation. I can’t understand how I let her die such a violent death.”

How was I supposed to know? He kept talking to himself.

“Even if I’d lost my mind, it couldn’t have been for the Virtuous Consort. She’s nothing like the kind of woman I like.”

I thought of her temper, her behavior, and that sugary voice, and shuddered. Who had decided she was my substitute? I was nothing like her!

Then I noticed Qin Jun giving me an indescribable look. I had forgotten he could read minds.

“Exactly,” he said. “The empress actually thought that woman was your substitute, and that I later fell in love with her. Impossible! She’s nothing like you. How could she compare?”

Well, Qin Jun could speak sense sometimes. Then he turned to praising himself.

“Would a wise and valiant man like me keep a substitute? It’s an insult to my sterling character.”

I knew his nature. That was why I hadn’t believed the empress had been reborn when he first told me. Qin Jun wasn’t that sort of man. Still, he went on boasting more extravagantly than a hawker touting her own wares.

Since he showed no sign of stopping, I changed the subject. “That thing you said to the Virtuous Consort earlier—where did you learn it?”

Had I not known he did it deliberately, I’d have thought him a truly awful man.

“Which thing?”

“About how she’d only fallen, while I’d suffered so much.”

It didn’t sound like him.

“Oh. I learned it from the Noble Consort,” he said casually.

I blinked.

“She’s entertaining. Her thoughts never stop, and they’re all bizarre. She isn’t very bright, but she is interesting. When I’m bored, I go chat with her.”

That caught my interest. The harem really was dull. But unlike him, I couldn’t read minds. What was I to do?