What Is It Now, My Princess? - Chapter 4
After the new emperor ascended the throne, I moved out of the palace into a residence of my own.
The stingy bastard gave me a tiny place miles from anywhere.
Yet even there, the Chief Justice nearly wore out my doorstep.
The moment court ended, Wei Qingci dressed himself up like a peacock and came to report on Xie Heng.
“Lord Xie ate properly today.”
“Lord Xie met some of his former men today. I didn’t stop him, you know.”
“The empress visited Lord Xie today. Here’s a record of their conversation.”
Each time, I listened patiently with a stony face.
The moment Xie Heng maneuvered his way out of prison, I dropped the act and barred Wei Qingci from my door.
He frowned. “Your Highness, you weren’t like this before.”
I took out a whip and lashed him.
“That was then. This is me being a menace.”
Very few people could drive Li Zhaohua to use a whip.
Surely he wouldn’t come pestering me after this.
Wei Qingci rubbed his thumb over the red mark on his cheek. A smile tugged at his mouth.
“A menace, are you? Your Highness never disappoints.”
[Found the walking M sign. McDonald’s, is that you?]
[Oh no. He enjoyed that.]
[Better stick to slaps next time. Dip your hand in iodine: slap and disinfect in one go.]
[What, giving him a new kind of reward?]
I had several questions.
For Xie Heng to stand at court again had taken everything he had.
The new emperor seemed to be cheating. His grip on imperial power tightened daily; there was no sign of his old timidity.
Most of it was the empress’s work. The woman the comments called the heroine.
With years of experience navigating court politics, Xie Heng could hold his own against the new emperor.
But whenever the empress stepped in, his resolve weakened.
[What second male lead could bear to hurt the heroine?]
[One pitiful look from our darling heroine and he surrenders.]
So whenever she approached Xie Heng, I grabbed a random official and slapped him hard.
Xie Heng would give a violent start.
[The princess is such a brainless brat. With the way she behaves, how many times would she be dead if her uncle didn’t keep fighting his way up?]
[That’s why she’s a nobody side character. Look at our heroine. Such a strategist. Always thinking of the bigger picture.]
I worked my way down the ranks, slapping officials from the highest to the lowest, cutting off every avenue of survival for myself.
All to force Xie Heng to pull himself together.
Naturally, I didn’t slap Wei Qingci.
I was afraid he’d lick my palm.
Before long, Xie Heng developed a stress response.
At the sight of the empress, he no longer thought of star-crossed love. He thought of the ministers suffering at my hands.
Now it was the empress’s turn to stare after his fleeing back, unable to let go.
As for me, I’d outdone myself.
I’d graduated from overbearing to infamous.
To salvage my reputation, Xie Heng hired a renowned scholar and shut me away to study.
I leafed through the books and raised an eyebrow.
They were all about governing a country.
Even Father, who had spoiled me without limit, had done no more than excuse me from studying the Admonitions for Women and all those rules of obedience.
Letting me grow up free was the greatest love he knew how to give a daughter.
Father loved me. But his love was divided into so many portions.
A share for every consort. A share for every prince. A share for all the people of the realm.
Even if mine was the largest, it wasn’t his whole heart.
Xie Heng was different.
He had only me.
He carried the love of my dead grandfather and mother and gave it all to me, whole and doubled.
He still hadn’t married. His best years had slipped away; my handsome uncle was positively getting on.
Half the heart and soul he poured into governing was for the country.
The other half was for me.
At the thought, my chest tightened and my eyes grew damp.
I looked up at him. “Old man, are you trying to work me to death with all this?”
“You know I’ve made an art of being ignorant and useless. I can’t do it.”
Heavens above. All I’d wanted was to keep Xie Heng alive. I hadn’t meant to actually sit on the throne.
He glanced at me and gave a soft snort.
“If you truly weren’t suited to it, I wouldn’t force you. But Zhaohua, do you really not know what you want?”
I went still, as though someone had struck a pressure point.
“Everyone says Princess Zhaohua is spoiled, arrogant, and overbearing,” he continued.
“But you defy the empress and beat the sixth prince because they bully the weaker consorts and imperial children.”
“The empress wears a kindly face over a cruel heart. Without your protection, who knows how many more wronged souls would haunt the palace?”
“You seem to lash out indiscriminately at court officials. In truth, you strike the corrupt ones without mercy and merely make a show of it with the loyal.”
“You have your own scales for weighing loyalty and treachery.”
He smiled and patted my head. “And your scales are remarkably accurate.”
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
“Zhaohua. Can someone like you honestly claim to have no ambition at all?”
He held my gaze, candlelight reflected in his eyes.
