Meng Fu saw that His Majesty’s expression didn’t look like a joke and didn’t quite know how to respond. She took a sip of tea to press down her shock and asked, “Really?”
Li Yue looked at Meng Fu’s appearance and gave a chuckle, saying, “This matter isn’t very new either, it was many years ago.”
At that time, Tang Mingqi had just been transferred to the Northern Frontier. His eldest son followed him over. This eldest son had been spoiled by the elders at home and was a complete and utter wanku zi di [纨绔子弟 – pampered and idle young master]. This time, Tang Mingqi brought him along precisely to properly discipline and train him, so as to avoid future disasters.
But this young Master Tang really was not anything good. Even after arriving at the military camp, he was still that lawless, unruly appearance, not a single day was peaceful. Tang Mingqi beat him, scolded him, but none of it worked. Sometimes he felt that he must have been a pig butcher in his previous life, to have given birth to such a beast reincarnated to collect debts from him.
Keeping this scourge in the military camp was no solution. Tang Mingqi even began to consider whether he should have him sent to the palace to be castrated and become a eunuch, so that he might settle down. But he was still a bit too late. Not long after, this debt-collecting son of his raped a young girl. That girl, unable to bear the humiliation, jumped into a well and committed suicide. The girl’s parents went all the way to the military camp to find them.
The one who committed the crime was, after all, Tang Mingqi’s son. At the time, some people advised him to casually find a scapegoat, then send his son away—this matter would pass without the heavens or earth knowing. Others said that since the person was already dead, just compensate a bit of silver—it would be fine. That family still had several children; they wouldn’t necessarily cling to this matter.
And that son of his, after the incident, didn’t show a shred of remorse. He even seemed certain that Tang Mingqi would settle it for him.
Tang Mingqi did indeed settle this matter. He paid a large sum of silver to that family, arranged a proper burial for the girl, and then, according to the Da Zhou’s law, awarded his son two hundred military strokes.
Two hundred military strokes—if not dead, a person would shed a layer of skin. Tang Mingqi’s son, idle and lazy all day, indulging in every vice, looked tall and strong but was just for show. The soldiers administering the punishment followed Tang Mingqi’s orders and did not go easy. At first, this young Master Tang could still let out beast-like howls, but by the end, he could barely breathe.
After the two hundred strokes were completed, this Tang gongzi had only air going in but none coming out. From the waist down, his flesh and blood were mangled. He was carried into the tent and not long after, he was gone.
Upon hearing that his son was gone, Tang Mingqi sat by the river the entire night without closing his eyes. He had cleaned up this son’s messes for so many years—saying he felt no emotion at all would be a lie.
But what else could he do? A life for a life—this is as it should be. Wasn’t everyone born of a mother and raised by a father? Was his son nobler than that girl in any way?
The aftermath of Tang gongzi’s death was hastily wrapped up. No one dared to bring up the matter again. A few years later, on New Year’s Eve, Tang Mingqi had a few drinks and privately brought it up to Li Yue. He cursed and swore that the beast dying was, for him and the Tang family, not necessarily a bad thing.
But when he said that, his eyes were red, as if he would cry the next moment. Yet the next day when he woke up, he had completely forgotten what he had said.
Meng Fu listened earnestly as Li Yue finished telling this old story. General Tang could indeed be said to love the people like his own children—but these words, combined with what Li Yue had just said earlier, why did they feel so strange?
After Li Yue stopped managing the household, he had much more free time. Every day he did whatever he wanted. He was the happiest person in the entire Xuanping Marquis Manor. So when Meng Fu requested a meeting to first become familiar with the guests she might not recognize at the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet, he directly agreed and easily shook off Qingping to come out alone.
But what he hadn’t expected was—this wouldn’t be a simple meeting. After Meng Fu familiarized herself with the guest list, she even pulled out several memorials to the throne.
Wow, truly an incredible woman.
Li Yue looked at the memorials laid out in front of him, resting his chin on his hand in deep thought—this shouldn’t be.
He was no longer the emperor. These were not things he should be looking at.
Seeing the bit of resistance in Li Yue’s eyes, Meng Fu, always skilled at perceiving people’s emotions, couldn’t quite understand.
These past two days, the memorials really had been piling up. She also had to spend effort getting to know the officials arriving at the capital to celebrate the Empress Dowager’s birthday. Meng Fu was starting to feel she couldn’t handle everything.
Also, although when attending court, Meng Fu wouldn’t scold those officials until their heads were covered in dog’s blood like His Majesty did—after all, she truly didn’t have His Majesty’s talent for it—in the memorials, she could still give them a scolding.
Meng Fu once tried to imitate His Majesty’s tone, but her vocabulary in this area was far too lacking. She tried many times and could never quite grasp the essence. Each word had to be carefully chosen, which took a long time.
So she felt that letting His Majesty personally scold these memorials would certainly save quite a bit of time.
But what she hadn’t expected was that it turned out His Majesty might not even want to deal with these memorials.
Meng Fu opened her mouth and said: “Your Majesty, I’m begging you.”
Li Yue moved his gaze away from the memorials in front of him and looked up at Meng Fu. According to what he knew of Meng Fu, this lady would never ask others for help with something she could do herself. And yet now, she was asking him for a favor…
Li Yue pondered for a moment and felt that maybe this matter couldn’t be thought of that way. Because strictly speaking, these memorials didn’t really count as this lady’s responsibility either.
Now Meng Fu was using his face, and saying “please” to him—wasn’t this just too strange!
Li Yue tried to use his brain to perform some self-deception, mentally pasting Meng Fu’s own face back onto her body. He couldn’t explain why, but somehow, everything felt even stranger that way.
Li Yue pressed his lips together, suddenly feeling a bit uneasy. He raised his hand and tucked a strand of hair from his forehead behind his ear. He said to Meng Fu: “…Don’t look at me like that.”
“Hmm?” Meng Fu didn’t quite understand what His Majesty meant by that. How was she looking at him? Was it any different from usual?
Li Yue didn’t answer Meng Fu’s question. He cleared his throat, raised his hand, and said in a deep voice: “Bring me a brush.”
The brush and ink had already been prepared by Meng Fu. She handed the cinnabar brush to Li Yue and stood to the side, helping grind the ink.
Those scattered, shapeless thoughts like drifting clouds disappeared the moment Li Yue saw what was written on the memorial.
He slapped the table and scolded as he read: “What kind of crap is this? Did they use their brains at all? Even if I had a pig sitting here with me, it wouldn’t be able to come up with this garbage. I just want to see which pig wrote this!”
“What kind of dog-ass nonsense is this! They even had the nerve to bring it to me? Just a few days of not seeing them and these people’s faces have gotten a lot thicker! I really underestimated them before!”
“Oh, this Wei Jun’an can actually speak human language now? Not bad, not bad.”
“What’s with Qi Yunjiao? Half of ten characters are wrong. How the hell did he become Minister of War? Tomorrow in court, have him go home and copy Thousand Character Classic one hundred times!”
Once His Majesty started reading the memorials, that mouth of his never stopped blabbering.
Meng Fu, by his side, helped him unfold the rest of the memorials and was occasionally amused by His Majesty’s bizarre metaphors.
She knew His Majesty would definitely get angry upon seeing these memorials. That’s why she specifically waited until His Majesty’s “monthly matters” were over before bringing them over.
Now, seeing His Majesty cursing while waving the cinnabar brush at the memorials, Meng Fu felt she had absolutely made the right decision.
His Majesty became herself, but His Majesty was much more adorable, much more vivid, than she was.
Li Yue didn’t know what he had sensed. He suddenly looked up and met Meng Fu’s eyes directly. Meng Fu got startled. Then she heard His Majesty ask her: “Why are you looking at me like that again?”
Meng Fu actually hadn’t realized what was different about the “that kind of look” His Majesty was referring to.
She figured His Majesty probably couldn’t explain it himself either, so she asked: “Is there something inappropriate about it?”
Li Yue opened his mouth but couldn’t answer. After a moment, he helplessly lowered his head—and in the blink of an eye, he had scrawled a swath of vivid red curses across the memorial.
Meng Fu unfolded the last memorial, sat back down across from Li Yue, and lowered her head in self-reflection: Did she really act somewhat inappropriate just now? Then how exactly was she supposed to look at His Majesty?
She couldn’t not look at him at all, could she?
“What are you thinking about?” Li Yue asked her. He had set the brush down and was flexing his fingers. Having thoroughly scolded what needed scolding, he felt much more at ease.