Outside the door, Dong Feng, who was preparing to break in, stopped the movement of his leg instead upon hearing this—if just anyone told him to roll in and he really rolled in, then wouldn’t he completely lose face!
Inside the room, Meng Fu pointed at the veiled hat she had just handed to Li Yue, lowered her voice and said, “You put this on first.”
“Hm?” Li Yue approached her; he really didn’t want to wear this kind of thing, especially since the girl beside Xie Wenzhao was also wearing a veiled hat—if he now dressed the same as that girl, he felt like he would lose his dignity for no reason.
Meng Fu advised, “They should know who you and I are.”
Let’s not talk about Dong Feng—even now, Xie Wenzhao was still standing outside. If he saw his wife having a private meeting here with the current Emperor, then that would be a real disaster. If this matter spread out, it would ultimately damage the reputations of both of them. Even if they didn’t care what the civil and military officials thought, they still had to somewhat care about the opinions of the little cats and dogs in the Imperial Garden.
Li Yue realized that he was no longer “himself,” and feeling quite stifled, put on the veiled hat.
Outside, Dong Feng felt that, no matter what, he was a dominant figure in the imperial capital and couldn’t just let others lead him by the nose. He let out a loud laugh, put down his foot, and asked toward the inside, “Telling me to roll in? Do you even know who this young master is?”
Li Yue felt his fist was itching. Not long ago, at Baima Temple, he didn’t get to land this punch. Now, hitting Dong Feng’s stupid donkey head would probably feel the same. He lowered his voice and said coldly, “I’ll count to three. If you don’t roll in, then roll yourself off to the Northern Frontier.”
Dong Feng furrowed his brows—what the other party said showed he clearly knew his identity. But since he knew, why would he dare be so rude? In this capital, which woman could possibly have the power to send him to the Northern Frontier and still have such a violent temper? Dong Feng thought seriously, and felt like… only his mother.
At this moment, his mother was definitely at home playing pai jiu [a gambling game similar to dominoes] with his father’s concubines—how could she possibly be here? And besides, wouldn’t he recognize his own mother’s voice?
Before Dong Feng could figure these things out, the voice inside—Li Yue—had already started counting down. “Three, two, one,” the three numbers came out clean and sharp. Dong Feng’s body moved faster than his brain, and just as the word “one” fell, he pushed the door open and walked in. If there were mirrors on either side of him, he’d have noticed his own expression carried a bit of fear.
He didn’t know why, but Dong Feng felt everything happening right now seemed familiar—like the same thing had happened before at some point in the past, though he couldn’t recall clearly at the moment.
He felt unexplainably lacking in confidence. He comforted himself: with his identity, who in this capital besides the current Emperor could easily deal with him? What was there to be afraid of? Why should he wimp out?
After cheering himself up, Dong Feng raised his head and puffed out his chest, determined to show this boastful young lady some color. In this imperial capital, he, Dong Feng, still had some ability.
He had even thought up some fierce lines to say, but as soon as he lifted his head and saw Meng Fu sitting in front of him expressionless, Dong Feng went dumbstruck on the spot. His legs went weak, and for a moment he even began to suspect he was hallucinating. He cried out, “Your-Your-Your-Your-Your…”
At this moment, Dong Feng’s mind finally cleared up a bit. No wonder he obediently entered the moment he heard the count of three just now—wasn’t this the conditioning from the Northern Frontier when His Majesty trained him!
Li Yue looked at Dong Feng with some disgust. Since when did this guy develop a stuttering problem? He said, “Shut up.”
Dong Feng quickly shut his mouth tight. But then he reacted—wait a second, the one who just spoke wasn’t even His Majesty! Who was this girl to His Majesty? If His Majesty didn’t speak, how dare she? He carefully observed His Majesty’s expression and found that he didn’t seem to mind at all.
Meng Fu swept a glance at the young masters behind Dong Feng and said calmly, “You all come in too.”
Those young masters, one by one, were like little kittens being grabbed by the scruff of their necks—each more obedient than the next, and they filed into the room in a well-behaved manner.
Xie Wenzhao hadn’t expected to encounter the current Emperor here. If he had known earlier, no matter what, he wouldn’t have come upstairs. But now it was too late to say any of that. Whether or not the Emperor had noticed or recognized him, he definitely couldn’t sneak away now. He could only bring Meng Yu and walk in as well.
“Close the door,” said Meng Fu.
Dong Feng responded with a sound, obediently turned around and went to close the door. At this moment, not a trace of arrogance could be found on his face.
The waiter and shopkeeper who were locked outside the door were both stunned by this sudden reversal. It was the person inside who was the true master—who knew what kind of identity he had, to actually make this group of arrogant and domineering young masters so obedient. Fortunately, their attitude just now was still considered acceptable.
Meng Yu was also guessing at the identity of the man in the room. Because she was wearing a veiled hat, she could secretly glance at the other party a few times. The man looked to be in his twenties, starry eyes and sword-like brows, high nose bridge, handsome appearance—more masculine than Xie Wenzhao.
Xie Wenzhao and Dong Feng were already considered to be of significant status in the capital. For the two of them to show such respectful expressions, Meng Yu had some guesses about the man’s identity.
Sure enough, once Dong Feng closed the door, he turned around and knelt toward the man. The others, upon seeing this, also hurriedly knelt down. They all said in unison, “This humble official pays respects to the Emperor.”
A sudden urge surged up in Meng Yu’s heart—wanting to attract the attention of this emperor. But she was not a fool. She often heard people say that His Majesty’s temper was not very good. If she acted rashly, it might bring trouble. After thinking it over several times, Meng Yu still followed Xie Wenzhao and knelt down, but she pulled a slight distance away from him.
Meng Fu lowered her gaze to look at these people kneeling on the ground. This was her second time seeing Xie Wenzhao after switching bodies with Li Yue. The last time was at a palace banquet. Because His Majesty was among the guests, she had exempted everyone from the formalities. But now, Xie Wenzhao was kneeling in front of her.
Meng Fu couldn’t quite say what she felt in her heart. She didn’t think there was anything inappropriate about making Xie Wenzhao kneel before her, nor did she feel any joy of revenge. Just… it felt like the most ordinary thing in the world.
She wanted to tell them to rise, but across from her, Li Yue gave her a hand gesture. Meng Fu swallowed the words that had reached her lips. She didn’t know what Li Yue wanted to do, but no matter what this Emperor wanted to do now, she had to sit here and support him.
Li Yue’s right hand fell onto the table, and the joint of his middle finger tapped twice lightly. Then he opened his mouth and said, “Dong Feng? I heard that when you resigned from your post, you said you were unfit for great responsibilities, and wanted to go back to study properly, to train yourself a bit. Is this how you study and train?”
His voice was lower than usual—very different.
Dong Feng lowered his head and didn’t dare speak.
Li Yue didn’t bother with him and continued, “I’ve really seen it now. So what you meant by ‘training’ was parading around the streets all day with this group of good brothers. Truly wonderful. Next time there’s such a good opportunity, why not take me along?”
Listening to these words, Dong Feng only wished he could immediately find a crack in the ground to crawl into. The brothers behind him each buried their heads lower and lower.
Dong Feng was deeply puzzled—just who exactly was this girl? Why could she speak before His Majesty did? More importantly, how could she even speak with the same sarcastic tone as His Majesty?
But right now, the priority was to get past His Majesty. Since the Emperor hadn’t spoken so far, he clearly approved of this girl’s words. Dong Feng had followed Li Yue in the Northern Frontier for many years, and could more or less understand Li Yue’s thoughts. He obediently admitted his guilt:
“This humble official has committed a crime.”
Xie Wenzhao found it funny. Just a while ago downstairs, Dong Feng still had the air of “I’m the greatest.” But in the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had become like this.
However, in the next moment, Xie Wenzhao couldn’t laugh anymore—because he heard that girl call out to him:n“Marquis Xuanping?”
Xie Wenzhao actually had found that voice somewhat familiar, but couldn’t place it for a moment. He hadn’t heard of the Emperor getting close with any young lady recently. But whoever she was, she wasn’t someone he could afford to offend lightly. Xie Wenzhao replied: “Yes.”
Li Yue asked curiously, “The one by your side—whose family’s young lady is she?”
He already had three concubines in his house, yet was still fooling around outside—truly shameless.
Xie Wenzhao instinctively turned his head to glance at Meng Yu. Li Yue said:
“I remember you’re already married, right? Is this your wife?”
Xie Wenzhao didn’t know how to answer. If the woman beside him had been any ordinary person, it would be fine—even if this was discovered by the Emperor, at most it would just add another romantic scandal to his name. But she was Meng Yu, not just anyone. She was the one he had held in his heart all these years. If this matter were to spread, it would damage her reputation. How could Xie Wenzhao bear for her to suffer even the slightest grievance?
Just as he was trying to think of a perfect answer that would satisfy both sides, the Meng Yu beside him had already reached out and taken off the veiled hat from her head. Facing forward, she gave a graceful kowtow to Meng Fu and softly said, “Commoner Meng Yu greets Your Majesty.”
Meng Fu gave a soft “Mm.” Li Yue repeated her name: “Meng Yu?”
So she’s also surnamed Meng.
Meng Yu added, “My father is Meng Yanxing, Your Majesty.”
“Meng Yanxing.” Li Yue immediately turned his head to look at Meng Fu—if he remembered correctly, Meng Fu’s father was also named that. The girl Xie Wenzhao brought along was actually Meng Fu’s younger sister—wasn’t this too much of a coincidence?
Meng Fu raised her hand and rubbed her temples. Logically speaking, this His Majesty had a very healthy body, and Meng Fu usually wouldn’t get headaches. But somehow, at times, this Majesty always looked like someone who enjoyed stirring up trouble and watching a good show.
“How very interesting,” Li Yue chuckled, and said to Xuanping Marquis, “I remember you married a daughter of the Meng family—was it this Miss Meng Yu here?”
Xie Wenzhao was questioned by Li Yue until his face turned red. He didn’t know how to respond.
Meng Yu explained, “Marquis Xuanping wanted to buy a qin as a gift for my elder sister. This humble woman merely came out to help him choose. My elder sister is aware of this matter.”
Elder sister’s aware? Aware my ass!
This little girl was really not honest at all—Li Yue even wanted to lift off his veiled hat on the spot and give them a surprise.
Luckily, Li Yue still had some sense.
“I see,” he clicked his tongue and sighed, “Looks like I was overthinking. Lately I’ve read too many storybooks. Seeing a married man bring a young lady out alone, one always feels like there’s something going on. It’s that my thoughts aren’t pure enough—it’s my fault.”
Meng Yu felt that this girl’s words were really unpleasant, and from that, she could also see: if His Majesty’s temper were truly bad, how could he possibly keep such a woman by his side?
Li Yue still wanted to sigh a bit more, but Meng Fu felt that if this Majesty kept going freely like this, he really might lift the veiled hat off his own head. So she spoke out: “Enough, you all can leave now.”
When Dong Feng heard this, it was as if he had received an imperial pardon. He thought today, caught red-handed by His Majesty, even if he didn’t die, he’d at least lose a layer of skin. Who knew His Majesty would let them go so easily—thank heaven and earth—why not run now!
Of course, Li Yue didn’t want to let them off so easily, but since Meng Fu had spoken, in the end he didn’t pursue it further.
Once they exited Yunxi Tower, Meng Yu said to Xie Wenzhao, “I truly didn’t expect to meet the current Emperor here.”
Xie Wenzhao nodded and responded to her absentmindedly, “Yeah.”
Meng Yu turned her head and asked him, “Why would His Majesty be at Yunxi Tower? Who was the young lady accompanying His Majesty?”
“Don’t know.”
Xie Wenzhao’s attitude was rather perfunctory, but Meng Yu seemed not to notice. She continued, “I often hear people say His Majesty’s temper isn’t very good, but from today’s view, the rumors seem untrustworthy.”
“His Majesty’s affairs are not something we people can talk about lightly,” said Xie Wenzhao.
So Meng Yu didn’t speak further. She just felt that today, in Yunxi Tower, the way the Emperor looked at her was somewhat different from the way he looked at others.
She was not young anymore—already at the age where she should be married. In earlier years, she had worked hard hoping to marry the former Crown Prince, that radiant and noble man. But the final result hadn’t been ideal. Later, as she aged, and the Meng family wasn’t what it once was, the families she had once looked down on now looked down on her. Meng Yu couldn’t accept marrying into such small and lowly households, so her marriage had been delayed until now. Yet today at Yunxi Tower, she actually saw a sliver of new hope. (T/N: If Li Yue knows what she’s thinking he would probably say “Another one with a mental illness”)
New Release Alert!
The novel “His Majesty Fights the Inner-Courtyard Battles in My Place” is now available in my Ko-fi shop!
Thank you all for your continued support and love! 💛
🛒 Grab your copy here: https://ko-fi.com/s/00387c6934
✨ Don’t forget to leave a rating or comment on novelupdates if you enjoy it!