Chapter 458: Trouble Ahead
In the Imperial Study, Mo Chen was playing hide-and-go-seek with Little Zai to escape Little Yue’s makeup tortures. She liked to coat him with white powder and paint his lips with red rouge which Mo Chen found abhorrent since it didn’t taste good at all.
Ah Xuan who was six now, was helping his father in arranging the documents according to relevance. He was wiser for his years and always wanted to stay by his father’s side, helping him. Rather than playing or slacking off, he found happiness in reading and writing. He wasn’t fond of sword too as he found the writing brush more intriguing.
Little Zai on the other hand, even though he was already three had no interest in reading or writing and liked to run around wildly. One day his uncle brought him out for a stroll in the city and from then on, he always wished to be out in the city and he is still inside the Palace because he was still too little to escape by himself and had people to look after him 24/7.
Little Yue was a perfect embodiment of a Princess. She was a Princess and acted like one and she always stuck to her father and other than her father, makeup, pretty clothes and jewellery, she found interest in nothing else. Her aunt would meet her often pampering her with every best product there is for her to play with and she was playing with the recent makeup box her Aunty Xing gave her and her father’s eunuch was her scapegoat for that day to try out her makeup skills on.
Although the Emperor’s heart was delighted seeing his kids growing up well in front of his eyes, his mind was troubled with the recent troubles he was facing.
The southern kingdoms have united for war and they have already attacked a naval ship of Wind Kingdom declaring war. As much as the Emperor didn’t want to escalate the tensions, it seemed like his silence was misinterpreted as cowardice by the United Kingdoms of the South and this week he has received news of them attacking a border town of the Sky Province.
War is not good for the economy and he didn’t want to spoil the booming economy they had but it seemed like their enemies are not willing to back-off and so he had already ordered to move the troops to the southern borders.
War is imminent!
And also, he had more than two hundred women in his harem although he didn’t visit them at all these days. For some reason, after he started to stay with Consort Jiang, he didn’t even like to have dinner with other concubines which was surprising to him even, since he could do that when he was with Chu Weiye.
’I’m deeply in love with Hanmi’, was the only conclusion he could come up with and that only comforted him. But he still didn’t want to confess to her to let her know. He knew he would lose her once he accepts it to her. It always happened to him. Once he accepts something, he’ll lose it. Also, she seemed to not mind.
His reluctance to meet other concubines has caused discomfort in the inner palace and only by Consort Jiang’s prudence and Princess Consort’s efforts to pacify those other women with gifts, does the Inner Palace is slightly peaceful.
As if these troubles are not enough, there are memorials over memorials asking him to arrange concubines for Prince Jin. Some who want their daughters to enter the Jin Manor even as a lowly concubine, are even threatening to obstruct the court.