Governor’s Illness

ack to the woman.
Unexpectedly, the woman pushed the child, and the girl fell to the ground, part of her head breaking.

“What’s the use of having you! You can’t even block! This is just great, your father’s dead! It’s over, we’re all over!” the woman clapped and stomped as she scolded, and the girl sobbed on the ground.

Xiahou Lian hastily helped the girl up, moving her hand away to see her injury as he roared at the woman, “Are you sick! You fucking let your daughter block sabers?!”

“She’s not my daughter! She’s a little bitch raised by a bitch! A little bitch! Killing her own mother didn’t count, she even killed her father!” The woman became crazy and started cursing wildly.
Shen Jue’s ears hurt from listening, so he told the underlings to drag her away.
The boy stumbled as he followed, crying nonstop for his mother.
The crying gradually faded away, coming from across the hazy night and sounding like a ghost’s wails.

Xiahou Lian put the girl on the steps at the side of the street, pulled out a handkerchief to wrap the wound on her forehead, and asked her name.
The child refused to answer and still cried, her small face the size of a palm red from crying.
Xiahou Lian couldn’t do anything about it, so he turned his head to look at the center of the street.
The underlings were cleaning up the mess, dragging the corpses away and also pulling the carriages away.
Xu Ruoyu pointed at the girl and asked Shen Jue a few words.
Shen Jue answered impatiently, and Xu Ruoyu left.
People gradually left.
The girl had gotten tired from crying, and she was silent with her head lowered, still not saying anything when asked questions.

“That’s enough, quickly send her to the Court of Judicial Review, she should stay with her father’s first wife,” Shen Jue walked over and said.

“I heard that female relatives of criminals have to go to the Royal Academy.
This child is so young, does she also have to go there?” asked Xiahou Lian.

“What else? Are you going to raise her?” Shen Jue said coldly.

Xiahou Lian stood up and used his elbow to poke Shen Jue.
“Young Master, help me out.
What you say is definitely effective, would someone dare to go against your wishes? This child looks so pitiful, just care for her.”

Shen Jue glanced at the girl.
Her face was wrinkled from crying, and his eyes hurt from looking at her.
Shen Jue’s face was filled with unwillingness as he said, “She’s not my daughter, why would I care for her?”

Xiahou Lian said shamelessly, “Young Master, I’m begging you! Just regard it as caring for me.
I used all of my effort to save her, so wouldn’t sending her into the Royal Academy make that in vain?”

Xiahou Lian said a lot, but Shen Jue only heard the words “caring for me.” This was his person, so if he didn’t care for him, who would? Shen Jue’s heart softened, and he intended on agreeing.
However, he was afraid Xiahou Lian’s kindness would overflow and ask him to help save any cat or dog he saw on the street.
Thus, he said with a cold face, “Just this one, don’t take it as a precedent.
The Wei Faction is involved widely, so there are people being sent into the Royal Academy every day.
Don’t ask me to save them, the Eastern Depot isn’t a temple and I’m not a bodhisattva, no one donates incense to me.”

“I know,” said Xiahou Lian.
“I’m also not a bodhisattva.
I’ll help a bit if I can, and if I can’t then never mind.” He smiled and said, “However, where shall we put her? I can’t take care of children and there’s no one else at home except me.
What should I do?”

Shen Jue called a servant over and told him to pick up the child.
“Let Lian Xiang look after her.
Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, Lian Xiang asked you to come over to have a meal.
There’s going to be a banquet in the palace, so I”m not sure if I’ll come back.
There’s no need for you to wait for me.”

Shen Jue’s carriage gradually became distant, and Xiahou Lian held his goose quill saber as he unhurriedly went home.

 ———————————————

Cishou Palace.

The empress dowager sat before a bronze mirror, her fingers brushing the wig bun on top of her head.
Zhu Xia opened the dressing box, and the empress dowager chose a pair of butterfly and flower hairpins inlaid with gold and pearls.
Zhu Xia picked up the hairpins and slowly inserted them into her bun as she said, “His Majesty’s homework has been sent over, do you want to take a look?”

The empress dowager put her hand on Zhu Xia’s arm and said slowly, “Then I’ll take a look.”

She walked to the outer room, where the young emperor’s essays and calligraphy were placed on the table, already spread out.
The empress dowager sat down and took a slight look.
It had been fine when she hadn’t looked, but the more she looked, the angrier she became.
The characters were sloppy, and he had learned Mencius’s philosophies for so long, yet the essays he wrote were still incoherent nonsense.
The empress dowager slapped the table in anger and pointed at someone, saying, “Call the emperor over, I want to ask him some things!”

Zhu Xia persuaded her to relax.
The person who had been sent out hadn’t left for long before they came back again and said, “His Majesty is playing happily in the Leopard House, and he says that if the empress dowager has any problems, she should let someone pass on the message and that there’s no need for him to come over.”

The empress dowager was so angry her vision became black, and she said in hatred, “This is reversed! He doesn’t even listen to his mother’s words! Who’s accompanying him in the Leopard Room!”

The person below answered in a small voice, “It’s Little Eunuch Shen, Eunuch Jiang, and the others.
When I went, Little Eunuch Shen was being a horse for him to ride on.”

“Good! It’s that group of bastards under Shen Jue!” The empress dowager clenched her fists, and her painted fingernails pierced into her palms, dark red blood seeping out.

Zhu Xia drove out the people around as she rushed over to pry the empress dowager’s fists, urging nonstop, “Empress Dowager, don’t be angry, how terrible would it be if you get hurt from your anger! Shen Wenxing and that group of bastards are inciting His Majesty into not learning well! In recent days, if they aren’t going to the Leopard House, then they’re going to Qianqing Palace to saw wood! Eunuch Shen has a lot going on, he has to manage the Eastern Depot outside and also manage internal affairs inside.
He doesn’t have time to deal with them, so they’re rebelling! Empress Dowager, don’t be angry, I’ll tell Eunuch Shen now!”

The empress dowager finally calmed down and opened her fists to look.
They were already dripping with blood, and Zhu Xia shed tears in distress, hastily going to find medicine for metal-inflicted wounds.
Zhu Xia squatted as she helped her apply the medicine, and the empress dowager looked down at her glossy bun.
Her hair was combed backward, revealing her full forehead.
Her appearance was quite alright, so how come she couldn’t hold Shen Jue’s heart? At the time, she had tried her best to shove Zhu Xia to Shen Jue, just for this.
All men were presumably fickle, and especially since Shen Jue was missing a piece of his crotch, he cared even less about love between men and women.

“Are you and Shen Jue the same as usual?” asked the empress dowager.

Zhu Xia blushed and looked down.
“A few days ago, he sent Shen Wenxing to send rouge over.
It’s said that people in the Eastern Depot collected it from Goryeo 2 and even gave it a pleasant name, something like ‘A Sample of Spring.’ That day, I happened to have some things, so I only came back very late.
Shen Wenxing had waited expectantly for a long time under the scorching sun, saying that Eunuch Shen had ordered him that he must give it to me personally.”

The empress dowager raised an eyebrow and asked, “Oh? Why haven’t you seen him be so caring before?”

Zhu Xia slowly put away the medicine and said, “Empress Dowager, you forget that Shen Jue was still under Scoundrel Wei before, so how could he have been so rampant? He’s actually still attentive, and he’s privately sent me hairpins, earrings, and handkerchiefs and says some heart-tugging words when we encounter each other.
Once, he even asked about my intestinal obstruction 3.
I was still wondering, how did he know I had fallen ill of this? Guess what he said? He said that hadn’t seen me by your side before that day so he had felt it was strange and specially sent people to ask, and only then did he know that I was ill.”

The empress dowager was delighted, and she poked Zhu Xia’s shoulder.
“You imp, you actually hid it from me.
I even thought that you two were hopeless!”

Zhu Xia gave the empress dowager an angry look and turned around, saying, “How would you have wanted me to say it! Could it be that I even had to rush before you and say that Eunuch Shen brought a handkerchief over yesterday and that he sent a hairpin and earrings today? How embarrassing!”

The empress dowager smiled slowly.
Sure enough, love was a bottomless abyss; who could escape? Eunuchs were the same.
The empress dowager used a handkerchief to wipe the corners of her eyes and put on a distressed look.
“Ah, you’ve accompanied me for so many years, so I’m happy if you can marry the right man! But this Shen Jue is really not easy to control.
Look, His Majesty only knows to be playful all day long and even delays his homework.
He wants to raise my child to be useless!”

Zhu Xia’s expression changed, and she hastily said, “Empress Dowager, you misunderstand him.
I’ll call him over now, and you can ask properly! If he did something bad, punish him!”

The empress dowager shook her head and pulled Zhu Xia’s hands over, putting them into her palms.
“I know that you are wholehearted toward me, and I also don’t want to make such trouble with Shen Jue.
The plan now is that only by seizing Shen Jue’s place, letting him fall down and letting that group of bastards be far away from His Majesty can His Majesty work hard! Don’t worry, seizing his place wouldn’t be disposing of him, treating him badly, or something of the sort.
We’ll still let him stay in the Directorate of Rites and be a secretary or brush-holder, let him choose! Think, if your position is above his, won’t he have to listen to you for everything?”

Zhu Xia knitted his brows tightly and kneeled down, saying, “What you say is right.
Don’t worry, I still know the order of priorities well.”

“What you have to do is tightly cage Shen Jue’s heart.
When necessary, pry for some information so I know what to expect.” The empress dowager slowly grasped Zhu Xia’s hands and said, “Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The period of filial piety for the late emperor hasn’t ended yet, so everything in the palace is following the principle of simplicity, and I told Shen Jue to go back to rest a little earlier.
Go to his house first, set up, and arrange properly.
Men like women who are virtuous and can keep the house.
He experiences hardships outside, and only coming home to a woman making him calm and comfortable will his heart be warm.
I heard his manor is very desolate; spend some effort to make it livelier.
Normally, how can such a big manor do without a mistress? Do you understand?”

Zhu Xia nodded repeatedly.