TBFCWTE - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Concubine Hui gave birth to the Thirteenth Princess at the second quarter of the chen hour. Both mother and daughter are well."

Hearing the eunuch's report, Emperor Zhengning's expression abruptly turned somewhat ugly, but from beside him came a voice still carrying childishness yet unusually steady.

"Concubine Hui has done the imperial family a service by bearing a child. Reward her generously. Companion Wang, go in person."

Wang Lin, the brush attendant before the throne, immediately bowed in assent and then quietly withdrew with the eunuchs and palace maids serving in the Imperial Study. The heavy atmosphere in the room kept every one of them from daring to raise their heads from beginning to end.

Only after there were no outsiders around did Emperor Zhengning let out a deep sigh and slump into his chair with a dispirited look.

"Heaven does not favor Us."

He Shu, slumped beside him in the same manner, also sighed.

"Heaven does not favor me either."

Seeing He Shu's baby-fat little face filled with utter weariness of life actually pleased Emperor Zhengning and dispersed most of the gloom in his heart.

If not for the throne at home waiting to be inherited, Emperor Zhengning actually had no obsession with having a son. After all, in the first half of his life he had seen too many human tragedies of fathers and sons turning against each other and siblings maiming one another, with the main players being his father and his brothers.

But now, as emperor, lacking a biological son would not only affect the stability of the court and the realm, but would also directly bear on the future prospects of the more than ten princesses under him.

He Shu, the crown prince disguised as a man, often used this matter to urge her father to strive to be a good emperor, so that when the truth came out that he had passed his daughter off as a son, their family would not meet too miserable a fate.

"It seems this is fate's arrangement. We can only follow Heaven's will. Shu'er, just set your mind at ease and continue being a good crown prince, and keep the secret well."

He Shu felt utterly depressed and looked resentfully at her biological father in this life. "But I really want to be a carefree little princess too, Imperial Father. Why couldn't you have thought it through back then and gone and become this emperor?"

Now they had landed in this dilemma, dragging her down with them. She, a legitimate princess who had died from overwork in her previous life and in this life wanted only to laze through life, had no choice but to be a crown prince disguised as a man.

Facing He Shu's complaints, Emperor Zhengning also felt quite wronged.

"Back then I only wanted to save money and trouble, so when you were born I announced to the outside that you were my legitimate son. If you hadn't performed so outstandingly when your imperial grandfather summoned all the imperial grandsons into the palace to study, this throne would never have fallen to me."

Her grandfather in this life, the wise and mighty late emperor who had lived to a ripe old age, had in his later years dealt with one branch of his sons after another.

This filled He Shu with deep fear of him. She dreaded that if they were ever slightly careless, their own family would become a sacrifice in the struggle for imperial power. That was why she had wanted to perform well and show her potential.

"In the end, the root cause still lies with you. If you hadn't announced to the outside that I was a boy and first made me your heir apparent, I wouldn't have been summoned into the palace."

Who could have known the late emperor would be so unreliable as to think that she, only three years old at the time, was exceptionally gifted and the future and hope of Great An.

So he had launched into a ferocious series of moves: first making her father crown prince, then, before his death, declaring that the throne would pass to the father of this future and hope.

If she had known earlier all that would happen afterward, He Shu would certainly have asked the late emperor back then just what he saw in her, and whether she could not simply change it.

This was a muddled account destined never to be sorted out. The two, speechless as they faced each other, sighed in unison, slumped in their seats, and reflected on how they had turned a good hand into their present dilemma.

The late emperor had lived long and had especially many children. Of his sons, those who were older and had the confidence to contend for the succession, during the long struggle for the throne, some died, some were crippled, some were exiled or sent away, and some were punished to guard the imperial tombs.

The rest either were too young to join in, or truly had no great ambition and had long since given up.

He Shu's father in this life, Emperor Zhengning, was one of the princes ranked in the middle. To avoid being dragged into the succession struggle, he had given up early.

To show that he had absolutely no intention of contending for the heir's position, he had long kept to his residence and rarely gone out, devoting himself to painting and calligraphy and attaining no small skill in them. He not only never associated with scholars and literati, but also kept entirely away from court affairs and had little contact with his brothers and sisters.

Having no merit toward the realm and no powerful maternal clan as backing, he could only rely on being the emperor's son to build up seniority, and thus barely obtain the rank of commandery prince.

Such a commandery prince was almost destined to become nothing more than an idle member of the imperial clan in the future. No one had expected that he would one day ascend the throne.

Less than two months after being made crown prince, the late emperor passed away peacefully. Emperor Zhengning, completely bewildered, hurriedly became crown prince and then just as hurriedly became emperor.

Only after becoming emperor did he learn that it was because his own heir apparent, a girl disguised as a boy, was so outstanding and so favored by the late emperor that he had been able to stand out among his brothers.

But the truth was that Emperor Zhengning had never even dreamed of coveting the throne and had no interest in the job of being emperor.

Back then, when he already had four daughters, passing off the fifth daughter born to his Princess Consort as a boy was partly for the sake of face, but the most crucial reason was actually to refuse those who used his lack of a son as an excuse to send beauties to his household.

After all, at the time Emperor Zhengning held no office. Apart from the income brought by his commandery prince title, he had basically no extra income. His household finances were extremely tight, and he truly could not afford to support idle people.

What Emperor Zhengning had never expected was that a wild move he had made on the spur of the moment could actually send him to the imperial throne.

This not only shattered his dream of being an idle imperial clansman, but also shattered He Shu's dream of lazing through life. From then on, father and daughter lived in deep water and scorching fire, exhausted half to death with no chance to throw down the burden.

After all, being at the center of imperial power, from the moment the late emperor designated them as successors, they were destined to advance and never retreat. Behind them was a bottomless abyss that could swallow their whole family at any moment.

"No more births. No more ever again. If not for your ability to make money, We would have difficulty even raising these princesses, let alone marrying them off."

These were Emperor Zhengning's heartfelt words. After suffering enough from the poverty of the commandery prince's household, he had thought that however bad being emperor might be, there should at least be one good thing: no more poverty.

But he had not expected that what the late emperor left him was such a huge mess. Not only was the national treasury empty, even the private treasury contained only some flashy but useless objects that could not be sold.

In the early days of his reign, the despair and helplessness he felt facing that penniless predicament were engraved on Emperor Zhengning's heart for life.

Emperor Zhengning, who had been frightened by poverty, had now been on the throne for nine years. Only with He Shu's help and guidance had he barely managed to accumulate some family resources.

But the enormous expense required for each daughter from birth to marriage made him feel overwhelmed at the thought that he still had ten daughters to raise and marry off.

He Shu quite approved of her old father's decision. In the world where she had lived in her previous life, scientific research had already proven that whether one had a boy or a girl was largely determined by the male.

Though Emperor Zhengning did not understand science, from more than twenty years of marriage and the experience of multiple wives and concubines bearing him more than ten daughters one after another, he could also realize that the lack of a son might be his own fault.

Yet He Shu had also kept pinning her hopes on probability, hoping her father in this life could have a son so that she could be freed sooner and become a leisurely, carefree princess. That was why she had kept waiting with contradictory feelings.

Now this cruel reality showed that in this life she was already doomed to have no chance of release. She could only accept and face the future in which she would have to shoulder the realm and the state.

"Very well. You are already past the age of forty. It is time for you to rest your body and cultivate your nature, take good care of yourself, and strive to live even longer than the late emperor, so you can shield me for a few more decades."

These words moved Emperor Zhengning deeply. Past forty, facing the rear palace, he had long felt that his strength fell short of his wishes.

The fact that in the past three years only Concubine Hui had become pregnant was in some ways a signal, but he had been forcing himself to persevere in order to struggle for a real son.

"My child is indeed the one in this world who best understands your father. You are right. From today on, your father will begin to take good care of his health and preserve himself, so that he may watch my child live up to the late emperor's great expectations, become a wise ruler of the age, and govern Great An to even greater prosperity."

Any other emperor in history would never have said such things to his heir, but these were Emperor Zhengning's heartfelt words.

Before being made crown prince, he had never had any involvement with court politics. Of the powerful princes and great ministers in the court, he had only heard vaguely and basically knew none of them.

Hurriedly made crown prince, he had attended court and listened to governance for only two months. He had just figured out the organizational framework of the court, roughly recognized the important ministers, and learned the daily workflow an emperor had to face, when he hurriedly ascended the throne.

Emperor Zhengning, in every respect unprepared to be emperor, could truly be said to have relied on He Shu, a child of three in appearance, to adapt to the work of emperor in a short time and avoid any major mistakes.

In the nine years since ascending the throne, it was also thanks to He Shu, who had begun attending court at three, offering him plans and advice that Emperor Zhengning could play the role of emperor well before others and gain considerable praise from court and country, avoiding being cursed as an incompetent ruler.

Therefore Emperor Zhengning sincerely believed that He Shu, this crown prince disguised as a man, would absolutely become a wise ruler of the age in the future.

It was just that, compared with her identity as crown prince, the fact that she was originally a daughter caused her much inconvenience. Moreover, her temperament was especially like his, her father's: she wanted only to live leisurely and regarded power and status as shackles.

But her strong sense of responsibility and her hatred of evil meant that even though He Shu often complained about the hardship of handling countless state affairs, she still did her utmost to help him be a good emperor.

After allowing themselves a moment of dejection, father and daughter collected their moods and threw themselves back into the various memorials, handling those complicated state affairs, from time to time summoning or receiving officials from the various ministries to discuss matters together.

By the time the day's work came to a pause, it was already dusk, and only then did the two return to Fengyuan Palace, where the empress resided.

Seeing the father and daughter approach, Empress Jiang Qiuning came forward with a smile to welcome them.

"You came over as soon as you finished. Why didn't you go look in on Jinghua Hall?"

Compared with Emperor Zhengning and He Shu's hope that the rear palace consorts could bear a prince, Empress Jiang Qiuning's feelings as empress were actually somewhat complicated, or rather contradictory.

Influenced by traditional thinking, after she had given birth to four daughters in succession and had not been pregnant for many years, she could not avoid hoping that other consorts might bear a prince.

After all, a son by a concubine would still have to acknowledge her as his principal mother, and she could even choose a concubine's son to record under her own name. Having a real prince could also resolve some hidden dangers.

But when her husband was the emperor and her own daughter occupied the position of crown prince, in her heart she did not much want other consorts to bear princes, which would bring unknown risks to her position as empress and to her four biological daughters.

This contradictory psychology, which she could not voice, meant that toward those consorts in the rear palace who became pregnant, she not only would not harm them, but would have them given extra care.

The nominal explanation was that she very much hoped the rear palace consorts would bear more princes who could become the crown prince's arms in the future. This gave the empress a considerable reputation as a virtuous empress both inside and outside the palace.

Even so, for reasons she kept to herself, the empress remained rather distant and indifferent toward the other consorts.

This also made Emperor Zhengning quite satisfied with his empress. Though the two could not be called a loving couple whose hearts were in harmony and whose zither and lute played together, they could absolutely be called respectful to each other as guests, each respecting the other.

"The old rule still stands. On the third-day bathing ceremony, We will go in person. The rewards to Concubine Hui are already too heavy; We cannot break the rule again and again."

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