The Tyrant’s Drama Queen Empress

CHAPTER 27: Am I Just a Stand-In for His White Moonlight?

　　The pink-robed maid and the blue-clad eunuch faced each other. Neither was foolish. Once, both mentioning Empress Mu could be brushed off as a coincidence, but twice? That was no accident. The other party was definitely up to no good, just like themselves.

　　The maid raised her chin, her eyes flashing. “You speak?”

　　The eunuch echoed her sentiment with his eyes. “You go first.”

　　The maid squinted. “No, you speak first.”

　　The eunuch stayed calm. “No, you go.”

　　The maid snapped, “If you don’t speak, then get out of my way!”

　　She snorted and rolled her eyes at him. The eunuch went quiet.

　　The maid said, “Don’t doubt me. I’ve been in the palace a long time. I’ve seen things you couldn’t even imagine. Any woman favored by His Majesty will have all the other concubines under her feet...”

　　Shen Ling nodded. Saying it out loud made her a little embarrassed, but ever since entering the Palace, she really had been constantly basking in Xie Yuanxun’s favor.

　　—This maid’s words feel like they’re talking about me. Déjà vu hit hard.

　　—No running from this.

　　The blue-clad eunuch secretly glanced in Shen Ling’s direction and countered, “She treats the palace staff well, balances kindness with authority, manages everything properly, does everything by the book. His Majesty always praises her, and there’s no room in his eyes for the other consorts...”

　　Shen Ling nodded again.

　　—Hmm? That sounds like me too.

　　—My Chang Le Palace really is well-managed.

　　The pink-robed maid continued, “His Majesty sees her every day. They say he even brought her to the Taiji Hall. The Taiji Hall is his private quarters. If he didn’t care for her, would he ever bring her there?”

　　—That’s me.

　　“So His Majesty really did treat Empress Mu well. Don’t be too shocked by the favor he shows the current Bao Fei. After all, there was a precedent before her. It’s just that after Empress Mu passed, people in the Palace rarely brought up her story, afraid it would sadden His Majesty.”

　　—That's me... what a load of rubbish! They're talking about Empress Mu, why am I even referring to her?

　　Listening to them talk about Xie Yuanxun’s deep affection for Empress Mu, Shen Ling didn’t even flinch. Liú Zhū, knowing Shen Ling was favored, worried she might feel hurt. She lifted a foot, ready to go handle these gossiping palace staff, but Shen Ling stopped her with a hand. She wasn’t in the mood to wander the garden anymore and turned toward Chang Le Palace.

　　Seeing her leave, the pink-robed maid and blue-clad eunuch both smiled in satisfaction. They glanced at each other one last time, then stiffened their faces and went their separate ways. The maid returned to Jing Fei’s palace to report that the task was done, while the eunuch planned to reply only when Marquis Xue’s people contacted him.

　　Back in Chang Le Palace, Shen Ling sat down in the hall.

　　Liú Zhū worriedly said, “Your Grace, don’t take their words to heart. His Majesty cares for you deeply.”

　　Hearing the word “cares” made Shen Ling’s teeth ache. She tilted her head, eyes sharp with calculation, “He cared for Empress Mu too.”

　　Liú Zhū was silent for a few seconds, offering no objection. She knew about Empress Mu, and it matched what the other palace staff said. After a moment, she added carefully, “But she’s dead, and you’re still here.”

　　“Ugh!” Shen Ling’s teeth hurt even more. She waved Liú Zhū off. “Leave me alone for a while.”

　　Sighing, Shen Ling’s mood sank. She hadn’t expected it… really hadn’t. She’d always thought this was a real romance, but in truth, she was just a stand-in for someone’s white moonlight! That explained why, the moment she entered the Palace, Xie Yuanxun treated her differently, doting on her alone. Even if she threw a little tantrum or snapped at him, his ruthless self never thought to harm her. Of course he wouldn’t—she was just a substitute!

　　Thinking back to those over-the-top romance dramas, which hero isn’t at least a little unhinged? Kidnapping, beatings, love denied, heartbreak that shreds the soul—what plot is missing? With Xie Yuanxun's volatile temper, Shen Ling could easily concoct a tragic love story:

　　When Empress Mu entered the palace, she and Xie Yuanxun fell deeply in love. But Xie Yuanxun was too domineering and capricious, and the two might have broken up. Empress Mu would weep in the palace every day, and at night she would stand like a statue at her palace gate waiting for Xie Yuanxun. She thought that if Xie Yuanxun came to her in person, she would forgive him and reconcile with him. But Xie Yuanxun, an Emperor, how could he bow down to a woman, even if she was the Empress? And so they remained in a stalemate.

　　Xie Yuanxun refused to see her, and the treacherous Senior Eunuch Feng, having accepted bribes from other concubines, spoke ill of Empress Mu to him, calling her ungrateful and arrogant. At this time, the Mu family was impeached by the Censor, and in a fit of rage fueled by love turned to hate, Xie Yuanxun imprisoned the Mu family.

　　When Empress Mu heard that her natal family had been thrown into the imperial prison, her body just collapsed. She grew weak and sickly, lying in bed, and no medicine could save her. It wasn’t until her final moments that she saw Xie Yuanxun. She died in his arms, leaving only one last plea: to spare the people of the Mu household.

　　And just like that, Empress Mu passed away. Xie Yuanxun was devastated. In his grief, he tore open his own clothes and howled at the Heaven, raging over why fate was so cruel, why it had stripped him of his last piece of love. Staring at her lifeless body, he laughed in fury and said to her, sick and twisted, “You’re dead, so what use is the Mu household now?” Then he decreed that the Mu household serve as her burial accompaniment.

　　From that moment on, apart from being Emperor, Xie Yuanxun never saw Empress Mu, his beloved, again in his life.

　　Then, the stand-in, Shen Ling, was selected to enter the Palace. The moment Xie Yuanxun laid eyes on her, he was stunned, thinking, Could this be Empress Mu returning to me? He treated Shen Ling as the stand-in for his white moonlight, doting on her endlessly, his gaze fixed only on her, blind to anyone else.

　　“Ugh!” Shen Ling almost lost it. This soap-opera-level plot was too gross. Thinking of her own fabricated story, with the roaring, love-turned-resentful Xie Yuanxun, her skin genuinely broke out in goosebumps.

　　Even if Shen Ling’s story was made up, the core truth didn’t change. Xie Yuanxun had indeed treated Empress Mu differently. There was something shady going on, otherwise Liú Zhū wouldn’t have stayed silent after Shen Ling overheard those garden whispers. That damn Xie Yuanxun really had something with Empress Mu back then.

　　Now she was the white moonlight’s stand-in. If this was true, Xie Yuanxun’s persona was completely shattered. He was the type of man who abandoned love as soon as it turned inconvenient, cold and ruthless.

　　Shen Ling felt miserable. She had thought it was her cleverness, charm, and obedience that kept Xie Yuanxun from ever thinking to harm her. Now someone was telling her she’d been imagining it all. She had only benefited from the former lover’s shadow. Shen Ling had always treated him like a boss who was difficult to please. She never stirred trouble, always tended to him with care, performed her duties as a consort, and never even thought about love.

　　But now, with the white moonlight stand-in script in her hands, Shen Ling knew from all those over-the-top romance novels she’d read that the stand-in always loses. No stand-in ends well. No matter how high she’d risen in the Palace, her future looked bleak. Empress Mu, the original, was dead—but who was to say she wouldn’t “return” someday?

　　Even if it wasn’t Empress Mu herself, what if her spirit possessed another beauty? Meeting Xie Yuanxun again, their eyes locking across eternity, Shen Ling, as the consort, would still end up the defeated boss. The Empire she had struggled to carve out in the harem? She’d have to hand it over.

　　To be honest, Shen Ling really wasn’t afraid of Xie Yuanxun being a ruthless, psycho Emperor. What scared her was the idea that he might actually have a true love! Just think about the fates of harem women who ended up as a real Emperor’s favorite: Emperor Cheng of Han, Liu Ao, had Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede, the sisters—those who didn’t bear children suffered, and those who did suffered even more. Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, had Wu Zetian; while Consort Xiao and Empress Wang ended up having their hands and feet chopped off, sealed in wine jars, and executed by Imperial Decree.

　　No, no, no, she couldn’t think herself into that kind of doom. Who said she was automatically just some practice target for someone’s past love? Maybe Xie Yuanxun never actually cared for Empress Mu in that way, and the Palace gossip had just exaggerated things. But Palace gossip rarely comes from nowhere.

　　Shen Ling blinked. No matter how she thought about it, she still felt a little uneasy.

　　Slap! She hit the table, making up her mind. She had to carefully test Xie Yuanxun with her words. If he really treated her as a stand-in for his white moonlight, and she couldn’t outwit him, then the best thing she could do was stay as far away as possible from this impossible-to-please Emperor.

　　She completely forgot that in the book she transmigrated into, even if Xie Yuanxun brought down the Da Liang Dynasty, he still didn't have a true love.

　　Shen Ling wanted to seek him out, but Xie Yuanxun hadn’t appeared for days. When she needed him, he wasn’t around. When she didn’t, he showed up every day. Since he wasn't coming, Shen Ling's desire to test him weakened, and she just went back to enjoying her luxurious, carefree life.

　　It wasn’t until one morning, while doing her hair, that she saw Xie Yuanxun striding into Chang Le Palace that she remembered she still had important business to attend to.

　　He approached and pulled a white jade hairpin from his sleeve, carved with cloud patterns, and raised it as if to pin it into her hair.

　　Shen Ling’s eyelid twitched. “Your Majesty, be careful.” She didn’t want him stabbing her scalp.

　　Xie Yuanxun glanced at her. “If you don’t want it, I’ll keep it.”

　　But why did it look like if she said “don’t,” he might actually stab her with it? Shen Ling tried to clarify, “I didn’t say don’t.”

　　He carefully pinned the hairpin in place.

　　Shen Ling tilted her head, checking it from all angles in the bronze mirror, occasionally sneaking glances at Xie Yuanxun standing behind her.

　　His fingers lifted a strand of her hair. “What do you want to say?”

　　Shen Ling asked, “Your Majesty, did you make this hairpin?”

　　Xie Yuanxun’s eyes twitched slightly. “How did you guess?”

　　Shen Ling smirked. “Because we’re in sync. I could feel your presence in it the moment I saw it.”

　　—Okay, fine, that was a guess.

　　—But it was handmade. If you could craft a hairpin this exquisite, why was the kite you made so rough?

　　Well, of course. He had spent the past few days in the Taiji Hall making these pins. This one on her hair? It was the very best he had made.

　　Xie Yuanxun thought she was wearing too many hair accessories, so he went ahead and yanked off everything from Shen Ling’s head except the white jade hairpin, tossing them onto the table with a clatter.

　　Shen Ling gasped, “What are you doing?!”

　　—Do you want me to look like a ghost with my hair all messy?

　　—I just spent forever getting my hair done, and now you’re ruining it.

　　Xie Yuanxun said, “Today, you’re only wearing this one hairpin.” He added casually, “Don’t you feel it’s heavy with all those things on your head?”

　　—Ugh, he really didn’t need to say that.

　　Shen Ling kept a blank expression. Xie Yuanxun's straight-man comment was so real. Didn’t he know girls liked to look pretty? Not just hair accessories—she could pick from a single lipstick or nail polish dozens of shades of red: crimson, bright red, vermilion, coral, water red, peach red, pale red, deep red… you name it.

　　Shen Ling picked up an eyebrow pencil to shape her brows, and Xie Yuanxun asked, “What’s that?”

　　“Drawing my eyebrows,” she replied.

　　“Give it here, I’ll do it,” he said, taking the pencil and standing in front of her, his eyes seriously studying her face.

　　Shen Ling’s mind was full of question marks. What was with this sudden burst of curiosity? Well, if he wanted to do her eyebrows, fine—she could take a little break. She suddenly asked, “Have you done eyebrows before?”

　　Xie Yuanxun replied calmly, “No.”

　　Shen Ling froze. “...Then why so calm?”

　　—Big brother, I didn’t do anything to you, okay?

　　She really didn’t want a beginner like him messing with her face, especially her eyebrows. “Your Majesty, I can do it myself. You don’t have to—”

　　Before she could finish, his hand with the pencil was already on her brow.

　　Shen Ling had no choice but to endure it.

　　She remembered she had something to ask him and shifted slightly, but Xie Yuanxun’s soft voice stopped her. “Don’t move.”

　　She blinked and kept her upper body still. “Your Majesty, I overheard someone talking about Empress Mu, and they said you really doted on her.” She added cautiously, “They even said you liked her, and that I’m just her stand-in with you.”    

　　After saying that, Shen Ling fell silent, her little heart tightening with nerves.

　　But there was no response. Xie Yuanxun stayed completely quiet, and Shen Ling lifted her eyes to look at him.

　　—Oh ho, I hit the mark.

　　—Judging by that expression, you’re lost in memories. Riding horses, galloping through carefree days with her, right?

　　—Looking at me like that, are you reminiscing about your past love? Thinking about your true love, your deceased white moonlight Empress Mu, and now me as her stand-in? Lucky you, huh.

　　Seeing Shen Ling’s face completely trapped in her “truth,” Xie Yuanxun sighed. He almost wanted to call her silly.

　　Her imagination left him speechless.

　　True love, Empress Mu, white moonlight, using her as a stand-in—what on earth was she thinking? He shouldn’t have let her read so many of those storybooks.

　　She was already not that sharp, and now she was even dumber.

　　Xie Yuanxun tapped her forehead with his finger. “Silly.”

　　Shen Ling pouted. “I’m not silly.” She looked at him. “Did I say something wrong?”

　　Xie Yuanxun said, “Everything you said is wrong.”

　　Shen Ling’s eyes sparkled. Hey, she was kind of happy—no need to worry about being treated as some “practice doll.”

　　Xie Yuanxun put the eyebrow pencil down. “Done.”

　　“Let me see.” Shen Ling said with delight.

　　She leaned toward the bronze mirror and saw a mini Crayon Shin-chan version of herself staring back. She moved forward, and the tiny Crayon Shin-chan Shen Ling moved forward too. She leaned back, and so did the tiny version.

　　Her hands trembled as she reached for her brows.

　　The little Crayon Shin-chan Shen Ling in the mirror mimicked her touch perfectly.

　　Shen Ling blinked. “……”

　　Xie Yuanxun asked, “Does it look good?”

　　Shen Ling looked at him, her heart skipping beats.

　　—Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!    

    

    

    

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