Chapter 6 A Bargain With the Empress
I was still looking at him when Li Yuankuo looked toward me as well.
But he soon looked away and turned to walk out of the hall.
"What are you looking at?" Li Yuancheng asked all of a sudden.
I came back to myself. "Nothing. I just wanted some water."
The Emperor and the Empress arrived soon after. They asked after me with concern. Once they knew I was not seriously ill, the Emperor and Li Yuancheng went to discuss affairs, leaving the Empress and me.
The Empress chatted with me and told me to take good care of my body.
I listened with obedience, then used a private matter as an excuse to seek her counsel.
The Empress dismissed those around us. Her voice was mild. "What do you wish to ask of me?"
I went straight to the point. "Imperial Mother, do you want Your Highness Prince Huan to become the Emperor of Great Zhou? This subject can help you."
The Empress's eyes went sharp at once, then returned to normal in an instant. "How can you speak such nonsense?"
I rose and knelt before her. "This subject is not speaking nonsense. This subject truly wishes to work with you, Imperial Mother.
"Imperial Mother, you should also know that the day the child in this subject's belly is born will be the day this subject dies."
The Empress kept acting as if she did not understand. "I cannot understand what you are saying. What birth, what death?"
I lifted my head and looked at her. "It is an iron law since the founding of Great Zhou. The Son Is Honored, the Mother Dies. Imperial Mother, did you not watch the birth mother of Your Highness the Crown Prince die with your own eyes back then?
"This subject does not wish to make wedding clothes for someone else. So this subject is willing to help Imperial Mother let Your Highness Prince Huan take this realm."
The Empress stood up in anger. "Xie Yuying, I think you have gone mad."
I did not draw back. "Your Majesty is at this moment discussing the eastern campaign against Wu with Your Highness the Crown Prince.
They will send Your Highness Prince Huan to the field.
The battlefield is perilous. Prince Huan nearly died there before.
Does Imperial Mother still want him to take that risk?
"Imperial Mother, you need not believe this subject now. In three days the truth will show. It will not be too late to punish this subject then."
The Empress hesitated.
Li Yuankuo was her greatest weakness.
In the last life, after Li Yuankuo's remains were sent back, she had vomited blood on the spot, just as Mother had, and not long after she died of grief.
After a long while she asked me, "Are you not afraid I will take these words of yours to Your Majesty and the Crown Prince?"
I was certain. "This subject believes you will not."
After all, every treasonous word I had just spoken was for Prince Huan to take this realm.
If she dared to speak, she would be handing the Emperor a knife.
The Emperor of this court was a man of extreme cold blood. He would never keep any threat at his side.
I was sure the Empress who stayed at his side knew that better than anyone.
The Empress gave a few cold laughs. "Xie Yuying of the Xie house. I truly underestimated you at the start."
I wanted to tell her she had not been wrong then.
The old me had been too naive.
It was only after dying once that I had learned to remember such things.