“It is only my duty. Since Your Majesty and Consort Thục Phi have thought so highly of me, I will do everything in my power to teach the princes. I would not refuse even if it cost me my life.”
The emperor’s tightly furrowed brows relaxed a little, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
The Eldest Prince finally dared to smile, carefully bringing the bowl of chicken soup before his father.
“Would Father like to try some?”
The emperor raised a hand, signaling that he could have a taste.
But before the chicken soup could be served, the Fourth Prince came running in, his hair in disarray, to lodge a complaint.
“Mother! My Super Saiyan rooster is missing! The Eldest Prince must have taken it to stew!”
My legs went weak, and I hadn’t even had time to kneel.
The usually haughty Second Prince followed behind, holding a handful of greens. “Good. That’ll teach your chicken not to eat my vegetables all day.”
This was bad.
I dropped to my knees with a thud, not daring to raise my head.
8.
The emperor dismissed everyone. Only the two of us remained in the hall.
“There are nine princes in all.”
The emperor sat with an imposing, motionless air. His cold gaze lowered just enough to make me feel as though it could kill me.
“Cooking, farming, embroidery, raising chickens, fishing, carpentry, roofing, weaving.”
At this, the emperor leaned forward slightly and told me to raise my head.
When the emperor is enraged, blood flows for a thousand miles.
I had no choice but to look up and meet his deep, dark eyes.
“The Ninth Prince has only just arrived. He’s only a year and a half old. What trade does Consort Đức Phi plan to teach him?”
His question made me tremble all over. “Your Majesty has misunderstood me!”
“The princes’ formal studies naturally belong to the Grand Tutor. I teach them practical knowledge beyond the books: first, so they can experience the hardships of ordinary people and govern better; and second, because I see Your Majesty burdened with every concern, and it pains me. So I’m nurturing their filial devotion.”
After all, I was the star instructor trusted by students preparing for the civil service exams.
Even with death staring me in the face, I had to come up with a few pretty excuses.
“I’m first letting them demonstrate their filial devotion to Your Majesty. Once they’re ready to present themselves, I’ll have them appear before you. It’ll be a pleasant surprise for Your Majesty.”
The emperor stared at me, his expression unreadable.
“Then it seems I ought to thank you, Consort Đức Phi.”
I forced the corners of my mouth up. “It is only my duty.”
The next moment, the emperor took hold of my chin. What was he doing?
In my previous life, the emperor and I had no affection for each other. I hadn’t even been called upon to attend him.
The harem was full of beautiful women. I was just an insignificant woman who had managed to hold her ground thanks to her family’s influence.
So this sudden physical contact from him left me a little unsettled.
“Consort Đức Phi, you’ve raised the children so well. It suddenly occurs to me that if we had a child together, you would raise it even better. There hasn’t been any good news in the harem for a long time. Why not give me another pleasant surprise?”
I trembled and shook my head.
The handsome emperor was certainly attractive, but there were too many women around him.
For one thing, it went against my views on marriage. For another, if I became his favorite, I’d become a thorn in the other women’s sides.
Then I could forget about quietly growing old in the harem.
I hurriedly turned my face away, escaping his grip.
The emperor’s jade ring grazed my cheek, cold to the bone.
“What’s wrong?”
He asked with a faint smile.
“I…”
A consort who refused the emperor’s favor could lose her head for saying so.
What should I do? What excuse could I come up with?
The emperor had already begun stroking my hair.
The emperor’s pleasant scent filled my nose. Seeing that he was about to do it in broad daylight, I hurriedly backed away and kowtowed three times, hard.
“I know I was wrong. Please, Your Majesty, stop teasing me.”
9.
A deathly silence fell, so quiet that I could hear my heart pounding.
What the hell was wrong with this emperor? Was he really interested in an ordinary woman like me?
Maybe he’d eaten too many delicacies and wanted to try some wild greens for a change?
But I was a year older than him, and he’d never had any feelings for me!
Maybe he really was so furious he’d lost his senses.
My thoughts ran wild, and I didn’t even notice the emperor had stood up.
“You don’t want to attend me.”
His hawklike eyes fixed on me, his gaze unwavering.
The emperor clasped his hands behind his back and walked up to me. A five-clawed golden dragon embroidered on his sleeve looked lifelike.
“I’ll give you two choices: either raise the nine children under your care well, or bear me another child.”
Was he an emperor or a greedy merchant?
Why did he want everything?
“From now on, I’ll examine the princes’ studies every month. If you, Consort Đức Phi, neglect them in any way, I’ll summon you to attend me.”
What a hateful man.
10.
After he left, all nine children—including the Ninth Prince, who barely reached my knees—stared at me with wide eyes.
Every child looked bewildered, and worried about me at the same time.
“Mother, are you all right?”
The Eldest Prince spoke first. As if he’d done something wrong, he took my hand.
“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t written such a poor essay, Father wouldn’t have come to Diên Hi Cung.”
As he spoke, the Eldest Prince began to cry.
The child had a gentle nature from birth. Otherwise, in my previous life, he wouldn’t have let the Fifth Prince grow so powerful, only to have his position as crown prince stolen from him in the end.
He wasn’t like Consort Thục Phi.
On the night the Fifth Prince framed him and had him thrown into prison, I went to see him.
The Eldest Prince merely held my hand and said softly, “Mother, I don’t really care about that position. I just want our family to live in harmony, as we did before at Diên Hi Cung.”
“Mother, don’t blame Fifth Brother. He couldn’t help it. I’m the one who failed to notice Third Brother always bullying them. Otherwise…”
With his final breath, he left behind nothing but regret and a sigh.
The struggle for the throne was never just a personal battle.
Maternal relatives and factions were all forces driving them to slaughter one another.
If the emperor didn’t want these children to give up, then I would make sure the nine of them were bound together as one, so their brotherly love could outweigh every worldly interest.
Perhaps that, too, could be a solution.
As long as the nine princes’ struggle for the throne didn’t happen again, I could accept everything else.
“It’s all right. I didn’t think it through. Cooking and farming are important, of course, but the children are princes, after all. It would be embarrassing if they couldn’t recognize a single character.”
All nine children obediently nodded in unison.
“From now on, I’ll teach you all to read and write. But in private, we can still secretly do the things we enjoy. How does that sound?”
The children all breathed a sigh of relief at my words.
At once, nine little heads pressed against me.
“Mother, that’s wonderful. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stay at Diên Hi Cung anymore.”
The Second Prince murmured softly.
His birth mother, An Thường Tại, was now in favor and had been hinting that she wanted him back.
But An Thường Tại’s rank was too low, and she wasn’t the mistress of a palace residence, so naturally she had no right to raise a child.
Besides, the Second Prince wasn’t as sensitive as he used to be. After all, he spent every day plowing the fields from the moment he woke until nightfall. The insecure boy was so exhausted that he no longer had the energy to dwell on things.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let you go back.”
11.
I stayed up all night making a list of the factions that had fought for the throne in my previous life.
There had been three factions in my previous life: the Eldest Prince, Third Prince, and Fourth Prince were in one; the Second Prince, Fifth Prince, and Ninth Prince in another; and the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Princes in the last.
The Eldest Prince was Consort Thục Phi’s son, while the Third and Fourth Princes were both Consort Hiền Phi’s sons. Consort Thục Phi and Consort Hiền Phi were cousins, so their children were closer to one another, too.
The Second, Fifth, and Ninth Princes were all sons of low-born consorts.
In my previous life, I had focused on the children’s studies and had no time to pay attention to anything else. I hadn’t realized those three were always being bullied.
The Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Princes were the Empress Dowager’s sons. The Eighth Prince had been born when she was empress, so he was considered a legitimate son and had also joined the struggle for the crown prince’s position.
It was a mess, but at least now I had a clear picture.
I shuffled the three groups, making the princes who hadn’t gotten along in my previous life sleep together.
I set up study groups, with the older children guiding the younger ones through their assignments. If they didn’t do well, the older child would be punished.
Until they came of age, I would keep them away from their maternal relatives. Every week, I took the children to play group games to strengthen their brotherly bonds.
Any bullying of the weak by the strong among the nine was punished severely.
It didn’t matter whose son they were. As long as they were in my Diên Hi Cung, they were all equal.
If you divide them by blood ties or closeness, then don’t call me Mother anymore.
In the blink of an eye, another five years passed. Just as in my previous life, they were all courteous and exceptionally intelligent.
The emperor tested them every week and was almost always very pleased.
Rewards poured into my Diên Hi Cung, and every so often, when the emperor was in the mood, he would sit down and have dinner with me.
But he never stayed the night. We were, at least, respectful of one another.
“Calling you into the palace to raise the children was certainly the right decision.”
The emperor smiled and served me food himself.
“Your Majesty flatters me. In truth, it’s mainly because your children are so gifted. I’ve only been here to help with a few small things.”
“How could that be? Consort Đức Phi, your methods and abilities far surpass those of the other women in the harem.”
He shook his head with a smile. Perhaps he was in a better mood than usual because the nations had come to pay tribute today and the princes had acquitted themselves so well.
“All they know how to do is engage in pointless power struggles. These petty matters in the harem are really meaningless, don’t you think? It’s time to change the game.”
A sly glint flashed in the emperor’s eyes. I felt there was something off about him today, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.
“Your Majesty, you’re drunk.”
The emperor waved a hand and gently stroked my cheek, his gaze as if he were inspecting a fine porcelain vase.
“I’m not drunk. It’s just a pity that a woman as perfect as you doesn’t have a beautiful face.”
I suddenly got goose bumps all over and instinctively moved away.
His eyes were bleary with drink as he grinned.
“I’ve always liked beautiful women. You can rest easy.”