"My Lord is a Stone"《我家君王是石头》Chapter 48

“Who told you the emperor is an…old man?” The emperor struggled to spit out the last words, he simply felt those words were practically an insult.

Zhao Jin Yu did not sense the stone’s discontent at all, as a matter of fact she said, “I know the emperor isn’t considered old, I think he’s only twenty-five this year…, but there are so many imperial concubines in the harem, filled with lust all year round, even if it seems normal on the outside, in fact…” Zhao Jin Yu lowered her voice, wily she said, “Maybe his body is already all spent, simply unable to have intercourse, tell me if you consider him an old man or not?”

The emperor looked up, almost falling into a tumble, gnashing his teeth he thought, whether or not he can have intercourse, whether his body is all spent, this girl Zhao Jin Yu will definitely know in the future very thoroughly!

Zhao Jin Yu laid on her bed, covered with a quilt, and had lowered the cyan curtains, suddenly the small framed bed became a closed space, making people feel somewhat comfortable for no reason, 

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Zhao Jin Yu placed the stone on her pillow, even though she liked to sleep holding this thing, but the stone had strongly refused many times, saying he was a man…, she needed to avoid arousing suspicion, at that time she couldn’t help mutter, since she needed to avoid arousing suspicion why doesn’t he just sleep outside? Why must he sleep squeezed in on her bed, simply like a dead duck reluctant to admit his mistake.

However for now she treated this response as the stone having just come to gain spirit, with the awkwardness of a boy who just discovered he was a boy, just such a thought made her think it was extremely cute.

The emperor was actually very angry, what man can bear such scepticism? But his anger was only temporary, when Zhao Jin Yu did not get his response…, very quickly she dropped a kiss on his body, his anger immediately disappeared, her lips were soft like the most beautiful flower petal, lightly touching his body, burning into the bottom of his heart.

The emperor thought, if he wanted to get Zhao Jin Yu into the palace without a hitch, he naturally needed Zhao Jin Yu to willingly choose to enter the palace, after all if you have to use force to break a melon off the vine, it won’t taste as sweet, some things could not be forced.

However what can he do?

“I’m going to sleep. Goodnight.” Zhao Jin Yu did not get the stone’s response, thinking he was asleep, she also closed her eyes.

“The emperor isn’t lustful at all.” The emperor cleared his throat, helplessly exonerating himself, while he spoke he couldn’t help sigh, there was actually a day he had fallen to praising himself? This was actually quite sad…, but once he thought the other person was Zhao Jin Yu, his heart felt really willing, this sort of emotion already made him feel odd, and feel an indescribable warmth grow.

“You know information from the inside?” Zhao Jin Yu suddenly regained her thoughts, women usually like to listen to gossip, let alone such an ordinary person like Zhao Jin Yu hearing the even more mysterious emperor’s inner palace and courtyard.

“Afraid that the prince would indulge in wine and women, since young these things have been very strict.”

“Is that so?”

The emperor nodded, “Yes, the wet nurses who brought him up and the older palace maids were stringently selected, they would extremely cruelly abide by this, but…” The emperor decided to praise himself a lot, “Now the emperor is someone who scrupulously abide by the law even more, having ascended the throne for so many years he only has two imperial concubines, one is a palace maid which has followed the emperor around since young, kept by his side in a way to give her a status, it could be considered a favour, the other is the younger sister of the previous empress, while the empress was seriously ill, she was worried there would be no one to care for the oldest princess, she entrusted the emperor with summoning her young sister into the palace, taking care of the oldest princess in her place, thereby giving her the title of Shufei.”[1]

“Only two? I really didn’t imagine…, people say the current emperor is a tyrant, who would have thought he restraints his desire so well? He really is quite hard to understand.” Zhao Jin Yu instinctively thought men were all…, kekeke, how could they not enjoy having beautiful women readily available?  Even if the emperor usually had restraint, but are the women of the harem just simple characters? Inevitably they would strive to get close to the emperor, then attempt to get his affection.

But thinking better of it she again thought she was too bias, she personally saw a man of ancient time deeply in love today, although he had done wrong, but in the ancient times it was already very rare, that’s why even if the emperor sees beautiful women surrounding him, he might just be extremely picky, not the type to just accept everyone.

“A tyrant? Haha” The emperor laughed grimly but did not say anything else.

Zhao Jin Yu asked, “What are you laughing about?”

“Nothing.” The emperor suddenly was not in the mood to talk, he actually didn’t care how people saw him, but if that person was Zhao Jin Yu…, he suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

Zhao Jin Yu originally was not a chatty person, in the end she was interested by the stone bringing up this topic, now the stone suddenly stopped talking…, her heart felt unwell like it had been scratched by a cat, using a voice to coax a child she said, “Stone, speak, I’ve only heard what other people have said, they said the emperor’s literary inquisition implicated more than thousands of people, and they say every morning court the emperor would vent his anger by hitting his chancellors in front of everyone, because they said something against the emperor’s thoughts.”

The emperor’s heart softened from Zhao Jin Yu’s tender and soft voice, he said, “There’s nothing to say, there are many things you cannot believe until you see it for yourself. See what you think about it.”

Hearing this Zhao Jin Yu nodded, saying, “That’s true, I only heard what people said, they all say the emperor is ruthless, but the emperor hasn’t actually recruited a large amount of forced labour, and has not increased tax, in fact he lowered the commoner’s tax…, thinking about it, the emperor’s so-called tyranny seemed to mainly be towards those imperial censors, the ordinary people still live their lives as usual.” Zhao Jin Yu recalled when she studied history she had learned the reason behind the Qin dynasty’s destruction, many people met their end due to too much forced labour, the forced labour during the Qin dynasty was around a third of its population, at that time the criminal law was also extremely cruel, that’s why the people could not tolerate it, they gathered together in revolt but did not survive.

Still actually talking about the current emperor apart from treating his crown prince older brother not too kindly, also not treating the chancellors as friendly, reportedly those who didn’t do their job well, or those who disobeyed the emperor would suffer a beating, and would be beaten in front of all the ministers…, this urge really is too rude, people needed to save their faces like trees needs their bark, doesn’t this make people lose face?

Besides these it seems he really hasn’t taken things too far like his predecessors, the more a person likes someone the more they wish to gain the other person’s approval, this was what any normal person thought, the emperor also thought this way now, if he was downhearted just now then at this moment he had an unspeakable gentle sweet feeling, he said, “Since you know then aren’t those just rumours? The emperor is honestly in his prime, the empress position is empty, how great is this opportunity? Why did you refuse to enter the palace? In fact you should think… about your adoptive father’s situation. If you enter the palace as an imperial concubine, you can speak in front of the emperor, wouldn’t it be even more effective than the Zhao family stepping in?” The emperor very slyly threw a bait at Zhao Jin Yu, he thought about what would interest her, he couldn’t tell her his identity, but placing the thing Zhao Jin Yu cared about the most in front of her.

To be honest the emperor hadn’t thought like this, since Zhao Chang Chun was Zhao Jin Yu’s adoptive father…, he would allow him to live, therefore even if the Zhao family did not take care of this matter, he would order it, but now the situation had changed, it seems like Zhao Jin Yu did not want to enter the palace, so he could only use this matter to coerce her.

Hearing these words Zhao Jin Yu as expected did not speak, pursing her lips silently, seeming to worry seriously.

The emperor continued saying, “What did the Zhao family say to you? We don’t even need to hear to know…, at most they only said they’ll try their best, but all they can do is preserve your father’s life, but who knows what will happen in between? It’s a common thing for many prisoners to die in prison, let’s not talk about exile after the case has been judged, the journey to exile isn’t easy, many people who have survived the hardships of prison actually don’t survive the hardships of the journey.”

Zhao Jin Yu made a noise in agreement, her mood getting increasingly low.

The emperor again started to charm her saying, “What sort of marriage will you be happy with? Based on your grandmother’s thinking she wants to marry you off to an influential family of a similar prestige, but you already saw the raucous of the relatives banquet before…, many influential families appear to be bright and beautiful, actually it’s falling apart inside, you really want to be in that kind of family?” As expected of the emperor, he actually patiently persuaded Zhao Jin Yu to enter the palace like this, suddenly from being a companion the stone became a confidante.

Zhao Jin Yu shook her head, saying, “Of course I’m don’t want to.”

“Then why won’t you enter the palace? Isn’t it better to be a respected imperial concubine? Maybe you could become the empress.” The emperor started to boast, saying, “Do you know…, before the emperor ascended the throne he was praised as the number one handsome man.” Truthfully the emperor hated to be called that, but this sort of thing was useful!

Sure enough Zhao Jin Yu’s eyes widened, looking extremely naïve and adorable, she said, “Aren’t those words of people wanting to flatter the emperor?”

The emperor laughed, his faintly raised tone carried some haughtiness, “How can that be? The emperor truly is a rarely seen handsome man, you’ll understand once you’ve seen him.”

Zhao Jin Yu sighed saying, “Is there truly such a person on earth? Have appearance and power, and has means of doing things, with all the best features in the world, it truly makes people jealous.”

The emperor was rather pleased with himself, he lazily said, “Naturally, so why would you refuse to enter the palace?”

Zhao Jin Yu sighed, using her fingertip to poke the stone, saying, “You little thing, you must be a spy sent by the emperor!” The emperor’s heart shook, then heard Zhao Jin Yu continue saying, “Didn’t we agree to wait until you can transform, then I’ll marry you? Why are you trying your best to make me enter the palace? You’re willing to part with me?”

Zhao Jin Yu had actually said she’d marry the stone purely out of mockery, right now her heart was very muddled, of course she wanted to save her adoptive father, but if she needed to compensate with her life? Returning to the Zhao family, becoming the eldest young lady she was indeed not free, but regarding her marriage she still had some leeway to choose, entering the palace she would only be able to follow one path to the end.

The emperor snorted saying, “How do you know, we are not the emperor inside the palace? Maybe we are his embodiment!” The emperor said probing a little.

Zhao Jin Yu’s replied to the emperor holding her belly with both hands in laughter, when Zhao Jin Yu laughed until tears came out did she then say, “Little thing, don’t be angry, I only thought…, it would be great if that’s true, I don’t have to marry a stranger, and continue to be with you.” Towards the end her tone was actually quite gentle.

The emperor clearly knew Zhao Jin Yu’s words were very overstated, but he still couldn’t help be hyperactive…, his heart nice and warm.

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[1] Second highest rank for imperial consorts under the Empress.