Heroic Wife Reborn Chapter 109

Chapter 108: Consort Zhao's Pals Get Abused

"Who would dare to trick Zhen?!" Xianzong sputtered.

"Heheh," Yu Xiaoxiao just chuckled. 

Can I keep on living like this?! Xianzong wanted to stomp his feet and lash out, or at least tell his b.a.s.t.a.r.d daughter to get lost.

Yu Xiaoxiao asked, "What did Zhao Beicheng do?"

Xianzong's temper dissipated in the face of his depression. That's right, Zhao Beicheng's tricked me before. How can I get my daughter to forget this dark history of mine?

Yu Xiaxiao placed a few leftover roasted chestnuts from her pocket into Gu Xinglang's hands. "Eat. If it's not enough, I'll buy more for you outside."

Gu Xinglang looked at Xianzong's long and sallow face. He wasn't vicious enough to want to anger his royal father-in-law to death, so he didn't eat the chestnuts. 

Unresigned, Xianzong declared to Yu Xiaoxiao, "Consort Zhao is a good woman. Linglong, who taught you things like 'wicked consort?'"

Yu Xiaoxiao replied, "Her surname is Zhao."

Xianzong said, "Zhao Beicheng is Zhao Beicheng while Consort Zhao is Consort Zhao."

"They were born from the same father," Yu Xiaxoxiao went on. "What's the difference? Could a cur of a father give birth to anything remotely human?"

Although the curtains had been drawn in the carriage, Gu Xinglang still turned to look out the windows. He might be happy listening to his wife curse out Zhao Qiuming, but to save face for his royal father-in-law, he pretended that he didn't hear a thing.

Xianzong pointed at Yu Xiaoxiao, his eyes knitted so fiercely that he almost looked like he had a unibrow. Loudly he rebuked, "Who taught you such coa.r.s.e language? Why have you turned into this?!"

"Heheh," Yu Xiaoxiao chuckled. If I hadn't crossed over, the cruel female emperor would be starving with Little Seventh out in the wastes somewhere by now. And this fatuous ruler still wonders why I've changed like this? How am I supposed to get on with him?

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Xianzong was thoroughly incensed. "Zhen forbids you from 'heheh-ing' any longer!"

"Heheh," Yu Xiaoxiao replied. So what if she did? What could this incomptent ruler do against her?

Xianzong was completely furious. People lost their sense of reason when angered, so now Xianzong dearly wanted to beat his daughter up. 

"Your Majesty!" Gu Xinglang cried urgently when he saw Xianzong preparing to rise from his seat.

Yu Xiaoxiao sat unmoving as she looked askance at her old man. Third Young Master Gu's words were loud enough, but already too late. Xianzong's head rammed straight into the ceiling of the carriage, sending stars before his vision as Yu Xiaoxiao's figure turned into two in front of his eyes. 

Gu Xinglang personally witnessed a b.u.mp forming on the emperor's head and quickly asked in an urgent tone, "Your Majesty, are–are you alright?"

A b.u.mp on the head was no big deal with Yu Xiaoxiao, who asked, "Feeling dizzy, huh? You were perfectly fine, so why did you stand up?"

"Unfilial daughter!" Xianzong cursed Yu Xiaoxiao.

Being unfilial wasn't a big deal to Yu Xiaoxiao, but it was serious business for Gu Xinglang. He quickly started to explain. "Your Majesty, the princess isn't–"

"Don't talk," Xianzong told him. "Right now, she's your wife. Zhen can't discipline her anymore."

Gu Xinglang fell silent as he understood. Xianzong meant to say that these were sold goods and he wouldn't accept any returns. Yu Xiaoxiao opened her mouth to speak, but Xianzong snapped, "Just try and 'heh' one more time to Zhen!" 

Yu Xiaoxiao truly wanted Xianzong to experience the vicissitudes of life in this world, but their carriage soon lurched to another stop.

"You Majesty!" various voices of crying girls came from outside. Xianzong descended the carriage in a huff while Yu Xiaoxiao was stopped by Gu Xinglang's hand in the middle of getting out.

"Xiaoxiao, you have to be careful of Consort Zhao," he told her in a low voice.

Yu Xiaoxiao patted Gu Xinglang's hand and said, "It's fine, that wicked consort can't hurt me." Worse comes to worst, I'll strike her with lightning again.

Gu Xinglang watched her get off. No matter how reluctant he felt now, he could only be patient and wait in the carriage. Outside were a bunch of court ladies and eunuchs from Morning Skies Palace. Jadeite led the pack as they kneeled in front of Xianzong with bitter sobs.

Yu Xiaoxiao got off and surveyed the scene. "Consort Zhao's dead?" she wondered.

Xianzong felt his heart shiver. "Consort Zhao's gone?"

Jadeite's crying hesitated. Eldest princess definitely prefers my master dead. Now His Majesty does, too?

"Start digging a pit," Yu Xiaoxiao told Xianzong matter-of-factly. "Imperial father, if you can't bear to see her body, I'll bury her for you?"

A single tear rolled down Xianzong's cheek. My beloved consort died in the time it took for me to eat out?

Yu Xiaoxiao felt even more scorn for the fatuous ruler after seeing his tears. Aren't men and husbands never supposed to shed tears or bleed? This one can even cry by just standing around. How do you explain that?

"Where's the imperial physician?" Xianzong asked in a hoa.r.s.e voice. "What illness took Consort Zhao's life?"

The various imperial physicians all exchanged looks. They made to speak, then stopped.

Yu Xiaoxiao said, "You guys don't know how she died?"

"Did someone sabotage Consort Zhao?" Xianzong exclaimed in alarm.

Jadeite stammered, "Your Majesty, esteemed consort is only sick. S-she d-didn't die."

Yu Xiaoxiao was immediately disappointed for feeling happy too soon. Xianzong was just preparing to avenge Consort Zhao when Jadeite's words extinguished his resolve and turned his neck red. Yu Xiaoxiao stared at Consort Zhao's little pal and said, "If Consort Zhao's not dead, then why are you crying so much?"

"Drag this despicable servant away for Zhen!" Xianzong vented, finally finding an outlet for his temper. Looking at Jadeite coldly, he said, "You can't even speak properly. Why should Zhen keep a wretch like you around!?"

Jadeite was staggered. She was only kneeling in front of Morning Skies Palace to report on the situation, yet now it was a matter of life and death? Two guards stepped forward and prepared to haul her away.

"Your Majesty, have mercy!" Jadeite cried out in misery as more tears poured down her face.

Jing Zhong quietly spoke up. "Your Majesty, are you going to execute that despicable servant?"

Xianzong gave a snort and continued towards Morning Skies Palace.

"She's one of Consort Zhao's little pals, ah," Yu Xiaoxiao remarked as she followed him. "Imperial father, you're really going to kill her?"

Xianzong naturally knew that this was Consort Zhao's most handy aide. Reminding himself to be wise and brilliant, Xianzong exhaled and added, "Take her to be beaten, then teach her how to talk."

"Yes," Jing Zhong demurred. "This servant accepts the decree."

Under his watch, the two guards gagged Jadeite and dragged away Morning Skies Palace's top-ranking court lady. Everyone felt that Jadeite had been wronged, but none of them dared to ask for her leniency in front of Xianzong's temper. 

The stench of blood greeted Xianzong's nostrils as soon as he entered Consort Zhao's bedroom. His body swayed by the doorway as he fought back a wave of dizziness, then strode quickly to Consort Zhao's bedside. 

—

Chapter 109: The Eldest Princess's Grudge Against Consort Zhao

Consort Zhao was lying unconscious on the bed. Even now, she was still bleeding, the blood collecting as a small pool on the ground. Xianzong couldn't find any place to stand by her bedside. A few crying momo were kneeling in the blood. Their sobs intensified at the sight of Xianzong's approach.

One of them kowtowed to him and cried, "Your Majesty, please save esteemed consort!"

Xianzong was floored at the sight of Consort Zhao and loudly cried, "Where are the imperial physicians? What's happened to Consort Zhao?"

There were seven to eight imperial physicians in Consort Zhao's room, all of them expert doctors. They knew her prognosis as soon as they examined her and took her pulse, but none of them wanted to stand out to answer the emperor's question. Anyone who could successfully plot against Consort Zhao like this wasn't someone they could afford to offend as mere imperial physicians. It was clear that the Zhao Clan and Zhao Qiuming had already earned Xianzong's detestation, so to offend that lofty schemer in the shadows for the sake of an uncertain consort was simply foolish.

Xianzong saw that no one was answering and grew even more incensed. "Have you all gone mute?!"

Yu Xiaoxiao walked forward impatiently and pulled away the covers over Consort Zhao's body. "Let me take a look."

Just like that, the smell of blood beneath the covers soon overpowered the room. Xianzong staggered from the a.s.sault on his senses. Jing Zhong supported him as he asked urgently, "Your Majesty, are you alright?"

Xianzong was afraid to breathe in the presence of so much blood. He was about to order the imperial physicians to examine her when he caught sight of his daughter pulling down Consort Zhao's pants. "Linglong, what are you doing?!" he cried. They could ignore the eunuchs in the room, but there were still plenty of imperial physicians present! How was Consort Zhao supposed to live after being exposed before them all?!

Yu Xiaoxiao turned to give him an impatient look. "How am I supposed to know where she's hurt if I don't take off her pants?"

Jing Zhong and the momo looked at Yu Xiaoxiao with trepidation. She's probably seizing this chance to force Consort Zhao to her death, right? How could the eldest princess be so malicious? She won't preserve Consort Zhao's good name even when she's already on the verge of death?

All of the imperial physicians had their heads bowed to stare at their toes. When it came to the emperor's woman, they didn't even dare to look at her clothes, much less when she was undressed.

Xianzong said to Yu Xiaoxiao, "There are outsider males present!"

Yu Xiaoxiao gave a snort of contempt. She's already dead, so who cares about some 'outsider males?' With a ripping sound, Her Royal Highness tore off Consort Zhao's pants. A few momo all rose to their feet, preparing to throw themselves over Consort Zhao's body. They couldn't let others see her naked, ah!

Xianzong was trembling too hard to speak. The air in the room seem to stagnate as it turned as silent as a cicada in the cold1 Only Yu Xiaoxiao examined Consort Zhao's body as if there was n.o.body there, before telling Xianzong, "No external injuries and it's not a miscarriage. Did she get catch some strange gynaecological disease?"

Xianzong took a while before he found his voice again, and his first thing was to shout at his daughter. "Where's your brain? She's living in the palace, so how could she have been hurt down there?!"

Yu Xiaoxiao gave Xianzong a reproachful look before she said meaningfully, "Don't bully me just because I haven't read much books. Do you think she wouldn't be hurt as long as she stayed in the palace? Suppose you got too excited one day?"

"That's not–ah, Zhen, you," Xianzong ended up sputtering.

Everyone tried to bury themselves in the ground. Would His Majesty kill them all for overhearing such things?

Yu Xiaoxiao looked at Consort Zhao's bleeding form once again and said, "If they can't stop the bleeding, she'll die, won't she?"

Xianzong didn't dare to look at his beloved consort's body. Heaving for breath, he looked at the imperial physicians and cried, "You're all just going to watch? Look until Consort Zhao dies?!"

The physicians remained with their heads bowed, each hoping that the other would step out to answer Xianzong's question.

"Speak!" Xianzong pointed at one of them.

Without a way to pretend he was invisible, the doctor fell to his knees. "Your Majesty, we subjects have already given Consort Zhao medicine, but her illness came so violently that it had no effect."

Xianzong's heart seized up. In other words, there's no saving Consort Zhao?

"Oh," Yu Xiaoxiao murmured in the quiet voice. So this woman's finally gonna die?

"Your Majesty," a eunuch called out from outside the bedchambers. "Consort Hua, Consort Rong, and Consort Ming…"

"What are they coming here for?" Xianzong interrupted. "Have them go back."

"Your Majesty."

"All of you get lost!" Xianzong cried when the eunuch spoke up again.

There was a brief moment of silence before the eunuch stammered, "Your Majesty, Junior Master Fenglin of Eternal Life Temple asks for an audience."

"What?" Xianzong couldn't believe his ears. 

Yu Xiaoxiao knitted her brows as well. What's Wen Fenglin running over to Consort Zhao's for?

"Your Majesty," the eunuch repeated, "Junior Master Fenglin of Eternal Life Temple asks for an audience."

Xianzong whipped his head towards the unconscious Consort Zhao before folding his hands behind his back and striding out the door. "Invite the junior master inside."

Yu Xiaoxiao was looking at Consort Zhao too. She didn't recall Wen Fenglin having any connections with Consort Zhao. During the cruel female emperor's time, the two of them had never even talked. Did they become friends this time when I reincarnated into this body?

The momo waiting on Consort Zhao carefully formed a respectful shield around her, afraid that the eldest princess would take this chance to suddenly kill their mistress. Everyone in the palace now knew that the eldest princess had formidable martial arts and killed people like dogs. No amount of Consort Zhaos would be enough to feed her slaughter.

"You don't even have any good blood-staunching medicine," Yu Xiaoxiao said while shaking her head. In a small voice, she added, "There's no way to fool around at all."

The momo looked bewilderedly after the eldest princess's retreating form. What does she mean by "no way to fool around?" Isn't Consort Zhao already wretched enough?

By the time Yu Xiaoxiao left the bedroom, Xianzong was already waiting in the corridor for Junior Master Fenglin. Seeing her emerge, he couldn't help asking, "What could the junior master want in looking for Zhen?"

Yu Xiaoxiao shot back, "How am I supposed to know?"

Xianzong looked at Yu Xiaoxiao and suddenly lost all energy to lose his temper. Yu Xiaoxiao felt that he must be sad, so comforted, "There'll be tens of thousands of other Consort Zhaos even if this one dies. Don't be sad. How about you get an extra good cinerary casket for her?"

Cinerary casket?

Inside the courtyard, even the likes of Xiao Zhuang and Xiao Wei felt their hairs stand on end. Just how much does Her Royal Highness hate Consort Zhao? She doesn't even want to leave her with an intact body, ah!2

噤若寒蟬 – jinruo hanchan idiom that means to "keep quiet out of fear."In modern China, it's customary to burn the body after death, especially in populated areas, because there just isn't enough room to bury everyone. In apocalypse China, this is probably a necessity so they don't become zombies/fodder. In ancient China, however, Confucian values dictated that one's body comes from one's parents, and to destroy any part of it is a big No-No. Burying an incomplete body (even if it was missing an arm or a leg) meant suffering for the deceased in the afterlife as well. What Xiaoxiao is suggesting now is not only a big taboo for a royal consort, but the common people as well. You'd only wish to destroy a person's body after death on your gravest enemies, and even then only if you're the ruthless one. You can read up on more ancient Chinese burial rituals via Google.