For a brief moment, Yin Gezhi thought he was hallucinating – how could a single smile disperse all the gloomy atmosphere throughout the hall?
Yet when he looked more carefully, that figure hadn’t vanished but was instead quietly entering, carrying a bowl in hand.
“I see you’re taxing your mind quite a bit,” she said, placing the freshly stewed chicken soup before him. Feng Yue’s eyes sparkled with warmth as she wafted the fragrant steam toward his nose with her hand. “Why not take a rest? It’s gastrodia chicken soup – your concubine personally supervised its preparation!”
Yin Gezhi’s gaze shifted subtly as he stared at her, his expression momentarily distant.
The scene suddenly transported him back to his former envoy residence, where this peculiar woman had mysteriously transformed his austere dwelling into one filled with warm lamplight and blooming flowers. She would stand on those steps, offering him a gentle curtsey upon his return.
Even after all this time, whenever that image surfaced in his mind, he could almost catch the lingering scent of those garden flowers.
Feng Yue was truly an unusual person. While others would shy away from his stern countenance, maintaining their distance out of fear, she did the opposite – as if completely blind to reading facial expressions, she would boldly approach and tease him. Where others recognized his preference for tranquility and would tiptoe cautiously to avoid disturbing him, she would instead deliberately pull him into lively situations, completely fearless of incurring his wrath.
Just like now – even though Guanzhi could sense his irritability and had quietly withdrawn, she came marching in with the chicken soup, insisting he take a break.
A slight smile crossed his lips as Yin Gezhi shook his head, picking up the spoon with resignation. “You consistently do things most likely to provoke my anger, yet somehow I can’t bring myself to be truly angry,” he said softly.
“What?” Feng Yue crouched beside him with an expression of pure innocence, looking up at him with feigned hurt. “Your concubine is merely asking you to have lunch, and you speak of anger?”
Truly, serving an emperor was like serving a tiger!
Giving her a sidelong glance, Yin Gezhi tasted the chicken soup and asked with a stern face, “Weren’t you supposed to return to the Central Palace?”
“I was planning to,” she said, scratching her head and shrugging. “But halfway there, Lingshu mentioned you’ve been working particularly hard lately. After some thought, I felt I should show some care for you, so I went to the Imperial Kitchen to fetch you some chicken soup.”
Raising an eyebrow slightly, Yin Gezhi continued sipping the soup while watching her, making a mental note to properly reward Lingshu sometime – the little girl was truly perceptive.
“Come here,” he said, holding the spoon in one hand while beckoning with the other, generously indicating the space beside him. “Don’t stay crouched down there.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” She bounced up to sit beside him, quickly scanning the various memorials spread before him. Her lips pressed together as she refrained from asking questions, quietly accepting spoonfuls of chicken soup from his hand.
Yin Gezhi made no effort to hide the documents from her, believing it wouldn’t matter if she saw them. However, observing her fleeting glances, she didn’t seem particularly interested.
“Can you understand these?” he asked, casually pointing to one memorial while continuing to feed her soup.
Following his gesture, Feng Yue nodded. “Of course, I can understand them.”
“Then you have nothing to say about them?”
Nothing to say? Feng Yue shrugged. “Someone as capable as you can surely handle these matters well. What could your concubine possibly add?”
Narrowing his eyes, Yin Gezhi quickly identified the root of the matter.
He had always felt she seemed somewhat detached from his affairs – whenever he was struggling in the study, she would be off playing with palace maids! But now, hearing her words, His Majesty finally understood – it wasn’t that she didn’t want to help; she simply believed him so capable that he could handle everything without assistance or care.
This wouldn’t do! Even if he truly didn’t need help, he couldn’t let her remain so uninvolved and distant!
His eyes flickered slightly as Yin Gezhi heaved a long sigh, letting his eyelashes drop down to cast shadows on his cheeks as they trembled delicately. “I’m not some omnipotent immortal – naturally there are matters I struggle to resolve… These issues have been keeping me from proper sleep for days now.”
He followed this with a few forced coughs, clutching at his chest.
Feng Yue blinked, taking the memorial with newfound curiosity for a careful examination. “Isn’t this just about the Wu-Wei alliance?”
“Indeed.” Yin Gezhi sighed dejectedly, supporting his forehead. “Previously, when Crown Prince Ye sought an alliance with Wei, his sincerity was genuine, as Emperor Wei lacked military expertise and only wished to preserve imperial authority. He would have agreed to many of Wu’s conditions. But now that I’ve ascended the throne, Crown Prince Ye knows I’m not easily fooled, and he won’t gain many advantages from me, so he’s bound to have other schemes.”
Feng Yue straightened suddenly, alert. “Your assessment is thorough – Crown Prince Ye is capable of anything.”
Seeing her suddenly serious demeanor, Yin Gezhi smiled while continuing to feed her soup. “Therefore, I’ve been contemplating how to maintain a balance between Wu and Jin while protecting Wei.”
Slapping her thigh, Feng Yue exclaimed, “I’ve fought this kind of battle before!”
In a three-way standoff, how does one protect the weakest party? She had faced this dilemma before when leading a thousand-man reinforcement unit. What started as a bandit suppression mission in the Western Mountains turned into an encounter with Wu’s vanguard forces. The bandits had terrain advantage, the Wu forces had numbers, and she found herself awkwardly caught in the middle. Facing imminent annihilation, she had a flash of inspiration. She first sent men to negotiate with the mountain bandits – since if her reinforcements fell, the Wu forces would still overrun the mountain anyway, they might as well unite as fellow Wei citizens against the common enemy rather than all perish to Wu forces.
She promised the bandits immunity and a hundred weapons in exchange for their cooperation.
The bandits agreed, sharing their terrain advantage. Fighting from the high ground, General Qing Yue executed a beautiful victory against superior numbers. Afterward, the bandits proved clever – knowing that if she didn’t eliminate them, other forces would, they chose to join her ranks, reforming as legitimate soldiers.
“Among the current Wu, Jin, and Wei nations, in terms of overall national strength, Wu is certainly strongest, Jin second, and Wei weakest,” Feng Yue explained while sipping chicken soup and gesturing. “But Jin lacks military prowess – didn’t General Feng Ming’s forces score a major victory against them before? Their strength lies in abundant provisions, just as those mountain bandits’ advantage was in terrain. If Your Majesty truly seeks balance, why not send someone to carefully cultivate relations with Jin? Then find ways to make Wu appear threatening to Jin, paving the way for an alliance.”
With both sides allied, if either side makes a move, the other won’t stand idle, leading to a three-way conflict where no one can benefit. The other two rulers aren’t fools – under such circumstances, they’d have to carefully weigh any thoughts of attacking Wei for a year or two.
In those two years, Wei would surely recover at least twenty percent of its national strength.
Appreciatively feeding her the last spoonful of soup, Yin Gezhi nodded. “My Empress truly has a talent for warfare.”
“Of course!” Proudly lifting her chin, Feng Yue started to flex like a strongman. However, glancing at her hands, she dejectedly gave up, snorting, “Even if I can’t fight anymore, I can still strategize. If Your Majesty finds this plan feasible, I’d like to recommend someone.”
“Who?”
“Madam Jin.” Looking at him earnestly, Feng Yue said, “If you want someone to negotiate with Jin, she’s perfect.”
“Oh?” Somewhat surprised, Yin Gezhi raised an eyebrow. “I know Madam Jin is from Jin, but for negotiations… in what capacity?”
“As a Jin Imperial Consort, of course.” With a meaningful smile, Feng Yue winked. “Surely you’ve collected intelligence on Jin? Haven’t you heard about the incident five years ago when a beloved consort of the Jin Emperor died suddenly, causing such turmoil in the Jin royal household that it nearly sparked internal strife?”
His body tensed as Yin Gezhi narrowed his eyes.
There had indeed been such an incident five years ago. When he received the news, he had marveled at how much influence a woman could wield. However… Madam Jin?!
Recalling the slightly plump, extremely loud-voiced madam, Yin Gezhi shook his head. “You must be joking with me.”
“Are you looking down on Madam Jin?” Feng Yue glared. “She’s quite beautiful with her face cleaned – when I first met her, I thought I’d encountered a celestial maiden! She just has a loud voice, that’s all. Back then, she was almost kidnapped and sold, but I had Madam Qiu rescue her. It took quite a while to nurse her spirit back to health.”
At that time, Madam Jin’s eyes were lifeless – someone who had lost their will to live. She smiled at her and said, “I need someone like you who doesn’t want to live anymore. Only those who don’t value their lives can be fearless. Only the fearless are suitable for my work.”
Subsequently, Madam Jin witnessed various vengeful young women. She sat numbly among them listening to their stories. After hearing so many tragic tales, she began to feel her own experiences weren’t so terrible in comparison.
One night, Madam Jin went to Feng Yue’s chambers and tearfully shared her story.
She had entered the Jin palace as a consort, having been a singing girl. She truly loved the Jin Emperor and believed that with his protection, she could survive in the deep palace. However, she hadn’t expected that the Jin Emperor, fearing the Empress Dowager, couldn’t protect her at all. She struggled for several years in the palace before finally bearing a child. Though she thought life would improve, because of her humble origins, her child had to be given to another consort to raise.
Jin collapsed. The Emperor couldn’t help her either, only watching as she grew increasingly emaciated. A kind-hearted consort offered to send her out of the palace to find her family. Jin also felt palace life had lost its meaning – with her son gone and her beloved man rarely visiting, she left the palace. Hearing her family had fled to Wu, she followed, only to discover it was all a trap. Her family had long since died, and that supposedly kind consort had merely wanted to eliminate her, thus deceiving her into leaving the palace.
After sharing these events, Madam Jin seemed relieved, her face brightening as she mimicked the courtyard girls’ flirtatious winks: “Story’s done, Boss. I can work for you now.”
Thus later, Dream Return House gained a loud-voiced, heavily made-up madam who would stand with hands on hips, shouting at the girls, her voice carrying far and wide.
Yin Gezhi listened in stunned silence, finally rubbing his temples and saying, “This Dream Return House of yours truly dares to harbor anyone!”