Yet she was the type who, once stubborn, wouldn’t budge no matter what. If the Emperor thought that giving her the cold shoulder would make her obediently fall in line, he was thinking far too much.

If he wasn’t going to see her, then fine, she didn’t want to see him either. Hmph.

In the winter imperial garden, only the evergreens still held their green, everything else covered in a thin layer of snow, cold enough under the sunlight to draw a sharp breath.

Rui’er led Hua Chun toward the rockery, saying as they walked: “Although you can’t see mountains in the palace, these rockeries are still quite distinctive, don’t you think, Your Highness?”

Hua Chun nodded absentmindedly, following her through several twists and turns, until she’d completely lost track of the path, feeling surrounded by rockeries on all sides.

“Can we even find our way out?” she asked, a little worried.

Qing Niao looked around and said: “Let’s keep going forward and see if there’s a way out.”

Rui’er nodded, carefully supporting her as they continued forward, and after passing two more rockeries, they came upon a stone table with stone stools, evidently meant as a resting spot.

Hua Chun looked up and saw the Emperor sitting by the table, holding a memorial and reading it.

Her mouth twitched. Her first instinct was to turn around and drag the two others away to flee.

“Why has Consort De come here?” Eunuch Qin’s voice rang out from behind them.

Damn it, that man must have eagle eyes!

Having been spotted, there was naturally no more running. Hua Chun stopped in her tracks, turned around stiffly, and found herself face to face with the Emperor’s expressionless face.

With a forced smile, she lifted her skirt and walked over: “What a coincidence, Your Majesty is here too. This concubine happened to be passing by, and was just about to come pay respects.”

Setting down the memorial in his hand, Yuwen Jie looked at her, his gaze cool: “Paying respects to Us with your back?”

Hua Chun: “……” This was clearly a case of having seen her attempt to flee — was he going to hold it against her? The two of them having a falling out was one thing, but as the weaker party, she couldn’t afford to show the sovereign too sour a face outwardly; internally she could sulk all she wanted, but for now, backing down was the practical choice.

Taking a deep breath, she smiled: “Just now this concubine saw Your Majesty was busy, and was afraid of disturbing you, so I wanted to slip away quietly.”

Yuwen Jie ignored her, glancing with distaste at the stiff smile on her face, then let his gaze drop to her rounded belly, his expression finally softening somewhat: “Have you been sleeping well these past two days?”

Nodding, Hua Chun said: “Slept very soundly.”

The sovereign paused, his face darkening again, and he said nothing, only staring at her.

Caught between laughter and tears, Hua Chun couldn’t fathom what was going through this man’s mind — was sleeping well also something to be upset about? Did he expect her to say something like “this concubine has been having nightmares every night, even developed dark circles” before he’d be satisfied?

“Sit.” the sovereign said.

Hua Chun obediently walked over to the stone stool, and Eunuch Qin placed a cushion for her so she could sit more comfortably. Hua Chun nodded gratefully at him, then looked at the sovereign, waiting for what came next.

The table was covered with memorials, and the sovereign casually tossed one to her: “Prince Xi will arrive in Yanjing within a few days, bringing fifty thousand troops, saying he wants to station them at the capital’s outskirts.”

“What a fine idea he has,” Hua Chun scoffed coldly. “Does he take you for a fool? Letting him station troops right at the capital’s outskirts — what if he suddenly took a notion to stage a rebellion for fun, who would stop him?”

Having said that, something occurred to her, and she pursed her lips: “The Empress Dowager doesn’t want this concubine meddling in state affairs, so Your Majesty needn’t show me the memorials either, lest this concubine end up pleasing no one.”

“There’s no outsider here,” the sovereign said. “If you have any thoughts, just say them, no need to hold a grudge against Mother Empress over it.”

Hua Chun puffed her cheeks and glanced at him. Was there really such a foolish person alive? She was clearly sulking at him — why would she care about the Empress Dowager at all! His attitude toward her would entirely determine the outcome between her and the Empress Dowager. Though honestly, who won or lost didn’t matter that much to her, this was a matter of principle. Principle, understand?!

“I have no intention of agreeing to what Prince Xi wants, but if Mother Empress comes to persuade me, I don’t know how to refuse her either,” the sovereign said. “Think of a way for me.”

Pursing her lips, Hua Chun thought to herself — asking her to come up with a solution, of all people. Last time things had gotten so tense between her and the Empress Dowager, she didn’t dare go anywhere near that again.

“This concubine has no way of handling the Empress Dowager,” she said. “Come down too hard, and you’ll blame this concubine for disrespecting her and angering her into illness again. Go too easy, and it’ll have no effect at all — the Empress Dowager’s favoritism toward Prince Xi isn’t something that started yesterday. The final decision rests entirely with you. There’s no reason to shift the pressure onto this concubine. If you think it’s inappropriate, just refuse the Empress Dowager directly, wouldn’t that solve it?”

The sovereign frowned: “I… am not very good at refusing Mother Empress.”

“No wonder you let an assassin chase you up onto the rafters and just endured it,” Hua Chun rolled her eyes. “This concubine really can’t understand it either — you know perfectly well in your heart how the Empress Dowager actually treats you, so why do you keep foolishly listening to everything she says?”

Eunuch Qin was startled, thinking to himself that Consort De’s words were becoming increasingly reckless. The Emperor had never liked being criticized, and with her speaking like this…

“When I was born, Mother Empress nearly died in difficult labor,” Yuwen Jie explained calmly, without any anger. “Without her, there would be no me. However she has treated me since, I should still remember the debt of giving me life.”

Hua Chun was taken aback, tilting her head slightly, her own anger cooling somewhat.

So there was a story like that behind it. No wonder the sovereign acted so foolishly about it — even if the Empress Dowager didn’t hold onto the bond of mother and son, given this man’s reserved nature, he would never treat her unkindly.

This kind of person was the most foolish and the easiest to be deceived — though he appeared fierce, domineering, and overbearing, inside he was soft as anything, and whoever showed him even a bit of kindness, he’d remember it for a lifetime, a perfect blend of dark scheming and naive sweetness.

“Sigh.” Letting out a breath, Hua Chun shrugged. “In this situation, what could this concubine possibly say? If I told you not to be so blindly filial to the Empress Dowager, you’d probably think this concubine was trying to drive a wedge between you two. But if I go along with your wishes and just listen to the Empress Dowager, then you’d only be sleeping on a knife’s edge.”

The sovereign pressed his lips together and fell silent.

“There’s something this concubine is quite curious about.” Hua Chun narrowed her eyes at the sovereign. “With how filial you are to the Empress Dowager, if one day she threatened to end her life unless you handed the throne to Prince Xi, would you give it up or not?”

His expression darkened, and the sovereign turned his head away, his body suddenly going rigid.

Hua Chun blinked, about to ask what was wrong, when she heard Eunuch Qin beside her say quietly: “Something like that has already happened before.”

Huh? Hua Chun turned to look at him in shock, then glanced at the Emperor again.

It had already happened before? And yet the Emperor was still so calmly determined to be filial to the Empress Dowager? That didn’t add up — the Emperor hadn’t abdicated, and the Empress Dowager hadn’t died either, so what exactly had happened?

Curiosity fully piqued, Hua Chun immediately pulled Eunuch Qin aside and said quietly: “Tell this palace what happened back then.”

Eunuch Qin glanced at the Emperor, then sighed: “Back when His Majesty had just pacified the foreign threat and was returning to the capital for his coronation, the Empress Dowager pleaded with him, saying His Majesty was skilled in martial arts and better suited to lead troops on the battlefield. As for governing, it should be Prince Xi who took the throne instead.”

At the time, the sovereign had just returned from the battlefield, bringing with him countless bodies and the heads of his most loyal subordinates, only to be met with words like these from the Empress Dowager. He had flown into a rage on the spot, paid her no mind, and let her go on a hunger strike in Huiming Palace, never once yielding.

This was also the reason the Emperor afterward disliked visiting the Empress Dowager’s palace or speaking with her.

The Empress Dowager claimed she would starve herself, but after five days without dying, she gave up, only requesting the finest fief for Prince Xi instead.

Anyone else would surely have severed the mother-son bond entirely over this; at the time, everyone assumed that given the Emperor’s fiery temper, he would send the Empress Dowager off to a Buddhist mountain retreat for spiritual cultivation. Who would have thought the Emperor actually endured it, only staying away from the Empress Dowager for half a year. It was only after the Empress Dowager later fell gravely ill, and showed him warmth and concern again, that the relationship finally eased.

Hearing this, Hua Chun clicked her tongue, feeling even more that the Empress Dowager had gone too far. This wasn’t merely favoritism — her whole heart was clearly set on Prince Xi. She simply couldn’t understand it: Yuwen Jie was better looking than Prince Xi, and more capable than Prince Xi too — why on earth did the Empress Dowager favor Prince Xi so much, always putting the Emperor down? Could it simply be because the younger son was more endearing? Or because this big, foolish man of an Emperor didn’t know how to say sweet things to please the Empress Dowager?

Feeling an inexplicable pang of tenderness, Hua Chun sat back down beside the Emperor with a serious expression and said earnestly: “Please, Your Majesty, refuse the Empress Dowager directly — just say you don’t trust Prince Xi’s character.”

The sovereign said flatly: “Once she starts nagging, there’s no end to it.”

She might even bring up brotherly affection, saying that brothers ought to love and support one another, and the like.

“Are you a fool?” Hua Chun said, exasperated, slapping the table. “What was the point of gathering all that evidence before of Prince Xi plotting against you, and keeping those assassins locked up in the imperial prison? Use them as your excuse! That alone gives you more than enough reason to refuse letting his troops into Yanjing’s territory!”

Qing Niao flinched, quickly tugging at her mistress’s sleeve.

Calling the Emperor a fool?

The sovereign narrowed his eyes and looked at her.

Coughing lightly, Hua Chun caught herself too, pressing her lips together: “Don’t take what I said earlier to heart. The point is what comes after — if you feel you can’t reason with the Empress Dowager, then go straight to the evidence. You could even bring Grand Secretary Tang along, and in front of the court officials, the Empress Dowager will have to be somewhat fair about it.”

After thinking it over for a while, the sovereign nodded: “I’ll try.”

“If you really can’t hold your ground, you can also bring in Second Brother to help you,” Hua Chun said. “He’s able to reason with the Empress Dowager too.”

“Mm.”

With that said, Hua Chun stood up: “Then this concubine will take her leave now.”

“You.” the sovereign spoke, his eyes not looking at her, staring instead at the memorials on the table. “Won’t you come pay your respects on your own initiative at all?”

Hua Chun paused.

Was this his way of offering her a way down from this?

She was the type who yielded to gentleness but not force — hearing the sovereign say this, she pouted her lips, her tone softening as well: “Seeing as you’re probably still angry with this concubine, this concubine naturally wouldn’t want to run over and add to your troubles.”

“I’m not angry with you,” Yuwen Jie said, turning his head away, his voice muffled. “I just don’t know how to handle the relationship between you and Mother Empress.”

“It’s very simple,” Hua Chun said, clapping her hands. “Side with this concubine in front of this concubine, side with the Empress Dowager in front of the Empress Dowager, and when we’re both there together, just be fair and impartial. Whichever side ends up wronged, make it up to them privately afterward. Managing the relationship between your wife and your mother really isn’t as difficult as you think.”