In the third month of the twelfth year of Daming, the sky was clear and the breeze gentle.
I stood by my deity’s bedside, witnessing His Majesty lose his composure and weep for the first time.
Still in his court robes, he had rushed over right after the morning court session. The jade beads hanging from his crown were in disarray, and tears rolled down his ink-black eyes, leaving me dumbfounded.
“Your Majesty,” I couldn’t help but remind him, “our City Lord only has a minor stomach ailment, not a serious illness.”
He glared at me angrily, then held my deity’s hand, caressing it constantly. “It’s my fault for not taking better care of you.”
Such sweet talk, I thought, pursing my lips.
But my deity seemed pleased, her lips curling slightly. “I’ll be fine after taking two doses of medicine.”
“From now on, I’ll eat with you. You mustn’t skip meals anymore and suffer needlessly.”
“But I always inspect the city at noon. How could I have time to dine with Your Majesty?”
“I don’t care. I’ll bring a food box and follow you.”
My deity rubbed her temples, clearly at a loss for how to deal with his unreasonable behavior.
I must say, His Majesty, a grown man who appears stern and authoritative in public, making the entire palace fear him, behaves like a three-year-old child in private. He’s an expert at throwing tantrums and being unreasonable, often competing with me for attention.
When my deity prepared winter clothes for me, he wanted some too.
When my deity bought me a candy figurine during an outing, he wanted one too.
When my deity made me a pouch of wood ash… well, he couldn’t have that one, hah.
However, he truly cared for my deity. When she fell ill for two days, he stayed by her side for twelve, until she grew tired of him and sent him to inspect Muxing City.
During that time, a constant stream of tonics flowed into Zhaoyang Palace. Our palace’s status was almost on par with His Majesty’s own.
I rose from a palace maid to a first-rank female official in ten years, never once receiving a cold look from anyone.
Of course, such favoritism inevitably led some to try and curry favor, attempting to use my deity’s influence as leverage. Many thought my deity was soft-hearted towards everyone and rushed to offer gifts and seek connections.
Then my deity led people to raid their homes.
In her words, upright people would never resort to gift-giving. Besides, with their meager official salaries, where would they get the money for such expensive gifts? A raid was sure to uncover something.
As she predicted, some of the confiscated wealth could match a city’s annual tax revenue.
Working together this way, she and His Majesty fostered an exceptionally upright and honest atmosphere in the Six Cities.
In the fourteenth year of Daming, my deity gave birth to a daughter.
You should have seen how elated His Majesty was. Fireworks were set off for a month, and city-wide celebrations lasted just as long. The best-wet nurses and female doctors in the land were gathered in Zhaoyang Palace, and countless delicacies and precious treasures were added to my deity’s private treasury.
His Majesty never left Zhaoyang Palace, holding his daughter while coaxing my deity to eat. When she grew tired, he’d have the nurses take the princess away, then pat my deity to sleep himself.
When the little princess turned one month old, he took my deity to Xincao City personally, selecting the finest grains to brew three thousand jin of daughter’s red wine for the princess.
It was my first time visiting Xincao City. It was truly a lush and beautiful place, though the buildings there did tend to collapse easily.
In the sixteenth year of Daming, the Six Cities’ Crown Prince was born.
However, my deity suffered greatly during this birth, distressing His Majesty terribly. When I got up in the middle of the night to help my deity turn over, I could see His Majesty sitting on a nearby couch, wiping away tears.
It seemed His Majesty had saved all his tears in this lifetime for my deity.
From that day on, I began to believe he truly would stay with my deity for life.
People say men are prone to stray after their wives give birth, but I watched carefully and saw that His Majesty didn’t. Although many tried to secretly offer him women during the pregnancy, using methods so discreetly that we wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t told us, he still didn’t accept any of them.
He said, “Yi’er has endured such hardship to bear our child. If I so much as glance at another woman, I deserve to be reborn as a beast in my next life.”
I thought this was quite right, but it must have struck a nerve with some people. Later, many nobles submitted memorials advising the emperor not to be overly doting, warning that excessive favor would lead to disaster, and so on.
His Majesty naturally wouldn’t listen. Not only did he ignore them, but he also ordered investigations into whether these memorialists kept mistresses. If any were found, they would be punished according to the law.
While his domineering approach was quite satisfying, it didn’t easily win people’s hearts. Court officials changed frequently, lacking stability.
My deity probably noticed this issue too. After her confinement period, she suddenly began to emphasize her role as Empress, interacting more with the officials’ wives.
No one could get close to the Emperor. Even if you were in favor last month, you’d still be punished for failing to complete a task this month. But it was different with the Empress. If the officials’ wives were on good terms with her, they had someone to turn to for help in the future. Moreover, this Empress’s words carried great weight.
So the officials’ wives came to the palace daily to pay their respects and chat about domestic matters.
In their eyes, they were currying favor with the Empress, but to my deity, they were sources of information and bridges for mediation.
My deity utilized them expertly, reprimanding when necessary, praising when appropriate, hinting when needed, and giving the cold shoulder when required. As a result, officials began to pay more attention to their choice of wives, and the status of officials’ wives gradually became equal to that of their husbands.
From that year on, the court officials gradually became more settled and loyal.
Every day, His Majesty and my deity would watch the sunset together. Standing on the high city walls, he wouldn’t say to Ming Yi, “This is the empire I’ve conquered for you.” Instead, he would smile and point, saying, “That’s the home of the capable minister we just recruited.”
They were the two wealthiest and most powerful people in the Six Cities, yet they lived the simplest lives. They were busy with their affairs during the day but came together in the evenings to watch the sunset and stargaze.
Occasionally, they would argue and bring up old grievances, but as soon as His Majesty mentioned Zhou Zihong, my deity would start listing from His Majesty’s first woman. After rehashing everything, they’d conclude that the other’s past taste was terrible and that they were the best, then makeup.
I didn’t quite understand, but I felt they were truly well-matched.
As the little princess and prince grew day by day, the two of them also aged gradually.
In the year the young prince turned sixteen, the Emperor named him heir and had him oversee state affairs. Then, he began traveling the world with my deity.
They watched the desert sunset, the moon over cliffs, endless mountain ranges, and a rolling sea of clouds.
I returned and told the young prince, “If one could have a love like your father and mother’s in this lifetime, it would be a life without regrets.”
The young prince nodded with a smile, then said, “Bah! They’re just off having fun, leaving official documents unreviewed and important matters undecided. It all falls on me alone. Is that right? We in the imperial family are cold-blooded and don’t believe in emotions! Tell them to come back and attend court!”