I woke up as the Villainous Empress

98 Royal Court I

After Yang Ning returned to Yang Household with Xiaowei, Gu Lan and Zheng Liang went to the royal court for the afternoon session.

While going to the royal court, Zheng Liang sighed heavily as he remembered the way he was asking Yang Ning to stay back for lunch.

He still cannot believe that to accompany Yang Ning, he even tried to skip the royal court session.

He can skip the royal court session any day but today. Because today he needs to discuss something important with His Majesty.

Yet he forgot about his responsibilities and tried to make her stay back for lunch. “How can I ask her to stay back for lunch when I cannot even accompany her? Ah, So embarrassing.”

“Why did I even ask her to stay for lunch at that time? Argh!! I must have lost my mind.” He groaned in mortification and embarrassment.

“Yes, You did. There is no doubt about that.” Gu Lan was walking behind him and following him, remarked in a low voice to see him acting strangely in public.

He is the Crown Prince and should be suave and sophisticated all the time, yet he was showing a crude impression to all the maids and the palace staff while going to the royal court.

Since when did His Highness start to act strangely like that? He wondered.

.....

Zheng Liang halted in his steps and turned around to confront Gu Lan, ” What did you just say? Are you saying that I lost my mind?” He said while glaring at him with a stern look in his eyes.

Even though Gu Lan commented in a low voice, he heard it all. How can he agree to his words like that?

He is the Crown Prince. Does he think he can say whatever he wants to his face? Doesn’t he fear him at all?

Gu Lan was surprised by Zheng Liang’s confrontation but looked at him with a stony expression and shook his head and said, ” I didn’t say anything. Your Highness must have heard it wrong. I was silently following you the whole time.”

Zheng Liang gritted his teeth and wanted to smack Gu Lan on his head because he heard him agree to his words. How can he deny it to his face now?

“Hah! Lie all you want. If you think that you will be spared for your cheekiness by lying, then you’re mistaken.” Zheng Liang scoffed at him and said, “From tomorrow onwards, you will be going to the stable house to clean the horses’ poop. You will be doing this for two weeks. Consider it as your punishment for not listening to my orders before.” Zheng Liang said as he resumed walking once again.

Gu Lan frowned and grumbled about the unfair punishment, “Again? But I already got punished for not listening to your orders last time. Didn’t you ask me to do the same last week? Why am I getting punished for the same mistake two times? It’s not fair.”

Zheng Liang punished him to clean the stable house for a week because he failed to follow his orders and protect Lady Yang Ning and Xiaowei from the attack of the bear.

That time he didn’t complain about it because he deserves it. However, this time it’s not fair to him. He didn’t say anything. It was Zheng Liang who said it and he simply agreed with him.

Zheng Liang smirked to see him whining like this. Gu Lan can do anything but he hates cleaning the horse stable the most.

If you ask him to train the whole day, he would gladly accept it and wouldn’t even consider it a punishment. However, cleaning the stables is a different matter.

“I can do anything I want. So think before speaking ill about me next time.” Zheng Liang said and continued to walk ahead.

Gu Lan pursed his lips in a thin line and wondered what wrong did he do to deserve this unfair treatment. He was simply agreeing to Zheng Liang’s, was it so wrong?

____

Royal Court

At the royal court, everyone gathered for the afternoon court session. As usual, the royal court was held at the main hall of the palace where the Celebration Banquet of Zheng Liang was arranged.

At the elevated seat and the throne, the Emperor was sitting and was listening to the complaints of the ministers who were addressing the appeals one by one.

Zheng Liang was sitting along with the other ministers on the platform below the Emperor’s throne.

He was seated on the first chair in the right row from the side of the Emperor and the other ministers were sitting according to the superiority of their departments.

There are several departments in the royal court, which are responsible to fulfill their respective duties for the sake of an organized system to run the Empire smoothly.

Yang Luoyang was sitting next to Zheng Liang as he was the head of the financial department and the department of finance and treasury is above the other departments in the court in terms of hierarchy.

The Emperor was heading the court session while the minister’s addressed the matters one by one and tried to get the approval of His Majesty for the solutions that they had come up with.

Zheng Liang was watching how the ministers were fighting and arguing with each other, to prove their points to His Majesty and were blaming the ministers of the opposition for any issues.

The purpose of these fights is not to find the best suitable solution to the problem but to show their dominance in the court and get the verdict in their favor.

He sighed, feeling exhausted from the tiring court session. More than physically tiring, it was exhausting him mentally.

However, as the Crown Prince of the Empire, he has no other choice than to attend the meeting because no matter how tiring it is, he has to go through it and learn how to deal with these manipulative ministers.

After the court session was about to end, the minister who was reading the appeal scrolls started reading out the last scroll of the day.

“The last appeal of today’s court session has been made by the....Crown Prince, Zheng Liang.” The minister was bewildered when he saw Zheng Liang’s name on the scroll and wondered why the Crown Prince would submit an appeal to the royal court.

Yang Luoyang glanced at Zheng Liang coldly, while wondering what this man was planning. Why did he send the appeal to the royal court? What could be the reason for his action? He grew curious.

The Emperor was surprised and glanced at Zheng Liang with an indifferent expression and asked, ” Zheng Liang, did you submit the appeal to the royal court? What is the matter that you wanted to discuss with everyone?”

The Emperor was irritated that Zheng Liang submitted an appeal without seeking permission from him.

If he had written anything inappropriate in the scroll, what would the people think about the reputation of the royal court?

Zheng Liang bowed to the Emperor respectfully and stood up from his chair facing him and responded to His Majesty’s question. ” Your Majesty, there is something important that I wanted to discuss with everyone.”

He glanced at the muddled faces of the other ministers and the corner of his lips curled up to see Yang Luoyang staring at him with a deep frown. ” Your Majesty, do you recall when I informed you that I went to the Brothel House that day for a reason?”

The Emperor’s face hardened when Zheng Liang mentioned the incident the other day. Almost everyone in the court knows about this matter, however, it is like a forbidden matter which everyone is afraid to discuss with other people.

The other minister’s ears perked up to hear Zheng Liang’s words and they got curious about why the Crown Prince went to the brothel house with Yang Ning the other day.

While everyone was curious about the incidents the other day, the Emperor’s face turned scarlet in embarrassment and humiliation. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth to see the bold action of his son.

Why does Zheng Liang want to discuss this matter in front of everyone? He could have talked to him while coming to the Main palace and visit him to discuss it.

It’s nothing but humiliating. Does he want to announce to the world proudly that he went to the brothel house with his going to be Crown Princess?

The Emperor looked at Zheng Liang and said coldly, ” Not now. Zheng Liang, everyone has gathered here to discuss important matters and not discuss gossip or things about your personal matters. You can come to the study later to discuss it. ” He tried to brush him off by saying this and wanted to end the meeting here.

However, Zheng Liang didn’t back out either and confronted the Emperor, ” However, Your Majesty, what I am going to talk about is not related to any gossip or my personal matters. Instead, it is for the sake of the transparency in the system of the royal court and discussion of the discipline among the ministers.” He said, causing all the ministers to growl at his words.

However, he avoided everyone’s words and waited for the Emperor to give him a green light to present the details of the appeal.

The Emperor pursed his lips and could see the determination in Zheng Liang’s eyes. He took a deep breath and said, ” Alright. You can explain the reason behind your appeal. However, If I feel that it was nonsense and doesn’t need any attention, I will dismiss this appeal without any questions asked.” He said.