The Child Emperor

The Champion Marquis’s son was learning to walk with the help of palace maids, occasionally blurting out simple words that made everyone around laugh with delight.

Cui Xiaojun was among the onlookers, a constant smile on her face as she found this little creature to be the most adorable being in the world.

A familiar voice spoke beside her ear: “This innocence of today will soon turn into mischief, and eventually become yet another ambitious Han descendant. You watch them grow up but never understand how the change happens.”

Six palace maids bowed and retreated, while another picked up the child and stepped aside.

Grand Consort Cui showed a playful smile – she too liked this little one, though she saw further ahead.

Her arrival disrupted the room’s atmosphere. Cui Xiaojun said softly, “Aunt, let’s go to my quarters.”

Cui Xiaojun led the way out. Grand Consort Cui instructed the palace maids: “Haven’t you raised children before? Move all these tables and chairs out.”

Cui Xiaojun’s room was next door. She dismissed the palace maids and personally served tea to her aunt, standing respectfully aside as befitting a niece.

Grand Consort Cui sat formally, sipped her tea, and said, “It’s not just children who change. Common folk may see fortune reverse in thirty years, but for us, three years is enough. Perhaps tomorrow you’ll be the one sitting here, while I kowtow below.”

“Severe, but true.” Royal Consort Cui set down her teacup, leaned forward, and gently stroked her niece’s cheek. “Of all the Cui clan’s descendants, you have the best temperament and are the smartest. When you become the mother of the empire, will you still be the same as you are now?”

Cui Xiaojun blushed slightly. She wanted to object but changed her mind and asked instead, “If you become Empress Dowager, will you change too?”

Grand Consort Cui smiled and withdrew her hand. “I won’t change, because I’ve long prepared to become Empress Dowager. I missed becoming Empress, I won’t let the position of Empress Dowager slip by.”

“Congratulations, aunt. You always achieve what you set your mind to.”

“Aren’t you jealous?”

“As long as I can spend my life with the Weary Marquis, I don’t care about status.”

Grand Consort Cui smiled, then sighed deeply. “True love is rare in this world, especially in the royal family. There are many unfaithful men here. Are you certain you’ve found the right one?”

Cui Xiaojun lowered her gaze. “You shouldn’t judge everyone based on your own experiences.”

“Ha! Well said about ‘judging.’ Young people never accept guidance from their elders, insisting on stumbling through life themselves. Wasn’t I once just like you? Only when everything turned to nothing, with only the foot stepping on me being real, did I realize how foolish I’d been. You’re still young, you can afford to be naive for a few more years.”

“Did aunt have something to discuss with me?” Cui Xiaojun had grown tired of her aunt’s sarcasm, but living in the same courtyard made it hard to avoid her.

Grand Consort Cui seemed to miss the hint to leave. She took another sip of tea, studying her niece for any telling signs, then said: “The Weary Marquis has left the Capital.”

Cui Xiaojun was first shocked, then relieved. “He’s given up the succession…” She could finally stop worrying. Since hearing about the assassination attempt on Prince Ying, her heart had never known peace. Even the adorable child next door couldn’t make her completely forget her fears.

Soon after, Cui Xiaojun sensed something odd about her aunt’s expression, as if she was still hiding something. “Aunt, the Weary Marquis…”

“You don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?” Cui Xiaojun was bewildered.

Grand Consort Cui’s smile returned. “The Weary Marquis’s move is clearly a strategic retreat. He may fool others, but not me. It seems you’re among those being kept in the dark.”

“Leaving the Capital means giving up the succession. He’ll no longer have the Eight Palace Guard Camps’ protection. How could this be a strategic retreat? Besides… we haven’t been in contact for a long time.”

“Heh, you think everyone in the palace is loyal to the Empress Dowager? If the Weary Marquis wanted to contact you, he could always find someone to help. If he couldn’t manage even that, rushing back to the Capital to compete for the throne would be the most foolish move in the world. As for the strategic retreat, it’s obvious. The Weary Marquis has already gained support from certain people, especially the scholars. They’ve wagered not just their moral principles but their lives. Even if the Weary Marquis wanted to withdraw, they wouldn’t allow it.”

Cui Xiaojun’s heart was in suspense again, though she maintained her composure. “Did you come specifically to tell me this?”

“I don’t want to see you kept ignorant. What if the Weary Marquis does turn the tide? The Cui clan’s future empress should be prepared.”

Cui Xiaojun wasn’t foolish and understood her aunt’s intentions. “No matter how you probe, I can’t help with things I don’t know about.”

Grand Consort Cui persisted. “You may not be able to help me, but there’s someone who can help you.”

Cui Xiaojun refused to respond.

“You may not trust me, but remember this: Maiden Wang is no ordinary woman. Don’t be deceived by her humble and gentle manner – she’s extremely calculating. The Empress Dowager has already fallen for it, keeping her as a maid. It seems like humiliation on the surface, but actually damages the Empress Dowager, who is unknowingly being influenced by Maiden Wang.”

Cui Xiaojun remained silent.

Grand Consort Cui stood up. “If not for me or the Cui clan, think of yourself and the Weary Marquis. Maiden Wang may be cunning, but she was once just a maid from a poor family with limited experience. For her, this power struggle is a gamble – if she wins, she becomes Empress Dowager; if she loses, she has nothing to lose anyway. Such people are clever but dangerous. She doesn’t arrange an escape route because she has nowhere to retreat to. If she only destroyed herself, it wouldn’t matter, but the scary thing is she’ll drag others down with her.”

“The Weary Marquis is her own flesh and blood…”

“And her only bargaining chip.” Grand Consort Cui smiled. “You pay respects to your mother-in-law morning and evening. Why not stay longer tonight?”

Grand Consort Cui left, knowing she had convinced her niece. How to later extract the truth from her niece was another matter, but she wasn’t worried about that.

Cui Xiaojun was too young to outmaneuver her calculating elder. Though she knew her aunt had ulterior motives, she was moved. Grand Consort Cui had struck her weak point – once she considered how Maiden Wang’s plans might affect the Weary Marquis’s fate, Cui Xiaojun could no longer remain indifferent.

Maiden Wang normally attended the Empress Dowager closely, but she had her own private quarters in a side room of the palace – this was what distinguished her from ordinary palace maids.

Cui Xiaojun paid her respects morning and evening, first bowing toward the Empress Dowager’s chambers in the courtyard before visiting Maiden Wang in her side room.

Sometimes the Empress Dowager would come out to meet her, with varying expressions – sometimes cold, sometimes hateful, and sometimes strangely delighted, asking Cui Xiaojun about the Emperor’s daily life. These delighted expressions disturbed Cui Xiaojun more than the hateful ones, as she knew well that the “Emperor” the Empress Dowager spoke of was the deceased Thoughtful Emperor.

This evening, the Empress Dowager emerged looking more natural than ever before, showing no signs of madness.

Cui Xiaojun knelt motionless on the cushion.

The Empress Dowager stared at Cui Xiaojun as if she were a stranger before coldly asking after a while, “Has Han Ruzi been corresponding with you?”

“Your Highness, since entering the palace, I have had no communication whatsoever with the Weary Marquis.”

“Hmm, we shall see. If Han Ruzi leads troops to the frontier and honestly defends the Great Chu against the Xiongnu, you and Maiden Wang can soon leave the palace to reunite with him. But if Han Ruzi tries any tricks, you two will bid each other farewell tonight.”

Cui Xiaojun, who had always feared the Empress Dowager, was now terrified.

The Empress Dowager returned to her room, with eunuchs standing guard at the door.

Cui Xiaojun remained kneeling for a while longer before rising with the help of palace maids to visit her mother-in-law, Maiden Wang, in the side room.

Maiden Wang was always happy to see her daughter-in-law. Though she had borne the Graceful Emperor a son, she remained of low status and even served as the Empress Dowager’s attendant. Yet she never showed any sign of humiliation, instead serving diligently and attending to the Empress Dowager even more carefully than ordinary palace maids.

“Did the Empress Dowager frighten you?” Maiden Wang asked with a smile.

Cui Xiaojun managed a weak smile.

After the palace maids withdrew, leaving just the two of them, Maiden Wang said, “Don’t mind it. The Empress Dowager is very suspicious now and shows a cold face to everyone.”

Cui Xiaojun couldn’t help asking quietly, “There are rumors that the Empress Dowager is… is…”

“Pretending to be mad?” Maiden Wang smiled and shook her head. “No one could fake it so convincingly for so long. If my son died young and my chosen successor kept facing setbacks, I would go mad too.”

“But the Empress Dowager just now didn’t seem… mentally ill.”

“The Empress Dowager is truly mad, but that doesn’t mean she won’t have lucid moments or that she’s lost all reason. Even in her madness, she clings to power – perhaps even more tightly.”

Cui Xiaojun felt a chill. After pondering for a moment, she said, “The Weary Marquis has left the Capital. Have you heard, Mother?”

“Yes, I was the one who persuaded the Empress Dowager to send him from the Capital.”

Cui Xiaojun’s heart tightened. “Mother, do you no longer wish for the Weary Marquis to compete for the throne?”

“The Weary Marquis’s foundation is too shallow – what could he use to compete for the throne? The Empress Dowager isn’t truly selecting an emperor either; she’s seeking revenge for the Thoughtful Emperor.”

“The Thoughtful Emperor?”

“When confused, the Empress Dowager believes the Thoughtful Emperor is still alive. When lucid, she believes he was murdered. Her plan is to throw the Capital into chaos so the killer might emerge. When the Thoughtful Emperor died, the Weary Marquis and I were still living in a small courtyard outside the palace with no influence, so the Empress Dowager doesn’t suspect him and is willing to let him leave the Capital. The price is that he must guard the frontier and defend the empire against external threats for her.”

“The Empress Dowager said if the Weary Marquis truly goes to the frontier, she’ll send us to join him.”

“Let’s hope so, though who knows who will be Empress Dowager in the future.”

Cui Xiaojun looked at Maiden Wang in surprise.

Maiden Wang smiled and said, “I don’t mean myself – I mean Grand Consort Cui. The Empress Dowager suspects the Cui clan most, and the Cui clan hates the Empress Dowager most. This is a battle between them. The Weary Marquis and we should stay out of it, even though you’re from the Cui clan.”

“Having married the Weary Marquis, I am his person now.”

Maiden Wang rose and walked to her daughter-in-law’s side, saying softly, “Then let’s pray together for the Weary Marquis’s smooth journey, and pray the Empress Dowager achieves victory. The situation isn’t very favorable for her – she’s not fully prepared yet. Let’s hope the Cui clan continues to hesitate and makes no surprising moves.”

Cui Xiaojun left feeling much better, believing her mother-in-law hadn’t deceived her.

But Maiden Wang sat heavily burdened with worry. She hoped her daughter-in-law would relay to Consort Cui that “the Empress Dowager wasn’t fully prepared yet,” prompting her to act quickly. Otherwise, the Empress Dowager would soon have victory assured, leaving no chance for anyone else.

She also hoped her son would understand her intentions and return to the Capital during the height of chaos to seize the throne.

This time, she and Ruzi had to win.

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