The Smiling Red Panda 微笑的红熊猫

7. Mo Xiu, Mo Jingtang Knows No Evil

When the court found out Concubine Chu had already conceived the first child of the Emperor, some were greatly disappointed. To elaborate, not only did they support the Empress and expect her to be the first mother, but they were also unable to support the Concubine or run to 'her' side since the Emperor would likely chop their legs off.

So they obviously turned their support to the child.

Well mostly anyway, some old fogeys were insistent in the traditional idea of an imperial court, the Empress must have a decent following. After all, who knows when the Emperor would tire of the hidden Concubine?

They just never told the Emperor that they looked down on the Concubine, and while they'd never dare, there is a reason why.

Once upon a time, an official once said this:

"Your Majesty, it is improper to ignore the Empress for this long. The Concubine has already given birth, surely you can spare time for the Empress…"

Let's just say you can guess why and how they learned their lesson so quickly.

At first, the Empress had been arrogant, she thought that since the Concubine had been pregnant before marriage it wouldn't count and that little prince would just be an illegitimate child, and since she was the Empress, it only strengthened her belief.

Also because Concubine Chu was pregnant before marriage, the court speculated it was not the Emperor's child, to which he proved to them no one could be the child's father except him and they shared the same eyes after all.

However, because the Emperor cared little for etiquette especially when it came to the Concubine and since the child was born after the empire was established, the little prince was still considered the Crown Prince in the end.

The Empress was of course infuriated, the aspect of being neglected on their wedding night and for the rest of their lawful marriage was already appalling, but even the whole court knew about the affair and secretly laughed at her. They knew full well who was most favoured and who was not, but because no one could reach the Concubine, 'her' supporters could only serve from afar and spit at the Empress' misery.

Meanwhile, those by the Empress' side were either stupid or way too ambitious, the dumb ones proclaimed the Emperor would surely forget about that 'wretch concubine', and their mistress was too beautiful to be ignored for so long, but the ambitious ones were somewhat clever, they cajoled and flattered the lonely Empress using her desperation to live in luxury and extort from her.

The smart ones assumed the Concubine must be of heavenly beauty or demonic allure if the Emperor was this possessive.

Also, the Emperor knew the Empress was being taken advantage of, but why would he care? As long as nobody bothered his little Crown Prince and dared to peek at his Concubine Chu, there was no trouble for him there.

Unlike how he remembered, the Crown Prince was born with people around him who worships his mother because of the almost limitless favour 'she' received from the Emperor. It seemed that he didn't remember just how pampered he was as a child, he was beloved by his servants and favoured well in the court.

They all saw how careful the Emperor was with him, there were countless times the officials and ministers wished the little prince would just unknowingly burst through the doors and interrupt his father's glaring. Oftentimes the prince would do just that and they'd thank him endlessly in their heads.

But the Empress was persistent, annoyed that her ministers were pushing her to become pregnant sooner, she tried her best to seduce the Emperor, even going as far as to feign drinking with him and waiting for him to get drunk enough to sleep with her. Truth was, he never finished with her, keep it a secret will you? Pfft, she's already embarrassed to keep failing.