Guard Dog

chapter 27

Xingchen bites his inner cheeks nervously. He doesn't know why the empress dowager suddenly summoned him ? She was laying low since consort Yuzu became the official empress of Zi. 

He thought she wouldn't create any more trouble for empress Yuzu and his highness Zixuan. 

"You are a very capable chief minister, Xingchen!"

Xingchen comes out of his thoughts hearing the empress dowager's voice.
He frowns in uneasiness "thank you, your highness!"

"Or so I thought! But now it looks like I was wrong."

Xingchen blinks.

"A loyal chief minister always thinks about their kingdom first, then he thinks about their king, then the prince & princess and then at last about himself."

"Pardon ..."

"But here you are ! Ready to block the only king who can give the kingdom it's future heirs." Empress dowager cuts Xingchen's words. "Aren't you being shellfish?"

"I ... Didn't .." Xingchen frowns "prince Zhan is the crown prince and future emperor of Zi."

"And what if something happens to prince Zhan ? Where is the spare ? You know the rules Xingchen, more the number of heirs,  more powerful the kingdom is."

"But .. prince Zemin is going to resign from his emperor position. He ..."

"So what ? He is still a prince , in the absence of Zhan , his other sons can be considered as backup." Empress dowager spats "because I can't expect anything from Zixuan.

He is blocked and isolated by that Fool Yuzu. But you are not a fool , Xingchen? Why are you blocking Zemin ? Why can't you be happy with being  his concubine ?

"I am not blocking him. If he wants, he can have other wives..."

"Yes yes ! You should tell him that. If you truly love someone, the position doesn't' matter, right ? Whether it's empress or concubine !

Then you reject him for the marriage! No need to be the empress ! I will look for a royal Princess for him . She can be a good empress and give us so many heirs."

***

"What are you thinking? It's been so long I asked you about your favourite flower ! Don't you really have one ?" Zemin's voice pulls Xingchen out of his thoughts.

Xingchen shakes his head "This isn't really necessary!"

Zemin puts down his pen and paper "ok ! What's wrong ? You are behaving oddly."

"What odd ?"

"I don't know, you tell me ! You don't want to invite guests, You don't want to decorate the venue, you don't want to wear wedding outfit, now you don't want flowers too. Everything is unnecessary ! You are behaving like our marriage isn't necessary!"

"It's not that! I was just ... Worried about border situation!"

"What's wrong with our borders ?"

"Nothing for now. But you know.. Lu kingdom and Lan kingdom both share boundaries with us and they are having some conflict between themselves ! What if they ... You know .. we are pretty weak in front of these two kingdoms.

"Weak ?" Zemin frowns "how come ? We can equal military power of Lu kingdom. And Lan kingdom has way less population and areas than us !"