The Palace Harem is a Mess (9): Tale of Two Cheating Lovers

*Disclaimer: None of this work belongs to me. Credits go to the original Manhua.*

Back in the Prosperity Palace, Su Luxia stared up at the ceiling with absolute boredom at what was going to happen in the future. She sat back up from her bed and poured herself tea. 'How undramatic...' she had thought to herself.

[Su Luxia! How can you be bored?!] The Bamboo rat yelled once more. Su Luxia yawned this time, as she stood up to apply her makeup. [While Liu Ruyan is gaining brownie points with the Emperor to kick you out, you are complaining about everything being boring!]

"Little One, please shut up." Su Luxia said as she applied her lipstick. "The Plans have already been made. I don't have to do anything, it's Consort Shu's move this time."

[Huh?] The System called out.

"Consort Lady Su, this servant Bi Tao is here." An announcement from outside arrived, Su Luxia finally stood up in amusement at the news that had come from the Palace.

"Have the preparations been made?" Su Luxia asked.

"Yes, My lady. This servant has passed down information to the Head Personal Maid at Consort Shu's side. And Consort Shu seems to have been willing to make the next move." Bi Tao kowtowed under Su Luxia's feet.

"Is that so? Very well then, you may be dismissed." Su Luxia smiled and waved the servant off. Bi Tao nodded and left quietly. As soon as the servant left, Su Luxia yawned, raising her hands to fight off her sleepiness.

"Hmmm... things have surely gone as planned." Su Luxia said. "Now it's time for the pot to burn."

[Host, what the heck did you do now?]

"Isn't it obvious?" Su Luxia smiled as she turned to face her system. "It's a fight between Consorts in a harem."

***

***

Back in the Emperor's palace, a play had been organized in his chambers. The story was a heart-touching romance between a eunuch and a woman, who both had an affair behind the woman's husband. The husband was a tyrannical man, who ruled the household with an iron fist and had many other concubines.

So the wife and the eunuch then worked together to kill the Lord and then reunited themselves to live happily ever after.

"Make this story stop!" The Emperor angrily yelled at the play. The entire orchestra went quiet after listening to the order of the Emperor. "What kind of story is this?"

The Emperor who had been watching the play scrunched up his eyebrows listening to the storyline, and it completely irritated him for no reason. An affair? And murder on a husband? He scoffed angrily, finding it ridiculous.

For some reason, there was unrest in his heart. As if a storm was brewing while he was watching the play. The words that Su Luxia had said before about Liu Ruyan and the Ninth Prince...

They couldn't be true... right? Even Su Luxia denied it.

A servant fell to the floor and pleaded, "Replying to His Majesty! This is just a play... please understand..."

A story? Shouldn't a wife's duty be to always serve her husband, regardless? What kind of unprincipled and disgraceful story was this?!

"A story?! What kind of ridiculous story is this?!" He yelled, with his nerves shown on his forehead. For some reason, his heartbeat increased as he said this. He angrily grueling his fists onto the chair and ordered:

"Do not play such wanton romantic stories in the Palace ever again!"

With that, the Emperor angrily stormed out of the Play. And all of the servants fell onto the play, along with the teary-eyed actors who pleaded onto the ground saying, "Understood, Your Majesty!"

With that, concluded Consort Shu's scheme.

***

***

"Lady Consort Liu, His Majesty is already asleep." A eunuch denied Liu Ruyan's entrance into the Emperor's side of the Palace. Liu Ruyan's eyebrows raised up in a question about the sudden change in the Emperor's behavior, as he would never usually sleep first.

"Why has His Majesty turned in so early today?" She asked politely. But the Eunuch fearfully replied saying that he didn't know much and that it'd be best for Liu Ruyan to head back to her palace safely.

Anxious, and reluctant to head back Liu Ruyan bit her lips as she returned back to her Palace before talking to the Emperor. She didn't understand why the Emperor's mood was so sour, and it made her anxious that she was perhaps falling out of his favor.

No way. Liu Ruyan did everything she could to make sure that nothing would get in the way of her plans. Did Su Luxia perhaps scheme something or whisper lies into the Emperor's ears?! Thinking about this made her enraged, however, she mustn't act out loud.

Coaxing herself, Liu Ruyan headed back into her Chambers. Yes, nothing could be wrong. After all, even the heavens told her that she, Liu Ruyan was destined to become an Empress.

***

While Liu Ruyan was asking around for the Emperor, and coaxing herself out of worry, the Emperor himself, was sitting and listening to the daily reports of Liu Ruyan around in the Palace every day.

However, every time the eunuch spoke a word, his chest became tight and anxious. Even the Emperor himself didn't understand why he, himself was so unrested;

"Y-your Majesty, Like the Ninth Prince, Lady Consort Su comes every day. When she sees that you are speaking with Consort Liu, she heads back to her Palace. B-but sometimes when she sees you alone and asleep, she comes in and wipes off the sweat from your forehead." The Eunuch reported.

The Emperor took a huge breath of relief while asking, "And Consort Liu?"

"And L-Lady Consort Liu... she just treats you well occasionally. But when the N-ninth Prince comes, she..." The Eunuch hesitated while saying such dangerous words. He wasn't sure exactly how to explain such things to the Emperor, whose face turned every time he asked about Consort Liu.

"She what?" The Emperor's voice turned cold. "Speak!"

"She'll leave to accompany him for a chat... but this servant has always been on their side while speaking! S-so no words that s-shouldn't be spoken didn't happen between them!" The Eunuch pleaded.

"Hah!" The Emperor tossed his china teapot onto the floor, and the fragile gift from the foreign lands fell and crashed into pieces. "Words that shouldn't be spoken!? What kind of words shouldn't be spoken between a woman and a man!?"

The Eunuch fell onto the floor in fear and pleaded, "F-forgive me..."

"Scram!" The Emperor shouted when he heard those words. And the Eunuch, understanding the mood of his Lord, quickly stood up on his feet, ran out of the Emperor's sight.

The Emperor stood up angrily and walked around his chambers in desperation as soon as the Eunuch had left.

...What does that mean? He became unrest and anxious while walking around his circles, but he just couldn't point out where and how he was anxious.

Was he perhaps suspicious of Liu Ruyan's fidelity? No...no, that cannot be true. The innocent Liu Ruyan would never plan such things. But when had the Emperor completely trusted someone? Suddenly, he heard an uproar on the other side of the hall.

Becoming alerted he turned around to hear a eunuch yelling: "Your Majesty!"

The Emperor, disturbed that this mess probably had something to do with him, scrunched up his eyebrows as he frustratedly responded: "What is it?"

"L-Lady C-Consort Shu... w-wants an audience with Your Majesty." The Eununch fearfully bowed.

"Tell the Consort that we are busy, and will not have any audience this late in the night." The Emperor angrily responded. However, he was too late to respond as the uproar reached closer to his chamber, and soon a figure stampeded through the door.

"-Your Majesty! This Consort, I, have something very important to report!" Consort Shu yelled loudly.

"Consort Shu. Please leave at once." The Emperor announced bitterly.

"Your Majesty! Please hear me out!" Consort Shu fell on her knees immediately and fell on the ground, kneeling to her husband, the Emperor as she said. "Your Majesty! I would like to accuse Liu Ruyan of promiscuity at the palace gates of being intimate with another man and giving birth to the child of another man!" She announced.