The Divorcee Is A Wicked Black Belly 63 The Emperor Has His Say

"How are you feeling?" she asked, finally breaking the awkward silence.

"I'll live."

"Next time, when I tell you to go, you go. I don't like to be disobeyed in the middle of battle, understand?"

Yi Hai opened his mouth to disagree but caught his father's eyes and clamped his mouth shut.

"How many do you think are left of the duke's and prime minister's forces?" she asked after a while.

"It can't be that big. They were expecting to wipe us out in that first encounter so they sent more than half of their army."

"Hmnn. I guess we'll know when we go back there later."

Yi Hai didn't answer.

"After the auction, prepare one hundred men. We're going to pay the duke and the prime minister's son a visit," the empress dowager said.

Yi Hai was surprised.

"Do you think that's wise, your majesty? What if they're waiting for us to do just that?"

"After I've literally destroyed their reserves? I don't think so. I think they're too frightened of me right now to think of anything but retreat. But I don't want them to retreat alive. I want all of them dead, is that clear?"

There was such a determined and angry look on her face that the three people in the carriage almost cringed in fear. The empress dowager looked almost like a wild animal in her red dress and black pants with her long hair unbound.

"I will take no prisoners. Only dead bodies. Is that clear?" the empress dowager repeated.

The voice was hard and implacable. Yi Hai swallowed his saliva and nodded.

The ride to the palace was accomplished in tense silence. The three of them could tell that something had really enraged the empress dowager. They could smell it in the air, it was thick in the small s.p.a.ce of the carriage.

Yi Hai heaved a silent sigh when they entered the palace gate and the carriage finally stopped at the emperor's courtyard. The empress dowager jumped una.s.sisted and offered a hand to Yi Hai's mother, who looked weirdly at her. Meanwhile, Yi Ying helped his son down the steps, his eyes a bit panicked when it encountered his son's.

The emperor was waiting for them at the top of the stairs when they turned and made their way to the house.

"I just heard the news," he said. "Is Yi Hai okay?"

"He's fine, but the wound needs to be cleaned," the empress dowager answered. "They tried to ambush us. They're all dead."

"But An Ning, it's the middle of a public auction in broad daylight and with many witnesses around. Surely, they're not as stupid as to mount a coup as publicly as this?"

"They thought they had their chance and they took it. Too bad I lived and they didn't."

"An Ning," the emperor said in despair. "Can you please stop being so flippant? I worry about you when you're like this."

"Stop with the lecture," the empress dowager was really mad this time.

"I know you're angry but please stop. It's not worth it."

"Revenge is not worth it? Since when?"

"Since it started eating at you. Father wouldn't have wanted to see you like this. You know he wouldn't. He loved you too much to see you waste your life in this pointless undertaking."

The empress dowager visibly took a deep breath.

"If I promise to see only justice done will you stop with the lecture?" she finally asked with an unforced coaxing smile.

The emperor sighed.

"You're an idiot," he said.

The empress dowager laughed and looked back at the people pretending not to hear this awkward conversation.

"A fifteen year old boy calling his stepmother an idiot. What a family, huh?"

The onlookers smiled awkwardly, conscious of the emperor's eye on them.

"Come inside," the emperor said. "We'd better take a look at your wound, Yi Hai."

"The others are in here as well?"

"Yes. I put them in the big room down the hall. I thought it better to put everyone in one place since we don't have the staff we used to. There's no use getting ourselves exhausted running from place to place."

"How many?"

"About twenty injured and two dead."

"Not many then. Thank G.o.d for that," the empress dowager sighed and was silent, then as if she had just remembered something, she looked at Yi Hai's parents. "I hate to ask but can you help? The injured needs to be tended to and somebody has to cook dinner to feed all these people. Only for tonight and possibly tomorrow morning. The job interview will open tomorrow and I'm sure I can find new replacements for the servants before the day ends. Please?"

"Don't worry a thing. You can count on us, your majesty," Yi Ying said, with an awkward bow. "We'll help all we can."

"Really appreciate it. Sheng, can you take care of Yi Hai? I really need to get out of these clothes. I really, really stink."

The emperor nodded and watched as she bounded out the room and out of sight.

The hour was almost over when the empress dowager returned. The emperor threw her a quick glance. Her eyes were red and puffy. She had obviously been crying and upset about something. He sighed. His stepmother was really a contradiction. Sweet and pampering yet savage when the mood strikes her. He knew she had loved his father and really mourned his loss when he died. The difference in their ages had become non-existent when they realized that they had many things in common and shared many things they both liked. His father had been very happy the last days of his life, happier than he had ever been, in fact.

But An Ning...sometimes he wondered if she had ever felt happy. She had said that after this was over, she would leave Yuqui. She would leave him to go back to her own country. The emperor tried to stop the depressing thought. If he offered to give her Yuqui, he wondered if he could make her stay. Would she?

The auction resumed without any incident this time. The daughters of the gentry had been sold off at great profit, bigger than what the duke's daughter and grandson had netted, in fact. The families didn't want their daughters or sisters humiliated or enslaved so they were forced to buy them back at great cost.

Ming He didn't forked out any money for his daughter, only his service and the waiver of his usual percentage. But the emperor still paid him for his day's work. Fair was fair, after all.

After the daughters of the gentry and the ministers were taken out of the pool, all that was left were five orphaned girls with nowhere to go. The empress dowager yanked them out of the lineup and declared the auction closed.

Yi Hai walked over to her side and waited. The empress dowager was tying her cape over her outfit so she was looking down. It was nearing dawn and the air was a bit chilly. When she lifted her head up, she was surprised to see a thousand pair of eyes staring back at her.

"What's the matter? The auction is closed."

The crowd fidgeted but no one spoke.

"Well?" the empress dowager frowned.

The crowd remained silent then a slight movement was seen and a young man with short hair and wearing gla.s.ses was shoved roughly in front while the rest took a few steps back.

The empress waited. The young man was so nervous he was almost clawing at his hat to pieces.

"Your...your majesty," the young man stammered. "We were wondering about the job interview tomorrow. Anybody can apply it said?"

"Yes."

"Even young people or old people?"

The empress dowager frowned and thought for a bit.

"If they could do the job then yes."

The young man seemed to sigh.

"Even if they're wearing gla.s.ses?" he asked with a red face.

"Definitely," the empress dowager smiled.

"How...how many would you need, your great...er...majesty?" a middle aged man had shaken off his fear and walked over to the youth and now stood beside him. The two of them looked somewhat bedraggled perhaps from the earlier fight.

"Between two hundred to three hundred people or more than that even."

The number seemed to stagger her listeners.

"As many of you know by now, the emperor has put his ministers under house arrest and has let go of all his palace servants. The government is now at a stand still and will not move or accomplish anything until people are put in places and make everything run. So, he is basically asking your help to restore order to his kingdom."

There were whispering and silent murmurings.

"The pay will not be high," the empress dowager added after a while, "but reasonable and those that will be accepted will be given his or her own lodgings inside the palace rent free. We're still working on putting kitchens in the houses. Also, there's a bonus at the end of the year and a pay increase if you do a really good job."

The silence became deafening.

"The interview will be at what time again, your high....er ....your ladys.h.i.+p?"

"I will be at the palace gates waiting to interview applicants at eight tomorrow morning."

The murmurings slightly increased in decibel.

"Is there anything else?" the empress dowager asked, smiling at the young man.

"Just...just one more, your ladys.h.i.+p," the boy said. "If somebody is hired but he has a mother who needs his care can he...can he bring her along with him to the palace?"

The empress dowager's austere expression lightened a bit.

"If that happens, then some kind of arrangement will be made. We'll see."

The boy sighed.

"Thank...thank you, your majesty," he said.

The crowd watched silently as the empress dowager walked to her carriage and disappeared inside. After a while, it pulled away and about a hundred palace guards riding high on their horses followed after it. The carriage turned towards the street that intersected with the famous government building. The crowd only dispersed when the carriage and the guards made a turn and disappeared from their sight.

As expected, the house of the powerful Duke of Zeyin was on lockdown. The entire compound was quiet, the gates closed.

The carriage stopped at the gates. The empress dowager jumped down and marched straight to the closed doors. She didn't knock. She retreated a little farther away then pulled out her long tube once again, steadied it on one shoulder, and fired. The explosion blasted the doors wide open. It also killed and injured the hundred or so guards standing behind it.

The palace guards were astounded at the speed of the attack. They could only scramble down their horses and ran after the empress dowager who marched through the carnage without hesitation. Yi Hai and the rest were shocked at the sight of the devastation. Bodies were ripped apart, heads rolling where the blast hit them and blood...they were everywhere, even on the leaves of flowers meticulously planted in the middle of the courtyard.

The empress dowager continued her march until she came across the entrance to the house. She climbed the steps and went inside.

Five people awaited her in the main room: the duke, his wife, his daughter the imperial consort, her thirteen year old son, and another young man who resembled the duke, presumably the duke's son and heir.

"This duke greets her majesty, the empress dowager," the duke, Zhe Fu Yan, said, cupping his hands and bowing his head. The rest of the group did the same.

The empress dowager moved forward, the hem of her dress making a soft swis.h.i.+ng sound on the floor. She stopped when she was about a few feet away, sword in hand and an inscrutable expression on her face.

"I won't even ask why all of you did it. I will only say, you're all going to die before this day is over," the empress dowager's voice was hard as steel.

The imperial consort started to cry, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Her son went to her side, cradling her sobbing body in his young arms. He threw the empress dowager a look of such ugly and vicious hatred Yi Hai, who saw it, flinched.

But then again, the empress dowager surprised everybody. She draw out her small toy, aimed it at the boy and fired. The noise was so loud it literally made everybody jump. There were gasps, screams and much scrambling and yelling.

When everything quieted down, the body of Gu Fang's thirteen year old son lay dead on the floor, blood gus.h.i.+ng stickily from the hole on his head. The royal consort screamed a horrible scream and attacked the empress dowager, who extended a leg and kicked her brutally with it. The body of the royal consort crumpled against the wall, motionless but still alive.

"I'll kill you! I will f.u.c.king kill you!" the duke was beyond himself with rage, but was restrained by two guards and Yi Hai. The empress dowager gave a scornful laugh, aimed her toy and the next blast hit the duke's wife straight on her forehead. The duke's d.u.c.h.ess died with her face still frozen in an ugly sneer.

"That's two," the empress dowager said. "Shall we play the game of eeny meeny miny mo? You tell me, duke."

"Stop...please stop.." the duke said, crying as he looked at the dead bodies of his wife and grandson.

"Your grace...your grace..." the duke's son sobbed and genuflected in front of the empress dowager. "Have pity. Have pity. Please, your grace. Please."

"I remember you," the empress dowager said softly, looking at the young man, "you were the one who wanted to **** me. Humiliate the emperor so your kind would laugh at him, mock him. The emperor marrying your leavings, eh? Your leavings?" the empress dowager snorted. "You're not even half the man he was."

The young man paled, his eyes darting to his father who shook his head. Shut up, if you value your life, the look said.

The empress dowager lazily brandished her sword then before any of them could move, the sword slashed at the young man's clothes down to his inner clothing, baring his white naked body to their astonished eyes.

"You want to **** someone, huh? Since I'm feeling magnanimous, I'll grant you your wish. Yi Hai, get his sister in here."

"No! No!" the duke cried, his face paling. He tried lunging at the empress dowager but was restrained from moving by the two guards.

The royal consort, Shu Se, was awake and mad as h.e.l.l.

"You f.u.c.king wh.o.r.e! I'm going to get you for this! I'm going to kill you!" Shu Se screamed, the veins on her neck almost popping out in her anger.

"You should have made sure I was dead when that eunuch gave me the poison," the empress dowager scoffed. "Now, get in here. I want to fulfill one of your brother's wishes before I kill him."

Shu Se started to fight against her captor, fear starting to chase across her pale face.

"What are you going to do? I'm warning you..."

"You knew your brother wanted to **** me before the wedding, right? He would have succeeded if the emperor didn't find me that sooner. Did you know, he wanted to kill you then and there but I told him wait until the wedding was over. I didn't know you would be crazy enough to kill him on our honeymoon."

"He deserved it!" Shu Se was foaming in the mouth angry this time. "He deserved to die! I begged...I begged him to choose me as his empress...I even threatened him but he laughed at me. He said I was too stupid to..."

"Blah....blah...blah..." the empress dowager rudely interrupted. "You talk like a f.u.c.king soap opera character. The emperor betrayed you. He didn't love you. He used you. And you didn't? Don't make me laugh. You and your father and the rest of your f.u.c.king family used him then laughed at him behind his back. You even plotted against him. If it were me, I would have sent you to h.e.l.l the moment I learned you were f.u.c.king your own father."

The silence that followed was deadlier this time. The duke's face lost all color. Shu Se opened her mouth but no words came out.

"That's a filthy lie!" the duke's son, Zhe Bai Lian, screamed, his eyes seeking his father's. But the duke, still blindsided by what the empress dowager said so casually, didn't see the begging look his son threw at him.

"Look at your sister. I didn't believe it myself until I figured out the reason why she lives outside the harem and had her own little house. The duke would visit her there each week when she's supposedly sick and they would close the doors and allow no one inside. The emperor told me she tried to play the virgin with him on their first night. Of course he played along since he found it very amusing. Imagine, a supposedly closeted young woman allowing dear old dad to penetrate her little honey hole. That dead boy is not really Gu Fang's son, is he?"

"What are you talking about?" Shu Se was close to fainting but was still defiant. "Of course he was Gu Fang's son."

"No matter. It's not important anyway since Gu Fang didn't believe it either," the empress dowager shrugged. "But we're digressing, let's fulfill your dear brother's dream, shall we?"

Before they could say anything, the dress covering Shu Se's body was ripped to shreds by the merciless sword. Then the empress dowager blew something powdery against Zhe Bai Lian's face which made him sneeze. He sneezed and continued sneezing until his eyes turned red and his face acquired a canine cast.

They watched as his red eyes rolled around his head then unerringly focused on his sister, who backed away frightened. Zhe Bai Lian leapt and grappled his sister to the ground, his hard naked body's intention obvious to everyone watching.

The duke screamed and tried to get away from the two guards restraining him. The empress dowager, however, was faster. She clamped a pair of handcuffs around his hands then forced him on his knees just as Zhe Bai Lian finally fulfilled his wish and successfully raped his own sister in front of his shattered father.