SFL Chapter 45

[The Fourth Male Lead – The Imperial Wife] 

[Ding! Target Strategy: Wang Huijun.

The target’s current favorability towards the host is: 100%.]

[Congratulations, the mission has been completed!]

Yun Jingli was momentarily distracted by the system’s 100% progress, and his hands were covered by a pair of somewhat cold hands.

Beside him, there was also a scent unique to girls, inexplicably making Yun Jingli want to sneeze.

A somewhat arrogant female voice sounded in Yun Jingli’s ear, “You are not allowed to look at other women!”

Everything turned pitch black. Yun Jingli blinked instinctively. When his eyelashes brushed against the woman’s palm, it tickled slightly. Yun Jingli reached out and pulled down the hands covering his eyes, seeing the situation clearly.

He and the beauty beside him were high above, with the courtiers below dressed in luxurious attire, sitting side by side on both sides of the hall. This was a palace banquet, and in the center of the hall at this moment, a masked beauty was dancing with her sleeves fluttering, accompanied by the sound of silk and bamboo orchestras.

The beauty behind the veil had an extremely graceful figure, captivating many officials’ gazes. It was unclear whether they were simply admiring her dance or trying to catch a glimpse of the beauty beneath the veil.

Yun Jingli only glanced at her before looking away, lowering his head to gaze at the white jade cup beside him, which was filled to about eighty percent. This action caused a hint of disappointment to flash in the dancer’s eyes as she followed his gaze.

However, Wang Huijun was delighted that Yun Jingli’s gaze had shifted away from the dancer and hurriedly added food to Yun Jingli’s bowl.

“Your Majesty, does the song and dance not meet Your Majesty’s expectations?” Just as the accompaniment was gradually coming to an end, a gentle voice sounded from the lower end of the room.

Yun Jingli’s gaze looked over and deduced the woman’s identity from her position.

That woman was the female protagonist of this palace intrigue novel, gentle and generous, and she was the stepmother of the male protagonist, the emperor. 

That’s right, the female protagonist was not a concubine of the male protagonist, the emperor, in the harem, but a concubine in the emperor’s father’s harem.

Just from their unconventional relationship, one could see how difficult the road ahead was for the male and female protagonists in their love story.

Not to mention that the male protagonist is already married to the empress, the girl beside him.

“These songs and dances are too soft, they don’t arouse any interest.” Just like this dynasty, living and dying in a dream.

Upon hearing Yun Jingli’s words, the female protagonist, also known as Consort Sun Gui, smiled slightly and said, “Since that’s the case, this palace will take note of it and arrange something lively for Your Majesty next time.”

Yun Jingli listened indifferently, but in his heart, he was pondering over Wang Huijun’s 100% progress in capturing his affection. No matter how confident he was, he did not believe that Wang Huijun’s progress was genuine towards him.

In the original work, the supporting female lead Wang Huijun falls for the male protagonist, with whom she grew up. She later successfully enters the palace and becomes the empress based on her good family background. At that time, there were already some feelings developing between the male and female protagonists in the palace. However, Wang Huijun’s arrival poured cold water on their budding relationship, as it became clear that no matter how compatible they were, they could never be together.

Wang Huijun’s bold pursuit of the male protagonist was possible because she liked him. She could enter the emperor’s harem and even become his empress. However, the female protagonist’s status as Consort Sun Gui prevented her from doing what Wang Huijun did. After all, Wang Huijun was an unmarried young girl, and boldly pursuing her crush would at most draw some laughter from others. Consort Sun Gui, on the other hand, might not be the emperor’s birth mother, but her status as a consort was something she couldn’t escape.

If the female protagonist dared to act like the supporting female character, she would be the first one to die.

So, the tragedy of this book lies in how the female protagonist, as a consort, can only watch helplessly as her beloved man marries other women, including the three palaces, six courts, and seventy-two concubines.

Fortunately, the supporting female character is extremely domineering and does not allow the male protagonist to look at other women. Since the male protagonist already has someone in his heart, he is happy to make the supporting female character the scapegoat and elevate her to the position of empress.

At first, it was tolerable, after all, the empress’s family background was there. However, gradually, as the empress monopolized the emperor for many years without bearing any children, there were murmurs in the court and the harem.

But what outsiders didn’t know was that the emperor had never touched the empress; it was impossible for her to conceive on her own.

Unable to conceive, Wang Huijun became increasingly temperamental and her actions became more and more erratic. 

Eventually, she died mysteriously in the palace. Her family became suspicious and, with the help of insiders in the palace, suddenly discovered the empress had died while still a virgin. This revelation instantly turned the blame onto the male protagonist.

At this point, the male and female protagonists could no longer restrain themselves and had secretly conceived a child. Their actions were almost discovered by Wang Huijun’s family, but they were stopped by the Empress Dowager, who promised to give the empress’s family an explanation and then publicly announced the death sentence for Consort Sun Gui.

The emperor, in order to protect his beloved woman and child, directly drank the medicine that would end his offspring, causing the empress dowager, his own mother, to faint in anger.

The noble concubine successfully saved the emperor’s only son. Just as she and the emperor were finally able to be together, the empress’s maternal relatives did not spare her. They waited until she had just given birth and then used manpower to send her to her death.

The emperor, deeply in love and devastated by her passing, soon passed away as well, leaving behind only the empress dowager and a son still in infancy.

Taking advantage of the situation, the empress’s maternal relatives supported the young lord to ascend the throne, becoming the powerful figure controlling the court.

Although the original work has ended here, the bloodshed and turmoil hidden within it will not end with the conclusion of the story.

There are only two outcomes: one is that the royal family forces the young ruler to abdicate when he grows up, directly seizing the imperial power; the other is that the imperial family, being lenient, is wiped out by the grown-up young emperor.

After all, the imperial family is not only a powerful figure but also the enemy who killed the emperor’s birth mother. In any case, the young emperor will not spare the imperial family.

After sorting things out, Yun Jingli was not moved by the love story between the male and female leads, but rather felt that they were really too tumultuous.

Since Noble Concubine Sun could have a romantic relationship with the emperor, her age naturally would not be much older than the emperor’s. In fact, Noble Concubine Sun and the emperor were peers. It was the late emperor who, back then, saw a pretty young girl and brought her into his harem.

She had no shame at all.

With a large age gap between them, what kind of feelings could they have? As soon as the late emperor passed away, while other concubines were still worried about their future, Noble Concubine Sun set her sights on becoming the main consort of the emperor.

Otherwise, with so many beautiful women in the late emperor’s harem, many of whom were older, more talented, and of higher status than Noble Concubine Sun, she would not have ended up surpassing them all.

At that time, the male lead was still young. To show filial piety, he mourned for the emperor for three years without anyone else by his side. Noble Concubine Sun gradually captured the young man’s heart with her gentle ways.

Fortunately, the empress dowager was unaware of the affair between her son and her “sister,” otherwise, she would have joined the late emperor in anger.

After Yun Jingli clarified the situation, he looked towards Wang Huijun, who was a young girl and very intelligent. In the original work, Noble Concubine Sun was very satisfied with how Wang Huijun kept the emperor’s side secure, but later she became frustrated because she couldn’t get close to the emperor herself.

The reason Wang Huijun was deceived was because the emperor had planned it. As soon as she entered the palace, he replaced her attendants with his own, and added to that… Noble Concubine Sun’s intentional misdirection.

Noble Concubine Sun was unwilling to let her beloved man touch other women, even if that woman was his wife. Although Wang Huijun was intelligent, compared to Noble Concubine Sun, who had fought her way up in the harem, she was still lacking in experience.

Not to mention that Noble Concubine Sun has always been friendly to Wang Huijun. Ordinary people could not imagine the true relationship between her and the emperor.

“Let’s go, let’s go back,” Yun Jingli called Wang Huijun to leave.

Wang Huijun stood up happily.

Noble Concubine Sun, who was at the lower end, keenly noticed Yun Jingli’s attitude. She knew that the emperor had never shown her such disrespect before.

Just as Noble Concubine Sun was about to say something, a dancer who was dancing suddenly made a mistake and fell out of the lineup. For a moment, the whole banquet fell silent.

“Your Majesty, forgive me, please forgive me,” the dancer quickly apologized, bowing and begging for forgiveness. She then timidly raised her eyes to Yun Jingli, her eyes teary and misty, a look that could soften any man’s heart.

The courtiers seemed to sense the atmosphere and all looked straight ahead, not daring to look around.

Noble Concubine Sun’s eyes instantly turned cold. She stood up and apologized to Yun Jingli, “Your Majesty, it is because of my poor discipline.”

Because she was the host of today’s palace banquet.

“If she belongs to Noble Concubine Sun, then let Noble Concubine Sun discipline her,” Wang Huijun said coldly, not giving any face to Noble Concubine Sun.

She thought this dancer was arranged by Noble Concubine Sun for the emperor. Otherwise, how could a dancer have such audacity?

Seeing that Yun Jingli remained silent, only watching everything happening before him, a hint of bitterness appeared at the corner of Noble Concubine Sun’s mouth.

For her to personally handle the situation was, in a way, a blow to her dignity.

“Take her away and give her twenty slaps,” Noble Concubine Sun ordered.

With her command, the palace attendants naturally showed no mercy. After receiving twenty slaps, the dancer’s face became so swollen and disfigured that she no longer looked attractive.

A maid beside Noble Concubine Sun sneered, “Wanting to soar to the branches and become a phoenix, but not considering if you have the ability.”

The remaining dancers continued to dance at the banquet, but the atmosphere in the entire hall was no longer the same. However, Wang Huijun’s mood was even better than before. Just then, she heard Yun Jingli say to her, “Starting from today, set aside half a day to learn how to manage palace affairs.”

“No, do you want to take advantage of me managing palace affairs to go find other women?” Wang Huijun said.

When she first entered the palace, she naturally wanted to balance palace affairs and her relationship with her husband. Unfortunately, whenever she relaxed a bit, there would always be women around her husband trying to climb up. Wang Huijun could only choose between the two.

Little did she know, this was a conspiracy between the emperor and Noble Concubine Sun, aimed at eliminating her desire to control the power in the palace.

Because before Wang Huijun entered the palace, Noble Concubine Sun had already managed to persuade the emperor and the empress dowager to let her, who was young and had little to do, take charge of the palace affairs.

Once she had obtained power, who would be willing to give it up? Noble Concubine Sun simply persuaded the emperor to sacrifice a bit for her.

As for whether Noble Concubine Sun loved the emperor himself or the power he represented, she probably couldn’t even explain it herself.

Anyway, the taste of ultimately plotting in vain is definitely not pleasant.