60 Mo Chuo becomes a pawn (1/2)

The concubines stared at the girl calling herself the empress dowager then looked at the motionless body of Mo Chuo, whose face was now covered in blood. The empress dowager stood over them like a majestic figure of doom, her unpainted face unsmiling.

Mo Chuo had assured them that everything will be alright, that the emperor will listen to them. Mo Chuo seemed to know how to change his mind but being punched on the face by his young and beautiful stepmother was not in their plan. They looked at each other, wondering what to do next.

”Come, don't be scared. Let's have a nice conversation, shall we? Speak freely. Tell me what you think,” the empress dowager said, further unnerving them when she unexpectedly sat down on the steps of the dais.

The concubines looked at each other uncertainly. They again threw the motionless body of Mo Chuo a glance.

”Don't look at her,” the empress dowager commanded impatiently. ”Look at me. She can't help you anyway. Talk to me like you would to your own mother and tell me what's in your heart.”

The emperor, who had remained in the background just watching his stepmother, smothered a laugh. She was obviously younger than all of these women yet she sounded like she really meant what she said. Shameless brat. Talk about drama. He shook his head ruefully. She had even infected him with that particular tone of hers.

A girl in her twenties suddenly raised a shaking hand.

”What's your name?” the imperial stepmother asked.

”Hu Xiu, your majesty,” the girl said said in a trembling voice.

”What's on your mind, Hu Xiu?”

”What will happen when we leave here? I mean, where will we go? I'm an orphan, your majesty. I've lived here since I was sixteen. I don't have any money except for some trinkets I've saved over the years.I'll be dead if I go out of those gates.”

”I am still dissolving the harem whether you live or die,” the empress dowager said in an implacable voice. ”But I am not as heartless as to leave you alone to fend for yourselves. I'm not paying you off either to make you leave. What do you really want to do if you have the choice?”

”What do you mean?” Hu Xiu was near tears, her voice barely a whisper.

”I'm asking you want you want to do if you were given a chance? Do you want to start a business, work somewhere, tell me.”

”What I want?” Hu Xiu seemed confused.

”Yes, surely you want something. You had dreams, didn't you, before you became a concubine? I know being a concubine is the ultimate dream for many of you but this is the end of the line for that particular dream.The old emperor is dead and this new emperor doesn't want you. None of you are related to him, he's not going to screw you since you're basically his father's leavings, so why should he continue supporting you? What's in it for him? You get my meaning?”

The women transferred their desperate gazes on the emperor, who smiled and raised his hand in greeting but said nothing. They saw his youth, the smoothness of his cheeks, and felt a tremor of shock thinking of him in bed with one of them. He was just a boy, who was younger than even his stepmother. Those words the empress dowager said still reverberated in their minds: his father's leavings. Because if you really get down to it, that's what they really were. The leavings of his dead father. He didn't owe them anything yet they cling to him because they all feel that he owed them something.

On the floor, Mo Chuo suddenly groaned and stirred. The empress dowager stood up and gave her head a good kick. Mo Chuo again went out like a light. Her abuser casually went back to her position on the dais as if nothing in particular had happened and waited.

”I've always wanted to start my own bakery.I love to bake. My parents and my friends used to love my cakes and pastries. I miss doing that,” a girl wearing a bejeweled yellow ribbon threaded round her long glossy black hair spoke. She looked at the empress dowager with an embarrassed smile, as if awaiting her mockery.

The empress dowager's black slanting eyes, however, lighted up.

”I think that's a great idea,” she approved. ”We can definitely start with that. I can help you scout a good location for it, too. Somewhere with lots of foot traffic.”

The girl gaped at her, shocked. It took her a while to speak, still gazing at the youthful face of the empress dowager as though she was expecting her to renounce her words.

”That's definitely a good idea,” the empress dowager was still saying. ”I love sweets. I'll definitely come and visit your store regularly. What's your name again?”

The girl still stood gaping at her. Then she seemed to gather herself and again opened her mouth.

”Li Bingbing, your majesty,” she said in trembling voice.

”Well, Bingbing. Here's what I want you to do, write a report of this bakery plan of yours and give it to me to read. Then both of us will go through it then start building it as soon as possible. What do you say?”

”You...you agree to this plan, your majesty?” the girl's voice was almost thin with shock, her eyes staring with the beginnings of hope at the empress dowager.

”Didn't I just asked you to write me a report about it? You can start doing it now and show it to me later, if you like. I'll be here waiting.”

Li Bingbing opened and closed her mouth, tears pooling in her eyes. She scrambled to her feet and gave an awkward salute.

”I'll...I'll do that, your majesty. I'll write it down immediately. Please wait for me.” And then she fled, the sound of her hurried footsteps loud on the tiled floor.

The other concubines had listened to this conversation first with disbelief then with calculation. The empress dowager saw their expressions and laughed.

”Don't bother scheming” she snorted.”Of course, I'll check up on you if you're really doing work or not. If not, then out you go so fast your head will spin. You think I'm that dumb then watch me destroy you. I don't know you. Not related to you so don't even ask for compassion. I have none for losers like you.”

The concubines were silent. They really want to gang up and beat this fucking bitch up but they knew she was waiting for it, for them to do something so she can summarily dismiss them from the palace then and there.

Hurried footsteps were suddenly heard outside then the doors opened and Mo Zhi and the ministers of court angrily barged in. Mo Zhi's eyes immediately went to the motionless body of Mo Chuo on the floor. His eyes flashed, his gaze catching the empress dowager's amused smile. With an enraged yell, Mo Zhi charged at the empress dowager, his blunt fist targeting her lovely mocking face.

The empress dowager although young was tall for a girl. She was also very fast and agile. Compared to the prime minister, however, she was an amateur. The older man was stronger, bigger and angrier. His fist was also beefier and heavier. He didn't have one thing though. The element of surprise.

When his fist was about to connect with the empress dowager's face, she deftly turned her body, then as fast as lightning, her fist shot out, strong and firm and deadly, at his jaw. Her fist hit his lower face with an ugly thud, making him stagger backwards in complete surprise. Before the prime minister could recover from his confusion, the tall and lithe body of the young girl wrapped around him like a vice, her legs squeezing his trunk while her arms wound around his neck in a tight choking hold.

The prime minister's breath was getting raspy from lack of air, his sweating face pale and dazed when the empress lightly jumped to the ground and released him. The prime minister swayed where he stood then crumpled like a deflated old sack on the ground.

The silence became deafening.

Mo Chuo opened her eyes and screamed when she saw her father on the ground beside her. Her eyes immediately flew to the woman standing over him. She opened her mouth but the words got stuck in her throat when the empress dowager's well-shod foot again connected with her jaw. Mo Chuo went out like a light for the third time.

The empress dowager nonchalantly brushed her clothes.

”Guards,” she said, withoutraising her voice.

The palace guards streamed inside then stopped when they saw the two people asleep on the ground. They stared at each other confusedly then looked at the young man leading them. The young man stepped forward and knelt in front of the empress dowager.

”I'm sure you're familiar with the prime minister's ugly mug,” the empress dowager's face was indifferent. ”He tried to hurt this majesty. Tie him up then put him in the corner over there. Watch him. I'm not done with him yet.”

”As you wish, your majesty,” the young man said, his gaze fleetingly touching the watching emperor.

The prime minister was hog-tied, his mouth gagged with a piece of bound hair cut from his pony tail then dragged to the corner of the room like a heavy sack of potatos. The ministers stared dazedly at his immobile body and felt a frisson of fear ran down their backs. The concubines were softly weeping, mentally and pyschologically destroyed by the display of violence coming from a young and seemingly weak girl who was the emperor's stepmother.

”Why did you barge in here?” the empress dowager's voice was cold as ice. ”Well, aren't you going to speak?”

The ministers were mute and frightened. Mo Zhi their leader was incapacitated. His daughter out like a light.Father and daughter were supposed to lead the charge against the emperor and stepmother. They were supposed to accuse them of undermining the government by dissolving the harem. Then they would take a no confidence vote on the emperor and name Mo Zhi as the regent. It was a perfect plan. Too bad it didn't work out.

”Well?” the empress dowager tapped her foot impatiently.