56 Decrees - Part 2 (2/2)

The Empress dowager hadn't thought that her son wouldn't reprimand her for her folly. She had really been too muddle-headed to force things this way. This might become a thorn in His Majesty's heart and cause friction between them, therefore, she came to smooth things over.

Su Li knew if she didn't say anything, the other person would worry needlessly.

”Queen Mother, don't worry about what happened in the audience hall today. Am not angry at anyone. I just don't want to deal with those matters at the moment,since father emperor passed away not too long ago.”

Empress Dowager saw how her son didn't look at her while speaking. He was evading her eyes. She came to a sudden realisation that he behaved more like a chaste woman than a young man with passion.

Could it be that there was an issue with his body?

She couldn't reconcile with this fact. However,if it wasn't that then why would he not even have a single bedchamber maid?

Good heavens! So her pitiful son was actually… actually impotent, was he?

No wonder! No wonder he seemed so reticent to taking in harm members.

The Empress Dowager looked at her child with wide eyes and spoke abruptly: ”Your Majesty, you're saying that....”

While The Empress Dowager's thoughts were galloping wildly, what was Su Li thinking?

A person could question that how come this ninny didn't realise that she was creating so many misunderstandings?

The answer: Su Li misinterpreted the widened eyes of the Empress Dowager. She thought that the lady had understood her reservation in this matter as her filial piety towards her departed father.

Therefore, Su Li nodded her head all the while portraying a look of deep grief on her face and said, ”Yes”.

This affirmation would cause her so much embarrassment in the future that Su Li would think back to this moment and want to slap herself on the face and ask her past self to not speak anyhow without understanding everything.

Empress Dowager:”....”

She felt like such an idiot, a complete fool.

What most powerful woman in the dynasty?

What role model for the nation?

What kind of a mother was she that didn't even think of this?

Her son had to expose his wounds to her before she could even understand his suffering.... Her poor child.

When had he realised this truth?

It must have been so painful and difficult for him to come to terms with this kind of a problem.

She had to make discrete inquiries for a reliable Imperial physician. If anyone caught wind of such a matter, wouldn't they force her child to abdicate his throne or even force him to adopt other people's flesh and blood as his own?

Su Li saw the lady looking at her with a strange sort of helplessness and tenderness in her eyes and understood that her filial piety had moved the other person.

Well, that was good. Good.

Atleast, this excuse would give her time to think of the next excuse she would need to use when this topic was raised again in a few years. However, until then, she could rest easy.

If the Empress Dowager helped her fend off all those vultures eyeing the position of an Empress by her side, it would free her of a lot of worries and nobody would dare play dirty tricks to coerce her.

Meanwhile, thinking further, The Empress Dowager had a million ideas flash past in her mind in a blink, and she thought of a temporary stopgap.

If she brought in a girl from a scholarly family who were just paper tigers without any real power to their name, it could stave off any suspicions and also act as a cover until she found a prescription for her child.

Empress Dowager started hesitantly, carefully considering how to say this without harming her son's dignity, ”I'll look into things.”

The two people in the Imperial Study were silent for a while, each making their own plans and their plans lead to a hilarious but beautiful misunderstanding which would take further turns and twists as time progressed.

A few days later the news leaked that the Empress Dowager was looking into the family registers of many well-known families in the kingdom.

Everyone had the errant thought that the exalted Empress Dowager must be checking and rechecking facts and figures so as to choose a noble girl of exemplary lineage as her daughter-in-law.

When this piece of information reached Su Li, she thought that the Empress Dowager was helping her fend off people from her back so she was happy with it and didn't comment upon it.

Furthermore, listening to the news, Su Li had a great eureka moment. If the Empress Dowager could do it, so could she as well.

She could look through all genealogy books and try to find a person named Zhou Sheng.

This way the second edict of His Majesty was decreed.

It read, 'By the mandate of the Son of Heavens, everyone is ordered to submit a copy of their genealogy books to The Emperor within a fortnight, with the latest additions to the family. It has also been decreed that any aliases used by the clan members are also to be mentioned along with their name on a separate page and included inside. If any information is deliberately withheld, it would lead to the exile of the entire clan to the borders. So ordained by His Majesty, so mote it be.'

When this edict was read by the Head Eunuch, the ministers of the Imperial Court were stunned but many of them felt a faint inkling of joy as well.

The information they had received about the Empress Dowager looking at their family registry's wasn't wrong. His Majesty had really started looking for Her Majesty, The Queen.