78 A Beauty (1/2)

For the next few days, Ning Fu observed His Majesty during the morning assembly and also noticed how Zhou Sheng seemed to follow the monarch like a lost puppy.

The emperor never seemed to fault him for that and during the morning assembly, Zhou Sheng was allowed into The Heavenly Hall - even though he didn't have any official post but the monarch's words were the imperial decree in their world, so it wasn't as if anybody could do anything about it.

Though he had heard the various civil and military officials grumbling about it under their breaths.

Today, the monarch had called for the three Head Commanders of the three armies for an audience in the evening. When Ning Fu entered The Imperial Palace, he saw the other two head commanders standing near the path that led to the Imperial Study.

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They exchanged polite pleasantries and started walking towards their destination. Along the way, they saw a youth dressed in pale yellow colours standing under a peach tree in full blossom.

The sunshine filtered through the tree leaves to fall gently on the silhouette of the said youth and the peach blossom's petals seemed to fall like a gentle curtain of rain around him.

The youth had his back turned towards them so he didn't seem to notice that he was making such an enticing picture of a beauty enjoying the flowers in front of coarse military men.

Had it been not for his dress and the top knot on his head, everyone would have thought the person to be a lady enjoying the finer things in life.

However, the dress and the aura of the said person put paid to any such thoughts.

One of the other two Head Commanders turned towards Ning Fu and asked, ”Head Commander Ning, do you know the person standing there? I don't seem to recognise such beauty in our capital.”

The other Head Commander also laughed at those words and said, ”Whether a beauty or a flower boy, if I could spend a single night with the said person, I would be willing to take off a decade off my life.”

Ning Fu had always hated such uncouth conversations that were the norm in the military.

However, before he could reprimand them, he heard The Unit Commander of The Shadow Guards speak, ”Head Commanders, His Majesty had been waiting for you. Please make haste.”

Finished with his words, be turned towards the person standing under the peach blossom tree and walked towards it.

It didn't take more than a scant few seconds for the three of them to realise that the person they were making remarks about was the proud Son of Heavens.

At the dawning realization, the other two people with him turned stiff at their unintentional breach of etiquette and protocol.

If such words reached His Majesty's ears, losing their pitiful lives would be the beginning of a disaster.

However, the other two people still walked towards the silhouette in front of them and Ning Fu followed them from a distance.

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Once they reached His Majesty, all of them gave their bows in supplication and His Majesty asked them to walk with him in the gardens.

Once all of them started following the monarch on his mindless wandering, the monarch spoke in a conflicted voice, ”Zhen has heard that there has been some unrest in the border areas in the past few days and because of the long period of drought, the commoners don't have enough rations to last them this year and the crops they have sowed will only yield results at the end of the year.”

The three of them simultaneously agreed that the report was correct.

The emperor seemed to deflate at the news and then inquired, ”Zhen has also been made cognizant of the fact that the relief funds sent by the imperial court never reach the commoners and is embezzled by the prefecture heads etc and that it is a complex network where all of them benefit, so none of the honest ones dares to sense any reports to me?”

At that question, none of them dared to reply - whether in positive or negative and kept their mouths shut.

When His Majesty saw that no answer was forthcoming, he whirled towards them in a flurry of robes and questioned forcefully, ”What? Are you thinking of lying to Zhen? Don't dare to answer? How about Zhen goes to the border areas to see the conditions for himself and leave you to battle the court intrigues?”

With a trembling heart, Ning Fu gave a half-bow to the emperor and replied, ”Your Majesty, It is true. Most of the prefecture heads are the students of either The Right Prime Minister or The Left Prime Minister, so nobody dares to report and dig a pit for themselves and their families. The commoners are oppressed and the nobles don't seem to mind the atrocities being carried out.”

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At his words, the emperor gave subjected him to a long hard stare and then without further ado asked the three of them to leave.

On their way out of the Imperial Palace, the other two Head Commanders started with their crass talk once again and Ning Fu lengthened his stride to get away from them.

During the early hours of the night, he couldn't stop his churning thoughts that circled his mind.

He thought in brooding silence about His Majesty, about Zhou Sheng, about their relationship, about The Empress Dowager and about the questions His Majesty asked a few hours ago.

A few hours later, when Ning Fu still found himself awake despite the lateness of the hour, he got off his bed and without conscious thought, his feet carried him towards the Imperial Palace.

Standing in front of the high blood-red walls of the palace, he couldn't decide on his next course of action.

Pondering about it, he activated his internal force and leapt over the walls.

Ning Fu himself didn't know what made him do something so reckless, but it was as if his heart couldn't be at peace until he came to this place and saw His Majesty.

Was the monarch sleeping?