The Empress's No.1 Lackey

"Scoring the highest in academics, yet ranking last in class attendance?" Zhao Douan instinctively sensed there was a story behind this.

At the top of Emperor Tower, Xu Zhenguan remained silent for a moment before saying, "Because I am a woman."

Zhao Douan was startled. "Just like that?"

"What else?" the white-robed Empress turned her head to glance at him, "Isn't that enough?"

She picked up the wine jar, took another swallow, and then hurled the large jar down the railing, shattering it with a crash.

The Palace Attendants below were not surprised, as if it were the norm.

Xu Zhenguan said with a touch of self-mockery,

"From ancient times, princesses have been names without power. Even born into the Royal family, they could not escape this fate.

If I, as an Imperial Princess, surpassed all the princes especially the Crown Prince in academics, and it spread, wouldn't people say the Royal men were incompetent? That they were suppressed by a mere woman?

Moreover, since princes need to develop confidence from a young age, too many defeats would harm the making of an emperor's majesty... My father firmly believed this and instructed the Grandmaster to rank me last."

Zhao Douan was silent, thinking that there was probably also the reason that the Third Imperial Princess was not favored by the late Emperor.

Otherwise, she wouldn't be the only princess in the academy, and logically should not rank last... Unbelievable.

"So, was Your Majesty often melancholic back then?" he slowly asked.

Xu Zhenguan nodded, speaking softly,

"At first, I was kept in the dark. Whenever the school released rankings, and I felt upset, I would come to this tower to clear my mind.

The scenery here is beautiful. I have a telescope that fits over the eye, with which I would watch the life of the people in the Capital... That was much more vivid than life in the palace.

Hmph, princesses aren't allowed to go out before they come of age, but the Emperor Tower is on the edge of the Imperial City, right above the government offices—it's the furthest I could get from the Imperial Palace.

I also learned to drink around that time, it was Mo Chou and Sun Lianying who secretly found it for me.

They were terrified back then, thinking if my father found out, they dare not let the princess drink, they would also be punished."

No wonder those two were deeply trusted by the Empress... Zhao Douan thought to himself.

And noticed that the Empress referred to herself as "I."

He said, "But you eventually found out."

"Yes," Xu Zhenguan exhaled the smell of alcohol and laughed,

"After a long time, Grandmaster Dong could not stand it anymore and told me the truth privately. Only then did I know, in terms of talent, I was actually the best.

Since then, I stopped caring about the academy and learned the term 'hide one's capacities and bide one's time.' My father also gradually stopped paying attention to me... As long as I did not compete with the princes, he didn't care about anything else I did."

Zhao Douan said, "So Your Majesty began cultivating?"

Xu Zhenguan corrected,

"It was both reading and cultivating. The Imperial Palace has a library that collects books from all over, located near the armory, rarely visited by anyone. I became a frequent visitor, and my cultivation also improved greatly."

Zhao Douan tentatively ventured,

"Did Your Majesty have ambitions of sovereignty at that time?"

Xu Zhenguan gestured for a new jar of wine and shook her head,

"No. Even if you or others might not believe it, but before the political upheaval in the Xuan Sect, I had never thought that I could really become an Empress."

With you emphasizing "I" so much, it's hard to find this convincing... Zhao Douan thought to himself.

Perhaps due to growing intoxication, Xu Zhenguan seemed to become more eager to confide,

"At first, I was just frustrated and wanted to prove that I was no weaker than anyone. Until that year, when Prince Jing's son came to the Capital seeking a marriage..."

Zhao Douan perked up his ears,

"Seeking a marriage?!"

...

...

In the Capital, on the essential path between Emperor Tower and the Zhao family's residence.

There was a snack street where the night was gradually deepening, and the pedestrians were thinning out.

Along the street, an imposing old man quietly walked, appearing celestial with a divine demeanor.

"Old Sir, what would you like?"

Inside a soup and pancake shop, a middle-aged owner with a towel over his right shoulder looked at the grandeur of the elderly customer entering and asked.

Zhang Yan laughed, "Do you have any soup that sobers one up?"

"Old Sir had drinks?" the shop owner asked doubtfully,

"I can make it fresh, but you'll have to wait a bit."

Zhang Yan sat down at a table under the canopy outside the shop and smiled:

"Not to worry, slower is better; this old man is waiting for someone to come."

The middle-aged storekeeper suddenly understood:

"Is the Old Sir waiting for a friend's soup? May I know where that person might be, so that I can estimate the time?"

In the Great Yu dynasty, one of the four "Celestials" and the current Old Heavenly Master of the Heavenly Master Mansion, it was rumored he was the strongest cultivator of the age, Zhang Yan Yi smiled slightly.

He lifted his gaze, looked beyond the street above, the awnings propped up by the shops on either side, and gazed towards the bright "Emperor's Tower" in the distance, speaking leisurely:

"This is rather unpredictable..."

"Propose for marriage?"

Zhao Douan furrowed his brows, this was knowledge he had not been privy to.

Xu Zhenguan suddenly tossed him a jar of wine, saying:

"I want you to drink with me, not to abstain from drinking; drink this jar full, then I will tell you."

He paused, then added, "Don't expel it."

"As you command..."

Zhao Douan wryly smiled, reckoning with his alcohol tolerance developed in his previous life, handling this low-alcohol ancient wine would be an easy task.

He promptly embraced the wine jar boldly, guzzling it down without using his Inner Strength to expel the alcohol fumes.

Xu Zhenguan nodded in approval, saying:

"Prince Jing's son has asked the late emperor to arrange a marriage for him to take me as his bride."

Isn't this incestuous marriage? Zhao Douan found it hard to believe.

He then remembered that Prince Jing wasn't the late emperor's biological brother; he was a prince enfeoffed by an earlier emperor.

Moreover, in the history of this world, the Imperial Family wasn't overly strict about intermarriage within the clan.

They valued the political implications of "kinship upon kinship" more than producing offspring.

There were even instances of close relatives marrying but not having children, allowing concubines to bear heirs instead.

It was Prince Jing again, that magician almost harmed me, and the princely heir even tried to steal my Empress... Zhao Douan was not pleased.

He felt hostility towards the "Prince Jing's son" whom he had never met.

"How did Your Majesty deal with this?" he asked sourly.

Xu Zhenguan looked at him with a half-smile, saying:

"Naturally, I was unwilling. What does Prince Jing's son amount to, trying to encroach upon me? Under the coercion of the late emperor, I simply grasped my beddings and went to live in the Divine Dragon Temple, intending to shave my head and become a monk.

Seeing my resolved attitude, and with the poor reputation of Prince Jing's son, the Crown Prince and my Consort Mother strongly argued on my behalf, and the matter was dropped."

Her tone was casual, but Zhao Douan listened with pounding heart.

He could imagine, what a resolute and tenacious figure the Third Imperial Princess must have been?

Xu Zhenguan calmly said:

"Since that time, I resolved to dominate my own fate. I don't wish to marry, even if the Grand Ancestor Emperor rises from his tomb to coerce me, he would have no luck."

Her calm tone contained an astounding force.

These words should not be said lightly... Zhao Douan was moved, fittingly probing:

"Then I wonder what kind of man could make Your Majesty fall for him?"

Xu Zhenguan looked at him with a peculiar expression, then after a moment, smiled:

"At least the you of now, won't do."

Zhao Douan would not accept this: "People can grow."

Xu Zhenguan, possibly feeling tipsy or just content from this evening's gratifications, was in a good mood and didn't scold him; instead, she softly said:

"Then you should strive more."

"What did Your Majesty say? I didn't hear clearly," Zhao Douan blinked.

Xu Zhenguan brushed her sleeve and returned to her desk, stern-faced:

"It's nothing, I'm hungry. I want to eat. Tell me some interesting stories from outside the palace to accompany my drink, immediately, right now."

"...As you command."

Thus, under the quiet night sky by Emperor Tower, while a group of Palace Attendants waited with bowed heads, the Empress indulged in her meal without any pretense.

Zhao Douan sat next to her, telling her stories.

As the night deepened.

When a woman, clad in official robes and wearing a cap without wings, looking cold and beautiful—the "female Prime Minister"—arrived below the watchtower, she couldn't help but frown:

"Has Her Majesty not come down yet?"