Chapter 6

After concerning himself with his two ministers' marriages, Bùi Dữ also reminded them not to wander around the palace without good reason, especially not anywhere the empress might see them.

Then he calculated when she would return, changed into a fresh set of clothes, and went to meet her himself.

But when he heard her thoughts, he nearly exploded on the spot.

【Surely Bùi Dữ won't smell the rouge and powder on me?】

【It's all that male courtesan's fault. Why did he have to wear such a strong scent...?】

What???

His empress had secretly gone to see a male courtesan!!!

He was on the verge of losing his mind, hurt and furious, but managed to restrain himself enough to ask, “Where did you go for amusement outside the palace today?”

Dung Cẩm raised an eyebrow.

“Didn't you send people to follow me, Your Majesty? Surely you know where I've been?”

Oh. Right!

If she'd really gone to see a male courtesan, how could his men have failed to report it?

At last, his jealousy-addled head cleared. Miserably, he wrapped his arms tightly around his devious empress.

“When did you realize I could read minds?”

“When you made such a fuss about summoning the top scholar and the Cavalry General.”

“...All you ever do is bully me.”

“Mm... Who told you to be so easy to bully?”

...

Little Dung Cẩm frowned at the thin, frail little Bùi Dữ, who was sobbing with tears and snot all over his face.

“Stop crying! Father says a real man sheds blood, not tears!”

That only made him cry harder.

“Boohoo, waaah! But... but it hurts!”

Little Dung Cẩm had no words.

She looked at him in dismay for three seconds, then reluctantly took out the osmanthus cakes her father had given her.

“Here. They're very sweet. If you keep crying, I'll hit you.”

With his mouth stuffed full of cake, little Bùi Dữ began to wolf it down.

Once the tears and dirt had been wiped from his face, she discovered that he was actually rather handsome.

“What's your name? Why were those people bullying you? Where are your parents?”

“Bùi... Bùi Dữ. My name's Bùi Dữ. My father is the emperor. My mother died of an illness... No one looks after me. They all say I'm an out-of-favor prince. That's why they bully me.”

She gave him a pitying look and sighed.

“My mother died too, but my father loves me very much. If no one's looking after you, come home to the general's residence with me and be my foster husband.”

He blinked in confusion.

“What's a foster husband?”

She thought for a moment.

“A playmate, I suppose.”

“Then... will there be food?”

“Yes.”

He nodded at once.

“Then I agree!”

But before she could take him home, her father and Uncle Emperor found them.

Uncle Emperor lifted her up and pinched her nose with a smile.

“You little rascal. Your father and I have been searching everywhere for you. Such a pretty girl. Will you be my crown prince's wife?”

She shook her head.

“Uncle Emperor, I don't want to be crown princess! I want Bùi Dữ!”

The emperor froze.

“Who's Bùi Dữ?”

She gave him a scornful look.

“Uncle Emperor, don't you even recognize your own son?”

General Dung's face changed. He hurriedly took the little terror back into his arms.

The emperor, meanwhile, stared at the dirty boy standing silently beside them.

...

In the end, Dung Cẩm could not take Bùi Dữ home.

But because of her words, the emperor suddenly noticed this son whose existence he had not even been aware of.

Years passed in the blink of an eye.

Bùi Dữ never forgot the pretty little girl with two buns in her hair, who had come with a whip and rescued him when others bullied him.

When he was ambushed during the struggle for the throne, he fled to the general's residence with his life hanging by a thread. That seventeen-year-old girl stayed awake all night to guard him.

And when brothers turned on one another, when he was trapped in the mud and covered in blood, it was Dung Cẩm who came to him and said, “Bùi Dữ, get up.”

...

Extra 4: Dung Tuyết

My name was A Tuyết.

When I was four, my mother married into the general's household and brought me with her.

From then on, I had a family name. I was Dung Tuyết.

I also had an older sister: Dung Cẩm.

She was the general's daughter by his principal wife. I had never met anyone so beautiful and so capable.

Everyone in the household liked her. So did I.

But I didn't dare approach her. I only watched her secretly from a distance.

Until one day, she discovered me and pulled me out of hiding.

She guessed who I was.

“Are you... the little sister Lady Hứa brought into the household?”

I nodded awkwardly.

She frowned.

“Why aren't you at school? Didn't Father arrange for you to go?”

Bewildered, I shook my head.

My sister looked at me in silence for a while, then sighed.

“And why are your clothes so shabby? Haven't the household seamstresses made you any?”

“...”

“Never mind. I'll take you out and buy some.”

I had never imagined that my beautiful, capable sister would take me by the hand and lead me out of the residence, buy me sweet red candied hawthorns, and show me strange things I had never seen before.

Then, as though I were dreaming, I put on a beautiful new outfit just like hers.

But when we returned, Mother scolded me for running about.

My sister caught the hand she raised to hit me, frowning slightly.

“Dung Tuyết is the second young lady of the general's household. She may go wherever she pleases.”

She sounded just like Father when she spoke, and Mother dared say nothing more.

“Send her to school tomorrow. She's old enough to study. How can she sit about at home doing nothing every day?”

Mother looked troubled.

“But... the general never said he wanted Tuyết to go to school. Besides, a woman's lack of talent is her virtue...”

Before she could finish, my sister's expression turned cold.

“The true meaning of that saying is that a talented woman who behaves with modesty and gentleness possesses noble virtue. It doesn't demean women by saying they need no abilities.”

Mother was at a loss for words.

My sister let out a breath and looked at her again.

“Father hasn't sent Dung Tuyết to school because he's busy with military affairs and sometimes overlooks things. It isn't because he thinks she's a burden.”

“Lady Hứa, you brought A Tuyết into this household when you married Father. That makes us family. You needn't feel inferior. I'll take her to enroll at school tomorrow.”

Mother's eyes reddened.

“Yes.”

At that age, I didn't really understand the conversation between them.

But from that day onward, I seemed to become the true second young lady of the general's household.

Later, as I came to understand more of the world, I gradually realized that all of it was thanks to my sister.

...

The late emperor died when I was thirteen, and Bùi Dữ won the struggle for the throne.

I knew him.

He liked my sister. He often climbed secretly onto the wall of our residence, gazed toward her quarters, then quietly left again.

My sister... probably liked him too?

Otherwise, Mother wouldn't have said that Father would never have gone to such lengths to help him.

On the day the new emperor ascended the throne, his first act was to make my sister empress.

When the news reached our household, I was both happy and sad.

Happy because she was marrying the man she loved.

Sad because once she entered the palace, I wouldn't see her every day anymore.

I could tell that the emperor treated her very well. Two years after his accession, she was still the only woman in his harem.

Then I heard he'd taken a new beauty.

I was furious!!!

I'd read plenty of storybooks in which a man's love for his wife faded after marriage.

But I never imagined that the emperor, who loved my sister so much, would turn out to be faithless too!

My sister was so wonderful, and he still took another woman???

I fretted endlessly at home. I worried that she would be sad and lonely in the palace, that the new beauty would bully her!

For the first time, I went to Father and asked him to bring her home.

But he told me things weren't as I imagined. Later, I learned that the new beauty had been sent into the palace by the Seventh Prince, Bùi Lãng. The emperor had only accepted her to lure him out and catch them all in one net.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing how worried I was about my sister, Father asked whether I wanted to enter the palace and help her. He warned me that it might be dangerous.

I nodded without a moment's hesitation.

I wanted to.

I was so happy.

At last, I could do something for my sister.

【The End】