At first he shared a carriage with her, not caring in the least whether he might fall ill, and now he told the palace maids to start calling her "master," his intentions were not concealed at all.
She really feared that one day he would act on impulse, endure the onset of his illness, and still have to do that with her.
This Imperial Palace was too dangerous.
She had to leave soon.
"Elder Sister, go quickly, do not keep the Emperor waiting."
Qiuzhi pressed down her envy, jealousy, and hatred, and urged her on.
Sang Yan let out a long sigh, slid off the bed at a snail's pace, and after a quick wash, changed her clothes and went over.
Qiuzhi had wanted to put makeup on her, but she did not allow it, and went barefaced straight to the Emperor.
The Emperor was carving jade.
Or rather, he was carving a Jade hairpin.
When he saw her coming, his first reaction was to hide it.
Sang Yan did not see clearly and did not care, she first bent and saluted, "I pay my respects to the Emperor."
He Ying clasped his hands behind his back, passed the Jade hairpin to Pei Muyang, then raised his hand and said, "No need to stand on ceremony, sit."
He rose and sat by the dining table, and said gently, "There was no morning court today, so I thought I would take this meal with you."
Sang Yan replied coolly and perfunctorily, "I was terrified."
He Ying saw that she was in a bad mood, frowned, and asked, "What is wrong, who upset you?"
Sang Yan spoke bluntly, "The Emperor."
He Ying was amused, "How did I upset you?"
"The Emperor put a lot of pressure on me."
His love burned like a blazing fire, suffocating her.
He Ying did not know how she felt inside, and said with a laugh, "I think having pressure is a good thing, to bear the crown you must bear its weight."
"But I did not want to."
Her saying she did not want it was a refusal, a defiance.
But He Ying did not get as angry as before, instead he said earnestly, "At the beginning I did not want to be this Emperor either, but the late Emperor died early. I was only ten at the time and had no choice but to shoulder Da He's realm."
When he spoke of the late Emperor, his amorous thoughts scattered, his expression turned deeply pained, "When the late Emperor lay dying, his mind was unclear, one moment he cried to me that he did not want to be Emperor, and the next he cursed himself for not being a good Emperor. In truth I knew that back then the Regent King Pei Zhen held real power, being Emperor was no easy task, and he had already done all he could."
Sang Yan listened to these secrets of the imperial family, her mood turned heavy, yet she could not help but faintly feel, the Emperor was using a self‑pity ploy, right.
"...The Emperor had done very well."
She thought for a moment and still chose to go along with him.
The next moment she heard the Emperor say, "You could do very well too."
See, he had been waiting right here.
Sang Yan felt wronged but could not speak, "I was not the Emperor."
"Do not be afraid, you had me."
The Emperor was full of himself.
Sang Yan did not know what to say for a moment, and could only turn her grief and anger into appetite.
Breakfast passed in silence.
He Ying ate for a while, then picked a topic, "What was the answer to that question of yours?"
He felt that Feng Yicheng's explanation was not the optimal solution.
But he also could not come up with any better explanation.
Seeing him so puzzled, Sang Yan's mood lifted a little, and she mocked him, "I had asked the Emperor, how did it become the Emperor asking me?"
He Ying chuckled, "I was not perfect, could I not humbly ask for guidance?"
Sang Yan sneered, "The Emperor was always saying that he was the Emperor, the Master of the World, I thought the Emperor was omnipotent."
He Ying, wanting to tease her into a better mood, said, "My apologies, I could not be omnipotent, I must have disappointed you."
Sang Yan, "..."
In the end her heart softened, "It was just a word game, the Emperor need not overthink it."
He Ying nodded and sighed, "So it really was meant to give me a hard time."
Sang Yan, "..."
The Emperor.
If she softened any further, she would be a dog.
After breakfast,
she wanted to take her leave.
He Ying did not agree and had her attend to his brush and ink.
Sang Yan had done this before, so she numbly ground ink for him.
He Ying read through petitions, and from time to time he would ask, "How do you think this person should be dealt with?"
Sang Yan took the petition, it stated that the Imperial Censor Feng Ji impeached the Prince of Qingzhou and Du Tong for their extravagant lifestyle, not only did they recklessly expand the Prince Mansion, they also collected beauties of all kinds, causing the common people in their domain to suffer unbearably and complain constantly.
"May I ask, what merits did the Prince of Qingzhou have?"
"He lived off ancestral favor and had no merits."
"Then once it was verified as true, justice should naturally be done, what was there to hesitate about?"
Sang Yan did not think this case was difficult at all.
Had the Emperor been too lazy to think?
He Ying seemed to read her thoughts, he looked at her and smiled gently, "Nothing, I just wanted an excuse to talk with you a bit more."
Sang Yan, "..."
The Emperor was flirting with her again.
Her heart, traitorous, sped up.
Her face even grew a little warm.
She quickly turned her head and urged, "The Emperor should hurry and handle state affairs."
The petitions on that desk were piled up like a small mountain.
If one did not see it, one would not know the Emperor's hardship, Da He's territory was truly vast, eighteen provinces, ninety‑six cities, with a total population of two hundred million.
More than the population of the Tang dynasty at its peak in history.
To rule over so many people, all resting on the Emperor alone, the hardship need hardly be mentioned.
No wonder the Emperor wanted to slack off.
He Ying did indeed want to slack off, he dipped his brush in ink to write comments while saying, "Whenever I see the Prince of Qingzhou, I think of the late Emperor, when the late Emperor was alive he was rather close to him. The late Emperor did not have many friends, aside from Wan Zhang of the Observatory, there was only him."
These words sounded very much like favoritism.
Sang Yan's sense of justice flared, and she could not help saying, "When the Prince broke the law, he should be punished the same as a common people, even if he was an old friend of the late Emperor, the Emperor could not easily pardon him. Otherwise the example from above would be followed below and disaster would surely follow."
"All right, I will listen to you."
He Ying agreed readily.
In the end he even joked, "You cared so much for the country and the people, if you had been born a man, you would surely have been a pillar of the state."
Hearing him say this, Sang Yan also felt regret, "Who said I would not."
If she had transmigrated into a man's body, she would have followed Feng Yicheng's example, advancing to make contributions and retiring to travel the world, how delightful that would be.
"It was just as well that you were not."
He Ying's tone carried relief.
Sang Yan felt an urge to hit him.
She then heard him say, "Over the years I had also heard rumors of Du Tong's absurd antics. It was said that every spring Du Tong held banquets in the Prince Mansion, where countless concubine stood in the garden with fresh flowers on their heads. Then he had someone catch a butterfly and personally set it free, and whichever concubine the butterfly landed on would serve him that night. Heh, letting the butterfly choose whom he favored, I, the Emperor of a whole nation, was not as good at playing as he was."
Sang Yan, "..."
Why did that sound a bit like envy?
Hmph.
All these years, because of his strange illness, the Emperor had been unable to approach women, he must have been pent‑up.
Thinking of this, she said crossly, "The Emperor just said it himself, you were the Emperor of a whole nation, why were you always paying attention to such frivolous things?"
He Ying, "..."
It was not that serious.
He coughed twice and lowered his voice, "I used to think that way too, but now that I had you in my heart... relations between men and women, that was all. Do not be like those old scholars, they were dreadfully pedantic and boring."
Sang Yan said nothing on the surface, but in her heart she snorted coldly, hmph, double standard, when the Prince of Qingzhou and Du Tong let the butterfly choose whom they favored it was absurd, when he let a butterfly choose whom he favored it would be an elegant romantic act.
"The Emperor should rein in his thoughts and focus on the petitions."
She felt like she was turning into a teacher, standing by the side of a disobedient student, nagging him.
She was exhausted.
"Take a look at this one too—"
The Emperor handed her another petition.
Fine.
She had been wrong, she was not just a teacher, she was also a political adviser.