CHAPTER 192: TO KILL AN EMPRESS OR NOT.

When Jingzhe reached the camp, he found himself witnessing something unbelievable. An emperor being scolded! Not just that but his ears were being pulled by Chi Lian.

The dignified emperor was wincing and pleading to be forgiven. He did not look dignified at all as he was dressed in a tank top and using two hands to hold a Mushu costume around his waist. His fingers grasped it tightly as if he was afraid that it would fall down.

Jingzhe looked around the private lounge first, unsure of what he was witnessing. He rubbed his eyes for a second because not only was the empress mother there but so were the royal agents and they were not doing a single thing to help the emperor.

"Mei Mei, what is going on?" He whispered a question.

"This idiot went out dressed in a Mushu costume and people poked him with swords." She answered.

Jingzhe gasped. The first image in his mind was of being being executed at gun point. Who had been bold enough to poke the emperor with a sword?

"An assassination attempt, my goodness! Who is daring enough to try that? And why would they choose to do so at a child’s birthday party?" His eyes widened. "Our daughter, where is Mingzhu. We need to get her somewhere safe...."

Mei Mei scoffed and cut in. "She is fine and she was the one that led the team of children and a few adults that poked the emperor with wooden swords."

Jingzhe was relieved to hear that Mingzhu was fine.

"I am fine too, if you care to know." Mei Mei said sarcastically.

Jingzhe winced as if she had kicked him in the gut. "Mei Mei..."

The sound of a slap startled him and prevented him from explaining himself. The slap came from Chi Lian and the unlucky recipient was Junjie’s ass.

"Try that nonsense again and I will break your legs." She shouted at him very sternly.

Junjie nodded obediently. "I will not try it again aunt."

"Now go and changed into something dignified and join us as we sing to Lian and cut the cake." She told him.

Junjie nodded. When he turned and looked at everyone else, he pushed his chin out proudly and walked away as if he was modeling for the press cameras. He was trying to keep the little dignity he had left, convincing himself that he could not hear the giggles and snickers.

The empress mother dramatically fell over in a chair now that they had proper privacy. "Oh, Chi Chi, you have no idea how stressed I am. Junjie is the most eccentric emperor that I have ever seen. He doesn’t like to follow the rules, the kid thinks that he is still a happy go lucky teenager. And Long Shuang, don’t get me started on that mess. That little crazy thing called me a bitch. Oh--oh--oh," she whined like the lead actress of a dramatic soap opera whose acting was too poor that it was a pain to watch. "I wish I had given her to Manchu to help me raise for a while." She sat up and looked at Chi Lian with hopeful eyes. "Can I?"

"You would have to ask Manchu." Chi Lian told her.

"I vote no." Mei Mei said. "Empress Hui will not take too kindly to her daughter being raised by an outsider. An outsider that is related to me. She thinks Junjie and I are having some kind of secret affair. Our families are very close but we should draw some boundaries to prevent people from assuming the worst."

"That Hui was confined to her chambers. I miss the days when cold palaces existed." The empress mother whined.

"You were not alive in such days." Grandma Jun reminded her.

The empress mother blinked like a porcelain doll on remote control. "I watch dramas and the Northern palace still has its cold palace, untouched. Maybe we can send Hui there."

"It is used for tourism." Grandma Jun reminded her.

The empress mother frowned. "We can always close it off, it is our palace after all. I am getting my son a new wife with a good head on her shoulders, I don’t care about optics anymore. I will not let the royal family be ruined in the hands of an incapable empress."

"Oh the scandal!" Grandma Jun shuddered.

"A divorced emperor is still a hot commodity on the market." The empress mother said with a shrug. "It is either they divorce or I slyly poison that woman and get her out of our lives."

"She can always break her neck on a ski trip. Even if she survives the fall, she could become permanently damaged and then Junjie can remarry openly." Chi Lian suggested.

To anyone that did not know these families or these women, it could be easy for them to assume that they were joking. Jingzhe was one such person. He did not think that the women were seriously planning to murder the empress.

He looked at Mei Mei and nudged her shoulder. "Should I be listening to this?"

"Don’t worry, they are just joking." Mei Mei told him. She smiled at the empress mother and said, "Or the thunder attracting alien in my ex husband can find its way to her. I have it on good authority that the two of them are in contact."

The empress mother sat up. "What!" she proudly exclaimed. "What did that Hui girl do now?"

The door was opened and Rize entered. She respectfully greeted the empress mother and all the grown ups. Then, she sat next to Chi Lian on the swing beside the window.

"What are we talking about?"

"Junjie’s wife." Mei Mei said.

Rize grunted. "What has she done now? Did she escape confinement and go to the temple to find Long Shuang? I don’t know how many times I need to say it but that woman has got to go. We got lucky with Long Wen, she was born tired, as if the world is too exhausting. But Long Shuang, she is impressionable, gullible, silly...I am worried that someday I may have to do an episode of tea with a princess on her because she has committed a crime that led to the death of someone or many someone’s."

"Ooh." The empress mother moaned and she fell over again.

"Keep her in the temple until she is eighteen. Just make sure that you visit regularly, like on the weekends. If she has truly changed, bring her out on occasion for family celebrations and vacations. Continue to remind her that if she goes down the wrong path, she will lose her royal title." Chi Lian suggested. "I don’t think anything is more important to Long Shuang than being a princess."

"So, are we poisoning the empress or not?" Mei Mei asked.

Jingzhe secretly took a deep breath. They were not a joking. He had a feeling that this was the real deal. So, the fact that they were speaking on it openly in his presence, what did it mean. Was it a test? Did they see him as one of them?

He was still wondering about it when the empress mother looked his way with a cunning smile on her face. Gone was the over dramatic woman that seemed to be senseless.

"So, Jingzhe, what do you think. How can we get rid of Hui without her family making a fuss?"