FID – Chapter 871

Chapter 871: He Was Set Up

“Your Majesty!” Shan Lai cried out in alarm and began to struggle.

But the little strength she had was easily restrained by the youth.

His drunken eyes reddened, and the faint scent of alcohol wafted to her nose. The youth sneered, “After trying so hard to seduce me, now you’re pretending? Don’t worry, be obedient. Tell me which palace maid or young lady you are, and tomorrow I’ll officially confer a title on you.”

His words carried no emotion—like falling into an icy abyss.

“Why aren’t you struggling anymore? Were you really trying to seduce me?” The youth’s bloodshot eyes narrowed with mockery as he looked at her. “Have you resigned to your fate?”

Shan Lai stared straight at him. Tears welled up in her eyes, moistening her lashes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.

“Hah!” Feng Mohan turned over to lie on his side, casually waving his hand. “Enough. Go away. I have no interest in you. With all the ladies in the Three Palaces and Six Courts, I don’t need to force a lowly palace maid.”

His words were harsh, but truthful.

After saying that, the youth turned over and went back to sleep. That whole scene—no one knew if it was his dream or hers.

Pulling her loosened collar closed and gripping it tightly, Shan Lai glanced at the person who had already fallen deeply asleep, her teeth almost biting through her red lips.

After a long while, she quietly took out a small jade bottle from her sleeve, twisted off the cap, and sprinkled its contents into the air.

A sweet fragrance drifted into the dream, stirring sensuality.

It felt like something happening within a dream, yet it was incredibly real.

As dawn slowly broke, Xiao Banzi suddenly woke up, and seeing the daylight, he nearly scrambled off the couch in panic. Stumbling, he rushed toward the inner chamber and before he could even lift the beaded curtain, he saw the scene inside.

He gasped aloud and quickly turned away, “Your Majesty, Medical Lady Shan Lai! Y-you, what have you done…?”

This was disastrous! He feared for his head!

Clothes were scattered on the floor in front of the dragon bed, and on the bed lay someone who should have long since left. It was clear what had happened!

He really was doomed. He shouldn’t have left last night!

Xiao Banzi clutched his head in guilt, while the man who had been drunk all night slowly came to his senses amidst the commotion.

Feng Mohan opened his heavy-lidded eyes. He was just about to scold Xiao Banzi for the ruckus, when his gaze caught a shadow beside him. Turning his head, he saw the woman clutching the edge of the blanket with her face lowered.

All words stuck in his throat, unable to come out.

She was here, in this state. Everything told him that last night was not a dream.

After a long moment, Feng Mohan let out a cold, mocking laugh, his gaze layering on icy contempt as he looked at the woman. “How interesting. You entered my bedchamber, climbed onto my dragon bed… Shan Lai, you’re quite bold.”

“Your Majesty… forgive me!” She lowered her head, revealing her fair, slender neck, tears dropping onto the quilt and quickly spreading across the fabric.

He raised his hand, pinched her chin, and lifted her head. Seeing her face, Feng Mohan showed no flicker of emotion. “Medical Lady Shan Lai? You may leave. Later, I will have someone bring you to the rear palace and grant you the title of consort.”

With that, he got off the bed, grabbed the robe from the bedside, put it on, and walked out. “Xiao Banzi, prepare hot water. I am going to bathe. Filthy.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Xiao Banzi didn’t dare raise his head. He rushed off quickly, afraid that if he delayed, the emperor would hold him responsible.

On the bed, Shan Lai remained in the same posture for a long time. Listening to the young man’s indifferent tone, as if nothing had happened, sent chills through her heart.

Pulling back the quilt, her gaze fell on the pristine white bedsheet, where a single red plum blossom was starkly blooming.

The young emperor was even more heartless than she had imagined.

He simply didn’t care which woman he had slept with last night.

In the bath, soaking in the water as it flowed over him, Feng Mohan leaned against the edge of the pool with his eyes half-closed.

Expressionless.

He was set up.

The feeling made him sick.

Since he was twelve and had been filling the imperial harem, he knew he had to fulfill his duty—to continue the royal lineage, to be a tool for producing heirs.

He had indeed summoned concubines to his bed before; it was unavoidable. But never before had it made him feel this disgusted.

It made him painfully aware that he was both emperor and tool.

A tool for governing the empire, a tool in the struggles of women fighting for power.

He soaked in the bath until his skin wrinkled before Feng Mohan finally got out. Holding clean clothes, Xiao Banzi kept his head bowed low. “Your Majesty, your servant deserves a thousand deaths. Please, Your Majesty… show mercy.”

“Go get your punishment from the eunuch quarters. Fifty lashes. If it’s less, I want your head.” The young emperor’s voice was even and calm.

This was more frightening than his usual emotional outbursts.

“Your servant will go immediately! Absolutely no less than fifty lashes!” Losing half his life was better than losing it all.

Following behind the youth, Xiao Banzi hesitated for a long time before stammering again, “Your Majesty, about Medical Lady Shan Lai…”

“She just slept with me once. Bring her to the rear palace and settle her in any courtyard there.”

Only then did Xiao Banzi remember that the emperor had just said he would bestow Shan Lai the title of consort.

A consort (pin) does not have an independent sleeping chamber and must live together with other consorts and ladies of lower rank in the most remote courtyard of the harem. If she was fortunate enough to gain the emperor’s favor and be promoted to the rank of ‘fei’ (noble consort), then she can leave that place.

Otherwise, she would spend her entire life aging and dying there.

Honestly, she had it coming. She looked so pure and cold, but who would have known she hid such filthy intentions. Once she sent him away, she went to seduce the emperor. It must be known that there had never been a woman in the emperor’s bedchamber before, and since the emperor grew up following the King of Nanling, he had inherited the King’s cleanish.

Did she really think that receiving the emperor’s favor meant she could easily rise to prominence? 

The harem had no less than a few hundred beauties, if not three thousand. To get ahead, she’d have to overcome countless hurdles first!

Shan Lai was taken directly away from Qiande Hall. After she left, all the bedding on the dragon bed was immediately replaced with new sets, and the old ones were burned.

When Feng Qingbai arrived at the Imperial Study, he sensed something was off about the young emperor’s aura—dark and gloomy.

“What happened?” He glanced again. “Where’s Xiao Banzi? Shouldn’t he be attending to you?”

“He’s out receiving his punishment. I’m not sure if he’ll still have a life left after it,” Feng Mohan snorted lightly, his aura growing even heavier.

“Speak.” Feng Qingbai sat across from him and took a slow sip of the tea handed by a eunuch.

Feng Mohan lifted his eyes and said softly, “Imperial Uncle, I was slept with.”

“By a man?” A certain Imperial Uncle didn’t even raise an eyelid.

“……” Feng Mohan’s face twitched. If he had slept with a man, he would have torn that man to pieces and then killed himself.

“Since it wasn’t a man, then why do you look like this? You have to entertain someone at least a hundred days out of the three hundred and sixty-five days in a year. Can you remember a single one?”

“…Not a single one.”

Feng Qingbai slammed down his empty teacup with a bang. “Write your memorial. I still have to rush back to accompany your Imperial Aunt later. I have no time to listen to your whining.”

“……” This was definitely not his real Imperial Uncle.