The Late Emperor

The late emperor was an enigma for everyone around him. Not even his own son knew what was inside his brilliant head. He was a man with stoic face who rarely smile at anything. It was a stark contrast with the empress dowager that could emanate warmth by only flashing her maternal smile. The pair had nothing in common but they did made a visually pleasant image as the most powerful couple in the kingdom.

The empress could still remember being terrified whenever she was being summoned by the late emperor during her younger days. Despite still retaining his good looks while he was in his fifties, the late emperor's pitch black eyes could pierce into one's skin making one felt uncomfortably exposed in front of him.

It felt as if he had the ability to read one's innermost thoughts!

The empress had always wanted to know more about his first wife - the current emperor's biological mother. Rumour had that she hailed from quite an affluent family despite them marry for their mutual feelings toward each other. It was said that the late emperor could love no one else as much as he loved his first wife. This rumour was also the one that cemented the wild speculation regarding empress dowager for her inability to even secured affection from him.

In spite of that, everyone in the capital knew that both the empress dowager and late emperor was respectful and polite to one another. In fact, the emperor was quite protective of her that whenever he heard any uncalled gossip or remarks about the empress dowager were being spread among the palace's gossipers, he would immediately punished them heavily.

Despite that, he had never even once tried to subdue any gossip about his loveless relationship with the empress dowager. Strangely, it was the only remark regarding the empress dowager that he let loose.

This action procreate another version of gossip on how "the emperor was madly in love with his late wife, he didn't even care for another woman including his new one".

This new gossip was however quashed soon after when the late emperor suddenly took in three new concubines.

Yes, Despite loosing his beloved wife, the late emperor recovered quickly and taken in three new concubines that became his long-life favorites.

It was a surprising development for everyone in the royal realm. They would never imagined that the devoted husband would -one day- be infatuated with three different women from shady background!

No one knows where these three women coming from. They do not belonged to any powerful or affluent families in the court nor do they belonged to small ranking family such as the new empress. Their origin remained a mystery till the end of their lives.

The inner palace as well as the royal court went into chaos when the late emperor first officiated them as imperial concubines. It was a huge scandal at the time. Not only they are of shady background, but they had always stuck together and almost inseparable.

They lived together in their royal quarters and the late emperor even spent his time together with the three of them at the same time!

However, these three women were very powerful in the inner palace. Their power and influence were just below the new empress. They were also vicious and feared by other concubines and servants.

No one would dare to cross any of these concubines! A lot of people in the inner palace disliked these three concubines for monopolizing the inner palace and the emperor's time and attention. Regardless of their bad track, these three concubines established cordial relationship with the new empress.

They never crossed any boundaries to reclaimed her position and was being very respectful toward her.

This made life much easier for the new empress when she had no problem steering the inner palace when the three concubines had been doing the dirty job for her. However, this convenience also cause her to be ridiculed by the aristocrats and royalties alike.

The existence of these three concubines proved that she was incompetent to fight for her husband's love and how she will never be his priority. She was chosen to be his wife purely because she posed no threat for everyone else.

She was but an empress in name only. Everyone knows she was selected due to her 'safety' brand to bring check and balance in the royal court.

Everyone knows the empress' position was like walking on an eggshell. She should never exert her power beyond what an empress supposed to do. She was expected to remained submissive and ignorant about politic power-play if she wanted to keep the position.

In other words, she was chosen due to her low-profile origin and she ought to remained the same if she did not want to be replaced!

Coupled with the fact that she was not even one of the late emperor's favourite, how he rarely visited her palace or even show any affection toward her, the dowager empress became of subject of subtle mockery.

There was this particular phrase 'You don't want to be like the most expensive accessories in the palace' used by aristocrats mothers all over the kingdom to warn their daughters from becoming powerless first wife.

This phrase was one of a few subtle jabs on the dowager empress that was dubbed as an 'accessory' to make a peaceful royal court.

She may put up a face of a kind and motherly empress whenever she was on the throne beside the late emperor, however, she was a lonely woman back in her royal chamber.

The sounds of someone's tossing around, pulled the empress away from her preoccupation about the past. She turned to look at the dowager empress that was moving her head a little bit.

After a while, the older woman opened her eyes and slowly broke into a smile.

"Your Majesty. You are here?" She asked in a trembling voice.

"His majesty is a bit busy today. I am visiting on his behalf" The empress bent down to speak right beside the dowager empress' ear. The old woman nodded slowly when she had received the message.

"I had a long dream"

"What kind of dream?"

"I dreamed of the late emperor"

"You must be missing him so much"

The old woman nodded her head. She smiled weakly to the empress. "I dreamed of the young late emperor holding our late child"

The empress was taken aback. The dowager empress had no children with the late emperor.

"You mean, the late emperor was holding the current emperor?" Either way, that dream was ominous.

The dowager empress shook her head.

"No. Our children. The child that I carried in my womb"

The empress was getting more and more bewildered. The current emperor was an only child. He had no siblings that made it into adulthood.

" Are you hallucinating royal mother?"

No replies. It seemed like the dowager empress had gone into another light slumber

There's not much the empress can do while visiting the dowager empress. She was very sickly to the point that she could only eat few spoons of herbal soup. The empress patiently waited for the dowager empress to wake up for her meal time.

After feeding the dowager empress her meal and medicine, she went back to sleep and the empress decided to take her leave.

As she reached the front door, she stumbled upon a blind, old woman walking toward her with her two young servants. The old woman looked as old as the dowager empress, yet her movement is as sharp as someone who is 20 years younger than her.