The Emperor's Phoenix

Chapter 3 | His Approval

金   张  伟

┊⠀┊⠀┊

┊⠀♔⠀┊

┊⠀⠀⠀ ♚

♚⠀⠀⠀⠀

Jin Zhang Wei

The young emperor sat at his desk reading a book on military tactics as he was flanked by his main consort and concubine, lazily leaning on his shoulders and exposing the valley of their breasts.

"Zhang Wei..." Ji Li, his consort, looked up at him with a bored pout from her red lips. "How long are you going to continue reading?..."

He narrowed his eyes and smirked to appease her before he teasingly returned to his book.

"Zhang Wei!"

The other woman, Shi Mei, pressed her breasts against his arm as she poured him a cup of wine.

"You should take a break now...How cruel, ignoring us like this..."

"Hm. I suppose I shall when you two are like this..." He smirked and took the cup of alcohol as she sat on his lap, sliding down his robes and trailing her hand over his toned muscles.

Taking a sip of the wine, he grabbed Ji Li's chin and poured it into her mouth as she let out a low moan. She tugged on his long hair and returned his passionate kiss with much skill. Just as they pushed him to the ground and were about to undress themselves, a knock at his door interrupted them.

"The Late Empress Jin is here to see you," a palace maid announced.

Of all the times, my mother just decides to visit now...

Zhang Wei felt his stress reappear at the thought of seeing his mother and quickly pushed the women away. He adjusted his robes, ignoring the pouts of the two beauties.

"Zhang Wei...We're just getting started, and we have to stop now?" His concubine dragged a finger down his chest and he grabbed her wrist.

"Get out." He ordered them.

"But--"

"Do you dare to make me repeat myself?" Zhang Wei tightened his hold on her wrist as she let out a pained gasp. "Besides for having the privilege of being my most favorable wives and warming my bed, you two are of no other use to me. Now--Get out!"

He released her wrist and she immediately got up to exit his room with his consort, who glanced back at him with a displeased pout. They slid open the door to bow to the Late Empress before scurrying away. Dressed in lavish emerald robes with intricate hairpins and neatly applied makeup, his mother entered with a disapproving glare.

"Good afternoon, son. I see that you are enjoying yourself with your wives as always."

Zhang Wei raised an eyebrow at her tone. "They are simply meant to lessen my stress that accompanies me as emperor, mother."

"Do you not suppose that it is certainly the time for you to ascend a wife to empress? You are already past the prime age of doing so at twenty-three, and it is necessary to have another ruler by your side--"

The emperor simply sighed at his mother's all-too-familiar nagging and closed his eyes in an attempt to tune her out. "This is all because you want an heir to the throne, correct?"

"Of course I do. I am highly disappointed in the fact that my son--"

"I already have five wives present for that purpose."

"Are they, now? It has been years, yet none of them has experienced a single pregnancy!" The Late Empress was starting to fume at her son's incompetence, yet he could care less.

"That is because I have yet to find a suitable woman to ascend to empress. All my wives are the same--they all think warming my bed is enough to please me to let them gain the power of the throne. In other words, they are completely unsatisfactory to become a leader of Jin, and I certainly am not looking to produce heirs with them."

"Why, I suppose a solution has arrived to settle that problem..." He opened his eyes again to spot the unsettling glint that appeared in his mother's eyes.

I have the feeling that this 'solution' will be another unnecessary marriage.

"I have recently received a marriage proposal from the nation of Sui."

If he was drinking wine at the moment, he was sure he would have spat it all over his poor mother's face at this rather unexpected news. He probably wouldn't have batted an eye if she mentioned how it was a proposal from another noble family, but things were different when it came to Sui.

"A marriage proposal from Sui?"

From the formation of the four nations, the original leaders of Sui and Jin had been enemies at war for the remaining years of their lives over their political differences. The tensions between these nations had started to cool down in more recent years, as they shifted to become competitors of trade. A political marriage to a princess from Sui would officially lead to the end of their conflicts through their alliance.

"While this proposal may be rather unexpected, it will be a necessary asset in resolving our political situation," his mother continued in an ecstatic tone, "Additionally, I am certain that a daughter from our rival nation will be highly suitable in the role of empress."

"Hm. I suppose." He half-heartedly agreed with his mother.

Zhang Wei was only willing to go through with the proposal for the alliance. The Princess of Sui would serve no purpose after taking the role of empress, anyway. 

········༻ ♚ ༺········

This novel is basically writing itself so far lol (cue the writer's block later on) 

-Y.P.