Mo Chuo had a.s.sured them that everything will be alright, that the emperor will listen to them. Mo Chuo seemed to know how to change his mind but being punched on the face by his young and beautiful stepmother was not in their plan. They looked at each other, wondering what to do next.

"Come, don't be scared. Let's have a nice conversation, shall we? Speak freely. Tell me what you think," the empress dowager said, further unnerving them when she unexpectedly sat down on the steps of the dais.

The concubines looked at each other uncertainly. They again threw the motionless body of Mo Chuo a glance.

"Don't look at her," the empress dowager commanded impatiently. "Look at me. She can't help you anyway. Talk to me like you would to your own mother and tell me what's in your heart."

The emperor, who had remained in the background just watching his stepmother, smothered a laugh. She was obviously younger than all of these women yet she sounded like she really meant what she said. Shameless brat. Talk about drama. He shook his head ruefully. She had even infected him with that particular tone of hers.

A girl in her twenties suddenly raised a shaking hand.

"What's your name?" the imperial stepmother asked.

"Hu Xiu, your majesty," the girl said said in a trembling voice.

"What's on your mind, Hu Xiu?"

"What will happen when we leave here? I mean, where will we go? I'm an orphan, your majesty. I've lived here since I was sixteen. I don't have any money except for some trinkets I've saved over the years. I'll be dead if I go out of those gates."

"I am still dissolving the harem whether you live or die," the empress dowager said in an implacable voice. "But I am not as heartless as to leave you alone to fend for yourselves. I'm not paying you off either to make you leave. What do you really want to do if you have the choice?"

"What do you mean?" Hu Xiu was near tears, her voice barely a whisper.

"I'm asking you want you want to do if you were given a chance? Do you want to start a business, work somewhere, tell me."

"What I want?" Hu Xiu seemed confused.

"Yes, surely you want something. You had dreams, didn't you, before you became a concubine? I know being a concubine is the ultimate dream for many of you but this is the end of the line for that particular dream. The old emperor is dead and this new emperor doesn't want you. None of you are related to him, he's not going to screw you since you're basically his father's leavings, so why should he continue supporting you? What's in it for him? You get my meaning?"

The women transferred their desperate gazes on the emperor, who smiled and raised his hand in greeting but said nothing. They saw his youth, the smoothness of his cheeks, and felt a tremor of shock thinking of him in bed with one of them. He was just a boy, who was younger than even his stepmother. Those words the empress dowager said still reverberated in their minds: his father's leavings. Because if you really get down to it, that's what they really were. The leavings of his dead father. He didn't owe them anything yet they cling to him because they all feel that he owed them something.

On the floor, Mo Chuo suddenly groaned and stirred. The empress dowager stood up and gave her head a good kick. Mo Chuo again went out like a light. Her abuser casually went back to her position on the dais as if nothing in particular had happened and waited.

"I've always wanted to start my own bakery. I love to bake. My parents and my friends used to love my cakes and pastries. I miss doing that," a girl wearing a bejeweled yellow ribbon threaded round her long glossy black hair spoke. She looked at the empress dowager with an embarra.s.sed smile, as if awaiting her mockery.

The empress dowager's black slanting eyes, however, lighted up.

"I think that's a great idea," she approved. "We can definitely start with that. I can help you scout a good location for it, too. Somewhere with lots of foot traffic."

The girl gaped at her, shocked. It took her a while to speak, still gazing at the youthful face of the empress dowager as though she was expecting her to renounce her words.

"That's definitely a good idea," the empress dowager was still saying. "I love sweets. I'll definitely come and visit your store regularly. What's your name again?"

The girl still stood gaping at her. Then she seemed to gather herself and again opened her mouth.

"Li Bingbing, your majesty," she said in trembling voice.

"Well, Bingbing. Here's what I want you to do, write a report of this bakery plan of yours and give it to me to read. Then both of us will go through it then start building it as soon as possible. What do you say?"

"You...you agree to this plan, your majesty?" the girl's voice was almost thin with shock, her eyes staring with the beginnings of hope at the empress dowager.

"Didn't I just asked you to write me a report about it? You can start doing it now and show it to me later, if you like. I'll be here waiting."

Li Bingbing opened and closed her mouth, tears pooling in her eyes. She scrambled to her feet and gave an awkward salute.

"I'll...I'll do that, your majesty. I'll write it down immediately. Please wait for me." And then she fled, the sound of her hurried footsteps loud on the tiled floor.

The other concubines had listened to this conversation first with disbelief then with calculation. The empress dowager saw their expressions and laughed.

"Don't bother scheming" she snorted. "Of course, I'll check up on you if you're really doing work or not. If not, then out you go so fast your head will spin. You think I'm that dumb then watch me destroy you. I don't know you. Not related to you so don't even ask for compa.s.sion. I have none for losers like you."

The concubines were silent. They really want to gang up and beat this f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h up but they knew she was waiting for it, for them to do something so she can summarily dismiss them from the palace then and there.

Hurried footsteps were suddenly heard outside then the doors opened and Mo Zhi and the ministers of court angrily barged in. Mo Zhi's eyes immediately went to the motionless body of Mo Chuo on the floor. His eyes flashed, his gaze catching the empress dowager's amused smile. With an enraged yell, Mo Zhi charged at the empress dowager, his blunt fist targeting her lovely mocking face.

The empress dowager although young was tall for a girl. She was also very fast and agile. Compared to the prime minister, however, she was an amateur. The older man was stronger, bigger and angrier. His fist was also beefier and heavier. He didn't have one thing though. The element of surprise.

When his fist was about to connect with the empress dowager's face, she deftly turned her body, then as fast as lightning, her fist shot out, strong and firm and deadly, at his jaw. Her fist hit his lower face with an ugly thud, making him stagger backwards in complete surprise. Before the prime minister could recover from his confusion, the tall and lithe body of the young girl wrapped around him like a vice, her legs squeezing his trunk while her arms wound around his neck in a tight choking hold.

The prime minister's breath was getting raspy from lack of air, his sweating face pale and dazed when the empress lightly jumped to the ground and released him. The prime minister swayed where he stood then crumpled like a deflated old sack on the ground.

The silence became deafening.

Mo Chuo opened her eyes and screamed when she saw her father on the ground beside her. Her eyes immediately flew to the woman standing over him. She opened her mouth but the words got stuck in her throat when the empress dowager's well-shod foot again connected with her jaw. Mo Chuo went out like a light for the third time.

The empress dowager nonchalantly brushed her clothes.

"Guards," she said, without raising her voice.

The palace guards streamed inside then stopped when they saw the two people asleep on the ground. They stared at each other confusedly then looked at the young man leading them. The young man stepped forward and knelt in front of the empress dowager.

"I'm sure you're familiar with the prime minister's ugly mug," the empress dowager's face was indifferent. "He tried to hurt this majesty. Tie him up then put him in the corner over there. Watch him. I'm not done with him yet."

"As you wish, your majesty," the young man said, his gaze fleetingly touching the watching emperor.

The prime minister was hog-tied, his mouth gagged with a piece of bound hair cut from his pony tail then dragged to the corner of the room like a heavy sack of potatos. The ministers stared dazedly at his immobile body and felt a frisson of fear ran down their backs. The concubines were softly weeping, mentally and pyschologically destroyed by the display of violence coming from a young and seemingly weak girl who was the emperor's stepmother.

"Why did you barge in here?" the empress dowager's voice was cold as ice. "Well, aren't you going to speak?"

The ministers were mute and frightened. Mo Zhi their leader was incapacitated. His daughter out like a light. Father and daughter were supposed to lead the charge against the emperor and stepmother. They were supposed to accuse them of undermining the government by dissolving the harem. Then they would take a no confidence vote on the emperor and name Mo Zhi as the regent. It was a perfect plan. Too bad it didn't work out.

"Well?" the empress dowager tapped her foot impatiently.

"Er...we...that is...all of us were wondering...do we really have to disband the harem, your majesty?" a middleaged minister with a double chin stammered.

"Why? Do you have any other ideas?"

"The emperor will be offending a lot of powerful families if their daughters were brought back to them. They will consider it an insult," the man said, wiping his sweaty forehead. "Please, reconsider your majesty."

"What do you think, little Gu Sheng?" the empress dowager turned her head towads the watching emperor.

"Do you care about what they think?" he asked back.

"f.u.c.k them," his stepmother said, laughing.

"Well then..." the emperor said with an answering smile.

"You heard him," she said, turning back to the man with the double chin.

"But your, majesty...," the man was sweating bullets. The other ministers were whispering among themselves, looking towards the emperor with trepidation. They looked surrept.i.tiously at the still unmoving figure of Mo Zhi.

"You don't want the harem dissolved but you don't have the final say, right? And I say, disband it."

"Your majesty....." the man was almost in tears. "The ruling families will be in an uproar. We'll be in a lot of trouble if that happens."

"Are they more powerful than the emperor then?" the empress dowager's voice was very low, very dangerous.

"Be very careful what you say, minister Dan," the emperor interrupted. "You don't want to be on her bad side."

"Your majesty," minister Dan said, turning to the emperor and bowing deeply, "you are the ruler of heaven and earth. There is no one above you."

"Well said," the empress dowager laughed. "These ruling families, by any chance, does that include prime minister Mo Zhi?"

Minister Dan was silent. The empress dowager turned her attention to the other ministers but they refused to meet her eyes. The empress dowager gave a scornful laugh.

The sound of a groan was finally heard. Mo Chuo was coming to again. This time, the empress dowager remained seated but she turned her head and waited with the rest of them as concubine Mo sat up, her hand feeling her head.

"What happened?" she asked. "My head hurts."

"Are you okay, sister Chuo?" Hu Xiu asked, helping her up.

"What happened to Father?" Mo Chuo gasped, her shocked eyes falling on the hog tied prime minister, his head on his chest. n.o.body spoke. n.o.body even looked at her.

Mo Chuo's angry eyes turned to the empress dowager.

"Did you do this?" she demanded angrily. "Release him this instant!"

"I just thought of an idea how we can get rid of the harem, little Gu Sheng," the empress dowager said, ignoring Mo Chuo.

"What?"

"Let's auction them off," the empress dowager said. "Every last one of them."

"You mean the women?" the emperor's voice was beyond shocked.

"Yup, let's open an auction tomorrow. Invite everyone, including the civilians. Let's make a party out of it. What do you say?"

The shocked silence lasted for several minutes until Mo Chuo screamed her protest.

"Are you crazy? We're wives of the emperor. You can't sell us away. The ruling families won't let you, you f.u.c.king c.u.n.t."

"Mo Chuo!" minister Dan sharply admonished. "Don't talk like that to her majesty."

"Why not? This f.u.c.king c.u.n.t is insane. She's not even from around here. She's a foreigner for pity's sake. She and that brat, just get rid of them. All of us are here, we can take them easy. Isn't that what we planned all along?"

"Mo Chuo!" minister Dan's voice was panicked.

The other ministers were as panicked as him. They looked at each other agitated as sheep and almost hysterical. They wanted very much to silence that idiot Mo Chuo then run away but the emperor was staring at them with mocking eyes, as if he was expecting them to do just that. They glanced at Mo Zhi but he was still out; he was sleeping off his hangover while his daughter continued running on and on, spilling secrets that could cost all of them their lives.

"Kill her. Kill both of them," Mo Chuo screamed viciously, her face contorted in ugly lines.

The empress dowager leisurely strolled towards her then her right leg stretched out in a slight arc, straigthening gracefully as it connected hard with Mo Chuo's chest. They watched stupefied as Mo Chuo flew several feet away, her body cras.h.i.+ng hard against the wall. The brutal kick to the chest knocked her out again. They watched open-mouthed as her limp body stuck to the wall for several seconds then slowly slid down the wall and gently folded to the ground.

"Ah, blessed silence," the empress dowager breathed deeply. "What a nag. No wonder Gu Fang didn't like her. He told me she played the virgin with him on their first night but he said he knew all along that she's been f.u.c.king their gardener or something. And she wasn't even that good in bed."

She turned to look at the people behind her.

"Sorry, minister Dan but all of you are under arrest. Treason is a hanging offense, right, little Gu?" she said, turning to her stepson.

The emperor left the throne and quietly stood beside her. Everyone held their breath. Minister Dan was sweating so profusely, his robes were already wet and damp. The other ministers scrambled hurriedly to their knees, crying and swearing their innocence at their king.

The head of the palace guards, a young man by the name of Yi Hai, watched this scene with a frown then signaled to his men. The guards immediately surrounded the emperor, forming a tight and effective s.h.i.+eld around him. The ministers who were pushed aside began to panic. They tried to rush at the emperor but were repulsed by the might of the imperial guards.

The empress dowager c.o.c.ked her head towards the emperor.

"Arrest the Mo father and daughter and put them in jail," Gu Sheng's deep tones were calm and measured. "The rest of the ministers will be put on trial and their crimes, if they've committed any crimes, will be punished severely. The women in the harem will be sold in an auction tomorrow. Everyone will be invited, including the civilians.

"I would like to put a caveat on this, however, and I think mother will agree with me. I will allow any of these women to make a choice. Along with the harem, the servants including the eunuchs are to be let go tomorrow as well. The intention is to streamline the palace, especially the financial running of it. As for the rest, I'll let mother walk you through it," the emperor glanced at the empress dowager who smiled at him.

"You will be let go but you can come back if you apply for an available position which we will open the day after the auction. We need experienced people to ran the kitchen, the stock room, the gardens, the stables, a valet for the emperor, and a servant for me. If any of you are good in counting and adding up, we will have positions open in the management of the palace as well. All of these will be announced before the day ends.

This search will also be made available to civilians. And I will interview each and everyone of the applicants. I don't care if you've worked here for twenty years or more if I can use you then I will keep you. If you've no use to me at all it doesn't matter if you've worked the same length of time here. Don't even bother with a referral. I will judge you based on your skills and not on the name or status of your patron. That's all. Understood?"

It seemed n.o.body did because everyone stared at her like she was spouting nonsense. The air seemed to be frosted, the wind chilly. Radical change seemed to be coming Yuqui's way on the wings of its young and untried foreign empress.

On the floor, unseen by anyone, the prime minister tried to loosen the rope around his hands. He had nearly had it loosed when a foot again came into contact with his face. The prime minister's eyes rolled back on their sockets as he lost consciouness. Yi Hai casually put his foot down. When he looked up, his eyes met the empress dowager's who winked then smiled at him. That smile was so stunning, Yi Hai's mouth opened and his face turned strawberry red.