Lotus in a Bottle - Chapter 28

Section 45

I no longer remember how I got back that day, or how Tan Lian coaxed me into putting on the empress’s phoenix robes while I was still in a daze.

Tan Lian was simply too good at wearing me down. The moment my resolve softened, he kissed me senseless until I forgot everything I’d meant to say.

It wasn’t until the edict appointing me empress was placed in front of me that I realized something was wrong.

“I haven’t even agreed yet… What does this thing say?

“You expect me to be gentle, virtuous, cultured, reasonable, and help oversee the entire imperial harem?”

Tan Lian took my hand. “No. You don’t have to do any of that.”

“Then what do you expect me to do?”

He’d better not say some nonsense about how all I needed to do was love him. If he dared say anything that corny, I was running away from the wedding on the spot.

“Baoping only needs to be herself.”

Section 46

After revealing his true colors to me, Tan Lian never bothered feeding me pretty lies again.

When he said I should be myself, he truly meant it.

He gave me the sole key to the imperial treasury.

Quite a few court officials were furious. They protested that I was a hen crowing at dawn, usurping a man’s authority, and that I was overturning the natural order.

In the past, Tan Lian had loved using me as a shield while hiding behind me and playing the White Lotus. This time, however, he merely cast the officials a frigid glance, no longer bothering to disguise himself.

“You object? Then resign.”

It might have been different if Tan Lian were an incompetent tyrant. Unfortunately for them, as soon as he ascended the throne, he used ruthless methods to subdue everyone harboring rebellious intentions, then cleaned up the entire mess left behind by the Late Emperor.

Those stubborn civil and military officials were still counting on riding the coattails of Tan Lian’s glorious achievements and going down in history alongside him. Naturally, they weren’t willing to resign just like that.

After a few rounds of this, they finally realized that Tan Lian’s old White Lotus image had been nothing but an act!

It was all fake!

What living saint? What paragon of benevolence? What kind of benevolent man had such a violent temper that he would start throwing punches right in the imperial court?!

In the end, they were the ones begging me to accept the key to the treasury.

Of course, their actual words were rather less polite-

“Your Majesty, we’re begging you! Please rein in that madman!”

Tan Lian’s reputation plummeted. No minister with even a shred of sense wanted to marry his daughter into this den of horrors and subject her to such misery.

And so, Tan Lian somehow unlocked the achievement: No One Dares Propose an Imperial Consort Selection.

One night, Tan Lian held me in his arms as we sat beneath the eaves and watched the stars.

I gazed at the brightest one, the Morning Star, and remembered a certain someone’s irresistible charm back in the day. Comparing it to his current state of being universally despised, I couldn’t help sighing at how much things had changed.

I asked him, “Why did you stop pretending? Surely being loved is better than being feared?”

For Tan Lian, putting on an act was effortless. He barely even had to think about it.

Tan Lian glanced at me and scoffed, then pinched my cheek, which hadn’t slimmed down once in all these years, and refused to let go.

“Who cares whether they love me or not?”

He kept pinching my cheek for quite a while before finally murmuring so softly I almost didn’t hear him, “You’re the only one I need to care about.”

End of Main Story