The Right Way to Handle a Tyrant - Chapter 3

I could hardly explain myself. Let them be happy.

Next, I laid a trap for those troublesome uncles.

First I planted people among them to sow discord, until a series of misunderstandings and mishaps produced a splendidly noisy rebellion.

Then I deployed military officers to put it down swiftly and sent civil officials to make a show of searching their estates for evidence.

The uncles were bewildered. They wailed to heaven and earth that they had been wronged.

After the investigations, I arrived with Jing Yao’s verbal decree and offered them reassurance.

“His Majesty knows none of you harbored any intention of rebellion. Unfortunately, the searches revealed that you had all embezzled a little as well. This has caused His Majesty considerable distress.”

Their hearts leaped into their throats again.

“But His Majesty takes pity on your advanced years. Consider that embezzled gold, silver, and jewels your retirement allowance. Please return to your fiefs and enjoy your remaining days.”

Thus the king acquired a fine reputation, the uncles felt they had survived a scare and come away with a fortune, and the officials who handled the case all received commendations.

Everyone was delighted.

“Does your conscience trouble you at all, my dear minister?”

That night, I had just changed into my nightclothes when Jing Yao asked me this.

Had he only been my husband, I would have said: Between the two of us, we couldn’t scrape together a single conscience!

But he was also my sovereign. I could only swallow my irritation.

“If your servant were kind and virtuous, would Your Majesty still favor him?”

Jing Yao shook his head.

“What if I were kind and virtuous—and carrying your heir?”

Again, he shook his head.

I smiled politely. “Then what Your Majesty favors is precisely a wicked man like me.”

He neither agreed nor disagreed.

“I hear the rival who gave you that fertility drug is now chancellor of Ning.”

Why bring up something so infuriating right before bed?!

I ground my teeth. “The people who stirred up trouble among your uncles have very persuasive tongues. I shall send them to drive a wedge between my rival and his king.”

Jing Yao lay down with a scoff. “You make it sound easy.”

I slipped beneath his quilt and poked my head out to look at him.

“Before Your Majesty brought me back, I moved through the courts of various kingdoms. Few rulers would trust me as you do.”

“Take that basket of complaints. Any other sovereign would have thrown me out long ago.”

He drew me into his arms and smiled. “It seems my dear minister really did marry the right man.”

For a long time afterward, I believed I had.

Jing Yao and I agreed in matters of government and enjoyed perfect harmony in bed.

He could search the whole world and still struggle to find a minister and “wife” better suited to him.

And I could find no better sovereign or “husband.”

My love and desire, my office and income, all rested on Jing Yao alone. Before I knew it, I had grown possessive.

Heavens. Wanting a “tyrant” all to myself.

That was just like me. Bold beyond measure.