I Became the Older Brother of the Heroine in an Abusive Novel

As they entered the twelfth lunar month, the palace gradually gained a festive atmosphere.

Every new year, everything in the palace was replaced with new things. Mingluan Palace got ready early, and was just waiting for the first day of the new year to change all the silks. In addition to replacing things, each palace also needed to check their storehouses and record all the goods into a log book before the end of the year. Only when everything was properly arranged could the previous year be considered finished.

Therefore every palace became very busy. After this busy period, it was the eighth day of the twelfth month.

This day was the Laba Festival.[1] On this day the Emperor did not have to attend court, so all the women in the harem waited in anticipation to see if the Emperor would summon them. But very quickly, rumors spread that the Emperor had not summoned anyone. Instead, he had gone to the head astrologist early in the morning.

Whenever the Emperor visited the head astrologist, he would not come out for at least half a day. So Consort Shu instructed the kitchen to cook rice porridge early on. She wanted the few people in the palace to eat Laba porridge together in the main hall.

No one expected that right before noon, Ling Fu hurried over. He delivered a decree saying that the Emperor would go to Mingluan Palace for lunch at noon.

Consort Shu had no choice but to put the family meal on hold. She hastily had the small kitchen prepare a new meal. Jun Huailang stayed in the side hall and ate with his sister.

Jun Linghuan had just fallen asleep after eating when a eunuch came. He reported that the Emperor had sent for Jun Huailang for a chat.

This was not abnormal for Jun Huailang. He tidied his appearance and went to the main hall. At the entrance, he heard the sounds of talking and laughing inside. Consort Shu was sitting in front of a small stove, clumsily making tea. Emperor Qingping sat at the seat of honor, teacup in hand, laughing without restraint.

“Greetings to Your Majesty,” Jun Huailang said, stepping forward to salute. 

Emperor Qingping gestured for him to rise. He indicated for Jun Huailang to sit at a side seat, then asked with a smile, “I heard from your aunt that you taught her this method of brewing tea?”

Jun Huailang understood. It must be that Consort Shu made tea for the Emperor today and pleased him. The delighted sovereign summoned him to praise him for his good work.

Jun Huailang naturally didn’t dare take credit. He said with a smile, “I just had nothing to do. I didn’t expect Gumu would be this devoted.”

This really made the Emperor happy. He burst into loud laughter and said, “I have never seen her do such dull and troublesome work. It must be because you teach well!”

Consort Shu stopped making tea. She threw the fan in her hand at Emperor Qingping and said angrily, “Your Majesty is really biased! This servant worked so hard to brew tea for Your Majesty, yet not a word of praise was given to me!”

Emperor Qingping laughed again, as did everyone around him. For a moment, the entirety of Mingluan Palace was filled with a lively atmosphere.

Jun Huailang smiled lightly as he accompanied them.

He had served as an official for a few years in his previous life, so he knew a thing or two about the Emperor’s temperament. Emperor Qingping was superstitious and quite paranoid. Consort Shu had been favored by his side for so many years all thanks to her naive and innocent temperament. 

The entire Jun family, regardless of whether it was his father or his aunt, all reassured Emperor Qingping. Unexpectedly, it was because of this reassurance that caused the Jun family to wither and perish a few years later. 

Jun Huailang had gone through one lifetime already. He knew well what the saying “being close to the emperor is like being close to a tiger” meant. Looking at the harmonious scene in front of him, his heart remained calm and solemn; he refused to be drawn in.

It was to the extent that he was able to notice a disturbance gradually arising outside the half-open window. 

At the center of this disturbance was Diancui. She seemed to have encountered some trouble and was holding the servants in the courtyard accountable. But she was not focused at all. While she was busy with the matter in front of her, she seemed to be observing the activity in the main hall. 

Her behavior was very unusual, but it corresponded with Jun Huailang’s conjecture a few days ago. Jun Huailang’s heart hardened, his eyes followed her calmly.

Jun Huailang saw her gradually become anxious and irritated. She went to the entrance of the west side hall and interrogated Jinbao. Jinbao hemmed and hawed, he seemed anxious. Diancui thought she caught him in the act, she said something to him, spitting with anger.

Jun Huailang was very relieved. He was right. Next to Xue Yan, Jinbao looked weak and timid, but he was actually very clever. He remembered everything that Jun Huailang told him before.

As expected, it didn’t take long for the commotion outside the window to attract Emperor Qingping’s attention. 

“What is the meaning of the racket outside?” He asked with a frown.

Consort Shu also looked outside. She heard Diancui raise her voice and aggressively say to Jinbao, “If you didn’t do anything suspicious,[2] why don’t you hand over the key!”

Jinbao stammered and seemed to be trying to explain something.

The dispute between the two of them disturbed Emperor Qingping. He frowned and commanded Ling Fu, “Go, call the two of them in and ask what’s wrong.”

Ling Fu trotted to the courtyard carrying the order.

Jun Huailang saw that Emperor Qingping’s previously delighted face now showed an expression of annoyance. The person behind Diancui probably knew Emperor Qingping quite well and clearly understood how to anger him. She arranged for Diancui’s show today in order to make the Emperor fed up with Consort Shu.

Of course, there was more than meets the eye.

Jun Huailang sat at the side, waiting quietly, as Ling Fu brought Jinbao and Diancui in. When Jinbao entered, he looked at Jun Huailang with some trepidation. Jun Huailang winked at him reassuringly before looking away.

Emperor Qingping asked them what happened.

“This maid should not have disturbed Your Majesty, but I cannot sit idly as underhanded dealings are conducted inside Madame’s palace!” Diancui kowtowed to the Emperor and said.

Emperor Qingping took a sip of tea. “Speak, what manner of underhanded dealings?”

Diancui continued, “Replying to Your Majesty, this maid has been checking the storeroom recently. I discovered that a box of silver banknotes brought by Consort Shu from her maiden family has gone missing. This servant searched the whole storeroom and couldn’t find it, so I thought it may have been misplaced and wanted to search the east and west storerooms. The storeroom in the east hall has been searched. As for the storeroom in the west hall, Jinbao would rather die than let me in!”

Emperor Qingping frowned.

How could such a trivial household matter be brought up in front of him? He came to Consort Shu’s palace for relaxation, but Consort Shu was incapable of managing a household. Even the tiniest matter turned into a mess of billowing smoke. 

He suppressed his temper and asked Jinbao, “Why is that?”

Jinbao kowtowed tremblingly and answered, “Reporting to Your Majesty, it’s because this servant doesn’t have the key!”

“No key?” Emperor Qingping repeated doubtfully. “This is your master’s storeroom. Where did the key go?”

Jinbao kowtowed again. “Your Majesty, there is only one key to the west hall storeroom. One week ago, Diancui-gugu said she wanted to take inventory for His Highness, she already took it!”

Diancui immediately looked disbelieving. 

Only one…! That servant never said anything like that to her in the last few days! Just a moment ago, he also didn’t say that he had no key. Jinbao just obstinately refused to open the door. Why did he change his testimony all of a sudden?

Could that servant have tricked her? The things she’d done… no one had ever noticed. How could that servant be so prepared!

At the side, Consort Shu got a headache from the quarrel. She called Zheng Guangde over and asked, “You gave Jinbao all the keys to the west hall. How many keys to the storeroom are there?”

Zheng Guangde didn’t dare lie. He hurriedly answered, “Answering Madame, there is only one.”

Consort Shu frowned and looked at Diancui, but she still didn’t think the maid had any ill intent. “Did you remember wrongly?”

This unforeseen circumstance disrupted Diancui, she had no choice but to back down. She said, “This maid was muddled and forgot I had the key… I will go check the storeroom at once!”

She thought, no matter, the key is trivial. She had no intention of arguing about how many keys Jinbao held. As long as she opened the storeroom and let the Emperor see the item she had placed inside, her job was done.

Emperor Qingping waved his hand impatiently, telling them all to withdraw. “It is merely a bit of money, is it worth all this trouble?”

But then his expression froze. He recalled the divination that the head astrologist had given him in the morning. The divination told him that Mingluan Palace could not suppress that malevolent star, there would be some small disturbances in the near future. Who knew it would be so accurate, as soon as it was divined, it came to pass…

The expression on Emperor Qingping’s face became even uglier as he thought of the prophecy following the divination. That prophecy said that when the evil star moved, there would be unceasing chaos thereafter. And the root of this chaos was the unstable foundation of the place suppressing the evil star. 

The reason for the unstable foundation was because disloyalty grew in the hearts of the people here.

Aren’t the people here the Jun family? Thinking of this, Emperor Qingping couldn’t finish drinking the tea in his hand.

Next to him, Consort Shu did not take this small incident to heart. She once again devoted herself to making tea. But Emperor Qingping was conspicuously quieter. Consort Shu only thought the incident ruined his mood, so she also stopped and waited for Diancui to finish searching and report back.

Consort Shu stared at the small clay stove unhappily. For the sake of a little money, a good pot of tea had been ruined. This was the first pot of tea made by her own hands, how priceless it was!

At that moment, there was a commotion in the west side hall. Diancui was originally guarding the entrance. A palace maid stumbled out and reported to her. Diancui’s expression changed and she ran all the way to the main hall to report.

“There’s a major issue! Your Majesty, Madame… please take a look!”

Diancui trembled as she knelt on the ground, she looked terrified. Jun Huailang noticed that she kept her head lowered, as if she wanted to hide a bewildered expression.

“What is the matter, how can it be so urgent?” Consort Shu frowned and stood up. 

Emperor Qingping was displeased. He said angrily, “Stop hesitating, hurry up and speak clearly!”

Diancui trembled and steadfastly touched the ground with her head.

“Reporting to Your Majesty and Madame! In the west hall… not only were the silver banknotes found, but another box hidden underneath the silver notes…
“That box contained an effigy[3] with Fifth Highness’s handwriting. Written on it is… Madame’s Bazi!”[4]

Notes:

[1] 腊八节 a traditional holiday celebrated by eating congee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laba_Festival[2] 偷鸡摸狗 lit. imitate the dog and steal chicken; to pilfer or to have affairs.[3] 巫蛊人偶 basically like a voodoo doll — a figure made to represent a specific person and used to cast curses against them.[4] 生辰八字 the year, month, date and hour of a person’s birth used for horoscopes. Each one is 2 characters for a total of 8 characters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pillars_of_Destiny