Chapter 4 — TVF Chapter 4

The Love-Brained Empress (4) At the Marquis of Antai’s residence, the marquis sat in his inner study, staring at his still-defiant eldest son, anger flaring. “What exactly are you still hiding from me?”

The eldest son already had medicine applied to his face and mouth. The pain wasn’t severe, and he could speak perfectly well—but seeing his father’s fury, he had no intention of plucking a tiger’s whiskers.

So he looked toward his mother instead—his own mother, eyes swollen from crying yet devoid of grief, filled only with resentment. “Mm.”

The Marchioness immediately grabbed her son’s hand and glared at her husband. “My lord, how can you side with outsiders like this!” She complained bitterly, “If you have the ability, why don’t you use it against Cousin instead?”

The eldest son could no longer hold back and sneered at his own mother. “You keep calling him cousin—does that duke even see you as a cousin at all?”

The Marchioness flushed with shame and anger. “He’ll have his day—just wait and see!”

The eldest son was clearly deflecting, avoiding the heart of the matter.

The Marquis of Antai stared at him coldly. “What exactly did you promise?” Then he turned and ordered the steward, “Bring everyone who attends him into the courtyard. If he won’t speak, someone will.”

Only then did the Marchioness realize her husband was truly enraged. “Why won’t you let this go? I already told you—we’ve offended Cousin. We can’t afford to offend the Noble Consort and the Qi family too!”

The marquis ignored his wife and looked only at his son. “If you want me to clean up after you, you’d better tell the truth. I have more than one son.”

The Marchioness leapt up and lunged at her husband. “You heartless man!”—and immediately took a slap, freezing in place.

Father actually hit Mother!

The eldest son dared not gamble anymore. “The Empress is domineering, jealous, reckless, acting against the natural order… The Noble Consort,” he blushed, “has endured long enough. If I can eliminate the Empress, then our family… it would count as having rendered merit in following the dragon.”

The Marquis of Antai’s head buzzed. He pointed at his son. “You’re speaking in fragments—do you even believe yourself?”

From the moment the Duke Cheng’en stormed in and beat both him and his eldest son without explanation, the marquis hadn’t resisted or argued. In hindsight, that had been the wisest choice.

He deeply regretted not investigating more back then—letting his head heat up and marrying for the sake of drawing closer to the duke. He had known his wife was foolish, but only today did he realize just how self-righteous her foolishness was—and how she had raised their son to be exactly the same!

Having taken a brutal beating from the duke, the eldest son both hated him and dimly realized he’d been played. “The Qi family won’t abandon me. They still need me.”

The Marchioness clutched her face and stared at her husband. “The Qi family will definitely avenge us!”

The marquis laughed in fury. “Now you resent me?” He ordered the steward on standby, “The madam is gravely ill—unable to rise, unfit to see guests or manage the household. Take her away.”

The Marchioness barely got out a “How dare you—” before the matrons stepped forward, clapped hands over her mouth, and dragged her off.

Though the Marquis of Antai was a political fence-sitter, he was a fence-sitter who had truly been to war.

The vast study fell silent again. The marquis looked at his son and sighed. “You know how close we live to the Qi residence. If we shouted a few times in the courtyard, they might hear us from their own home. The Duke Cheng’en stayed here for a full hour—did you see a single Qi family member come to mediate?”

Watching his mother dragged off without mercy, the eldest son felt as if he were seeing his father anew. He calmed down considerably. “This is…” He answered with difficulty, “a family matter. The Qi family can’t easily interfere.”

The marquis smiled—but his eyes were cold. “So you know it’s a family matter. You injured your wife; countless people saw her wounded face. The Duke punished you and me—it was only natural. Otherwise, what? A son-in-law abuses a daughter, and the father-in-law must swallow his anger, forbidden even to come seek justice?”

No matter how biased toward the Noble Consort and the Qi family he was, the eldest son hadn’t completely lost his sense of right and wrong. “We can’t take this to court and ask the emperor to judge… But we can’t just take this beating. The Duke Cheng’en—let’s wait and see!”

When he mentioned the emperor, his expression and tone turned subtle.

They had long heard that the Noble Consort was a femme fatale. Now the eldest son himself was so bewitched that he felt no resentment at all about their household having been used as a knife by the Qi family. The marquis was deeply disappointed. “Oh? Then tell me—how exactly are we going to make the Duke ‘wait and see’?”

The eldest son forced a laugh, hissing as it tugged at his wounds. “The southern floods haven’t settled yet. Father, you recommend the Duke to lead troops to suppress the unrest. On the way, we…” He made a slicing gesture at his neck. “Wouldn’t that settle everything?”

The marquis laughed again. He stood up. “Good idea.” Then he kicked his son over with a single blow.

He was immensely grateful he still had three concubine-born sons—and that, fearing his wife’s ill intentions, he had long since sent them off to academies. Now it seemed clear: had they stayed, they would have been useless even if they survived—worse than the eldest son before him.

Just as the marquis was about to order the eldest son dragged away and locked up as well, the steward hurried in with news: the Duke Cheng’en had sent someone to summon their family of three—he still had words left unsaid.

The marquis’s heart lurched. He suddenly realized his wife and son still hadn’t told him the truth—at least not the crucial parts.

Suppressing his worsening headache, he looked at his son sitting on the floor. “You really have some nerve—almost fooled me by playing dumb.”

The eldest son said nothing, lowering his head to avoid his father’s gaze.

The marquis snorted. “Excellent.”

Since the duke had summoned all three of them, he wouldn’t dare delay.

As for the marchioness—having personally experienced being dragged away with her mouth covered—she behaved much more obediently.

She followed her husband to the Duke Cheng’en’s residence, just like her son—head lowered, silent, praying inwardly that Second Miss Xiao knew only a limited amount.

When the Marquis of Antai’s family of three followed the duke’s steward into the outer study, they saw the Duke Cheng’en seated high upon a luohan couch, with Second Miss and Third Miss sitting to either side of him. Then they heard the duke speak, “No need for formalities. Bring a seat for the Marquis of Antai.”

Only a single chair was brought over. The marquis felt even worse.

Still, he could only sit. He glanced at his wife and eldest son—wilted like frostbitten eggplants—and thought grimly: better sharp pain than prolonged suffering. Better to understand everything at once.

Qin Jingzhou lifted his teacup and took a light sip. Seeing that the marquis seemed ready, he looked at his second daughter. “Let them die enlightened.”

Second Miss Xiao nodded, pulling out a mocking smile. “Recently, the Marchioness and the eldest young master kept persuading me, saying that one by one my natal family was unreliable, that my future honor and disgrace depended entirely on the marquis’s household. That at a time like this, if I didn’t think about earning merit, then even if the marquis’s household prospered in the future, there would be no place for me… When they urged me to enter the palace to pay respects to the Empress, they wanted me to lure Her Majesty to the northwest corner—Chang’an Palace.”

Qin Jingzhou chuckled and deliberately repeated, “Chang’an Palace, huh.”

The imperial palace had two imperial gardens, one east and one west.

Directly south of Chang’an Palace lay the smaller but more exquisite Western Imperial Garden, with both a north and a south gate—making it extremely convenient to flee if the wind turned unfavorable.

Incidentally, the dynasty’s name was Jin, and its social openness rivaled even the High Tang.

While concubines could not freely leave the palace, once one became the mistress of a palace, she could periodically meet family members within her domain—including fathers, brothers, sons, and nephews.

Male relatives of concubines could all enter the palace; as for imperial clansmen and nobles, it went without saying.

And in the original novel, Prince Jing and Consort Qi often secretly met and carried on their affair in Chang’an Palace—their child conceived there.

Qin Jingzhou looked at the marquis. “Your wife and son’s hearts are filthy enough.”

The Marquis of Antai sprang up and kicked his eldest son over, then turned and slapped his wife hard. The marchioness stared wide-eyed, clutching her face, muttering incoherently, unable to speak.

Second Miss Xiao showed no reaction and continued, “When I refused, the eldest young master slapped me. After the marchioness learned of it, she forbade me from leaving. I thought that between the marchioness and the eldest young master, they would eventually bribe one or two of my dowry attendants… Perhaps they had already sent word to the Empress in my name. Fortunately, there’s been no unfavorable news from the palace so far—and the Empress even sent someone earlier…” Clearly, there was no obstruction.

Qin Jingzhou lightly patted his daughter’s shoulder. “When we speak, your eldest sister treats it like passing gas. Now it seems that might not be entirely a bad thing.”

He flipped through the original plot in his mind, then asked the marquis, whose face was alternating between red and white, “If I recall correctly, you have some connections in the palace as well? Ask around properly—your wife and son have probably already sold those connections to the Qi family.”

The marquis took a deep breath. “The duke should remember—my paternal aunt was Consort Hui to Emperor Taizong. Before her death, she entrusted all her confidants to me.”

Emperor Taizong was the current emperor’s grandfather, widely acknowledged as a wise and heroic ruler.

Xiao Jingzhou had spent half his life on campaign; when Emperor Taizong personally led expeditions, Xiao Jingzhou had been his deputy and trusted general. The Marquis of Antai had served as Xiao Jingzhou’s deputy for three years.

In plain terms, without Xiao Jingzhou’s patronage, the marquis would never have achieved his current status and wealth.

Unless the Duke Cheng’en openly rebelled, for the marquis to oppose him was pure ingratitude.

And ingratitude was taboo at any time.

Both the original owner and the marquis understood this perfectly—which was precisely why, when Qin Jingzhou stormed in and beat him senseless, the marquis hadn’t resisted despite not knowing the cause.

Unlike the patient and restrained marquis, however, the marchioness and eldest son weren’t too bright—and ended up being used by the Noble Consort and the Qi family to the hilt.

Qin Jingzhou deliberately asked, “I’m actually curious—what exactly did the Qi family promise your wife and son? Surely the vague words ‘merit in following the dragon’ alone wouldn’t make them willingly move against the Empress. Even if it succeeded, weren’t they afraid the Qi family would discard them afterward?”

This puzzled the marquis as well.

He wiped his face. “I asked at home for ages—they just wouldn’t say.”

Second Miss Xiao suddenly spoke up. “I think I know.”

The eldest son shouted, “You dare! Say one more word and I’ll divorce you!”

The marquis knew at once this was bad news and slapped him again.

A soldier by origin, he put his full strength into it. The slap spun his eldest son in place before sending him crashing to the ground.

The marchioness burst into tears and threw herself over her son. “My lord, how cruel your heart is!”

The marquis looked at his daughter-in-law. “Speak.”

Second Miss Xiao lowered her eyes. “I only overheard bits and pieces—something about dreams coming true, about getting close to… the Noble Consort… something like that.”

Qin Jingzhou: …Damn it, that stench is overwhelming.

The marquis flushed red. “Duke, lend me a suitable weapon.”

Qin Jingzhou ordered calmly, “Bring a horsewhip.”

Moments later, the marquis took the whip from the duke’s guard and turned toward his pale, trembling eldest son. “So you know fear after all.”

If the duke hadn’t stormed in, and his utterly foolish, malicious wife and eldest son had succeeded, the Marquis of Antai’s household would have faced utter ruin!

Once he died, the vacant position and accumulated wealth would all have gone to the Qi family… What a fine wife he had married, what a fine son he had raised!

What worried him even more was this: his daughter-in-law addressed her mother-in-law as “Marchioness” and her husband as “Eldest Young Master”—clearly determined to separate. And the duke found nothing amiss in those forms of address… This marriage had truly reached its end.

The more the marquis thought, the angrier he became, and the less mercy he showed his son.

At first, the eldest son cried out a few times, but as his back became crisscrossed with blood, he stopped even trying to dodge.

The marchioness rushed forward to block a couple of blows, but after being struck herself, she rolled aside, unable to bear watching, and covered her face.

Second Miss Xiao felt only satisfaction.

Third Miss Xiao was downright gleeful: the marchioness truly was a loving mother!

After waiting a bit and sensing the eldest son might faint at any moment, Qin Jingzhou finally spoke. “That’s enough.”

The marquis felt a flicker of relief and stopped at once.

Qin Jingzhou added leisurely, “If you beat him to death in my house, it’s bad luck.” Without waiting for an explanation, he continued, “I’m too lazy to investigate whether you truly wanted to discipline your son or were just putting on a bitter performance for me. Take your wife and son back. Later, send over a letter of separation. The two children part ways and each seek their own happiness. You and I have some past ties—why turn against each other over the Qi family?”

The marquis collapsed back into his chair, dropping the whip, sighing heavily.

He had to admit the duke was right. If the son and daughter-in-law couldn’t live together, it was better to separate cleanly—rather than exhausting the last scraps of goodwill between the two families.

After a quarter of an hour, the marquis finally nodded. “Fine. As the duke says.”

He then rose to take his leave, hurriedly departing with his thoroughly shaken wife and his eldest son, whose back was covered in wounds.

Only after the family of three had been gone for some time did Qin Jingzhou ask his second daughter, “How is it? Feeling a bit better now?”

Even if Second Miss Xiao hadn’t fully grasped it at the time, she understood now: her father had deliberately let the marquis beat the marchioness and eldest son—to vent her anger.

He had dealt with them while preserving more of the marquis’s dignity—and even won the marquis completely to their side.

How could she not be moved? She answered honestly, “Much better.”

Qin Jingzhou had never raised children and didn’t know how to comfort a daughter. A bit awkwardly, he rubbed her head. “If you’re happier, then your father is happier.”

Second Miss Xiao pressed her lips together and hugged his arm. “I know Father cares about me. There must have been a reason before, when Father didn’t respond.”

Qin Jingzhou smiled without speaking: whatever sins Xiao Jingzhou committed, Qin Jingzhou wouldn’t take the blame unless absolutely necessary.

Third Miss, a little envious, asked, “Father, after Second Sister separates, will the Marquis of Antai really not hate our family?”

Qin Jingzhou laughed. “How could he not hate us? He’s very patient—but also very petty. Still, compared to us, he hates the Qi family more.”

Third Miss asked again, “Then when dealing with the Noble Consort and the Qi family, can we… temporarily join forces with the marquis?”

Qin Jingzhou rubbed his youngest daughter’s head. “No. We should act decisively and cut the weeds by the root. Just let the emperor know that the Marquis of Antai’s eldest son harbored designs on the Noble Consort—that’s enough.”

The sisters: …As expected of Father.