Yet this worry turned into rage once Yunyin heard the second piece of information!
It was about an incident that had happened the night before, around the time after evening court. Something like that should've been reported right away, but the cause of this incident, the person that led everything to happen, suppressed the news and only reported it now during morning court through the hand of the official – a scheme to dramatize the incident as much as possible.
Among the matters that are close enough for the emperor to attend to, and those that can also make him dismiss the morning court, there are only two notable ones: an imperial family incident, or… the harem.
"Hehe, I heard that among his majesty's Nine Imperial Consorts, the origin of this incident, Consort Hong, has been with his majesty when she was fourteen! Later, his majesty reached adulthood and this maid, two years older at that time, eighteen years old, became the one that taught him the 'matters of heart'." A passing official chuckled and grinned as he told the story to another official.
'Consort?' Yunyin's eyes turned to confusion, not understanding why a consort's matter led to the court being dismissed. Did she die? Or did she give birth to a prince? Or was she robbed?
Except for these three incidents, he couldn't imagine another reason that would cause his majesty the emperor, who seemed calm and rational, to dismiss the court!
And if it was something about the harem… shouldn't it be her majesty the Empress who takes care of them? Why would the emperor get involved in the authority of the imperial clan's matriarch?
Questions upon questions appeared in his mind as he continued to listen to the whispers, his gaze freezing with each one.
Consort Hong, his majesty's most beloved consort, accompanied him from the ranks of a concubine to his majesty's ascension to the throne, upon which he made her the second lady of the harem, the so-called First Consort after the empress.
Being of low origin and having no notable family supporting her, she was naturally disliked and the ministries strongly opposed to it, yet the emperor acted on his own wishes.
Fortunately, afterwards the emperor calmed down and attended court daily, not being a lustful or promiscuous emperor, seriously focusing on his work. This incident... was the first in over twenty years…
The exact incident was that this Consort Hong, disliked by all in the harem, had three people she hated the most – the Empress who was the only one above her, and the two consorts always accompanying her, even whose children have become the brother and sister of the crown prince.
They were Consort Lian and Consort Wu –
Yunyin knew little of the former, only having heard about her now. Apparently she was from the Lian Family, an Imperial Merchant. But while he didn't know the former, he knew the latter very well – the Wu family was the family of the Southern Grand Commander, Commander Wu!
While there were 12 Grand Ministers, each province had a Grand Commander, meaning there were a total of 13 Grand Commanders, though the Huangdi Province's Grand Commander was always of imperial origin.
At the mention of these two, Yunyin felt even worse. Born in the Qingling Province, he was raised to have a reverence and admiration for their region's highest leaders. In addition to the Grand Commander, the Ministry of Revenue's Grand Minister was seated in this Qingling Province!
Returning to the matter at hand – the incident was that Consort Hong…
Yunyin omitted all the useless information, he didn't believe something so dramatized to be real.
Basically, the Consort Hong wanted something that was promised to Consort Lian, so she argued. Consort Lian refused to hand it over, so they had an argument. Somehow Consort Hong was slapped, which led to her falling into a 'coma'. She had only woken up today in the morning, so a eunuch instantly went out to call for help now that their consort was awake.
Even if Yunyin used only one or two braincells, he would still question why no one asked for help right away, instead waiting for the day to pass and the morning court to start before calling for someone.
At this point, Yunyin could no longer conceal the anger in his heart –
Pressure spread from within him, the might he had suppressed was no longer suppressed!
The image of his mental tool, his abacus, appeared above him –
Thud
Thud
Stone after stone rose and fell, numbing sounds spreading around him.
His mind was churning, each pebble seemed about to break out and attack someone –
His father's letter a few days ago had worried him. Only when he heard that the Qingling Province was acting quickly did he feel assured.
Today when he saw the Grand Minister in court, he knew this urgent matter concerned him deeply, else he wouldn't have made a personal appearance, travelling all the way from the province to the capital during this plague.
At that time, he thought that with the court solving the issue in the evening, the Qingling Province would be fine, the prefecture wouldn't do too badly, and his family's county in the deep south-west would have no trouble.
So now they're telling him that because of some harem drama, the disaster relief would be delayed by at least a whole day?
He couldn't even describe how enraged he was, the pressure growing even higher, as if about to truly attack people.
Just then, he realised what he was doing and stopped himself, his stoic image combined with the immense presence being too much, attracting the attention of many nearby officials.
"Please excuse this disturbance," Yunyin quickly cupped his hands in every direction before continuing, his legs abruptly leaving this lane only meant for officials while his mind was burning with anger at this moment.
Only when he arrived at the end of the street and turned to walk to the direction where he parked the carriage did he slowly calm down.
He saw Heiluan waiting outside the carriage, opening the door for him when he approached it.
"Hurry up to the courtyard, we'll only go to the courtyard for a change, then leave for the assistant minister's residence." He said, his words cold, the anger in his eyes only suppressed yet still visible to Heiluan.
Knowing his master, he quickly moved to enter the carriage after him and close the door, thinking that someone had made a major mistake, leading to his master's anger!