(ON)The Yin Emperor or The Yang Empress Chapter 2 : The calm before the storm

By now, if this was an adultery gossip, the whole Palace would be already talking about it. But when the main character of the news was the Emperor, no one dared to squeak about it.

It’s the Emperor after all. This man didn’t held on to his throne for eight years by looking fabulous.
Ascended the throne at the age of 21, he was one of the few survivors of the bloody battle for the throne.

Though, it was a good news to Minister Shang that the info about the Emperor temporarily turning into a women didn’t leaked outside the court. That means the culprit most probably doesn’t know he is on his track now. While Minister Shang was deep in thoughts on how to investigate the case, one of the supervisor ran up to him.

“Greeting to Minister Shang!”

“Yes, what is it Eunuch Ting? Why do you looked so anxious?”

“Reporting to the Minister, this servant just received a report that a murder has just happened at the servant’s quarter. A maidservant was killed and -”

“Outrageous! Who dared to commit such act in the Palace! Has the culprit be apprehended?”

So the news really did leaked out? And now the culprit is cleaning up his tracks?

“Yes, Minister Shang. What this servant wanted to say is a maid was killed by another maid, and we managed to hold that maid down before she slit her own throat. But the reason I came over to report to the Minister is because the maid looked … strange.”

“Strange? Tell me more.”

“Yes, replying to the Minister, the maid… her eyes looked uh, empty.”

“Empty?” That was an unusual description. Strange things happening one after another. Maybe this is related to the Emperor.

“Yes, Minister-”

“Stop talking, Eunuch Ting. Immediately lead the way to that maidservant.”

Minister Shang interrupted the eunuch and started walking to the direction where he came from. The eunuch led him down the punishment dungeon, to an occupied cell. Inside the cell, there’s a female with a bedraggled appearance. Her wrists were tied above her head, most probably to prevent her from hurting herself.

“Minister Shang, it’s this maidservant.”

Bending his waist a little, Minister Shang tried to peer into the maid’s eyes. All of a sudden, the maidservant raised her head and wailed loudly.

That.Was.Spooky!

Minister Shang unconsciously took a step back to stand behind Eunuch Ting, but Eunuch Ting was doing the same movement so both of them took a few steps back together. Minister Shang now understood what Eunuch Ting meant by her eyes looking empty. There’s no light of life in her eyes. Was she possessed? While he was trying to look anywhere except the maid’s eyes, he noticed that there’s a red mark by her left elbow.
He wanted to look clearly at the mark but the maid suddenly struggled manically against her bindings so he can’t help but left the dungeon. Fast. They need an exorcist.

-The next day, after the morning Court–

Minister Shang stepped out to report his findings.

“Your Majesty, this servant came across a strange incident among the servants and an exorcist has been called to-”

“Minister Shang, is this related to Zhen’s problem?”

“Re-re-reporting to Your Majesty, this servant thinks it’s related. This servant has checked and found out that the two maidservants involved in this incident have served tea to Your Majesty three days ago, in the Imperial garden.”

“Three days ago?” The Emperor raised his eyebrows. Something seemed to have crossed his mind.

“Was it also three days ago when that Princess from neighboring country was sent back by Zhen?”

Minister Shu from the Ministry of Rites stepped out.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, it was indeed three days ago. This servant has personally overseen the procedures to send Princess LeiTing back to her country.”

Princess LeiTing, she was the Princess from a neighboring country. Her father the King offered her hand of marriage as a token of peace. But due to her real name was too mouthful to be pronounced, he immediately granted her a title as soon as she reached the Palace. Then, because of a certain matter, he sent the Princess back to her country after a week and cancelled the marriage agreement. Frowning, the Emperor thought to himself. Does this means she has something to do with my condition? But why? Is this … revenge?! The Emperor blanked out for a moment. The idiom ‘the calm before the storm’ can be applied on this short moment right now.
.
.
.

… all right, time’s up.

How dare she! By turning me into a woman?! Of all thing, a WOMAN?! RIDICULOUS! IMPUDENT!

“MINISTER SHANG!” The emperor instantly roared.

“He-here!”

“GET THE EXORCIST TO THE PALACE! ZHEN WANT TO-”

The Emperor most probably wanted to say “to find out the truth” or something similar. But nobody really know what was said because at this moment, his loud bellow was abruptly replaced by a feminine shriek.

Astonished, Minister Shang raised his head to look at the source of the feminine voice. What he saw in front of him was a beautiful lady gripping tightly at her loose garment, the large golden dragon robe slipping off her pearly white shoulders…GOLDEN DRAGON ROBE?! The Emperor has turned into a woman again!

“Em…emperor!” Minister Shang turned to look down at the floor again, afraid he would be punished by the Emperor.

The woman has a tight grip on the edge of the table, both of her knuckles were white from the exertion. Some days in the future when investigations were made, a maidservant described the scene as the Emperor was feeling weak and gripped the table to hold herself up. But another maidservant said the Emperor was trying to flip the Imperial table over because of how she gripped the table edge. Perhaps this maidservant was correct, because the aforementioned woman went down from the platform, dragging the heavy clothes with her and stood beside a tall vase. With a slender leg as pale as white jade, she gave the vase a kick and toppled it on the ground. The vase crashed and broke into a million pieces of porcelain.
All the servants in hall trembled with fear, they stood in their own position, waiting for the Emperor’s order. And yet, she didn’t moved. Staring at the broken pieces of the porcelain vase on the floor with fury still evident in her eyes.

Minister Shang timidly stood up and walked to the woman.

“Em-Emperor…” He then turned his back to her, and waited.

The Emperor glared at Minister Shang, before raising her tender white leg and kicked him at his bottom.

---

If Imperial Court has a chatbox 2 :

Stew-Shang : *posted a picture of a scary pair of eyes*
Works-Xi : WALAO!
Rites-Shu : *hides the picture* Minister Shang?
Rev-Lou : What the Hell, Minister Shang? I am going to report you for this if you don’t take it down.
Stew-Shang : *deleted picture* Sorry… that was what I saw when I was investigating the Emperor’s case.
Rites-Shu : How was the investigation coming on then?
Works-Xi : Yeah, have you found the culprit yet, Minister Shang?
Stew-Shang : Not yet, but the Emperor turned into a woman again.
Rites-Shu : Yeah…
Works-Xi : WHAT?!
Rev-Lou : What?!
Stew-Shang : Yeah, he got angry and I got a kick at the butt from him …
Rites-Shu : … *pats*