A Scummy Alpha Emperor Transmigrated and Marked the Powerful Prime Minister - Chapter 8

Lin Jiayue recalled a specific plot point from the novel: Lu Siling was briefly imprisoned by the original owner. Unable to find her, Guang Wei smuggled a short arrow into the palace.

When she reached Daming Palace, Wei Jinming still refused to let her in, leaving her no choice but to force her way through. Holding the short arrow, she injured several eunuchs before eventually being shot to death by a hail of arrows from the guards.

Guang Wei was framed with the crime of “assassinating the sovereign,” which led the court and the public to attack Lu Siling. This resulted in a mass impeachment by officials and an incident where they knelt outside the outer palace to “remonstrate through tears.” A hundred officials cried out that Lu Siling was an autocratic usurper with ill intentions toward the Emperor, even plotting to seize the throne.

The fallout was massive, and it was during this time that Lu Siling’s mindset began to shift. Originally, she was devoted to the nation and its people, hoping to mentor an Emperor who could inherit the New Laws. After being backstabbed, she began to transform into a true “Power Minister,” comparable to the historical Huo Guang.

The first thing Lu Siling did upon returning to the Grand Chancellor’s manor was to have the short arrow destroyed.

Guang Wei knelt in the courtyard. Beside her stood a woman dressed in black with a cold, indifferent expression, holding a whip. A second later, she lashed the whip across Guang Wei’s body without hesitation.

Thirty lashes, not one less.

Two onlookers nearby watched the scene, unable to bear it.

“What did Guang Wei do to move Guang Qing, the ‘Cold-Faced King’? If it were us, we might hold back, but Guang Qing won’t stay her hand.”

“Didn’t you see the Master’s face when she returned? And Dr. Meng’s expression after the examination was terrible.”

“Guang Han, Guang Lu—you two, go get the medicine.”

“Oh, coming, Dr. Meng!”

Guang Han and Guang Lu ran over, looking nervously at Dr. Meng. “Is the Master’s injury very serious?”

“Serious,” Meng Wushang snorted coldly. “The sky has fallen.”

The sky truly had fallen. Her Master had gone to the palace and lost her purity. There was more than one Qianyuan (Alpha) in the palace; with so many officials on duty in the outer court, who knew which one it was? Seeing her Master’s terrible complexion, she didn’t dare ask a single question.

In front of Lu Siling, medicinal herbs were burning. The scent of the herbs worked hard to disperse the influence of Lin Jiayue’s Incent Scent (Pheromones). A temporary injection of an Alpha’s scent could relieve a Kunze’s distress, but even a temporary marking was something only meant for partners.

Thinking of the pain in her neck, Lu Siling clenched her fists. After taking the medicine and listening to Meng Wushang’s nagging, she was forced into a state of rest.

Perhaps it was the medicine, but Lu Siling actually fell asleep within the hour—a rarity for her. Soon, however, a thin layer of sweat appeared on her forehead.

Lu Siling snapped her eyes open, the fear in her pupils yet to fade. She had actually dreamed of Lin Jiayue. It was last night’s events again, but Lin Jiayue hadn’t stopped in time. She had used drugs to throw Lu Siling’s pheromones into chaos and released her own scent wantonly.

Her glands were infected just like that, and then the young Emperor actually used a whip to lash her. To make her obedient, the Emperor used any means necessary. Guang Wei… Guang Wei died just like that under a rain of arrows.

Later, she faced impeachment, and Lin Jiayue forced her to do things. Whenever she refused, it invited a bout of pheromone-based abuse. When she was too weak to resist, Lin Jiayue would smash whatever she could grab against her body. Every disagreement resulted in a brutal beating.

She had Meng Wushang hollow out her own glands, becoming a broken person rather than compromise.

After some time, she realized the greatest beneficiary of this conspiracy wasn’t Lin Jiayue, but the Empress Dowager. Lin Jiayue’s actions were merely “making the wedding dress for another.” A grand monarch had so humiliated the regent minister left by the late Emperor; the Empress Dowager seized the evidence and used it to threaten Lin Jiayue, hoping to control her through the Emperor.

Finally, she left the capital under the pretext of suppressing a rebellion, supported a vassal king, captured the capital, and took both the young Emperor and the Empress Dowager alive.

The young Emperor was flayed and had her tendons pulled; the Empress Dowager was demoted to a commoner and became a madwoman wandering the streets.

After the new Emperor ascended, she began vigorous reforms, succeeding in just three years. Or rather, it wasn’t “success”—she simply ran out of time. Hollowing out her glands hadn’t shortened her lifespan, but the young Emperor’s abuse had left her body terminally ill. She had very little time left.

And the vassal king she had supported to the throne began to view her as a thorn in his side. After she died, he actually tore down her tomb and abolished her New Laws within a month.

Lu Siling wasn’t afraid of death, nor was she afraid of her tomb being desecrated; her only concern was the reforms. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have placed such importance on the young Emperor’s education.

But the root of all evil was Lin Jiayue. The dream was so real, as if it had truly happened, with lingering pain still felt on her body.

Lu Siling sat up abruptly. It wasn’t a dream. It was… rebirth.

She was back.

Lin Jiayue… she would make sure Lin Jiayue died a miserable death.

“A-choo!”

Lin Jiayue suddenly sneezed. Was someone thinking of her? At this time, the only person who could be thinking of her besides her enemies was Lu Siling. Of course, she didn’t consider Lu Siling an enemy, but the other woman definitely considered her one.

After washing up with Wei Jinming’s help, Lin Jiayue leaned against the Luohan bed, holding a memorial Wei Jinming had handed her.

“Your Majesty, this memorial was submitted by Grand Secretary Sun Xiuyuan. It requests an honorary title for Empress Xining, elevating her to the status of Empress Dowager.”

Lin Jiayue nodded and took a look. The obscure classical Chinese was slow reading for her, so her brain automatically translated it.

The memorial’s argument was that since the late Emperor had passed, the Empress should be elevated to Empress Dowager. Although the current Emperor and the late Emperor were siblings (in name), Empress Xining had a hand in raising the current sovereign, so why couldn’t she be elevated?

This matter had been debated since the original owner’s coronation. It was now the third year of Yuanfeng, and it still hadn’t been settled. The outer court had brought the title back for discussion, and it was trending toward a fever pitch.

In the original owner’s memory, Empress Xining was quite “Zen-like” and didn’t care about affairs at all. Because of her excessive grief over the late Emperor’s death, she had locked herself in the inner palace. The struggle between the “two palaces” (Empress Dowager vs. Empress) was mainly concentrated in the outer court. Since Empress Xining came from the nobility, she naturally stood with the noble factions. Even though she isolated herself, the outer court wouldn’t leave her in peace, which caused the discord between the two palaces.

The five members of the Grand Secretariat were split into four factions, engaging in partisan struggles. Among them, Lu Siling was the Grand Chancellor and the most powerful. On the surface, it seemed like her “one-woman show”—even the two palaces had to avoid her sharp edge. This led the original owner to believe the main obstacle to her personal rule was Lu Siling.

Lin Jiayue, of course, didn’t want to be this Emperor. But looking at the current situation, if she wasn’t the Emperor, she’d likely die even faster. In history, deposed Emperors had survived, but it varied from person to person. The current Empress Dowager would certainly never let her live.

Since her coronation, she had been portrayed as unruly and still a child at eighteen—all personas the Empress Dowager had projected onto her. Now a new storm was brewing in the outer court. If Empress Xining was elevated to Empress Dowager, where would that leave Empress Dowager Ci’an?

Interesting. She wondered if Lu Siling had seen this memorial.

“Does the Grand Chancellor know about this?”

Wei Jinming shook her head. “Grand Secretary Sun had it delivered here.”

There were so many memorials in the Grand Secretariat; unless it was a major matter requiring a group discussion, not every official saw every paper. If Lu Siling hadn’t seen it, the others certainly hadn’t either.

“Make a copy of the memorial and send it to the Grand Chancellor.”

Wei Jinming was surprised. She never expected that one day, the Emperor would proactively consult the Grand Chancellor when encountering a problem. “Understood.”

Clad in a crimson inner robe, Lin Jiayue rose lazily. Wei Jinming quickly lowered her head. The Emperor was extremely good-looking; the Lin family were all beauties, with few exceptions.

In the past, the Emperor always kept her head down, sneakily sizing others up with eyes full of gloom and malicious speculation. Her exterior looked like a clear spring washed by snow, pure and flawless, but the overall vitality was ruined by her eyes.

Now, she seemed like a different person. Her apricot eyes were full of starlight—clear and innocent like a young deer, resembling the first ray of sunlight after a fresh snowfall. When her gaze shifted, she regained the spirited clarity of her childhood.

When she was deep in thought, her eyes became as deep and unfathomable as an ancient well, actually bearing a shadow of the Grand Chancellor’s eyes. Truly a student taught by the Grand Chancellor.

However, there was one thing Wei Jinming didn’t quite understand. In the past, while the Emperor wasn’t exactly illiterate, she had no literary talent and was cowering—she didn’t look like a sovereign at all. For some reason, she now possessed an air of mystery and a scholarly aura. Like the group of scholars seen during the palace exams in the first year of Yuanfeng. Of course, those people no longer had that scholarly air; they had aged significantly.

Come to think of it, this was the third year of Yuanfeng; next year would be the spring examinations again. Wei Jinming sighed softly, wondering when these days of having no power or influence would end. Back then, she was high-spirited, believing she could become the Great Zhou’s number one lackey.

Hearing the sound, Lin Jiayue frowned. “What are you sighing for?”

“I alarmed Your Majesty. This servant deserves to die.”

Lin Jiayue gave Wei Jinming a speechless look. Always “deserves to die”—if she actually had to die, she’d be the first to complain.

On the other side, upon receiving the content of the memorial, Lu Siling not only knew the date Empress Xining was petitioned for elevation, but she also knew that Empress Xining succeeded and soon became an Empress Dowager.

Her only confusion was: why did the young Emperor send her a copy?

Even without being reborn, she would have known about this. Sun Xiuyuan thought he could hide it from her—it wasn’t that she didn’t know, she just didn’t want to stop it. As long as Xining was “Empress,” she was always a step below the Empress Dowager. Once both were Empress Dowagers, the conflict between the two palaces would reach a fever pitch, and she, Lu Siling, would temporarily fade from their line of sight.

Did Lin Jiayue send it to her because she wanted her to stop it? Truly delusional.

However, after what happened last night, her younger self really had been soft-hearted, actually wanting to spare Lin Jiayue’s life. Although her rebirth only spanned five years from now, she still felt her present self was too naive.

A piece of scum like Lin Jiayue… must die.

“Guang Qing.”

Lu Siling called out, and Guang Qing pushed open the door with a cold face.

“Have those watching the young Emperor report her every word and action to me daily—in meticulous detail.”

This life seemed different from the last, but while the process had changed, the result was largely the same. Lin Jiayue had still infected her with her pheromones. Even now, her glands were faintly burning, still containing the residue of Lin Jiayue’s scent.

This was a humiliation. Even killing Lin Jiayue a thousand, ten thousand times would not be enough.