Chapter 882: The Young Empress (19)

The weather was pleasant today. After finishing her governmental duties, Tang Guo had originally planned to take a walk through the Imperial Garden and enjoy the sunshine.

Before the late Emperor passed away, she had done an excellent job of cleaning up potential problems, even solving quite a few difficult issues along the way.

As long as no major crisis arose, the Western Saint Kingdom would remain stable under Tang Guo's rule.

In the previous life, the chaos had only happened because Tang Nuoyue had been too foolish, allowing those men to exploit countless loopholes.

As a result, Tang Guo often found herself with plenty of free time.

Besides, she wasn't the original owner of this body. She had played the role of an empress more than once before. Handling state affairs and dealing with those old foxes in court was effortless for her.

Later, she remembered that every day in the Imperial Garden there were always people hoping to engineer a chance encounter with her. At the moment, she had no interest in getting entangled with any of those men.

So she simply changed direction and headed for the palace of the Imperial Consort, Jing Cheng.

"Where is the Imperial Consort?"

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Consort is practicing swordsmanship. Shall this servant summon him?"

"No need." Tang Guo waved a hand. "If I remember correctly, there is a rather nice garden inside the Imperial Consort's palace grounds, isn't there?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Take me there."

Everyone assumed Tang Guo intended to admire the flowers.

What none of them expected was that she ordered a reclining chair to be brought over. Bathed in the warm sunlight, she simply lay down beside the flowerbeds as though preparing for a nap.

The attendants around her exchanged bewildered glances.

Since when had Her Majesty become so careless?

In their eyes, being able to fall asleep so casually anywhere outside the imperial sleeping chambers was the very definition of carelessness.

What they didn't know was that their Empress was no longer the original Empress.

The reason she dared to lounge beneath the sun so casually was because she possessed absolute confidence in her own safety.

In truth, Tang Guo wasn't sleeping at all.

The system had informed her that something interesting was happening at Tang Nuoyue's residence.

When she focused her attention on it, she happened to witness Tang Nuoyue's principal husband and male consort Yin Qiu going to meet her.

The two men still hadn't fully recovered from the severe whipping Tang Nuoyue had given them previously.

When Tang Guo heard Tang Nuoyue walk up to Shan Ge and ask with genuine-looking confusion, "Principal Husband, why are you wearing a veil?" the corners of her lips curved upward.

There was one trait Tang Nuoyue shared with her perfectly.

She held grudges.

Shan Ge was indeed wearing a veil.

He had come intending to test Tang Nuoyue's attitude and gather some information. Never in his dreams had he expected her very first question to be why he was wearing a veil.

Why was he wearing a veil?

Didn't she know perfectly well?

Shan Ge genuinely had no idea how to answer.

What was he supposed to say?

Your Highness, isn't it because you lashed my face with a whip?

Before he could respond, Tang Nuoyue shifted her attention to Yin Qiu and asked curiously, "Why are you limping? Were you born with bad legs?"

Yin Qiu nearly exploded.

Born with bad legs my ass.

Shan Ge instantly felt a little more balanced.

Apparently, the Prince had forgotten everything that had happened before.

Yet when he remembered that day, the vicious crack of the whip striking his face, he found himself utterly incapable of developing any affection for the person standing before him.

"Your Highness," Shan Ge said, getting straight to the point, "we came to congratulate you on taking a secondary husband."

Tang Nuoyue nodded. "So that's what this is about. Very well, I understand."

She reached out and grabbed the somewhat uncomfortable Xiao Jin standing beside her.

"This is Xiao Jin, the Sixth Prince of Qi. Very soon, he will become my secondary husband."

Xiao Jin's expression darkened immediately.

The thing he hated most in the Western Saint Kingdom was having people bring up the fact that he was the Sixth Prince of Qi.

"Xiao Jin, are you unhappy?" Tang Nuoyue clung to his arm, perfectly embodying the role of a naïve, lovestruck girl. "You don't need to mind them. This Prince only likes you."

She glanced at Shan Ge and Yin Qiu before casually waving her hand.