My husband is not easy to mess with. - Chapter 2: The Coronation Ceremony

Chapter 2: The Coronation Ceremony

When Nie Yao was young, he worked as a bandit with his father.

They had robbed a lot of money from the rich.

The portion Nie Yao got was turned into agricultural product processing plants, charitable orphanages, and so on, but his father tended to squander any money he got, often being cheated out of it.

Later, Nie Yao asked his father to give all the money to him.

Saying it would be invested in the orphanage.

And if there was extra, he would help his father with investments.

He was his father’s biological son, after all.

Such a large sum of money, instead of letting his father go out and be cheated, might as well be given to him, his own son.

“I understand.”

Nie Yao lay in bed, his eyes unfocused, “Tell Dad to wait a little longer; I’ll have someone send the money to him after a while.”

“Yes.” Nie Zhixu completed his task, stood up, and left his final message, “Foster Father Qi said he would come to the capital in three months at the latest.”

Come to the capital?

What for?

To ask for money?

Nie Yao instantly ‘resurrected,’ widening his eyes in disbelief, “Wouldn’t coming such a long distance be exhausting? Didn’t you deceive… dissuade Dad from coming?”

“I will give him the money.”

“Just wait a little longer; the paper mill should be profitable soon. Really, Brother Zhixu, believe me!”

He had said this sentence too many times.

Nie Zhixu quickly lowered his eyes, not wanting his younger brother, the cutest person in the world, to see the distrust in them.

Afraid of hurting his feelings.

“I’ll head back now, Yao-di (little brother Yao).”

“Okay, goodbye, Brother Zhixu, goodnight.”

Once the person left, Nie Yao couldn’t sleep at all.

He threw off the covers, put on his socks and shoes, and voluntarily went to the study to work overtime.

Until dawn.

The butler knocked on the door, saying it was time to go to the palace for the new Emperor’s coronation ceremony.

Nie Yao washed up, changed his clothes, and rode in a carriage to the Imperial Palace.

Generally speaking, an emperor’s coronation ceremony is grand and extravagant.

Although Nie Yao thought it was unnecessary, that’s how the rules were.

He was just a corrupt official; how could he have the ability to change the ancestral system?

So, even if he was extremely unwilling, Nie Yao, the Minister of Revenue responsible for money, still had to take thirty thousand taels out of the tight national treasury to host this banquet. That was thirty thousand taels, which was enough coarse grain to feed those good-for-nothing soldiers on the frontier for quite a few days!

Yet, those old fossils were still not satisfied.

They stroked their beards and said they would pay out of their own pockets.

He just knew, he just knew those old geezers were swimming in money! With less than a hundred people, they raised eight hundred thousand taels of gleaming silver in less than two days.

A full eight hundred thousand taels!

Nie Yao’s eyes turned red with envy.

But envy was useless; that money didn’t pass through the Ministry of Revenue’s accounts, so even if he wanted to help save a bit, he couldn’t.

He could only tell the starving officials under him not to eat breakfast, saving their stomachs to eat more at the palace.

“Gurgle gurgle—”

“Gurgle gurgle—”

As a group of military officials just met, before they even greeted each other, their stomachs were already growling. The thing was, these gentlemen didn’t feel embarrassed at all; they were even proud.

“What’s up, you didn’t eat either?”

“Definitely not! I only drank a bowl of water after my morning practice; I’m saving my stomach for today’s banquet! I wonder how the food will taste today; I feel like I could eat a whole pig right now!”

“A pig is nothing! I heard the Imperial Kitchen butchered a bull yesterday; maybe we’ll have beef today!”

Slurp slurp.

The big, rough, and strong men gathered together, discussing nothing but eating and fighting.

Coarse brutes!

The refined civil officials utterly looked down on this. They followed behind the Prime Minister, their faces showing expressions of disdain.

The two groups’ mutual dislike was not a one or two-day affair.

Before Nie Yao returned to the capital, the military officials, being inarticulate, couldn’t argue with the civil officials and always suffered losses; even their military stipends were often deducted by the civil officials who spoke of benevolence and morality but did nothing proper.

Military officials only knew how to fight.

They couldn’t handle the ins and outs of the Imperial Court at all.

In a fit of anger, they could only be slightly angry, causing minimal damage to the civil officials.

Over time, the civil officials became more and more reckless.

They were about to climb over the military officials’ heads.

Until the former Minister of Revenue was so bold as to deduct the majority of the frontier military stipends, leaving a million soldiers hungry and cold.

Nie Yao, the son of a general, resigned his post and returned to the capital.

The first thing he did was chop off the head of the then Minister of Revenue, open the national treasury himself to send grain and stipends to the frontier, and then conveniently took over the position of Minister of Revenue, which he holds to this day.

“What are you looking at?”

“It’s not like we’re eating your food!”

“You civil officials just like to put on airs! What, are you not going to eat when the feast starts later?”

Listen, listen, listen!

What kind of talk is this?

Dignified court officials, acting so uncouth!

They are simply the shame of the Great Yu Dynasty!

The civil officials were so angry their faces turned red and their necks strained. In the past, they would definitely have argued with these brutes, but today was the big day of the new Emperor’s coronation.

It was not appropriate to cause trouble.

For the sake of righteousness, they had to swallow their anger. They flicked their sleeves, turned to the side, and decided that out of sight meant out of mind.

The auspicious hour arrived.

The court musicians played music together.

The Emperor also appeared at this time.

Nie Yao stood upright in the front row, and he saw the new Emperor’s appearance at a glance—Oh my goodness!

The new Emperor in person was ten thousand times more handsome than his portrait!!

Of course, he also looked very familiar. Nie Yao looked closely for a while and soon confirmed: the new Emperor was the young man he had met in the palace before.

What audacity.

A ge’er (a male with certain feminine characteristics, often a third gender in historical fiction) dressing as a man, ascending the throne and proclaiming himself Emperor.

What’s even more explosive is that the new Emperor’s unparalleled beauty really didn’t resemble the late Emperor, that old toad, but instead had a two-point similarity to Prime Minister Dou, who was rumored to have been a handsome young man in his youth.

Nie Yao’s mind worked very fast when he wanted to think.

The key points were instantly clear.

Awesome, just awesome.

They dared to do such a thing.

And they didn’t show any intention of silencing him.

Were they confident that he wouldn’t turn against them?

Nie Yao had no prior contact with the new Emperor, so he was a bit uncertain and lowered his eyes, deep in thought.

Eight hundred and thirty thousand taels of silver.

Nie Yao thought today’s ceremony would be extravagant, cumbersome, and wasteful, and he was prepared to stand all day, having even hidden several pancakes in his sleeve.

But it only took two hours.

After paying respects to Heaven and Earth, the new Emperor sat directly on the throne without even sacrificing to his ancestors. He took the Imperial Seal, and after the civil and military officials knelt and bowed.

It was done.

Just like that, it was done!

Seriously, weren’t they being too blatant?

Afraid that others wouldn’t know they despised the late Emperor?

He had never seen Dou Jinyuan (the Prime Minister’s name suggested in the text, although only the surname Dou is provided in the excerpt) be so arrogant and wild before.

Could it be that once he gained power, he exposed his true nature?

Nie Yao pondered and guessed in his heart.

He was even a bit distracted while eating.

At the banquet.

The military officials didn’t think there was anything wrong with such a short ceremony, after all, Nie Yao had always done this, skipping the complicated procedures and spending the minimal money they had entirely on food.

The civil officials, however, were very aggrieved.

Their old faces were tinged with green.

They couldn’t understand why today’s coronation ceremony had such a ‘Nie-like’ (referring to Nie Yao’s simplified, practical style) feeling? Clearly, they had guarded against it strictly and hadn’t let that damned Nie Yao participate in organizing the ceremony!

“Absurd!”

Finally, the Minister of Justice couldn’t stand it anymore and forcefully slammed the table.

Bang!!

The military officials, who were currently stuffing their faces, were startled and all turned to look at Guan Gu (the Minister of Justice) who had caused the commotion.