The Big Landlord

Chapter 113.1 – Lin Family Matters

The 27th year of Chong Ming Emperor’s reign, November 15th, clear skies.

An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian finally set off for Ali Xiang. They left quietly. There were people keeping tabs on them in secret, but they would only think that Fu Wu Tian was accompanying An Zi Ran back home to An Yuan County.

After all, An Zi Ran had a family business in An Yuan County. Last time he went back, they stayed in An Yuan County for a long time. Even if they stayed pass the new year in An Yuan County, no one would find that suspicious, furthermore, they needed to pass through An Yuan County to get to Ali Xiang.

This time when they passed by the tea shed again, they no longer saw a large number of stick-thin farmers migrating to Maple City.

Along the way, they would occasionally hear people talking about Fu Wu Tian.

The contents of their dialogue focused around the biggest corruption case in Hong Province’s history and the disaster in Chang Province. Most of them were praising Fu Wu Tian.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

To the common people, they worshipped whoever could allow them to have food to eat and clothes to wear. So after the two incidences in Hong Province and Chang Province, Fu Wu Tian’s reputation in these two places surpassed the emperor.

This incident spread to the ears of the Chong Ming Emperor.

The emperor was very angry, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Chong Ming Emperor had thought of sending officials to take the credit for Fu Wu Tian’s work, but Fu Wu Tian did a terrific job. Starting from the corruption case in Hong Province, he acted with great fanfare. At that time, many people had focused their attention on him, including those from several neighboring provinces.

Then later, Fu Wu Tian used all the money that he confiscated from the corrupt officials to mitigate the disaster in Chang Province, which helped him gain a very good reputation.

At that time, the Chong Ming Emperor already knew that it was impossible to send someone else to intervene in this matter. Fortunately for the emperor, he found an excuse to take back Fu Wu Tian’s military power. At long last, resolving one of the worries in his mind.

Hearing these rumors again, he did not get angry like before when he heard Fu Wu Tian’s name. He thought that Fu Wu Tian had no military power, so even if the people supported him, he could not make any big waves, thus he went back to indulging in the beauties within the harem everyday.

In the last talent selection, the harem count increased by dozens more beauties.

Chong Ming Emperor remembered that there was a beauty that was particularly special, always making him unable to stop himself. For one month straight, he showed special favor towards that beauty.

This was unprecedented.

The emperor was very lecherous, and he had never favored any beauty for more than a month, including Mei zhao yi*, who possessed remarkable beauty. She was the one who calmed his temper in the Imperial Study Room. At that time, the emperor gave her special favor for half a month. Just that half a month’s time was enough to make many concubines in the harem incessantly jealous.

[*T/N: 美昭仪 Mei zhao yi – this is her concubine title, not her name. ‘Mei’ means beauty and ‘zhao yi’ is the concubine rank.]

However, it was only half a month. In the end, she only got raised to the main second-level zhao yi*. She couldn’t even advance to one of the si fei*. This led to a lot of other concubines rejoicing in her misfortune.

[*T/N: Her rank is 正二品的昭仪 zheng er pin de zhao yi. According to baidu, 昭仪 zhao yi is a type of concubine placed in the Western Han Dynasty during the Yuan Emperor period. Apparently, at that time, it was second only to the empress. I’m guessing the author is using a mishmash of concubine rankings from different time periods, or perhaps she’s using a ranking system from a time period that I’m unfamiliar with (which is highly likely), because the text then goes on to mention 四妃 si fei (four concubines), which sounds like it’s higher than zhao yi based on context, but clashes with the baidu definition. However, I am aware that in certain dynasties the top three concubine ranks are: 皇后 empress, 皇贵妃 huang gui fei, and then 贵妃 gui fei. In this ranking system, there can only be 1 empress, 1 huang gui fei, and 4 gui fei. The huang gui fei is practically equal to the empress, so most of the time a gui fei would get the title posthumously.]

This was all until that particular beauty appeared.

At first, no one thought that she would be favored for a longer period of time than Mei zhao yi, but as it happened the results were contrary to their expectations.

Countless concubines in the harem nearly grinded their teeth into powder. They were confident that their appearance was not worse than that beauty, but why did the emperor favor her?

No one could figure it out, including some of the most respected noble ladies in the harem.

Then a subsequent decree astounded them all. Chong Ming Emperor went as far as to skip over discussion with Zhang Sun Empress. Without even saying a word to her, the emperor conferred the title of Yan fei upon that beauty, and she became the last fei among the si fei.

Although it was only one level away from Mei zhao yi, it was like a chasm that could not be bridged. In an instance, the identity gap between the two people widened. This kind of difference was not something that could be measured between a main second-level concubine and a side second-level concubine.