Selling wife for fame? Kick out the scumbag and marry the new emperor to enjoy the harem of favors

Chapter 140 Growing More Heartbroken
When Xie Wei came out of the palace, his face had already regained its composure.

Upon returning to the mansion, Xie Mingshen instructed the steward to summon him to the study.

"Father." Xie Wei lowered his eyes and cupped his hands in greeting.

"Sit down and talk." Xie Mingshen gestured to the empty chair beside him, his expression both kind and serious. "What did the Emperor say to you? Is he satisfied with your performance in Lizhou?"

Xie Wei nodded. "His Majesty should be satisfied. He praised me for caring for the people and also mentioned that Consort Xie was grieving too much in the palace. He allowed me to meet with Consort Xie to comfort her."

Upon hearing these words, Xie Mingshen's eyes flickered, and then he sighed.

“Your sister and your mother were very close, and she was most reluctant to part with your mother. On that day, she did not hesitate to leave the palace in secret to see your mother one last time. She must be heartbroken. With your comfort, she should feel better.”

Seeing the sorrow and heartache on Xie Mingshen's face, Xie Wei felt even more heartbroken.

He's still acting; he has no idea when Xie Mingshen will become real.

A father like that makes you want to stay away.

Seeing that Xie Wei did not respond, Xie Mingshen slightly suppressed his grief and asked a question instead.

"Has His Majesty said where you will be assigned to your post next?"

Whether Xie Jiu was sad or not, he didn't care. What he cared more about was the future of his only son, Xie Wei.

After all, this also relates to how far his influence can extend in the court.

"His Majesty said that my father is ill and my mother has just passed away. He took pity on me for taking care of the family and asked me to assist my father in receiving the envoys from Xichi Kingdom," Xie Wei said truthfully.

These things will not escape Xie Mingshen's notice; he will find out tomorrow at court.

Upon hearing this news, Xie Mingshen frowned slightly.

Asking Xie Wei to assist him meant that there was no specific official position to be assigned. If the reception of the envoy from Xichi Kingdom was handled well, then everything would be fine; but if something went wrong...

I'm afraid Xie Wei will find it difficult to establish himself in the capital from now on.

This is not the situation Xie Mingshen wanted to see.

Therefore, after pondering for a moment, he said in a low voice, "This matter concerns your future. You are my only son, and I am going to hand over the future power of the Xie family to you. You must understand this responsibility. Even if it's not for these reasons, think about your sister. If she wants to live peacefully in the palace, she has to rely on you and me. We and your sister are in the same boat, sharing both glory and loss."

"I know, Father, don't worry," Xie Wei said calmly.

He had already anticipated that Xie Mingshen would say these things.

He had heard this explanation far too many times.

Originally, Xie Wei also took it upon himself to revitalize the Xie family and wanted to make the Xie family's reputation as the first scholarly family even more renowned. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, enter the cabinet, and become the chief minister. However, after he actually passed the imperial examination and entered officialdom, he discovered that the official position was far from what he had imagined.

Corruption and darkness that had never been touched before suddenly appeared before Xie Wei's eyes. What Xie Wei found even more unacceptable was that this darkness was tacitly approved in front of Xie Mingshen, and even facilitated by Xie Mingshen's actions and efforts.

He wanted a clean and peaceful officialdom, but Xie Mingshen only said that he was delusional and too naive.

Xie Wei originally thought the Xie family was a distinguished family of scholars and officials, but he never expected that they were just a hypocritical and arrogant aristocratic family that only cared about their own glory and sought fame.

It wasn't that the Xie family produced many talented individuals, but rather that with Xie Mingshen as the Grand Secretary, anyone with the surname Xie could become an official, even without talent.

Xie Wei even suspected that his second-place ranking was fake, all because his father was the Grand Secretary.

"Father, please rest. I'll go back and change my clothes. I should go and keep vigil before Mother's coffin. I reckon Madam Fan and the two children will arrive this afternoon," Xie Wei said, getting up.

Xie Mingshen wanted to say something more, but then he thought of his son's personality and knew that saying too much would be counterproductive, so he nodded.

"Take care of yourself too. You've been traveling non-stop and kneeling before the coffin the whole time. I'm afraid you'll get exhausted." Xie Wei responded and withdrew.

Chengming Hall.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects." Xie Jiu bowed.

Zhao Xingjin beckoned her over, asking, "Have you met your brother?"

"Yes." Xie Jiu nodded. "Thank you, Your Majesty, for allowing us siblings to meet. I have lost my mother, and from now on, I will only have my brother."

As she said this, her face was filled with sadness.

However, Zhao Xingjin did not respond to this remark.

After all, to him, the difference between Xie Wei and Xie Mingshen was not that great.

Xie Jiu understood Zhao Xingjin's meaning and stopped talking about it.

"I have ordered your brother to assist your father in properly receiving the envoys from the Western Chi Kingdom. I hope he will not disappoint me," Zhao Xingjin said proactively.

“Brother is always conscientious in his work, unlike me, who is lazy.” Xie Jiu lowered her eyes.

Zhao Xingjin took a sip of tea. “You are meticulous and the most intelligent. I trust you the most when it comes to tasks. You haven’t noticed these past two days, have you? Consort Wei has caused trouble again while managing the monthly allowances for the servants.”

Xie Jiu really didn't know that.

Since Yang's passing, she has been staying home these past few days, unwilling to move or pay any attention to anything happening outside.

Today, when I went out to see Xie Wei, it was the first time I had put on a brave face.

"What went wrong? Consort Wei is in charge; she should be the one who follows the rules the most, right?" Xie Jiu asked.

Zhao Xingjin sighed helplessly, "She's fallen into her old habit again; she's too rigid with the rules."

Xie Jiu frowned. "Is there some inside story?"

Yang Zhian, who was watching from the side, stepped forward and explained the situation.

It turned out that Consort Wei discovered a great deal of waste in the consumption of the palace servants' supplies. For example, the servants used the lowest grade of stove charcoal for the winter fire. Although this kind of charcoal did not burn for long, it was cheap, so a lot of it was given. However, this charcoal produced a lot of smoke when it burned, so someone took this stove charcoal out and exchanged three times the amount of stove charcoal for one time the amount of white charcoal.

If you're only burning charcoal for heating, you won't need this much.

Some people, unwilling to use the charcoal, simply sold it all for silver to burn during the winter.

Winters in the capital weren't particularly cold to begin with. During the day, I was mostly on duty, and I could only rest by the fire at night, snuggling under the covers. It wasn't much different.

There were many other things to do, but I won't list them all. Now that winter is approaching, the purchase of charcoal is on the agenda, which is the first thing that has come up in Wei Jieyu's hands.

Consort Wei ordered that the amount of charcoal used be reduced significantly, just enough to ensure that the servants had enough, so that they would not be allowed to use public property for personal gain. However, she also set a rule to provide more hot water to the palace servants.

Hot water is a good thing nowadays. Unlike later generations when you can just turn on a water heater, now you have to boil water yourself and keep it warm with coal, which is time-consuming, laborious, and wastes a lot of charcoal.

If more hot water had been provided without reducing the amount of charcoal, the servants in the palace would certainly have been grateful to Consort Wei. However, Consort Wei had deliberately harmed their interests first, so this hot water, which could only warm them up but not fill their stomachs or be exchanged for silver, was no longer so precious.

The servants already felt that life was hard, and now they felt even more exploited. They couldn't even afford to give them more charcoal, could they?
As a result, there was much discussion and resentment in the palace, which eventually reached the Empress's ears.

The Empress first summoned the person to Weiyang Palace and subtly reminded them of a few things.

However, Consort Wei felt that she had not done anything wrong. After returning, she summoned the servants who had led the disturbance to Zhongcui Palace, intending to make an example of them and punish them according to palace rules. She thought that this would deter people and rectify the atmosphere in the palace, but she did not expect that it would make things worse.