Chapter 4: Meaning of love

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How could the best of men be defined? The best lover? Was he the one who didn’t let his lover down? The one who didn’t let her suffer any kind of grievances, he cleared the roads for her long before any danger could lurk in the dark? He acted before needed to be told, gentle and kind to his partner? Cold but warm to his beloved? Indeed, such a person was a good lover, a good man, an excellent protagonist of romance novels. He was absolutely well-loved by the readers. His heroine certainly would, even if at the beginning she didn’t, irrevocably fell in love with him. Such a man, after all, was bound to be loved… only, loving that person, if you weren’t the heroine, could only bod your downfall!

If you asked Lane and if she considered the heroine's point of view, then of course, she would say that such a man was absolutely lovely, the ultimate kind of lovely. No pushover, no wishy-washy, he knew what he wanted and defined well his relationships with others. He didn’t let his significant other be slighted, neither did he let her feel jealous for his pleasure. Indeed, he deserved some applause… only, Lane was no female protagonist but the reader. Even if readers were supposed to support the main characters and since most of the time romance stories were depicted in the female lead's point of view -thus supporting the female lead-, Lane was simply a complicated person and couldn’t immerse herself and wholly support the person. As a reader, a complicated one, with sometimes picky tastes, she liked putting herself in the shoes of every character of the novel she was reading, everyone that marked her at least and or who was a constant character in the novel. As such, such a dreamy man… in other characters' point of view, she simply wanted none of it.

For his other wives, he was simply being disloyal, irresponsible, and should be –for most of the time he wasn't- the outlet of their anger. Concubines actually shouldn’t put the blame on the heroine, but that womanizing bastard. If he wanted to love the heroine alone, then he could dissolve his harem and like this, personally, Lane wouldn’t have anything against him anymore. But, for those, like the protagonist of ‘The cold emperor’s pampered wife,’ she had quite a choice of colorful words to describe them.

Wei Xing, the crown prince before becoming emperor, had one main wife, Zhang Shui, three high-rank concubines, and four lower rank ones. By the time he became emperor, there would only be four of them left. One dying of poisoning, one during birthing, losing her life and her child and two others were beaten to death for killing the previous one by administering the poison. 

The actual plot of the story started when he was already the emperor. Not too long after that, he met the heroine who would become his empress later in the story. She was the princess of the neighboring country, sent to marry here to consolidate the peace and also so that the neighboring country could receive the military aide of this country. Sending the poor woman in this country was equal to her becoming a prisoner, but bearing the responsibility of her position, she came her head held high. Despite a rocky start, she still managed to capture the heart of the emperor, who, like the title said, pampered her to no end.

By then, it wouldn’t be good if he dislocated his harem. After all, those women had been with him since his adulthood, if he sent them away, the public would criticize, and would shoot at the empress. So, his solution was to not care for them.

That child who had been poisoned and harmed, was it that he wasn’t yours too? What's with this indifference as you're judging the affair? That woman who was crying out your name in despair, was it that you never held her at all, hadn’t you once been intimated with her? Just because she isn't the one you love the most, should you discard her so cruelly?

That kind of double standard things, Lane simply couldn’t handle them.

Now, if you asked her, should he then dislocated his harem? That too, wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. The women would be considered soiled goods, no one would marry them. In times like these, they would have nowhere to go.

But indeed, abandoning them in the palace wasn’t the best solution either. The story emphasized how the heroine wouldn’t bully them, would give them good clothing, money, and standing. But, what about their man? Didn’t they want to be intimate with him too? Why should they live as widows when they could exercise their rights or was it that only men should know the pleasure of the bedroom? What about children? Didn't they want to hold children of their own? They couldn’t divorce even if they wanted to, they couldn’t fall for another man. They were in this golden prison without any power. Their children –for there were some who gave birth before the heroine came- would always have tragic endings and their husband wouldn’t care.

Lane obviously had no solution that would completely appease her. Dissolving the harem could be considered good, only at the supposition that those women weren’t with him since his puberty for, in that case, this was a quite bad taste in her mouth; keeping the harem and being so obviously unfair too wasn’t good. Really, nothing satisfied her completely. That was why Lane hated harem stories the most. Couldn’t stomach them. They were never fair. Which then certainly explained her discomfort now that she had transmigrated into one. Blast thing.

So why did she read ‘The cold emperor’s pampered wife’? At the time she was reading, the author hadn’t added the harem tag, and since the story was from the heroine’s point of view, it was much later that she got to meet the male lead, and by then, she was curious to see how many things would get resolved… although it was true, though, that she deleted the thing from her electronic library when the double standard bastard of the emperor had felt nothing at the death of his concubine son, simply because he wasn’t the heroine’s.

That said, it was still good that she was at the very least, inside a story she knew even if not completely. It was still good too, that she wasn’t part of the palace intrigue, but an insignificant servant. However, she was still inside a house with soon-to-be-dead masters. What a worrisome matter this one.

Imperial concubine Zhang’s family. They caused quite a headache to the emperor. An ambitious master, a cold and rigid main wife who suppressed the concubines. That mother was always pressing her daughter to have a child, always gifting her all sorts of herbals concoctions to facilitate the process. And that legitimate son who will later become general Zhang. His fate was a bit pitiful. He was indeed an arrogant person but Lane found that, in the end, the only reason why he died was that he loved his sister dearly. He had tried to save her even after learning what she did, when clearly, everyone in his clan, father and mother alike, were trying to distance themselves.

He was quite pitiful indeed.

That web novel in all truth hadn’t been bad. It was well written and all, but there were just too many things that didn’t sit well with Lane so she tossed it aside.

Sighing, she took her bath. It was ice cold and chilly. It was a miracle that everyone didn’t come down with a cold in this mansion. She had a pretty face now and was called Fu Bin. Looking at her reflection in the water she tried repeating her name. It wouldn’t do if she kept dozing off and not responding when called.

She was quite beautiful and seemingly coquettish. The female lead had been described as the most beautiful in that web novel, a beauty that could destroy cities, and the male lead was her perfect match in this regard. She wondered how they looked like in real life.

And that Zhang Shen, how did the book describe him again?

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