The third watch had just begun. Outside the emperor's bedchambers, Cao Mingbao stopped the approaching eunuch from knocking on the door.
"Where does Wang Gonggong think he's going?" Cao Mingbao asked. His usual jovial smile was on his face but none of the other servants in his vicinity was fooled. There was no love lost between Head Eunuch Cao's faction and the inner palace departments.
Eunuch Wang, a portly middle-aged man who had served in the Department of Respectful Affairs for over two decades, eyed Cao Mingbao beadily. His tone was sarcastic as he replied, "Cao Gonggong might be His Majesty's most loyal…servant but if Zajia (1)'s memory isn't failing, the duty to remind His Majesty that his bedchamber time is up belongs solely to my department (2)."
(1) Zajia: A term of self-address used by eunuchs. I was really unable to translate this but it was so unique that I wanted to keep it. Both characters individually mean ‘us’ and ‘home’ but don’t have this meaning when combined. I was also unable to find out the origin of this term, sorry ^^;;
(2) It was the duty of the Department of Respectful Affairs to monitor the time the emperor spent…having sex. This was because it was believed that men lost ‘yang energy’ during the act and to indulge too much was unhealthy. For the emperor’s sake, they would wait outside and knock once, twice, and then thrice as a polite warning for him to finish up. Awkward lol.
A/N: Thanks very much for reading! <3
Yan Zheyun: ...what was Your Majesty thinking with the new promotion?
Liu Yao: ...one word: Dote. Two words: Dote hard. Four words: Dote on him hard.
Because I thought I had to upload 3 chapters at once to fulfill the automatic privileges rank otherwise you guys wouldn't get to see the new chapter today...I guess these count as two bonus chapters? XD QAQ
Summoning pen count: If I minus two chapters off, we're back at zero! The current count is 51, I'll wait until 90 to upload a new bonus chapter and reset the pens!