Good Man Operation Guide

Chapter 131.2- Rebirth of the Black Lotus (8)

The Empress Dowager tensed up for a moment, and just as she was about to send all these palace servants away, Lin Shiheng smiled with satisfaction, “All right, Mother, I’ll go out now, and when I come back. I'll take a good look at them with my Third Eye for you.”

Right, it’s only the first time he's seen these palace maids, and he hasn't used his Third Eye yet.

The Empress Dowager sighed in relief and slightly relaxed her body while looking at the back of her youngest son, strutting off towards the entrance of the palace. Then, she looked at her own palace full of palace maids whose faces were clearly above average but were called ugly to their noses. Her heart was filled with mixed emotions.

Shiheng, what eyes are these?

I'm afraid it might be broken!

Lin Shiheng wandered outside for a while, and then re-entered the palace.

Again, as before, he walked down the front to the back of the line and pulled out seven palace maids.

On the way back, two more were pulled out.

The Empress Dowager had been watching nervously for a long while, and when she saw the results come out, she rushed to him, “Shiheng, how is it?”

Lin Shiheng pointed to the seven maids, “They are barely good looking.”

He pointed to the last two, “They’re extremely ugly.”

The Empress Dowager’s eyes glanced at the nine people kneeling on the floor, “What about the rest? “

“The rest?"

Lin Shiheng frowned with a look of disgust, “As ugly as they were before, they’re still ugly now.”

“And five beauties too, have turned ugly, just as ugly as most of the palace maids here.”

The Empress Dowager was confused.

Why are they still ugly after all this?

Is there no one of good character among all the people in my palace??

So the Emperor, who had just had an in-depth discussion with Master Yuan Tong about the origin, development, and care of the Third Eye, was again hastily called over by the Empress Dowager.

Master Yuan Tong was somewhat relaxed when he was told of the Empress Dowager’s urgent invitation.

For a moment he couldn’t get used to the fact that Emperor Anqing was clucking at him like a big rooster who was obsessing about why his child was born as an egg and not a chick, repeatedly chanting how Prince Linjiang, Lin Shiheng, was so well behaved and obedient, so it was only natural that he had a connection with Buddha.

Master Yuan Tong didn’t want to know how obedient the 5-year-old Prince Linjiang was, nor did he want to know why fate with Buddha depended on being well-behaved and obedient to get it.

He even wanted to give up his Master’s closed-mouth meditation and create his own closed-ear meditation so that he could get away from Emperor Anqing’s chatter.

When he arrived at the spot, knowing that Lin Shiheng had only found seven “good-looking” palace maids, the Emperor was in no mood to recite how good and understanding his brother was, and how pure and unpretentious he was among his ambitious younger brothers.

This was evident from the fact that, when he became the victor, he simply kicked out his brothers, who had lost their fight for the throne from the imperial family, leaving them imprisoned with commoner identities for the rest of their lives. He cut off his own brothers from scraping to the top position. He was an Emperor who planned ahead.

He immediately pictured a tragic image of his own Empress Mother, crouching in a grass nest like a white rabbit, being gawked at by a host of big wild wolves with very bad characters.

The Emperor’s eyes were red.

If he couldn’t even protect his mother, becoming Lord of the world was in vain, allowing her to be surrounded by so many wolves and ambitious people.

He opened his mouth and shouted, “Men! Drag them out and show them to me...”

“Your Majesty.”

As soon as Master Yuan Tong saw his face, he knew what he was going to do. He hastily called out to the man and chanted Buddha’s meditation with his palms together.

“Since the Empress Dowager said that His Highness also found these palace staff ugly before, is it possible that, by ugly, His Highness meant something different from what we understand?”

Can ugliness be understood differently?

Isn’t the first thing you should do is to ask, ‘Why is this person so ugly'?

The Emperor was caught up in the guilt of ‘I didn’t protect my mother’ and didn’t want to do anything else. But Master Yuan Tong was an expert in this area, and although the Emperor wasn’t a very inspirational one, he was a gentle and receptive one.

So after a request from Master Yuan Tong, the Emperor dispatched people to the various palaces to find maids that Lin Shiheng had never seen.

In his eyes, those of the Empress Dowager and Master Yuantong, the three palace maids who were brought in were all very good looking.

If they were to divide it, it would probably be:

Minor beauty /major beauty /ultimate beauty.

And to Lin Shiheng, he smoothly gave three grades as well.

Very Ugly /generally ugly/ not bad.

The Emperor and the Empress Dowager were suddenly enlightened.

So, it was a matter of aesthetics.

The survey results of the seven maids who were evaluated as ‘not bad’ also came out, and indeed they were well liked, with hardly anyone having a bad thing to say about them.

And the two palace maids who were judged to be very ugly- One had stolen from the same room and planted it on another palace maid’s room, causing the other to be sent to the clothing workshop, and the other had volunteered to get medicine when her friend had a cold, but had secretly switched the medicine, causing the other to die without treatment.

These were naturally investigated with great urgency. In the palace, there were many ways to get a person to talk and tell the truth.

After a difficult translation of Lin Shiheng’s words, the situation was pretty much sorted out.

Very ugly: A person of very poor character, who probably had done something harmful to people’s lives.

Generally ugly: Not bad, average. Doesn’t really matter.

Not bad: Has a pretty good character.

Good-looking: Very good.

After some trials and tribulations (translation), the ‘Incident of the Poor Character of the Palace Maids’, which worried the Empress Dowager and the Emperor to no end, came to a perfect end.

The Empress Dowager, while thinking that she would have to give her youngest son a proper personality check before finding him a side concubine, casually asked...

“And what does mother look like in Shiheng’s eyes?”

Lin Shiheng breezed through the compliments without a second’s delay.

“In this son’s eyes, Empress Mother is like a fairy descending to earth, with fair skin, stunning looks, beautiful eyes, and a smile that makes me lose my mind for half a second when I look at you. Unfortunately, no one else can see your real heavenly immortal-like face. Otherwise, women would definitely worship you like a goddess and pray day and night that their face would be one tenth as beautiful as yours.”

The Empress Dowager was coaxed into giggling.

Am I actually such a good person?

But thinking about it, if her character was bad, the Emperor wouldn’t have sent her these dreadful maids to take care of her properly after he ascended to the throne, and they would have been sent on their way.

Caught up in the emotion of Tm so incredibly kind, there’s no one kinder than me in the world’, the Empress Dowager suddenly remembered something.

“Where is the Princess Consort? How is the Princess you married?”

Lin Shiheng still didn’t pause for half a second. He opened his mouth and blathered on, “Princess Consort is considered the only woman I’ve seen in this period, that can rival the beauty of Empress Mother. Every night, I feel like I’m sleeping with a heavenly fairy in my arms, more than that...”

Speaking of that, Prince Linjiang gave a mysterious glance to his left and right, and approached the Empress Dowager, speaking in a voice that both the Emperor and Master Yuan Tong could hear, “Mother, I also saw a golden light around the Princess Consort. I accidentally touched a bit of it last time and massaged Emperor Brother’s shoulder when I entered the palace, the golden light went towards him.”

Saying so, he spoke into the Empress Dowager’s ear, quietly and whispering. Yet, the Emperor and Master Yuan Tong could hear him clearly, “Look, Mother. Doesn’t Emperor Brother look better?"

The Empress Dowager was surprised and delighted. She quickly looked over towards her eldest son.

It was only when she took a good look that she realized that her eldest son's frail countenance was indeed much lighter, and even his face was rosy and not as pale as before.

The Empress Dowager was immediately about to summon the eunuchs, but before she could call them, the Emperor’s eunuch outside urgently shouted at the door.

His voice, tinged with joy, was sharp enough to be heard by everyone in the room, “Your Majesty, rejoice! Imperial Consort Zhen is pregnant!!!”

Pregnant...

Pregnant...

The Empress Dowager was so overwhelmed with joy that she was momentarily dazed by the great surprise, and giddily joined her palms, “Amitabha Buddha, Buddha has blessed us, Buddha has blessed us.”

My son finally has a child!

It doesn’t matter if it’s a Princess. It’s good to have a baby, it's good to have a baby!

Even the Emperor, who had long been prepared to spend his life without being a father, was giddy with joy.

The only calm person among the Imperial people present was Lin Shiheng, Prince Linjiang.

He boldly came forward and pointed the way for his relatives.

“Empress Mother, Emperor Brother, you should be thanking my Princess Consort! If it wasn’t for that golden light gifted by the Princess Consort, Emperor Brother’s health wouldn’t have recovered so quickly.”

“Yes, yes.”

The Empress Dowager didn’t believe in Buddhism in her early years, but later, when the Emperor’s harem was always barren, she began to burn incense and worship Buddha. Upon hearing her youngest son’s words, she immediately said...

“The Princess Consort’s merit won’t be forgotten, and we must express our gratitude towards Buddha. Master Yuan Tong, I will build another thirty-three temples for Buddha as a token of appreciation for his grace.”

Master Yuan Tong placed his palms together, “Amitabha.”

Lin Shiheng scanned Emperor Anqing up and down from one side to the other and affirmed, “Emperor Brother, I’ve used my Third Eye to help you. It’s certain that Imperial Consort Zhen will give birth to an Imperial son for you.”

“Really?!"

The Empress Dowager became even more excited. Although she didn’t mind a Princess, as the Emperor, Emperor Anqing did need a son.

She couldn’t stop the corners of her happy lips from curling upwards, “I also have to thank Master for clearing up the confusion today. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn’t have known that Shiheng had such a powerful Third Eye.”

There was a momentary stiffness to the smile on Master Yuan Tong’s face.

He never knew that the Third Eye had the ability to see the gender of a child.

Master Yuan Tong felt helpless.

So, he placed his hands together and while doing so, silently chanted in his mind, Closed-mouth meditation, closed-mouth meditation, closed-mouth meditation.

While smiling and nodding, “Amitabha.”

He never wanted to come back to this palace in his life.