His Rui

Chapter 723: Near Him But Too Far Away

The crowd couldn’t help but roar this time seeing how Qin Wenya spoke to their Emperor.          

    

Sitting in his seat, Zhao Zhuang Chen didn’t have a good face. In his eyes, his mother was utterly stupid. If she would behave like this, then there was no chance that Father Emperor would delay her punishment. He couldn’t help but think that his mother was not as wise as he had thought.      

Zhao Wang Lei’s face was emotionless and the expression on Zhao Zhang Wei’s face couldn’t be deciphered.      

Ministers who were standing a few steps away from the crowd under a separate shed couldn’t help but shake their heads. They had never thought that the Empress was so arrogant.      

Qin Wenya was ready to spout out the secrets she knew of Zhao Wang Lei. However, it took only one wave from Zhao Wang Lei’s hand that her mouth was stuffed with a cloth and her hands were tied.      

She struggled …quite fiercely.      

Eunuch Wang looked at the old Momo. This old Momo had served the Empress Dowager and hence she understood Eunuch Wang’s implication.      

Immediately, she walked to Qin Wenya and slapped her hand in front of the crowd without any hesitation.      

“You dare to speak to your Emperor like this.”     

It took Qin Wenya more than a whole minute to believe that she had been slapped by a lowly maid. She looked shocked by whatever was happening.      

She had thought that she had scared Zhao Wang Lei. However, now that she thought about everything from yesterday again, she suddenly came to realize that yesterday Zhao Wang Lei had just played a joke with her. He wanted to see her fear and enjoy it.     

It was not because she had scared him that he ordered the servant to stop poisoning her. Instead, he knew beforehand that she was going to be executed publicly.      

Qin Wenya was completely still as the Imperial Guard held the rope around her hands and started to drag her towards the thing where she would be beheaded.      

Now she was facing the crowd again.      

She looked hopeless and helpless again. For one last time, her eyes filled with hope again and she looked toward her son.      

However, Zhao Zhuang Chen only looked at her for a moment before he looked away. Something seemed to break inside Qin Wenya when she saw this.      

As she looked at her husband and her son’s indifferent faces, she suddenly wondered what exactly she had earned in all these years of her life.      

Today when she needed someone to save her, no one was here. She was alone.      

She had been actually alone all her life…with her arrogance and ambitions of getting the power of the throne.      

A moment later, when the Imperial Guard made her bend down and placed her head rightly, she didn’t even resist. She looked as if she was in some kind of daze.     

It was only a moment later, that she realized what was going to happen and hence she tried to move. However, before she could do so, the sword did its work.      

And the crowd went utterly silent.      

Xin no longer had an alive Empress.      

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Xi Ying got the news of Qin Wenya’s successful execution from his shadow guard, An Ping.      

He was playing with Xi Ling at that time who looked helpless as he looked at his mother again and again for some kind of help. Both Li Rui and Xi Ling sighed in relief when they saw An Ping at the door.      

Xi Ying stood up and went out.      

“Master, the Empress left the world.”     

Xi Ying nodded his head.      

“Any news from the border?”     

He asked An Ping who shook his head in ‘no’. Xi Ying frowned. It was taking longer than he had thought. He had thought that since Zhao Wang Lei was involved in these matters, he will use this time and find out about new plans regarding Li and Yi Clan.      

However, it seemed that he had underestimated Zhao Wang Lei this time. If it was taking this much time to find his plan out then he might have something stronger in store this time.      

He needed to buy more time.      

Xi Ying’s eyes flickered instantly and he said      

“Make the news of Qin Wenya’s execution reach Qin as soon as possible.”     

“Yes, Master.”     

An Ping flew away after this.      

And Xi Ying turned around to go inside the room again.      

However, he frowned when he saw the empty room.      

Where did Li Rui and Xi Ling go?     

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Zhao Zhang Wei went to Lantai Courtyard again that day after he returned to the Imperial Palace. The events from the morning were still fresh in his mind.      

Yi Huiqing didn’t resist his touch. The realization made Zhao Zhang Wei’s heart fill with joy.      

Did it mean that she didn’t hate him?      

He just needed to give her time.      

Everything would be fine but it will take time. This kind of hope filled his heart.      

When he stepped inside Yi Huiqing’s chambers, he saw that she was seated near the window on a chair.          

    

He quietly picked a chair and put it in front of her chair.      

Yi Huiqing only realized that he was there when she heard the sound of the chair being placed.     

She turned to look at him with a confused pair of eyes but soon her face went blank.      

Perhaps she remembered the morning. Zhao Zhang Wei smiled because he saw how she was twisting her fingers with the hem of her dress.      

Perhaps from the last few visits, he had realized that he should not speak much in front of her because whenever he did, he would say something that would hurt her a lot.      

So he decided to stay silent this time. Though he wanted to talk to her, he thought it would be better if he would first make her used to of having him around her.      

Yi Huiqing also looked relieved when she didn’t hear anything from him.      

She never looked at him and continued to look out of the window. However, with time, she couldn’t help but remember how he had whispered ‘Mother’ when she had tried to free her hand from his hand in the morning.      

He still cared about his mother.      

Yi Huiqing smiled bitterly suddenly when she remembered him saying in the morning that he had needed her because he was going crazy with everything going on in his mind. She could understand that it must be about his mother.      

However, why should her presence give her comfort when he had given her nothing but pain and despair?     

“Your Highness really loved Mother Consort, right?”     

Yi Huiqing asked softly a few moments. Her lips still had a bitter smile.      

Zhao Zhang Wei was delighted when he heard her talk to him. He immediately replied to her     

“Yes.”     

A moment later, he continued     

“She was beautiful, gentle, soft-spoken. However, she was perhaps the person who had suffered most in this Imperial Palace.”     

Zhao Zhang Wei’s fists clenched when he remembered something from the past.      

“She was not allowed to meet anyone…sometimes not even me. I would have to wait for days to see her.”     

He looked in a daze when he said this.      

“It must have pained to even remember right?”     

Yi Huiqing asked in almost a whisper and Zhao Zhang Wei almost nodded his head. However, his body turned stiff when Yi Huiqing whispered again     

“Can you imagine how much it pains me to remember my children you killed even before they were born?”     

When he gathered his courage to look at Yi Huiqing’s face, Zhao Zhang Wei saw that she was not crying as he had expected. She looked calm but there was a bitter smile on her lips.      

There was no sound but something seemed to break inside Zhao Zhang Wei’s heart when he saw Yi Huiqing like this.          

    

He could finally see the change inside her.      

The change brought by his deeds.      

She was here in the Imperial Palace with him…but she was far away from him.      

So far that it scared him that he would never be able to cover the distance between them regardless of how much he would try.      

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Zhao Zhang Wei left Yi Huiqing’s chambers soon after what she had whispered.      

He couldn’t stay. Somehow being near her at that moment also scared him. As if he was pushing her more away from himself with his persistence.      

What should he do? What could he do? He didn’t know the answer to a single question.      

“Greetings, Your Highness.”     

Zhao Zhang Wei stopped because of being blocked suddenly and looked at the woman in front of her.     

He merely nodded his head in acknowledgment and was about to walk past when he heard the woman say      

“Noble Consort Shu must be happy in the heavens seeing that Your Highness fought for her and she finally got justice. This concubine’s mother also must be happy seeing this.”     

Zhao Zhang Wei couldn’t simply walk away when he heard his mother’s name mentioned. He looked at the woman again and suddenly remembered that she was concubine Shaolin and her mother was his mother’s best friend.      

Concubine Shaolin was relieved when she saw that he had stopped finally. She didn’t dare to stop walking worried that he would leave if she stopped so she said      

“That small garden full of jasmines …did Your Highness make it in remembrance of Noble Consort Shu?”     

Zhao Zhang Wei frowned when he heard this and said      

“No”     

Concubine Shaolin pretended to have an awkward expression on his face and said      

“Oh…this concubine thought that because Mother used to say that Noble Consort Shu used to like jasmine flowers.”     

Zhao Zhang Wei’s face was blank when he heard this.      

He actually didn’t know anything about his mother’s likes and dislikes. How could he know when he had seen her for the days that could be counted as a few months only? He had the remembrance of only that many days in his memory.      

Everything he knew about her likes and dislikes was told by Concubine Shaolin mostly.      

“What else your mother told you about Benwang’s Mother?”         

    

  And Concubine Shaolin smirked mentally when she heard this question.      

Her work was done.      

That was what she had come here for.