Chapter 492: Extra 7: Zhaozhao Gets Her Wish (2)

Chapter 492: Chapter 488: Extra 7: Zhaozhao Gets Her Wish (2)

She parted her lips and commanded, “Go and find out if the second son of the Xiu Mansion is truly ill.”

The second son of the Xiu Mansion was her preferred candidate for Imperial Consort. He was highly respected in the court, a man of integrity with a noble and refined air.

Most importantly, he was exceedingly handsome, with brows as if painted with the finest pine-soot ink and eyes that seemed to hold both frost and moonlight. Having him in the palace would be a delight; a single glance was enough to soothe the soul.

Empress Chenzhao’s heart fluttered at the very thought.

A shadow passed through Si Hai’s eyes. He bowed. “Yes.” And with that, he vanished from the hall.

As night fell, Empress Chenzhao appeared at the Hostage Mansion. A pair of gray-blue eyes stared at her from the darkness.

Her voice rang out, clear and crisp. “Hoping to accomplish something in the dark?”

A candle flickered to life, revealing Yu Wen Tianqing’s silhouette behind a screen. “I thought you weren’t coming tonight,” he said, “so I didn’t see the point in lighting any.”

Empress Chenzhao laughed. “Did you summon me here just so I could watch you change?”

‘I do have a fondness for handsome men, but I’m quite picky. I have no interest in has-beens.’

Yu Wen Tianqing emerged, bare to the waist. “I wanted to ask Your Majesty to look at my injury.” He pointed to a scar on his left chest. “Does Your Majesty know how I got this?”

Empress Chenzhao shook her head in pity. “Years ago, my mother put an arrow through your chest. You were incredibly lucky your heart is on the right side.”

“But I don’t blame your mother,” Yu Wen Tianqing said. “I was deceived, selling my life for another’s cause. Now, an opportunity for revenge has presented itself, and I want to make a deal with Your Majesty.”

His voice was laced with hatred. “Xijin can submit to Beili, but Yu Wen Tiancheng must die!”

After Yu Wen Tianqing came to Beili as a hostage, Xijin underwent several upheavals.

News of Gao Zhao Yue’s faked death spread. Soon after, another rumor claimed she had been captured by a Vassal King. Lan Ling rushed to save her mother, only to discover it was all an act orchestrated by Gao Zhao Yue. With Lan Ling under her control, Gao Zhao Yue intended to place her on the throne.

However, the day before her ascension, Lan Ling vanished. Half a month later, she reappeared, returning to the Ji Family with Ji Changlin. She even visited Yu Wen Tianqing at the Hostage Mansion once—on the night before her wedding.

The struggle for Xijin’s throne erupted between Gao Zhao Yue and several Vassal Kings. But then, Yu Wen Tiancheng returned from the dead, appearing before the court once more. Xijin fell back into his hands.

However, he had been gravely injured and needed constant medication just to stay alive. Every day was a living hell, yet Gao Zhao Yue didn’t leave, remaining by his side.

Lan Ling refused to be the next Yu Wen Tianxin, and Yu Wen Tianqing had been a hostage for long enough.

It was time to settle the score between the brothers. “I know you have both the ambition and the capability to do it,” Yu Wen Tianqing said.

Empress Chenzhao’s gaze flickered. ‘The one who understands you best is often your adversary.’ Her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled. “Done.”

But before she left, she didn’t forget to run a hand over his right chest.

“I take back what I said about you being a has-been.”

It was no secret in Beili that Empress Chenzhao had a wandering eye. Tales of her love affairs were spread throughout the realm.

But she paid it no mind.

Ji Qingwu wasn’t bothered when she heard, either. As long as her daughter was happy, that was all that mattered. To each their own.

Zhao Mingyan, however, was so worried he lost several nights’ sleep over it. But a single sentence from Ji Qingwu put his mind at ease.

So what if their Zhaozhao broke a few men’s hearts? Was she supposed to wait for them all to break hers instead?

「Spring, the 14th Year of the Chengzhao Era.」

It was the wedding night of the Empress and her Imperial Consort, Xiu Ningchuan.

The Empress had planned to just go through the motions, to be husband and wife in name only.

But all it took was a single furrow of Xiu Ningchuan’s brow to leave her feeling giddy. When a handsome man was so insistent on offering himself—and a legitimate Imperial Consort at that—the Empress felt she had no choice but to graciously accept.

The next morning, Xiu Ningchuan gazed at the crimson, plum-blossom-like stains on the bedsheets, his brow furrowing even more deeply.

「The 18th Year of the Chengzhao Era.」

Nanchu and Xijin had pledged their allegiance one after another.

The tripartite balance of power was no more. The realm was unified.

Only the Empress and her closest confidants knew the truth of what had happened back then. The rogue soldiers Nanchu had supposedly sent at the beginning were actually Beili soldiers in disguise. The method had been crude, but one needed a proper pretext to dispatch an army.

When the Imperial Consort, Xiu Ningchuan, later learned of this, he unfastened the imperially bestowed Gold Inlaid Chiyun Belt, threw it down before the Empress, and they had a tremendous fight.

Empress Chenzhao let him vent his fury, only saying, “I stand on the shoulders of my father, the Emperor, and my mother, the Empress. From here, I can see a future of infinite possibility for Beili.”

“Ning Chuan, I prepared myself for this long ago. To unify the realm, one must be ready to be betrayed by all and stand utterly alone.”

“And I accept that.”

Xiu Ningchuan sat there all night.

The next day, he took their two-and-a-half-year-old Princess and went to the Xishan hot springs, where he found the Supreme Emperor and the Empress Dowager recuperating.

Ji Qingwu held her little granddaughter, poking her soft cheeks. She smiled at the man beside her. “Ming Yan, look. Zhenzhen is even cuter than Jiu Jiu was as a child.”

Zhao Mingyan nodded. “They’re equally cute.”

A single glance was enough to see how deeply in love the two of them were.

Xiu Ningchuan felt a pang of envy. “Empress Dowager,” he asked, “who is Jiu Jiu?”

“Oh, you don’t know, Ning Chuan?” Ji Qingwu said. “Chenzhao’s childhood name was Jiu Jiu. ‘Jiu Jiu’ means ‘kiss.’ She loved the name, but only before she turned six.”

Zhao Mingyan also recalled the time his young daughter had climbed onto a high platform at a banquet to give him a loud kiss. His expression softened slightly, though his demeanor remained as cold as ever.

“You two have a misunderstanding you need to sort out,” he said. “What are you doing hiding here?”

Ji Qingwu placed the child in Zhao Mingyan’s arms and interjected, “Zhaozhao is swamped with court matters right now, which means Ning Chuan has to look after Zhenzhen. It’s been very hard on him.”

She said in a gentle voice, “Stay for as long as you like. Think of it as a vacation for yourself.”

But Xiu Ningchuan didn’t stay at Xishan for long. News arrived that Xijin and Nanchu were sending handsome men as tribute.

That night, there was another person in the bedchamber.

A white jade coronet bound his raven hair, and a moon-white, cross-collared robe accentuated his noble and elegant bearing.

Empress Chenzhao’s smile widened. “I knew you couldn’t stay away.”

Xiu Ningchuan called out, “Jiu Jiu.”

The Empress’s face instantly stiffened. She flicked her sleeves and turned to leave.

Xiu Ningchuan caught her arm. “I heard that ‘Jiu Jiu’ means ‘kiss’.”

He placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered, “From now on, when I call you Jiu Jiu, let it be my way of calling a truce. All right?”