Chapter 107
“It’s the same . It means the same thing . ” I smiled and stood up . I stepped over Qi Sheng and tried to get off bed, “I’m hungry . I’m going to find something to eat . Do you want anything?”
All of a sudden, Qi Sheng grabbed my arm and turned around to look at me, “What about you?”
I was surprised for a moment and then smiled, “I fancy you . I fancy you as well . ”
Qi Sheng still wouldn’t let me go . He quietly studied by and after a long while, he let out a sigh and said gently, “You are still putting me off, aren’t you? You still don’t fully trust me, do you?”
He saw things so thoroughly that I couldn’t continue to put up a cheeky face . I thought for a while and replied, “Qi Sheng, you’re the Emperor and I’m the Emperess . Let’s support each other and stay on the same boat . Isn’t that nice? I’ve already decided to trust my life with you . You asked me to keep my heart, and to be more brutal and a more competent Empress . You’ve already won . Why won’t you just let things slide?”
Qi Sheng shook his head and said slowly, “I’ve bet my life in exchange of your cooperation . If I only get a competent empress, it’s not a fair deal . I want your life, and I want your heart as well . ”
I couldn’t help but smile bitterly, “This is what you’re thinking now but it will change in the future . If I give you my heart, then I can’t be a good empress, just like the old Zhang shi, who couldn’t be a good crown princess . ”
Qi Sheng’s hands went stiff and I took the chance to draw my arm out . Before I could reach the door, Qi Sheng gently asked, “You always think I was too cruel to the old Zhang shi, do you?”
I was taken aback . I stopped and slowly turned around .
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“If I tell you that I used to like the old Zhang shi, will you believe me?” Qi Sheng wasn’t looking at me but landing his eyes somewhere empty . He said hoarsely, “We grew up together and we were dear friends when we were innocent kids . Although she was willful and rash, she was sincere and pretty as well . We were a young boy and a young girl . How was I able to feel nothing for her? But the Zhang Family was too powerful, and there was no more reward that could be awarded to them . If we didn’t eradicate them, they would become our future trouble . So as long as the Zhang Family was still in power, she couldn’t have her own kids . There were so many ways to prevent women from having kids in the palace, but I didn’t have the heart to put her in a situation with no child after her family declined . So I had to keep my distance from her and treat her coldly . But she couldn’t understand . She only knew that she loved me but she never understood me . Gradually, the love faded and disappeared completely…”
Somehow, I knew the Zhang shi he was talking about had nothing to do with me, but I felt extremely bitter in my heart, as if the moment I opened my mouth, I would throw up .
I shook my head hard and interrupted, “Let me be an Empress . The military power of the Zhang Family gradually diffuses in the north tour . Let them be a rich family . After we return, I will be a good Empress for you . ”
Then I strode out of the room before Qi Sheng could say anything .
Zhao wang was squatting in the corridor . Hearing some noise, he stood up and looked at me . He was stamping while he smiled at me, “Sister-in-law, haven’t seen you for a long time . ”
I nodded and approached him to look at him . I smiled, “You are indeed a dear friend of Qi Sheng . He dared to trust his life with you and you didn’t let him down . What you said that time makes some sense . These obscurities and realities are not something that I can understand . It’s such a shame . I am the one that couldn’t see the broad picture . ”
Zhao wang put his hands inside his sleeve and smiled timidly, “I’ve told you that His Majesty is someone that values feelings . You will get it through your head sooner or later . ”
I smiled and diverted the topic, “How is the war going?”
Zhao wang widened his eyes and pretended to look at me in surprise, “Sister-in-law, don’t you know it? His Majesty asked me to lead the army to stop the reinforcement Tartars sent to Shangjing . Now we’ve eradicated all the reinforcement and they had no back up in Shangjing . I guess Yang Yu is close to secure the capital . ”
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I was immediately taken aback . If they have secured Shangjing, doesn’t it mean the Norther Desert is already eradicated?
In the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, Yang Yu sent a message, saying that the north tour army had already broke through Shangjing, and more two thousand imperial family members, including the Tartar Emperor, Empress Dowager and concubines were captured .
Qi Sheng was planning to head to Shangjing by himself, but it was too cold to get on road, and his wound hadn’t healed completely, so the plan was postponed . He sent an imperial edict, instructing Yang Yu to command some people to guard Shangjing and escort the Norther Desert Emperor to the south .
Inside the camp in Pingning, I randomly flickered through reports from all of the country and couldn’t help but sighed .
Qi Sheng hadn’t fully recovered so he was feeling a bit lazy, lying on the soft bed with his eyes closed and covered in fox fur robe . He gently grunted after hearing my sigh and asked, “What’s wrong?”
I turned around to look at him and sighed, “It is so freezing cold now . They will suffer so much, especially for those concubines and princesses who haven’t suffered anything in their whole life! Should’ve asked Yang Yu to return after the new year . ”
However, Qi Sheng chuckled . He said without opening his eyes, “Our soldiers from the south can put up with the cold, so why can’t these Tartars growing up there put up with it? Take it easy, not many of them will die . ”
I shook my head and secretly marveled at Qi Sheng’s brutality . Then I couldn’t help but ask, “It is okay for you to use Zhao wang, but how come you dared to use Yang Yu? Doesn’t he have half of Northern Desert blood running in him?”
Qi Sheng looked up at me and answered, “That is because you don’t know his birth story . ”
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By saying this, he had piqued my curiosity . I believed even Lv Li had no idea about this kind of secret gossip . If I knew about this, I would be able to shock her after we returned . I went over to the soft bed, pushed Qi Sheng towards inside, and sat on it . I reached my feet into his fox fur robe to get some warmness and asked excitedly, “What happened?”
He smiled and crooked his fingers at me . After I sat next to him, he started to tell the story, “It is a very secretive deed . Yang Yu’s mother, Xu shi, was from Jiangbei . When the Tartars attacked the south during the Sheng Yuan period, Xu shi used to live with the Northern Desert general Cui Yan in Yuzhou . Then they had Yang Yu . General Mai was an old acquittance of Xu shi . He pitied her so he married her . But a marriage was all they ever had . After Yang Yu grew up, he learned about his birth story, so he went to Shangjing to seek Cui Yan . That was when Cui Yan knew Xu shi had given birth to a son for him . Cui Yan indeed had some feelings for Xu shi . Seeing Xu shi suffered for half of her life for him, he wanted to take Xu shi and his son back to Shangjing . But the Family Cui wouldn’t agree to it no matter what, probably because Xu shi was someone special and she had a bond with General Mai . Somehow, the Northern Desert Emperor got to know about this . It was General Mai who drove the Northern Desert army out of Jingyang so the Emperor was always bitter about it . He agreed that Cui Yan could take Xu shi and her son back but stealthily, he wanted to draw General Mai out .
I was so immersed in this story that I couldn’t resist the temptation to ask, “What happened afterwards?”
Qi Sheng slightly squinted his eyes and replied gently, “Then Xu shi died; General Mai was severely injured trying to save Yang Yu . And it almost cost his life in the Northern Desert . At that point, Cui Yan knew he was being used . And he saw Xu shi died . He was so regretful and killed himself with a sword . Only in one night, Yang Yu lost both of his parents, and his step father was heavily injured . It was all because of the Northern Desert, so why wouldn’t I dare to use him to attack Northern Desert?”
I was speechless for a long time, and after a long while I sighed, “What indeed is love? Even death couldn’t do them apart . ”
Qi Sheng was a bit taken aback . He shot me a couple of confused looks and lay back at the soft bed, closing his eyes to nap .
Yang Yu hurried on his journey all day and all night, but still he wasn’t able to come to Pingning with the prisoners before the New Year . It was already the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the year when he arrived . Surprisingly, he tied Yang Yan up and brought him along . They knelt down before Qi Sheng, asking for his forgiveness .
It turned out that after Bathroom Lord assassinated Qi Sheng with death warriors, Qi Sheng took the chance and stationed at Pingning with the army . It could draw the army from the Northern Desert . And in the meantime, he instructed Zhang wang to secretly led the army out of Pingning City, ambush all the reinforcement sent from all across the Northern Desert to Shangjing, and clear the peripheral obstacles for Yang Yu .
However, Yang Yan rescued Bathroom Lord from Pingning . After he got away, Bathroom Lord revealed some of the deployment plan in the Pingning City to a Northern Desert troop . They figured it was too late to rescue Shangjing, so they returned to attack Pingning, trying to capture Qi Sheng before Yang Yu could broke Shangjing .
Yang Yu said, “It is all because of my stubborn son that Qi Han escaped, which caused the leak of the plan in Pingning City . It put Your Majesty’s life at stake . I didn’t teach my son the right way . Please punish me . ”
Qi Sheng smiled and said, “General Yang has made great contribution breaking Shangjing . Yang Yan has made a mistake, but he was deceived . And I didn’t suffer any real danger . So General Yang, don’t worry . Take some rest now . Let’s return to Sheng City first and then talk about reward and punishment . ”
Yang Yu hastily kowtowed and thanked him for his forgiveness . But Yang Yan was left in a trance next to him, showing no response . He was a lot skinnier compared to the last time I saw him . He looked pale, and he kept his head low . When he was about to leave, he finally said in a hoarse voice, “I didn’t know he would tell the army deployment in Pingning to Tartars . Otherwise, I wouldn’t have…s aved him that day . ”
Then he kowtowed hard and left with his father .
Though he didn’t look at me for even once, I understood what he meant . He had always been an ally of Bathroom Lord but he had never thought about betraying the country with him . If he knew how it would end, he wouldn’t have abandoned me that day .
Qi Sheng turned around and stared at me with a meaningful look, “If I don’t kill Yang Yan, but list him in the army and send him some place three thousand miles away, do you think Yang Yu would appreciate that?”
I guessed that he didn’t care much about whether Yang Yu would thank him, what he cared was whether I would .
I smiled and replied, “He would, of course he would . But it is a serious mistake . Three thousand miles is a bit too close, so let’s add another two thousand miles on it!”