Translator – Xiao He Lian

Chapter 91

On the outskirts of the imperial city, the road at the foot of the mountain is very broad but the mountains are towering, the wild grass is growing all around, and no one can see the ambush.

Someone appeared silently, colliding with a small group of people, quickly creating a scene of chaos, the horse neighing, the carriage collapsed, Qing Rong panicked and climbed out of the carriage, quickly helped the Empress Dowager up, but the long sword that suddenly came across her made her heart tremble

“Qin Yi!” She said: “You are crazy, Do you know who this is? It’s the Empress Dowager.”

“You’re the one who got her into trouble.”

The empress dowager’s bun was crooked and she was embarrassed. She forced herself to be calm: “Are you Qin Yi? I am the Empress Dowager of Jin, if you try to touch me, the emperor will definitely…”

Before she finished her words, a line of blood flew out abruptly from her neck and her body stiffened and fell down.

The servant girl beside her screamed, Qing Rong turned pale and heard him say lightly and sarcastically: “Useless old thing, dare to threaten me.”

The blood-stained sword slashed the maid’s head directly and then placed it on Qing Rong’s neck.

She instantly fell to the ground, widened her eyes and looked at Qin Yi in disbelief.

Everything happened too fast, Qin Yi started too quickly, and didn’t give her time to give any reaction at all, which caused her to suspect that she was having a nightmare.

“You want to use him.” What He Ermi said echoed in her ear: “You will die.”

*

In the Crown Prince’s Mansion, Xian Sheng is lying on the table and carefully drawing something. The queen said that she wants to make small clothes for the child and Xian Sheng didn’t feel good being lazy. He also has to do something for the child, otherwise it will look weird. 

But he did not know how to sew, so he thought of drawing some nice patterns and let Yuehua embroider them.

Thinking and painting, time passed quickly, until Yuehua came to remind him: “Princess, now you are pregnant, you should rest early.”

Xian Sheng returned to his senses and asked: “What time is it?”

“It’s almost midnight.”  Yuehua helped him up and heard him ask again, “Where is His Highness?”

“He hasn’t returned yet.”

“It’s so late, he rushed out in the afternoon…without even telling me.”

Xian Sheng’s pregnancy is still not apparent yet, under Qi Sile’s conditioning, his body is much better, but after sitting for a long time, he still feels tired.

When he got into bed, Yuehua put up a quilt for him and Ruyi complained: “It’s already this late and no one has been sent back to let you know.”

Xian Sheng leaned on the head of the bed, folded his hands on the quilt. He said thoughtfully: “He is not the one who will worry me. He should be delayed by something urgent.”

Yuehua asked, “Are you hungry? The queen asked you to eat less and eat more meals. There is porridge on the stove.”

“No, it’s easy to digest food at night.” Xian Sheng said: “I won’t wait for him, I’ll go to sleep now, you guys can retire too.”

 “Yuehua helped him to lie down again, tucked him the quilt and walked to the candle but heard Xian Sheng say: “Leave the light, I’ll wait for him to come back.”

Yuehua nodded and went out with Ruyi.

Xian Sheng closed his eyes, his body was a little tired but his mind was still active,  thinking that nothing major had happened in the past two days, to speak of it, the Empress Dowager took Qingrong out of the palace….

He suddenly opened his eyes and gnawed, and his heart skipped a beat.

After an unknown amount of time, Xian Sheng fell into a drowsy sleep. When the sky was bright, he woke up again. There was movement beside him and the bed curtain was pulled away. He was confronted with a familiar but haggard handsome face.

It seemed that he didn’t expect him to be awake. Zhan Zhen was stunned and said, “Didn’t you sleep all night?”

“I was worried” Xian Sheng didn’t see sleepiness in his eyes and asked, “Why did you come back now?”

Zhan Zhen weighed it, the death of the Empress Dowager was a national mourning and he couldn’t hide it, so he said, “The Empress Dowager was assassinated near the Summer Resort, unfortunately…. passed away.”

Xian Sheng’s face was pale but his expression was very calm: “Who did it?”

Zhan Zhen rubbed his nose, he squatted by the bed and took Xian Sheng’s hand “I found Qing Rong’s body… it’s hard to say, everyone died swiftly.”

 “ It’s Qin Yi”

Xian Sheng looked confident and said: “He went to kill Qing Rong, because the Empress Dowager was by her side, so he killed them together, right?”

“This matter…”

“He will not spare Qing Rong.” Xian Sheng said: “I have long thought that from the moment Qing Rong exposed me. In Qin Yi’s eyes, she is already puddle of rotten meat.”

“Sheng’er…”  Zhan Zhen said with difficulty: “What Qin Yi did has nothing to do with you…”

“Yes it does.” Xian Sheng said firmly: “He came for me, if he just killed Qing Rong, so be it. But now, he killed the Empress Dowager, it is the matter of the state, your father will certainly put this account on my head.”

 “No”

 “Zhan Zhen.” Xian Sheng said softly, “You should not think of me as a delicate girl. I am not, I do not feel guilty, nor do I have to take the blame on myself, I am just stating the facts.”

 Zhan Zhen didn’t speak for a while.

Xian Sheng held his hand instead and said, “Come up.”

“I..”

“Come up here and hold me.” Xian Sheng tugged at him again, Zhan Zhen’s Adam’s apple rolled, got into bed and hugged him forcefully in his arms. Xian Sheng rubbed against his chest, found a comfortable position and said, “Tell me, you what did you do tonight.”

“I put the whole city under martial law, searched, picked a few of his strongholds and tried to force him out but he didn’t show up.”

Qin Yi is like a water snake lying in ambush in the deep sea. From time to time, he jumps up and bites someone. If there is no movement that interests him, he will continue to lie dormant. If anything happens to anyone around him, it won’t alarm him.

“What does he want to do… “ Zhan Zhen frowned and said, “I don’t care about him, so many of his people have been arrested by me and he is so indifferent as if those people have nothing to do with him.”

“In fact, I’ve always wondered.” Xian Sheng pondered: “Why would he set up a stronghold in the Great Jin. Even if the two countries had undercover agents in each other’s imperial cities before, he never cared about these things. He does not want to conspire against Great Jin, so why go to great lengths to do this.”

Zhan Zhen felt the same headache: “For so many years, he also did not use his contacts here, has been cautious to the extreme, until this year when you came over, only to find that he has noiselessly rooted in the upper capital.”

“He killed Imperial grandmother.” Zhan Zhen pressed against Xian Sheng’s cheek, Xian Sheng could feel the anxiety and impatience in his heart, but his voice was still very soft, as if he was afraid to scare him. Xian Sheng held his hand and said again: “What did your father say?”

“He …… told me to catch Qin Yi before the Imperial grandmother was buried, but now he has disappeared again. How on earth did he do it?”

Xian Sheng twisted his eyebrows and said, “When will the imperial grandmother be buried?”

Zhan Zhen fell silent, he glanced at Xian Sheng hesitantly, and said, “In a few days.”

“Because the late emperor is no longer here, the imperial grandmother is buried on an even numbered day, on the eighth of April.”

Xian Sheng thought for a while, then Zhan Zhen coaxed: “On that day, I will celebrate your birthday in private for you, okay?”

“I don’t care about that.” Xian Sheng patted his hand comfortingly and said, “Did Father Emperor arrange it deliberately?”

“He definitely didn’t mean to target you, it’s just that the day managed to overlap with your birthday. Sheng’er, don’t take it to heart.”

“I know.” Xian Sheng patted him again and smiled: “I really don’t care, it’s just a birthday, which is less important than the national mourning…by the way, does your father suspect that Qin Yi killed Qing Rong for me?”

If that’s the case, it basically makes sense that he was deliberately stimulating Qin Yi. He saw that Qin Yi would do anything for Xian Sheng, deliberately arranged the day on this day. If Qin Yi still has feelings for Xian Sheng, he will definitely be angry and thus come over to disrupt the national mourning, this is a good opportunity to catch him.

Only Xian Sheng is his weakness. At least, so far, he has only exposed such a weakness.

Zhan Zhen didn’t speak for a while, he was so devastated. He didn’t understand why everything seemed to be rushed in these few days, “I must kill him and never let him walk out of the capital.”

“If you enforce the martial law, you will only beat the grass and startle the snake”

“I am alarming the snake.”

“He is a cautious person, your trick won’t work on him.”

“…Well, during the mourning period, it is normal for the entire city to be under martial law.”

“Let me do it.” Xian Sheng looked at him and said, “Zhan Zhen, let me come this time.”

“You?” Zhan Zhen’s hand stretched into the quilt and gently covered Xian Sheng’s abdomen, he said: “Do you think no one proposed to use you as bait? But for the sake of the child in your womb, the father emperor rejected it himself. How can I let you go?”

 “Although I didn’t do this, it was indeed done by the Liang people. On the prayer for blessings day I managed to escape but now, Qin Yi dropped this knife on me.” Xian Sheng explained: “He added fuel to the fire, lest the world would not be in chaos, he just hoped that I would not have a foothold in Jin, so that when he stretched out his hand, I would follow him. Do you understand?”

“No… I won’t agree.”

“Then you will never catch him.” Xian Sheng shook his head and said, “Do you really think he will bite such a straight hook? If there is a national mourning, even if there is a riot, he will not go there in person, no matter how many people you send it is useless.”

“No.” Zhan Zhen’s face was cold, his eyes were gloomy.

Xian Sheng patiently said: “Zhan Zhen, Qin Yi has put this knife on my neck, if I want to stay in Great Jin, I must make a contribution, otherwise one day, your father will kill me personally. There are many people who want to pull you off the horse and they will definitely kill me. Even if I don’t do anything, as the culprit behind all this, I can’t live too long. I can’t be at ease… now there is a child to protect me but when he comes out they can take away the mother and keep the son.”

“Will not.”

“Forget it.” Xian Sheng couldn’t reason with him now and said, “It’s not dawn yet, you should sleep for a while.”

“But the two of them lay down without any sleepiness. Xian Sheng turned to look at him, Zhan Zhen should still be angry, his eyes were tightly closed and he didn’t look at Xian Sheng. He suddenly reached out and stabbed Zhan Zhen’s cheek, “Zhan Lue lue.”

Zhan Zhen opened his eyes, after a while, he turned around and held him in his arms. He kissed him gently. Xian Sheng couldn’t help laughing and said, “About Qin Yi….”

“Don’t mention him again.”

“Zhan Lue Lue” Xian Sheng hooked his hands around his neck, brought his face close and said softly, “Lue Lue.”

Zhan Zhen kissed the top of his nose and said: “Talk properly”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I just don’t want you to be in danger.”

“But I’m not a woman. You can’t just keep me around you and stop this and that. How is that any different from locking me up?”

“It’s for your own good.”

“I know.” Xian Sheng’s voice was even softer and sticky: “I know that my husband loves me and wants to protect me. In my heart I’m also very happy, but you can’t let me lose my self-protection skills and rely solely on you.”

“Why not?”

 Xian Sheng pursed his lips and began to feel a little angry: “I didn’t marry you, so I can follow you. You have to be responsible to the Empress Dowager and I am also responsible to Great Liang. Qin Yi repeatedly provokes my bottom line. I want to kill him, what qualifications do you have to stop me?”

“Because I’m your husband”

“Do you really think that just because I came here in the form of marriage, that I am the charming little wife in your deep house?”

“You are.”

“You say it again.”

When Zhan Zhen saw that his face was frosted, he hesitated for a while and said: “No.”

Xian Sheng was so angry with him that he suddenly kicked him: “Get out, get out!”

“This is how you treat your husband who has been working all night?”

“You are the husband, who will work if you don’t work? Do you want this delicate little lady to go out and work hard for you?”

Xian Sheng kicked him out of bed but Zhan Zhen climbed up from the other side swiftly. He immediately grabbed the pillow and hit him. Zhan Zhen took it and sat at the end of the bed, looking at his red face and said unhappily: “Where did I say wrong? I spoil you, not let you take any risk and never allow you to be in danger!”

Xian Sheng looked at him quietly and said, “Do you not love me anymore?”

The author has something to say

Sheng Sheng: I don’t like you anymore.

Slightly: Don’t make trouble for you