Chapter 66 Summoning the Soul: I Want to Make Her My Empress

May he rest in peace...

A sharp pain surged through his mind, and scenes from that rainy day flashed before his eyes.

His knuckles curled as he gripped the hairpin tightly. The hairpin was icy cold, and the chill ran straight to his heart. He suddenly braced himself against the edge of the bed and coughed violently a few times.

The coughing attracted Kong Qing outside. He came in and looked at Pei Xiaoyun's haggard and lifeless face, feeling a pang of sadness.

The master has been unconscious for three days, and even while unconscious, he kept calling out Miss Ming's name. It seems that the master will not be able to overcome this hurdle of Miss Ming.

"Where is Shen Mingshu?" Pei Xiaoyun felt a little better and straightened up to ask him, her words filled with barely suppressed grief and indignation.

Kong Qing replied, "After you fainted, General Shen personally presided over Miss Ming's burial, and then stayed at the mansion. I heard that he was depressed for days and had no appetite. Only today did he go to Baima Temple to offer incense."

Upon hearing this, Pei Xiaoyun's wrist trembled uncontrollably, her eyes filled with darkness, her two dark pupils appearing as if they had been immersed in water, cold and eerie.

He truly believed his sister was dead...

"Go and call him over. I have something to say to him. Go quickly." His voice was tinged with panic, as if he was afraid of missing something if he was too late.

Kong Qing guessed what he wanted to say: he simply didn't believe Miss Ming was dead and probably wanted to drag General Shen to open the coffin for an autopsy.

He offered words of comfort: "My lord, please accept my condolences. General Shen recognized her and burst into tears on the spot. That... that is undoubtedly Miss Ming. General Shen is Miss Ming's own brother. If it really wasn't Miss Ming, he would have no reason to lie to you."

Pei Xiaoyun squinted and chuckled in a low voice.

It was a hot and dry summer noon, and the room was brightly lit, but he was shivering with cold.

In my dream, her words lingered clearly in my ears.

"Why? Don't you know? The bottom of that cold pool is so cold... I wanted to swim to shore, but I didn't have the strength. Why did you push me in? Why did you kill my child? I hate you!"

For the first time, he felt a dull pain on the right side of his chest, a feeling of emptiness and loneliness.

Ripples spread, and waves of pain surged forth.

Even though he was unwilling to accept it, he had to believe that she was really gone, no longer in this world...

In early summer, the spring flowers she had planted with her own hands were withered and sparse, with hardly anything left.

She didn't even leave him the last trace of her presence.

The room was empty. Without her, he lay there alone, feeling for the first time how slowly time was passing.

He missed her so much that he forgot to attend to state affairs, and every time he closed his eyes at night, his mind was filled with her image.

Sometimes, when he saw Pei Yu'an appear in front of him, he felt his heart clench with pain.

Why was she so heartless, abandoning him and his daughter like this? This time, she really did abandon them; he would never find her again.

He recalled learning from others three years ago that she was not dead.

At that moment, was it just anger? There must have been joy, relief that she hadn't died.

If only someone could tell him in person now that she's not dead...

The weather cleared up for only one day, then the rain started falling continuously again.

Pei Xiaoyun went to the Jing'an Marquis's residence alone; this was the house he had bestowed upon Shen Mingshu.

White banners hung in the mansion, and large white lanterns swayed gently. For a moment, he wondered for whom these things were hung.

When Shen Mingshu came out, he saw him arrive at his door like a wandering ghost, his eyes filled with anger. He went up and punched him in the face.

"You dare come back? You'd better prepare to die!"

Pei Xiaoyun was stunned for a moment after being punched by him. He touched the corner of his mouth and found a trace of blood.

He merely wiped his robes, his gaze somber and melancholic, and said softly, "I want to bury her again. I will give her the most honorable rites in the world, so that she may depart peacefully. I will invite a Taoist priest to perform a ghost marriage, and we will complete the wedding ceremony that was never finished. I will make her my principal wife and bestow upon her the title of Empress. From then on, no one will dare to speak of her identity."

"Are you crazy?" Shen Mingshu glared at him angrily. "You're delusional."

Pei Xiaoyun was completely obsessed, ignoring what others were saying and insisting on his own idea: "I want to move her into the imperial mausoleum, and after a hundred years, we will be buried together in the same coffin and never be separated again."

"Shameless scoundrel!" Shen Mingshu's anger surged to the top of his head, and he swung his hand and punched him twice, making him stagger a few steps.

Pei Xiaoyun finally knew how to resist, their arms intertwined, and the two were locked in a stalemate.

"I just want to make it up to her and give her the best."

"Compensate her?" Shen Mingshu sneered. "You hurt her, so you're going to compensate her with those baseless accusations? You're humiliating her! If you really want to compensate her, go die and use your life to make it up to her."

Humiliation...

Is it humiliation?

Pei Xiaoyun's lips trembled, as if...

She never cared about money or fame during her lifetime. When she first followed him, she was docile and obedient, accepting whatever he gave her. Later, even when he backed down again and again and promised her everything, she was still unwilling.

Would she even want the position of Empress?

Is it that she looks down on him, or does she simply not want to forgive him?

He returned to his residence dejectedly, with several new wounds on his face, but no one dared to ask how he got them.

No one had ever seen him like this before, so heartbroken over a woman who didn't even have the status of a concubine.

—

Tongjitang in Beijing.

More than a month had passed since Mingying's burial before He Lianqing felt a little better and came to Tongji Hall as promised.

He was acquainted with one of the doctors at Tongjitang and agreed to memorize several prescriptions for treating difficult and complicated diseases for him.

The elderly doctor with a white beard, surnamed Qi, trusted the young man's medical skills greatly. He needed his help this time, but the young man hadn't come for several days, so he went up to him and asked, "Doctor He, have you not come for a few days?"

He Lianqing wore a long-sleeved blue robe, her hair tied up with a wooden hairpin, and her face was gloomy. She asked someone to bring her paper and pen to write down the last two prescriptions: "I am saddened by the passing of my old friend."

"The deceased is gone, please accept my condolences." Dr. Qi comforted him with a few words before turning to see other patients.

A middle-aged man carried a woman into the clinic. He was covered in sweat. After putting her down, he anxiously cried out, "Dr. Qi, my wife has been bitten by a snake. The wound is probably from a venomous snake. It's very dangerous. Please save her quickly!"

Doctor Qi immediately went over and saw that the woman was already somewhat delirious. He looked closely at the bloody wound on her leg and said, "It is indeed a venomous snake. This kind of snake can only be found in the mountains and forests near Baima Temple. Judging from the wound, the snake must have been quite large, but it is not fatal and there is still hope."

"We went there to offer incense and were bitten by a snake." The man wiped his sweat and paced anxiously. "We went to several clinics, and all the doctors said that being bitten by this snake meant certain death."

Doctor Qi brought over his acupuncture kit and snorted angrily, "That's all because their medical skills are inadequate. About a month ago, a young woman was also bitten by this kind of snake, and I cured her. She was able to get out of bed that same day."

As He Lianqing was writing the prescription, her eyelids twitched slightly, and a strange feeling welled up in her heart.

A young woman was bitten by a snake that had only appeared at Baima Temple a month ago.

After Doctor Qi detoxified the woman, he slammed the written prescription on the table and called someone over: "Doctor Qi, do you remember what the woman who came to see you for her injuries a month ago looked like? Do you still have her medical records? Let me see them."

Dr. Qi didn't know why he asked that, but he mentioned the medical records, and indeed a copy had been kept.

He found the medical records for him and recalled them carefully, saying, "She is thin and has a round face and round eyes. This girl is really kind-hearted. Usually, even a grown man would have to lie down for two or three days after being bitten by this kind of snake, but she got up immediately, saying that she was in a hurry to leave the city."

Upon hearing this, He Lianqing quickly flipped through the medical records according to the dates.

The sixth day of the fifth lunar month.

Mingying went to Baima Temple on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and fell off a cliff there that night.

"What's wrong?" Doctor Qi asked, puzzled, as he looked at the increasingly serious expression on the man's face.

He Lianqing calmly took out the paper, lit a candle, covered it with the candle, and burned it. He watched as the paper burned to ashes, then closed the other medical records heavily: "Don't tell anyone about this."

He vaguely had an absurd conjecture.

After leaving Tongji Hall, he immediately set off for the Marquis of Jing'an's residence, but he did not see Shen Mingshu there.

The servants in the house said he went to the White Horse Temple to offer incense on behalf of his deceased sister.

He Lianqing only wanted to find him and confirm one thing with him.

In order to deceive Pei Xiaoyun's people, Shen Mingshu has been frequently going to Baima Temple to burn incense these days.

Fearing that Pei Xiaoyun might remain suspicious and secretly send someone to watch him, he constantly pretended to be grief-stricken and heartbroken. He went to the offering table, lit three incense sticks, and inserted them into the incense burner.

Instead of praying for the deceased, he was cursing: When will someone like Pei Xiaoyun get his comeuppance?

Everything was done perfectly. He walked out of the main hall and bumped into someone.

He raised his eyes, slightly surprised: "Dr. He?"

He Lianqing looked anxious. He knew what he was worried about, and lowered his voice: "I noticed when I came that no one was following me. Pei Xiaoyun has been crazy all day long and has accepted the fact. He probably doesn't have the time to send someone to keep an eye on me."

Upon hearing his tone, Shen Mingshu's expression changed drastically, realizing that he was almost certain what was going on.

Sure enough, he said gravely, "Is she still alive?"

After a brief silence, Shen Mingshu nodded.

"yes."

He originally did not want to tell anyone, not even He Lianqing.

The more people know about this, the bigger the flaws become. Pei Xiaoyun is deeply suspicious, and it took a lot of effort to dispel his doubts this time.

Since He Lianqing had guessed it himself, he wouldn't hide it. He trusted He Lianqing's medical skills, and he also trusted He Lianqing's character.

He Lianqing breathed a sigh of relief when she heard his definite answer.

It seems he was right; she is still alive.

She was the one who came to Tongjitang to see the injured person on the sixth day of the fifth lunar month. She had safely descended the mountain from Baima Temple on the fifth day of the same month.

Unaware of the situation, he unwittingly became a facilitator of this scheme.

"Very good." The gloom that had been hanging over his heart because of the passing of his deceased friend was suddenly swept away, and he couldn't help but ask, "Then where is she now?"

Shen Mingshu replied, "I have settled her in the Northwest, and she is safe."

Ah Ying lived well in the Northwest, and within a few days, she had gotten used to the climate and customs there.

The dust has finally settled, and they can finally reunite with their families. However, Pei Xiaoyun is cunning, so they cannot return to Yangzhou for the time being.

In another year or two, once Pei Xiaoyun has completely forgotten Aying, he will take her home and live out the rest of his life in peace.

As for the fake corpse in Taiping Lake, it was chosen by his informant in the capital long ago. In order to lull Pei Xiaoyun into a false sense of security, he put on a good show to make him believe that the person was gone.

He actually believed it.

He Lianqing frowned, knowing that this matter was of utmost importance and must not be revealed. That was why he destroyed the medical records and hid the only trace she had left behind.

"Don't worry, this is a secret between you and me, no third person will know."

—

When He Lianqing returned to the mansion, night had fallen, and the gilded characters on the plaque had faded and lost their color.

The courtyard was ablaze with light, casting jagged orange-red shadows, and occasionally a strange, loud sound could be heard.

Upon closer inspection, several Taoist-looking individuals dressed in blue robes, shaking talisman bells, surrounded two clusters of torches, walked strangely, and chanted incantations.

"May your soul return—"

"May your soul return—"

Pei Xiaoyun stood in the middle of the courtyard, watching these people make a show of mystery, and tacitly approved of their behavior.

"What are you doing?" He Lianqing pointed at the group of Taoist priests who were pretending to be gods and ghosts.

The flickering firelight was reflected in Pei Xiaoyun's eyes. The shadow was mottled yet lustrous, soft yet sharp, leaping repeatedly in his eyes like a ghost.

He smiled, his voice surprisingly clear: "I want to summon her spirit, to see her one last time. What do you think?"

After completing this ritual, he could see her, even if it was just to say a word to her or see her face again, he would be satisfied.

Thinking of this, his chest heaved violently, and a surge of excitement seemed about to burst forth.

He Lianqing couldn't help but sigh inwardly: He's really gone mad now.

"You, the regent of a nation, have gone mad to this extent?"

Pei Xiaoyun felt that he did not understand him and did not want to say more to him. She waved her hand and told him to get out of the way. "Move aside. I dream of her every day. I really miss her. I just want to see her one last time in this way."

"Stop deceiving yourself, she's already dead," He Lianqing coldly warned.

He is the kind of person who remains selfish and self-serving, never thinking of regretting his actions, but instead trying every means, even absurd ones, to fulfill his desires.

“You don’t understand, you can go down.” Pei Xiaoyun shook her head repeatedly, her eyes fixed on the group of Taoists setting up their formation.

He Lianqing clenched her fists, her face filled with resentment.

This is utterly absurd!

He spoke to him, each word piercing his heart: "Even if this method works, do you still want to disturb her soul's peace? She doesn't want to see you at all; otherwise, why would she jump off a cliff and end her life?"

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Author's Note: Okay, now everyone knows except him. [doge][doge]