Chapter 42

Chapter Forty-Two

The strong fragrance wasn't pleasant; it overpowered most of the scent. Xiao Zheyu felt a sense of familiarity; she had smelled this domineering fragrance once before, but it was on a dead body, where such a potent incense was placed to mask the stench of decay. A sense of unease crept into Xiao Zheyu's mind. She lowered her eyes, remaining silent, and gazed at the horizon, where dawn was gradually breaking.

...

Dark clouds gathered, and rumbling thunder echoed in the sky. On either side of the palanquin, Eunuch Hu shouted, "Stop!" As soon as the palanquin stopped, the person who had been feigning sleep on the throne opened his eyes. Eunuch Hu wiped away his cold sweat and said, "Your Majesty, look at the sky, it's going to rain."

Xiao Ling felt dizzy and his head was throbbing. He frowned impatiently and said through the bright yellow gauze curtain, "Hurry up and leave, my head is throbbing." Eunuch Hu nodded and bowed, then turned around and said with a changed expression, "Rise!"

The roadside had already been cleared out; it was now empty and silent, save for Xiao Ling's occasional muffled coughs. He was wide awake, staring at the scar on his palm, muttering to himself, "Sister, you really are heartless." That night, so vivid in his mind countless times, was now replaying itself. If only he had known this would happen, he could have hidden it, hidden it for a lifetime.

Amidst lightning and thunder, the new emperor ascended the throne. Xiao Ling donned a bright yellow dragon robe and sat upright on the dragon throne. He glanced around at the people below, feeling inwardly that they were mocking him.

"Now you're scared?" Xiao Zheyu's voice was icy cold beside him. Dressed in magnificent robes, she stood at his side, her eyes filled with indifference. She disdained the throne and showed no servility towards power. Xiao Ling clenched his fist and said, "Sister, they...they will remember me..."

"You are the Emperor." After she finished speaking, she glanced at the people at the banquet below and found it boring, so she bowed and said, "I am tired and will go back to rest first." She turned and left, and Xiao Ling watched her leave with longing eyes. He could no longer follow her around all the time. He was no longer Xiao Ling.

Xiao Ling sat on pins and needles all night, having drunk quite a bit of wine. In a daze, he arrived at Luanquan Palace. The maids outside, seeing him, bowed in alarm, but he smiled and told them to be quiet. Then, he carefully pushed open the door and went inside. He had done this countless times before, so it was second nature to him. He walked unsteadily to her bedside, sat down, and traced her face with his eyes.

Xiao Zheyu suddenly opened his eyes and thrust his sword back. Xiao Ling was startled, regaining most of his senses. He gripped the blade in a daze, then blurted out, "Sister, be my empress." Only after he finished speaking did he realize what he had said, and his face turned red.

Xiao Zheyu looked at his hand and said coldly, "Fool, let go."

Xiao Ling released her grip and shouted in one breath, "Sister—"

Snap!

Xiao Ling's face turned to the side, burning with pain. Xiao Zheyu pried his hand open, blood staining her hand. She frowned slightly, took a deep breath, and said, "Xiao Ling, I will only say this once. I will give you the throne not for any other reason, but because you have struggled differently from your other siblings in this palace."

“He has turned all his other siblings into useless people. Only you are temporarily usable. If you are also useless, I will not spare you during the massacre that night.”

"If you want the throne, I will give it to you."

"If you want something else, then prepare to die. Xiao Ling, one shouldn't be too greedy." She wiped her hand on his dragon robe. Thunder rumbled and flashed outside, blinding him.

His body slammed into a pillar of the palanquin, and he groaned in pain. A light drizzle began to fall outside. Eunuch Hu knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, a woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere and blocked the way. I'm just chasing her away."

Xiao Ling waved his hand impatiently, his head throbbing. The woman shouted, "How dare you do such a filthy thing in broad daylight, right under the Emperor's nose! You dare!" Xiao Ling looked directly at her and recognized the tone.

"Hu Zhong." He called out in a daze. Huang Zhong, who was bowing, paused and turned around: "Your Majesty."

Xiao Ling looked at the woman, only seeing her green-clad figure from behind. He said as if possessed, "Bring her here."

The eunuch Huang dragged the woman over, and she struggled, saying, "What are you doing? What are you doing?"

Xiao Ling leaned forward, and the woman, realizing what was happening, looked up from behind the bright yellow gauze curtain. Huang Zhong scolded, "How dare you! How dare you look at His Majesty's face?"

With just one glance, Xiao Ling was thrown into disarray. Her eyebrows, eyes, and appearance were eighty percent similar to her elder sister. The woman was about to kneel down the next second, but Xiao Ling jumped down directly and supported her elbow with one hand, saying, "You are not allowed to kneel."

"What is your name?" Xiao Ling stared intently at her. She replied, "Your Majesty, Teng Yu'e."

Xiao Ling's fingertips trembled. Yu, even her name contained the character for jade... His eyes were mesmerized as he stared at her. Teng Yu'e looked back at him, never expecting that the current emperor would be so handsome and beautiful, a true beauty, only showing his noble bearing when he frowned.

Huang Zhong was startled and lowered his voice, saying, "Your Majesty, this is against the rules."

Xiao Ling brushed him aside: "Can you come with me?"

Teng Yu'e looked up at him; his eyes were full of longing. She smiled almost imperceptibly, then nodded under his gaze.

Having served under the previous ruler, Huang Zhong remained unfazed by the scene. He said, "Your Majesty, please go up." Xiao Ling watched her go up first, then turned to Huang Zhong and said, "You must not tell her about this."

Huang Zhong agreed, and after he went up, he sighed and smiled, "If the Princess knew, she would be furious." A light drizzle brushed against his nose; he wiped it away and called out loudly, "Rise—"

A light drizzle was falling from the sky, gradually subsiding.

Xiao Zheyu's eyelids twitched, and she felt something was wrong, but she had no mind to think about anything else. She hadn't felt this tired in a long time. The group of them leaned against the fence outside the village and sat on the ground listlessly. The fence gate behind them was pushed open, and Shou Changyue exclaimed, "Miss Meng?" Meng Yingying was sitting at the door. When the door opened, it touched her back, and she arched her back forward.

Shou Changyue quickly closed the door and said through it, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." Meng Yingying shook her head, grinned, and stood up from the ground, saying, "It's okay, I was the one who blocked your way in the first place."

Shou Changyue opened the gate and stepped outside. Meng Yingying rubbed her arms and calves in pain, her whole body aching. The high-intensity ghost-slaying was only on the first night, and Meng Yingying was already finding it too painful.

Looking at her pained expression, Shou Changyue felt even more apologetic: "It's all my fault for being too weak. If I had insisted on going to find you last night, alas." He sighed, leaving his words unsaid, since he ultimately did not go. He continued, "I suppose you have already seen those things last night. In the past, people from Xinghua Village would come out for a walk to digest their food at night. But ever since someone in the village mysteriously disappeared at night, by the next day, they had become a pile of bones."

He asked nervously, "With your abilities, are you capable of removing those things?"

Meng Yingying observed his every move, afraid of missing anything. His words seemed flawless on the surface, but upon closer inspection, they sounded like the fixed dialogue of an NPC. He assumed there were ghosts in the village just from seeing one skeleton, and he was so afraid. Had they seen it? Meng Yingying asked, "Have you seen that thing?"

Shou Changyue's eyes were filled with naked fear. He said, "I have never seen it, but one night my father went out and the next day he appeared at the door of the house in a ghostly form, just like you all today. It was my father who thought of putting incense ash into water. As long as the villagers drank it, those ghosts would not dare to come near them."

Filled with doubt, Meng Yingying asked in confusion, "Incense ash?"

Kong Fusheng suddenly started gagging. His face looked pale. Meng Yingying could tell from his reaction that he had probably drunk some water and it probably didn't taste very good, which was why he was acting like this.

Kong Fusheng winked at her, then opened and closed his mouth, his voice entering Meng Yingying's mind: "That incense ash is bone ash." Meng Yingying's expression remained unchanged. Incense ash is bone ash? Human bone ash?

"Senior Meng, you have no idea that last night, Senior Zhou didn't tell me that what was at the bottom wasn't incense ash. I drank it, and I almost threw up my guts in the middle of the night, ugh ugh ugh—" He was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly couldn't move his mouth. He moved his closed mouth and looked at Zhou Xiuqi. Zhou Xiuqi's expression remained unchanged, and he secretly withdrew the two fingers hidden under his Taoist robe.

Meng Yingying didn't hear him finish speaking, but she could guess that he was going to complain. She secretly glanced at Zhou Xiuqi, not expecting that Zhou Xiuqi liked to tease people.