Chapter 2 002 Snatch

Chapter 2

Kou Yuze did not kill his father.

That night, when he rushed to the tent, his father was already dead. Ying Ji was sitting in a pool of blood, covered in blood and shivering.

She turned around tremblingly with a bloody and tear-stained face, and whispered only one sentence - "I don't want to die."

If others knew that she was the one who killed the emperor of Beicang, she would surely die.

At that time, Kou Yuze looked at Yingji, who was weak and about to cry, and somehow accepted the crime of patricide.

He convinced himself that the dead cannot be resurrected, and the living are more important.

During this time, he regretted again and again why he had accepted such a crime that went against the will of heaven and humanity. He refused to avenge his father's murder and even protected him. Was he unworthy of being a human being?

He thought again and again - just kill Yingji to appease his filial piety and conscience. But every time he really saw Yingji, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

For example, just now, when he smelled the bloody smell, Kou Yuze felt nothing but worry in his heart.

Kou Yuze walked towards Yingji, frowning as he looked at Xue Zhonghong's body which had been ripped open and stabbed with nearly a hundred holes, his brows furrowed even tighter.

The safety of a princess sent by the Duxue Kingdom for marriage is not that important, but the safety of the accompanying prince is different.

He said angrily, "You've caused me so much trouble again!"

After waiting for a long time without receiving a response, Kou Yuze looked at Yingji. She lowered her head, her bloodstained hands resting on her knees. A drop of blood slowly dripped down her fingers and fell into the pool of blood on the ground, stirring up red ripples.

Only then did Kou Yuze notice Yingji's red and swollen cheeks. He pulled Yingji up, waved his hand and performed a cleansing spell, and the blood on Yingji's body immediately disappeared.

It turned out that the dress she was wearing was white.

After the blood stains faded away, the swollen marks on Yingji's fair cheeks and the severe pinch marks on her neck suddenly became shocking.

"Hand me over." Ying Ji raised her eyes and looked at him, a gentle smile slowly appearing on her lips. Against the backdrop of the blood on the ground, her calmness made Kou Yuze inexplicably feel distressed.

He asked, "Aren't you afraid of death?"

"Afraid..." Yingji's charming eyes shone with fear.

Kou Yuze couldn't bear to watch it any longer, so he turned his head away and shouted angrily, "I am the emperor of Beicang now, can't I protect you?"

Kou Yuze cast a spell on his fingers and began to dispose of the corpse. After the corpse was cleaned up without leaving any trace, Kou Yuze gritted his teeth and said, "Yingji, you better know what I have done for you!"

Yingji turned her face away silently.

Kou Yuze was about to say something, but suddenly he turned around and walked away in anger. How could he not be angry? He had come to kill her, but now he was cleaning up her mess!

Yingji stood where she was and did not chase after him.

If you want to keep a man hanging, you can't be too proactive.

Kou Yuze had already walked away. Bajiao ran to Yingji, looked up and asked, "Why is he angry?"

Basho was a little girl of about twelve or thirteen years old, with dark skin and a pair of big, round, bright eyes.

Yingji chuckled lightly, saying casually, "He's just mad at himself."

The pain in her body made Yingji unable to laugh. She raised her hand and saw the bruises on her wrist. She also had many bruises on her body caused by Xue Zhonghong, and they were pulling and hurting slightly.

Once again, she envied the spiritual practitioners who were not troubled by such minor injuries to their flesh and skin.

Although Kou Yuze had performed a purification spell on her, she still felt the foul aura of flesh and blood. She took a hot bath, sat on a bench in front of a half-person-high bronze mirror, and applied pain-relieving and blood-dissolving medicine to various parts of her body.

"Banana." Yingji called out in a lazy voice.

Basho trotted in and saw Yingji lying on a bench, with moist mist and vapor lingering around her graceful body, making her look very pretty.

Yingji shook the medicine bottle in her hand towards her and asked Basho to apply the medicine to the wounds on her back and lower back.

Bajiao came to her senses and hurried over. She poured the medicine into her palm and carefully stroked Yingji's snow-white, jade-like back. Her eyes widened, apprehensive that she was touching the softest thing in the world!

Yingji slowly drifted off to sleep, her brow furrowed as she slept, haunted by nightmares. Flocks of crows flew by, the ground was littered with limbs, twisted snakes, and inescapable obstacles. Even her screams were silenced.

Yingji woke up from a nightmare and saw Bajiao sleeping soundly on a chair beside her. She stepped barefoot on the ground, got up, pulled the gauze dress from the rack and put it on, then pulled a thin blanket to cover Bajiao.

Yingji returned to her room, sat at the table, and took out a red sachet embroidered with poppies. This was her Qiankun sachet, which contained various spiritual tools that she used to protect her life.

She took out a black wooden box and opened it carefully. Densely packed jade grains the size of mung beans were placed inside. As the wooden box opened, the jade grains inside began to shake.

Each of these jade particles is a coffin, with a demon trapped inside.

The shaking of the jade particles became more and more violent.

Yingji immediately closed the wooden box and pressed her palm on the lacquered wooden box.

These demons were certainly unwilling to be trapped by a mortal and struggled to escape. Ying Ji had put a lot of effort into locking these demons into the jade coffin.

Yingji didn't understand why people were sentenced from birth. Why was she destined to be unable to practice from birth? She was unwilling and angry. She searched through ancient books and secret methods, but could not change the fact that she could not practice.

In this case, she can only seek another deviant path.

——She wants to refine the demon spirit.

This was something no one had accomplished in a thousand years, but she saw a glimmer of hope and decided to give it a try! She would rather fail than do nothing.

Yingji currently only has three of the nine items needed to refine monsters. Furthermore, as she collects more and more monsters, the lacquered wooden box and jade coffin will no longer be able to contain them.

Ying Ji frowned, knowing that she had to find a better spiritual weapon to suppress these monsters.

Unable to figure out what to do, Yingji took out another lacquered wooden box. Unlike the previous one, this one contained only a jade coffin, lying quietly inside, devoid of any signs of life.

Looking at this quiet jade coffin, Yingji's eyes softened suddenly, revealing a hint of fragile sadness.

In the following days, Yingji stayed in the palace where Kou Yuze placed her, reading ancient books and secret methods every day, thinking about how to refine monsters.

She hadn't seen Kou Yuze for a long time. At first, she thought he had just ascended the throne and was busy with state affairs, and didn't know how to face her. Later, Yingji learned that the war had broken out.

"Chao Xi?" Ying Ji was a little surprised.

Although Chaoxi is powerful among the Twelve Kingdoms, he is not warlike. How could he take the initiative to wage war against Beicang?

Yingji asked Bajiao, "Whose idea was it? Empress Dowager Xue or that monk emperor?"

Basho blinked her big eyes and shook her head. She didn't know.

Ying Ji didn't care about the war at first, but she didn't expect that Chao Xi would attack the capital of Beicang not long after.

Yingji had to ask Bajiao to pay more attention to the news outside.

She didn't want Kou Yuze to die. After all, she hadn't gotten the Blazing Jade from Kou Yuze yet.

The Blazing Fire Jade is the fourth thing she needs.

The Blazing Jade is the treasure of the Beicang royal family, passed down from generation to generation. Kou Yuze will give it to his queen.

Just as Ying Ji was thinking about how to trick the Fiery Jade into giving Beicang a complete defeat, she received shocking news.

——Beicang took the initiative to negotiate peace with Chaoxi, and Chaoxi’s condition for withdrawing his troops was to have her.

"Want me? Who wants me?" Ying Ji leaned on the rattan chair, turned her wrist slightly, and shook the round fan in her hand again and again. Her fanning movements gradually slowed down.

She was used to being fought over by men, but this was the first time she was fought over by a woman.

Yingji thought it was ridiculous and threw the fan in her hand onto the table in amusement.

Apart from her good looks to men, she didn't know what else she had that was worth fighting for.

But what difference did it make? She was always being sent here and there.

The night before being sent to Chaoxi, Kou Yuze finally came here again.

The night is dark, with the stars and the moon suddenly emitting a few clusters of light.

Kou Yuze stood outside the window, looking at the dim lights in the house and the figure reflected in the window.

Yingji sat by the window, eyes downcast, absorbed in embroidering a handkerchief. The soft candlelight made her features, always charming during the day, appear even softer and more tranquil.

The wind is considerate and blows the window open quietly.

Yingji turned her head, her gaze meeting Kou Yuze in the courtyard. A gentle breeze ruffled her black hair, caressing her delicate face. A soft smile played across her lips, a beauty immeasurable in the night.

Kou Yuze couldn't help but walk towards her step by step. When he was about to reach the window, he stopped in his tracks as if awakened. He stared at Ying Ji in the window and gave her a deep look, the last one.

He immediately turned around and strode away, fleeing in a panic.

She was the murderer of his father, and saving her life was his utmost duty. Kou Yuze warned himself not to sink any deeper into this trap. Sending her away in exchange for a truce would atone for his deep guilt towards his father! Only then would he be worthy of his position as Emperor of Beicang!

On the second day, Kou Yuze sent someone to send Ying Ji away. He was afraid that he would be soft-hearted, so he did not show up.

He sat alone in the dim room, his mind flashing back to everything he had experienced with Ying Ji on the way from Duxue to Beicang, her every frown and smile, her tears and fear, her desperate rescue, her tearful confession... everything about her flashed before his eyes again and again.

The moment the sun set over the mountains, Kou Yuze suddenly stood up and strode towards the palace where Yingji had lived.

A letter lay quietly on the table by the window.

There was only one sentence in the letter.

——No complaints, only gratitude.

The handwriting reflects the writer, elegant yet graceful with a touch of gorgeous charm.

Kou Yuze's hands trembled slightly, and the words on the letter trembled along with them.

Under the letter was a handkerchief embroidered with a poppy and the word "Ze" embroidered in the corner.

So she was embroidering a handkerchief for him last night?

He turned around and left without even saying goodbye! Did she cry again, hiding in the corner and crying?

If he let her go, he would suffer moral condemnation day and night. If he sent her away, his whole heart would ache, and he would be plunged into long regrets for the rest of his life.

Kou Yuze put away the letter and handkerchief and ran towards Changfengtai.

However, there was no trace of Chaoxi at Changfengtai anymore. Chaoxi's men, along with Yingji, had already flown to Chaoxi at a speed of a thousand miles.

Kou Yuze looked towards the east and murmured, "That fast, her body can't handle it..."

·

Yingji was escorted by Chaoxi's men, speeding all the way. She was a mortal body, and her chest and abdomen were cramped and she felt nauseous. She also had waves of dizziness, and she could only hold on to Bajiao for support all the way.

When they arrived at the place, Yingji was so uncomfortable that her face turned as pale as paper.

The guard pushed her from behind and shoved her into the hall. Yingji stumbled and quickly regained her balance. She looked back and saw Bajiao being grabbed and held outside the hall door.

Yingji shook her head at Basho, then turned and looked at Queen Dowager Xue who was sitting on the high seat at the end of the palace.

She slowly let out a breath, a gorgeous and charming smile gradually appeared on her lips. She walked on the long white jade bricks, step by step towards Empress Dowager Xue, with her head held high and her chest puffed out, swaying gracefully, and the silver bells on her ankles jingled as she walked.

The waiters on both sides of the long hall couldn't help but glance at her. After just one glance, they couldn't look away and silently followed her graceful figure.

Ying Ji stopped in front of the jade steps and knelt down, saying, "Thank you, Queen Mother Xue, for saving Ying Ji from Beicang."

"Lift up your face!" Queen Mother Xue had been in power for three hundred years. She was awe-inspiring without even getting angry, and her majesty was even more intimidating when she spoke.

Yingji didn't know why Queen Mother Xue had gone to such great lengths to summon her, but her only bargaining chip was her face. She had always been able to control her beauty, knowing which expression and which look would best transform her beauty into the ultimate stunning image.

Yingji curled the corners of her lips into a smile and slowly raised her face.

The solemn hall suddenly lit up, and wisps of faint fragrance spread silently in the hall.

The author has something to say:

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Yingji: Who? Who's going to snatch me away?

Queen Mother Xue: ==Your mother-in-law