Actually, she didn't hate Nie Ming that much.
Because those seven years of painstaking effort were never for Nie Ming, but for her father's entrustment and the people of Dayu.
If Nie Ming could take everything away from her on his own, she would feel more at ease entrusting Dayu to him.
An emperor should not be so sentimental as to be a woman.
Such methods are simply too despicable.
"The situation is urgent. You should find a way to repel the enemy as soon as possible, protect the people, and not let down your father and the people's expectations of you."
Nie Ming roared in fury: "It's not your place, you lowly woman, to tell me how to do things. I am the emperor."
The calmer Nie Yuhuang remained, the angrier Nie Ming became.
What he wanted to see was Nie Yuhuang breaking down in tears, kneeling and begging for mercy.
Instead of the current ruler who remains calm and composed even while imprisoned.
This made him look like a clown jumping around.
Nie Ming suddenly smiled strangely: "Royal sister, you lost your child and were crippled by poisoning back then. Aren't you curious about who poisoned you?"
Nie Yuhuang looked at Xu Shize.
Xu Shi smiled and said, "Princess, you've guessed wrong. It's not me."
Nie Ming laughed loudly: "Nie Yuhuang, you would never guess that the one who poisoned you was our good father, the Emperor."
Nie Yuhuang's composure cracked: "You're talking nonsense. How could Father Emperor possibly harm me?"
"He is first and foremost a man, then an emperor, and only lastly your father."
"Elder sister, no matter how capable you are, you are still a woman. You don't understand men, let alone men who are emperors."
Nie Ming watched with excitement as the fear surfaced in Nie Yuhuang's eyes, quickening his pace, determined to shatter her pride and self-esteem.
“You are indeed very outstanding, but what can you do when you are a princess? Your father relies on you to safeguard the country, but he also has to be wary of you. He is wary of you having disloyal thoughts, and he is wary of the Nie family's empire changing hands.”
"The best way is to prevent you from having your own children, so that even though you hold the Tiger Seal, you can't go to the battlefield and can only wholeheartedly protect the Nie family's empire."
Nie Yuhuang's eyes showed even greater fear: "Stop talking, I don't believe a single word of it."
“Your father knew you were filial, so he would always taste the medicine himself before feeding it to you. That’s why he put those slow-acting poisons that only work on women in your medicine. You drank it for several months, which is why you lost your child and lost your legs.”
Nie Yuhuang finally broke down: "Shut up, shut up!"
Nie Ming smiled with satisfaction: "She's so pitiful, it's heartbreaking to see. To let my sister die knowing the truth, I'll show you something else."
He threw a thin roll of bright yellow silk at Nie Yuhuang: "This secret edict was hidden in the interlayer of my enthronement edict. It is the last talisman my father gave me."
Despite the excruciating pain in her shoulder blade, Nie Yuhuang opened the secret decree with trembling hands.
After seeing the familiar handwriting clearly, her eyes widened in horror, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.
Amidst the specks of crimson blood lies an even more horrifying truth...
—If Princess Zhenguo harbors disloyal intentions and fails to return power to the new emperor upon his coming of age, she shall be executed for treason.
Nie Yuhuang held the secret decree, laughed loudly, and tears streamed down her face.
She finally understood why her father always looked at her with such complicated emotions and why he always sighed during that time.
And why did he inexplicably say "Father is sorry for you" before his death...?
I see!
For the past seven years, she has not dared to slack off in the slightest, for fear of failing her father's dying wish, and she almost exhausted herself for it.
How ridiculous, how utterly ridiculous!
Nie Ming looked down at her breakdown and said as he left, "I will not kill you for now. You just watch. Even without you, I can still govern this country very well."
After Nie Ming left, Xu Shi bent down and gently wiped away her tears.
"Don't cry, Ah Yu, I will avenge you."
Nie Yuhuang stared at him with hatred.
Xu Shi then lifted a strand of her hair that was hanging down and gently tucked it behind her ear.
From a distance, the two looked like the most intimate couple, whispering sweet nothings to each other.
But what he said shocked Nie Yuhuang even more than the contents of the secret decree.
"You have given everything for the Nie family's empire. I love you so much, how can I bear to let your hard work go to waste? We are husband and wife, what is mine is yours."
He bent down and whispered in Nie Yuhuang's ear, "Your stupid brother's eldest son is my flesh and blood. From now on, the Nie family's empire will be renamed Huangfu. Are you happy?"
Nie Yuhuang suddenly opened her eyes wide.
Huangfu is the surname of the Wumeng royal family.
"You...you are..."
"Shh, it's a secret. I'm only telling you."
Xu Shi then stuffed a pill into Nie Yuhuang's mouth, rendering her speechless.
"Ah Yu, please be patient. Once I become the emperor of Dayu, you will still be the empress, and I will share this empire with you."
The next morning, when the jailer was inspecting the prison, he was surprised to find that the Princess Zhenguo, who was imprisoned in the innermost cell, had turned white overnight.
Without Nie Yuhuang's restraint, Nie Ming thought he would soon be able to put his talents and strategies to use.
But in less than a month, he became the king of a fallen kingdom, the kind who had to open the city gates and kneel down to surrender.
The Wumeng army advanced with unstoppable momentum, reaching all the way to the capital of Dayu, leaving rivers of blood in their wake.
Nie Ming was terrified. As soon as Xu Shize's knife was placed against his neck, he knelt down and surrendered.
Da Yu is dead.
In the midst of the chaos, a young general whom Nie Yuhuang had once promoted risked his life to lead a group into the prison and rescue her.
Looking at the blood-soaked imperial city of Dayu, she asked the young general to sneak into the princess's residence and retrieve a precious pill she had kept hidden away.
After taking the medicine, she regained feeling in her legs, picked up her bow and arrow, and felt as if she were back on the battlefield fighting the enemy.
Xu Shize, no, it was Huangfu Shize, led his men on horseback through the streets of the imperial city, while the common people knelt on either side, trembling with fear.
Nie Ming, dressed in a dragon robe, led his horse, his face full of flattery and ingratiation.
Nie Yuhuang hid in the shadows, nocked an arrow, and pointed it at her two enemies.
It was once known throughout the court that the Princess was an expert archer, capable of hitting three targets with a single arrow.
Since she became wheelchair-bound, no one has ever seen her amazing archery skills again.
With a release of his fingers, the two arrows flew away.
One arrow pierced Huangfu Shize's chest, and another pierced Nie Ming's throat.
After the chaos subsided, a barrage of arrows was unleashed, and Nie Yuhuang closed her eyes.
After taking that poison-to-poison pill, she was doomed to die anyway.
What is there to fear in death? Her regret is that she ultimately failed to protect the people of Dayu.
Not for the old emperor, not for the Nie family's empire, but only for the people who love and respect her.
Huangfu Shize coughed up blood and struggled to ask Nie Yuhuang, who was pierced by a thousand arrows, "Why...why?"
He clearly intended for her to be empress.
“Nie Yuhuang… was born noble, and will never be… a slave of a conquered nation.”
When Qi An opened his eyes, he was holding a bowl of medicine, and a spoonful of medicine was already brought to his lips.
"My dear Huang'er, you are my proudest child."
Qi An's hand trembled, and he threw the medicine bowl at the old man's face.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com