Su Rong looked at the Imperial Concubine Zhen. The woman seemed determined to die.
Before Su Rong’s master died, he had great concerns and guilt for his daughter. He blamed himself for failing to live up to his duty as a father.
Close to the Emperor for years, the Imperial Concubine had held the sway she desired. She had managed to scheme and manipulate, right under the Emperor’s nose, on behalf of Zhang Ping. Surely, half the credit for Zhang Ping’s growing army was due to her actions: convincing the Emperor to trust Zhang Ping and his ambitious plans. After her arrival in the capital did the puppetmaster get exposed. Despite making a forced judgment in her youth of favoring Duan Xiao, it was clear she was a capable woman.
After some thought, Su Rong slowly started, "So, your plan is to kill Duan Xiao and then die with him?"
"You still call me your elder sister apprentice?" The Imperial Concubine Zhen stared at her.
"After all, you are my sister apprentice and the only daughter of our master." Su Rong responded.
Imperial Concubine Zhen fell silent.
Su Rong raised an eyebrow, "Aren’t you missing the point? Are you planning on dying with Duan Xiao?"
"What do you mean by accompany? It’s me who will kill him." Imperial Concubine Zhen rebutted.
"But after killing him, you plan to die as well. Won’t you guys still be together on the journey to the underworld? You’re not worried he’ll tarnish your path of reincarnation." Su Rong reminded her.
A look of disgust crossed Imperial Concubine Zhen’s face at the thought of Duan Xiao tainting her path of reincarnation.
"Death is easy. But killing that dog and dying with him is disgusting. Elder sister apprentice, why not come with me?" Before Su Rong arrived, she had no intentions of taking Imperial Concubine Zhen with her. But having seen the state the Imperial Concubine was in, she began to change her mind.
Imperial Concubine Zhen was flabbergasted, "Go with you?"
"Yes, to Nanchu." Su Rong looked at her, "The child in your belly has already reincarnated once. It’s no easy feat for a soul to choose you as its mother. Do you want to disappoint it and force it to go back to King Yama for another reincarnation? You might as well let it live, the child will be my nephew."
Imperial Concubine Zhen was taken aback.
Su Rong watched her, "Compare your choices. Death, or a lifetime confined in the Imperial Mausoleum. Isn’t it better to come with me to Nanchu?"
Imperial Concubine Zhen snapped back to reality, "What’s your motive?"
Su Rong grinned at her, "Of course, there is a motive. First, you are our master’s daughter. For the master’s sake, I cannot bear to see his line extinguished. Second, you’re a very capable person. In Nanchu, you can use your skills to help me. Or, you don’t have to help me. Just accompany me. None of my six sisters from the Su family can go with me to Nanchu. I don’t have other real sisters. If you go to Nanchu with me, I will at least have a sister by my side."
Imperial Concubine Zhen was conflicted, "Are you serious?"
"Yes, I am serious." Su Rong nodded, "Don’t you really want to die like this? Don’t you want a different way of living? A free life that belongs to you. After all, in the past years, you have been living for others. Now I’m here, you’re not at a dead-end after all."
The hand of Imperial Concubine Zhen that held the teacup tightened. It took a while before she said, "Why? Why are you... Didn’t you hate me? I did those things ... I almost killed you."
"Those things you did didn’t kill me. The person who almost killed me was Zhang Yun. But you should already know, he has already pledged himself to me." Su Rong grabbed Fen Ling, who was sipping tea next to her and said, "Come, tell her. Talk about Zhang Mao, Zhang Yun, Ning Ze, Jiang Zhu. Tell her how they all came to serve me."
Fen Ling quickly set down his teacup.
But Su Rong got up, "Chat slowly, find me a room. I am going to take a nap first."
Imperial Concubine Zhen looked at her, then at Fen Ling, and commanded a maid to lead Su Rong to a room to rest.
As Su Rong left, Imperial Concubine Zhen watched her back for a long time. Even after Su Rong disappeared from her line of sight, she still hadn’t shifted her gaze.
Fen Ling coughed, "Let’s start with Zhang Mao."
The eldest legitimate son of Pingxi General Zhang Ping, he was highly regarded. Imperial Concubine Zhen was also very curious about how Zhang Mao came to serve Su Rong. Thus, she shifted her gaze back to Fen Ling and listened as he began talking about Zhang Mao’s secret infiltration into Shi Ba Zhai (Eighteen Villages), all the way to the major defeat of the Jibei Army and Zhang Yun’s retreat with a small group of soldiers.
Imperial Concubine Zhen nodded, "So that’s what happened."
"Then let’s talk about Zhang Yun." Fen Ling continued and talked about how Su Rong was detected by Zhang Yun while clearing secret agents in Jibei. Zhang Yun allied with Nangong Yu of the Nanchu’s Nangong family to ambush Su Rong. It was a great battle where many secret agents trained by Xie Yuan for Su Rong were lost. These agents, though no match for ten men each, were worth two men each at least and were extremely valuable. After Zhou Gu killed Nangong Yu, Su Rong wanted to kill Zhang Yun. But later, when she went to rescue Zhang Mao, she appreciated Zhang Yun’s skills and wanted him on her side. She personally wrote him a sincere and persuasive letter, and Zhang Mao agreed.
Then came the stories of Jiang Zhu, Ning Ze and those brothers from the Shi Ba Zhai and the generals who followed Jiang Zhu and Zhang Yun to serve Su Rong.
After finishing the stories, Fen Ling looked at Imperial Concubine Zhen, "My sister could have ignored you. But besides her respect for our master, she also values your abilities. My sister is willing to take you in. She treated even Zhang Yun with sincerity, let alone you who ultimately failed to kill her. I am sure she can tolerate you."
"I am different from Zhang Yun. In my belly is the Emperor’s heir." Imperial Concubine Zhen said.
"Oh my, weren’t you already demoted to a commoner? Still talking about the Emperor’s heir. The Emperor has many sons, he doesn’t care about the one in your belly." Fen Ling didn’t see this as a problem, "Just tell my sister if you’ll go with her or not. If you agree, it’s just about killing a Duan Xiao. Why would you wait for him here? Would you feel comfortable living here in his house? Why not come with us? Then you can kill him, and completely sever this connection. Why let them reunite so happily as ghost families here? Let that bastard die on the border, wander as a lonely ghost on his way home, isn’t that a better revenge?"
Imperial Concubine Zhen nodded, "You make sense."
She stroked her belly and said to Fen Ling, "My real name is Shen Yi."
Fen Ling quickly said, "Elder Sister Apprentice Shen, my sister and I both learned the golden needle technique from the master, so your master is also my master."
Shen Yi smiled, "Okay, Brother Apprentice Fen, tell your sister that I’ll go to Nanchu with her."
"Alright." Fen Ling stood up, "Then let’s rest for a day and leave tomorrow. I’m also tired, I’m going to sleep."
Shen Yi waved him off, "Go ahead!"
She commanded the maid to lead Fen Ling to rest.
After Fen Ling left, only Shen Yi was left alone in the hall. She sat quietly for a while before breaking out into a slow smile. She had thought that after living this kind of life, she could find solace in death. But now, she found a reason to continue living.
She was willing to live, and didn’t want to walk the same path of reincarnation at the same time as that damn Duan Xiao.
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