Chapter 1056 Ask Me to Be Willing to Submit
Before Feng Ziqing could call for help, the candlelight had already revealed the scar on the woman's face.
Those dark red grooves moved between the skin and flesh like living things, frightening the queen mother so much that she staggered and fell onto the soft golden pillow.
"Is the Queen Mother afraid of me?" A hoarse voice was filled with teasing, and fingers like dead branches stroked the phoenix hairpin.
"Are you... a human or a ghost?"
"Of course it's a ghost that wants to take your life."
Before he could finish his words, a bloody palm had already grasped the empress dowager's throat.
Feng Ziqing was about to call for help when she heard the hesitant knock of the palace maid outside the palace: "Is the queen okay?"
"roll!"
After the Queen Mother sternly ordered the palace maids to leave, she suddenly noticed the temperature coming from her throat: "How can a ghost have the temperature of a living person?"
The laughter like silver bells echoed between the curtains: "Your Majesty wants Jiang Xue to be separated from her family, to watch Xiao Zhan fall from the clouds to the mud, and even to rule the country from behind the curtain?"
"Can you do that?"
"As long as you are willing to pay me half of your kingdom."
The woman's fingertips traced the jade seal on the table, and the scar became more hideous as the candlelight flickered: "My hatred for those two is as deep as the sea, and I will make them suffer all the pain you have suffered."
Feng Ziqing clutched the carved railing: "Who are you?"
The woman in black lifted her hood, and the moonlight reflected the snake-shaped tattoo at the corner of her eye: "The last bloodline of the homeland of Southern Xinjiang, Ateli."
Feng Ziqing took a half step back: "Impossible! The news of the victory of the previous emperor's personal expedition..."
"The Phoenix Feather Arrow that pierced my brother's heart is still nailed to the ruins of the temple."
Ateli's fingertips slid across the stone table, leaving deep marks: "This skin is nothing but a living dead body sustained by poisonous insects."
Feng Ziqing held the golden hairpin on her forehead and said, "Since you have joined forces with Huangfu Shang, why do you need my help?"
"Is the Queen Mother really willing to be a bird in a cage?"
Ateli suddenly approached, with dead leaves crackling under her feet. "I heard that Concubine Zhao cut the expenses of the Cining Palace again yesterday?"
Feng Ziqing suddenly tore off her pearl necklace and said, "Tell me, what do you want me to do?"
"Every new moon, sprinkle three handfuls of cinnabar into the lotus pond."
Ateli left the bronze bell behind: "When the koi in the pond turn black, someone will come to pick them up."
When Ateli turned around, the silver bell on her waist suddenly moved without wind: "Remind the Queen Mother that the imperial pharmacy will send snow frog soup in three days."
Feng Ziqing's pupils suddenly shrank - this was the day when the secret agent she had planted in the imperial kitchen was eliminated.
"Those two guards..."
Before Feng Ziqing finished her words, Ateli had turned into broken leaves on the ground.
A blood-colored totem suddenly appeared on the stone table. It was the wolf-head emblem of the royal family of Southern Xinjiang.
The candlelight in the dark night danced into a faint blue flame in Ateli's eyes: "Do you think those two monks still obey you?"
She twirled the insect flute between her fingers, and the sound of the insect flapping its wings was particularly clear in the quiet room: "For a full thirty days and nights, I have been observing the time trajectory of the monk who delivered the meal."
Xiao Zhan's hand trembled slightly as he stroked the jade pendant on his waist. The ringing of the copper bells on the eaves sounded like the sound of Sanskrit being unleashed.
In the warm room of the west wing, the ten-year-old wine that Jiang Xiaoan carefully prepared was glowing amber under the candlestick.
Fu Dong lowered his eyes to look at the reflection in the cup, and his inner strength turned the mellow fragrance into white mist at his fingertips.
When the clock struck midnight, most of the wine jars on the table were already empty.
The young medical officer staggered and fell to the embroidered cushion. His jade crown tilted and he suddenly grabbed her sleeve with a water cloud pattern: "When we first met at the Lantern Festival that year, you were wearing an osmanthus flower in your hair..."
The crisp sound of the silver bracelet's hidden clasp popping open interrupted the unfinished words.
Fu Dong stared at the winding cracks on the torn silk, and suddenly felt the old wound in his heart begin to bleed again - if he had not been sold to the Dark Guard Camp, if he had not been branded with the slave mark on his back...
She stuffed the rag into her sleeve pocket and watched the servants carry away the drunken and mumbling man, until the sound of gongs and drums at the beginning of the morning hour startled her into realizing that the moon had set.
"But the night dew invaded your eyes?"
The princess put down the pestle and frowned at the green shadow under Fudong's eyes: "There is no important business at the manor today, so go..."
"I will take my leave now."
Fu Dong suddenly interrupted his master and quickly retreated to the corridor, just in time to see the medicine boy turning around the moon-shaped door with an ebony medical box in his hand.
The morning breeze blew up the tassel of the sword at her waist, leaving messy tracks on the bluestone slabs.
Jiang Xue looked at the figure hurriedly retreating outside the glazed window, tapping the rosewood table with her fingertips, "Send a message to ask Imperial Doctor Jiang to return to Beijing today."
"I'm afraid that idiot will have to kneel in front of the mountain gate for three days."
Xiao Zhan was grinding the benzoin when he suddenly saw a cunning gleam in his wife's eyes, just like the expression on her face when she was seventeen years old and designed to make the Beidi hostage ask for marriage.
Xiao Zhan looked at his wife with a smile in his eyes: "Xiaoxue still has more ideas."
Before he finished speaking, Jiang Xiaoan rushed into the hall, his clothes still stained with wine:
"Your Highness, this trick is too unreliable! Last night, I didn't even touch the corner of Fu Dong's clothes, but I was drunk and unconscious."
He raised the tattered cloth in his hand and said, "Did you know that she could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk?"
Jiang Xue picked up the teacup and sipped it gently: "Fudong always gets drunk as soon as he drinks."
Seeing the other party's face full of disbelief, he added: "When the comrades in the army drank together, she was always the first to leave."
"Then last night..."
Jiang Xiaoan suddenly paused, and clapped his hands in realization: "She must have used her inner strength to force the wine out of her body!"
Thinking of the embarrassing scene of myself falling asleep in the courtyard hugging the jar of wine that morning, my ears turned red.
"It seems like you, a fool, have your thoughts written all over your face."
Jiang Xue chuckled: "When your third cousin admired me, he was doing it in secret."
"It's obvious that you were chasing Third Brother all over the city!"
Jiang Xiaoan was so anxious that he slammed the table: "The storyteller in the teahouse is still telling the story of the regent princess robbing her bride in the street! Please teach me some proper methods."
There was a sound of teacups behind the screen, and Xiao Zhan walked out: "How can chasing a girl be the same as chasing a boy?"
He picked up the jade hairpin in his wife's hair and gently said, "It was your princess who was so heroic and brave that I was willing to submit to her."
Jiang Xue held her husband's fingertips with her backhand, and their eyes were filled with tacit understanding.
Turning to Jiang Xiaoan, he said sternly: "Fudong hates frivolity the most, so remember the three things you must do and the three things you shouldn't do:
You must know her feelings, understand her ambitions, and protect her; don’t act on your own, don’t impose your will on others, and don’t give up easily. "
Xiao Zhan took off his sword and placed it on the table: "This sword is called Chengying. Take it to the martial arts arena tomorrow. If Fu Dong asks, just say that you found a handy weapon for her."
"But this is clearly you..."
Jiang Xiaoan suddenly fell silent when he touched the cloud pattern on the hilt of the sword, remembering that this was one of the betrothal gifts when Xiao Zhan proposed to Jiang Xue.
When he looked up and saw the emperor and empress smiling at each other, he suddenly understood.
The spring rain was falling outside the corridor. Jiang Xue looked at the young man's receding figure and sighed, "This sincerity is just like you back then."
Xiao Zhan put on her outer cloak and said softly, "True love in the world is like unpolished jade. It shines when it is carefully carved."
As the morning light shone through the carved window lattices, Jiang Xue's fingers unconsciously stroked the edge of the teacup.
If that man had not wielded a sword to cut through the haze in her life, the regent princess sitting in the warm room now might still be a chess piece manipulated by others in the deep palace.
"Third cousin, I roughly understand what you said, but..."
Jiang Xiaoan looked hesitantly at the remaining snow in the courtyard, with a thin layer of frost between his brows.
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