Jian Yang snorted coldly and said, "If I don't choose to stay, do you think you'll let me go?"
"No," Zhou Jing'an replied crisply.
Jian Yang retorted expressionlessly, "So what are you so relieved about? I didn't have a choice."
Zhou Jing'an choked for a moment before finally saying, "You can choose to die rather than submit to your elder brother."
Jian Yang looked at him with a "Are you crazy?" look and said sarcastically, "I can clearly live, why would I deliberately throw my life away? Do you think I'm that desperate?"
Zhou Jing'an frowned. He finally realized that things like integrity and dignity didn't seem to be that important to Jian Yang.
She chose to stay simply because she didn't want to die.
His mood was immediately clouded.
Zhou Jing'an's expression tightened as he remembered the purpose of his trip.
He swallowed the bitterness in his mouth and cut to the chase: "I want to ask you one last time, are you willing to become mine?"
Jian Yang looked at him in astonishment and asked the question that had been bothering her: "Your person? Someone who works for you? Or your woman?"
Zhou Jing'an smiled frankly and said, "Both are true, just as you assisted the emperor in assisting me."
Jian Yang sneered, "I served the emperor, and at least he gave me the position of empress. What can you give me?"
Zhou Jing'an said without changing his expression, "I can promise you that when I ascend the throne, I will not give the position of the empress to any other woman but you."
Jian Yang thought to herself, "Forget it, she finally escaped the fate of working for someone else. Only a fool would agree to this."
"So, the Second Prince is admitting that he plans to rebel?"
Zhou Jing'an's face immediately darkened as he said, "What do you mean by rebellion? This throne should have belonged to me in the first place. If the emperor hadn't flattered and deceived the Prince of Dingbian back then, I would be the one sitting in that position now."
Jian Yang expressed her inability to understand men's lust for power.
In her opinion, the emperor's position, apart from looking prestigious, involved working herself to the bone every day and being a stud, so there was really nothing to aspire to. She couldn't understand why these men were all so fanatical.
Seeing that she remained silent for a long time, Zhou Jing'an continued to ask, "What has the Empress decided?"
Jian Yang replied indifferently, "It doesn't matter. Even if you asked me to be the emperor, I wouldn't agree."
Zhou Jing'an misunderstood, thinking that she only had the emperor in her heart, which was why she rejected him without hesitation.
So he gritted his teeth and said, "Is he really that unforgettable to you?"
Jian Yang was too lazy to explain, so she simply nodded and said, "Not bad."
Zhou Jing'an sneered a few times, his face growing increasingly gloomy.
Seeing his appearance, Jian Yang felt a little scared.
But she knew Zhou Jing'an would never kill her, so she stubbornly refused to bow her head.
"Someone come here!" Zhou Jing'an shouted.
As soon as he finished speaking, a servant pushed open the door and entered: "What are your orders, Your Highness?"
Zhou Jing'an coldly looked at Jian Yang and said, "Her Majesty the Empress finds the environment here too poor and wishes to stay in the dungeon for a while. Take her away."
The servant was taken aback for a moment, then quickly did as instructed.
Jian Yang breathed a long sigh of relief.
Just now, Zhou Jing'an looked like he was going to devour her, which scared her so much that she thought he was going to force himself on her. But he just locked her up in the dungeon.
She didn't even need anyone to urge her; she walked faster than anyone else.
A moment later, the guard who had sent Jian Yang to the dungeon returned to report.
Zhou Jing'an said with a gloomy face, "Go and spread this news."
The attendant agreed.
At the same time, the emperor heard that his brother-in-law was injured and immediately left the palace to visit him.
Jian Hong recounted every detail of what had happened that night to the emperor. Finally, he tried to get up to apologize to the emperor, but the severe pain in his legs prevented him from rising.
The emperor quickly pressed him down and said seriously, "Since it was A-Yang who sent you back, you should naturally follow her arrangements."
Jian Hong said with deep remorse, "I failed to rescue A Yang. It is my incompetence. I hope Your Majesty will punish me."
The Emperor said quietly, "You did your best at the time, so there's no need to be so hard on yourself. The Second Prince detained A Yang simply to use her as leverage against me. He would never harm A Yang for the time being."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a guard came to report that Jian Yang had been imprisoned in the dungeon by Zhou Jing'an.
The emperor was immediately enraged and crushed the teacup that the servant had brought him. Bright red blood mixed with tea flowed down the white porcelain and onto the floor.
Jian Hong also struggled to his feet, ordering his servants to summon a doctor while excitedly preparing to rescue Jian Yang.
"Rest assured and recover from your injury. Leave this matter to me." The emperor patted Jian Hong on the shoulder and left the general's mansion in a hurry, without waiting for the doctor to come and bandage his wound.
The emperor originally wanted to confront the second prince head-on and snatch him from his residence, but he was also worried that Zhou Jing'an would resort to a desperate, all-or-nothing strategy.
After a sleepless night, he devised a meticulous plan.
Since Zhou Jing'an released the news that Jian Yang had been imprisoned in the dungeon, he had been on high alert, wary of the emperor coming to snatch her away.
However, instead of reinforcements arriving in the dungeon, a loud "boom" was heard from the artificial hill in his yard in the afternoon. When he rushed over to check, he found that the artificial hill that had stood in the yard had been blown into a pile of rubble.
Zhou Jing'an was so angry that he gritted his teeth and immediately ordered his men to dig up the artificial hill to find the account book.
Although the emperor wanted to use the account book to kill him, he himself needed it more.
Only by holding this ledger in his hands will the officials in the court who have illicit dealings with him obediently submit to his control.
The guards in the courtyard dug for a long time and finally moved away the large stones, each weighing over a hundred pounds, revealing the secret passage beneath the artificial hill.
Zhou Jing'an quickly went down the secret passage and found that the box containing the account books was not damaged and the account books had not been stolen. He breathed a sigh of relief.
However, the ledgers now need to be transferred.
After much deliberation, Zhou Jing'an decided to transport the account books out of the prince's residence and return them to his fiefdom.
"Your Highness, the Emperor blew up the secret chamber simply to force you to transfer the account books so that he can seize them midway. Your Highness, please reconsider!" Wei Cong rushed over to persuade him as soon as he heard the news.
Zhou Jing'an nodded and said, "I know, but this ledger has to be sent away."
Not to mention the danger of having him by one's side, the emperor must have planted spies around him long ago, and he would be discovered sooner or later.
Furthermore, transferring the account books to other locations could not only divert the emperor's attention, but also, if successful, leave him a way out.
To prevent the ledgers from being intercepted on the way, he dispatched five groups of people to five different places.
As he expected, every group of men was ambushed, but in the end, he was one step ahead and successfully transported the account books back to his fiefdom.
In truth, Wei Cong didn't entirely agree with Zhou Jing'an's decision, but Zhou Jing'an stubbornly believed that his maternal grandparents' family in the fiefdom would never betray him.
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