Chapter 41 The Gap Between the Empress and the Servant
I looked at him, the young emperor in his magnificent dragon robe.
"Why?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"Hmm?" He smiled slightly. "I will be a good emperor."
"Why should I stay in the palace with you?" I raised an eyebrow. "The last time we met, you wanted to kill me."
"Xiaoxiao, do you want to be the empress?" Before I knew it, he had walked up to me and gently stroked my cheek with one hand.
I smiled.
"I hereby bestow upon you the title of Empress, and you shall remain by my side. Is that acceptable?"
I was stunned for a moment, then bent over and chuckled softly, my laughter shaking.
Involuntarily, I recalled a midsummer night when I was ten years old, when the blind old woman at the orphanage touched my hand and said, "Child, you are destined to be an empress. How could those ordinary mortals possibly control you..."
The Empress? That absurd prophecy actually came true! I clutched my stomach, trembling with joy.
"What are you laughing at?" Slightly taken aback, Liu Xie looked at me.
“Because it’s ridiculous,” I straightened up and looked at the young emperor before me. “We’ve only met three times, and you’re telling me you want to make me your empress? How could I not be happy about such a good thing?”
"Isn't it good?" He looked at me with an innocent expression.
“I am Pei Xiao,” I said clearly, pointing to my face. “I am not the woman you remember, not An Ruo.”
The gentle expression on his face gradually disappeared, and the hazy look in his eyes seemed to dissipate, his gaze becoming increasingly sharp.
I smiled coldly, watching him change his attitude faster than turning the pages of a book.
Was this willful young emperor so capricious in wanting to keep someone by his side because he didn't want to be alone?
"I hereby make you my empress, and you will stay by my side, will you?" This question sounds like that of a child seeking a playmate, saying, "I'll give you candy, will you play with me?"
"Not good?" He narrowed his eyes slightly.
I smiled, a slight curve to my lips.
"Do you really want to see him that much?" He raised an eyebrow and looked at me.
I looked at him without saying a word, but simply took the jade pendant from his hand.
"Xiaoxiao..." A familiar voice suddenly rang out from behind.
I was slightly taken aback, and quickly turned around. It was Cao Cao.
He was dressed in a single white shirt, his black hair disheveled, looking somewhat disheveled, with two guards standing guard behind him. Yet, he seemed completely oblivious to the danger he was in, simply looking at me with a gleeful smile, "Smile..."
"Prime Minister, Prime Minister... don't run!" A maidservant came running up breathlessly from the side. Upon seeing Liu Xie, she immediately knelt down and said, "This servant deserves to die."
Ah Man, who was standing nearby, rushed to my side and hugged me tightly, "Xiaoxiao, Xiaoxiao..."
I reached out and patted his back, asking cautiously, "Are you alright?"
He nodded, then shook his head.
"What's wrong?" My heart tightened, and I asked.
"They won't let me see you..." With a look of accusation, Aman pointed at Liu Xie beside him.
I glanced at Liu Xie, both amused and exasperated, only to find him staring straight at me, his beautiful eyes revealing nothing clearly.
"So you really did enter the palace for him," Liu Xie said calmly. "Why him? Why not me? Wouldn't it be better to be your empress?"
I forced a smile. "Leaving everything else aside, I just want you to understand one thing: no matter how bad I, Pei Xiao, am, I will never become someone else's substitute!"
Ah Man tightened his grip on my hand slightly, then returned to normal.
"I see," Liu Xie said, no longer looking at me, and then instructed the maid who was lying on the ground, "Hurry up and help the Prime Minister change his clothes and prepare to go to the palace."
"To the palace?" I raised an eyebrow. He already knew about Cao Cao's amnesia, and now that Cao Cao was in this state, what was he still planning? Then it dawned on me: he was worried about Cao Cao's troops stationed outside the city, so he issued an edict to reward Cao Cao. The so-called "eating and traveling with me, thinking together about good strategies to save the country" was actually just to weaken Cao Cao's power without alerting the troops outside the city.
In the first month of the fifth year of Jian'an, the situation in Xuchang city changed quietly.
Cao Cao still sat beside the young emperor, still appearing to hold great power, but real power had long since been transferred to others.
Who is the puppet remains unknown.
Has history truly changed?
Confined within the palace, they were truly cut off from the world.
"Hey! Pei Xiao! This place hasn't been cleaned yet!" the eunuch shouted from afar.
I gritted my teeth, grabbed the rag, and walked over, forcing a smile. "Sir, could you please not call me by my full name?"
"Pei Xiao, this place, this place, and this place! They all need to be cleaned!" That damned eunuch was still yelling.
"Yes, Lord Duan Zi!" I grinned and answered readily.
Upon hearing this, the eunuch's face turned green.
How could he not be cuckolded? His name was "Childless," and he actually became a eunuch, thus ending his lineage...
"Lord Duan, these are Consort Dong's clothes, they need to be washed." A young palace maid came over, carrying a large pile of clothes, and wobbled over.
"Pei Xiao! You wash!" With a glare, the eunuch, who was fuming and had nowhere to vent his anger, put his hands on his hips, pointed at the pile of clothes, and said in a shrill voice.
As I was chuckling to myself, I stared at the pile of clothes and was dumbfounded.
I took the clothes with a grimace, secretly cursing the eunuch.
"These are Consort Dong's clothes; wash them carefully," the young palace maid said, glancing at me sideways with concern.
I nodded nonchalantly.
"Seriously, Consort Dong is carrying the Emperor's child!" the palace maid said discontentedly.
Pregnant with the dragon's child? I grinned. That two-faced, pretentious, and sharp-tongued emperor is actually going to be a father? But... does being pregnant with the dragon's child have anything to do with doing laundry?
I turned around, picked up the clothes, and resignedly went to wash them. I gritted my teeth and thought of that two-faced, sharp-tongued emperor, that petty guy. He wouldn't let me be his empress, but instead made me do hard labor!
Isn't that a huge difference?
"Ah!" A scream suddenly came from behind.
Was that the voice of the eunuch Duan Zi?
I turned around suspiciously, but Duan Zi was nowhere to be seen? In the blink of an eye, he had mysteriously vanished into thin air.
I noticed that the door to the warehouse across the street was closed, even though it was open just a moment ago.
"Bang bang bang..." Several muffled sounds came from inside the house.
I stared at the door with great curiosity.
Soon, the door opened.
He Yan came out, his fair and delicate face flushed, as if he had just finished exercising.
He bent down to brush the dust off his clothes, then straightened his attire before casually strolling past me, exuding charm and nonchalant air...
I shrugged, grabbed my clothes, and was about to leave when I heard another "thump" behind me.
Turning my head, I opened my mouth in astonishment as I watched the chubby Lord Duan Zi tumble out of there in a disheveled state... He had two bumps on his head and bruises on his face.
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