Chapter 69 Forcing Him to Rebel: "I am the King of Qin's stepfather."...
"Get down!"
Qingzhuo was forced to get off the carriage when someone pointed a long spear at her. As soon as her feet touched the ground, her legs went weak and she fell to the ground in a sorry state.
It's hard to describe exactly what this moment feels like.
Before her stood not some ordinary nobleman, but the King of Qin, the ruler of a nation!
He was also the older brother of the two children born from the illicit affair between the Empress Dowager and a fake eunuch.
She had no strength left in her body. She wanted to hold the children tightly, but her body wouldn't obey her commands. The swaddled babies rolled to the ground, and the two children cried loudly.
With a mighty effort, he managed to stand up, only to fall back down again.
Physical fear is so direct, irreversible, and inescapable.
She couldn't even utter a word of begging for mercy; her throat trembled, emitting hoarse, strange sounds, her jaw chattered, and she was covered in cold sweat.
This is a grave crime, enough to warrant her being torn apart by five horses ten times over!
He bent down with both hands to hold the two swaddled babies.
Qingzhuo recognized him; he was Qin Ju, the prefectural magistrate and the most trusted personal eunuch of the King of Qin.
He picked up the two swaddled babies, his eyes suddenly shifting as he glanced at her leisurely. Almost instantly, her stalemate and fear broke free. She crawled forward on her knees, slamming her head against the ground with all her might, crying out, "Your Majesty! I beg Your Majesty to spare the lives of these two children!"
"They're only six months old, they know nothing, they understand nothing, they're innocent!"
The sound was shrill and mournful, like a crow in the pitch-black night, sending chills down one's spine.
"Whether they are guilty or not is not for a lowly slave like you to judge." Qin Ju spoke in a delicate voice, his tone arrogant and condescending, exuding an indescribable air of superiority.
The King of Qin, seated in his royal carriage, remained silent throughout, gently extending one hand.
One arm was strong and powerful, the wide sleeve had been removed to reveal a very beautiful muscle texture, and the skin was as white as a cold corpse in the moonlight.
"No—" Qingzhuo reached out her hand and watched as Qin Ju handed one of the swaddled babies to the King of Qin.
In despair, she collapsed to her knees and murmured, "Kill me or torture me, it has nothing to do with the Empress Dowager. She was deceived too."
Qingzhuo had been by the Empress Dowager's side since she was thirteen years old, and followed her from Queen to Empress Dowager. At first, she was not favored. The Empress Dowager's head maid, Weiyang, left the palace to get married, and some others were sent away. She remained unknown and was taken to Yongdi because of her good qualities of being tight-lipped and obedient.
If she hadn't been able to serve the Empress Dowager, she would have died long ago. Back then, her own father extorted money from her every month to go home, otherwise he would beat her mother to death. The Empress Dowager helped to resolve all of this.
She killed her wicked father with a copper hairpin, and her mother then smashed her head against the coffin and died as a sacrifice.
She was heartbroken and screamed in pain.
There will indeed be retribution for killing one's father.
Qingzhuo closed her eyes, letting her tears flow freely. Her only worry was the Empress Dowager.
"Is this how you hold a baby?"
A faint, indifferent voice emanated from the royal carriage, clear and shallow, devoid of emotion.
Qingzhuo was stunned for a moment, then slowly raised her head.
From this angle, she could only see the King of Qin's legs. The light and shadow shifted, leaving marks on his robes and shoulders, but his face was completely shadowed, making it difficult to see clearly.
He was holding the swaddled baby, facing her, his pale lips stretched out, his expression indistinct.
"I'm asking you a question!!" Qingzhuo was kicked hard and woke up.
“Ah, oh, yes…yes.” She stammered, hesitantly, and couldn’t help but gesture, “The baby’s head should be placed in the crook of your arm, so that the child will be more comfortable.”
"so?"
He did exactly as she instructed, adjusting his posture while holding the child.
"Yes." Qingzhuo was at a loss, clenching her fingers helplessly, and knelt down on the spot.
She didn't know what the King of Qin was planning to do. Could it be that he didn't intend to kill the two children?
He held the child quietly, teasing him in rhythm, and after a long while, he sighed and said, "His nose really looks like mine."
No one dared to respond to that, not even Qin Ju.
After an unknown amount of time, he handed the child to Qin Ju, asking, "What did the Empress Dowager tell you?"
Qingzhuo dared not hide anything and spilled every word. She said this not to betray the Empress Dowager, but in the hope that the King of Qin would show her mercy because the Empress Dowager was sensible.
"So, the Empress Dowager hates Marquis Changxin?"
Upon hearing this, Qingzhu hesitated slightly, unsure of the Empress Dowager's thoughts. "This... this servant dares not say for sure, but at the very least, she is disappointed and has made up her mind to separate from him."
The person at the head of the table remained silent again.
An unbearable silence.
Qingzhu belatedly realized that the King of Qin probably wanted to hear 'hatred,' so she hurriedly opened her mouth to change her words, "Actually—"
Why did she change her mind?
"What?"
"According to you, the Empress Dowager went to Yongdi with the intention of killing the child immediately after giving birth. Why would she change her mind?"
Did the King of Qin really not know the reason? No, he certainly knew it perfectly well.
Qingzhuo broke out in a cold sweat in an instant. She wasn't smart, but she wasn't stupid enough to be completely oblivious. The Empress Dowager couldn't bear to do it and couldn't bring herself to be ruthless. After all, these were twins she had carried for ten months and given birth to, her own sons. Every day of those ten months, she had become more soft-hearted than the day before.
This is the truth, but it cannot be spoken.
...and dare not say.
She gritted her teeth, her face pale, "The Empress Dowager wants to send them away for the sake of the King. For the King's sake, she is willing to pretend she never gave birth to these two children."
Seeing that he did not respond, Qingzhuo desperately reached under the royal carriage and cried out, "Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager's most beloved son is you!"
"How dare you! Don't you want your hands anymore?" Qin Ju exclaimed in surprise.
With a sharp clang, the long spears arrayed to the side fell to the ground, and Qingzhuo screamed in agony, "Ah!!!"
The pain made her roll around on the ground. A small section of her severed hand fell onto the car. Qin Ju, feeling it was bad luck, quickly wiped it away with his sleeve. Blood mixed with flying dust smudged the clean cut surface.
Qingzhuo was in so much pain that she was about to faint. She forcefully pinched her broken wrist with her sleeve, her face was deathly pale, and cold sweat soaked her clothes.
She struggled to lift her head, sweat trickling down her face, mingling with blood, blurring her vision with a red blur.
She saw the King of Qin wave his hand, his voice sometimes near, sometimes far, reaching her ears along with her heartbeat, "Since the Empress Dowager has already arranged your later life, why should I stop you? It would make me seem heartless."
"Go ahead."
She stood there, stunned, clutching her wrists in disbelief.
The king slowly departed, and the Qin king's personal guards followed him away. Not one of them turned back to strike her with a sword or cut off her head.
She survived?
Qingzhuo was bewildered. The coachman took out some medicine powder from his bag and rushed over to apply the medicine and bandage her up. "Miss, shall we continue? You should hurry to the clinic. The nearest clinic, Liuji Clinic, is not far from here."
wrong.
Qingzhu stared blankly at the busy coachman, her face gradually losing color. "He spared my life, but he won't let those two children live."
She was crying and laughing at the same time, her laughter particularly ugly, her sobs masking her voice, "Then why did he hold the child like that, and even ask me if my posture was right?!"
The coachman sighed, whether out of complaint or something else, he had been terrified just now, almost thinking he was going to die here. Now he was more talkative, "Because the Queen is pregnant too, isn't she? Ah, he was just asking casually. How could you think that a king would have any lingering affection for those two children?"
"If it were me, I would kill them too."
"Tsk tsk, anyone would kill him."
The sound carried further and further away, but Qingzhuo felt a chill run through her body.
On the way back to the palace, Qin Ju dared not breathe too loudly. Strangely, the two children stopped crying and lay quietly in their swaddling clothes, looking around with their eyes.
In his opinion, it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to have killed the two infants on the spot. He also didn't believe that the King of Qin was a soft-hearted person, and that there must have been a reason why he didn't kill them immediately.
"Where is Marquis Changxin now?" Ying Zheng asked calmly.
“With our people watching him, he wouldn’t dare to live in Yong on his own,” after all, it was the old capital of Qin, and even if it was the old capital, it was still the Qin Palace. Who did Lao Ai think he was? He had no right to live there. “He is currently in Taiyuan County.”
"I heard that he brought another dancer back to the manor, and the lights stayed on all night."
“Qingzhuo brought these two children to Xianyang without permission. I have already sent people to help her drug the palace servants that Marquis Changxin had placed there to keep them unconscious. The dosage of the drug is sufficient, enough to keep them unconscious for at least three days.”
Ying Zheng listened without much reaction, only giving a faint "hmm" through his nose.
Just as Banban was about to have her late-night snack, Yingzheng returned. She greeted him with a cheerful smile, "Cousin, you're back! It's so late today. Were you busy? Come and eat with us. This is a new fried dish that I had the kitchen develop."
"Fried chicken, fried duck, pork jerky, and vegetables too, dipped in sauce, are so satisfying!"
Ying Zheng, abandoning his usual cold and ruthless demeanor, revealed a gentle smile. "You're dirty. I'll go wash up and change my clothes first."
"Okay~ then I'll wait for you to eat together!"
Banban sat on the chair, waiting and waiting. Then he leaned against the bed and continued to wait. Finally, he simply leaned against the window.
When she was exhausted, Ying Zheng finally came out.
She lunged at him, saying, "Why are you dawdling like this? It's getting cold! I'm getting angry!"
"It's my fault. Have the kitchen refry a batch, and distribute these to the palace servants."
"Oh well."
Banban noticed that her cousin was unusually gentle today. "What happened to your hands, cousin? They're so red."
Whether it was from rubbing too hard or from an injury outside, there were still traces of blood in some places. Banban was shocked. She gently touched the wound and pulled him into the house to look for ointment.
“My cousin is the King of Qin, how could he be so careless? Just have the palace servants do it. Where is Qin Ju? Call him in, I have questions for him.” She raised her eyebrows, extremely angry.
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Ju bowed his body and obediently said "Yes," standing by the edge of the house.
"It's nothing, he just ran into something unclean." Ying Zheng waved his hand, dismissing Qin Ju. "How can he make decisions for me? Don't make things difficult for him."
Qin Ju, now free, quickly darted away.
He muttered to himself, deciding to go to the kitchen and urge the cooks to hurry up, as the two masters were waiting to eat.
"Cousin, are you in a bad mood?" Banban assumed he had encountered some problems in politics, so she took his hand and placed it on her cheek, blinking her eyes and pretending to be obedient and sensible. "Then touch me, cousin. I'm a clean thing."
"..."
Ying Zheng's thoughts were interrupted, "Are you a thing?"
Banban: "Ah, I'm not a thing."
"..."
"..."
"no."
He was utterly helpless. He cupped her small face in his hands, his thumb sinking into the soft flesh of her cheek, and said in a tone that was neither too soft nor too hard, "What an idiot you are."
She persisted, insisting that he forget those two sentences, saying, "People say that pregnancy makes you stupid, but that's not my problem."
"Why do I feel like my cousin used to be like this too?" Ying Zheng said with a light laugh, then pressed his forehead against hers.
"You're wrong." Banban couldn't help but lean closer to his face and kiss him.
He quickly turned his face away and kissed her lips, sometimes lightly and sometimes heavily.
Banban could feel his long, thick eyelashes brushing against her eyelids, and her heart pounded wildly. The night in the Qin Palace was completely silent, except for the intense beating of their hearts and the burning heat of their breaths.
He, with his gentle warmth and unique blend of coolness and tenderness, overwhelmed her.
That summer by the pond, my cousin's swung fishtail, sending water flying and splashing onto people's faces. The subtle sensation of water droplets hitting my face lingers to this day.
After the first kiss, he pecked at the corner of her lips, then at her cheek.
"Let's apply the medicine." She poked at the medicine bottle.
“Okay.” Ying Zheng gladly stretched out his hand, showing his injured side to his cousin.
Banban opened the medicine jar and carefully applied medicine to his wound under the lamp. "Next time, you can't hurt yourself. Didn't we agree? If anyone bullies us, we'll teach them a lesson."
This was a promise they made when they were young, and she still remembered it, so she brought it up now.
"Okay, I got it." He smiled and nodded in agreement.
After applying the medicine and washing his hands, Qin Ju returned with freshly fried food.
Especially the fried chicken, which is fried until it's golden brown and coated with a golden layer.
What is this?
"This is a batter coated with egg and finely ground flour. Try it!"
Ying Zheng stared at it for a while, then took a strange, tentative bite.
The chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, probably made with fresh chicken. It even had some juice in it. The crispy crust was sprinkled with a layer of dry seasoning, creating a unique and perfectly blended flavor.
"Is it good?" She tilted her head, not wanting to miss a single expression from him, like a puppy asking for praise after doing something good.
Ying Zheng said slowly, "It seems you've already secretly eaten it several times."
"..." Is it that obvious? "No, it isn't."
"If that weren't the case, why would you wait for me? And why did you give me the first bite?"
"Am I really that bad?" she asked, unwilling to accept it.
Another day passed amidst the noise and commotion.
On this day, after Marquis Changxin finished his court session, a servant hurriedly returned from Yong. Upon seeing Marquis Changxin, the servant immediately leaned in and whispered something in his ear.
Upon hearing this, Lao Ai's expression changed drastically. "What did you say?! Send people to search for him!"
"We can't find her." The servant was filled with fear. "Aunt Qingzhuo has also disappeared."
Qingzhuo was a palace servant whom the Empress Dowager had trusted in the past. Lao Ai's face was gloomy and uncertain. "Go back!" He had to go back to the Qin Palace to find Ji Changyue.
A group of people hurriedly re-entered the palace. As they passed through the Xianyang Palace complex, the eunuchs refused to let them in, saying, "The inner palace is just behind here. If you don't have important business, it's inappropriate for a subject to enter."
Lao Ai wanted to slap this pale-faced eunuch named Jiang Yujing. "Do you even know who I am? How dare you stop me?"
Jiang, the eunuch, smiled unchanged: "Marquis Changxin."
Lao Ai gritted his teeth and said fiercely, "I need to see the Empress Dowager; I have important matters to discuss! Get out of my way!"
Jiang Neijian was slightly embarrassed. "Marquis Changxin, the Empress Dowager has instructed that she will not see you."
"You won't see me?" Lao Ai refused to believe it, thinking that this damned eunuch was deliberately messing with him. "Get out of my way, I'll go to Ganquan Palace myself to ask the Empress Dowager."
Ji Changyue was perfectly fine when they last met, so why does she suddenly refuse to see him?
Perhaps it was because Lao Ai's expression was too twisted and sinister that Jiang, the eunuch, looked at him with a newfound curiosity. "The Marquis of Changxin's demeanor doesn't seem like that of a eunuch at all."
Lao Ai's expression froze abruptly, his eyes instantly regaining their clarity. "What nonsense are you spouting? Fine, I won't see you then. I'll come back next time." Before leaving, he didn't forget to glare fiercely at Eunuch Jiang.
He disliked the dead eunuch, and based on what he had just said, he became wary of him.
After these two days, the fetus is officially five months along, and now it's finally possible to see a little bit even when wearing slightly loose clothing.
“This child is so well-behaved, I don’t feel uncomfortable at all.” Banban and Zhu had a lot to talk about.
Mrs. Zhu pointed to the area from her daughter's navel to her lower abdomen with her fingers, saying, "It's just right, just right."
"The baby is still small. At five months, your belly will only swell slightly. It's not time for you to feel uncomfortable yet."
"How have you been sleeping these past two nights?"
"It's nothing, I'm just always hungry and have to get up frequently at night." She said this with a hint of embarrassment and annoyance.
Zhu covered her mouth and laughed, gently gesturing to her belly as she said, "It lives here, pressing on your stomach, which naturally makes you get up frequently at night."
"Try to sleep on your back at night. Your sleeping posture has been bad since you were a child. You keep tossing and turning, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right. You have to control it."
As the mother and daughter were talking, Qian Yin suddenly came in and shouted that something bad had happened.
"What's all this commotion about?" Banban asked, frowning.
Zhu smiled but didn't speak, not wanting to delay her daughter from establishing her authority.
Qian Yin's face turned horrified. "Your Majesty, something terrible has happened! Eunuch Jiang sent someone to tell you that his apprentice, who stayed in his room these past two days, was suffocated to death in his quilt!"
A question mark slowly appeared above Banban's head.
In the harem under her jurisdiction, no one had died for many years. Although she was the mistress, she cherished these palace servants. When they were sick, she would give them medicine and medical treatment, and if they had no clothes, she would give them subsidies. In the past two years, it was rare for anyone to fall seriously ill, let alone for a palace servant to die inexplicably.
Banban stood up abruptly.
Madam Zhu was startled and quickly helped her up, saying, "Look at you, don't get so angry."
"I need to find my cousin," Banban said solemnly, her mind working quickly in this critical moment. "This is no small matter, Mother. If someone can kill a person silently in the palace, are my cousin and I still absolutely safe?"
Upon hearing this, Madam Zhu also felt it was inappropriate, saying, "Then you should go quickly, you should go quickly."
Sitting in the sedan chair on the way to Chengzhang Hall, Banban poked his temples. His first thought was of Lao Ai. Lao Ai was acting so erratically and recklessly these days. No one else would do such a blatant evil. People would always try to kill someone indirectly. How could someone be so direct?
Upon arriving at Chengzhang Hall, they encountered Qin Ju reporting a message.
"...Some people say that Marquis Changxin has been in a bad mood lately and has been drinking heavily. Once, after getting drunk, he got into a fight with someone and said that he was the King of Qin's stepfather, and made the person kneel down and kowtow to him. Upon hearing this shocking secret, the person immediately came to report to you."
Banban stared in disbelief, “A fake father?”
Has he gotten himself into a crazy scheme?
Ying Zheng was caught off guard by his wife's sudden appearance and quickly helped her to a soft couch. Not wanting her to get angry, he said, "I was the one who pushed things along. When it's time to close the net, don't get upset."
"Now that he's sober, he probably remembers what he said. He'll be scared half to death if not scared to death."
Banban was slightly taken aback. It seemed that Lao Ai was indeed behind Jiang Neijian's affair. "Are you trying to force him to rebel?"
"He'd better be." Ying Zheng said thoughtfully, looking at Qin Ju. "What will the Prime Minister's reaction be when these words reach his ears?"
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