Chapter Thirty-Five
A gentle breeze blew open the carriage curtain, and the tinkling of wind chimes outside disturbed Si Yanmo's concentration.
"You...you..."
Zhou Yanqing's gaze was so intense that it made her cheeks burn, and she couldn't even speak clearly.
He seemed to realize his words were somewhat ambiguous, averted his gaze, and coughed lightly, saying, "What I mean is, don't treat me like a monarch. You're not just my shaman, but also the Queen Consort of Qin. You don't need to be so cautious. You can correct my mistakes, but don't distance yourself from me just because you've become a shaman. No matter what, we're still friends, right?"
He asked the last question almost tentatively.
He didn't know how Si Yanmo viewed their relationship; in fact... he didn't know himself either.
But he felt that at least... they should be friends.
Meeting Zhou Yanqing's nervous yet expectant gaze, Si Yanmo remained silent, simply smiling and nodding.
At first, she only wanted to survive from this rumored fierce man, and her selfish motive was to hold his fate in her hands and not tell him the truth.
She planned to use him to become a shaman, then wait until the third prince ascended the throne, and everything would be settled. With her empress sister as her powerful backer, what was there to fear from the Prince of Qin?
If you can save this person, you can; if you can't, it's fate. Who told him to try to kill himself?
But she never expected that the two of them would go through so much together.
Si Yanmo had seen the destinies of many people, and she always believed that a person's destiny represented everything about them. She knew everything about the people whose destinies she had seen.
Zhou Yanqing made her realize that even if she knew everything about him, his past and future, he was not the same person.
The more she learned about this person, the more she realized that both the rumors she had heard in Nandu and the conclusions she had drawn about him after looking at his birth chart were wrong.
The people around Zhou Yanqing said it was much better than she had imagined.
This time, she genuinely wanted to save him.
Neither of them spoke again, and they remained seated in the carriage until they returned to the Prince of Qin's residence.
Inside the Qin Prince's mansion, Wu Guan received news that Si Yanmo had successfully won the divination and began preparing a celebration banquet. During this time, Chen Wu and Sano stole a lot of the food prepared in the kitchen.
When Zhou Yanqing and Si Yanmo returned, only half of the dishes for the celebration banquet had been prepared.
Wu Guan had no choice but to isolate the two troublemakers before he could quickly finish cooking. The meal was noisy and boisterous, but Si Yanmo, who had been away for two days, found the scene strangely heartwarming.
A group of people from all over the country gathered together, and for some reason, they felt at home.
As night fell, the warming Qin region was filled with the soft chirping of cicadas.
When Zhou Yanqing came out of the study, he saw a graceful figure standing alone in the courtyard, gazing at the sky.
The woman had long since changed out of the black and gold robe she wore during the day and put on her favorite light green dress. Her hair was also naturally loose, and the moonlight outlined her figure, making her look like a goddess from the sky.
"What's wrong?"
Zhou Yanqing had no recollection of ever liking to look at the stars.
Si Yanmo did not turn around, but continued to look at the sky, and said calmly, "It's nothing, I just feel a little... strange."
What's strange about it?
"I can't explain it. It's just..."
"You said we've done something so big, it's unprecedented and unparalleled, right? But why don't I feel anything at all?" She glanced at Zhou Yanqing who was walking over, her eyes filled with a rare look of confusion.
She once thought that her survival was a blessing from heaven, that saving a person was an act of kindness, and that abolishing human sacrifice was something she never dared to dream of.
It would be as difficult as climbing to heaven.
Even until the moment before going to the ceremony, she had little confidence in herself, but now everything was over so simply.
She seemed to have no time to be happy about it, nor to grieve for those who had passed away; all that remained was bewilderment.
"So you came here to look at the stars?" Zhou Yanqing chuckled. "Are you trying to get the stars to tell you the answer?"
Si Yanmo was amused by him, but she only raised the corners of her lips slightly, her expression still showing an unresolved confusion.
Zhou Yanqing didn't say much. Perhaps some things just can't be explained, just like he had always thought that abolishing human sacrifice would be an extremely difficult thing.
For thousands of years, no monarch has been able to do this.
But they solved the problem so easily, just like when you're walking in a desert and everyone says, "There's no water here, you'll die of thirst."
But after only a few steps, you see an oasis.
Are others too timid, or are they just too lucky?
Who can say for sure?
He chuckled and exhaled, looking at the woman, and said cheerfully, "If you're going to look, don't look here, it's so boring."
Si Yanmo turned around in surprise: "Where are we going?"
Zhou Yanqing smiled and reached out to pull her into her arms. She felt a sudden lightness in her body and found herself on the roof of the east courtyard in the blink of an eye, which startled her so much that she almost lost her footing.
"You...you..." Si Yanmo stammered in a panic, unable to find her voice for a long time, not knowing what she wanted to say.
Zhou Yanqing calmly helped her sit down and said, "It's okay, I'm here, you won't fall."
Perhaps feeling settled after sitting down, Si Yanmo gradually relaxed, but her hands were still tightly gripping his sleeve.
That dependence and reliance brought them very close; Zhou Yanqing could almost smell the faint fragrance in her hair.
For some reason, she quite enjoyed Si Yanmo's dependence on her, feeling that she looked just like a frightened cat, making him want to tease her a little, yet also reluctant to do so, and silently tightening his arms around her waist.
The two looked up at the sky together, where the stars twinkled in the night.
"Si Yanmo," he suddenly spoke, "why do you want to become a shaman?"
"So that I won't be buried with you"
He frowned: "That's a lie."
Just take it as the truth.
Si Yanmo wasn't ready to let him know everything yet, and just looked towards the horizon.
This woman is always very good at maneuvering!
Zhou Yanqing was a little annoyed. With a mischievous thought, she secretly let go of the hand that was supporting her and pouted, "You're using me and then discarding me."
"When did I..." Si Yanmo was confused by his words.
The person in front of her was now childishly recounting past grievances, "Tell me, when you were sick you made me do this and that, like a child, and now that you're awake you deny everything! I think you were just pretending to be crazy for a long time!"
"I didn't..." Si Yanmo was about to retort when the hazy memories of those days suddenly flashed into her mind, and her face immediately turned red.
Oh no, she actually mistook Zhou Yanqing for her mother for those few days...
Seeing this, Zhou Yanqing knew she had remembered something, but misunderstood the meaning of her blushing, and raised an eyebrow triumphantly, "You wouldn't be secretly doing this to me..."
"What nonsense are you spouting!"
Si Yanmo frantically tried to cover the man's mouth, but didn't notice the loose roof tile under her feet. She slipped and fell forward.
She grabbed at Zhou Yanqing's shoulder haphazardly, her thumb digging into his clearly defined collarbone with considerable force, causing him to cry out in pain.
Zhou Yanqing grabbed her waist with his large hand, thus preventing a "double jump".
He joked, "Even if you're angry and embarrassed, you don't have to go so far as to take everyone down with you, do you?"
Relieved, Si Yanmo leaned against him, her heart still pounding. She didn't even notice that her hands were on his chest. Hearing his words, she punched him lightly, both embarrassed and angry, "You're just trying to annoy me!"
It was called a hammer, but it didn't hurt at all. The delicate touch made Zhou Yanqing's heart pound. His gaze fell on the woman's fair, jade-like hands, and he subconsciously swallowed.
Their eyes met, and the intense gazes made Si Yanmo turn her head away and hurriedly sit up straight.
"Um...I..."
"It's okay, if you don't want to talk about it, then don't." Zhou Yanqing raised his hand and ruffled her hair, his eyes smiling, but his other hand clenched into a fist, as if he was restraining something.
Looking into his smiling eyes, Si Yanmo suddenly felt that she should tell him something. If sharing life and death together could exchange secrets, they would have done so countless times already.
"Actually... I'm just like you. I also have a fatal tribulation in my destiny. This tribulation can only be overcome by myself..."
Before Si Yanmo could finish speaking, the gate of the Prince Qin's mansion was suddenly flung open, and Chen Wu rushed in from outside.
He ran towards the King of Qin's study, when suddenly the King of Qin and his queen descended from the sky.
"Why are you in such a panic? What's wrong?" Zhou Yanqing asked.
"Your Highness, Qi Muchen is dead."
——
As night deepened, the people had all gone home to rest, and the outside was eerily quiet.
Just then, a series of rapid hoofbeats broke the evening breeze and headed straight for the outskirts of the city, finally stopping at the edge of a sparsely populated cliff.
This place is called Wanku Cliff. Below it is a mass burial ground. Most of the prisoners sentenced to death were sent here to be beheaded and then thrown off the cliff, hence the name.
Although it is called Wanku Cliff, the grass and trees are lush. Si Yanmo and Zhou Yanqing followed Chen Wu for a while before they saw the scene he mentioned - a purple figure hanging under the branch of a hundred-year-old Bodhi tree.
As Zhou Yanqing approached, he noticed that the man's face was bluish-purple, his eyes bulging and bloodshot. In the darkness, he resembled a vengeful ghost, truly eerie.
He quickly turned around and blocked Si Yanmo's view.
"Don't look," he said casually. "It'll give you nightmares."
"It's too late, I've already seen it." Si Yanmo smiled, brushed his hand away, and moved closer.
The officials in charge of the palace stood by, not daring to do anything until they received orders from the King of Qin.
"I had looked at his destiny chart before, but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly." Si Yanmo's mind was in turmoil.
Qi Muchen is someone who is dead and gone, but... after all, he once taught me.
She had intended to remind the other party after the divination ceremony, but she didn't expect everything to happen so quickly.
"Do you know who did it?" Zhou Yanqing asked.
She shook her head and asked the people from the Siyuan Academy to help put Qi Muchen's body down. Just as she was about to examine it, Zhou Yanqing stopped her.
"Leave this to me."
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