Pei Qing was awakened by the noise outside. The room was dark, making it difficult to see her surroundings.
Her head still ached as she struggled to sit up. Following a faint glimmer of light, she reached out and found a crack in the door. The faint scent of medicine filled her nostrils, and she realized she was still in the Yangju Hall.
She had visited this place several times before, but she had never known there was such a secluded, narrow secret room within the Yangju Hall.
Just then, the sound of mourning music reached her ears, sending a shiver down her spine. She hurriedly pushed open the door of the secret room, and light flooded in, blinding her momentarily.
But she couldn’t afford to care about that now. The mournful music, mixed with the clashing of swords and rough shouts, echoed in her ears.
Could it be that the rebels had truly breached the palace?
If so, then he...
The mere thought brought tears brimming to her eyes. Pei Qing stumbled out, the snow soaking her shoes and socks, the cold seeping up from her feet to her heart, but she couldn’t feel it.
The closer she got to the Mingwu Hall, the weaker her legs became. From a distance, she could see the ground stained with crimson and strewn with filth. The bloody snow mixed with the dirt, and the sight was so nauseating that she could barely stand it. Severed heads and limbs littered the ground, and the courtyard was filled with soldiers in crimson armor.
There were no silver-armored imperial guards, nor were there any black-armored Nanchuan soldiers.
The biting wind blew Pei Qing’s hair into disarray, making her look like a once-beautiful flower about to wither and fall into the blood-soaked earth.
The soldiers outside the hall all turned to look at her, their exclamations of surprise cutting through the chaos. They watched as the pale-faced woman, dressed in her empress’s robes, walked toward them. She seemed to see something that made her freeze in place.
Following her gaze, they saw a coffin placed in the center of the hall, with the large character “Xiao” engraved on it, grand and solemn.
Pei Qing recognized the man beside the coffin—Chu Li, his face covered in blood, crying so hard his voice was hoarse. For a moment, her vision went white, and she nearly lost her footing.
The wind dried the tears on her face, and she stopped running. In that moment, the Empress regained her usual composure and elegance, though her eyes were hollow.
She walked toward the coffin, each step steady and calm, though her whole body trembled if one looked closely.
"Your Majesty..." Chu Li’s voice was raspy from crying.
Pei Qing knew that as the Empress, there was no reason for her to kneel before a subject, but she still knelt in front of the coffin. Her voice was lifeless, cold yet gentle: "I’m sorry... This time, it’s my fault."
The black coffin was tightly sealed; she couldn’t see the person inside.
But that handsome face appeared clearly in her mind.
Pei Qing smiled. "You must think that I’ve wronged you more than just this once."
Her smile was beautiful, yet deeply sorrowful.
"I betrayed you and lied to you," she said as tears began to fall. "I married into the palace to take care of my sister’s child. My sister treated me like a mother, and her child is also my child. So at that time, I couldn’t choose you."
"Ever since I found out you were the Nanchuan King, I was both afraid and relieved. I heard that you were living freely in Nanchuan, no one daring to chase or scheme against you anymore. That put my mind at ease."
Pei Qing paused. "Actually... I was never completely at ease. The accusations in the court were hard to hear, and since ancient times, those with great merit and power have never met a good end. I wrote a letter but didn’t know how to sign it. If I signed it as ‘Empress,’ you would have thought I was commanding you from a high place, wouldn’t you?"
"If I signed it as ‘Pei Qing’... Since I’m already the Empress, how could I use my maiden name to write to you? That would only make you overthink, wouldn’t it?"
She smiled faintly. "If I signed nothing at all, I feared you wouldn’t even read it, right? In the end, I didn’t send the letter. But fortunately, my brother-in-law is a wise ruler. He said that if we punished the meritorious officials who quelled the southern rebellions based on a few accusations, it would chill the hearts of people across the land."
"You see, it’s not just me who understands your worth, your ambitions. You would have been fine even without me."
"But in the end, I still dragged you down." Pei Qing wiped her tears. "Do you know? Today, the Emperor asked me a question."
"He asked, ‘Pei Qing, how much do you love him?’"
Pei Qing tilted her head, looking at the coffin with a beautiful smile. "Why did you never ask me that? You always asked, ‘Pei Qing, do you know how much I like you?’"
"Back then, I was too shy to talk about such things, so I never answered you."
Pei Qing lowered her head and took something out from her sleeve.
"Of course I knew. I always knew. I didn’t answer the Emperor today because I thought I should say these words to you first."
A sharp dagger grazed her slender, pale fingers, leaving a trail of blood.
"How much do I love you? Perhaps it’s this much... Xiao Yuan, in the next life, even if you don’t want to, I’ll force you to marry me."
Pei Qing closed her eyes, smiling, as she plunged the dagger toward her abdomen without hesitation.
"Your Majesty!" Chu Li finally saw what Pei Qing held in her hand. But he was too far away; even as he leaped forward, he couldn’t reach her sleeve.
Suddenly, there was a clattering sound, and the dagger, poised to pierce her flesh, fell to the ground.
A voice came from the direction of the side hall: "Is Her Majesty intending to join someone in death?"
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