Chapter 104: The Abandoned Little Emperor (8)
In a secluded manor belonging to the Prince of Zhenbei, located in the outskirts of the capital…
Winter days were short. Before the hour of the Rooster (5-7 PM), the sky outside had already darkened, merging with the silhouette of the distant forest. Inside the brightly lit room, Xiao Miyun was still dressed in her pink palace maid attire, the ordinary fox fur cloak she wore over it now dirty from the journey, making her truly look like a palace maid who had snuck out with her mistress.
In the inner chambers behind her, the Prince of Zhenbei was having her wounds tended to. A physician cleaned and dressed the cut on her arm. The pungent medicinal powder made Su Mingxiu’s forehead break out in sweat. Through the beaded curtain, she saw the little emperor standing by the door, frozen like a statue.
“What are you all doing here?” She didn’t look at the physician treating her wound, her cold gaze fixed on Xiao Miyun. “Do I need to teach you which master you should be serving?”
The servants in the manor lowered their heads, especially with the scent of blood filling the room. They were afraid that the Prince of Zhenbei would go on a killing spree tonight, not even daring to breathe loudly as they scurried towards the little emperor.
“Y-Your Majesty, please allow this servant to help you change your clothes.”
Xiao Miyun, who had been feeling cold by the riverside earlier, now focused all her attention on the room across from her, watching as people came and went, carrying basins of bloody water and bloodstained blades. Her heart pounded with fear.
No one had ever cared about her since she was born.
Ayue, the person she had carefully chosen and spent so much effort cultivating, was indeed capable, but she turned out to be a spy sent by the Turkic forces.
And the person she hated the most had saved her life at such a critical moment.
Xiao Miyun’s heart was in turmoil. Ignoring the maids, she waved them away, then asked: “How is General Sun?”
The reply came from behind her, a calm voice amidst the pervasive scent of blood. “Does Your Majesty wish for General Sun to live, or to die?”
Xiao Miyun turned around, her beautiful face bathed in the warm orange glow of the room. She understood the meaning behind the Prince of Zhenbei’s question. After a moment of silence, she replied calmly: “To live, of course.”
“I thought Your Majesty hated General Sun so much that you wished for her death. If General Sun doesn’t survive tonight, Your Majesty should be celebrating.”
“Uh…” Hearing Su Mingxiu’s usual sarcastic tone, Xiao Miyun could only remain silent.
Seeing that the little emperor seemed genuinely frightened by this incident, Su Mingxiu didn’t let the maids press her further. She let Xiao Miyun be, thinking it would be good if she learned a lesson.
In the room across the hall…
The physician treating Sun Feiyan’s wound didn’t emerge until the beginning of the Hai hour (9-11 PM). Xiao Miyun, who had been anxiously waiting, immediately rushed over to inquire about Sun Feiyan’s condition.
Su Mingxiu, watching her leave, remained leaning against the armchair. Even though her injured right arm was bandaged, she didn’t move.
The Zi hour (11 PM – 1 AM).
The latter half of the winter night was so cold that even the birds were silent. Only the silver moonlight, piercing through the clouds at some point, illuminated the earth.
Su Mingxiu was awakened by the cold, her hands and feet icy, the pain in her right arm intensifying. But perhaps because of the strong medicine, the wound felt like it was burning.
She turned over in bed, feeling that the hand warmer she had placed under the covers had gone cold. It should have stayed warm until later in the night.
But because her entire body was like a block of ice, the quilt wasn’t warm at all, but rather chillingly cold.
Unable to sleep from the cold, Su Mingxiu got up and started meditating, circulating her internal energy.
The physician who had treated her earlier was from the Zhenbei Manor’s army. He had specifically advised her to use her internal energy as little as possible, as her cultivation technique was too aggressive and would only worsen the cold poison in her body.
But Su Mingxiu had pretended not to hear.
As she meditated, the system, silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up, seeking attention. “The protagonist is paying too much attention to Sun Feiyan, aren’t you afraid she’ll fall for this General Sun?”
She closed her eyes, her cultivation momentarily paused. “There’s no law that says someone who looks like this has to fall in love with me. If she likes General Sun, I’ll naturally support them.”
“You’re so generous,” the system replied sarcastically.
Su Mingxiu ignored it. Before she figured out the system’s true intentions, she decided not to engage—
Mainly because Xiao Miyun was like a rebellious child who needed constant supervision.
Otherwise, who knew what kind of trouble she would cause next? She occupied too much of Su Mingxiu’s attention, leaving her no time for anything else.
“Who’s there?”
As a shadow approached the window, Su Mingxiu suddenly opened her eyes and asked.
If this wasn’t her manor, confident that her guards wouldn’t let anyone approach, it wouldn’t have been her voice that rang out, but her weapon.
“Creak.”
The door to the inner chambers opened, revealing a figure wrapped in a quilt, only their slender ankles visible. Their height instantly revealed their identity to Su Mingxiu.
She looked at the long shadow on the floor and asked with a faint smile: “Your Majesty isn’t sleeping at this late hour, why are you wandering outside this minister’s chambers?”
“Sun Feiyan said that she entered the palace because she hated the Xiao family. My father’s heavy taxes starved her mother to death.
And one of my elder brothers… violated her younger sister and left her body in the mountains. She was then forced to leave her hometown because she refused to comply with the magistrate… She originally thought everyone in the Xiao Zhou dynasty was corrupt, especially the Xiao family, and that killing them wouldn’t be a crime.”
“But she said that when she raised her sword against Zhen, realizing Zhen was just a frail girl, she couldn’t bring herself to kill me.”
According to Xiao Miyun’s memory, she remembered that Sun Feiyan had been forced to stop because Su Mingxiu and her army had entered the city.
But after hearing Sun Feiyan’s story, she belatedly realized that because she had been so terrified back then, the detail she remembered most vividly was the intent to kill. The hesitation, the lowering of the sword, had all been forgotten.
Perhaps Sun Feiyan had also seen the helplessness of women in this dynasty reflected in Xiao Miyun. In any case, Sun Feiyan felt a pang of guilt, and this guilt had made her endure Xiao Miyun’s whims and even risk her life for her today.
“Your Majesty came here late at night just to tell this minister about your past with General Sun?”
Su Mingxiu, after listening to this long story, asked coldly.
She clearly wasn’t the type to listen to late-night confessions.
Xiao Miyun, wrapped in her quilt, took a few steps further into the room. She didn’t have a warrior’s keen eyesight, so she had to get closer to see Su Mingxiu clearly.
“No.”
She said, “Zhen just wanted to confirm… if Zhen also misremembered something about the Prince of Zhenbei.”
The person meditating behind the bed curtains chuckled softly but didn’t speak. The little emperor asked: “What is the Right Chancellor laughing at?”
“Laughing at Your Majesty’s naiveté—”
“Because you were bullied by eunuchs when you were young, you now hate all eunuchs; today, betrayed by someone you trusted, you’ll probably never trust another palace maid again;
This afternoon, saved by General Sun, you feel that you misjudged her. So, late at night, you came to my room, wanting to see if you also misjudged me.”
Su Mingxiu moved like a ghost, disappearing from behind the bed curtains and reappearing before Xiao Miyun. She lifted Xiao Miyun’s chin and looked into her eyes, asking: “Misjudged what?”
“Does Your Majesty think that this Wang’s character is as indecisive as General Sun’s?”
At such close proximity, even the sandalwood incense in the room couldn’t mask the faint scent of blood from her wound. The medicine was strong, it healed quickly, but it also consumed a lot of energy.
Enveloped by this scent, Xiao Miyun suddenly felt foolish for coming to this mad king’s room in the middle of the night.
The fingers pinching her chin were icy cold.
This Prince of Zhenbei was like a walking corpse risen from a coffin.
“If there’s no misunderstanding, then forget it.”
She turned to leave, but Su Mingxiu grabbed her sleeve. Somehow, a book with a blue cover and no title fell out from under her quilt.
Xiao Miyun didn’t notice. Su Mingxiu bent down and picked up the book. Seeing its crude and cheap quality, unlike the books in the palace, she easily guessed that it was one of the things the little emperor had acquired during her outing today.
As she stood up, she flipped through the book with a smile. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
“If Your Majesty can’t sleep, why not stay and chat with this minister by candlelight?”
“I would be delighted to hear about Your Majesty’s experience outside the palace today.”
She held up the book and waved it at Xiao Miyun.
The room was dark, only the moonlight Xiao Miyun had brought in with her illuminated the space. It was difficult for the little emperor to see clearly.
Then, finally recognizing the object in Su Mingxiu’s hand, her expression changed. Share what? What’s there to share about this book?
Thinking about the romantic and erotic content within, especially the part about the male emperor and the mature Prince of Zhenbei, she felt a wave of nausea.
This book can’t stay!
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