Outside, the fierce wind and heavy rain wailed, rattling the windowpanes and causing the hangover soup in Luo Tang’s hands to slosh. A single drop of brown broth splashed onto the woman’s pearly-white wrist.
With just a single glance, Luo Tang realized the hangover soup was entirely useless.
What a waste of money.
The woman belonged to the category of aloof and cold beauties. Her long, raven-dark hair was scattered across the pillow, while the skin on her face and neck had turned a delicate, pale pink. Beneath the crossed collar of her inner garment, her skin resembled a piece of translucent pink jade.
The pink undertone glowing through the white jade made her look like a piece of fine jade naturally sculpted by heaven.
Luo Tang remembered that back at the tavern, her skin had been of the strikingly fair variety, glowing with a healthy luster.
As that thought crossed her mind, the woman opened her eyes. Her vision was bloodshot, as though she were exercising every ounce of restraint she possessed.
Luo Tang offered, “Shall I fetch some cool water for you?”
“You are not Luo Tang,” the woman finally spoke, though her voice was already hoarse.
Luo Tang chuckled awkwardly. The woman continued, “When we met before, Luo Tang scolded me.”
Luo Tang: “…” Then who on earth are you?
Perhaps feeling intensely uncomfortable, the woman closed her eyes once more, her long, dark eyelashes clamped shut as if to conceal her present state of vulnerability.
She murmured, “I am Zhe Qing.”
“Zhe Qing?” Luo Tang’s voice shot up abruptly, prompting her to look Zhe Qing up and down once again. How could this possibly be Zhe Qing?
The woman lay on the bed, the quilt pulled up to her shoulders, her temples damp with sweat, her face flushed like peach blossoms in spring.
Yet she did not emit any pathetic moans; she simply lay there on the bed as if she were merely taking a quiet nap.
Trying to maintain her composure, Luo Tang had previously assumed this person was merely related to Zhe Qing in some way, never dreaming she was Zhe Qing herself.
Withdrawing her appraising gaze, Luo Tang said, “I’ll go find some cool water for you.”
Turning around, Luo Tang called out to the innkeeper, who came scurrying over with a fawning grin. “Is there something you need, miss?”
“Draw some well water, and send up a tub of hot water as well. I want to bathe,” Luo Tang said coldly. “Hurry up and get it done.”
“Right away, right away!” The innkeeper jumped in fright. Though the girl was young, her temper was formidable, and heaven only knew which arrogant, headstrong household she hailed from.
Luo Tang’s temper was indeed less than stellar. Having transformed from a powerful prime minister into a powerless young maiden who was about to be stripped of her inheritance by her maternal relatives, she had been bottling up plenty of frustration inside.
She wanted to alter her predicament and reclaim the assets left behind by her parents, which was why she had sneaked out of the house today.
Unfortunately, before she could even enjoy a stroll, she had run into this merciless downpour.
The innkeeper acted quite efficiently, hauling two buckets of well water and placing them at the doorway.
“Why aren’t you bringing them inside? Who else do you expect to carry them for you?” Luo Tang glared at the innkeeper. “Don’t you know how to do your job properly?”
The innkeeper forced a smile. “I’ll bring them in right now, right this second!”
What a demanding tyrant!
Once the water was carried into the inner chamber, poured into a washing basin, and provided with a clean towel, the innkeeper finally scurried off.
Luo Tang stopped him on his way out. “Bring some drinking water up as well; I’m thirsty.”
The innkeeper hurried off again to fetch a kettle.
Once the kettle was brought inside, Luo Tang dismissed him entirely, muttering under her breath as she shut the door, “Useless at basic tasks, and he’s a tavern keeper to boot. An inn like this will go bankrupt sooner or later.”
Hearing the young maiden’s complaints from the bed, the suffering woman couldn’t help but crack a faint smile. But the moment she relaxed, the scorching heat surging through her body returned. Listening to the pounding rain outside, she felt an urge to plunge straight into the downpour just to cool off.
The maiden walked over, half-supporting her and pulling her up to lean against her shoulder. “Water. It’s cool.”
Zhe Qing half-closed her eyes, catching the faint scent drifting from the maiden, perhaps the natural fragrance of a young girl. She drank some water, and the temperature inside her body seemed to drop ever so slightly.
However, the moment she lay back down and the quilt was pulled over her, that wave of fiery heat came rushing back to consume her.
A stifled spark of anger smoldered in Luo Tang’s chest. “You knew it was a Hongmen banquet today, why on earth did you still go?”
Even though they were complete strangers, her tone sounded distinctly reproachful, carrying the air of an elder chivying a stubborn junior.
Zhe Qing closed her eyes, her throat moving as she swallowed unconsciously. Her brows twitched tightly, and the outer corners of her eyes, already stained with a peach-blossom flush, grew even redder.
Enduring the agonizing discomfort, she replied, “Lured by interests. Knowing full well there are tigers in the mountain, I chose to walk right into the tiger’s den.”
Luo Tang sneered. “What kind of interests could possibly warrant that?”
Zhe Qing whispered, “Life and death.”
Luo Tang stopped smiling. In a realm dictated by towering power and authority, one’s fate is rarely one’s own. She lifted the teacup back to the woman’s lips once more.
Zhe Qing reached out and grasped the maiden’s wrist. The cold wind blowing in from the window made the girl’s hand feel icy, like a lone traveler journeying across a vast desert who suddenly encounters a patch of frost, making her instinctively want to linger.
With her eyes closed, she endured the intense suffering as if undergoing a supreme trial of endurance. Straining her neck, the fragile tendons along her throat stood out in sharp relief.
Luo Tang allowed the other woman to hold her hand, her thoughts drifting back to that journal. She couldn’t help asking, “What year of Mingcheng is it right now?”
Suspicious, Zhe Qing opened her eyes. Her vision was bloodshot, and her grip on Luo Tang’s wrist tightened slightly. No normal person would suddenly ask for the current year of Mingcheng out of the blue.
She answered, “The eighth year of Mingcheng.”
Luo Tang drew a sharp breath. The eighth year of Mingcheng Zhe Qing was twenty-six years old and serving as the Right Prime Minister.
She remembered that in this particular year, what Zhe Qing wrote about most frequently in her journal was affairs of state.
It was currently spring, and Zhe Qing had written: In the spring of the eighth year of Mingcheng, floods raged like ferocious beasts, swallowing up farmers’ fields and tearing families apart.
Recovering her wits, she heard the woman before her emit a low groan and abruptly retract her hand, causing the remaining water in the cup to splash onto the footrest.
Zhe Qing of the Zhe family in the capital, her personal life was never once mentioned in the journal.
History made no mention of whom she married, either.
This implied that she had remained unmarried her entire life, solitary and companionless.
The woman’s soft moan caused Luo Tang’s heart to skip a beat, transforming her initial admiration into a pang of heartache. To remain unmarried for a lifetime, standing utterly alone, only to be abandoned by her mentor such a fate was too cruel to bear.
What crime could someone who cared neither for wealth nor lust possibly be guilty of?
Why on earth was she branded as a treacherous official who wreaked havoc on the country?
Reaching out, Luo Tang smoothed away the delicate, tightly furrowed brows of the woman. Then, like a stone dropped into calm waters, her simple gesture stirred a glimmer of hope in Zhe Qing’s drowning heart.
Zhe Qing caught her hand, gripping it uncontrollably and pressing it against her own burning neck.
That wave of coolness brought Zhe Qing a rare, fleeting sense of relief.
Luo Tang had read her handwriting ranging from delicate and refined to majestic and authoritative and she loved every stroke of it.
Drawing a deep breath, Luo Tang tried hard to tug her hand back.
“Luo Tang…” Zhe Qing murmured softly.
This utterance lacked the cold detachment and imposing authority found in the journal, tinged instead with a rare, melting tenderness.
Luo Tang’s eyes darkened deeply. A woman like this, possessing both solemn authority and delicate allure, stood before her like a mirror, reflecting the raw desires hidden deep within Luo Tang’s own heart.
Gazing into her face, Luo Tang leaned in closer, studying the flushed skin on her neck. “Zhe Qing, I want to break away from the Xiao family. Can you help me?”
Consumed by desire, a flush the color of March peach blossoms stained every inch of Zhe Qing’s skin. Hearing the words “break away,” she was forced to raise her slender, alabaster neck, letting Luo Tang witness the internal struggle playing out in her eyes.
“You can take your time to think about it,” Luo Tang teased, raising an eyebrow as she shed her rabbit-like facade like a cunning fox revealing her true nature.
Zhe Qing curled her fingers into a fist and finally released Luo Tang’s hand.
A trace of imperceptible coldness flashed through Luo Tang’s eyes. As expected, this Zhe Qing is far too honest and proper.
With a dramatic sigh, she remarked, “Prime Minister Zhe, you are so stubbornly rigid, have you ever considered what your ultimate end will be?”
To be cast aside and exploited by the mentor who raised you, how hopelessly naive can one be?
If it were Luo Tang, forgetting about any supposed debt of upbringing for a moment, if someone tried to kill her, she would kill them first. So what if the world cursed her? She had survived, and she had the power to rewrite history.
Deliberately leaning in close, she breathed her warm words against Zhe Qing’s crimson earlobe.
Zhe Qing furrowed her brows fiercely. Fiery passion and icy detachment melted together within her gaze.
Shivering from the draft, Luo Tang turned away to close the window.
Once the window was shut, Zhe Qing felt the chill recede as the surging heat within her body wrapped around her once more. She watched helplessly as the maiden walked back over. Though she shared the exact same face as Luo Tang, she somehow didn’t feel like the same person at all.
She looked like Luo Tang, but stripped of her skin by a cunning fox.
“Endure it slowly on your own; you can actually tough it out,” Luo Tang said, her brows curving into bright, cunning crescents.
It’s Zhe Qing.
The brilliant high official she had yearned for with her dying breath.
Lost in thought, Luo Tang picked up a towel to wipe the cold sweat from the woman’s cheeks. The momentary chill brought genuine relief, but the moment the towel lifted, the heat surged back even more fiercely, bringing agonizing torment.
Luo Tang continued to murmur, “I’m just curious what kind of situation could possibly make you drink that wine even knowing it was tainted. Who invited you anyway?”
In this era of the Qi Dynasty, the Empress Dowager held court from behind a curtain, and women enjoyed a much higher social status than in previous dynasties. Women could divorce and remarry, possessed family inheritance rights, and were permitted to enter the imperial court as officials.
At the same time, princesses wielded even greater power, which was why many men did not dare to marry into the imperial family as imperial consorts.
Luo Tang guessed aloud, “Was it some princess who invited you? Did some princess take a fancy to you?”
“Shut up,” Zhe Qing rebuked, her imposing presence still intact.
Luo Tang chuckled, her palm-sized face brimming with amusement. Deliberately using a cool, damp towel to wipe the sweat-drenched skin of the other woman’s neck, she teased, “Angry? Is it uncomfortable?”
Miffed, Zhe Qing tensed her entire body, acutely aware that even her breath was burning hot.
She had no idea when the drug’s effects would finally wear off.
Luo Tang, however, knew that she was in for a long, agonizing ordeal.
She said, “Suit yourself then. If you won’t agree, I won’t bully you. Just tough it out on your own, but I really have to head home now the family rules at my uncle’s place are terribly strict.”
She turned away with a heavy sigh, but before she could take a step, the woman grabbed her hand still burning with that scorching heat.
Feebly drifting in a haze of delirium, losing all control over her limbs, Zhe Qing grabbed the maiden’s hand, her rationality on the verge of being completely overwhelmed by the drug’s potency.
Yet the moment she reached out and gripped it, she felt a profound sense of satisfaction.
I must be out of my mind.
Luo Tang’s gaze dropped back onto her, her fingertips inadvertently brushing across the back of the woman’s hand.
The woman’s skin was exceptionally soft.
She said, “I have to go home, or the family rules will beat me to death.”
Silent, Zhe Qing lifted her chin and caught sight of the maiden’s bright, vivid lips. A flicker of impulse stirred within her, no, it was merely the drug’s influence speaking.
Not her.
Struggling desperately and fighting to steady her breathing, she rasped, “Don’t leave. I’ll escort you back to the Grand Commandant’s manor tomorrow.”