When Chu Zhao heard that Chu Nanxing had brought someone back, she immediately ordered him brought to Wutong Courtyard to see her.
As for whether this was proper…
First Wang Yue had been chopped into mincemeat; then three members of the Shen family had died, while two others had gone mad and seen ghosts. Now, who in the entire Prince of You’s Residence would dare look down on Chu Zhao, this “Princess Consort”? Everyone’s nerves were taut, and they served her with the utmost caution.
Chu Chengbi was led into the courtyard in a complicated state of mind. The whole way there, Chu Nanxing had chattered incessantly, telling him how formidable his older cousin, “Shen Zhaozhao,” had become.
The more Chu Chengbi heard, the more unfamiliar she seemed. This was a completely different person from the timid, foolish niece he remembered.
Someone who had been foolish for more than a decade might suddenly come to her senses and become normal—but even then, she couldn’t gain knowledge, courage, cunning, and martial prowess all in a single night, could she?
It made no sense.
As for talk of an ancestor manifesting or teaching her in a dream… Chu Chengbi didn’t believe in any of that ghostly nonsense. If anything, he was rather contemptuous of it.
If their ancestor truly had a spirit, how could she have watched the Chu family fall into such decline?
Thinking of this, Chu Chengbi sighed inwardly. Once he entered Wutong Courtyard, he saw a woman wrapped in a black cloak, reclining lazily against a couch with her eyes closed, half asleep.
The warm winter sun spilled across her face. Set against the white snow, she was as beautiful as fine porcelain. Then her eyes snapped open, like a silver vase bursting apart. Her dark eyes had sheathed their sharpness, but could not conceal the fierce spirit in her bones.
Chu Chengbi felt an overwhelming pressure bearing down on him. He had never felt anything like it, not even when facing the old master of his own family.
At just one glance, a thought sprang into his mind:
This absolutely could not be his niece!
“Older Cousin!” Chu Nanxing, oblivious to everything, had no idea his father’s face had gone deathly pale. He started forward, only for Chu Chengbi to seize him and hold him back.
Chu Nanxing turned around in confusion, and only then noticed that something was wrong with his father’s expression.
“Father?”
Chu Chengbi opened his mouth, wanting to say something. Then, to his horror, he discovered he couldn’t make a sound.
The woman opposite him, cloaked in black, was like a mass of dense ink surging up from the depths of the underworld. She rose slowly, like a slumbering beast opening its eyes to hunt.
“Everyone else, leave,” Chu Zhao ordered lazily.
Chu Nanxing pointed at himself. Chu Zhao shot him a sidelong glance, and he gave her an ingratiating grin. Then he made faces at his own father as he left, not forgetting to tease him under his breath. “I know you’re happy, Father. Just hold on a little longer, and don’t go crying in front of Older Cousin. That’d be so embarrassing.”
He glanced at Chu Chengbi’s sweat-soaked forehead and remarked, “How come you’re already sweating buckets trying to hold it in?”
Chu Chengbi: Is that sweat?! Those are tears!
You unfilial son! Do you think I’m holding it in? I’m terrified!
Once everyone had left, only Chu Zhao and Chu Chengbi remained in the courtyard.
“Kneel.”
With a thump, Chu Chengbi’s knees hit the snowy ground.
Chu Zhao rose and looked down at him. She raised a hand, and Chu Chengbi finally regained the ability to speak. He gasped for breath and stared at her in terror. “A-are you human or a ghost?”
Before he came, ghosts and spirits had been nothing but nonsense!
Now, it was ghosts, ghosts, ghosts—ghosts!
“At least you’ve got a little more sense than that foolish boy Chu Nanxing.” Chu Zhao sneered. It was one thing to tease a brainless young great-nephew, but she had no such patience for an older great-nephew like this.
“Since you’ve come to the capital, go to the Shen family first and reclaim your younger sister’s dowry. Shen Jue took her life, so it’s only right that half the Duke’s Residence’s assets go to you as compensation.”
“Be quick about it. Once the emperor’s decree stripping the Shen family of its title comes down, all those things will end up in someone else’s hands for nothing.”
“The only thing left is your younger sister’s funeral. See to it yourself. Give her a grand burial in the Chu clan’s ancestral grounds.”
The more Chu Chengbi listened, the stranger his expression became. Veins stood out one by one on his forehead, especially when he heard her call the emperor “that little brat”…
To be fair, Emperor Xuan was well past forty. How could anyone call him a “little brat”?
This old ghost who’d stolen someone else’s body was not only bold… she was really getting into character, too.
Chu Zhao saw right through his thoughts. Her eyes narrowed. “Do you not understand what I’m telling you?”
Hearing her refer to herself as “this king,” Chu Chengbi’s heart gave another jolt. His gaze grew even more wary and suspicious. “Y-you claim to be an ancestor of the Chu family. But which ancestor are you?”
“Is it that hard to guess?” Chu Zhao said expressionlessly, picking up the whip beside her and running her fingers over it. “Three hundred years ago, people called me the Butcher. Before I crossed the river, my title was King of Xuanzhao.”
Silence settled over the courtyard for a long moment.
Chu Chengbi’s wary, fearful expression—one he had been forcing himself to maintain—turned inscrutable. He might as well have written You expect me to believe that? across his face.
Chu Zhao smiled, her voice chilling. “Brat, have you decided you can do without your eyeballs?”
Chu Chengbi shuddered. After choosing his words carefully, he cupped his hands and said, “Esteemed senior ghost… may I ask if you’re male or female?”
Chu Zhao narrowed her eyes. “It seems your eyes really are useless.”
Chu Chengbi: So she’s a female ghost…
He forced himself to straighten his back and silently recited the Scripture of Righteous Vitality. Then he pleaded, “Please be merciful, esteemed senior ghost. My niece has suffered all her life. For her sake, I beg you to spare her. I, Chu, am willing to have a spirit tablet made for you and bring it home to worship you. Would you… would you come out of her body?”
Chu Zhao’s face remained expressionless. After a long pause, a smile crept across it. Meanwhile, the courtyard pond froze over before Chu Chengbi’s eyes, and snow began falling thick and fast once more.
Chu Chengbi felt his whole body seize up. He shivered uncontrollably from the cold.
A whip suddenly coiled around his neck, squeezing the air from his lungs. In the blink of an eye, Chu Zhao was right in front of him, her dark eyes fixed on him without wavering. “Boy, judging by your reaction, you think the idea of me being a woman is a joke?”
Chu Chengbi’s face turned red as he struggled to speak.
“Everyone knows… our Chu family’s ancestor, King of Xuanzhao, was a great man. How could… could he have been a woman?”
“You wild ghost—if you’re going to impersonate an ancestor of the Chu family… at least get the sex right first…”
The pressure around his throat grew stronger. Just as Chu Chengbi thought his life was over, the whip around his neck suddenly loosened.
He broke into a violent fit of coughing, only to hear a burst of laughter.
“Ha… hahahahahahaha!”
Chu Zhao laughed so hard she doubled over, as though she had just heard the funniest thing in the world.
“King of Xuanzhao… a man?”
“Hahahahahaha!”
Still coughing, Chu Chengbi couldn’t help arguing. This concerned his ancestor, after all. “The Old Ancestor of our family, King of Xuanzhao, was a man. It’s all written clearly in the family genealogy!”
“Not just the Chu family—who in the whole world doesn’t know that?”
“Our founding sage, Emperor Baisheng, even posthumously honored our Chu ancestor Xuanzhao and had a temple built for her. There are Xuanzhao Temples in every prefecture, province, and county of the Great Xuan Dynasty, and the people often go to worship there. You muddleheaded wild ghost… you claim to be our ancestor Xuanzhao, yet you don’t even know whether she was a man or a woman!”
Chu Zhao gradually stopped laughing.
She thought back carefully and confirmed that she had never disguised herself as a man in her campaigns to conquer the land.
In her previous life, she had been extraordinarily strong, but there had never been an extra two taels of useless flesh between her legs.
She had everything a woman should have, even if some of it was a little small. And that face of hers had still been enough to drive plenty of her subordinates wild. They had often tried to offer themselves to her, only to be beaten and sent packing.
Unless they were blind, how could anyone mistake her for a man?!
“Very well…”
Chu Zhao gritted her teeth. So this was what they meant by the victor writing history! Her, Chu Xuanzhao, turned from a woman into a man?!
What an insult to a ghost… Yan. Fu. Wei!
You bastard!