The snow piled up thicker and thicker.
Madam Chu shivered uncontrollably in the snow, her tears and snot frozen to her face. There was not the slightest trace of a Duchess’s dignity left in her.
“Your Highness… Your Highness, you must see justice done for me!”
“The Princess Consort has gone mad… She’s disobedient and unfilial—she actually tried to murder her own mother!”
Madam Chu’s teeth chattered as she wailed in anguish.
The Prince of You sat in a grand armchair, listening with his eyes lowered. His sharply defined face revealed not the slightest hint of pleasure or anger.
“Is what the Duchess says true?”
He asked as though offhandedly, and it was impossible to tell whom he was asking.
The serving women Madam Chu had brought to keep watch outside the gate exchanged glances. They did not dare betray their mistress, so they could only nod repeatedly and agree.
The Princess Consort herself, Chu Zhao, remained unusually silent.
Wrapped in a fur cloak, she sat in another chair. To those around her, the Princess Regent seemed to have reverted to the simple-minded state she’d been in before.
In truth, Chu Zhao was cursing heaven and earth in her heart.
She’d just rummaged through what little Xiaokugua remembered, and now she was so furious her ghostly soul was practically smoking.
The good news was that she really had returned to life in another person’s corpse.
The bad news? Hahahaha! Three hundred years ago, she died before crossing the river. Then her mortal enemy, Yan Fuwei, unified the north and south, ended the age of turmoil, and crowned himself emperor, founding the Great Xuan Dynasty that existed now.
Her own failure was terrifying enough. Her enemy’s success was enough to make her die with her eyes open!
What made Chu Zhao even more furious was…
The scumbag Xiaokugua had married—the Prince of You, Yan Qi, sitting right before her—was a descendant of that bastard Yan Fuwei!
Ah… Like That Bastard, like his grandson. No wonder he could pull off the disgraceful stunt of running away on his wedding day and then ignoring his wife for five whole years!
He was obnoxious enough already, but he looked almost exactly like that bastard Yan Fuwei. It made her want to skin him and stuff him!
“Your words are full of holes. You all look more like barbarian spies to me.”
“Take them away. Skin them and stuff them.”
Chu Zhao had been wondering how to skin the Prince of You when, out of nowhere, she and the man seemed to share a thought. She came back to herself and looked across at him.
The serving women Madam Chu had brought were immediately gagged and dragged away.
Madam Chu clearly hadn’t expected her “son-in-law” to be so ruthless. Five years ago, he’d been a sickly invalid…
Chu Zhao raised an eyebrow, a little surprised by the Prince of You’s decisiveness.
Their eyes met again, unexpectedly.
“The Duchess came to visit the Princess Regent and was attacked by spies. This is a most unfortunate accident. Have the military physician treat the Duchess’s injuries properly, then send her back to Duke Shen’s Residence.”
The Prince of You gave the order calmly and without haste, declaring the incident an assassination attempt by spies.
Chu Zhao let out a mocking laugh.
Madam Chu looked utterly incredulous. “Your Highness, I was clearly—”
The Prince of You glanced at her. Madam Chu felt every word catch in her throat and didn’t dare utter another.
She was forcibly “escorted” away, glaring daggers at Chu Zhao as she went.
Chu Zhao met her gaze without flinching, the corner of her mouth curling into a meaningful smile. “Take good care of yourself. We have all the time in the world. We’re not finished yet.”
Madam Chu’s knees suddenly gave way. The agony in her hand brought back the terrifying ordeal she’d endured not long ago, and she hurried away on unsteady feet.
“How do you intend to explain what happened today, Princess Consort?” The Prince of You’s voice broke the silence.
Chu Zhao shot him a sideways glance and leaned back in her chair. “An explanation? Why don’t you, you brat, explain to this Princess Consort why someone would run away from his own wedding, ignore his wife for five years, and still have the nerve to put on airs?”
“What is it? Did the border winds blow so hard they turned your hide as thick as a city wall?”
The Prince of You stared at her. Everyone else in the courtyard looked at Chu Zhao in terror.
A… a brat?!
Had the Princess Consort been merely stupid before, but gone completely mad now?
Was she scolding His Highness the Prince of You like he was her grandson?
The Prince of You kept his gaze fixed on Chu Zhao, then rose and slowly approached.
“Have you truly gone mad, Princess Consort?”
As he bent toward her, he seemed like a beast lurking in the darkness, closing in on its prey.
Composed and confident, yet oppressively intimidating.
Chu Zhao suddenly plucked a tea leaf from the cold tea in her hand. The moment it left the water, it froze solid.
She flashed the Prince of You a sudden smile.
Whoosh—
The ice-hardened tea leaf shot toward his throat like a hidden weapon. As if he’d expected it, the man tilted his head slightly. The leaf grazed his neck, carving a shallow line of blood.
“Impudent!”
“Protect His Highness!”
The serving women and soldiers around them all changed color.
The Prince of You wiped the blood from his neck and looked down into her dark, bottomless eyes. For a moment, it was as though he were seeing someone from another lifetime.
Someone arrogant, lawless, ruthless, cold-hearted, fickle, and faithless…
But that person had nothing to do with the woman before him. After all, they had both been dead for centuries.
Still, was this woman really Shen Zhaozhao?
The skill of turning a flying leaf into a blade was no talent a sheltered young woman should possess—especially not someone who had once been a simpleton.
His voice drifted toward her, low and distant. “You. Come inside with me.”
Chu Zhao raised an eyebrow. Who did that brat think he was ordering?
Well, if she was going to teach one grandson, she might as well teach two.
Yan Fuwei, that bastard, was dead. She’d do him a favor and teach his descendants some manners!
Chu Zhao strode after him into the room.
The instant the door closed, a hand clamped around her throat and pinned her against the door.
“Who are you?”
The man’s face was inches from hers.
Looking at the face that was almost identical to Yan Fuwei’s, Chu Zhao could barely contain her murderous intent.
“Your Ancestor!”
She twisted his wrist in her grasp. The original owner might have been a little fool, but she’d inherited her ancestor’s immense strength—though she was still not quite as strong as Chu Zhao herself.
Still, it was more than enough to deal with a grandson!
The world turned upside down, and Chu Zhao had him by the throat instead.
She hadn’t expected the Prince of You to grab her by the waist. Their positions shifted again, and Chu Zhao had failed to account for the difference in their size.
She was just too small.
The man’s body pressed down on her with overwhelming force, enveloping her completely.
Killing intent surged in her eyes. One squeeze of her hand would crush his throat.
Suddenly, a drop of blood fell onto her lips.
Acting as if possessed, Chu Zhao licked it.
The blood was… saturated with baleful energy. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. Though Chu Zhao had returned to life in another person’s body, her soul was constantly on the verge of dissipating. In the three hundred years since then, she had become the Ghost King, but with her time running out, she didn’t dare use her ghost power lightly.
The yang qi of the living was nourishment for her.
And this intensely concentrated baleful energy…
It was a supreme tonic!
This brat was the finest of the finest tonics!