Recalling what Ying Xu had just said, after remaining silent for a moment, the system, still feeling somewhat unable to hold back, thought about it and cautiously asked, 【Why do you think that?】
Clearly all of Xie Jingchen’s layered signs were showing that he liked Ying Xu!
And Ying Xu instead asked back even more strangely, “I instead want to ask you, why would you ask such a question?”
As soon as Ying Xu said this, the system immediately became excited and began analyzing all the details that made it think Xie Jingchen liked Ying Xu, 【Before, when he returned to Jinling, he was covered in blood and clearly hadn’t killed just a few people, but as soon as you opened your mouth he was obedient like a gentle golden retriever……】
【And on the carriage ride back to the Ying residence, he tried again and again to look at you but didn’t dare to look at you, so cautious, restrained, and controlled……】
At that time, the system already felt that between its host and Xie Jingchen there was a bit of a mutual secret crush vibe, and it had even imagined in its mind a bitter script where, due to irresistible plot forces, a perfectly good young couple was forced to separate and from then on be scattered to the ends of the earth.
Because most importantly, at that time Ying Xu had said, “If you want to look at me, then just look at me openly, I’m not stopping you.” Hey! She said something so doting and sweet — doesn’t that already explain the problem!
“?” Ying Xu slowly typed out a question mark, “What problem is there with this?”
Those beautiful phoenix eyes had a strange look, and her tone was full of frankness as she asked back, “Isn’t this just the same as me checking whether he’s dead or not?”
【……】 The system was once again stuck by her unromantic words.
After that, it still wouldn’t give up and said, 【But host, you previously also said that in the past you spent at least half the year with him every year, year after year.】
Ying Xu tilted her head, slightly nodded, and said frankly, “That’s just the truth.”
【……】
Even though Ying Xu’s words were already enough to give the system heart blockage, it still wouldn’t give up, and just as it was about to say something more, at this moment it heard Ying Xu say,
“And besides, I don’t like Xie Jingchen either.” So what is there to talk about marrying or not marrying?
Ah.
Hearing this sentence, the system immediately understood, and in its heart sighed, so the problem is here.
It said it — was its host really that easy to talk to? With Ying Xu’s temperament, if she really liked something, wouldn’t she definitely get it no matter what?
But then again, does Ying Xu really not like Xie Jingchen?
The system felt that this matter might still be a bit questionable. After all—
It said, 【But host, you previously said he became ugly when you saw him.】
You should know, Xie Jingchen hadn’t returned to Jinling City for a full four years, but under such circumstances, after Ying Xu saw him, she could still at a glance distinguish his difference from before.
And earlier, when writing the divorce letter, Ying Xu couldn’t even write the name of the emperor she had married.
As an artificial intelligence with countless tender romance novels stored in its memory, the system absolutely did not believe this had no problem.
However, no matter how unwilling the system was to give up, it was useless, especially when Ying Xu truly didn’t think there was any problem and still said righteously, “Because he’s the follower who’s been with me the longest. Even raising a dog, after a long time, if you throw it into a pile of identical dogs, you can still recognize it, right?”
Afterward, as if she thought of something, she suddenly asked, “What is that golden retriever thing you just mentioned?”
The system, which had just wanted to tell its host that comparing Xie Jingchen to a dog might not be very good, suspiciously paused for a moment, then replied, 【……It’s a kind of very gentle dog.】
Hearing this answer, Ying Xu only felt bored and said “Oh.” once.
After that came silence in the room. After a while, the system, feeling that it might need to change its angle of approach, once again asked, “Speaking of which, host, how did you and the emperor get together back then?”
“Xie Liu?” Hearing the name of that thing that made her feel unlucky, Ying Xu frowned at her pretty brows, but in the end still answered the system’s question.
Her clear voice was淡淡, “Back then, Xie Liu was made crown prince, and he came to find me himself saying he liked me, begged me to give him a chance, said if I were willing to marry him he would treat me well for a lifetime and absolutely not take others, so I agreed.”
【……Just that?】 The system was dumbfounded.
Ying Xu felt that this system thing was really strange, and already somewhat didn’t want to deal with it, saying, “Otherwise what more do you want? He was made crown prince, meaning he would be emperor in the future, and I was originally supposed to be empress, isn’t that very normal?”
【No……】 The system felt that it hadn’t straightened out Ying Xu’s logic and its brain was a bit messy.
Then it thought about it and hurriedly asked its last question before Ying Xu completely got annoyed, 【Then do you like him?】
Ying Xu answered without the slightest hesitation, saying a very meaningful sentence, “Anyway, I don’t dislike him.”
“All right, this palace is tired.” Ying Xu stood up and walked toward the bed, her beautiful clear voice dropping her final sentence with faint impatience, “That whatever stupid system, don’t make noise to bother me anymore, or I’ll execute your nine generations.”
And at this moment, on the other side, the Dali Temple prison.
Xie Jingchen passed through the cold corridors and signaled the jailer following behind him to open the cell door.
With the sound of chains clashing, the man in bright yellow robes sitting upright in the cell raised his head, and just happened to meet Xie Jingchen’s gaze.
With the cell chains opened, Xie Jingchen waved his hand, signaling the jailer to leave; he was not needed here.
Receiving Xie Jingchen’s order, the jailer immediately hurriedly ran out, after all, the two present — one was the usurped emperor, the other was the rebel king who had killed his way back from the northwest — perhaps very soon they would have to change how they addressed him and call him Your Majesty. A Shura field between such two people was not something a small soldier like him could be involved in.
If he accidentally saw some royal secret — here specifically referring to how the King of Mobei would kill the emperor — he probably wouldn’t even be able to keep his own life.
After the jailer retreated, Xie Jingchen pulled open the cell door and didn’t close it again. Anyway, as a man of martial origin, he wasn’t afraid that the frail emperor would just run away. He walked in leisurely, lowered his head, and looked down at the emperor sitting there.
He coldly announced, “Your little palace maid is dead.”
“……I know.”
The emperor said in a low voice.
At this moment, he looked somewhat dazed. Then he added another sentence, “At the instant Yun Wan died, I knew she was dead.”
It was also because that woman died that he truly realized what he had done during this period of time.
How could he have treated Ying Xu like that?
He couldn’t believe that the girl he had finally begged back would be treated coldly by him, argued with, struck, and even that he had said to Ying Xu that he would depose her……
Yet all of this had indeed all truly happened.
But after he encountered Yun Wan, his eyes and heart strangely had only that person left.
This little palace maid with an unremarkable appearance seemed to have some kind of magic. But it completely made people unaware of their own changes.
Only after she died did everything truly string together into one line, becoming clear clues.
……What a terrifying power.
But now that things had reached this point, understanding all this was of no use to him.
Xie Jingchen didn’t care about the emperor’s current dazed mental state. He took out from his chest the late emperor’s edict that Ying Xu had given him and said lightly, “For you.”
Seeing this familiar color, the emperor’s expression couldn’t help but be somewhat mocking, “The enthronement ceremony hasn’t even been held yet, and you already—”
His words abruptly stopped, and he didn’t continue. Because the emperor opened this edict, and after opening it, the first thing that entered his eyes was the divorce letter Ying Xu had written and clipped inside, and only then the late emperor’s decree.
But in that instant, what was most piercing to the emperor’s eyes was not the late emperor’s decree for Ying Xu and him to separate, nor the divorce letter Ying Xu wrote, but rather the last two characters on that divorce letter…… His name.
He recognized it — that was Xie Jingchen’s handwriting.
He stared blankly at those two characters for a moment, then as if he thought of something, the emperor looked at Xie Jingchen and suddenly said, “You won.”
“Xie Jingchen.” The emperor called his name, then paused, and after a moment seemed to say something difficult to say, “……In the future, take good care of her.”
Hearing this sentence, Xie Jingchen couldn’t help but frown and asked him, “Xie Liu, in what identity are you saying this sentence to me?”
His handsome face was cold, “When you say this, what are you taking her as in your heart?”
Hearing this, the emperor was suddenly stunned.
Then he heard Xie Jingchen say, “What Ah Xu’s future will be like is not for you to decide.”
When speaking of Ying Xu, his gaze visibly softened, and his voice also became gentler, “What she wants is for her to choose herself.”
Seeing the serious expression on the young man’s handsome face, the emperor suddenly let out a sorrowful laugh and said in a low voice a sentence whose referent was unclear, “No wonder……”
The corner of his lips carried a trace of self-mockery, “No wonder she never liked me.”
In the past, the emperor had never felt that his feelings for Ying Xu would lose to Xie Jingchen.
It was only that Xie Jingchen was luckier — that was why he entered Ying Xu’s eyes. Only because of luck did he become the only one among all the princes to enter Ying Xu’s eyes.
His birth was so lowly; his birth mother was merely a palace maid who had accidentally been favored by the late emperor once, born in the Cold Palace, grew up in the Cold Palace. If not for that year when Ying Xu whimsically wanted to go take a look at the legendary Cold Palace, no one would even have known that there existed such a prince in the Cold Palace.
Perhaps he wouldn’t even have lived to adulthood and would have died in childhood in that cold, lonely Cold Palace.
But he was truly lucky. That year, when Xie Jingchen was at death’s door, he was seen by Ying Xu who had gone to look at the Cold Palace, and then…… the most beloved little girl picked up this unwanted stray dog from the Cold Palace and brought him home.
The emperor admitted that for so many years, he had always been jealous of Xie Jingchen, jealous to the point of madness.
— Even such a stray dog could stay by her side; why couldn’t he, with his noble birth? Why?
Why couldn’t Ying Xu turn back and look at him?
He had liked Ying Xu for so long — from when she was a little girl and he was also a little boy, he had liked her.
But only at this moment did he suddenly realize that he truly could not compare to Xie Jingchen.
The emperor could still remember, in that summer, the exquisitely beautiful, jade-snow cute little girl being held in the arms of his unattainable imperial father, casually being asked by his father, “Does little Ah Xu want to be empress?”
And the little girl, like a little fairy child, turned her head away without giving any face at all, and in a sweet and soft voice said disdainfully, “I don’t want to, Imperial Uncle, you’re so old, how are you embarrassed to marry me?”
The emperor, who was most averse to talk of old age, did not get angry at all, but instead laughed and said, “Our little Ah Xu fairy of course can’t be matched with an old man. Among my sons, does little Ah Xu have a brother she likes?”
The middle-aged Son of Heaven pointed to a row of boys of similar age below and said to the little girl in his arms, “In the future, whoever little Ah Xu likes, I’ll let him be emperor, and then our little fairy will be the new emperor’s empress, how about that?”
“They’re all standing so far away, I can’t see clearly.”
Then the little girl tilted her head, thought for a moment, and answered the emperor’s question seriously, “But my daddy said, my future husband absolutely must not be as fickle as the Imperial Uncle. He has to be like my daddy, only marry me alone.”
From that day on, he had always deeply remembered that sentence of the little girl from back then, and had always kept himself pure, afraid that if he had anyone else, he would no longer be worthy of Ying Xu.
He wanted to marry her.
Even though he knew in his heart that Ying Xu didn’t like him at all, he still wanted to marry her.
Ying Xu would have everything by following him. He wouldn’t go against her wishes. He would treat her well…… even if she never liked him her whole life, it wouldn’t matter.
What’s more, what if?
In his heart, he had always held onto a beautiful hope — what if Ying Xu fell in love with him during their day-to-day companionship?
But……
“This is a palace secret poison, Beauty’s Burial.” Xie Jingchen pulled the emperor back from his inner world.
The handsome young man once again took out a small packet from his chest and threw it into the emperor’s arms, saying lightly, “You should have heard of it, so I won’t waste words. Eat it yourself.”
Hearing this, the emperor’s gaze fell on the oiled paper packet in his hand, “Beauty’s Burial, most favored in the harem when framing and harming each other — whoever consumes it suffers extreme pain, dies miserably, and cannot leave behind a complete corpse. So cruel and ruthless, just like your style.”
Xie Jingchen said, “I promised Ah Xu to make you die very ugly.”
Listening to his words, which as always made the emperor feel unable to say whether he felt more envy or more jealousy, the emperor didn’t want to say more to him. The winner becomes king and the loser becomes bandit — his death was already destined.
As for whether he died ugly or beautifully, what did it matter? Anyway, Ying Xu wouldn’t give this “withered flower and fallen willow” another extra glance.
With Ying Xu’s pride, she probably felt unlucky just hearing his name now. That was the girl who dared to disdain the emperor from childhood.
The emperor flipped his hand and opened the oiled paper packet, originally wanting to take this poison cleanly and decisively at the final moment, not letting his rival look down on him.
But just as he raised the small packet and was about to drink it all, suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked at Xie Jingchen, smiled strangely, and said a sentence with unclear meaning, “Although you won, Xie Jingchen, you will never know why Father Emperor established me and exiled you.”
After finishing speaking, the emperor drank the poison in one gulp.
Until his final breath extinguished, he stared fixedly at Xie Jingchen, as if wanting him to ask what that sentence he had just said meant. However, to his disappointment, the young man only raised his lips in disdain and smiled, saying:
“What does such a matter have to do with me?”
“The only one who cares about the crown prince position is you.”
Author’s note:
Extreme last-minute posting…… forget it, not stepping on it, just rub some mysticism, then didn’t even rub it, slowly lying down (:з」∠)