Lips and tongue invaded her mouth. Jiang Chenbi struggled to turn her head away, but Cui Wangshu forced it back and sealed her lips again. The woman’s lingering kiss came with familiar gasps, just like every night they had spent entwined five years ago.
A chill spread beneath her. Jiang Chenbi wanted to dodge, but the drug’s effects surged, and her body refused to obey. Despair welled up in her heart, tears spilling from her eyes. She didn’t want this…
Cui Wangshu’s kisses trailed downward. Suddenly, she felt the body beneath her stiffen. She looked up, her pupils contracting sharply. She hurriedly pinched Jiang Chenbi’s cheeks, forcing her to unclench her teeth.
Blood overflowed from her mouth. Cui Wangshu stared at the blood on Jiang Chenbi’s lips, her heart stopping in that instant. She never imagined Jiang Chenbi would resist her so fiercely that she would try to bite her own tongue.
Jiang Chenbi’s cheeks were pinched hard by her. Seeing that she had finally stopped, she released her teeth, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and glared viciously at Cui Wangshu. “Get away from me…” Jiang Chenbi said with loathing.
Cui Wangshu gritted her teeth and stared coldly at Jiang Chenbi, her breathing ragged. After a long moment, she rose from her body, stood up, and left the room, slamming the door behind her with a resounding bang.
Jiang Chenbi gazed at the tightly shut door and let out a breath of relief. She endured the scorching heat coursing through her body; even her face flushed with an unnatural redness.
She hadn’t relaxed for long when Cui Wangshu returned. Jiang Chenbi clung to her fading consciousness, watching her warily and instinctively shrinking back.
Cui Wangshu’s face was cold, her own cheeks tinged with unnatural flush. She held a vial of medicine, approached, and forced it into Jiang Chenbi’s mouth. Then she pried open her mouth to check her tongue.
There was a faint wound on the tip, still oozing blood.
Cui Wangshu sneered. “Trying to fool me?”
Jiang Chenbi closed her eyes and turned her head away, ignoring her. Cui Wangshu stared, seeing her unyielding resolve even in death. She ground her molars and compromised. “…I haven’t touched anyone else.”
Jiang Chenbi’s closed lashes trembled slightly, but she didn’t turn her head.
Cui Wangshu’s gaze darkened. She unlocked the shackles on her wrists, picked her up, and carried her to the bathing pool. Jiang Chenbi steadied her breathing, allowing herself to be held and washed without opening her eyes or speaking.
After cleaning her and dressing her, Cui Wangshu refastened the shackles. She sat by the bed, watching her for a long time before finally leaving the room.
Only after she left did Jiang Chenbi open her eyes. She bit her lip, and tears welled up unbidden.
It was too humiliating… She couldn’t bear it.
Cui Wangshu didn’t appear again until evening. Midway, a palace maid came in to give her water. During mealtime, food was brought directly to the bedside and fed to her.
Jiang Chenbi swallowed a mouthful of chicken congee blankly, her lashes fluttering. It was exactly the same as the one from five years ago.
She turned her head away, refusing another bite.
The palace maid watched her nervously and pleaded, “Your Ladyship, please have just one more bite.”
Jiang Chenbi suddenly fixed her with a stare, her tone icy. “Don’t call me that. I have nothing to do with her.”
The palace maid flinched at her tone. She carefully studied the face identical to the divine statue, hesitating but ultimately saying nothing.
“Where is she?” Jiang Chenbi asked coldly.
The palace maid lowered her eyes. “Tonight is the Thousand Autumn Festival’s lantern festival. Her Majesty should have gone there.”
Jiang Chenbi let out a silent, cold laugh. Unable to hold back, she asked, “Has the Empress come to Luozhou as well?”
The palace maid looked at her strangely but said nothing. Jiang Chenbi glanced at her and averted her eyes. “If you won’t say, forget it.”
The palace maid pursed her lips, hesitating. “Aren’t… aren’t you the Empress?”
Could Her Majesty, in her longing, have found a substitute who looks similar? But this woman before her was even more beautiful than the divine statue—ethereal yet seductive. How could she be a substitute?
Jiang Chenbi froze at those words. Her heart pounded wildly, her ears ringing, the world spinning. Even the palace maid’s face blurred before her eyes.
The bedchamber fell into a long silence. Finally, Jiang Chenbi rasped, “Have you never seen the Empress?”
The palace maid pursed her lips, avoiding those two words. Just then, a voice called from outside, “Your Majesty!”
The palace maid hurriedly stepped back and knelt. “Your Majesty!”
Jiang Chenbi’s sluggish gaze slowly settled on Cui Wangshu. She wore a black-and-gold dragon robe, a sight Jiang Chenbi had never seen.
Those dark, inked brows and eyes were like sharpened swords, piercing straight toward her.
Jiang Chenbi’s heart trembled, and she flusteredly lowered her lashes.
“What did she just ask you?” Cui Wangshu stared at the kneeling palace maid, her voice cool.
The palace maid prostrated herself fully, her voice trembling. “She asked if… if I had seen the Empress.”
Cui Wangshu’s gaze darkened. It slid to Jiang Chenbi’s pale face. In a low voice, she said, “Everyone out.”
“Yes.”
Cui Wangshu approached Jiang Chenbi step by step, looking down at her. Her voice was hoarse. “Surprised?”
Jiang Chenbi bit her lip, her voice equally hoarse. “How did you do it?”
Cui Wangshu’s tone was calm, emotionless. “A ghost marriage.”
Jiang Chenbi’s throat bobbed. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, murmuring blankly, “You’re insane…”
Cui Wangshu chuckled lowly, though no smile touched her face. She crouched down, gazing at her with a cold edge. “Don’t you get it? I’ll never let you go in this lifetime—or even if you become a ghost…”
The ghost marriage had been sanctified before heaven and earth. If souls truly existed, Jiang Chenbi was her wife, acknowledged by heaven and earth.
They would be entangled for lifetimes, and no one could separate them.
Jiang Chenbi stared at her dazedly, her voice faint. “You’re mad, Cui Wangshu.”
Cui Wangshu’s pitch-black eyes fixed on her unblinkingly. “Yes, I went mad five years ago. So you can’t leave me again, got it?”
Hearing such words delivered so calmly filled Jiang Chenbi with bitterness. She hadn’t realized Cui Wangshu could go this far.
Cui Wangshu stood, glanced at the barely touched chicken congee on the table, picked up the bowl, and sat by the bed. She scooped a spoonful and held it to Jiang Chenbi’s lips. “If you don’t want me to force it down, eat it yourself.”
Jiang Chenbi paused, then turned her head woodenly. Mechanically, she opened her mouth and swallowed spoonful after spoonful.
After half a bowl, she turned away and stopped. Cui Wangshu took a cloth, carefully wiping the corner of her lips. Her fingertip brushed the woman’s soft lips, eliciting a shiver. Both froze.
Cui Wangshu’s fingertips curled slightly, her breath hitching. After a pause, she casually withdrew her hand. “From now on, someone will tend to your daily needs. Tell the palace maids if you need anything. I advise you not to entertain any thoughts of escape.”
She paused, then added, lowering her eyes, “If you want to go out, tell me. I’ll accompany you.”
These words meant she intended to keep her caged.
Jiang Chenbi bit her lip, her voice strained. “Cui Wangshu, can’t we each take a step back?”
Cui Wangshu turned slowly toward the door, her tone icy. “Do you have the right to negotiate with me?”
Jiang Chenbi closed her eyes and said no more.
She listened to the sound of the door closing as she left.
Cui Wangshu had become far worse than before—unfathomably stranger. Jiang Chenbi didn’t know what had happened in these five years; they couldn’t even talk properly.
The shocks from the divine temple and ghost marriage were immense, and Cui Wangshu was utterly unmoved. Jiang Chenbi took a deep breath, feeling utterly exhausted in body and soul.
How had things come to this?
Fate’s cruel twists and mishaps.
For the next few days, Cui Wangshu didn’t come to see her, occupied with who knew what. It wasn’t until the day they returned to the capital that Jiang Chenbi saw her again.
From afar, she looked like a sharpened sword—suppressed and dangerous.
She was too thin; the skin of her jaw clung tightly to bone. Tall and poised, she stood there, noble and aloof.
Jiang Chenbi wore the Empress’s attire. She lowered her eyes and silently boarded the carriage without a word.
Cui Wangshu followed, bending to enter and sitting opposite her. She closed her eyes, feigning sleep. Jiang Chenbi lifted her gaze to the faint shadows under her eyes and sighed inwardly.
The journey passed in silence. Finally, Jiang Chenbi gritted her teeth and hesitated. “I want to visit the Yellow Path Palace. Is that alright?”
Cui Wangshu opened her eyes and looked at her. “Alright.”
She then ordered the carriage to the Yellow Path Palace branch in Yunyu Fang.
At the Yellow Path Palace branch, Cui Wangshu helped her down from the carriage. To outsiders, their appearances and temperaments matched perfectly, their actions intimate—like a devoted couple.
Jiang Chenbi looked at the furnishings unchanged from five years ago and softly asked, “Where’s Ying Lan?”
She also wanted to ask about Qian Yuan but wasn’t sure if Cui Wangshu knew his identity.
Back then… she had Liu Yao take Ying Lan away first, so she didn’t know how they were now. She’d thought of returning to check on them these years but feared Cui Wangshu’s discovery and hadn’t dared show herself.
“She’s in the capital. When we return, she can come serve you again,” Cui Wangshu said, watching her.
Jiang Chenbi nodded and silently ascended to the upper floor where she once handled affairs. Through the railing, she saw the blue sky outside, a sense of things changed washing over her.
Back then… she and Cui Wangshu had confessed their feelings at this railing. Now… they couldn’t even maintain polite distance. They were strangers.
Five years apart left so much unsaid between them.
Jiang Chenbi approached the railing, gazing at Luozhou’s scenery below. Her hand tightened on the rail. Luozhou had prospered even more, grown even more beautiful.
Cui Wangshu had fulfilled her old promise—to serve the people, to serve Great Zhao.
Jiang Chenbi’s lips curved faintly. She turned, meeting Cui Wangshu’s intent gaze. Her heart skipped a beat.
Cui Wangshu stood a few steps away, her eyes never leaving her, emotions deep and inscrutable. As she turned, she stepped closer.
Jiang Chenbi met her gaze, inhaling the woman’s cool fragrance, her heart in her throat.
Cui Wangshu’s gaze deepened, falling to her lips, her breathing laced with evident longing. Her lashes fluttered; she averted her eyes to the scenery behind Jiang Chenbi and said flatly, “If you ever want to return in the future, you can come back anytime.”
Jiang Chenbi looked at Cui Wangshu, bitterness surging in her chest. She bit her lip, stepped forward, grabbed her collar to pull her down, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips to hers.
Cui Wangshu froze, feeling the warmth on her lips, surprise in her eyes. Her body went rigid in place.
