Chapter 62: The Sickly Prime Minister, Poisoned to Death by Her Beloved Part 1

The System wished it could rush over, drag Shi Qingyi back, and force her to kneel and apologize. “Chancellor Xiao has woken up!”

Shi Qingyi ignored its roars and merely looked at the young Emperor before her, dressed in profound black robes embroidered with dragon patterns. She hooked the corner of her mouth. “The barbarians have only behaved for two years and are already stirring again. They came specifically to pay tribute this year, probably just to see how much longer Xiao Jinse can hold on. Although the court has been trying to cultivate martial generals lately, there are still few who can stand on their own, let alone grasp the overall situation. Has Your Majesty truly made up your mind?”

An attendant held a small vial of poison quietly to one side, not daring to make a sound, though his arm trembled faintly as he gripped the porcelain bottle.

“But, Aunt,” the Little Emperor said with a bitter smile, his gaze burning bright in the rainy night, “in the current situation, if I don’t kill her, she’ll eventually commit regicide and betray her lord. The rivers and mountains that our ancestors fought so hard for—must they be lost in our hands? Besides, Great End is full of talent; where can’t we find a general? Without Xiao Jinse, there will naturally be another.”

Yet over these years of turmoil in Great End, only Xiao Jinse had truly emerged.

The wind whistled mournfully, and heaven and earth fell silent for a moment. Only the heavy rain pattering against the oil-paper umbrella’s edge sounded like a string of beads scattering on the ground.

Disregarding the wind and rain, the Little Emperor stepped forward two paces as if to kneel. “Nephew knows he has wronged Aunt, but I beg Aunt, for the sake of Great End’s century-old foundation, to help me eliminate the treacherous evildoers and restore peace to the realm!”

When the crafty rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked—this was the emperor’s art.

The Eldest Princess’s face had shown no emotion throughout, but upon hearing this, she abruptly hooked the corner of her mouth. Her stunning brows and eyes, dampened by the rain, took on a chill like frost and snow. She spoke coldly.

“I hope Your Majesty remembers what you said today.”

The Eldest Princess decisively took the porcelain bottle and turned to leave. She walked extremely quickly, and the guard holding the umbrella failed to react in time, letting the rain soak her. The downpour was immense; in mere moments, it drenched the woman’s clothes.

The Eldest Princess, cloaked in dark blue, vanished into the endless curtain of rain. For some reason, the Emperor’s expression darkened slightly. Behind him, a female official in a pale cyan official robe quietly took the umbrella, her voice hesitating for an instant. “Has the Eldest Princess gone soft-hearted?”

As if his secret had been exposed, the Little Emperor’s face grew overcast. The hand he held behind his back clenched into a fist. It didn’t sound like he was answering the person behind him but rather comforting himself.

“She shouldn’t…”

After all, the Eldest Princess was willful and unrestrained by nature, and she hated Xiao Jinse most of all for trapping her in a corner.

—

Even in the secret passage, the System was still hopping mad, its noise giving Shi Qingyi a headache. She couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh. “What’s there to panic about? Do you think she was really asleep from the start?”

The System froze in horror. “Chancellor Xiao wasn’t asleep at first?”

Normally, during intimate moments, the host would forcibly shut it down, leaving it raging impotently in a little black room.

Shi Qingyi ignored it. With a click, the door to the secret passage opened. She returned, pulled off the hood of her cloak, and a layer of accumulated water slid down the fabric and fell away. She tossed the cloak aside before lifting the curtain by the bed.

The person inside slept peacefully, her pale face with closed eyes, long and curled lashes drooping down. Her head of long hair, faintly brownish, scattered behind her. She seemed to be sleeping soundly, showing no sign of having woken.

Shi Qingyi went over and pinched the nose of the person pretending to sleep. Xiao Jinse’s nose tip was delicate; soon her face flushed slightly. Finally, she couldn’t hold out and opened her eyes, her voice slightly hoarse with a touch of helplessness. “Your Highness, don’t tease your subject like this.”

Her hand gently grasped Shi Qingyi’s, as if she knew nothing of what had just happened.

“Who told you to wake up and pretend to sleep?” The Eldest Princess huffed, withdrawing her mischievous hand. She narrowed her eyes slightly. “Why don’t you ask where I just went?”

Xiao Jinse’s expression froze for a moment. The flickering candlelight reflected obscure shadows in her eyes, but in the end, she merely leaned over and brushed against Shi Qingyi’s sleeve. “If Your Highness wants to tell me, you naturally will.”

If you don’t want to say, asking would only lead to pointless arguments and make you unhappy.

She paused, then made space in the warm spot where she had been sleeping, touching the wet folds at the hem of Shi Qingyi’s sleeve. “Your Highness’s sleeve is wet. Go change into something dry and come sleep.”

Shi Qingyi pried her hand off her sleeve, her tone carrying a hint of cool detachment. “The Prime Minister is quite magnanimous.”

At the end, right in front of her, she took off her outer garments. Inside, she wore only a sleeping robe. Without the cloak and outer robe, the graceful curves beneath were clearly visible. Xiao Jinse glanced once, and her hand involuntarily clenched quietly.

The Eldest Princess shed her clothes and slipped under the covers, staring at the ashen-faced person beside her. Her voice inexplicably turned mocking. “This Princess never knew when the Prime Minister became so magnanimous?”

In the past, if she dared sneak out to meet the Little Emperor, she would have been beaten and locked up for a year or so upon return. Now, she was incredibly gentle and considerate.

Xiao Jinse endured and endured, but finally couldn’t hold back. She reached over and hugged Shi Qingyi tightly, her arms constricting as if to merge her entirely into her own flesh and blood. Shi Qingyi waited for her to say something, but after a long wait, she heard a strangely restrained voice from behind.

“Your Highness… next time you go out…”

Shi Qingyi had already braced for her gritted-teeth threat, but the person deflated like a punctured ball, her momentum wilting. “The weather’s been cold lately. Your Highness, remember to wear an extra layer when you go out next time.”

She sounded so pitiful, utterly unlike the ruthless and tyrannical woman from her previous life. Shi Qingyi’s fingertips twitched inexplicably, and she actually felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart—she really didn’t like seeing Xiao Jinse so cowering.

A genius like her, one in a century, with the world in her palm—why must she lower her brows and yield like this?

Xiao Jinse held her through the night without sleeping, her arm around her beloved’s waist. This was a rare time when the usually spoiled and willful Eldest Princess was gentle and didn’t resist her touch—no fussing, no struggling or smashing things at a mere touch. She was right there beside her, her body heat warming her.

Even if it was all fake, so what?

In the darkness, the Chancellor Xiao, who now held power over the realm, pitifully tugged at the corner of her mouth and pressed even closer to the person beside her by an inch, inhaling the damp, post-rain fragrance on her body. She reached out and pulled the brocade quilt up over the woman’s shoulders.

Everything had finally begun.

Following the trajectory of her previous life, as expected, Her Highness only gave her these sweet temptations right before deciding to kill her.

Her Highness hated her so much, loathed her, wished her dead. Even if in this life she didn’t force her, didn’t coerce her, she still hated her this much.

Hated her enough to humble herself, endure humiliation, and bide her time just to kill her.

She knew clearly that there was a porcelain bottle hidden in Shi Qingyi’s embrace right now, containing the colorless, odorless chronic poison Spring Chill. At first, it mimicked a common cold, undetectable, but prolonged ingestion was incurable by any medicine.

She knew it all too clearly because in her previous life, she had died from this Spring Chill.

“Your Highness…”

Outside the window, the rain drummed on the eaves and banana leaves. In the blur, only the woman’s low sigh could be heard, laced with regret and helplessness.

“You just rely on the fact that I like you…”

So you won’t even bother deceiving me. You openly tell me you’re off to secretly meet the Emperor because you know I can’t do anything to you.

What can I do to you? After how you treated me in the previous life, just watching you die before me was unbearable. I can’t even hate you properly. How pathetic.