Chapter 78: The Sickly Prime Minister Poisoned to Death by Her Beloved Part 2

—There was still the wedding night ahead.

On the wedding night, they drank the nuptial cup, symbolizing shared bitterness and joy. The Prime Minister took it upon herself to drink the bitter half. Before the Female Emperor could react, she finished and leaned in to kiss her.

“I do not wish for Your Highness to suffer. All the bitterness of this world, I will bear for you.”

The Female Emperor stared in a daze for a long time before kissing her, almost like a sigh.

“Fool.”

Pity was one thing, but punishment was another. The Female Emperor’s voice turned cold. “Hm? You thought I meant to kill you?”

“You had to hold back half your words?”

“Dare to do it again?”

The Prime Minister bit the silver chain, tears streaming down her face as she struggled to embrace her. “N-no… I won’t…”

How could someone as clever as the Prime Minister not understand now? Her Highness might have lived two lifetimes too.

Past life and this one: she had imprisoned Her Highness for seven full years, and later, Her Highness had avenged her with seven days.

Amid the warm spring curtains, the Female Emperor kissed her trembling eyelids. “Jinse, in this life and beyond, I will treat you well.”

The Prime Minister reached up to hug her neck tightly, her voice hoarse from indulgence. “Your Highness, I want lifetime after lifetime.”

In earnest.

The Female Emperor laughed softly, coaxing her. “I permit it.”

The Prime Minister nuzzled her. “A sovereign does not go back on their word. Your Highness, remember your promise.”

Only after she had fallen asleep from exhaustion did the Female Emperor comb through her sweat-dampened hair, sighing. “I’ve always remembered.”

Her Majesty’s new Empress Consort was also sickly, the kind who vanished for three seasons a year. Rumors swirled in the Imperial City that Her Majesty had her under house arrest—but it didn’t quite fit, as she seemed favored on the surface.

Thus, new gossip: Her Majesty was dissatisfied with the Empress Consort but forced to keep up appearances due to the Prime Minister’s power.

Sometimes, the Female Emperor acted like a muddled ruler. When there was business, she handled the Prime Minister’s affairs; when idle, she bullied the Prime Minister, all while solemnly quizzing her on state matters.

Later, the Prime Minister asked why Her Highness hadn’t simply taken her into the palace directly, instead juggling two identities back and forth.

The Female Emperor was planning the year’s hunt when she paused before replying. “With your talents, you shouldn’t be wasted in the rear palace. Better for you to realize your ambitions on the court than to grind away in seclusion.”

After all, the rear palace must not interfere in politics since ancient times.

The Female Emperor set down her brush. “I do not wish to take away your freedom.”

The Prime Minister was silent for a long while before thanking her, tears flowing silently.

Her Highness wouldn’t deprive her of freedom and considered her feelings—yet she had once harbored such malicious intent to steal Her Highness’s.

The Female Emperor kissed away the salty tears at her eye corner. “Don’t cry, or you’ll smudge the deer I drew.”

The Prime Minister: “…”

Below her fair neck, she wore only a loosely draped inner robe, half-open at the collar. The Female Emperor held a brush, sketching a deer on her body while pondering where the game would be plumpest this year.

“Jinse, though I have taken this realm, the tiger tally remains in your hands. Should you ever feel I have wronged you, raise troops and seize my throne.”

The Prime Minister shook her head and took the initiative to loosen her clothes a bit: “Your Highness has never wronged me.”

The Female Emperor: Her scheme had succeeded.

Once the Prime Minister dressed properly and went to meet the court officials, the System was finally released. As soon as it came out, it first praised its host.

“Host! Host, you’re so strong. After giving away the Tiger Tally, the blackening value immediately dropped to just five percent!”

What else could she do? With such a sense of security, with power that could allow her to overthrow the dynasty and lock her up again at any time, it would be strange if Xiao Jinse wasn’t moved.

The last five percent was hard to eliminate, and the System felt a bit worried.

Why did they always encounter hardships?

In the winter of the second year, during a hunt, the Female Emperor rode her horse and encountered assassins, causing her to injure her head. The Prime Minister’s eyes were red from staying up day and night without sleep, personally climbing the mountains to beg the divine doctor to come and treat her.

When the Female Emperor woke up, she held the Prime Minister’s hand for a long time before opening her mouth. The Prime Minister leaned in close to her ear and heard the girl she loved say: “Jinse, I remember now…”

She remembered how Jinse used to tidy her skirt when they were young, copy homework for her, and how she always ate her candy and even ruined her teeth.

The Prime Minister felt as if struck by lightning, trembling as she called out “Your Highness, Your Highness,” unsure if she was calling the person before her or the vivid, radiant little princess in her memories.

It took several investigations later to figure it out. When the Female Emperor was young, she had called the Pingyang Prince Heir a dog. Later, his father, the Pingyang Prince, protected his son and punished him for half a month on the grounds of bullying the Xiao Family’s children. He held a grudge in his heart and plotted against the little princess, causing her to fall from a tree and injure her head.

By a twist of fate, she forgot Xiao Jinse.

This wasn’t the Female Emperor abandoning her after starting something; it was an accident.

The Prime Minister later felt endless self-blame and regret, her heartache immeasurable.

It was just a misunderstanding, yet she had tormented Her Highness for two lifetimes.

Fortunately, Her Highness didn’t hold it against her.

System: “…Host, be honest, did you do it on purpose?”

How could it be such a coincidence?

The Female Emperor, with gauze wrapped around her head and drinking medicine, nodded indifferently upon hearing this.

It was all calculated. Saving her as a child was calculated, and deliberately forgetting her later to drive Xiao Jinse mad was also calculated. But back then, she was just role-playing as a scumbag. Wasn’t the basic etiquette of a scumbag to save her first, then forget her and abuse her, forcing her to sublimate her personality, blacken her mind, and become the ultimate great villain?

System: “…You deserved those years you were locked up. Totally deserved.”

Not wronged at all. Xiao Jinse was just foolish to believe this big liar.

The Female Emperor smiled faintly and shut down the System.

Xiao Jinse came in carrying a bowl of tonic soup and tentatively touched her forehead: “Your Highness, does it still hurt?”

—

The Prime Minister always had two faces. One moment, she could kill without mercy, watching someone torn apart by carriages without blinking. But the next moment, when Shi Qingyi arrived, she would nestle into her arms and say, “Your Highness, I’m so scared.”

Shi Qingyi: “…”

What could she do? She could only pamper her.

She stroked her back, cooed softly not to be afraid because she was there, and at night, she held her, letting her cling like an octopus, entangled contentedly all night.

Xiao Jinse’s talents were indeed rare in the world. She opened canals, enacted new laws, and worked with the Female Emperor without suspicion or distrust, heart and soul united. In the three years of the Female Emperor’s reign, the people lived in peace and abundance, with favorable weather and good harvests. The common folk settled happily, with no one picking up lost items on the roads and no need to lock doors at night, ushering in a prosperous era.

The Prime Minister passed away in the seventh year of the Female Emperor’s ascension, before the ten-year mark. As she left, she regretfully held the Female Emperor’s hand and apologized: “Your Highness, this minister has broken her word…”

She ultimately couldn’t accompany you until white hair. The Female Emperor kissed her fingertips.

“Jinse, don’t be afraid. I’ll come join you soon…”

The girl who once obsessively wanted to perish together with her shook her head with effort at the end of her life.

“I don’t want Your Highness to accompany me… I, I want you to live well…”

At the end of her life, she finally broke free from the shackles in her heart, the unwillingness of two lifetimes.

She departed in the Female Emperor’s arms. The Female Emperor’s tears fell one by one, her voice hoarse as she said: “Silly Jinse, the eternal lifetimes I promised you, you must remember…”

You must remember, never forget.

Xiao Jinse no longer had the strength to speak, only gripping her hand, agreeing: “I remember…”

At the very end, she kept burrowing into the Female Emperor’s embrace, as if wanting to merge into her bones and blood: “Your Highness, cold, so cold…”

“Jinse, I’m here, I’m here, don’t be afraid…”

No matter how the Female Emperor warmed her, she gradually lost her breath, and the hand gripping hers slowly grew ice-cold.

Later, she was buried with the honors of an Empress Consort, and her tomb was personally built by the Female Emperor. In the first New Year after she left, the Female Emperor finally arranged everything that needed to be settled and entered the Imperial Mausoleum with a Rivers and Mountains Map.

The man guarding the tomb, now middle-aged, looked at her with a voice hoarse for no reason: “Aunt…”

Decades of gratitude and resentment had passed; one farewell was a lifetime.

The Female Emperor arrived through wind and snow, standing in the biting cold wind as she asked him: “Do you remember what you said back then?”

Back then, the youth stood in the storm, boldly declaring he would bring peace and prosperity to the world, a golden age of harmony.

The now middle-aged man suddenly burst into tears.

He remembered, but he might never have the chance in his lifetime.

The Female Emperor did not leave the Imperial Mausoleum. What emerged was a middle-aged couple, the man holding a timid little girl, with a legacy decree in hand.

In the end, before her death, she returned the rivers and mountains to Shi Ji, fulfilling her imperial brother’s dying entrustment.

Amid the endless wind and snow, the Female Emperor opened the sealed Imperial Mausoleum, lifted the coffin lid, and lay down beside her.

“Silly Jinse, I’ve come to keep you company.”

How cold it must be underground. Jinse had a weak body and feared the cold the most. If she didn’t go accompany her, she would be unhappy again.