Chapter 78: Welcoming Guests

“The Chancellor is busy with a thousand affairs every day. She’ll only get busier in the future, so how could I dare to dream of such a thing? Never mind, never mind…” After Nian Zhi’an finished laughing, she put on a stern face again, pretending to be upset, as if the words “taking advantage and then acting coy” were carved right onto her forehead.

“Not busy at all. We can do it anytime.” The Chancellor was now willing to lie through her teeth just to get Her Highness away from this den of vice and flowers.

“How could I? In the future… once the Chancellor achieves great things and becomes the ruler of the nation, how could I dare to have Your Majesty entertaining me? If your ministers found out, they’d curse me behind my back. I might even go down in history as an infamous femme fatale for all eternity. Tsk tsk tsk, not worth it.” Nian Zhi’an shook her head, feigning “fear.”

“Whoever dares wag their tongue, I’ll skin them alive.” The Chancellor said the most terrifying words in the gentlest voice.

“…No, no, no! If you really do that, I’ll truly become a demoness who brings ruin to the kingdom in the history books!” Nian Zhi’an could already imagine her historical status rivaling or even surpassing Daji and Bao Si, with her face popping up constantly in students’ reading comprehension exercises and history textbooks. That would be… downright chilling!

The Chancellor reached out tentatively and patted Nian Zhi’an’s head. Her Highness didn’t pull away or dodge, so she quietly breathed a sigh of relief. It meant that Her Highness wasn’t so angry anymore at this point, and she would be easier to coax.

“Let them talk. Even if I become emperor in the future, you’ll still be my wife. Future generations will only speak of our loving bond.”

Nian Zhi’an thought about it and nodded. “True enough.”

As long as they showed off their affection well enough, people thousands of years from now would still be choking down their PDA, leaving the historians to study this era’s history while going “woof woof woof”!

Nian Zhi’an thought it sounded pretty good. She pressed down on the hand messing up her hair, glanced at Meng Congyun, and said, “What’s that hand doing? I haven’t cooled off yet! No touching!”

Though her mouth said no touching, Nian Zhi’an didn’t move her head away.

“It’s my fault. What would it take for Your Highness to forgive me?” Meng Congyun apologized even as she kept her hand right where it was.

“Of course it depends on your performance! You’ll have to do better than that girl just now, at least.” Don’t let Nian Zhi’an’s calm exterior fool you—deep down, she was already chattering excitedly at the System. She wanted to see her wife doing a pole dance! Ahem… on second thought, that might be a bit much.

“I’ll definitely satisfy Your Highness.” Meng Congyun saw that the moment was ripe and struck while the iron was hot. “Shall we head home now? The powder and perfume here are quite overpowering.”

Even now, she couldn’t resist taking a dig at the place, which showed the Chancellor was still holding a grudge. If the madam didn’t keep her tail between her legs and happened to cross her path during this time, she was in for a rough ride.

Nian Zhi’an sniffed the air. The scent of powder and perfume wasn’t actually that strong, but her wife’s sense of smell was particularly keen, and staying here really was hard on her.

However, just as she was about to leave, Nian Zhi’an remembered the fat pig she’d beaten down to its last breath and the negotiator sent by who-knows-what faction.

So she had Meng Congyun get on the carriage first, then she went to the woodshed. Worried that leaving them in that room might scare the others, she’d specially moved them to a more convenient hiding spot. With Yu Ji’s memories, she naturally knew the best places around here to stash people.

Outside stood a neat row of uniformed officers, along with some disheveled officials who hadn’t even had time to fix their clothes. When the Chancellor emerged, they all began wailing and begging for mercy. These high-and-mighty officials had not a shred of dignity left.

Meng Congyun didn’t even listen before ordering them dragged off to the Ministry of Punishments’ prison. One could only say these fools hadn’t checked their almanac before heading out—they had no idea bloodshed awaited them that day.

“Bang!”

After Nian Zhi’an hauled out two blood-dripping sacks, someone immediately came forward to take them. She handed the two sacks of people over to the Prime Minister’s Residence staff and boarded the carriage. Meng Congyun saw the blood on her hands and hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe them clean.

“What was that just now?” Meng Congyun frowned at her own Highness’s bloodied hands. That was definitely human blood.

“Of course it was me handling some trash for you. That idiot disgusted me to no end.” Nian Zhi’an suddenly remembered something else, and her beautiful peach-blossom eyes widened. “And I haven’t even said it yet! Me, such an upright person, and you suspected me of cheating on you?!”

“No, how could I suspect Your Highness? I just got a report recently that right after the national mourning period, a bunch of officials were carousing in the brothels, showing no regard for Liang Kingdom’s internal strife and external threats. So I came to round up a batch and clean house.” Innocence shone clearly in Meng Congyun’s expression.

“Hmph.” Nian Zhi’an wasn’t buying it. Her wife was one massive jar of vinegar—if you knocked a hole in it, the capital would be flooded!

“Today, that girl Zhao Yanqi dragged me around shopping. When we got here, I saw a man who looked just like Old Master Meng going into the brothel. It felt off, so I followed him in.”

“And then you bagged a fat pig—er, no, one of your uncles or something? He and that little uncle of yours who got killed over a grudge look like brothers.” Nian Zhi’an had been meaning to ask about this. “Weren’t all Old Master Meng’s blood kin dead? Where’d this one crawl out from?”

“Tell me the truth. No lies.”

Mention of Old Master Meng gradually wiped the smile from Meng Congyun’s face, replaced by a complex, indescribable expression. “No, back then only one son and one daughter died. He still has three sons alive.”

Old Master Meng had four sons and one daughter in total, every last one a disappointment. During the chaos in Zhao Kingdom, his three sons had surrendered straight to Liang Taizu. When Old Master Meng found out, he poisoned all three traitorous sons with bowls of poison. Outsiders didn’t know, but Zhao Kingdom’s old loyalists were well aware. And because he’d traded his own granddaughter for the princess’s safe return, they all followed his lead.

The three “survivors” Meng Congyun mentioned were probably those very ones who’d been poisoned.

“…The three he poisoned?”

“Yes.” Meng Congyun nodded. “He told me that back then, his wife threatened to die if he did it, so he couldn’t bring himself to. He had them rescued, gave them a brutal beating, then shipped them back to their ancestral home and severed ties as father and sons. To the outside world, he claimed they were dead, and after that, he acted as if those three sons never existed.”

Nian Zhi’an’s face instantly darkened. “And you believed him?”

Meng Congyun lowered her gaze, her expression unreadable with sorrow or not. “He offered his own life to atone for the deception, so I can’t touch his descendants.”

Doubts riddled this whole affair, and Meng Congyun wasn’t blind to them. But some matters required her to honor past favors, even if she knew the truth.

Thinking of that fat, piggish Meng clansman made Nian Zhi’an’s blood boil. Her wife was so shrewd—how could she not see what they were scheming? Yet she still had to stomach the disgust and tolerate them. Old Master Meng had played his cards well. He was on his last legs anyway; once he kicked the bucket, his descendants would enjoy endless wealth and glory, tolerated even by the future emperor.

Nian Zhi’an even wondered if that fat pig had been telling the truth. Had Old Master Meng really saved the infant princess just to maneuver her into bearing his Meng family’s child?

She’d always thought Old Master Meng was a bit shadowy but genuinely loyal to Zhao Kingdom, which was why she’d felt safe leaving him at Meng Congyun’s side! The System’s intel wasn’t always complete, but such a massive oversight was rare.

Could s-232 have scrubbed part of the intel? Sure, it wanted the antagonist dead most of all, but why hide this from her?

Nian Zhi’an felt a wave of nausea. She hugged Meng Congyun to comfort her, then curved her lips into that smile that had once terrified the System for ages. “Find a reason to summon them all to the capital.”

“I want to have a personal chat with them.”

If they dared to scheme after someone’s wife, they’d better be ready for payback.

Meng Congyun could only agree. She’d never wanted to shield that Meng rabble anyway. Even if she had a shred of mercy left, Her Highness had finally cooled off and was willing to get close again—she couldn’t very well oppose her now. So the Mengs were on their own.

Summoning the Mengs to the capital would’ve been child’s play for Meng Congyun, but with war raging outside, those cowardly lot bolted right back home at the first sign of trouble. They even requisitioned an entire army unit to escort them back to the capital.

With the war effort at a critical juncture, agreeing to that would tank her prestige in the army. So Nian Zhi’an came up with a nasty little ploy: have that army unit pull a “vanishing act.”

The Meng Family members were jolted awake in the dead of night by the clamor of battle cries. When they crawled out of their tents, they discovered that all their protectors had vanished. In the distance stood the army of one of the Vassal Kings. They wanted to flee, but most of them were so terrified that their legs turned to jelly and they couldn’t run at all. A couple managed to dash a short distance before random arrows struck them down, and the enemy dragged them back.

In this way, the Meng Family members were taken as prisoners of war and escorted to the Capital City.

Once they had become prisoners, the journey was naturally anything but easy or pleasant. The pampered young masters and ladies had never endured such suffering before. At first they couldn’t stomach the food or tolerate the sleeping conditions, but after the escorting soldiers laid a few lashes on them, they grew accustomed to it all.

However, merely adapting to such a harsh life wasn’t enough, for the Vassal Kings fought viciously among themselves. The carriages transporting the prisoners thus couldn’t escape the turmoil either. In the end, most of the Meng Family members arrived in the Capital City alive, but the ordeal had battered them almost beyond human shape.

When they caught sight of the Capital City’s gates, their eyes lit up, and they yearned to scramble inside on hands and knees. They believed that finding Meng Congyun would save them, utterly unaware that the Prime Minister’s Residence already had a pile of “gifts” prepared, just waiting for them to walk right into the trap.

Zhi’an had specially retrieved the set of torture instruments that Meng Congyun had treasured back during her time at the Ministry of Punishments. She polished them anew to receive the arriving guests.