A Kingdom's Ruin - Chapter 2

Mother Consort.

The same two words, spoken by the same person. Yet time and place had changed, and now they meant something entirely different.

I gathered Yueming close and covered her ears before lifting my head.

“Whatever lies between us, leave the child out of it.”

Yuwen Che gave a soft scoff. The last trace of his smile vanished.

“Is Mother Consort bargaining with me?

“Or did you think that bearing a child would wipe away every evil thing you’ve done?

“Bo Funong, this isn’t how you used to treat me.”

The past?

Ah, yes. The past. I had almost forgotten we had one.

I had never treated him particularly well. I was the demon consort who brought ruin to the realm; naturally, I had to do things worthy of the name.

I chose him from among all the princes because he looked easiest to manipulate. At first, I played the loving mother so I could slowly coax out his ambition and tempt him into patricide and rebellion.

But no matter how I taught him, the good child refused to turn bad. He remained kind, innocent, and content with his lot. His grandest ambition was to spend the rest of his life in devoted harmony with his adopted mother.

He was mud that would never hold to a wall.

The patience I had never possessed finally ran out. One day, without warning, I turned on him. Before he understood what had happened, I went from his only refuge in the inner palace to his greatest enemy.

He thought he had done something wrong and tried even harder to please me. I was busy conspiring with his eldest brother, the crown prince, to corrupt the court. I could hardly be bothered to look at him.

Then came an accident I had never anticipated, and after that I tried again and again—openly and in secret—to send him to his death.

Even then, he refused to believe I had never given him a shred of sincerity.

Not until the last time.

I still remembered the final time he called me Mother Consort, four years ago, and how pitiful he had looked.

He knelt in the dungeon with not a patch of whole skin left on his body. His beautiful face had been tortured beyond recognition. Before the old wounds could close, fresh blood was already winding down his cheeks.

Even so, when I lifted his chin with my whip, he strained toward me. Iron chains had been driven through his shoulder blades, yet with what little breath he had left, he still tried to reach my side.

“It wasn’t me… Mother Consort… I never betrayed you… I wasn’t the one who told Consort Xian… Please believe me. I’ll take care of it…”

His frantic explanation made him look like a dog terrified its master would cast it aside.

It took me some effort to understand. Consort Xian had exposed my affair with the crown prince at a palace banquet, and he thought I suspected him of informing on us.

But he was wrong.

“I know you would never betray me.”

Hope flooded his eyes. I frowned faintly. The reek of blood in the dungeon churned my stomach, and a dull pain stirred low in my belly, as though the child inside me were pleading for me to stop.

I dug my nails into my palms so I would not vomit in front of him.

With every sentence I spoke, the blue in his pupils deepened. Such pure blue. Clear and beautiful.

“Yuwen Che, you did nothing wrong.

“But I’m pregnant. I have to plan for my own child.

“I simply need you to die.”