After the Retired Emperor Abdicated - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The reason I became this Imperial Noble Consort three years ago was because I was afraid that once Xuan Yun’s harem filled up with concubines, not only would she be wasting those girls’ youth, but the secret that she was actually a woman would come out sooner or later.

So she urgently needed someone who knew everything to seize a place in the harem at top speed, fill the vacancy, and leave no room for anyone else to meddle. With that setup, who else could it be but me?

As a brick in the foundation of our friendship, of course I would go wherever I was needed. Thus, with ironclad resolve, I threw myself into the position of jealous Imperial Noble Consort, and there I stayed for three full years.

With my family background, I could have just barely qualified to be empress. Unfortunately, some foul-mouthed censor just had to submit a memorial, saying that although I was technically the daughter of an official family, I had once fallen into servitude, and was therefore lowly by nature.

Besides, before I was recognized and brought back into the Jiang Family, I had been His Majesty’s personal maidservant. A lone man and woman together day and night, inseparable-who knew if I had lost my purity long ago? Otherwise, how could I be so bewitching as to seduce His Majesty into leaving the six palaces empty for my sake?

Who would have thought that a censor who considered himself so lofty and upright would be so filthy inside? All he knew was how to use a woman’s chastity to smear her name. Truly, all those books he’d read had gone straight into a dog’s belly.

I wasn’t angry. I simply picked up a brush and fought through the night writing a storybook.

The next day, every storyteller in the capital had changed to a new chapter: “Young Love Awakens: Emperor and Consort Join in Clouds and Rain in the Bedchamber; Worried for the State: Censor Listens by the Bedside at Midnight.”

I don’t like proving myself innocent. I only like watching other people prove themselves innocent.

And just like that, it was that loose-tongued censor’s turn to explain to his colleagues over and over again, “I didn’t. I wasn’t. Don’t talk nonsense!”

I couldn’t explain the innocence between Xuan Yun and me, just as he couldn’t explain that he had never eavesdropped on His Majesty and me.

I had once been immensely proud of my counterattack, but I never expected to trip over it today. If I’d known those words would reach Pei Jun’s ears, I would have written with a little more restraint back then.

Now I was so awkward I almost wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground. “Ahem… They’re just rumors. How much of them could possibly be true? Since when do you believe such things?”

Pei Jun let out a soft laugh and approached me step by step. The scent of wine on him was not unpleasant. It mingled with the faint mist in his eyes, like two jars of liquor, as if trying to lure someone into a deep drunken stupor.

If he had been willing to smile at me like this three years ago, I would have been so happy I couldn’t sleep all night. But now, all I felt was my hair standing on end.

He looked into my eyes, his voice seeming to carry a bewitching pull. “Your Highness means that because your life now is unhappy, you miss the past more and more, and couldn’t help yourself?”

That was what I meant, yes, but did he have to put it so bluntly? Do I not need my dignity?

I nodded haphazardly, not daring to look at him, my face flushing bright red.

Pei Jun suddenly grabbed my wrist and questioned me through gritted teeth. “Jiang Zhi, in your heart, am I someone you can summon when you want and dismiss when you’re done? You think you’re so clever. It was only because I was stupid. But I can’t keep being stupid forever, can I?”

Pei Jun truly was not stupid now, because he had gone straight-up insane!

He went directly before Xuan Yun and asked His Majesty to dismiss everyone else. Then he laid out everything he and I had just said, repeating it all to Xuan Yun without missing a single word.

I hadn’t expected him to play so completely against the rules. He rendered me speechless on the spot.

I had to admit, this man’s greatest virtues were loyalty and honesty.

As if he could hear my thoughts, the first thing out of his mouth was a plea for death. “According to the laws of Great Chu, I beg Your Majesty to bestow punishment. Sentence this subject… and the Imperial Noble Consort to death!”

I was stunned stupid. I only wanted to have an affair with you, and you want to die for love with me?!