After the Retired Emperor Abdicated - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It all started roughly four years ago. Back then, the Retired Emperor was still the Emperor, and he fell gravely ill-so ill that he nearly didn’t make it.

Xuan Yun’s imperial uncles, who had long been eyeing the throne, all began to stir. One after another, they returned to the capital from their fiefs under the pretext of attending to the Emperor in his illness.

The most active among them was Prince An, the Emperor’s own younger brother. He had practically come back with the express purpose of taking over the throne. He was loud, arrogant, and didn’t take Xuan Yun, the crown prince, seriously at all. He courted officials at court, built momentum among the common people, and even tried to marry his daughter to Pei Jun.

Pei Jun and Old General Pei occupied very special positions. The elder guarded the battlefield, while the younger was in charge of security inside the palace. In other words, if Prince An could win over the Pei Family, then with his own legitimate imperial bloodline, once the Retired Emperor passed away, dealing with Xuan Yun would be as easy as turning over his hand.

At the time, I had just been acknowledged by the Jiang Family and brought back into the fold. I was now the Eldest Miss Jiang in both name and reality.

I don’t know if I was dazzled senseless by Pei Jun’s handsome face, or if my sisterly affection for Xuan Yun had gone straight to my head, but I stepped forward without hesitation and declared, “What are you afraid of? He has a daughter, but you have me! I’ll take Pei Jun down for you.”

If I could marry Pei Jun, that would mean tying both my father and Pei Jun to Xuan Yun’s camp at the same time.

Back then, I thought marrying Pei Jun would both repay a debt of gratitude and satisfy my own selfish desires. What a bargain!

Thinking about it carefully, I used to cling to him so relentlessly-how could there not have been even the slightest bit of sincerity in it? It was just that sincerity made up half a part, lust made up another half, and the remaining nine parts were all ulterior motive.

Once again, I must sigh: I really was a terrible person!

That was how Pei Jun ended up being pestered by me. Back then, in order to win him over, I truly stopped at nothing. I hounded him shamelessly, clung to him stubbornly, and threw every scrap of dignity to the wind.

Because I shoved myself into the situation from every possible angle, Prince An failed to marry his daughter to Pei Jun as he had wished. And as luck would have it, the Emperor began recovering right at that moment. The first thing he did after regaining his health was pass the throne to Xuan Yun.

Never mind how tortuous the process was-the goal was achieved in the end.

Just as I was debating whether to keep flirting with Pei Jun or retire gracefully now that my mission was accomplished, fate made the choice for me…

Once Xuan Yun became Emperor, all eyes turned to the positions in her harem. In one careless moment, she was drugged. I stopped it right before someone could strip off her pants. I knocked her unconscious and stayed with her the entire night.

By daybreak, word had spread that His Majesty the Emperor and Eldest Miss Jiang had spent a passionate night together.

So when those censors said I had deliberately seduced His Majesty before entering the palace, it wasn’t entirely baseless. At least from the truth they could see, that was exactly what had happened.

After that, I entered the palace and became the Imperial Noble Consort, while Pei Jun followed in his father’s footsteps and went to the frontier.

I originally thought we would never meet again in this lifetime. Or, if we did meet again, we would have already forgotten each other out in the vast world. Who could have known that the Retired Emperor would drop a world-shaking bombshell and blast Pei Jun and me right back into this hellish battlefield?