After the Retired Emperor Abdicated - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I had thought that after everything we said that day, with the conversation spiraling to that point, there was no way anything would ever happen between Pei Jun and me. Who would have thought Pei Jun would enter the palace today and secretly arrange to meet me at the hour of the Rooster?

All of a sudden, I felt like the two of us had switched places. Pei Jun, I was already planning to let you go. You were the one who came back to tempt me.

I swaggered off to our meeting spot, only starting to act sneaky once I arrived. After all, with the two biggest Buddhas in the palace backing me up, even if I was here to have an affair, it was hard not to feel perfectly justified.

When we met, Pei Jun looked extremely uncomfortable. In the past, whenever we quarreled, I was always the one to make the first move to reconcile. I had thick skin and never thought much of it. But this guy had always cared far too much about his pride. Right now, he was probably cursing himself in his heart.

He awkwardly handed me a pill. His voice was still taut. “This is a feign-death pill. Once you take it, in three days, your breathing will stop. Not even the Imperial Medical Bureau will be able to tell. Since entering the palace wasn’t what you wanted, and you aren’t happy staying here, I’ll take you away…”

I cut him off, suddenly finding the words hard to say. “Um… you may have misunderstood. I don’t intend to elope with you.”

Pei Jun had been rambling on, reminding me about all sorts of precautions regarding the feign-death pill. When he heard me, he stopped dead.

His fingers tightened little by little, then he tried his best to act as if nothing had happened. “Ha. Actually, it’s not like I wanted to elope with you that much either. I didn’t go out of my way to find the feign-death pill. I just happened to have one. It didn’t take any effort at all. And I wasn’t thinking that after you got out…”

The more he spoke, the more his composure cracked. At last, he couldn’t hold back. “Jiang Zhi, what exactly do you mean? You were the one who said you liked me, yet you aren’t willing to leave with me. Don’t tell me you want me to be your… Jiang Zhi, don’t overestimate yourself. I don’t like you as much as you think I do.”

This time, I really couldn’t suppress my guilt anymore. I could practically imagine how he must have tossed and turned after going back before finally making this decision, how desperately he must have found ten thousand excuses for me before convincing himself.

The sins of the older generation-why did the retribution have to fall on us?

I steadied myself and was just about to apologize to him. For one fleeting instant, I even considered telling him everything. But before I could open my mouth, he dragged me along and hid me behind a curtain. Someone had come.

This was Changyin Pavilion. Unless an opera troupe had been specifically summoned to entertain the imperial consorts, people usually didn’t come here.

Before long, strange, drawn-out cries of “yi-yi-ya-ya” reached our ears one after another.

We both recognized the voice. The person outside was the Retired Emperor. Just hearing the sound, I could almost picture him holding his fingers in an affected orchid pose, pitching his voice high, and awkwardly imitating the movements of a famous actor onstage.

For one uncanny instant, I empathized with those vassal kings who had wanted to seize the throne.

If it were me, and I had lost the struggle for succession to this thing, I would also be so angry I couldn’t sleep. I would climb out of bed in the middle of the night and ask myself: on what grounds did he win?!

By now, Pei Jun might have already been driven mad by me. He leaned close to my ear, his threat unmistakable. “If we’re discovered, what do you think will happen to us? Perhaps His Majesty loves you so much that no matter how outrageous you are, he won’t have the heart to punish you. I wonder if the Retired Emperor is as magnanimous as His Majesty?”

I wanted to cover his mouth, but he restrained me instead. The distance between us was extremely close. There was not the slightest trace of tenderness in his eyes, only a hint of vindictive pleasure. When he smiled, he was devastatingly handsome, just like he had been one evening three years ago. He said, “Kiss me, and I won’t call anyone over.”

Three years ago, I was the one who had said those words to him.

Back then, half sincere and half teasing, I had pestered him and schemed to trap him inside the rockery.

The gap in that rockery had been terribly narrow. The two of us were squeezed inside, and he couldn’t even raise his hand to cover my mouth.

Just a stone’s thickness away, the outside was full of people.

The more anxious he looked, the more I wanted to tease him. So I lowered my voice and said, “Kiss me, and I won’t call anyone over.”

Even as I said it, I was already laughing so hard I couldn’t stop. Someone like him, even with a knife pressed to his neck, would absolutely never…

“Mm…!”

No one had ever told me that someone so calm and quiet could also resort to smashing the jar just because it was already cracked!

Chapter 8

That was my first kiss. To be honest, it didn’t feel bad, but that kiss had been so unexpected that I inexplicably felt like I had lost out.

I felt a little like crying, but I stubbornly held it in. I had suffered such a huge loss, yet I had been the one who asked for it. I was too embarrassed even to cry. I could only hate myself for not knowing my limits. How had I pushed him that far?

All I could sigh was that fortunes truly did turn. Three years had passed, and now the roles were reversed. I had become the one being threatened.

But as I listened to those strange movements from the Retired Emperor outside, anger rose from my heart and wicked courage swelled in my gut!

Without hesitation, I shook my head at Pei Jun, putting on a look of preferring death over surrender and refusing to accept any threat. “I won’t kiss you. Go ahead and call someone!”

Pei Jun clearly hadn’t expected this reaction from me and froze on the spot.

I tilted my head and even encouraged him. “Lift the curtain. Come on, showtime!”

At last, it was my turn to shock Pei Jun for once. But I still felt it wasn’t exciting enough. While Pei Jun was still in a daze, I rose onto my tiptoes, wrapped my arms around his neck, and kissed him on the lips.

Then I declared, “I did that of my own free will. You didn’t coerce me, and it wasn’t because I was afraid you’d call someone.”

If the curtain were pulled open right now, the Retired Emperor would see the two of us hugging and kissing without the slightest sense of shame. My pale red lip rouge was still on Pei Jun’s lips. Truly, there would be no denying it!

The only question was, for the Retired Emperor, which would be more embarrassing: having his private little hobby of entertaining himself discovered, or catching his “daughter-in-law” having an affair with another “son”?

But Pei Jun reacted swiftly and stopped my hand, then held me tightly.

Perhaps my attempt at self-destruction had sent him the wrong message. Pei Jun thought I was willing to die together with him, that I really loved him to death, and this further convinced him to lower his bottom line for me.

He sighed softly against my ear. “You’re so afraid of pain. I don’t want to die with you anymore. No matter what you want to do, whether you’re using me or just amusing yourself, I’m still the best choice. Jiang Zhi… I really hate you.”