Changliu and Ye Feisheng - Chapter 6

“Young Mistress Ye, I intended nothing of the sort!”

The emperor’s defense sounded hollow.

He wanted something lofty and righteous to say, but the children were screaming too loudly for him to think. And he couldn’t refute the evidence in her hands.

She watched him calmly.

“Which prince do you want as your heir, Your Majesty? The eldest?”

The moment she said “the eldest,” I brought my scabbard down hard on his backside.

He squealed like a pig and began thrashing.

“Don’t hit me! Mother! Save me!”

The branch bent and shook violently.

Below, the empress had just recovered consciousness. At the sight, she almost fainted again.

“My son! Stop moving!”

My mistress studied the emperor’s face.

“So it isn’t the eldest. He’s only a shield you’ve put up for someone else.”

After a moment, she continued slowly. “You don’t have many choices. But if even the empress’s son is only fit to serve as a shield, the other boy’s mother must be your true love.”

“That makes it simple. There’s only one woman you truly love: Liu Caiyi, Consort Liu, the ninth prince’s mother.”

“You mean to make both Zhongli Feng and your eldest son clear a path for your ninth.”

“Your Majesty, even a tiger doesn’t devour its own cubs.”

“This is vicious of you.”

The emperor went rigid with fear. Even his eyes stopped moving.

He couldn’t understand how she could see his most secret thoughts so clearly.

As though he were transparent, with nothing hidden from her.

Yet he had never noticed anyone watching him so closely.

Immortal Manor commanded all intelligence in the realm—was this what that meant?

Terrifying!

My mistress didn’t even lift her eyelids.

“Changliu, cut the ninth prince’s rope.”

“Gladly!”

I drew the dagger from my boot.

“No!” the emperor roared.

He shouted so loudly that the consorts and ministers in the distance froze for a moment.

They didn’t know why he was suddenly so agitated.

My mistress bowed her head, stroking the back of the girl’s head over and over.

I paid no attention to the emperor.

I belonged to my mistress. I obeyed only her.

If she told me to cut the ninth prince’s rope, I would cut it.

Steel flashed.

The rope parted.

The ninth prince plunged from the treetop.

“Aaaaah!”

The emperor and Consort Liu flung themselves toward him.

With no thought for their own safety, they desperately tried to catch the child.

The next instant, his fall stopped.

I was hanging upside down from a branch, holding him by his belt.

We swayed there together, like monkeys reaching for the moon’s reflection.

My mistress laughed.

“Naughty, Changliu.”

I swung myself upright and sat on the branch again.

I set the ninth prince beside me.

He had already fainted, foaming at the mouth with terror.

Only now did the emperor and Consort Liu realize they had been tricked.

In a moment of life and death, the emperor had revealed whom he cared about most.

He turned shakily to find the distant consorts and ministers watching him and Consort Liu with strange expressions.

Especially the empress.

Her eyes were those of a snake in the grass: sinister, cold, and crazed.

Large drops of sweat rolled down his forehead.

His lips moved, but no words came.

Words were powerless now.

Everyone had seen him risk his life to catch the ninth prince.

Each of them could ask: if my child fell from that height, would I truly dare try to catch them?

…They couldn’t all answer with certainty.

But the emperor had thrown himself forward without hesitation.

What that meant was perfectly clear.

My mistress smiled.

Her cool voice reached his ears.

“Your Majesty, I told you that if you broke your promise, I would find my own way to obtain justice for Zhongli Feng.”

He turned stiffly, bit by bit, and stared at her.

Her smile was cold.

“Surely you don’t think I represent only Immortal Manor?”

“Immortal Manor is merely a small subordinate branch of the Changming Order.”

“I was only conveying the Divine Sovereign’s decree.”

“The one you tried to deceive, Your Majesty, was the Divine Sovereign.”

He turned bloodless.

My mistress quietly enjoyed his expression.

After a moment, she looked up at me. “Changliu, let’s go home.”

“Yes, Young Mistress!”

I left the little brats in the tree and climbed down.

The consorts and ministers panicked. “Don’t go! You—you have to get the children down!”

I ignored them.

Walking behind my mistress, I began pushing her wheelchair away.

She glanced back at the emperor.

“Zhongli Feng will come home with me for now. Once you’ve settled your own affairs, I’ll send her back.”