Chapter 40 The Emperor and the Empress

“Who is that person?” Yue Shen lifted the curtain, looking at the slender, upright figure in front and asking knowingly.

Yu Zhi, who was serving at the side, immediately answered: “In response to Your Majesty, the one in front is indeed Official Qiu.”

Yue Shen’s already gloomy face darkened further, while Qin Zhengya lowered his eyes, concealing the panic in his heart.

Before entering the palace, his father had earnestly instructed him to serve the emperor well and conceive a dragon seed as soon as possible, but his father hadn’t told him that the emperor would be so dangerous and frightening.

Thinking of the terrible night before, he was terrified even to touch her.

He had been a pampered legitimate young master, doted on by his father and cared for by his mother, with harmonious relationships among his siblings. Like all young masters, he had been full of hope for his future wife-master.

In his heart, his wife-master should be a gentle and talented person. They would be equal partners, in harmony like music, living a loving life together. Not like now, falling into this endless pit of fire.

Even though he was now the Empress, what of it? He was now a prisoner of the Forbidden City, enduring both physical and mental torture from Yue Shen, never to return home again.

Yue Shen’s voice suddenly turned cold: “How dare a fifth-rank minor official ride side by side with the Commander of the Imperial Guards? She has some nerve.”

Feeling the chill, Qin Zhengya trembled imperceptibly.

Yu Zhi hurriedly said: “Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Today is the day for you and the Empress to tour the streets. With the crowds of commoners, it’s inevitable for people to bump into each other.”

Yue Shen dropped the curtain and said coldly: “Tell Qiu Shuzhi to come to Us, and stay away from Our elder brother.”

“Yes.” Yu Zhi understood. So she was afraid that Official Qiu might get involved with the Crown Prince.

It was understandable, after all, the Crown Prince was her blood brother, and Official Qiu was the Empress Dowager’s person. She certainly wouldn’t want Yue Guanyi to have much contact with her.

Soon after, Qiu Shuzhi rode her horse to the side of Yue Shen’s imperial carriage to accompany her.

Qiu Shuzhi?

Qin Zhengya was slightly stunned. This name was familiar.

He remembered that Qiu Shuzhi was this year’s third-ranked scholar, and although third-ranked, she had outshone his cousin Qin Shu, stealing her limelight.

It was said that later, when his cousin had that incident at the brothel, it was Qiu Shuzhi who secretly came up with the idea to exonerate her. Come to think of it, they were in the same boat.

The sound of horse hooves rang out beside him, and Qin Zhengya timidly glanced towards Yue Shen’s side. He was a bit curious about what the famous Qiu Shuzhi looked like.

A gust of wind lifted the thin gauze, revealing the woman riding the tall horse. She wore all white, her slender fingers tightly gripping the reins. Her high ponytail was tied with a ribbon that hung down her slender swan-like neck. Her profile was as beautiful and ethereal as an immortal.

Qin Zhengya blushed. No wonder his friends in the inner chambers all viewed Qiu Shuzhi as an ideal partner, she was so beautiful.

“What? Can’t take your eyes off?” Yue Shen’s gaze was contemptuous as she coldly stared at him.

“This servant did not, Your Majesty misunderstands. This servant was merely looking at the scenery outside,” Qin Zhengya lowered his head in fear, caught red-handed.

“Mind your eyeballs. Don’t look at what you shouldn’t,” Yue Shen’s cold tone carried a command.

Qin Zhengya timidly lowered his gaze, not daring to speak again.

He deeply regretted his actions just now. Even if he harbored resentment towards Yue Shen’s cruelty in his heart, he was still the Empress of the Inner Palace. How could he steal glances at another woman in front of the emperor?

Although he had the Qin clan and his uncle Qin Qing behind him, they could only protect him superficially. As for the torment in bed…

He had once sought out Qin Qing in tears, showing him the wounds on his neck, but Qin Qing’s reaction was very cold.

It seemed he hoped Yue Shen would be more intense, so that he could get pregnant sooner.

At that moment, he finally understood that he was no longer the pampered young master of the Qin family.

He was just a tool for bearing children. If he couldn’t serve in bed and conceive a child, he would be a discarded piece for the Qin family, and they would continue to add more men to the palace.

By then, with no protection from his family and no favor from the emperor, his future days would be even more unbearable.

Thinking of this, he lowered his head even more, appearing completely dependent on the person he didn’t like.

The emperor’s carriage gradually reached the most prosperous section of the road, crowded with people. These common folk rarely saw such a grand occasion and all wanted to catch a glimpse of the emperor and empress. There were even people standing on the rooftops of neighborhood houses.

“Tyrant—” A sharp scream pierced through the noisy crowd, almost traversing the entire street.

“There’s an assassin, catch the assassin!” Someone shouted, and the swords of the Imperial Guards all flashed out, their gleaming blades facing the civilians with a threatening light.

The Imperial Guards charged into the crowd. The surging mass of people, startled by this sudden turn of events, fled in fear of being mistaken for assassins and thrown into prison. Screams and cries mixed chaotically, and the scene became utterly chaotic.

“Don’t be afraid, Your Majesty!” Qiu Shuzhi jumped directly onto the imperial carriage, drawing her sword and standing in front of Yue Shen and Qin Zhengya. Unlike a horse-drawn carriage, the imperial carriage was open with only a few thin gauze curtains, making it practically a living target in the eyes of an assassin.

“You be careful too.” Yue Shen’s fingers tightly gripped the armrest as she looked at Qiu Shuzhi’s backlit silhouette, her pupils flickering.

She had experienced bloody palace coups for succession since childhood, with the Yue clan almost entirely slaughtered by their own people, and her own father dying before her eyes.

Faced with this assassination attempt, she showed not the slightest panic, but rather seemed like an unperturbed elder, as if nothing could move her.

However, when she saw Qiu Shuzhi immediately shield her behind her back, that “Don’t be afraid, Your Majesty” made her feel like a lost child, suddenly finding support.

Qiu Shuzhi dared not be distracted. Standing on the imperial carriage, she looked down at the fleeing crowd below, her gaze quickly scanning the surroundings. If there really was an assassin, they might be hiding in a civilian house ready to shoot an arrow.

Suddenly, her eyes narrowed keenly, falling on a suspicious-looking woman. She pointed her sword: “Catch her!”

The Imperial Guards responded immediately, quickly capturing the assassin in the direction Qiu Shuzhi’s sword pointed, pressing the person to kneel before Yue Shen’s carriage.

Qiu Shuzhi frowned slightly, feeling something odd about this person. From start to finish, they hadn’t resisted at all. With disheveled hair and filthy clothes, emitting a nauseating stench, and without any weapons, they looked nothing like an assassin, but rather a complete beggar.

“How dare you attempt to assassinate Her Majesty, you have some nerve!” Chang’an rushed forward, uncoiling the whip at his waist and lashing it viciously onto her body.

The barbed whip swung down, cutting a strip of flesh from her body, splattering blood everywhere.

The assassin had been caught, but the crowd had already scattered like birds and beasts. The street that had been crowded and noisy just moments ago was now empty.

She turned to look at Yue Shen, but saw that Empress Qin Zhengya, who should have been sitting upright beside her, was limp and pale, in stark contrast to the calm and composed Yue Shen.

“What’s wrong with the Empress? Have you been injured somewhere?” Qiu Shuzhi knelt on one knee before him, asking with concern.

Qin Zhengya stretched out his trembling hand, his lips drained of color, his voice shaking: “Blood… I’m afraid of blood.”

“Useless thing, afraid even of blood. How can you be an empress like this? You’re really affected,” Yue Shen coldly mocked.

Qin Zhengya lowered his head submissively: “This servant… this servant knows his fault.”

Qiu Shuzhi saw the blood spattered on the long curtain. In her previous life, there were people who would faint at the sight of blood. Qin Zhengya, despite his fear of blood, had still tried to maintain composure in the face of an assassination attempt. He already showed the demeanor of an empress. The young emperor was being too harsh on her newly wedded husband.

She tore down the long curtain and threw it aside, saying lightly with a smile: “The Empress need not be afraid. The assassin has been caught. No one can harm you.”

Qin Zhengya raised his head in surprise, meeting her clear and elegant eyes. Like flawless beautiful jade reflected in his eyes, for a moment, it seemed as if something gently fell and took root in his heart.

Yue Guanyi, who had been delayed by the crowd, arrived belatedly. He pressed his sword against the assassin’s shoulder, his voice chillingly cold: “Speak, who sent you to assassinate Her Majesty?”

The assassin kept her head lowered and remained silent. Her back, lacerated by the whip, was torn open, yet she only laughed a couple of times.

“Won’t talk, eh? I’ll make you drink this bitter wine!” Chang’an raised his whip, about to lash down on her again.

“Stop!” Qiu Shuzhi hurriedly intervened.

“Official Qiu, she’s an assassin. Why are you stopping me?” Chang’an asked fiercely.

Qiu Shuzhi frowned slightly. From the moment this person was caught, she had felt something was amiss, but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong. Chang’an’s question suddenly made everything clear to her.

She said something shocking: “Perhaps she isn’t an assassin at all.”

She had only shouted “tyrant” in the crowd and was immediately treated as an assassin by the panicked Imperial Guards. This woman was dressed like a beggar, had no weapons on her, and had no accomplices. Calling her an assassin seemed forced.

“Tyrant— Tyrant—” The woman who had been silent suddenly spoke up, her eyes blazing with bloodshot hatred. Each word was filled with intense resentment: “You, as the ruler of a nation, plunder the wealth of the people. A single wedding emptied the national treasury of millions of taels, yet you are unaware of the drought affecting thousands of miles, of your own subjects starving to death. You are fatuous and incompetent, unworthy of being a ruler!”

“Insolent!” Yue Shen sat in the imperial carriage, the veins on the back of her hand bulging as she nearly crushed the armrest.

“Quickly take this madwoman away!” Qiu Shuzhi, seeing the situation deteriorating, hurriedly ordered.

“Take her to the prison for interrogation,” Yue Guanyi commanded.

The beggar laughed and cried out loudly: “If you want to kill me, then kill me! Even if you kill me, you’re still an incompetent tyrant and a petty person. My family of over a dozen people starved to death because of you, this tyrant. Give me back the lives of my family— Give them back to me—”

The beggar’s voice grew fainter and fainter, but Yue Shen’s expression became increasingly grim, her nails nearly broken and bleeding.

“Return to the palace! Return to the palace!” She shouted hoarsely. Even Qin Qing had never seen Yue Shen lose her composure to near rage like this.

Qiu Shuzhi watched the departing imperial carriage and sighed inwardly.

That beggar, she truly cursed the wrong person. How could she know Yue Shen’s difficulties?

These years, though alone and weak, she had struggled mightily in the whirlpool of power. Many things were simply not for her to decide.

Of course she knew about the drought in the countryside, of course she knew this wedding cost millions of taels of silver. If it had all been used for disaster relief, so many people wouldn’t have died. But what good did knowing do?

She wanted to be a beloved and good emperor, yet was cursed to her face by her own subjects. She was the emperor, but the power wasn’t hers. The sins committed by the Qin clan would be repaid on Yue Shen.

Alas—