Chapter 72: The Empress Dowager, His Highness, Qiu Niang

Qiu Shuzhi was pressed down forcefully by him, broken porcelain scattered around her. Her outer robes were disheveled and slipping off. Her hands were restrained on both sides, wrists locked in his death grip, veins bulging on the back of his hands. His eyes were full of resentment: “I can’t? Then why can he, but I can’t!”

“He? You mean His Highness the eldest prince?”

“If not him, who else could it be? Qiu Shuzhi, how many lowly men have you been hiding behind my back?” Qin Qing glared at her fiercely like a savage wolf, his long hair falling onto her chest.

“No one!” Qiu Shuzhi shook her head. Qin Qing’s grip on her wrists hurt.

In the matriarchal world, women’s physical strength far surpassed men’s, but she didn’t dare move too much for fear of hurting Qin Qing.

Qin Qing’s eyes were as thick as night, sinisterly intense and unyielding. He released one hand and slowly moved it down, tracing the soft curve of her waist, more unsettling than teasing.

“Empress Dowager-” She stirred.

“Qiu Shuzhi, don’t you dare. I, the Empress Dowager, command you not to move!” Qin Qing overbearingly used his status to press her.

Qiu Shuzhi lowered her eyes, feeling a light, blurry force lingering on her body at the waist. Then she felt a tug at her waist – the jade pendant tied to her belt was harshly pulled off by him, nearly ripping the belt.

Qin Qing half leaned over her, dangling the jade pendant Yue Guanyi had gifted her, its deep red color dazzling her eyes. “I’ll be taking this,” he said.

His tone was extremely forceful as he stared straight at her, unwilling to miss any traces in her eyes.

Qiu Shuzhi finally moved her eyelids and looked up at him. “The Empress Dowager can have anything he wants from this humble official, except this jade pendant.”

“Why?” He bent down urgently.

“This represents the love between His Highness and me.” Qiu Shuzhi laid it all out. Her relationship with Yue Guanyi was not something shameful to hide. Since Qin Qing was acting this way, she might as well be direct.

She knew Qin Qing had feelings for her. Better to take this chance to extinguish his hopes.

Just as she thought Qin Qing would back off in the face of difficulty, the sinister Qin Qing actually laughed – crazed, horrifying laughter, his usually gentle eyes burning violently.

Suddenly, his laughter froze and died out, leaving only a chilling coldness at the corners of his mouth. His gaze fell fiercely on the jade pendant in his hand, as if looking at an unforgivable criminal. The force in his hand grew stronger, his knuckles turning a deathly pale.

“Empress Dowager-” Qiu Shuzhi had a bad premonition and wanted to reach for the jade.

Who knew Qin Qing would go mad and fiercely throw the jade pendant at the door. Luckily, the jade was exceptionally sturdy. An ordinary piece would have shattered.

“You-” Qiu Shuzhi wanted to get up and retrieve it, but her chin was grabbed harshly.

“Look at me!” Qin Qing’s voice was even more torn and gloomy. “How dare you betray me and have an affair with that scoundrel!”

Qiu Shuzhi frowned slightly. “His Highness and I are in love. We are both unmarried. How is that an affair?”

“In love…” Qin Qing’s lips trembled, his eyes lonely and desolate.

Those words plunged him into a boundless hell. All the past honeyed times turned out to be his one-sided delusion. In Qiu Shuzhi’s eyes, only Yue Guanyi was her match.

Then what was he in her eyes? A lonely widower? Someone to visit and say a few sweet nothings to when he was useful, then cast aside, leaving him to wait for her from dusk to dawn?

“Yes, His Highness and I developed feelings in secret, but it is pure and aboveboard. We are both of marriageable age now and are planning to…”

“Enough, enough!” Qin Qing couldn’t help shouting, overcome by swift, violent grief. He shook with agitation, even the strength to support himself drained away. He buried his face deep in her bosom.

What right did that scoundrel Yue Guanyi have to marry her!

Jealousy was ignited by gnawing hatred, soaring uncontrollably. The intense jealousy and hatred burned, making his heart ache as if being torn apart. The more it hurt, the tighter he held her, burying his face deeper, wishing their souls could crash together as one. Only that could extinguish his endless desire.

“Is he threatening you? Using his power to coerce and lure you?” Qin Qing’s thin lips moved, his voice broken and hoarse. Without waiting for Qiu Shuzhi’s reply, he said a bunch of remaining bargaining chips as if afraid of being denied: “What he can give you, I can too. Military power, I can give you that. Even the Qin clan can be yours.”

Qiu Shuzhi sighed helplessly.

It was this sigh filled with too many emotions that made Qin Qing keenly realize these bargaining chips meant nothing in her eyes.

The faint redness on his thin lips completely faded. Like a drowning man clutching at an intangible straw, unwilling to let go even as he sank to the bottom of the sea.

He had entered the palace as the Empress at sixteen. His every word and deed was monitored. The slightest misstep in the treacherous harem could push him into an abyss. He finally made it through until the old Emperor’s death, only to face years of fierce battles.

Only when he helped Yue Shen ascend the throne did the court gradually stabilize. But Yue Shen was wary of him, always mindful he would usurp power. The Qin clan relied on him, and he was restricted by the Qin clan.

Exhausting himself with schemes and power plays day after day, life in the harem was either scheming or fighting to the death, a murky quagmire.

Everyone said the Empress Dowager held great power, not knowing how many fearful times were behind that power, nor did anyone ask if this was the power he truly wanted.

He was merely pushed and driven by a group of people and circumstances towards the pinnacle of power, no different from a sheep whipped by the shepherd into the pen.

He had painstakingly endured this life for nearly twenty years. Finally, the light that was Qiu Shuzhi appeared, but before he could grasp it, it became someone else’s.

How could he accept that!

Qiu Shuzhi was his life’s salvation, the only bit of warmth in his long dark years. He only wanted to drown in the warmth brought by this light. He would not allow anyone to take her away.

Qin Qing took in her cool fragrance, absorbing warmth. His gaze gradually turned gloomy and deep, as if coated with a layer of poisonous venom: “You think you and Yue Guanyi are a match made in heaven, in love, with endless vows. But you don’t know how many women he has said the same words to. Just in his youth, when he was toyed with in brothels…”

“I know all about His Highness’s experiences in his youth. That was not his fault. I sincerely like him. I do not dwell on the past,” she said, displeased by Qin Qing’s insinuations about Yue Guanyi’s past in brothels.

“You-” Qin Qing gritted his teeth, the viciousness in his eyes gradually twisting.