Return of the Swallow

Chapter 233: Regicide

The flames of need set Weichi Yan afire. He wasn’t an inexperienced boy, neither did he spend his days wallowing in lust. But unprecedented excitement moved him today. He wanted to make Qin Yining his and make her surrender before him. From this day forth, she would only see and think of him.

Weichi Yan held her tightly and pressed up against her soft, pliable body. Wet, feverish kisses rained down on the side of her lips, cheeks, and neck. Breathing harshly, he murmured, “Yi’er, you’re mine, you can only be mine. Pang is just a crude brute, what’s so good about him? It’s treason if you think of him! Do you know what the punishment for treason is? Yi’er, I won’t pursue this further if you turn back now, and I’ll...”

Weichi Yan suddenly felt a coolness by his neck before he finished talking.

Stupefied, he braced his arms and pushed up from the floor. Her soft, lustrous black locks were scattered all over the floor. The silver hairpin that’d been used to secure her hair was now tightly gripped in her hand, the cold, sharp edge pressed against his throat.

Weichi Yan’s lust was instantly doused, quickly followed by uncontrollable rage. He spat out through grit teeth, “And what are you trying to do?! Regicide??”

Since her left arm was crushed beneath the emperor, Qin Yining had only been able to use her injured right arm to yank out her hairpin. The exertion split open her wound even more severely and fresh blood quickly drenched her clothing. But even still, the accompanying pain didn’t make her hand shake.

She huffed painfully, enunciating carefully, “If you force yourself on me any further, I’ll kill you and then kill myself!”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Weichi Yan declared coldly.

“My life is cheap. Would I still want keep living after being insulted to such a degree?”

“Aren’t you afraid of implicating your family?!”

Fury in the look that Qin Yining was levying at the emperor turned to despair, then morphed to mockery.

“It looks like I’ve thought too highly of Your Majesty.” The room grew dark in front of her eyes again as a theater troupe roared to life in her brain. They banged and clanged and tried to drill a hole in reality with their drumming. Hairpin in hand, it drooped as her hand lost its strength.

Eyes that’d been shooting out the light of fury and hate slowly dimmed and lost their focus. Long lashes fluttered as eyelids slowly shut, scaring Weichi Yan out of his mind and soul!

Paying no heed to the messy, chaotic scene inside, the emperor raised a trembling hand to the girl’s nose. He instantly clasped her tightly when he confirmed that she was still alive and called out anxiously, “Wake up, Yi’er, wake up! Servants! Imperial physicians! Imperial physicians!!”

The servants on duty outside charged in when they heard their liege’s panicked voice. They were greatly shook by the sight of an ashen-faced Weichi Yan hugging a disheveled Qin Yining and crying out her name.

“Your Majesty, please put down the patient so we can make our diagnosis.” Four imperial physicians stepped forward to make their bows.

Jiao-mama, Xingyu, and Baoxue came up to help as Weichi Yan laid Qin Yining out on the bed. Seeing so many people surrounding the bed, there was nothing else the emperor could do but pace back and forth worriedly.

An imperial physician presented himself before long.

“Well?! Speak up!” The emperor didn’t wait for the doctor to finish his bow. “What’s happened to her? Why did she faint??”

“Your Majesty, Miss Qin’s wound is very deep and affects the blood vessels. Her body was already out of sorts from losing so much blood and it’s been a very hot and humid summer. Her wound is infected, slowing recovery. Miss Qin was feverish before and didn’t pay attention to her wound, causing it to split open again. I’ll first have to scrape away the putrid flesh before sewing the wound back together. Miss Qin is also weak and fragile to begin with. Add to that a high fever and loss of blood... all of it compounded to make her faint.”

The seasoned physician left out that the biggest contributing factor was a sudden excess of emotion — she’d been angry to the point of fainting. But he would never say that no matter how many lives he had.

Weichi Yan bit his lip, his heart aching. Why would her wound have flared up if he hadn’t acted so rashly? Why else would she have lost blood again?

He’d taken her earlier pink cheeks as a sign of shyness, but now that he thought about it more, what else did unnaturally flushed cheeks and bloodless lips indicate, if not fever?

But he hadn’t noticed at all! And he’d even almost forced himself on her!

Weichi Yan wanted to slap himself firmly.

“You must heal her or it’ll be your head on the chopping block! Report to Little Lu for whatever you need. Whether it’s cinnamon or ginseng 1, use it all generously if they’re needed.”

“Understood.” The physicians bowed fearfully.

Off to the side, Eunuch Lu, also called Little Lu by the emperor, spoke up carefully, “Your Majesty, there are still matters you must attend to. Let’s leave this for the imperial physicians.”

The emperor scratched his head irritably and turned with a flourish of his sleeves. “Return to the Hall of Moral Cultivation!”

“Understood. His Majesty departs!” Lu-gonggong supported his master out of the Jade Hall.

Assigned to the east and west wings, Li Yanyan and Gu Chang only had time to dip their curtsies to the emperor. Because of his preoccupation, Weichi Yan didn’t spare them a single glance and gestured randomly before striding off.

Li Yanyan rose without a flicker in her expression, heading back to the east wing.

Gu Chang snorted derisively and muttered, “Who knows what Qin’s done to bespell the emperor to this degree! Doesn’t she have a close relationship with Great Zhou’s Faithful Prince of the First Rank? How does she have the face to put on airs like this now? What a disgusting display!”

Li Yanyan cast an indifferent look at the other girl and smiled. “Miss Gu seems to know much. It’s just that, you come from a scholarly family, so it’s best to speak more kindly and avoid impacting the Gu reputation.”

Gu Chang smiled superficially. “Is that so?” She’d thought she could pull an ally to her side for a united front against Qin Yining. It’d be soon enough for the two of them to face off against each other when née Qin was pulled off of her position. Who would’ve thought that Li won’t cooperate at all?

She sniffed and returned to the west wing.

In a dark and cloudy night, buckets of rain poured into a quiet military camp, giving the black armor of the Valiant Tigers on duty a good washing.

When Pang Xiao heard that Mu Jinghu had come to pay a visit, he immediately came out to personally welcome his friend. After having Mu Jinghu brought into the commander-in-chief tent, he kept only Huzi by his side. The remaining Elite Tigers were sent to guard the premises and allow no one to approach or eavesdrop.

“Blockhead, what brings you here? Has something happened in the capital?”

Mu Jinghu cut to the chase. “Your wife’s been taken away.”

“What?”

“Your wife is going to be the empress.” Mu Jinghu repeated solemnly.

Pang Xiao face was calm as rain water trickled down his gleaming armor, forming multiple small puddles on the ground.

“Come again, slowly. What’s going on?”

“Your wife is in poor health because of losing too much blood and she’s spent this period thinking about how to get revenge. This already consumes a lot of energy and thought, and you know how their country is. The trash former emperor abdicated, the new emperor takes the throne. He adopted the Prince of Ning’s son and ardently wants your wife. He sent men to the Qins today and took your wife away, ignoring the protestations of Uncle Qin. Uncle Qin sent me here with a message. Fox, what do you think? Do you still want this wife?”

1. Valuable medicines in ancient China