Chapter 266: Untitled

Kacha—

Following the noise, several dozen longswords shot through the sky, emitting a snow-white glow. They formed a wide net made of light, trapping Zhan Beiye within it.

Among the glow cast by the swords, Zhangsun Wuji smiled peacefully and said, “Instead of activating such a large army to invite Wuji to Pandu, why not let me invite Your Majesty the Emperor of Dahan to Zhongzhou as my guest, wouldn’t that be even better?”

Clang!

The Dahan army, which had been keeping a close distance with Zhan Beiye, suddenly launched into action, unsheathing their swords. Beside Zhan Beiye, Little Seven remained silent as he advanced forward, slicing at Zhangsun Wuji with a flash of his sword.

Zhan Beiye quickly raised his hand and stopped his army and Little Seven. He coldly glanced around at the forests and greenery behind him where several Wuji hidden guards had suddenly appeared to attack him and said expressionlessly, “With just these few?”

Zhangsun Wuji snorted. “As well as the Yao City Infantry near our borders. The soldiers of the Yao City Infantry are famed to be loyal and brave, men among men. One of them even single-handedly infiltrated an enemy camp and brought back the head of the general. I think there is no need to burden the King of Han.”

Meng Fuyao gazed at the sky…

‘If you guys want to fight then go ahead and fight, why are you involving me in this? Zhangsun Wuji, you’re too cruel, the one that offended you is Burden Zhan, why are you finding me instead.’

Zhan Beiye turned around and glanced at her for a moment, the tension on his face relaxing slightly. He suddenly saw the scene from the wild mountains near Yao City from that night, the girl who was weeping in the lake, her jade-like skin glistening under the moonlight and the blood-stained footprints on the rocks by the lake.

‘Sigh… Forget it.’

Did he really intend to rough it out with Wuji?

The Emperor of Dahan looked up at the sky, allowing the cold snowflakes to fall on his face, cooling his burning face slightly. With much difficulty, he suppressed his anger at Zhangsun Wuji’s tactics against him.

Zhangsun Wuji smiled and waved away the hidden guards. Hiding his hands in his sleeves, he said amicably, “Wuji and Dahan have always been friends, I was merely joking with you, I wouldn’t mind at all.”

Zhan Beiye let out a laugh as well. He reached out to grab the reins of Meng Fuyao’s horse and said, “Honestly, if we wanted to fight, we wouldn’t even have to speak first.”

The two of them looked at each other. Although both of them wore smiles on their faces, Meng Fuyao felt electricity tingling in the air, followed by a loud crack of thunder, making her jump in shock.

‘Damn, the lightning has struck the volcano again…’

Throughout the entire journey, Empress Dowager had been taken care of thoroughly by the eunuchs. The lady looked well taken care of and in top health. It was obvious that Zhan Beiye had done his best to care for her—after all, the reason why he traveled thousands of miles and fought countless bloody battles to seize the throne was simply to ensure that his mother would live her later years in peace.

When Empress Dowager saw Meng Fuyao, she immediately let out a wide smile and reached out to hug her. “My daughter-in-law…” she called.

Meng Fuyao was about to run over happily when she suddenly felt uneasy and turned around to see if Zhangsun Wuji was following her. However, he was merely sitting at the pavilion drinking tea when he turned and suddenly smiled at her. Meng Fuyao immediately returned a stubborn and shameless smile.

Zhangsun Wuji smiled, raised his cup at her, and mouthed something. Meng Fuyao hadn’t had the time to decipher what he’d mouthed when Empress Dowager called out again, “Daughter-in-law, come here.”

Afraid that Empress Dowager would call out again, Meng Fuyao hurried over affectionately. Zhan Beiye was sitting beside Empress Dowager, watching her with both hands firmly on his knees. Meng Fuyao was in a dilemma on whether to give some face to the Emperor when Empress Dowager shifted to one side and motioned for her to sit beside her.

Meng Fuyao obliged and sat down, only to realize that the seat was too small for three people. ‘Uh, Emperor Zhan, there are so many seats down there, why did you have to choose this one? Don’t you think that you’ve taken up almost the entire seat, how are the two of us going to sit?’

However, Emperor Zhan was unaware; biting his lip, he scooped a bowl of ginseng soup and tested its temperature before feeding it one spoonful at a time to his mother. Empress Dowager received the soup happily, her expression that of peacefulness. There was an indescribable sense of contentment in her eyes—to her, the greatest happiness in life was to be with her beloved son. Even if he didn’t become the emperor, she wouldn’t mind at all.

The house was extremely quiet, and a lamp cast a warm glow on the room. The person feeding and the person drinking were both very focused, the only sound that could be heard was the faint tinkling of china. Meng Fuyao watched them quietly; she really liked the Zhan Beiye she was seeing right now, feeding his mother soup under the warm light. The usual aggressiveness and brutality during the day had been cast off, and there was a silent but moving warmth.

A long, long time ago, she too, had fed her mother Black Chicken Soup in this fashion…

Meng Fuyao smiled slightly, tears welling in her eyes. Now, who was the one boiling soup and feeding her mother?

After Empress Dowager finished drinking, she smiled and lifted Meng Fuyao’s hand. She had always been untalkative, and every word she uttered would linger on deeply in Meng Fuyao’s heart.

“Thin,” said Empress Dowager simply.

Then, she turned around and smiled at Zhan Beiye. The latter looked stunned, and the next moment, a suspicious flush crept over his face.

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Meng Fuyao immediately stood up and said, “No need, no need… I… I’m terribly scared of drinking ginseng soup…”

Meng Fuyao had always been eloquent and smooth with her words, twisting them to conform to her logic no matter how hard. This time, however, she was finally faced with something that made her feel embarrassed and stumped…

If that Emperor Zhan really obeyed his mother and fed her even a small mouthful of soup, if she couldn’t bury herself in the ground, she would find a wall to bang her head against…

Fortunately for her, Zhan Beiye was not Zhangsun Wuji. His face was completely scarlet, clearly indicating that he would probably not be able to perform such an act. He lowered his head and coughed slightly, looking as if he wanted to leave, but after a moment’s thought, he decided to stay instead.

Meng Fuyao felt completely out of place at that moment; the number of times she and Zhan Beiye were alone together was not few, yet now that there was a senior present, why did she feel so awkward, wanting to leave yet unable to do so, wanting to shoot her mouth yet unable to act disrespectfully in front of Empress Dowager; what if Meng Fuyao frightened her?

In the end, she could only smile dumbly at Empress Dowager, who also returned her smile happily. When Zhan Beiye saw the pair smiling at each other so harmoniously, he too couldn’t help but let out a smile.

The three people in the room just sat there, smiling at each other…

Finally, Meng Fuyao couldn’t hold her smile anymore and was about to excuse herself when Empress Dowager suddenly grabbed her hand with surprising speed and with a flick of her hand, secured a bangle onto Meng Fuyao’s wrist.

A locking sound followed.

Meng Fuyao looked down to see a new addition to her wrist, a golden, regal-looking bangle. The bangle looked rather aged, and there were no patterns on its smooth exterior surface, but ancient carvings could be seen on the inside. Because it had been worn for a long time and had been in contact with human energy, it had become smooth and warm like soft jade and wearing it did not feel heavy. It was like wearing a cloud on one’s wrist.

Meng Fuyao’s instinct told her at first glance that this was definitely not something simple, thinking desperately that it had better not be something like a family heirloom “passed down from the grandmother to the daughter-in-law,” and she hurriedly tried to remove the bangle from her wrist. When the bangle was first put on her wrist, it was still rather loose, but after Empress Dowager “locked” it, it actually became a perfect fit for her own wrist, and no matter how she tried, she couldn’t remove it.

Meng Fuyao felt cold sweat breaking out as she suddenly remembered the words that Zhangsun Wuji had mouthed to her earlier. In the midst of her frenzy, she somehow managed to make out what he had said—”Don’t accept anything.”

… This guy, he could even guess something like this!

Upon seeing that Meng Fuyao was desperately trying to remove the bangle, a hint of doubt flashed past Zhan Beiye’s eyes. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore. “This bangle has been with my mother since young; it was her protective amulet. Why are you trying to remove it?”

Thinking that the significance of this item wasn’t that serious, Meng Fuyao finally stopped and said simply, “I can’t accept her protective amulet.”

“I am the Emperor of a nation, do you think I can’t protect her myself?” Zhan Beiye stared at the golden bangle hanging from Meng Fuyao’s slim white wrist, thinking that it was too pretty to let her remove it. “Empress Dowager is grateful to you, consider this as a token of gratitude. You don’t have to try to remove it already, there’s a mechanism hidden in this thing, once it’s locked, it can’t be removed.”

Meng Fuyao did not answer but instead rolled her eyes, thinking that she would try using the Bone-Shrinking Technique later on. However, deep down, she knew that the Bone-Shrinking Technique could only shrink the muscles and tendons, it couldn’t actually change the size of the bones. Moreover, the bangle was secured so tightly, it was definitely going to be difficult to remove.

‘Sigh… A trap, there are traps everywhere…’

Upon returning to her room, Meng Fuyao’s gaze immediately landed on a certain someone sitting comfortably inside reading a book and hastily pulled her sleeve over the bangle, but Zhangsun Wuji’s eyesight was too sharp. “Received another gift again?”

Meng Fuyao refused to reply, her face sullen. ‘What do you mean by “received presents again”? Do I receive presents often?’

Zhangsun Wuji grabbed her hand and scrutinized it for several moments before declaring, “What do I do with you? You’re soft-hearted when you win, and also soft-hearted even when you lose.”

Meng Fuyao knew what he meant, but she refused to admit it and retorted, “Tell me, how am I supposed to ignore the hands of the sick?”

Zhangsun Wuji glanced at her and leaned back in his chair, a bitter smile appearing on his face as he said, “You like this kind of scenarios very much, don’t you? Sorry, perhaps I might never be able to give you…”

Meng Fuyao’s heart skipped a beat, realizing that he was referring to Empress Dowager Yuan. Compared to the deep bond between Zhan Beiye and his mother, Zhangsun Wuji was not only unable to give her this kind of happiness, he himself couldn’t enjoy it either.

Following this train of thought, Meng Fuyao’s heart eventually softened, and she patted his shoulder. “Your mother will understand you one day,” she said.

Zhangsun Wuji wrapped an arm around her waist and murmured, “It’s enough as long as you understand…”

Meng Fuyao massaged his back in a motherly fashion and responded softly, “Mn…”

Thereafter, she suddenly felt that the Crown Prince’s hand on her waist was moving in an increasingly unbecoming fashion, and then…

Ping!

The sound of someone banging into furniture could be heard, followed by loud swearing from a certain someone.

“Zhangsun Wuji, you godforsaken fox!”