Chapter 4

On this visit,

the envoys would remain in the capital for only a fortnight.

When the time was up, I had to return beyond the frontier with them.

After taking leave of Father and Mother, I went to see Zhou Xiyue again.

I had thought that, since love had blinded her, however unworthy Gu Yuan might be, at least he must care for her sincerely.

Who would have imagined the Gu household never lacked for women?

When I visited, Gu Yuan was having lunch in one of his concubines’ rooms.

And my sister’s hands, which should have held the jade brush of a sovereign, held an embroidery needle as she stitched shoes and socks for him.

What a dutiful wife the marquis’s heir had!

“The eldest legitimate princess of Great Zhou, fighting other women for a man’s favor. Zhou Xiyue, you’ve certainly opened my eyes!”

That was all I left her with before I went.

Once we returned beyond the frontier and entered Huijue territory,

the Huijue knelt to greet me. Zhenzhu, the maid I had brought with me at my marriage, heard the commotion and hurried out.

“Your Highness, you’re back.”

She had served me since childhood. The bond between us was closer even than the one I shared with my twin sister, Zhou Xiyue.

Knowing I would return that day, she had put the tent in order early. She brewed a pot of tea herself and brought it to me.

“Where is the king?”

I had been back for several hours and still had not seen Huyan Rongchong.

Nothing important had happened among the Huijue recently. He should have been in his own tent attending to affairs.

Yet he had not returned.

Zhenzhu pointed indignantly toward a new tent to the west. “Your Highness, you were only in Great Zhou for two months, and the king took two more concubines. He’s with them now.”

“Who sent them?”

Huyan Rongchong had always lusted after women, but I had used every means at my disposal over these three years to secure my place as queen.

However eager his subordinates were to offer him beauties, they should have considered the dignity of his queen.

Who dared send women without my permission?

They must be tired of living.

Zhenzhu lowered her head and looked around. Only after making sure no one was nearby did she whisper in my ear, “General Huyan.”

Huyan Ronger, the king’s own younger brother.

Sending Huyan Rongchong beauties while I was away—apparently his life had grown too comfortable.

I pointed at the pot of bitter tea Zhenzhu had made. “Take that to Huyan Ronger. Tell him it’s a gift from his queen. He must drink it.”

She nodded, picked up the still-warm tea, and left the tent to find him.

I waited all night. Huyan Rongchong never returned.

From his concubine’s tent, laughter and merriment continued until morning.

The night was long.

With nothing else to do, I handled his official work for him.

At heart, he was a brute. He had won the Huijue throne only because his mother’s family was powerful enough to put him there.

Even as king, he remained simple-minded.

The documents he had to deal with each day were his greatest headache.

When I first arrived three years earlier, he distrusted me. But he also lusted after my beauty. As I drew him deeper into pleasure, I offered to handle his affairs.

He was wary at first. But for three full years I sent no information to the outside world.

With my help, he even subdued two cunning lesser tribes beyond the frontier and made them his vassals.

That achievement secured my place as queen and won his trust.

In time, I dealt with all those tiresome matters alone. Huyan Rongchong spent his newly free hours with his concubines. He would not waste a moment on official business.

I neither envied those women nor made their lives difficult.

As long as they did not covet my position, I did not care how they competed for his affection.

But if they wanted something they should not,

they would probably be thrown out on some pitch-dark night and… fed to the wolves.

I, Zhou Xiyu, had never been a good person.

The smell of blood only helped me sleep more soundly.

When the documents were finished, I took out the defense map and examined it. Living on the grasslands, the Huijue had always maintained meticulous defenses against raids by the lesser tribes.

As I studied the map by candlelight, a pair of hands appeared behind me and clasped my waist.

“Coming here this late—are you tired of living?”

I did not even have to turn to know it was Huyan Ronger.

Ridiculous, wasn’t it?

The Queen of the Huijue was having an affair with the king’s own younger brother.

Huyan Rongchong had been a cuckold for three years.

I had never thought I was doing anything wrong.

He could have countless concubines. Why could I not have another man?

Because I was a woman?

How unfair.

“Even if my royal brother finds out, you’ll protect me, won’t you, Sister-in-law?”

Huyan Ronger played the wastrel in public, but he was the greatest schemer of all.

His birth was simply too low. How could the son of an enslaved convict compete with Huyan Rongchong’s powerful maternal family?

Unable to take the throne, he could only use his position as the king’s brother to become a minor Huijue general.

He even had to behave like a wastrel to put Huyan Rongchong at ease.

As for the two of us,

to put it crudely, we had got into bed together three years ago.

I wanted power. He wanted the Huijue throne.

We reached an understanding at once.

He helped me win Huyan Rongchong’s trust, step by step, and secure my place as queen.

With my help, he secretly trained an elite force. Under my cover, he even established contact with the frontier tribes we had previously subdued.

Seizing power was only a matter of time.

And for me, according to the customs of the frontier,

marrying my dead husband’s younger brother was perfectly acceptable. I would remain the powerful Queen of the Huijue.

“Did you gather any intelligence in Great Zhou?”

Huyan Ronger put aside his teasing and took the map from my hands. He seemed casual, but he was watching my every movement.

Afraid I might conceal even the smallest thing.

This man.

In bed, we clung to each other as though we would die of it. Once he was dressed, nothing remained but calculation.

How hurtful.

I shook my head, took up a brush, and wrote one word on the paper.

“War?”

He looked at me again.

Setting down the brush, I pointed to the word. “Before I returned, Father summoned me. He said the Huijue remained Great Zhou’s greatest threat, and that a princess of Great Zhou married among them was the ideal agent within their ranks. If war broke out again, I could send intelligence to Great Zhou.”

Every word was true.

From the beginning, I had been sent to the Huijue as a pawn.

“You could have done as your father told you. Why tell me?”

He nuzzled close, looking utterly devoted, but he was the most cautious of men.

I turned and slowly touched his brow.

There was a scar there.

I had given it to him.

Three years earlier, he had crept into my tent and climbed straight onto my bed. I was a princess of Great Zhou. How could I let some scoundrel take such liberties?

So I had taught him a small lesson.

“A princess Great Zhou can marry off at any moment, or a Huijue queen with power of her own. Which do you think I’d choose?”

The former seemed glorious, but that glory came at a terrible price.

The latter gave me both absolute power and honor.

I was a princess of Great Zhou.

However ambitious I might be, the highest position I could reach here was that of queen consort.

And he had promised me a queen’s place with real authority.

He knew perfectly well which I would choose.

“Then, Yu’er, what clever plan do you have?”

I handed him a cup of the bitter tea Zhenzhu had poured, then took up a fresh cup myself.

We touched cups and drank.

“Then… war it is.”