Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After my investiture, I became the most noble and most endangered woman in Northern Yan.

Qi Yan abolished most of the old imperial harem systems. He disbanded the Southern Women who had been captured and established the Repatriation Bureau, allowing them to return to their hometowns or remain in Northern Yan as common citizens.

On the day the first group of women left the palace, many knelt outside the palace gates and wept.

A girl with a severed finger asked me, “Your Majesty, can we really go home?”

“You can,” I replied.

She asked again, “What if there’s no one left at home?”

A lump formed in my throat.

Qi Yan stood not far away and answered for me, “Then the imperial court will provide land, grain, and household registration. You shall establish your own homes.”

The girl stared at him blankly before suddenly kowtowing.

After this incident, the people of Wuxu began to call me the Southern Empress.

Some respected me; others cursed me.

Meanwhile, Qi Yan’s illness grew increasingly severe.

After the Old King died, the primary medicine in the storehouse capable of suppressing the Cold Poison was destroyed by fire. The imperial physicians said that if he rested properly, he might have three years left; if he continued to exhaust himself, he would be lucky to last six months.

When I burst into the imperial study, he was reviewing military reports.

“Qi Yan,” I said, calling him by his full name for the first time. “Are you determined to die at your desk?”

He looked up, a trace of a smile in his eyes. “The Empress’s lecture on governance is quite majestic.”

I snatched the memorial from him. “If you keep this up, I’ll burn it.”

“Burn it then,” he said. “There will be another crate of them tomorrow anyway.”

My eyes grew hot with anger.

He finally set down his brush and took my hand.

“Zhaoxue, battle is about to break out at Changyuan Pass.”

Xiao Chengxu had mobilized his troops.

The Great Liang manifesto spread throughout the world, claiming that the new Emperor of Northern Yan had murdered his father to usurp the throne and that a Demon Queen was causing chaos in the administration. The Emperor of Great Liang was raising a righteous army to rescue his Former Empress.

Former Empress.

Looking at those two words, I felt only the absurdity of it all.

I had never been Xiao Chengxu’s empress.

But the people of the world did not care for the truth.

They only wanted a title, a banner, and a sense of justice that could be written into the history books.

Beyond Changyuan Pass, I saw Xiao Chengxu.

He sat atop a white horse, clad in bright yellow armor, still possessing that same refined and handsome appearance from the past. However, the way he looked at me was like looking at a lost-and-found possession.

In front of the two armies, he said, “Zhaoxue, come here.”

Qi Yan sat in a war chariot, his coughs suppressed and low.

I stepped down from the chariot and stood between the two armies.

When Xiao Chengxu saw the Northern Yan Empress Robes I was wearing, his expression darkened. “You have suffered. I have come to take you home.”

“Which home?” I asked.

He froze.

“The Shen estate has been seized, my father has been stripped of his rank and placed under house arrest, and Qingwu’s brother was executed by your men in the border army as a deserter. Which home is Your Majesty referring to?”

Xiao Chengxu frowned. “In times of national crisis, someone must always be sacrificed.”

I laughed.

I had heard that phrase too many times.

A political marriage is a sacrifice, the border people are a sacrifice, women are a sacrifice, and loyal officials are a sacrifice. Yet the person sitting on the dragon throne is only ever responsible for saying that ‘someone’ must be it.

I pulled a copy of an account ledger from my sleeve and held it up for both armies to see.

“The Great Liang Minister of Revenue, the commander of Changyuan Pass, and former officials of Northern Yan have been privately selling grain routes and allowing soldiers to plunder. The evidence is all here. If we fight today, the ones who die will still be the commoners, and the ones who profit will still be them.”

Xiao Chengxu’s face changed. “Shen Zhaoxue, do you know what you are doing?”

“I know.”

I turned to look at Qi Yan.

He was looking at me too.

Across the dust and the banners, his gaze was as still as a great river after a snowfall.

I turned back and said, word by word, “I am saving my country, and I am saving his.”

Xiao Chengxu drew his sword. “You truly have been bewitched by him.”

A stray arrow was fired from the Liang ranks.

I heard the sound of it cutting through the air, but I did not dodge.

Because Qi Yan was faster than me.

He lunged down from the war chariot and pulled me into his embrace.

The arrow pierced his back, and blood instantly soaked through the Emperor’s robes.

The Northern Yan army fell into chaos.

Qi Yan pressed against my ear, his voice so soft it seemed about to dissipate.

“Don’t cry.”

Only then did I realize my face was covered in tears.

He said, “Zhaoxue, next… do as we agreed.”