Chapter 9

Chapter 9

What we agreed upon was a peace treaty.

It wasn’t Northern Yan surrendering to Great Liang, nor was it Great Liang swallowing Northern Yan.

Qi Yan intended to abolish the Old Royal Court, reduce the private armies of the tribes, and establish the Changyuan Trade Market. Northern Yan would be renamed the Northern Border Province, to be co-governed by both nations for three years. The people of Northern Yan would no longer be enslaved, and the border citizens of Great Liang would no longer pay war taxes. Corrupt officials from both nations would be tried for the same crimes, abducted women would be allowed to return to their home registries, and the abandoned lands along the border would be distributed to displaced refugees.

This was not something any monarch would be willing to sign easily.

Because it didn’t look like a victory.

It looked more like cutting a piece of flesh from imperial power to feed the common people.

Xiao Chengxu did not agree.

The Liang army did not agree either.

Not until I sent the Shen family’s secret border military ledgers-hidden for three generations-to every camp. Not until Qi Yan ordered the Wuxu Granary opened to provide relief for the Changyuan refugees. Not until the Northern Yan women who had been returned to their registries stood atop the city walls, crying out their names to the two armies.

The fighting did not stop immediately.

But morale collapsed first.

No one was willing to keep killing suffering people who had just managed to survive for the sake of a few well-fed nobles.

Xiao Chengxu was forced into the negotiation tent.

That day, Qi Yan was burning with a fever so high he could barely sit straight, yet he still wore his imperial robes to the meeting.

Before entering the tent, he held my hand inside the carriage. His palm was so cold it lacked any spark of life.

I said, “If you can’t hold on, let me negotiate today.”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Why?”

“Because they can curse you for betraying your country, but I cannot let you be the one to lose it for me.”

I froze.

He coughed twice, the scent of blood suppressed by the fragrance of medicine, making it taste even more bitter.

“Shen Zhaoxue, I am already a man who killed his father. Adding ‘the fall of a nation’ to that is nothing more than a few extra strokes of ink in the history books. You are different. You must stand within the new administration, in a place where the people can see you. You cannot be covered in blood.”

I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t find a single word.

It turned out he had even calculated the infamy on my behalf.

The Golden Cage he gave me had bars made of political schemes, military edges, and the blood of the court. But outside the cage door, he had also paved a path for me, bit by bit.

Xiao Chengxu looked at him and said coldly, “This is the end of your nation.”

Qi Yan nodded. “Yes.”

“You killed your father, and now you lose your country. How will the history books write of you?”

Qi Yan smiled faintly.

“The worse they write, the better.”

Xiao Chengxu frowned.

Qi Yan said, “If they record all the sins as mine, those who come after will have a little less reason to curse her.”

A dead silence filled the tent.

I stood behind Qi Yan, my nails digging deep into my palms.

He did not look back.

He pushed the Northern Yan Imperial Seal to the center of the table.

“The Qi Royal Court ends with me.”

At that moment, I heard the wind blowing through the banners outside the tent, sounding as if countless dead souls had finally let out a long sigh of relief.

Xiao Chengxu finally signed the Covenant.

As he set down the brush, he looked at me. “Zhaoxue, you will regret this.”

I replied, “The things I regret were already finished on the day you sent me away for the political marriage.”