Chapter 6
The Golden-Furred Hou wasn’t home. To our surprise, every demon obeyed Queen Jinsheng, and at her command they ushered us in properly.
When she heard why we’d come, she laughed until she doubled over. Then her face slowly darkened.
Wine had flushed her lovely features, but a sharpness suddenly entered her eyes. “I don’t need anyone to save me.
“The man who pushed me out to die gets to hide behind you and wave his hand, and that absolves his guilt?
“He doesn’t get off that easily.”
I opened my mouth, but she cut me off before I could speak. “Are you going to tell me guilt and worry made him gravely ill?
“That he loves me?
“Or that he’s a king, and he had no choice but to push me out?”
Her expression was fierce. “He couldn’t protect his people. That makes him an incompetent ruler. He couldn’t protect his wife. That makes him an incompetent husband. I was abducted three years ago, and he never once came looking for me because he was afraid of demons.”
She paused, a trace of mockery entering her face. “You say he’s suffering. You say he’s ill. Do you have any idea how many new beauties have entered his harem in those three years? How many princes and royal grandchildren have been born?
“His suffering certainly hasn’t stopped him surrounding himself with women.
“A man’s love is such a cheap thing.”
I.
Fuck.
This plot.
It was a dark fanfic, wasn’t it?!
To complete the quest, I told Queen Jinsheng that if we brought her back, the king was willing to abandon his throne and wealth and disappear among the common people.
See? He loved you so much!
He’d even give up his throne for you!
Instead, she grew even angrier. “So he abandoned me for three years, and now I’m supposed to go back and suffer alongside him once he’s penniless?!
“Is he mad, or am I?”
“That’s a tough one,” I said.
Utterly disillusioned with the king, Queen Jinsheng refused to discuss it further and ordered us out. I tried to say more, but she suddenly produced a set of bells. One shake brought fire, a second smoke, and a third sent sand and stones flying.
My brother still wanted to fight. Lying on his head and tugging at his hair, I said, “Brother, if you want to fight, at least take a look at me first…
“I’m half cooked…”
He sighed, put away his golden-hooped staff, and returned to Zhuzi Kingdom.
When Second Brother saw us, he hurried over from a distance. “Eldest Brother, did you go off to eat something delicious? I can smell it! It smells amazing!”
I smiled. “Second Brother, would you say it smells like roast snake?”
He smacked his lips. “It really does, a bit.”
Then he finally caught on. “Oh, Little Sister! Why are YOU cooked?!”
He began whispering furtively. “See, Little Sister? This is how unreliable Eldest Brother is. If he were reliable, Master wouldn’t have been kidnapped so often!”
He pointed at himself. “I may not be as powerful, but at least I get kidnapped with Master. We live and die together, and I never abandon him. That’s much better than Eldest Brother!”
“…” Why did your logic make a weird amount of sense?