Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Just as I had once pitied him, he was pitying me now.

Perhaps pity was not love between a man and a woman, but as long as Zhao Ling treated me sincerely, that was enough. I did not ask for much.

Before Qiao Jingxian appeared, there was no doubt in my mind about his sincerity.

In his leisure, he would tease Heqing, his eyes full of tenderness, every inch the loving father.

He would also take my hand and lead me up to the high towers and jade halls.

Beyond the balustrade, the sky was vast, the clouds wide, and Great Wei’s ten thousand li of mountains and rivers stretched endlessly before us.

He gazed into the distance, then turned and smiled at me. “Rong’er, we will go farther and farther. As you once said, husband and wife are one, bound together into the primordial vastness.”

“This consort will always remain by Your Majesty’s side.”

A smile curved my lips. The way I looked at him must have been just as it had been in the past.

At the right moment, he slipped an arm around my waist and drew me into his embrace, holding me gently from behind. By my ear, he said, “Bear Us an imperial prince. We once said that one day, We would take him to the fengshan sacrificial ceremony and let him look out over ten thousand li of rivers and mountains.”

“This consort cannot be certain she will give birth to a prince. What if it is another princess?”

Zhao Ling laughed and pressed his cheek to mine. “Foolish girl. Even if it is a princess, We will love her all the same.”

“But Your Majesty needs an imperial prince.”

For imperial authority to command loyalty, the ministers needed to see hope.

The birth of a prince would better solidify the throne.

We both understood this perfectly. Yet when I opened my mouth to urge him to expand the harem, he tightened his hold around my waist. “Rong’er and We still have a long road ahead. It is only a matter of succession; there is no need to rush. We will do better, and wait for our imperial child to be born.”

When I married him, I was fourteen, an age of innocence and bright simplicity. The Hu Minrong of that time would have been moved by such words and gestures.

But I was no longer fourteen.

I had been abandoned by my family. I had been humiliated and violated.

Back then, I had envied Song Youshu beyond measure.

Zhao Ling had done nothing wrong. He simply did not like me.

He liked Song Youshu. When he looked at her, there were tiny shards of light in his eyes, bright and glittering.

Just as there were in my eyes when I looked at him.

Back then, we had all still possessed true feelings we were capable of giving.

How I envied Song Youshu. I envied her to the point of obsession, imagining how wonderful it would be if I were her.

He accompanied her to fly kites, to paint, to admire flowers. When their eyes met and they smiled, it was all spring breeze.

When I saw it, I could only step back and watch in secret.

A devoted man and a willing woman-how beautiful it was.

I loved the sincerity of their feelings, the way their hearts answered each other.

That was something I had sought but could never obtain. It was precious beyond measure.

Yet in the end, their song ended with death, and the spring blossoms withered.

Song Youshu trampled on his sincerity.

He abandoned her and their child.

After the spring blossoms withered, the ground was blood-red, a shocking sight.

That had once been the very thing I longed for even in my dreams.

What a pity that the dream shattered, and I woke.

I would be a good Empress, a good wife, and stand firmly at his side.

Husband and wife are one, bound together into the primordial vastness.

But I would never again, nor would I dare, love him without reservation.

So when Qiao Jingxian’s veil fluttered down and I saw the faint change in his expression, my heart merely sank. Soon, it was calm again, without a ripple.

Even though Qiao Jingxian had eyes and brows similar to the Song Youshu of the past.

The thing I had once envied was brought up again after it had already shattered.

A fake would always be fake, leaving only devastation wherever one looked.

He had never loved Song Youshu at all.

When he was still the third son of Prince Yi, he had simply been a young man who acted according to his nature.