Chapter 81
Chapter 81
“Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager says your journey was exhausting. There is no need to pay your respects upon returning.”
The senior palace maid spoke courteously to Xunlan Liu. When her gaze passed over the woman beside him, light briefly flashed in her eyes.
Xunlan was not surprised. His mother was cold by nature and had never been close to him.
“In that case, We shall return.”
He wrapped an arm around the newcomer and left.
The senior maid returned and reported his words to the Empress Dowager.
Despite the title, the woman did not look old.
With a hibiscus face, willow brows, and clear eyes, she wore light makeup and magnificent robes. She possessed the elegance of a begonia and was a rare beauty.
No one would guess she had married and borne a child.
“Empress Dowager, His Majesty has left,” the maid said gently.
Yan Yu’s expression did not change. Her cold face looked faintly bored as fingers tipped with crimson polish idly teased the bird before her.
Soon, the maid returned.
“Empress Dowager, the Noble Consort has arrived.”
Yan tossed aside the bird toy. Her boredom vanished. Suppressing her excitement, she adjusted the hair at her temple.
“Quickly, let him enter.”
Before long, a breathtaking figure in red walked inside.
He dressed as a woman yet did not resemble one. What ordinary woman possessed that languid nobility, or exuded such damned sensuality despite covering even his neck?
Yan’s knees weakened merely looking at him.
“This consort greets the Empress Dowager.”
Fusheng performed a lazy, improper bow.
The Empress Dowager, usually obsessed with etiquette, showed no displeasure. She spoke warmly instead.
“Rise. The journey was difficult.”
Fusheng lifted his chin in acknowledgment.
Yan signaled the senior maid, who understood and led every servant outside.
Shengsheng followed them.
Once everyone withdrew, only Yan and Fusheng remained.
The formerly aloof, noble Empress Dowager dropped to her knees and crawled toward him.
His hem drew close. Her hands trembled with excitement.
One glance from Fusheng stopped her from advancing.
He was so exalted that she was unworthy even to touch his clothes.
The thought made Yan’s breathing heavier.
“Your Maj–my lord, how did matters go in Bixia City?”
She looked up, making no attempt to hide the adoration in her eyes.
Fusheng had long grown accustomed to her diseased devotion. He casually nudged her chin with one foot, signaling her to move.
“Your information was correct. There truly was a key in Bixia City.”
The degrading gesture did not anger Yan. Her obsession deepened.
“Moonbank Lake and Bixia City–we now possess two keys. Once we find the King’s Seal, the glory of Qing Kingdom will soon return!”
She lay prostrate, panting with excitement.
Her words stirred no interest in Fusheng.
He looked at her with disgust, though his mouth said, “Indeed. That day will soon come.”
The day he found Qing’s hidden treasure, secluded himself somewhere, and squandered money however he pleased had drawn one step closer.
Thousands of years ago, Qing Kingdom ruled the continent.
Legend claimed that Qing’s imperial clan descended from the divine phoenix. Once every hundred years, a child capable of inheriting the phoenix’s divine power was born among its descendants.
Yet phoenix blood did not give Qing’s royal family a solemn sense of duty.
It gave them arrogance.
Arrogance and laziness became the original sins of nearly every member of the royal family.
They whipped and abused slaves, mistreated the common people, and reduced the realm to misery.
The people could barely fill their stomachs, yet still endured brutal forced labor and crushing taxes.
Every dynasty’s decay and fall meant that new blood would inherit history and become its heroes.
The lords of four cities–Bixia, Huangdan, Chiyan, and Heiyi–formed an alliance to overthrow Qing Kingdom.
Years of laziness and arrogance left Qing’s imperial clan utterly unprepared. They were astonished that mere mortals dared challenge the authority of the divine bird’s descendants and covet their lands.
But their absurd lives had led them to neglect their armies. They had no strength to resist.
The emperor of that generation was vicious and violent. His armies lost battle after battle, yet his commanders sent false reports of victory.
Thus, when the alliance cavalry broke through Qing territory and charged into the lavish palace, Qing’s ruler still lay drunk in a magnificent pool filled with red wine and jewels.
The alliance won a great victory.
In secret, however, Huangdan, Chiyan, and Heiyi reached an agreement. They decided to betray Bixia, the weakest of the four.
The combined armies ambushed Bixia, annihilating every one of its soldiers.
Heiyi’s ruler personally killed Bixia’s queen as she awaited her husband’s triumphant return. The city was forcibly sealed, and all twenty-three thousand five hundred residents starved to death inside their own home.
With the conspiracy complete, the three cities divided the land and crowned themselves.
Huangdan became Zhen. Heiyi became Yong. The lord of Chiyan used his own name, Zhu Wang, to name Zhu Kingdom.
Time washed away hatred between kingdoms and drowned that history.
The once brilliant, extravagantly wealthy Qing dynasty died spectacularly in the river of time.
Fusheng was a surviving descendant of Qing. He also possessed a rare ancestral bloodline and had been burdened from childhood with the mission of restoring Qing’s glory.
Yet besides inheriting phoenix blood, Fusheng inherited the laziness his ancestors had refused to repent even at death.
He had no interest whatsoever in that once-mighty dynasty.
Simply watching Xunlan–an emperor widely called a foolish ruler–govern a kingdom left Fusheng exhausted.
If one had no ambition, one ought not torment the people. His ancestors provided an excellent warning.
Unfortunately, Fusheng also adored luxury and coveted wealth.
So, apologies: Fusheng did not dream of reviving the glory of a kingdom dead for nearly two thousand years.
He merely wanted to find the emergency treasure accumulated across dozens of generations of Qing royalty, then lie upon a mountain of gold until he died.
“My lord, this subordinate’s people will return tonight with a new clue,” Yan Yu said, raising her head.
Before she could see him clearly, a dark-red hem swept past her nose.
He had simply left.
“Well done,” Fusheng said, in a profoundly perfunctory tone.
If servants had not been about to reenter, Yan would have rolled across the floor.
Her noble future sovereign had praised her!
Yan was a descendant of the Qing people who survived hidden across the continent. Every generation shared one lifelong wish:
Restore their former glory.
Fusheng’s birth had been like the first dawn in limitless darkness. The Qing descendants who had hidden for thousands of years devoted themselves desperately to him.
Yan proved especially capable. Beginning as a lowly consort, she outlived the old emperor and became the Empress Dowager of Zhu Kingdom.
To conceal his identity–and satisfy her own peculiar tastes–Yan carefully created a new role for Fusheng.
Her daughter-in-law.