Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Their Future Still Lies Ahead… [End of Main Text]

Considering the unease of the Qin family in the unfamiliar Jin Kingdom, Du Yinsui and her companions were not arranged to rest in Wen Junzhi’s residence but eventually made their way back through secret paths to the house where the Qin family dined.

Night deepened, lights went out.

Du Yinsui had no plan to hide her true identity from Jiang Wu for long, so she told him everything. As for Wen Junzhi’s suggestion to act early to avoid complications, it was simple…

In the Jin Kingdom, women ruled, and the throne passed down to daughters, unlike countries where men were emperors. Similar to those nations, royal succession first depended on gender, then on legitimacy.

The current Empress Baili Xin and the little deceiver Baili Ying’s mother, Baili Jiao, were both daughters of the previous Empress and her consort. They had a ten-year age gap and got along well as children. But after Baili Xin became Empress, she had several sons and couldn’t have a daughter. Baili Jiao’s first child was Baili Ying, and whispers started in the court.

Royal power struggles are always the same everywhere. Even though Baili Jiao claimed she loved her dead husband and vowed never to marry again, and faked a fall into cold water to become infertile, she still couldn’t win back Baili Xin’s trust with Baili Ying around.

Baili Ying was seven then, and Baili Jiao was twenty-eight. Empress Baili Xin was thirty-eight, facing higher risks in childbirth. Yet she refused to listen to her ministers and train Baili Ying as her heir.

Wanting a child of your own as successor is natural. But…

Wen Junzhi saved Baili Ying from drowning in a remote palace spot. Baili Ying was staying in the palace for "education" then, and the fall wasn’t her first accident.

Though Baili Jiao and Baili Ying didn’t want the throne at first, they had to make a choice. After the fall, Baili Ying became "simple-minded," and after tests and treatments, she truly gained Baili Xin’s "pity," living safely for a few years.

But Baili Jiao was tired of surviving on others’ whims, and Wen Junzhi didn’t want Baili Ying to live that way.

Over the years, Baili Xin shifted from hoping for her own daughter to wanting a granddaughter from her grown sons. Sadly, early court fights left the sons with health problems, so they only gave her grandsons despite trying hard.

No granddaughter came, but at forty-six, Baili Xin had a daughter last year.

With an heir now, Baili Ying should have been safer. Baili Jiao even hesitated about causing trouble. Yet when Western Xirong envoys came to congratulate Baili Xin and asked if she’d send a royal woman to their Empress’s palace, Baili Xin didn’t say no. After they left, she tested Baili Jiao too.

Baili Xin said nicely, "Baili Ying has a child’s mind and can’t run a household. She should marry into the Xirong royal family in two years. They don’t mind her condition; she might find peace."

It sounded good. But how could someone with a child’s mind marry? If she couldn’t handle things in her own country, how could she survive a harsh foreign Empress’s palace?

With no granddaughter and only one daughter, Baili Xin still felt unsure and planned to send Baili Ying away.

In two years, whether Baili Ying’s condition healed or not, Wen Junzhi would overturn Baili Xin’s world.

Now Du Yinsui had arrived, Baili Ying was cured without medicine, and Wen Junzhi wanted things settled fast.

Du Yinsui left out the parts about crossing realms and special powers but told Jiang Wu the rest.

Her poison would clear in three days, but letting enemies sit safely on high wasn’t right. She shared goals with Wen Junzhi and others, so she offered her "strength."

"Don’t worry, I’m just going to watch; others will handle the action," Du Yinsui said, pressing her hand to Jiang Wu’s brow and smoothing the frown with her fingers.

"I…" Jiang Wu wanted to say he would go with her.

But the words stuck. He remembered his poor aim in the cave—worse than those who trained him, and not as good as Du Yinsui’s—so he stayed silent.

What would going do? He might just be a burden, needing Du Yinsui to protect him.

In the air, self-blame, guilt, and disappointment slowly rose.

Du Yinsui gave Jiang Wu a firm pat, snapping him out of his heavy mood.

"Once that matter was settled, we would truly be safe in Jin Kingdom. Didn’t you say you wanted to formally learn martial arts while on the road? Later, I would have a teacher pick a few good ones for you, so you could learn from morning till night." Du Yinsui changed the subject, thinking about things she once wanted to learn but couldn’t, "I would also have the teacher find some skilled physicians for me. While you learn martial arts, I’ll study poisons, so no one would dare bother us later."

Though she said "later," to distract Jiang Wu, Du Yinsui brought three martial arts masters from Wen Junzhi the next day, setting up lessons for morning, noon, and evening.

Three days later, Du Yinsui’s poison was cleared, and she started acting as a palace maid, accompanying Baili Jiao to pay respects in the palace.

As she told Jiang Wu, she was just going to "look," to "see" how many people were hiding in the shadows around Baili Xin, and where they liked to stay.

Wen Junzhi and Baili Jiao, who had prepared for years, were very patient. They kept doing this every few days for almost a month before finally acting.

Baili Xin had ruled for over twenty years and had faced assassination attempts before. But this time, with assassins right in front of her, they didn’t attack her directly. Instead, strange noises sounded as they aimed at unknown spots with strange tools… it was new to her.

In the light smell of burning, Baili Xin heard a heavy object hit the ground.

When they captured her, her protectors were gone! Where were her guards, who could tell if someone knew martial arts?

The palace maids with Baili Jiao, who didn’t seem to know martial arts, had taken down her guards without bows or arrows… what magic had they used?

Baili Xin never got to understand any of it.

Baili Jiao might have spared Baili Xin’s life because of their past sisterly bond, overlooking Baili Xin’s actions against Baili Ying. But because Baili Ying insisted, Baili Jiao handed her over to her daughter for judgment.

Since Wen Junzhi came into her life, Baili Ying hadn’t suffered much from Baili Xin. She didn’t feel the need to kill her.

However…

Others wanted her dead.

Even though they were sisters, Wen Junzhi didn’t want Baili Jiao to resent Du Yinsui over Baili Xin’s death once Baili Jiao took power, so he planned to handle it himself.

But Baili Ying couldn’t let her mother resent Wen Junzhi for that reason.

If someone had to do it, better it be her.

Baili Ying did it herself, without any hesitation.

After seeing Baili Xin’s end, Du Yinsui went back to Wen Junzhi’s home and waited three more days. Once Baili Jiao’s people had organized the court and cleaned up the palace, Du Heng, the father of the original body, was brought to her.

When Du Heng begged Du Yinsui to protect his newborn daughter with Baili Xin, she kicked him.

"You should be glad it’s me standing here," Du Yinsui said to Du Heng, then had him taken away.

Being able to recall the memories of her predecessor, Du Yinsui knew well how sad and full of hate that person had been at the end.

The predecessor hated Baili Xin for killing her mother to take her father, and hated her father for sending her to a spy camp and ignoring her while having a child with her enemy. Of course, she also hated her half-sister, wishing them all dead.

The predecessor wanted Baili Xin dead; now Baili Xin was dead.

The predecessor wanted Du Heng to suffer years of hardship; Du Yinsui had Wen Junzhi send him to the current spy camp. They ruined his meridians so he couldn’t succeed, making him suffer for life. They gave him the poison used to control spies, but only sometimes gave him the antidote.

Only one thing didn’t go with the predecessor’s hate:

The baby girl, not even a year old, wasn’t killed by Baili Ying and the others, and Du Yinsui didn’t want to harm her either. Wen Junzhi arranged for the child to be sent away, to a place no one knew, to a family with unknown background.

The child would never know her origins, and they would never know her future.

That was best for everyone.

Under Wen Junzhi’s powerful enhancement, Baili Xin’s reign was completely overturned in just three days.

Everything proceeded smoothly, but ultimately, Baili Ying—not Baili Jiao—ascended the throne.

Wen Junzhi found this reasonable. After all, compared to the still soft-hearted Baili Jiao, Baili Ying—who’d endured hardship with such dedication she could win an acting award—was clearly better suited for the position.

This merely meant she claimed power earlier, sparing everyone a messy transition.

Detecting the lifted spirits around her, Du Yinsui could only think: *Teacher, you remain utterly unaware of that little liar’s wish to protect you… and win your heart.*

Baili Ying’s rise brought many advantages. For Du Yinsui, operating through Wen Junzhi became far smoother.

Martial arts? They mastered them.

Poisons? They studied those too.

Add firearms and ammunition training…

After a year, Du Yinsui felt her little team—rebuilt from exiles—had grown terrifyingly strong.

Yet something was even more startling: Wen Junzhi herself had trained alongside them all year.

As *the* Wen Junzhi of Jin Kingdom, did she truly need such rigorous self-improvement?

Had she stayed in Jin Kingdom? Probably not…

Observing Wen Junzhi’s diligence, then seeing the ever-annoyed little liar emperor during her visits, Du Yinsui felt endlessly grateful she’d arranged this training early.

*Depend on the mountain and it will fall; depend on water and it will flow away; depending on others is never as reliable as depending on yourself!*

A year was enough for diligent learners to make great strides, for laggards to inch forward, and for…

Though Prince Cheng could no longer extract aid from Jin Kingdom after Baili Ying’s rise, his years of covert preparation allowed him to seize full control of Yizhou within six months. He swallowed Zhao Kingdom’s northwestern Liangzhou and even took a quarter of Jingzhou, east of Yizhou.

Remember: east of Jingzhou lay Zhongzhou—the very heart of Zhao Kingdom’s capital.

But the triumphant Prince Cheng finally met his match.

Half the Han army, originally garrisoned in Linzhou of the Northern lands, was redeployed to Jingzhou by the Emperor’s order. Their presence stalled Prince Cheng’s territorial expansion in Jingzhou for six months.

Yet mobilizing the Han army cost Emperor Jiang Qiqian dearly.

The Second Prince of Han lineage—meant to be elevated then discarded—now had to remain elevated indefinitely.

But Second Prince Jiang Shouchuan, already wild and poorly disciplined, grew even more reckless under Jiang Qiqian’s indulgence. Chaos inevitably followed.

No one foresaw *how* chaotic.

A minor conflict among consorts led Noble Consort Han—at the peak of her influence—to punish several by making them kneel.

Consort Ning, Ning Shanru, was among them.

Heavy rain poured as the Emperor rushed over upon hearing the news. Noble Consort Han, backed by the Han army’s might, charmingly led him away.

The Seventh Prince couldn’t persuade his mother to rise from the rain-soaked ground. He went to find the Emperor.

But Emperor Jiang Qiqian, reliant on the Han army to suppress Prince Cheng, chose imperial power once more—just as he’d chosen others as consort and empress to secure his throne.

To him, Consort Ning kneeling in the rain meant little—she might fall ill, but he could soothe her later.

No one expected the Seventh Prince’s desperate intrusion into the consort’s palace to reach the Emperor would catch the attention of the utterly arrogant Second Prince.

Enduring rain and kneeling paled before what came next.

He kicked her.

Consort Ning lay unconscious, her children frantic at her side, and despite his own boiling anger, Jiang Qiqian dared not move against the Second Prince at this time.

No number of imperial physicians could retrieve a soul claimed by the King of Hell.

No military force could hold back the brewing upheaval within the Palace.

A year ago in Jin Kingdom’s Empress’s palace, only Baili Xin and some secret guards had died. One year later, in Zhao Kingdom’s Empress’s palace, blood soaked the boots, making each step nearly impossible.

Poisoned wine at the palace feast, the Seventh Prince’s dagger, screams and shouts—nothing could stop a madman who had lost his mother.

By morning, only the Seventh Prince and his full-blooded sister Jiang Yuheng, half-maddened by the scene, remained of Jiang Qiqian’s line. Countless lives were lost to the rebellion, with none spared in Noble Consort Han’s quarters.

Madness demanded a price.

The once-diligent Han army stationed in Jingzhou and Linzhou raised the flag of rebellion.

If they hadn’t killed too many of Prince Cheng’s forces earlier, they might have joined him.

They didn’t unite, and Zhao Kingdom was no better for it.

Rebellion, if not crushed quickly, only grew.

Beyond Prince Cheng and the Han army, rebels arose in Qiongzhou and Daizhou, which had just recovered from famine.

Meanwhile, the newly self-declared Emperor, Seventh Prince Jiang Ziye, paid no mind, ordering a search for Daoists, monks, and wandering scholars to find a way to revive the dead.

It was unclear if the rebels were madder, or the emperor even more so.

Zhao Kingdom’s turmoil had little to do with Jin Kingdom, whose forces, though not all armed with modern weapons, had strengthened their traditional arms.

The bigger impact came when Jiang Wu froze for days upon hearing of the deposed Empress’s death, after the Seventh Prince’s rampage in Zhao Kingdom’s Empress’s palace.

But with Du Yinsui around, she allowed only those few days.

Earlier, Chu Xiulan sent a secret message to Qiongzhou, missing the Chu family members who had gone north. After delays and Prince Cheng’s uprising, the Chu family got the message months later and reached Jin Kingdom. And trailing behind was the persistent Fan Zaizhi.

So familiar faces in Jin Kingdom multiplied.

Du Yinsui gave Jiang Wu days to mourn the unworthy deposed Empress, then dragged him out.

Today he was sent to Fan Zaizhi’s residence for martial training, tomorrow to Jin Kingdom’s martial masters. Qin Chongli’s cultural lessons, studying medicine and poisons with Du Yinsui, the Chu family’s trade skills…

Better to learn hard than waste time on undeserving people!

Du Yinsui watched strictly; Jiang Wu learned hard, shown when Baili Ying invited him to a banquet—Jiang Wu, usually uninterested, seemed eager to go.

Baili Ying hosted the banquet but held it at Wen Junzhi’s residence as usual; most guests were Du Yinsui’s Zhao Kingdom ties.

Before the feast, Wen Junzhi called Du Yinsui to his study to swap resources from their storage rings.

As she left, Du Yinsui mussed Jiang Wu’s hair firmly, telling him to have fun or face more study later!

Nearby, Baili Ying, hearing such "threats" for the first time, looked on with rare envy.

Watching them head to the study, Baili Ying’s eyes lit up as she pulled Jiang Wu away.

Jiang Wu had visited Wen Junzhi’s home often that year, but when Baili Ying led him to a small storage-like room, he was puzzled.

Until…

Baili Ying dug at the ground in a corner, unearthing a wine jar.

“I’m not drinking,” Jiang Wu said, stepping back and covering his mouth.

If she’d actually taken a few sips, she truly would have started babbling nonsense. Baili Ying, who was slapping dirt from her palms, looked up and rolled her eyes. "You think you’ll get some of the wine my teacher brewed for me? In your dreams."

Jiang Wu: "…"

As Baili Ying opened the jar, a light floral scent drifted out before the rich aroma of wine. She didn’t bother finding a cup and took a big gulp straight from the jar. Unsurprisingly, it sent her into a coughing fit.

"You… can you handle liquor?" Jiang Wu asked, sniffing the increasingly potent alcohol in the air. He hesitated, then patted Baili Ying’s back as she coughed herself into a curled-up shrimp.

"W-women… cough… never admit weakness," Baili Ying declared, her face red from coughing. She wagged a finger slyly, then grinned conspiratorially. "If I can’t hold my liquor later, you know what to do, right?"

Jiang Wu: "…"

Recalling his own experiences, he had an inkling, but he’d rather not dwell on it.

"Pfft, so prim and proper. Can’t believe someone like you has a wife while I don’t!" Baili Ying plopped down against the wall, took another swig, then shot him a glance. "If I get drunk, carry me. Carry me to Teacher. Oh, and hold me tight this time. I won’t mind."

"You’re only sixteen…" Jiang Wu couldn’t pretend ignorance. He voiced his disapproval and reached for the jar she clung to.

The alcohol was already taking effect. Baili Ying dodged his hand, baring her teeth. "How dare you steal my wine!"

Though she’d been Emperor for a year, Baili Ying usually acted like the little trickster Du Yinsui described, especially around Wen Junzhi, regressing into childishness. This was the first time Jiang Wu heard her use "Emperor" for herself. Stunned, his hand froze mid-reach.

"Hehe, scared now?" Baili Ying squinted, laughing. "Relax, just messing with you."

Jiang Wu wasn’t scared, but he didn’t try grabbing the jar again, straightening up instead.

"Hey, just teasing! Mad?" Baili Ying tapped his shoe with her toe. "Don’t be stingy! You have a wife, I don’t. Be generous! *You* said no to drinking. If you insist now, I’ll share."

"Not mad." Jiang Wu eyed her crimson face and paused. "Drink less. You might vomit."

"Tch, totally mad," Baili Ying turned away, muttering, "Stingy folks drink cold water, grow up to be a three-legged creature."

Jiang Wu: "…"

"This ‘Emperor’ nonsense, I just said it. Didn’t even want the throne. Find me a wife, and you can be Emperor! Endless documents daily! Teacher won’t help, just plays with you lot." Baili Ying pouted angrily. "Don’t think I’m clueless! She just wants to roam with you Zhao Kingdom rascals! Why else learn all that? Don’t we have our own martial masters? Our own healers? Why cram so much? In Jin Kingdom, *I* protect you! That’s why I’m Emperor! Yet you all just want to wander off! Rascals!"

Jiang Wu had no retort.

Though Jin Kingdom was safe, they’d never promised to stay forever.

"See? Hit the mark!" Baili Ying jabbed a finger accusingly. "The big fools are one thing, but you! You must know… You’re her husband! Surely you’ve noticed? Do you think her… uniqueness… can be shielded by dabbling in martial arts? By learning some medicine? By painting or writing? It takes *me*! Me reading those awful documents! Me enduring those long-winded old ministers! Me staying on this throne! To protect them… You rascals… Stinkers…"

Jiang Wu looked down at Baili Ying, now a soft, grumbling puddle on the floor. So he wasn’t the only one who turned talkative when drunk.

Before Jiang Wu could decide whether to summon help or carry Baili Ying to Wen Junzhi as requested, the storeroom door swung open.

There stood a flustered Wen Junzhi, who scooped up Baili Ying. And Du Yinsui, who lifted the wine jar, inhaled deeply, and praised the brewing skill.

Their timely arrival surprised Jiang Wu… not at all.

As Wen Junzhi hurried off with her burden, Du Yinsui called out mischievously, "Teacher, she’s only sixteen!"

Jiang Wu watched Wen Junzhi stumble mid-step. Though she didn’t look back, her retreat seemed distinctly flustered.

Du Yinsui chuckled gleefully, then turned and patted Jiang Wu’s chin. "Good boy, not drinking. Very obedient."

"Will Teacher Wen always protect you?" Jiang Wu ignored her remark, asking instead.

Du Yinsui paused. "What? What did Baili Ying say?"

Jiang Wu shook his head. "She just said to carry her to Teacher Wen if she got drunk. This is my own question."

"Teacher’s good, but ‘always’… Let’s focus on studying, okay?" Du Yinsui patted his suddenly serious face, amused. "Supposed to be relaxing! Why so solemn? Craving study already?"

Jiang Wu shook his head, catching her hand. "Don’t want to study. But… I want…"

"Want what?" Du Yinsui paused, her gaze catching on Jiang Wu’s reddening ears. Her smile vanished. She smacked his arm firmly. "Are you insane! We’re still at Wen Junzhi’s place! Just last night… And the night before… And the night before that…"

"The host is down for the count. Leaving early is normal, right?" Jiang Wu cut off her inventory of sins, adopting a pitiful look. "The day’s not over. Don’t you want to?"

"Stop hanging out with Baili Ying! No acting awards here!" Du Yinsui pinched his arm irritably. "How is today ‘not over’? Didn’t last night’s final round spill past midnight? Huh?"

Some things defied logic.

So what if it was technically a new day after midnight? Today… was still long.

Their future together… stretched even longer.