She was in endless pain, but nobody paid attention to her, she kneeled in front of the shrine for a while before suddenly breaking out into sobs. It was like she'd traveled back to her years in the Cold Palace, facing bullying, scorn, and being stepped on, they were definitely the darkest days of her life.
At this moment, she suddenly realized that the supreme glory and power she now had were all gifts from the Emperor. When the Emperor cared about her, she was the untouchable Hui Yi Imperial Consort, once the Emperor rejected her, she was back to living in the Cold Palace, in the precarious state of an insignificant noble.
Her pride was propped up by the Emperor's affection, as long as she was the Emperor's imperial concubine, she had to obey him, otherwise, her body's prideful bones would be broken one by one. Thinking of this, Zhao Bi Xuan finally woke up from her beautiful dream of constant pampering, on one side, she decided to face the Emperor with a bit more reverence, on the other side, she was even more desperate for Qi Jin Yu to successfully steal the throne. Qi Jin Yu would never treat her like this.
Discovering the first signs of Zhao Bi Xuan losing pet status, the other imperial concubines decided to wait and see, but the Empress Dowager couldn't suppress her hate, coming up with various ways to torment her every day. From the moment she'd learned about Zhao Bi Xuan seducing her son, the Empress Dowager had always wanted to swallow her heart whole. Zhao Bi Xuan's days were now miserable, she tried having a maid deliver a letter to the Emperor, but didn't get a response, and slowly started losing hope.
—————–
Zhou Yun Sheng left Feng Yi Palace and hurriedly replaced his court dress, dressing up in a scholar's style before secretly sneaking out of the palace, determined to go to a secluded area. Seven left turns, eight right turns, he finally stopped walking when he reached an abandoned courtyard.
"Show yourself!" He commanded the empty space.
No sign of movement. About a quarter of an hour later, Zhou Yun Sheng sneered and turned to leave. Suddenly, a black-dressed man dropped out of nowhere, dashing towards the Emperor at high-speed.
"Finally out!" Zhou Yun Sheng shouted triumphantly and executed a fan attack. The two figures exchanged blows, the wind from their fists cracking open the roof of the abandoned building and blowing the walking path's stones away. The small dilapidated courtyard started tottering, on the verge of collapse.
"You keep going out on patrol in plain clothes very often lately, are you looking for me?" Zhao Xuan was often brushing past the Emperor, he had to throw out his voice to ask this sentence.
"Did you miss me?"
"You can't forget about that day?"
"I missed you so much, being away from you was unbearable."
"I love you so much it hurts!"
Fuck, can't you just shut up! Zhou Yun Sheng scowled at him, his eyes throwing daggers. This person suddenly appears and makes a fool out of him, blindfolding and slipping him drugs him every time, never straightforward with him.
Whatever the circumstances, he was still the Emperor, making love this way was simply disgraceful! This time, Zhou Yun Sheng used himself as bait, he was definitely going to make the other man suffer. Gradually leading him to a clear space, Zhou Yun Sheng suddenly kicked him away and shouted, "Release the arrows!"
The shadow guards he'd stationed there a long time ago launched an attack at the black-dressed man.
Zhao Xuan skillfully dodged the wave of arrows and quickly escaped, but the shadow guards didn't give up, tossing away the bows, they grabbed their swords and gave chase. Zhou Yun Sheng loudly commanded, "Capture and bring him to me alive! Whoever catches this bandit, I'll grant him 20,000 gold, and promotion to a rank two official!"
The shadow guards felt a rush of excitement and pursued more relentlessly. But the black dressed man wasn't the slightest bit panicked, he whistled, then numerous black-dressed men leapt out, in a few rounds, they slashed through all the imperial shadow guards, then sped away with the leader black-dressed man.
The shadow guards helped each other up and went up to the Emperor, begging for forgiveness.
Zhou Yun Sheng stared in the direction of Zhao Xuan's escape, his expression livid. He thought he could finally catch this man today, tie him to the imperial bed, and wantonly have his way with him, he hadn't expected him to be daring enough to use shadow guards while in the capital. Apparently, his reach was longer than he'd predicted, forget the Northwest, he could probably even run around as he pleased in the capital.
"Let's go." Zhou Yun Sheng flicked his sleeves and furiously turned away, while walking, he stroke 008 on his ear. Even though his lover has amnesia, he was not completely mindless, each time he kidnapped him, he gave him a bunch of source code afterwards. He especially loves sucking on his ear to transfer code into 008's database, he seems to find it pleasurable.
Damned pervert, even reincarnation couldn't fix his endless horniness. Thinking of this, Zhou Yun Sheng didn't know whether to be angry or laugh, cursing him out inwardly.
Zhao Xuan stripped out of his disguise and went back to Yu Guo Duchy, beckoning over several confidants to discuss business.
"General, what are you planning?" A Deputy General asked with a tangled expression. He really couldn't read the General's intention, he always said he wasn't interested in the throne, but he was obviously fond of ambushing the Emperor, however, if he'd changed his mind and was now interested in the throne, he wouldn't bring the Emperor back unscathed every time. He provoked the Emperor's ire over and over again, what was his goal?
If Zhao Xuan could hear the Deputy General's inner monologue, he would certainly tell him that the Emperor was his other half. But he couldn't hear, so he simply chuckled and waved his hand, his eyes full of happiness and excitement.
The man said that he wanted him captured live, could it be, he couldn't bear to injure him? Must be, otherwise, if he played with somebody else that way, any normal person would eagerly hack him into pieces, and grind his bones into dust, who would care to capture him alive? What did the Emperor plan to do after he captured him?
Zhao Xuan imagined himself being tied to a torture frame and whipped by the Emperor, every cell in his body began trembling in excitement.
"General, what are your orders? Give us the word so we can start making plans." The Deputy General saw him not answering and asked again.
"I'm not interested in the throne." I'm only interested in the person on the throne. Hiding the second sentence, Zhao Xuan asked in a heavy voice, "How is Qi Jin Yu over there?"
"Replying to the General, Ji Feng just sent word, he said that they were unable to kill Qi Jin Yu, because he has Zhenbei General's shadow guards around him for protection at all times." The Deputy General said, embarrassed, but he was also trying to guess why the General was trying to take out the Gong Prince. The General was clearly quite friendly with the Gong Prince before, why did he become hostile? Recently, he felt more and more perplexed by the General's moods.
"How lucky, Qi Jin Yu! Have Ji Feng continue shadowing, be sure to bring his head back to me." Then he he'd wrap it up, put it into a small wooden box, and present it to that man, he hopes he'll like it.
The Deputy General nodded, seeing the General once again spacing out after he finished speaking, he couldn't help but sigh gloomily in his heart. In the end, he just cupped his hands and departed.
———-
That night, Zhou Yun Sheng was sitting down to read after a bath when he suddenly noticed a subtle fragrance filling his nose. Just as he was about to investigate the fragrance, his vision started blacking, and his body started feeling weak, leaning sideways- he'd been drugged once again. Zhao Xuan, you even dare break into the imperial palace at night, are you tired of fucking living?! He rained curses in his heart, but didn't say them out loud.
Zhao Xuan slowly walked into the inner hall dressed in black, he turned the Emperor over and sat beside him on the couch, then he patted his back and softly asked, "If you catch me, what do you plan to do with me?"
"Do what? Obviously it's hang you up and whip you to death!" Zhou Yun Sheng humphed.
He really does want to whip me. Zhao Xuan chuckled, then said, "If you want to whip me, there's no need to bring out an army. I won't only stand still and let you, I'll even prepare a whip for you. You look very beautiful when you swing a whip, incredibly arousing."
Dammed pervert, no matter how many reincarnations you've gone through, your true character hasn't changed at all! Zhou Yun Sheng ranted in his heart.
When Zhao Xuan had enough teasing, he suddenly bent over and sucked on his ear lode, pushing a string of source code into 008's database. Zhou Yun Sheng's anger faded away, replaced by a secret sigh of pleasure. Even though his lover has lost his memory, he always knew what to do to please him. His actions were unconscious, like instincts engraved in his soul, which proved how much he sincerely loved him.
Zhao Xuan couldn't see from his point of view, Zhou Yun Sheng's eyes were moist with emotions.
————
Qi Jin Yu's connections in the imperial court were eliminated by the Emperor, he now had nothing to rely on. This time, he was forced to travel with a band of three idiots, and suffered greatly at the hands of the violent citizens at the Southwest's border. The disaster relief silver the court disbursed every year was never touched by the common people, all the big and small officials always cleaned out the treasure box. Over time, a complete system of corruption was formed, you cover for me, I cover for you, forming a close community of profiteering, the clean and honest officials simply had no way to survive in the Southwest.
Qi Jin Yu still had his title as a prince, but lacked men with power to assist him, so the officials simply didn't attach any importance to him. They led him around prearranged villages a few times, trying to fool him. Qi Jin Yu was not a fool, he naturally wouldn't take them at face value, he pretended to accept the officials' bribes and said he would vacation for a few days, taking advantage of the time he was supposed to be relaxing to investigate in secret with Zhao Ji Dong.
But he never imagined that he'd be ambushed by bandits on the road, were it not for the dozens of shadow guards Qian Fangfei sent to protect him, his life would've been taken. However, the shadow guards were only responsible for protecting him, they were not in charge of others, so while they were fleeing, Zhao Ji Dong was thrown into the bandits' midst and hacked to death.
A prince and the brother of Hui Yi Imperial Consort died in the Southwest's border, the Emperor was sure to send people to thoroughly investigate, the Southwest Governor was shaken, that night, he sent people out to search, and finally found Qi Jin Yu unconscious in a remote valley.
But when they found him, his face was cut with a deep, bone exposing wound, starting from the corner of his eye and straight down. His skin was already festering, so it'll definitely leave ferocious looking scars after healing. His right index finger and middle finger were also half chopped off, constantly oozing blood. Even if he was lucky to be alive, he was now crippled.
The Southwest Governor howled in grief, knowing that the fallouts of this incident would not be pretty. The current Emperor was not the same from three years ago, when his anger was roused, the whole of Da Qi's capital was shaken up, not to mention the small Southwest. Everything was ruined, the day they were dreading had finally arrived.