AEOGA CH84

Inside Feiquan Palace, Qin Yulong had taken off his upper garment. Stripped to the waist, red blood-whips marks stood out sharply across his lean, muscular physique.

Helian Xi applied medicine to his back, aching with sympathy as he worked: “Does it still hurt?”

Qin Yulong brushed it off indifferently: “These are all just superficial wounds. Compared to broken bones and shattered sinews on the battlefield, what does this amount to?”

He teased with a smirk, “Our sister really is ‘gentle,’ isn’t she?”

“…” Remembering the adjectives he had once used to describe his sister, and then seeing Qin Yulong’s current miserable state, Helian Xi fell silent.

After a long pause, Helian Xi let out a sigh, his movements growing extraordinarily gentle as he spread the ointment over Qin Yulong’s wounds, speaking softly: “I know Sister isn’t gentle. Gentle people can rarely survive in the Xifeng imperial house. In truth, Sister holds grudges fiercely and is ruthless and cruel; I can’t count how many people who harmed us or wanted to harm us she has eradicated. But everything she did was to protect me, to protect Imperial Consort Father, to protect the Wen family, and to protect Brother-in-law. She may be terrible to others in a thousand ways, but she treats me well, so I cannot say she is bad.”

“There are too many lost souls in the palace who lost their lives over a single misstep. From childhood to adulthood, Sister has risked her life to shelter me. If someone mocked me with a few words, she would cut out their tongue. If someone hurt even one of my fingers, she would chop off their entire arm. If I hadn’t said that if anything happened to her, the Wen family, Imperial Consort Father, and I would all be unable to stay safe, Sister wouldn’t have let me go fight on the battlefield. The day I returned, Sister looked at the wounds on my body and said right then that when we met on the battlefield in the future, she would surely sever your head, chop your body into ten thousand pieces, and scatter your ashes…” Helian Xi said with a headache, “Now that the two nations intend to form an alliance, she can no longer be your enemy on the battlefield. Sister knows she cannot kill you, so she could only give you a beating to vent her anger.”

Given Helian Yu’s disposition, beating him up so openly and aboveboard was actually a good outcome, signifying that everything would be written off after this. If she had endured it silently to plot for the long term, that would mean a struggle unto death.

Part of this was because Changli wanted to form an alliance with her, and part of it was because Helian Xi truly loved Qin Yulong.

Helian Yu ultimately doted on her younger brother. She wouldn’t truly kill her brother’s beloved, yet it was impossible for her to accept him without any lingering resentment.

Qin Yulong chuckled: “Then I must truly thank Sister for her grace in sparing my life.”

“I am talking to you seriously,” Helian Xi said in a solemn tone. “When two armies engage in battle, I also injured you. There’s no reason to say you owe me. When I said I kept my scars to make you feel guilty, I was just teasing—don’t actually blame yourself over it. I apologize to you on Sister’s behalf.”

Both sides were people he cared about, and trapped in the middle, he was truly caught in a dilemma. Helian Xi might throw small tantrums or bicker and sulk with Qin Yulong, but he didn’t want to genuinely pierce Qin Yulong’s heart. Victory and defeat were ordinary matters for a military commander; losing to Qin Yulong was a defeat he accepted with complete conviction.

“Apologize for what? I vented your anger for you, yet you turn around and apologize to him instead.” Helian Yu strode inside with a cold sneer. “When two armies engage in battle, you take the enemy’s side into consideration—you truly possess righteous magnanimity.”

“…Sister.” Helian Xi was reprimanded so severely he didn’t dare speak.

He couldn’t very well say that his anger had vanished long ago, and that this “venting” of Sister’s was purely her venting her own anger.

Qin Yulong took full responsibility: “Sister, if you have anger, take it out on me. Do not make things difficult for Ah-Jiu.”

The moment Helian Yu saw his bare torso, she turned her back in disgust: “Put your clothes on.”

She would not look at the body of any man other than her own consort.

Qin Yulong had already finished applying the medicine, and he silently put his clothes back on.

“Make things difficult for him? I am speaking to my own younger brother, is it the place of an outsider—” Halfway through her sentence, Helian Yu remembered that this man had already become her brother’s “family,” and she stopped herself in frustration, letting out a cold snort, “If Ah-Jiu didn’t like you, today wouldn’t have been returning the favor in kind, but ten times over!”

Qin Yulong nodded in agreement: “Sister speaks the truth.”

Helian Yu: “…”

Helian Xi couldn’t help but smile. Being straightforward had its own perks; even if Sister wanted to mock him sarcastically, she found it boring.

“You go out. I have things to discuss with Ah-Jiu,” Helian Yu said.

Helian Yu had just returned from the Hall of State Affairs, so there must be serious matters to discuss. Qin Yulong knew in his heart that although Helian Yu had reluctantly acknowledged him as a brother-in-law, things hadn’t reached the point where she had no reservations toward him, so he sensibly took his leave.

Helian Xi hurriedly asked: “How did the talks go?”

Helian Yu scrutinized Helian Xi’s vibrant, beautiful face in detail, gazing so intently that Helian Xi began to feel uncomfortable.

“Sister, why are you looking at me like that?”

Helian Yu lowered her eyes to conceal the gloom within them, smiling: “Looking at how pretty Ah-Jiu is.”

She recalled the remarks made by those so-called players on the Heavenly Book, arbitrarily evaluating them as mere characters in a play with an attitude of mockery and banter, which included no shortage of insults toward her brother.

[When I get wronged in the Consort Route, I go to the Emperor Route to vent my anger. Earlier, when I played the Consort Route, an arrogant marriage-alliance prince mocked me. I immediately opened a save in the Emperor Route, demoted him repeatedly, and then executed him. It felt so cathartic. Heh, you thought you were just mocking a male favorite, who knew I could become the Emperor?]

[Why bother re-starting an Emperor Route? That’s way too much trouble. You can get revenge right in the Consort Route. Just keep saving and loading so the Emperor can only favor you, and your Affection Value will shoot up fast, then the system will automatically promote you. Once your rank is higher than his, you can torture him however you want. After I used Voodoo to curse Lu Xuechao to death, I just loaded my save every day to flip tags and farm favor until I became Empress. It got so boring that I randomly picked a lucky consort every day to torture. After a few punishments, they either got sickly or died of depression. Because my favor was so high, the Emperor couldn’t bear to punish me.]

Word by word like knives, cutting into Helian Yu’s heart.

In the previous life described by the Changli Emperor, the younger brother she had cherished and protected since childhood had been insulted, tortured, and brutally harmed in such a manner. Just looking at those words made Helian Yu wish she could drag the people behind the scenes out and hack them into ten thousand pieces.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t suspected whether the contents of the Heavenly Book were written by the Changli Emperor and Empress themselves, but as she read on, her suspicion faded. Because the experiences of the Emperor and Empress in the Heavenly Book… were truly too tragic, even more tragic than her brother’s. Even if she wanted to sell a sob story, she wouldn’t have the heart to fabricate such a tragic, inhuman story for herself.

And during those three years in Changli, the Emperor had indeed been fatuous and unprincipled, leaving the people in utter misery.

There was no need for Changli to put on a three-year act just to set a trap for her, ruining their own national fortune in the process; the loss far outweighed any gain.

When faced with a crisis that might threaten those she loved, it was better to believe it existed than to risk assuming it didn’t.

Life and freedom should both be held in one’s own hands. They, the women of Xifeng, had broken free from male control to establish themselves as rulers—not to be handed over to another group of players who had popped out of nowhere to be controlled.

She had already possessed the ambition to seize power; now, it was merely moving things forward by a few years. With Changli’s assistance, it was like adding wings to a tiger.

“Ah-Jiu, if I want to kill Mother Emperor and those few sisters,” Helian Yu said softly, “will you support Sister?”

The entire Zheng family had been wiped out, and the loss hit the Wen family directly as well. Helian Yu couldn’t count how many assassination attempts she had suffered from the factions of the other imperial daughters; even the Empress Regnant wished she would die on the battlefield and never return. She possessed no familial affection for these people whatsoever.

She had shielded Helian Xi from too many persecutions and hadn’t allowed him to see the most unsightly darkness, fearing that Helian Xi might still cherish familial ties and harbor reluctance.

Helian Xi smiled faintly: “I will lead the troops to support Sister.”

–

Helian Yu stayed in Changli for a few days before returning to her country with the Xifeng diplomatic delegation.

Her negotiations were very successful; the two nations restored diplomatic relations and reopened mutual trade. Xifeng used their gold and silver jewelry, grape seeds, jade minerals, and various grains to trade with Changli. Aside from paper and porcelain, which were its most abundant products, Changli also exported spices, rouge, powder, and silk satin. Lu Xuechao conveniently opened a branch of Huaman Pavilion within Xifeng territory, which counted as the first cross-border branch.

These were the transactions concluded on the surface, while underneath, there were many secret deals.

On the day the Xifeng envoys left the capital, Hua Yan stood on the city wall to see them off, sighing, “The weather is about to change.”

Fu Xinian raised his head to look at the bright, sunlit sky: “There is no sign of rain.”

“…” Hua Yan was speechless for a moment, then continued, “I told you before, I am not a good person.”

Before getting together with Fu Xinian, Hua Yan had confessed everything to him in one breath.

He felt that the Tanhua Scholar liked him perhaps only because he liked the goodness he portrayed. But in truth, he also had a very dark side.

He knew how to blend incense, and his hands were stained with human life. The Tanhua Scholar was completely pure and clean, and he was afraid of tainting him.

Fu Xinian had listened, yet he didn’t mind at all; instead, he held him tightly, praising him for being very capable—able to protect himself and help his good friend seek revenge. The people he killed were bad people, so he was still a good person.

“I once blended the Soul-Shattering Incense, a drug that can make someone pass away quietly during pleasure without anyone noticing,” Hua Yan said. “That day, Her Highness the Empress summoned me and asked if I could blend a new version of the Soul-Shattering Incense—one that would cause a woman’s soul to shatter and fragrance to fade, requiring it to be difficult to detect, yet not completely undetectable.”

“I feel… the matters I am involved in are getting bigger and bigger.”

…

The re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Changli and Xifeng did not cause much of a splash in Yelang or Leyang.

Leyang and Xifeng had been allies for generations; Xifeng’s friendly relations with Changli had no impact on it. Yelang, on the other hand, simply did not care about the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations—hadn’t these two been diplomatic allies before? Combined, they still couldn’t defeat Yelang.

If military strength couldn’t keep up, no matter how prosperous economic trade was, it would merely be making wedding clothes for others.

However, it brought genuine, substantial changes to the people of both Xifeng and Changli.

Although Changli had Xie Chongjin leading a group of people to turn the tide, it had only been a year. The common people barely achieved basic food and clothing, still far from prosperity. Xifeng’s prosperity and wealth could fill this gap.

Meanwhile, as soon as Changli’s cosmetics, rouge, spices, and silk satin flowed into Xifeng, they were frantically snapped up.

Changli men didn’t care for dressing up, preferring to imitate Lu Xuechao’s “plain face in white robes, jade-like nature.” These businesses couldn’t show much potential in Changli.

However, for Xifeng men, who loved applying rouge, powder, and scented incense to dress themselves up, they were completely unable to resist Changli’s cosmetics. The reason Xifeng women called foreign men “foul men” was that Xifeng men all smelled fragrant; men across the entire nation loved to use incense.

Moreover, Xifeng women were not completely against dressing up either; the desire for beauty existed in everyone. Initially, because Yelang men were unkempt themselves yet demanded women to have exquisite makeup to be pleasing to the eye, treating them like pretty playthings, women at the beginning of the uprising threw off their makeup under the slogan of “refusing the male gaze” to fight oppression. Later, when Xifeng was founded, women began putting on makeup again. They didn’t dress up to please men, but for their own beauty and happiness. Xifeng women wouldn’t relinquish their right to dress up just to spite foul men.

Therefore, items like rouge, powder, and spices had a market across all of Xifeng. During the blending process, Hua Yan had invited Helian Xi to serve as a consultant. Helian Xi knew best what Xifeng preferred, and Hua Yan crafted them according to those preferences, making it hard not to become an absolute hit in Xifeng.

Beyond rouge and spices, there were fine clothes and delicious food. Changli had an advanced industrial system, and its textile industry was also top-tier among the four nations. To expand the market, Hua Yan even went to learn how to design women’s clothing. Looking at those magnificent and beautiful gowns made his eyes light up, wishing he could try them on himself.

As the Empress Regnant grew older, she cherished her looks even more. Unfortunately, no matter how good Xifeng’s cosmetics were, they couldn’t cover the wrinkles gradually creeping up her face. Changli’s cosmetics were beautiful and effective, concealing flaws perfectly so that not even a single wrinkle could be seen, making one’s complexion look twenty years younger.

The Empress Regnant treated it like a precious treasure, extremely satisfied with the task Helian Yu had accomplished and praising her lavishly.

Helian Yu said modestly: “It is merely Your Daughter’s duty.”

In her delight, the Empress Regnant once again held Helian Yu in high regard.

This caused the crisis level among the factions of the other imperial daughters to surge drastically.

Huaman Pavilion conquered the palates of all the nobles in Xifeng. While people from different nations had different tastes, Huaman Pavilion’s array of novel and delicious dishes was so vast that there was always something to satisfy everyone. For a time, the noble ministers of Xifeng’s capital were all praising Huaman Pavilion’s dishes, privately saying they surpassed the imperial court feasts. It was all thanks to the Seventh Imperial Daughter accomplishing this task and successfully clearing the air with Changli that they got to enjoy such good food.

Helian Yu’s prestige actually rose immensely because of this.

The other imperial daughters were so angry they nearly spat blood. Initially, everyone thought this diplomatic mission was a thankless task—tribute brought no prestige, failing to negotiate an alliance would be a crime, and even if negotiated, a poor place like Changli couldn’t bring any benefits, so no one was willing to go.

Who knew Changli had developed into such a state, letting Helian Yu pick up such a massive bargain for nothing?

Unable to stomach her anger, the Second Imperial Daughter brought the rumor that the capital was claiming imperial meals were inferior to Changli’s national dishes directly before the Empress Regnant. Didn’t this suggest Xifeng was inferior to Changli, showing disrespect toward Xifeng?

Since the restaurant was negotiated by Helian Yu, she embellished the story further, directly pinning a hat on Helian Yu for harboring ulterior motives.

The Empress Regnant was naturally suspicious and was indeed displeased upon hearing this. She ordered several signature dishes from Huaman Pavilion to be presented to the palace, wanting to taste for herself what this legendary food that supposedly surpassed imperial meals was really like.

After a single meal, the Empress Regnant fell silent for a long time, then issued an order: from then on, all imperial meals would be supplied by Huaman Pavilion.

The Empress Regnant was advanced in age; after eating Huaman Pavilion’s food, she felt she had lived half her life in vain.

What kind of stuff had she been eating before?

Once the Empress Regnant issued this decree, the Empress, Noble Consort, and Virtuous Consort could no longer sit still.

Considering safety and prestige, food made by a foreign restaurant shouldn’t enter the Xifeng imperial palace. For the Empress Regnant to issue such an order showed just how much she loved the dishes. That meant Helian Yu, who had accomplished this feat, would win the Empress Regnant’s favor even more.

Even Virtuous Consort, who had always been sickly, had been in a better mood recently, his proud and triumphant appearance grating on their nerves.

One after another, they came to protest, advising the Empress Regnant to remain vigilant and not let wild dishes from outside ruin her stomach, insinuating both overtly and covertly that Helian Yu harbored ill intentions.

The Empress Regnant said nothing. She treated them to a meal of Huaman Pavilion’s food, then asked: “Do my beloved consorts still have objections?”

The consorts: “…Your Majesty is wise.”

There was no need for a person to quarrel with their own stomach. As imperial consorts, they couldn’t easily leave the palace, and after eating imperial meals for decades, they were tired of them and needed a change of pace.

If they wanted to impeach Helian Yu, they could use other matters; as for this, they would let it slide for now.