“Duan Qing’er!” The king of Yijun stopped her. “Do you think everyone’s like you? That the only thing they do is toy around with their power?”
“Oh?” The queen smiled sarcastically, “Are you trying to say that you both are truly in love?”
Being stared at so intensely by the queen, Ding Qingqing lowered her head.
Her reaction gave the queen the answer.
The queen sighed.
The king of Yijun looked rather similar to the king of Zhongzhou; he was good-looking for sure. He had a noble background, and he was rich as well. Even though he already had a daughter, the king of Yijun, who was in the Spirit Realm, looked like he only just reached his thirties, the age where a man was full of charm. It wasn’t anything surprising for a woman to fall for him, but the woman this time was Ding Qingqing, which was the surprise factor.
When the king of Yijun was born, the king of Zhongzhou had already grown up. With a gifted and intelligent brother, there was nothing the king of Yijun could compare with. He was soft and had an ordinary ability, so he was a rather idle prince.
What about Ding Qingqing? She was born into a common family. She had good aptitude and was selected by the School of Mingde. Doing well there meant she could join the line of people with the potential to be an official. She was a smart girl and understood worldly affairs. The queen saw potential in her and chose her as a servant girl. Step by step, she worked hard and got to where she was now, the emissary position, and became the “internal minister” due to the queen’s huge power.
Toying around with power and playing mind games. Who knew how many corpses she had stepped over on her way to become an emissary?
A woman like her, falling for the king of Yijun? Blinded by love, helping him plot a rebellion, trapping the king of Zhongzhou and killing the queen?
But the queen couldn’t deny that there was a possibility. Emotions were the most complicated thing in the entire world. No matter how intelligent one was or how clearly they could see things, one might lose to their emotions and do idiotic things that couldn’t be understood.
To this, the queen could only sigh.
“King of Yijun, what will you do after killing me? How are you going to explain it to His Majesty?”
The king of Yijun sneered. “Explain? Do you think he would kill me? There are only two offspring in the whole Shi family! No matter what sins I’m guilty of, he will surely let me off because I’m his only brother!”
The queen nodded. “Hmm, makes sense. And then?”
“Elder brother’s enthralled in cultivating, so there’s no way he would want to take care of the worldly affairs. At that point, other than me, who else could he trust?”
The queen smiled. She then turned to Ding Qingqing. “So, that’s the reason that you’re muddle-headed? When he becomes the regent, you’ll be able to have my level of power?”
Ding Qingqing bit her lips before replying. “Yes, Your Highness. Your servant will never forget your kindness toward me. However…”
“However, I can’t compare to your desire for power and love.”
“Your Highness was the one that taught me this!” Ding Qingqing increased her volume as if she was justifying herself. “These years, Your Highness has taught me that any obstacle that can’t be moved, I should just step on it!”
“Hahaha…” The queen laughed out loud and looked at her with arrogance. “You’re right. That’s my motto, but are you comparable to me?”
“Why can’t I compare to Your Highness?” Ding Qingqing started to feel rebellious. “How am I incomparable to you? Wisdom or capability… whatever Your Highness can do, I can too!”
“Such a silly girl.” The queen looked at her with pity. “Didn’t you hear what he just said a second ago? Saying that I’m toying around with my power, saying that I'm helping the poor and I’m a feminist because I put female officials in charge, saying that, as queen, I should take care of the palace and not meddle with the government. You help him into power now, and when he’s finally regent, he will be coming for you next. Don’t you get it? Men like him, the more powerful they are, the more hatred they have for women. When that day comes, you will have nothing left but to become his exclusive property. What can you do at that point? If you follow his instructions, he’ll feed you, and if you don’t, hehe…”
“Are you done yet!?” the king of Yijun yelled. “Even now, you’re still trying to divide us!”
The queen pretended that he didn’t even exist. Her eyes were only on Ding Qingqing. “How are you incomparable to me? Let me answer that; your vision will never be as good as mine! Ask yourself, how does His Majesty treat me? He trusts me fully, supports and helps me out no matter what I do. But the king of Yijun will never treat you that way.”
“Shut up!” The king of Yijun drew his sword in anger.
“Hold on!”
Seeing Xie Lianzhen roll out from behind a rock on the hillside, the calm queen suddenly turned green. “Why did you come out? Roll back!” she yelled.
Xie Lianzhen turned a deaf ear to her yelling and slowly rolled up the hillside.
Lu Mingshu sighed and followed behind slowly.
“It’s you, huh?” The king of Yijun looked at him coldly. “I already pretended to not see you because of Jiayan, yet you can’t wait to die?”
The three of them were in the Spirit Realm, so it was impossible that they didn’t know Xie Lianzhen and Lu Mingshu were there. The queen chose to not say anything, and the king of Yijun didn’t want to be that evil.
“King of Yijun,” Xie Lianzhen plastered a huge smile on his face, as if they were in the palace right now instead of an unknown hillside. “If I were you, I wouldn’t do this.”
The king of Yijun smiled. “Little brat, you are as cunning as your mother. Do you think that I’ll believe anything you say?”
“If you disagree, just listen to my reasons first!” Xie Lianzhen smiled.
“Very well, speak then. I shall see what tricks you can perform!”
“Easy – you wouldn’t achieve your goal even if you killed the queen.” Xie Lianzhen sounded like it had nothing to do with him. “You said that the king won’t kill you, right? That’s true, the king has always been lenient and harmonious. You should remember something though. What’s the king best at? Judging people. Back when the queen was a widow and pregnant with a defected baby, who gave a damn about her? Nobody but the King. He married her not because of her looks. I bet you know that he gave her the power to control everything soon after they married! I would say that, rather than a wife, he was choosing a successor. Think about it, man – if he trusted you in the first place, why would he marry the queen and give her all the power instead of you?”
The king of Yijun gritted his teeth.
Xie Lianzhen continued, “Now, you kill the King’s successor, guess what he will do. He’ll obviously choose a new one, but, sadly, it won’t be you. Things have changed; he was once alone, but now, he has a right and proper successor.”
The little prince!
“Shi Yu’s eleven this year,” Xie Lianzhen tapped his armrest and said lazily. “If he’s smart, after six or seven years, he’ll be able to take over. The government affairs of Zhongzhou have already been put in order perfectly by the queen – not even one drop of water can leak out. He only needs one or two sagacious prime ministers and it could still work perfectly. Six or seven years after you kill the queen, he’ll just pass it to Shi Yu. Is that so hard?”
The king of Yijun trembled.
“Oh yeah, there’s something you should never forget, and it’s important! The king won’t kill you because you’re his brother, but Shi Yu? Do you think he won’t? He’s the queen’s flesh and blood, and you killed his mother?” Xie Lianzhen sneered. “He’s not me. The king can forgive you for killing the queen, but Shi Yu… hehe.”