CH 74

She asked him: “Your Majesty, are you happy killing your own child with your own hand?”

Child...... He killed their child......

Right, he and she have a child. Once...... there was a child......

“No! It’s not me...... Qiqi, it’s not me!” Shen Zhonghua felt pain and wanted to stretch out his hand but he found that his hand was full of blood which was Qiqi’s blood or perhaps their unborn child.

“I didn’t know...... I didn’t know......” Shen Zhonghua felt a splitting headache. He let go of holding his head, looked at his trembling hand, and looked at the long sword that pierced through Qiqi’s belly. His tears fell and said in a pale and weak excuse: “I didn’t know you were pregnant. If I knew......”

“If you knew what would happen?” In the dream, Qiqi in the red wedding dress was like a demon in red. She had bright red lipstick, but her complexion was as pale as paper: “If you knew, were you willing to give up your precious Su Lianxue? If you knew, you wouldn’t let me marry in place of her? If you knew, were you willing to let me give birth to this child?!”

Perhaps, as the saying goes. Dreams were always contrary to reality so Qiqi in the dream seemed a bit aggressive.

“No......” Shen Zhonghua had a split headache. He only felt like there were countless hands from hell, pulling him and trying to tear him into pieces.

Qiqi looked at him. Her eyes were full of sarcasm: “You don’t know...... or it doesn’t seem like it?

“Your Majesty, it’s you who killed me and our child......” Her soft hand gently caressed her belly. Qiqi lowered her head, looking at her slightly protruding underbelly and the sharp blade pierced on it. She sneered and said: “Your Majesty, it’s the safflower soup you handed me personally. Su Lianxue is just the one who passed the knife. The one who really stabbed the knife into my heart——it’s you!”

Yes...... It was him......

If it wasn’t for him who gave Su Lianxue the right, indulge her, and pamper her, how could she humiliate and hurt his Qiqi time and time again?

If it wasn’t for him who made a serious mistake and had no eyes, how could he make Su Lianxue who was already arrogant and willful to be even more pampered rely on favor?

It was he who silently allowed Su Lianxue the right to hurt Qiqi. It was he who killed Qiqi and the child in her belly!

That was also his child, fused with the flesh and blood of him and Qiqi, but he personally buried him......

Shen Zhonghua remembered that day. He was holding the cold and stiff corpse of Qiqi on the edge of the cliff and refused to let go. Finally, the fourteenth younger brother Shen Zhongming who rushed over with him, ordered Leng Xing to separate him from Qiqi.

At that time, he guarded against Shen Zhongming. Shen Zhongming bellowed at him who was out of his mind: “She’s already dead!”

“She’s dead......” Shen Zhonghua murmured. His expression was extremely mournful and asked blankly: “How could she die......”

Before that, Shen Zhonghua never thought Qiqi would die and would leave him one day. No matter what identity, the person that died for him or a woman, she would die because people would die.

His imperial mother would die, his imperial father would die, his imperial older brothers and imperial younger brothers would die......

But he never thought Qiqi would die.

Wasn’t she always with him? Even if she wasn’t around, she was always in the dark place beside him, watching him, accompanying him, and protecting him. In the crowd or in the dark, he could always see her first, and the first person to stand in front of him was her.

How could she die? How could she......

“She’s not dead. She’s just angry. She’s angry that I married her to someone else and didn't want to talk to me......” Shen Zhonghua climbed up wanting to find his Qiqi: “Not married...... Not getting married...... I’m going to find Qiqi. What is peace marriage? What is wangfei, all are not rare! We’ll return home...... I’ll marry her as a wife tomorrow!”

“Imperial older brother!” Shen Zhongming pulled him: “Shen Qi is already dead! Do you want to crown a dead person as an empress?!”

Yes, Shen Zhonghua had long been enthroned as Emperor. A wife of an emperor, if not an empress then what it was?

* * * *

Shen Zhonghua really did what he said. He actually had the Ministry of Rites arrange a date for him and Qiqi’s ghost marriage. He ordered someone to build an ice coffin and store Qiqi’s corpse in Qiwu Palace.

During the day, he was like a normal person. He went to the morning court to plan strategies and deal with political affairs.

In the evening, he took off his dragon robe and sat on the fox fur in front of the ice coffin, holding Qiqi’s little hand and talking to her.

The maids didn’t dare to wait upon close proximity.

He personally went to the imperial garden to pick beautiful flowers, put them in her ice coffin, and personally combed her hair and wiped her body.

The wound on Qiqi’s neck was stitched by the best embroider mother from his Xiu Workshop. He made a necklace with thirty-two extremely fine eastern pearls which were worn on Qiqi’s neck to cover the scar after stitching.

Shen Zhongming couldn’t bear it and said to him: “Let’s bury the empress with her burial rites and let her be on the road with peace of mind.”

Shen Zhonghua refused and said: “Qiqi still spoke to me yesterday.”

Shen Zhongming followed his words and asked: “What did she say to you?”

Shen Zhonghua held Qiqi’s cold hand, looked at her eyes that would never open again and said: “She asked me if I knew the child in her belly is a boy or a girl.”