Chapter 366: Love and Hate Line

Chapter 366

The Tianji Office is only under the jurisdiction of the current Empress Dowager. If the current Empress Dowager passes away, the Tianji Secret Order will be kept by the attending aunt who serves the Empress Dowager. CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

The attending aunt will hide the Tianji Secret Order in the palace and leave a personal secret letter. In the future when the Emperor passes away and a new Empress Dowager moves into the Xian Shou Palace, someone will surely present the letter to inform the next Empress Dowager of the hiding place of the Tianji Secret Order.

During this period, the Emperor cannot force the attending aunt to reveal the whereabouts of the Tianji Secret Order, otherwise if this matter spreads to the previous dynasty, it will surely invite much negative talk, losing more than gaining.

After the previous Empress Dowager passed away, Aunt Qingzhu gave the Tianji Secret Order to Zhao Hua. Neither she nor the Empress Dowager made a fake Tianji Secret Order to confuse people.

Firstly, it's normal that Xiao Jingheng can't find the secretly hidden order.

Secondly, the Empress Dowager firmly believed that Zhao Hua would become an Empress Dowager in the future, so she gave it to her in advance.

But Zhao Hua's thoughts went further than this.

The moment she obtained the order, she thought:

The Tianji Office has always only recognized the order, not the person. Such an organization, free from imperial power, gathered many talented people. With Xiao Jingheng's crazy desire for power, how could he let it go?

Zhao Hua guessed that he must order someone to secretly check Aunt Qingzhu's luggage when she leaves the palace to keep vigil for the Empress Dowager,

Or make her take drugs and search her body while she sleeps.

In short, if he can't get the Tianji Secret Order, his heart won't be at ease. He might even secretly harm Aunt Qingzhu to completely eliminate the order once and for all.

If so, why not make a fake Tianji Secret Order in advance and let Xiao Jingheng go through much trouble to find it.

This way, whenever he needs to use the Tianji Office in the future, no matter what he wants to investigate, Zhao Hua will know it clearly.

Once knowing clearly, any information Xiao Jingheng obtains from the Tianji Office in the future will be what Zhao Hua wants him to know.

The next day, when Zhao Hua went to pay respects to Ning Wanshuang, she brought Ruo Xin with her.

It happened to be Chenghuan's day off from lessons today. After finishing paying respects, Ruo Xin made a fuss about playing with her brothers and sisters. So Zhao Hua naturally stayed.

At that time, Ruo Xin and Jin Yue pestered Chenghuan to play blind man’s bluff with them, but Chenghuan said, "I'm afraid I don't have time today. I still have to go to Zhao Chun Palace to see my third brother later."

Hearing this, Ning Wanshuang unpleasantly said:

"What are you going there for?"

After drinking a full cup, Zhao Hua said repeatedly: "Sister made it very well, I like it a lot."

Ning Wanshuang tried her best to restrain her expression, but the faint smile at the corner of her lips was still keenly captured by Zhao Hua.

She didn't poke holes in it, but respectfully said:

“I haven’t congratulated Sister yet. You’ll soon be instated as Noble Consort.”

"You already know?" Ning Wanshuang asked indifferently, the joy on her face gone in a flash.

Zhao Hua nodded. "It was the Emperor who said it."

Ning Wanshuang sneered coldly. “What’s Noble Consort or Imperial Noble Consort? Things longed for yet unattained, as time goes on, are no longer longed for.”

She glanced at the golden sunlight outside the window, her eyes gradually going out of focus, her voice weak:

“No matter what position he gives me, as long as it’s not Empress, I’ll smile and accept it. Anyway, whether I genuinely like it or am perfunctory doesn’t matter to him. He just wants to see me smile to satisfy himself. This is my existence, the meaning to him.”

Zhao Hua said, “I know Sister doesn’t want to be Empress, but...”

"There are no buts."

Ning Wanshuang listlessly cut off Zhao Hua's words and shook her head indifferently:

"If you become Empress, then in the future you'll be buried with him in the imperial mausoleum. I don't dare want such a blessing. Anyway, isn't Empress Jia Rui already buried there? In the future the Emperor will have his legal wife to accompany him. That should be enough."

Although she spoke ruthlessly, Zhao Hua still sensed the loneliness she desperately tried to hide, from the corners of her eyes and brows.

This loneliness precisely showed that after so many years, Ning Wanshuang still hadn't completely let go of her feelings for Xiao Jingheng in her heart.

The boy she had loved since youth, who she had once fantasized about spending her whole life with,

Such feelings, for a woman who values emotions like Ning Wanshuang, can't be easily severed just by saying so.

Now when she privately mentions Xiao Jingheng, it's always with hatred and disgust on her face.

Hatred,

Yet how is it not another manifestation of deep love?