Chapter 5 — The Day Chiêu Nhi Wore the Dragon Robe

Those eyes, once overflowing with boundless love and mirroring a galaxy of stars whenever they rested upon him, were now fixed in a hollow, desolate stare upon the empty void. There was nothing left within them. No resentment, no lingering grievances—only the profound, immaculate peace of absolute release.

Ah!

Pei Jing unleashed a howl of desperate, agonizing madness. He pulled my cold, rigid corpse fiercely into his embrace, pressing his face hard against my lifeless, chilled neck.

Qing Huan! Wake up! Look at Your Majesty!

I was wrong! I was truly, terribly wrong! I never meant to genuinely hurt you. I only wanted you to be as you once were... I only begged for you to smile at me just one last time!

Tears and mucus streamed down his face as he desperately sought to impart his own warmth into my dead frame. Yet no matter how tightly he clutched me, the person in his arms remained nothing more than an unyielding block of ice, utterly impervious to the howling tempest outside, colder even than the freezing autumn rain.

Qing Huan! Wake up! I am here! I am taking you home!

He shook my body with frenzied desperation, yet he would never again hear that gentle, melodic voice address him as Your Majesty. At that moment, Xie Yuanshan and little Zhao rushed into the chamber.

Empress Mother!

Zhao let out a heart-rending shriek, collapsing unconscious right beside me. Xie Yuan looked upon my tragic, mutilated remains, unable to bear the sight; in the span of a single heartbeat, he seemed to age twenty full years. The heavy sword slipped from his loosened grip, crashing against the flagstones with a sharp, ringing clang.

Retribution... this is truly divine retribution...

Pei Jing had descended entirely into madness. He shoved potent restorative pills relentlessly between my pale lips, frantically rubbing my frozen hands in a vain attempt to generate heat.

Imperial physicians! Where are the imperial physicians?! Bring every single physician in the capital before me this instant!

Jiang Yingxue cowered near the doorway, watching the horrifying spectacle unfold. A flash of panic flickered across her features, but it was quickly replaced by a petulant pout.

Was all this dramatics really necessary... It was merely a game that went a little too far. Pei Jing, you are the one in the wrong here. You clearly instructed them not to actually lay a hand on her; it is undoubtedly just the weak constitutions of these ancient people...

Jiang Yingxue.

Pei Jing slowly turned his head. What manner of gaze was that? Love was gone, desire was gone, leaving only a bottomless, unfathomable abyss of hatred and absolute despair.

You deserve to die.

Gitting his teeth, Pei Jing spat out the three fatal words, leaping abruptly to his feet and slamming his hands around Jiang Yingxue’s throat.

Do you even realize that she was my true wife...

For the sake of the freedom you are always preaching about, for the sake of your filthy, hypocritical equality, you murdered my empress with your own hands!

Jiang Yingxue struggled wildly within his crushing grip, her face turning a suffocating, violent shade of purple.

No... it was you... you were the one who gave the command... it was you...

Those words struck Pei Jing’s most agonizing nerve. He abruptly loosened his grip, watching as Jiang Yingxue collapsed limply to the floor, gasping frantically for breath. He stumbled back to kneel beside my corpse, as if suddenly remembering something. Reaching into his inner robe, he pulled out a massive, flawless Southern pearl, luminous and crystal clear—a token he had once promised to bestow upon me. With trembling fingers, he tried to tuck it into the stray locks of my hair, but my tresses were now a tangled mass, matted with dried blood and withered straw.

Qing Huan, you used to love clinging to my side the most... As long as you open your eyes, I will grant you anything you desire. I will dismiss the entire harem and return the military authority entirely to the Xie family. From now on, I will belong only to you and Zhao, alright?

Yet the only response to his desperate plea was the ceaseless, weeping patter of rain against the windowpane. I drifted toward Zhao’s bedside. The child had already awakened. He did not cry, nor did he throw a tantrum. He merely sat in quiet solitude, clutching tightly to the jade pendant I had once given him.

Empress Mother.

He whispered softly into the empty air.

You have finally found your freedom, haven't you?

I reached out a hand to stroke his soft hair, but my translucent fingertips passed straight through his physical form. In that fleeting instant, I finally understood. All the bitter loves and fierce hatreds of this mortal realm are nothing more than fleeting wisps of smoke to the dead. Yet to the living, they remain an eternal, unendurable purgatory. Pei Jing sealed away all news of my demise. Every single day, he continued to converse with my corpse, personally bathing me and dressing me in fresh robes. He even commanded craftsmen to fashion a colossal coffin of pure ice, placing me within it so it could rest right beside his imperial bedchamber. His sanity began to fray; at times he would burst into manic laughter, at others into desolate, wracking sobs. He would lean over the ice casket and murmur:

Qing Huan, are these grapes sweet?

He would execute every single servant in the palace simply because a palace maid accidentally displaced a single hairpin upon my head. In the end, he had truly transformed into the tyrannical ruler he had once so feared. As for myself, I remained quietly entombed within the crystal ice, watching him sink ever deeper into the suffocating mire of his own remorse. One stormy night, Pei Jing lay sprawled drunkenly across the top of the ice coffin, his fingers tracing the contours of my face through the chilling barrier.

Qing Huan, I know I was wrong. Won't you please return to being my spoiled, clingy little empress, proud and willful as you once were? Act petulantly toward me just one more time. Even if you wish to strike me or curse me, I will gladly bear it all.

Open your eyes and look at me. I am begging you...

His hot tears fell upon the glacial surface of the coffin, instantly freezing into frost. I gazed down at him, my heart entirely at peace. Pei Jing, perhaps you have already forgotten.