Chapter Seventeen (Part 1)
Pei Jin and Yan Shi Ning left Huang Guo’s manor in the horse carriage.

Yan Shi Ning noticed Pei Jin looked a little deflated. ‘Big brother, what did you talk to him about?’

Pei Jin stretched his back. ‘About imperial court duties.’

Yan Shi Ning didn’t force Pei Jin to tell her the truth. Besides, she could guess there was nothing else for them to talk about apart from Su Yue and stealing the throne.

The night sky was dark like ink when they returned to Pei Jin’s manor.

Yan Shi Ning was tired from a tensed day. A maid prepared a warm bath for her and she immediately walked to the chamber.

Pei Jin walked in the direction of Bei Dou’s chamber.

Bei Dou was about to take off his clothes to sleep but he heard someone barged into his chamber. He turned around and his outer robe was grabbed by Pei Jin’s hand.

‘You delivered the note!’ Pei Jin said coldly.

Bei Dou heard Huang Guo’s messenger requested Pei Jin and Yan Shi Ning to attend a banquet and he knew he couldn’t deny the truth and anticipated Pei Jin’s temper.

Bei Dou pushed Pei Jin’s hand away from his outer robe and straightened his outer robe. ‘What’s the point of asking if you know?’

Pei Jin saw Bei Dou’s calm state even after behaving reckless, it made him angry enough to laugh. He sat on a chair and silently looked at Bei Dou.

‘It’s your fault for being slow,’ Bei Dou said. ‘I could only borrow someone else’s hand.’

Out of Huang Guo’s children, Huang Guo loved Consort Chen most. If Huang Guo knew the empress killed Consort Chen, it was certain Huang Guo would avenge Consort Chen’s death.’

‘You’re a good schemer,’ Pei Jin praised. ‘It’s a pity you need to walk a wide circle. When you want to borrow a dagger to kill a person, someone else would also want to borrow a dagger to kill a person. Bei Dou, you gave Huang Guo an opportunity to force me to cooperate with him to deal with the empress.’

Bei Dou suppressed a little guilt. ‘That’s good. You should cooperate with Huang Guo to deal with the empress.’

Pei Jin rubbed his temples. ‘In the past when you wanted me to cooperate with Huang Guo you didn’t know about Huang Guo’s scheme. But now you know about the Diao Jing Ji, you still want me to cooperate with them… also, you should know my personality. I hate other people forcing me to do something. I’ll avenge Consort Chen’s death, but I’ll not allow anyone cause trouble for me!’

Bei Dou took a deep breath. ‘It doesn’t matter if Huang Guo uses you. Can’t you use him? Don’t you care that he sees you as a puppet? With your brilliant strategic mind even if Huang Guo is intelligent, he wouldn’t know who’ll scare him to death.’

‘You want me to risk being exposed by association?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘Why not?’ Bei Dou asked.

‘I hate taking any risks,’ Pei Jin said.

‘Honestly?’ Bei Dou asked. ‘If you hate taking any risks then in the past why did you save me?’

The atmosphere in the chamber became tensed.

That year Bei Dou’s family property were taken and his family members were killed. Pei Jin saved him from a fire and hid his identity. He wanted to oppose the imperial court to avenge his family.

‘You say you don’t care about being emperor,’ Bei Dou said. ‘But why did you save a convicted criminal like me? Pei Jin, you’re too cautious, you wouldn’t save me because I saved your life. You saved me because of the gold and silver taels that my Sheng household hid. If you have them in your hands then you can steal the throne.’

Bei Dou kept those thoughts in his heart for a long time. He truly wanted Pei Jin to answer his questions directly.

‘Even if you saved me because of Sheng’s riches I’m willing to give them to you with my own hands,’ Bei Dou said. ‘As long as you help me deal with the empress’ people.’

The chamber was eerily silent. Bei Dou couldn’t see through Pei Jin’s thoughts.

Suddenly the sounds of raindrops pitter-pattered on the roof.

A gust of wind blew rain into the chamber and onto Pei Jin’s face. He gently wiped it off his face, stood and closed the window.

‘What if I say that I truly saved you because you saved me?’ Pei Jin asked.

Bei Dou wasted his energy to decipher if Pei Jin was sincere. Pei Jin was one of the rare people he knew who was an expert at concealing their true thoughts.

‘Also, everyone in the Sheng household died,’ Pei Jin said. ‘Don’t forget, you’re Bei Dou.’

Bei Dou stood still in the same spot for a long time. Pei Jin’s tone and expression were gentle, but he didn’t know why it made him feel pressured to concede.

‘I have something else I want to tell you,’ Bei Dou said and coughed.

‘What is it?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘I examined the Fu Gui in the incense sticks more carefully,’ Bei Dou said. ‘I discovered the Fu Gui in your wife’s body doesn’t need half a month to be released. Seven days is enough.’

Pei Jin slitted his eyes, grabbed Bei Dou’s collar and punched Bei Dou’s chest. ‘You purposely lied to me!’

Bei Dou rubbed his sore chest. ‘Indeed your wife is someone special to you.’

Pei Jin smiled sincerely. ‘Of course.’

‘It explains why you schemed against Lady Yewu that year,’ Bei Dou said. ‘Honestly, I want to know how she died.’

‘Wait until you die,’ Pei Jin said. ‘You can meet her in hell and ask her how she died.’

Pei Jin pushed the door and left the chamber.

***

End of Chapter Seventeen (Part 1)

Chapter Seventeen (Part 2 of 2)
Six years ago the emperor arranged a marriage between Pei Jin and Yewu.

After Pei Jin and Yewu’s betrothal was announced a celebratory banquet was held in the palace. Pei Jin initiated a conversation with Yewu but she was cold toward him. After a brief period of interactions with her, he realised why she was always cold toward him – she wanted to be empress and she couldn’t be empress if married to an unfavored prince.

After Pei Jin understood the situation, he happily kept his distance from Yewu. Then one day while he and her father were discussing imperial court matters in the palace, they saw Yewu seducing Pei Zhang… a few days later Yewu died of a mysterious illness.

Pei Jin remembered what Yewu’s father said to him at Yewu’s funeral, ‘Thank you ninth prince for not exposing Yewu in front of the emperor, in the future ninth prince can ask for my help if needed.’

Pei Jin walked on the wet and muddy path to his and Yan Shi Ning’s chamber. He didn’t tell Bei Dou that he honestly wasn’t involved in Yewu’s death and didn’t know what happened to her until her father said those words to him at the funeral. Initially he wanted to amicably break the betrothal. He didn’t expect her father would force her to kill herself.

Pei Jin thought about his seventh brother. Seventh brother only saw two kinds of women in the world. One were women that could be used and the other were women that couldn’t be used. It was a pity Yewu in seventh brother’s eyes couldn’t be used. Seventh brother’s heart never grieved Yewu’s death.

Pei Jin pushed the chamber door open, stepped to the bed and hugged Yan Shi Ning who was eating on the bed.

Pei Jin was happy he only needed to wait another four days.

Pei Jin kissed Yan Shi Ning’s cheek. ‘Wife, if you washed your face then why is there makeup on your face?’

Yan Shi Ning poked her tongue out and laughed playfully.

Pei Jin understood the reason why Yan Shi Ning wore makeup to bed.

Pei Jin pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear. ‘Wife, if you haven’t washed your face then let’s bathe together.’

Yan Shi Ning’s face immediately paled.

‘This is called taking one li and stretching it longer,’ Pei Jin teased.

‘Ah!’ Yan Shi Ning cried out.

Yan Shi Ning would rather die than let go a pole of the bed.

Pei Jin saw Yan Shi Ning pitifully bite her lips and he let go of her. ‘It’s alright if we don’t bathe together, but you need to be good and wash the makeup off your face.’

Yan Shi Ning jumped off the bed and ran to wash her face.

Pei Jin shook his head, four days were too long! If he didn’t fear his desire would burn him to death then he would have dragged Yan Shi Ning to bathe together with him long ago.

Pei Jin stood and stepped to the vanity table. He got rid of all the makeup to make it hard for his wife to wear makeup in the future.

Yan Shi Ning returned to the bed, laid down and rolled over so she couldn’t see the face of someone who deserved a beating.

‘Wife, if you sleep in that position,’ Pei Jin said. ‘Your chest will be flattened.’

Yan Shi Ning played dead.

Pei Jin pulled the blanket off Yan Shi Ning and slipped a hand beneath her undergarments.

A while later Yan Shi Ning laughed happily. She had waited patiently for Pei Jin’s head to crawl onto her skin.

‘Wife, what did you put on your body?’ Pei Jin asked.

Yan Shi Ning watched Pei Jin jumped off the bed to look for water. ‘It’s nothing, only chili pepper.’

‘Wife, come here!’ Pei Jin said.

Pei Jin silently vowed that four days later he was going to punish his wife.

Yan Shi Ning saw Pei Jin’s pitiful state while drinking water and she laughed continuously. That night she dreamt a beautiful dream. But a day past then another day past and she noticed Pei Jin’s eyes gradually became more devious as though… soon she couldn’t escape.

***

End of Chapter Seventeen (Part 2 of 2)