10
It had taken us a month to reach the border. The news of Selena’s pregnancy, sent by express message, and Marcus’s subsequent journey had taken only another month. He must have ridden day and night.
M
Even in the dim light, I could see how haggard he was. He was thinner, with dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. He clearly hadn’t slept well in days.
But his eyes were locked on me, his expression a complex mixture of emotions. When I said I wasn’t his wife, his face went pale.
“Oh, right, right!” Selena nodded eagerly. “Marcus, your wife fell into the river
big and drowned.”
“The entire capital knows about it! The Emperor and I both offered you our condolences. Now you’re claiming she’s your wife? Is she guilty of deceiving the Emperor?”
Marcus was speechless.
I gave Selena a silent thumbs–up.
She then asked him what the Emperor had been busy with.
“The court is in turmoil,” Marcus said. “There are treacherous officials conspiring in the shadows. His Majesty is occupied with state affairs and has sent me to escort you back to the palace.”
Selena’s lip quivered. “Go back for what? With me gone, he doesn’t have to hide Consort Zhang’s pregnancy anymore. He can dote on her all he wants. Why should I go back?”
Marcus glanced at me before continuing. “Consort Zhang’s child was born prematurely. It was her father who was conspiring with the other officials. The Emperor has already sent her to the Cold Palace.”
13:16
Chapter 2
“Oh! So, the baby’s gone, and now he remembers me…”
Selena burst into tears.
My head throbbed. I rushed to comfort her, then turned to Marcus, exasperated. “Pregnant women are emotional. Can’t he come and comfort his own wife?”
Marcus said nothing, just stared at me, his eyes dark and unreadable.
I ignored him and spent a long time consoling Selena, finally calming her down with the promise of a milk tea. She even asked if it would have coconut milk and boba.
I told her it would have a turd in it..
She said she’d drink it even with a turd.
ww
I sighed and went to the kitchen to prepare the ingredients. I was browning sugar and tea leaves when I sensed a presence. Marc- us was leaning against the kitchen doorway.
I thought he was going to say something, but he just watched me in silence.
7
After the milk tea was ready, a shadow fell over med en
“You’ve lost weight,” Marcus said.
A scornful smile touched my lips. I looked up at him. “And what business is that of yours, General?”
He pressed his lips together, about to say something.
主
=
I didn’t want to get entangled with him again. I handed the milk tea to a maid and started to leave.
=
But as I crossed the threshold, the world spun. I stumbled, and a strong arm caught me.
“You’ve lost weight,” he said again.
Maybe it was my imagination, but his voice sounded… pained.
=
It was these fleeting moments of imagined tenderness that had kept
me tied to him for a year.
¡ pushed him away coldly. “I know why you’re here. You want me to convince the Empress to return to the palace. Don’t worry, she already intends to go back. We can leave for the capital tomorrow.”
His expression didn’t change. “And you?” he asked.
I’m staying here. For the rest of my life.”
The look in his eyes was anything but innocent. Even in the dim light, his emotions were plain to see.
I thought he would say something–scold me, persuade me, ask me to stay,
But he said nothing. He didn’t say a single word to me, not even the next day when he escorted Selena back to the capital.
Only Selena, as she was leaving, said to me through her tears, “Ivy, having a baby isn’t easy. Being a mother isn’t easy. And finding a good father for your child… that’s not easy either.”
“You won’t hate me for going back on my word and leaving you, will you?”
Of course I wouldn’t.
I wiped the tears from her face. “The only thing I hate is that I can’t be with you anymore.”
A smile broke through her tears.
13.16
Chapter 2
Two months later, news came from the capital: the Empress had passed away from an illness.
Suddenly, the border town, without Selena, seemed to have lost its beauty.
I sold the house and dismissed the servants.
As I was looking for a new team of guards, a group of highly trained men appeared before me.
The leader looked familiar. He knelt before me. “We are under the General’s orders to protect you, Madam. Where do you wish to go?”
I finally recognized him as one of Marcus’s trusted men. I had seen him at the residence before.
What a stroke of luck.
I told him I wanted to see Marcus.
He hesitated.
lowered my loose–fitting robes, revealing my four–month pregnant belly. “I just want to see the father of my child,” I said.
He finally agreed. He sent a message by carrier pigeon and began escorting me back to the capital.
But before we could arrive safely, before we received a reply from Marcus, we were ambushed by bandits.
In a flurry of swords and shadows, I was abducted by the highly skilled bandit leader and carried deep into the mountains.
I thought this was the end.
The emotions I had suppressed for so long finally erupted.
I dug my fingers into the man’s flesh through his clothes, fighting back. “Take my money or take my life, I don’t care! Take my worth- less life, take the money in this bag!”
“Just give me a few more months! Let me go back to the capital and kill those two bastards! Then you can have my life!”
I knew the bandit wouldn’t listen, but I couldn’t stop myself from screaming through my sobs. “I want to go back and be the General‘ s wife!”
The man beneath me suddenly stopped.
I didn’t notice, still crying out my rage. “I want revenge! I’m going to poison the damn Emperor! I’m going to kill him! And then I’ll commit a crime so heinous it wipes out my entire clan, and I’ll take that bastard Marcus Thorne with me!”
“Waaaah… he took Selena away! He killed Selena and her baby! All those heartless, cheating men… they all deserve to die…”
A long sigh echoed in the silent forest.
“Alas!”
“Why don’t you give him a few days? Let him bring your Selena back from the dead, and then you can decide whether or not you want to kill him. How about that?”
Hearing Marcus’s voice, I was stunned into silence.
He gently set me down on the ground and pulled off his black mask. “She’s not dead,” he said, his voice grave. “Does that mean I don’t have to die either?”
Marcus was not a man who joked.
Overwhelming joy surged through me. I grabbed his arm. “She’s not dead? Where is she? Tell me!”
13.16
Chapter 2
He took me back to the border town.
He told me everything. On the day Selena and I were supposed to meet at the temple, he had been there, begging her for two hou- rs. He told her how he, as a simple garden guard, had fallen in love with a maid from the flower house. How fate had been kind, and after surviving the brutal battlefield, he had returned to find that the Emperor had gifted him that very same maid.
He knew the Emperor was wary of the Empress’s family’s power, and he had tried to warn me, afraid I would get caught in the crossfire. The residence was full of the Emperor’s spies, so he hadn’t dared to be too intimate with me, for fear of arousing suspici-
- on.
But when the spies in the residence had poisoned me, he finally understood. The man on the throne would not tolerate the Empre- ss, nor those close to her. And eventually, he would not tolerate a general who held so much power.
After I was poisoned, he had secretly allied himself with the Empress’s family.
But then, I had suddenly disappeared.
When the Empress went to the temple to “pray,” he had seized his last chance and pleaded with her for two hours, telling her every- thing about himself and the Emperor, and together, they had formed a new plan.
He said the Empress still had feelings for the Emperor, which was why she had never allowed her family to make a move. But after learning that I had almost been poisoned to death, she had finally agreed.
Her departure from the capital was the signal. It freed her family to force the Emperor’s hand without implicating her.
4
He said the Empress had never been pregnant. She had used the pregnancy as a test, to see if the Emperor, now a virtual prisoner in his own palace, still had any feelings for her.
The Emperor had none. And so, the Empress “died” of an illness and was on her way to the border town. Soon, news of the Emperor ‘s “sudden death” would reach them.
He said he had rushed here as soon as he received the message about my pregnancy, disguising himself as a bandit because he was afraid there might still be spies among his own men.
He also said…
A
He seemed to have an endless supply of words for me, but I was already reunited with Selena and wasn’t listening to him anymore.
After three days and nights of catching up with my best friend, she finally kicked
We out of her room.
“Your man said he’s going to introduce me to eighteen guys with eight–packs,” your own room.”
Well….
That was a tempting offer.
Could I compete with her for those? Fair and square?
said with a grin. “You should probably go back to
