Chapter 419 – The Black Lotus Blooms in the Jade Capital; a Burial Shroud at the Alley’s End - Part 1

Li Yuan lay quietly on a bed; his body had already taken on the Emperor’s shape.

The Son of Heaven’s surname was Ji, given name You.

Li Yuan couldn’t imagine which emperor would saddle his own son with a name like

Gloomy

. If someone did, he must have really disliked the kid. He’d long heard from Cui Huayin that the Son of Heaven treated his mother as a taboo. Which meant, by the look of it, the Emperor’s mother wasn’t the Empress at all, but some woman of low rank.

With this point in mind, the Emperor’s climb to the throne must have been brutal in the extreme. Dig into the details, and he’d probably unearth yet another palace thriller—soaring rises, plunging falls, and a ghost-crowded maze of intrigue.

And the man who finally took the throne was clearly the lead actor in that show.

Viewed like this, the story that he slaughtered all his full-blood siblings became easier to grasp.

Was the Emperor truly weak? He was not.

Was he truly stupid? Also not.

Was he this wild and defiant from the start? Hardly. If he had been, how could he have hacked his way out of the trap and, bearing the name

Gloomy

, become Emperor at all?

What happened was that he lost his head. He’d gotten drunk on himself and thought he held the board in his hands, only to be ground to dust at the very moment of his greatest glory, when he felt safest.

The Emperor who had once tiptoed and counted three times before every step had forgotten how he climbed so high. He’d forgotten, too, that behind every mantis and every cicada there may well perch a yellow oriole.

Mantis stalks the cicada; the oriole waits behind. Each person was, at once, the oriole, the mantis, and the cicada.

Feeling a touch of melancholy, Li Yuan folded his hands behind his head and thought about the Emperor he and Lu Xuanxian had killed together, hoping to wring a few hard lessons from the man and avoid making the same mistakes.

He’d been mulling it over for a while when Xie Feng’s voice sounded outside the door.

“Your Majesty, Xie Wei is here.”

“...” Li Yuan was silent for a beat, then said, “Admit her.”

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

As Li Yuan, he had no wish to see Xie Wei now. But he was the Son of Heaven at the moment. The Xie Clan meant to marry into the throne; if the Emperor refused even to meet his future empress, the Xie Clan would never stand for it.

Before long, the door swung open and Xie Wei entered.

Her dignified features, polished by careful cosmetics, looked even more aristocratic. A voluptuous figure was wrapped in a dress of pale gold, and a serene, lavish poise lent her an unmistakably lofty air.

She was a woman only the Emperor could share a bed with, and on top of that she was the leader of Ocean Province’s shadow guard. It was no wonder she radiated allure and nobility.

Just then, Xie Wei bowed with liquid grace and said, “This humble one knew Your Majesty was blessed by Heaven and sheltered by it. There was never a chance anything would happen.”

When she finished, the air went still.

Receiving no reply, Xie Wei held the bow, not daring to lift her head without leave.

After a moment, she suddenly sensed the Emperor rise, pass by her side, and walk out the door.

A chill ran through Xie Wei’s heart. She straightened at once, brows drawing slightly together, utterly unsure what the Emperor meant by this. Did he think those assassins were sent by the Xie Clan? Was he attempting to annul the marriage?

However, Xie Feng’s army was literally camped outside. If he had a shred of sense, he wouldn’t be acting like this.

Xie Wei was still racking her brain.

Suddenly, the Emperor called out, “Attend me! Draft an edict!”

An inner-court eunuch hurried in and bowed low.

Within his hearing, the Emperor raised his voice.“Proclaim this, as of today, the Xie Clan’s daughter, Xie Wei, is crowned Empress. After her death, she shall enter the Imperial Mausoleum; her spirit tablet will stand in the Ancestral Temple, to receive incense offerings.”

Everyone froze.

The eunuch glanced up, startled. He wanted to tell the Emperor to wait until the Jade Capital was actually secured. But one look into those fathomless eyes and he swallowed the words. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Behind him, Xie Wei blinked, then sank to her knees. “This lady thanks Your Majesty.”

Li Yuan stepped over and helped her up.

At the brush of their hands, Xie Wei’s cheeks colored; she looked soft and helpless, the sort of trembling beauty that made a man’s heart lean her way.

For all her rank as the leader of the shadow guard, Xie Wei knew perfectly well how to ensnare a man.

Li Yuan lifted her to her feet.

She murmured, sultry as silk, “That day...I didn’t get to eat my fill.”

Li Yuan faltered, a quick flame licking through his chest. Who would’ve thought this impeccably dignified sister-in-law could turn so seductive? It was almost hard to reconcile. If he didn’t know what Xie Wei truly wanted, he might have believed she’d already fallen for him.

He looked into those dewy, pleading eyes and only said, “Brew me a pot of tea.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Xie Wei rose to obey.

After a moment, the eunuch returned with the written decree.

Li Yuan glanced over it and said, “Set it down. Then spread word of the investiture across the nine provinces.”

“Right away!” The eunuch scurried off.

Soon, Xie Wei came back with the tea.

Li Yuan sipped in silence, then passed the decree into her hands.

She accepted it, thanking him again and again, unable to keep the bright delight from her face.

When the cup was empty, Xie Wei assumed she would be summoned to the bed. Instead, she heard the Emperor say, “It’s late. Empress, return for tonight. State affairs are pressing, and there’ve been too many...surprises. I want some time to myself.”

“By morning, the army may be marching on the Jade Capital.”

Xie Wei said, “I am Your Majesty’s empress; it is my duty to share Your Majesty’s burdens. Might Your Majesty speak a little with me on the bed?”

Li Yuan took in her languid, bewitching pose, and a heat he couldn’t name stirred in him.

He’d already shaken off that earlier, merciless detachment. The wisp of Yin energy had condensed above into a third eye; it would no longer swamp his soul and make all human beings look like so much meat—unless...he opened that eye.

Perhaps sensing his desire, Xie Wei crossed her arms, fingers catching at her collar. With a gentle tug to either side, she bared a smooth, rounded shoulder—a flash of gleaming, pale skin.

But the soft gold robe didn’t slide down. Two hands caught it.

Li Yuan brought his palms together and drew the robe closed for her again. He wasn’t going to cross that line.

Xie Wei used the momentum, let out a breathy little moan, and fell into his arms.

As the head of the shadow guard, and now Empress, she would of course try every trick to tether the Son of Heaven tight.

And there was only one way to bind the Emperor. That was to make him truly care for her.

With a heart as cold as iron, Xie Wei played the siren. Her mission was to win him over; her body was the price. So she sank into the role, even letting the desire under her ribs slip its leash until it warmed into something like feeling.

Li Yuan, meanwhile, was dying of secondhand embarrassment. Bowled over by his sister-in-law, he hadn’t even gathered his wits before a shiver ran through him—an odd, fusing sensation like a current circling under his skin.

She was too fast.

Another heartbeat and he’d make a mistake.

“Empress.” Li Yuan’s voice cracked like a whip.

Xie Wei drew her hand back and looked up, bewildered and a little pitiful, her expression a study in feminine vulnerability.

Li Yuan sighed inwardly. These

expressions

were not ones his sister-in-law ever wore in public.

“Your Majesty...” Xie Wei asked in alarm, “did this concubine displease you?”

Li Yuan said, “I was willing to make you Empress because I am satisfied with your clan, and with you. Only...I am tired. Tonight I wish to rest alone.”

Seeing he meant it, Xie Wei gathered up the written decree, bowed, and slowly withdrew.

“Hah...” Li Yuan exhaled, but the fire in him only flared hotter from her little performance. With a thought, an icy vertical pupil bloomed like an inked sketch on the skin of his forearm near the cuff.

The moment that eye opened, the blaze in him vanished.

Alien thoughts, nothing a human should think, surged up.

Just a disgusting little clot of living flesh. Why would I be moved by it?

Right then, Li Yuan couldn’t fathom the man he’d been a moment ago.

What was that? He willed the Heavenly Eye shut.

At once, the strange thoughts ebbed away.

He was himself again, and he let out a slow breath.

That night, Li Yuan summoned Lu Xuanxian to his tent.

The two men spoke at length about how Li Yuan should handle men like Zhao Gutong, and in general how to ease himself, step by step, into the Emperor’s skin.

Truth be told, Li Yuan had already picked up most of it from Cui Huayin long ago. Now, with Lu Xuanxian’s detailed briefing, his grasp of the Son of Heaven grew even clearer.