A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 55.2

“We implore Your Highness to ascend the throne and dispatch troops to suppress the rebellion!”

Outside the flower hall corridor, the generals all knelt down together and loudly pleaded, “We implore Your Highness to ascend the throne and dispatch troops to suppress the rebellion!”

Xie Yuan’s expression was calm. He walked out to the corridor, faced the generals, and said, “No matter how big the matter is, it can wait until the Princess Consort’s portrait is finished!”

Perhaps it was the fierce, heavy sha energy from the large expanse of battle armor, but Xun Shuheng suddenly felt a palpitation.

Something was wrong!

What was wrong?

Although she and Xie Yuan had a respectful relationship, she knew that in his heart, her importance could never compare to the nation. Xie Yuan was acting out of character by finding a painter for her and accompanying her for a portrait. These were things he wouldn’t normally do, and now he even wanted the generals who followed him to wait until her portrait was finished?

Xun Shuheng held onto Xian Yu with one hand, bracing herself on the table, slowly stood up, and followed Xie Yuan step by step.

“Your Highness, can you tell this concubine what exactly happened to the Xun family?”

Xie Yuan looked at her, his gaze very calm, a calm that held something unsettling. “Xun Xian has defected to Prince Qi.”

Xun Shuheng’s legs became unsteady.

Xie Yuan walked closer, offered a supporting arm, and comforted her, saying, “Rest assured. This Prince knows that this has nothing to do with you and will not take his anger out on you.”

Xun Shuheng’s breathing became heavy. “But…”

Xun Xian had always wanted the Xun family to produce an Empress. She was Xie Yuan’s main wife. If Xie Yuan seized power, Xun Xian would be the Emperor’s father-in-law. How could Prince Qi believe that the Xun family was truly sincere in their surrender?

What did the Xun family offer and what did they give up this time?

Xie Yuan said, “The Xun family is marrying a daughter to be Xie Xuan’s official wife, to be officially installed as Empress on an auspicious day.”

Did Xun Xian marry another one of her sisters to Prince Qi?

“What about Linxia? What about me? What are my father’s plans?”

Xie Yuan paused briefly before continuing, “Severance of kinship.”

“My parents… no longer acknowledge me as their daughter?”

Xun Shuheng was incredulous. She tightly clutched her swollen abdomen, her body trembling, and her breathing becoming increasingly rapid and heavy.

Her abdomen felt as if a sharp blade had suddenly been plunged into it and was twisting.

The intense pain attacked without warning, and in an instant, fine beads of sweat seeped onto her forehead. Her face turned as pale as paper.

“Princess Consort!”

“Ah Heng!”

Xie Yuan and Chen Liangyu simultaneously stepped forward to support Xun Shuheng’s tottering body.

In the flower hall, a brush quietly slipped from a hand, dropping to the floor with a “pat.”

“The Princess Consort seems to be going into labor,” said wet-nurse Ji.

Xie Yuan immediately scooped up Xun Shuheng and hurried towards the main chambers in the back courtyard.

Xian Yu trotted closely behind, while calmly instructing the attendant maids, “Go and call the residence’s midwife and doctor to the main chamber, hurry! Bring the clean cloths that were prepared a while ago and boil more hot water! All of you, be quick and nimble!”

Amidst the uproar, Chen Luan silently picked up the brush handle, gently dusted off the dirt, and completed the corner of the painting that was missing, as if no one else were present.

After Xun Shuheng was laid flat on the bed, Xie Yuan was ushered out of the room by wet-nurse Ji and a few older nannies serving Xun Shuheng. “Your Highness, a woman giving birth is a place of impurity. Your Highness, please leave quickly, lest you clash with it!”

A place of impurity?

Chen Liangyu’s anger flared up from nowhere. “Were you not born of your mother? A group of defiled objects!”

The nannies hurriedly begged for forgiveness. “This servant deserves to die!”

“This servant is useless, useless!”

They said they deserved to die, but their eyes were perplexed, not knowing what they had said wrong.

Xie Yuan said, “Why are you all kneeling here? Go and attend to the Princess Consort.” And then he left.

The nannies responded obediently.

In their frantic rush, they were inevitably negligent, and Chen Liangyu temporarily failed to notice Xie Wenjun’s whereabouts. She turned to look for her, but the person was already gone.

She had been right beside them just now. Where did she go in the blink of an eye?

“Liangyu, Liangyu!” Xun Shuheng’s voice was already breaking from the pain.

Chen Liangyu quickly stepped to the bedside.

“Go and tell His Highness that the overall situation is important, and he must not let this concubine delay his great undertaking! If something untoward happens, it is the fate of me and our child…”

“Ah Heng, don’t say such things!”

“I feel so sad. Why? His Majesty suddenly bestowed this marriage, and His Highness was demoted to Linxia. When His Highness and I left Yongdu, my father didn’t even come out of the city to see us off. Seeing the daughter he painstakingly groomed for so many years no longer has the possibility of becoming an Empress, will he think I am truly useless? That I deserve to die?”

Chen Liangyu said, “Severing kinship to ensure self-preservation is merely a matter of expediency. Don’t take it to heart.”

“Expediency? If His Highness’s great plan does not succeed, will my father fight to the death to protect me and my child?”

Chen Liangyu felt as if her throat was choked with an entire piece of cake. She could not utter a single word.

“You’ve also realized it, haven’t you? He won’t… From a young age, he trained me. I must not disobey, or it is unfilial; I must not defy, or it is disrespectful; I must not go to a tavern to drink alone, or it is improper; I must not have a man I love, or it is impure… For so many years, I’ve never felt like I lived as a human being. I often feel like I am a sacrificial offering placed on an altar by my entire family!”

Xun Shuheng closed her eyes in pain, tears streaming down her temples.

“I don’t know which one of my sisters my father married off, but no matter whether His Highness or Prince Qi ultimately succeeds to the throne, the Xun family must sacrifice a daughter! He loved us once… Is even the love of parents full of calculations?”

What difference did it make whether the sacrificed daughter was her or her sister?

No matter which side won this struggle, the price the Xun family had to pay was merely one daughter. Their fate was a tool for men to seize power, a sacrifice, or a spoil of war after the dust settled.

Feng Jiakun still led the generals, gathered in front of the flower hall corridor, muttering something while looking at the ink stains on his palm. Occasionally, he would get stuck, randomly pat someone, and complain with a question, “What does this character say? Strategist Yan wrote these words so flowery; it’s not like we’re taking the Imperial Examination!”

“The Ji of Sheji (nation/altars of soil and grain). That sentence was just said.”

“Was it said?”

As soon as Xie Yuan appeared, Feng Jiakun immediately clenched his fist, ready to offer another piece of advice, but he was harshly interrupted by a woman’s voice.

“The State Seal of Great Lin is here! Prince of Shen, receive the Imperial Edict!”

Xie Wenjun walked over from the corridor on the other side. Dozens of Eastern Palace Guards, dressed in dark-colored tight clothes, covered in fine-scaled armor, and wearing black helmets, protected her front and rear. Rong Jun held a jade stone tray, and the dragon-coiled golden seal rested quietly on the silk cloth.

Xie Yuan was startled and immediately knelt down facing the Imperial Seal. “Your Son receives the Imperial Edict!”

The black-clothed, fine-scaled guards cleared the path, their voices sounding like cracking ice. For a fleeting moment, he mistook Jiang Ning for the Crown Prince, Xie Yu.

The generals outside the corridor were all shocked, and then knelt down with Xie Yuan.

“Heaven has commanded; the Imperial King receives it. The Third Imperial Prince, Yuan, aligns with Heaven and the times, receives this clear mandate, deeply resembles Our person, and shall inherit the Great Unification! Respect this!”

Feng Jiakun only understood the words “Great Unification.” After Xie Yuan received the Edict, he looked up and saw Rong Jun raising the tray with the Imperial Seal over his head and handing it to the Prince of Shen. The confusion on his face turned to astonishment, and then into ecstasy.

“Your subordinate bows to our Emperor! Long Live our Emperor, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years!”

The generals behind Feng Jiakun moved forward on their knees, prostrating themselves and loudly shouting praises of “Holy Emperor, Enlightened King,” and “Ten Thousand Years, Eternal Autumn” that reached the clouds.

The land remained the same, but the hills and valleys had changed.

The light of the setting sun was no longer dazzling; it was soft and dim, like an emperor reaching the twilight of his life.

As the sun wheel set in the west, and before the morning sun rose again, this corner of the world had changed its ruler.