After the Alluring Beauty Was Forced into a Political Marriage - Chapter 14

The old Shanyu’s offspring were few; in total, he had only three children. The eldest daughter, Surina, was born to the same mother as Siqin Bari, the previous Consort. The second brother, Lakshen, was born to a concubine. After Siqin Bari ascended the throne, he appointed this brother as the Left Tuqi King.

The three siblings shared a relatively close relationship. Although both brothers held high positions, they deeply respected their eldest sister, who was many years their senior, viewing her almost as a second mother.

The people of Great Xia possessed a fierce spirit, and women there held up half the sky. Surina was an undeniable heroine who refused to be outdone by any man.

For many major matters, Siqin Bari’s word alone was not final; he still had to consult the eldest princess, illustrating her noble and exalted status.

Shen Lianzhi did not know what kind of demon had possessed him a few days ago to make him dare to take matters into his own hands and dismiss someone as formidable as this matriarch. Belatedly, he felt a surge of lingering fear, and the sweat he broke into along the way soaked through his back.

The banquet was set in a tent not far from the royal tent. Lianzhi stood outside the curtain and took two deep breaths before tremulously pulling it aside.

The tent had been filled with bursts of laughter, but the very moment he stepped inside, everyone fell silent. They turned as one to gaze at this male Consort who never left his quarters.

Lianzhi was naturally shy, and attending this banquet had already required every ounce of his courage. Now, under the collective stare of so many people, the gazes felt physical, like a mountain threatening to crush his spine.

He lowered his head, half his body still outside the tent, unable to move forward or back. His face flushed with intense embarrassment, his heart pounded wildly, and his palms sweated profusely.

After an indeterminate time, a sudden female voice broke the stagnant atmosphere. “The Consort has arrived.”

The tone was somewhat stiff, likely from lack of practice in the Han language, yet the authority remained undiminished. Lianzhi took a few steps inside, shrinking his neck as he quickly glanced around. Seeing the dome filled with rows of seated people, he felt a sense of bewilderment.

“Hurry and lead the Consort to his seat.” Surina inclined her head toward a servant standing nearby. The servant gave a slight nod and walked toward Lianzhi.

Under the scrutiny of so many eyes, Shen Lianzhi found it impossible to relax. He followed the servant with awkward, stiff movements. His timid, shrinking manner did not escape Surina’s notice, causing her to frown almost imperceptibly.

The previous Consort was of Jie descent; the Jie people were known for their high noses, deep eyes, and snowy skin. Therefore, compared to the average Xia person, Siqin Bari and Surina had fairer skin. Surina shared fifty percent of her features with Siqin Bari, but unlike his wild and unrestrained air, the eldest princess possessed a more steady and dignified temperament.

From the moment Lianzhi entered the tent, Surina had been observing him. After this detailed scrutiny, all that remained in her heart was disappointment and dissatisfaction.

Surina did not like Shen Lianzhi; or rather, she disliked all people from the Great Zhou. Her level of resistance was likely deeper than Lianzhi’s own aversion to the Xia.

This was because her only son had died under the sword of a Great Zhou man.

That Zhou man had infiltrated the Xia army and called her child brother, performing so convincingly that even she was deceived. She had loved that child as her own son, only for that foster son to stab her biological son to death in the blink of an eye.

From then on, in Surina’s eyes, “Zhou person” became synonymous with “treacherous,” “sinister,” and “hypocritical villain.”

When the war between Xia and Zhou broke out and the Emperor of Zhou sought a truce to turn weapons into silk, the old Shanyu proposed the marriage alliance. Surina had been one of the few dissenters.

In her view, Great Xia had countless good daughters; why should the position of Consort be given to an unknown foreign woman? However, her royal father’s mind was set, and being outnumbered, she had no choice but to let it be.

Surina occasionally wondered if the Great Zhou had sent a genuine princess, perhaps she could have set aside her deep-seated prejudice and felt a bit of pity for a fellow woman.

But this Shen Lianzhi was not one. Surina did not listen to the nonsense of those Zhou people, what “Fourth Princess” rubbish.

He was a dual-natured person of both yin and yang. Surina remembered how shocked she was when she first heard the news. It was a bizarre tale. How could someone be both? It was simply too absurd!

She believed this demon, she had already labeled Lianzhi a demon in her heart, must be a conspiracy by the Zhou people, an incarnation of punishment sent by the gods. This demon would surely turn Great Xia upside down!

Thinking this way, her father’s passing also had an explanation. It was this neither-male-nor-female filthy thing that had cursed him to death!

Surina channeled the grief of her father’s passing into hatred for Lianzhi and the Zhou people themselves. She had told Siqin Bari countless times to simply kill him. Since the Great Zhou dared to deceive them so, the truce should be torn up.

Who knew that Siqin Bari would change his mind halfway through, determined to make Shen Lianzhi his Consort.

Surina was nearly driven to despair. It had only been a few days, yet her brother had already been bewitched by that alluring fox spirit. But Siqin Bari was extremely stubborn; once he made a decision, not even eight horses could pull him back.

She could only watch helplessly as that man became the Consort of Great Xia. Watching her brother hold the hand of that Zhou person, she felt she was seeing the premature downfall of Great Xia.

On the day of the grand wedding, Surina had examined Lianzhi closely. Though called a dual-natured person, she could see no female characteristics in his appearance. Surina could not view him as a woman; she could only see him as a pure man.

Yet even as a man, Shen Lianzhi was the type of cowardly male she despised most. He lacked a robust physique and looked overly scholarly. Clearly timid, his eyes were nevertheless born with a seductive quality, glancing around everywhere.

Furthermore, he had wiped away the makeup on his face. The markings on a Consort’s face were meant for worshiping the gods. Shen Lianzhi had dared to wipe them off of his own accord. He had broken the rules on his very first day, yet Siqin Bari had turned a blind eye.

He already looked like a fatuous ruler. That was what Surina thought at the time.

Surina had begun to forget these matters, but seeing Lianzhi again now, the fire of resentment in her heart flared up once more. She addressed him, “Consort.”

“Uh, Big, Big Sister.” Surina always made Lianzhi involuntarily remember the Empress Dowager in the Zhou palace. For a moment, his heart was in his throat.

Surina partially lowered her eyes, appearing to casually raise a hand to adjust her dark hair. “I came to visit the Consort previously, but heard you were indisposed. I wonder, after all these days, is the Consort’s body any better?”

“Thank you for your concern, Big Sister. I have fully recovered, haha” Shen Lianzhi thought Surina was about to settle scores and immediately focused all his attention. But before he could finish, he saw Surina give a light, airy laugh.

“I suspect you haven’t fully recovered; the Consort is still muddled.” Surina crossed her arms and looked askance at Lianzhi. “If you were fully recovered, you likely wouldn’t have broken the rules.”

If Siqin Bari inspired fear, Surina inspired pure dread. Shen Lianzhi’s mind had never turned so fast in his life. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit him. He recalled Surina’s earlier gesture of adjusting her hair. Lianzhi’s gaze fell upon her hair, seeing a gold chain set with blue sapphires draped across her forehead.

His whole body jolted. He turned his head and saw that all the female guests at the banquet had gold or silver hair chains tied in their hair. Shen Lianzhi thought of the capping crown on his own head. He was doomed!

In his bones, Shen Lianzhi still carried the blood of the Zhou. In his view, since he had reached the age for the capping ceremony, he should use a crown to bind his hair. Seeing those gaudy, flowery chains made him feel dizzy and annoyed. He never expected that a moment of willful behavior would dig such a huge pit for himself!

Fortunately, Surina only wanted to give him a warning and did not truly intend to do anything. She took a sip of mare’s milk wine and said calmly, “Now that the Consort has arrived in our Great Xia, do not forget your place.”

Shen Lianzhi watched her profile and suddenly remembered an old incident from the Zhou palace.

The Emperor of Zhou was profligate and loved beauties. Once, a vassal state had presented him with a peerless beauty. The Emperor was delighted and immediately titled her a Zhaoyi, one of the nine high-ranking concubines.

The Zhaoyi was not used to the clothing of Great Zhou and preferred the light gauze garments of her homeland. Occasionally, when she felt homesick, she would wear her native clothes and dance in a secluded spot to ease her sorrow.

This was nothing major. The Emperor, pitying her isolation in the palace, turned a blind eye. However, news of this somehow reached the Empress Dowager’s ears.

One day, while the Zhaoyi was dancing, she was caught red-handed by the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager was furious, convicting her on the grounds of “offending public decency and being dissolute.” The Zhaoyi was thrown into the Cold Palace and passed away at the young age of eighteen.

Lianzhi had liked this lady very much. The Zhaoyi was very kind; not only could she dance, but she also played the pipa beautifully. Lianzhi always liked to run to her palace and beg her to teach him.

When she died, the Emperor merely sighed about a “beautiful woman’s short life” before favoring others. In the entire palace, only Shen Lianzhi was sincerely sad. Twelve-year-old Shen Lianzhi had sobbed uncontrollably in the arms of the young Lu Jingce.

He had choked out a question to Lu Jingce: “The Lady only performed a dance. What did she do wrong? What did she do wrong!”

“Why is the Old Buddha so cruel!”

Lu Jingce had sighed deeply, holding Lianzhi’s head against his still-thin chest. Lianzhi could hear his steady heartbeats.

Lu Jingce stroked the top of his head and wiped the tears from Lianzhi’s face with his thumb. He cupped Lianzhi’s face and said softly, “Lianzhi, there is no ‘why’.”

“That is just how people are,” he said. “When someone feels hatred, there is no ‘humanity’ left to speak of.”

“The Empress Dowager disliked the Zhaoyi because she was a foreign woman. Therefore, in the Old Buddha’s eyes, everything the Zhaoyi did was wrong.”

“Even if she hadn’t danced today, she would have been punished for some other small matter later. It was unavoidable.”

Scenes from the past were like ice swallowed whole, sliding down a hot throat and falling into a scalding heart. In an instant, a chill ran down Shen Lianzhi’s spine. Sitting here, his fate seemed to overlap with the Zhaoyi’s from years ago.

Only one thing was certain. Surina loathed him, exactly as the Old Buddha had loathed the Zhaoyi.

Lianzhi could not help but think: the Zhaoyi “died” because of an imperial decree. So, when would the “decree” belonging to him arrive? At least not now. At least for now, he was still alive.

“Yes, I will certainly not break the rules again.” After a long silence, Shen Lianzhi stiffly forced out these words. Upon hearing this, Surina glanced at him sideways, her lips curling into a light, mocking smile without saying a word.

The banquet fell silent once more, until a soft, musical giggle rang out among the guests.

“Sister, the Consort merely wore the wrong hair ornament. Don’t be so fierce.”

The voice was incredibly charming. One did not need to turn around to know it belonged to a beauty.

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