After the Cold and Aloof Husband's Mask Falls - Chapter 40

The snow began to taper off shortly after 9:00 PM.

As the palace guards prepared for their shift change, they remained unusually alert. Word had come from the inner palace: two high-ranking figures were expected tonight.

“They’re here!”

In the distance, a rider cut through the snowy night. The figure was cold and imposing, radiating an aura of lethal intent. The commanding officer straightened his back instinctively.

Gu Wanlan dismounted with fluid grace. The silver half-mask on her face gleamed like cold steel under the moonlight.

“Feiyan, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guards! Here by imperial summons to have an audience with His Majesty!” She tossed the identification tablet given to her by Xiao Chen.

So this is the famous Commander Feiyan who has risen to fame in the capital recently! So young, yet so sharp!

The officer checked the tablet and returned it with a respectful bow. “Commander Feiyan, please. We will look after your horse.”

“Very well.” Gu Wanlan brushed the snow from her shoulders. As she stepped forward, her eyes caught a distinct set of carriage tracks at the palace gate. She arched an eyebrow, unsurprised. “Lord Cui arrived a step ahead of me, it seems.”

The officer’s mind flashed back to the face he had seen inside that carriage—a man whose presence was so overwhelming it had even eclipsed the talented young Cui Qiong. Though he had served in the palace for three years, he had never seen that face before.

He offered a respectful smile. “Lord Cui arrived only half a tea-break’s time before you. Please, enter.”

The Qianxin Hall

Inside the hall, the head eunuch, Yuan Xi, retreated with an empty tray, closing the heavy doors behind him. Outside, a few bold young eunuchs whispered among themselves. They knew the current head of the Cui family was waiting in a side hall, yet the Emperor had invited this man into his private quarters for tea.

They didn’t recognize Cui Jue. Most of the current palace staff had been hired within the last three years; Cui Jue’s first and only visit to the palace had been five years ago.

“Keep your mouths shut,” Yuan Xi hissed, silencing the gossip. “If you offend the Heavens, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Inside the hall, Emperor Qingyuan looked at Cui Jue through the rising steam of the tea. Five years had passed. Cui Jue’s features had lost their boyish roundness, but everything else remained exactly the same.

The Emperor remembered the day the boy had approached him during a spring hunt in the forest. He remembered those pitch-black, wolf-like eyes.

“Your Majesty, are you interested in helping me destroy the Cui family?”

It had been a scandalous opening. The Emperor, finding no game to hunt that day, had slowed his horse to study the boy. “Cui Jue, aren’t you afraid I’ll call the guards and send you back to your manor right now?”

The boy showed no fear. He looked at the Emperor as if this meeting were inevitable.

Cui Jue was the child of two great clans, yet he had vanished from public record after birth. Rumors of a “six-fingered curse” had followed him until the birth of his brother, Cui Qiong.

“They say you were born with six fingers? That you are a harbinger of calamity?” the Emperor had asked back then.

“So they say,” the boy replied, indifferent. He held up his left hand against the dappled sunlight. “It is a part of me. It is me.”

“But it brought you suffering.”

“Did it? What is suffering?”

The boy had laughed—a sound like a soft breeze. “If not for that, I wouldn’t have met her, nor would I be standing here speaking to Your Majesty. Compared to that, nothing else matters.”

Then, the boy looked at the Emperor. “Does Your Majesty care about this finger?”

“And if I do?”

The boy stooped down, found a sharp, jagged stone, and gripped it. When the Emperor’s guard rushed forward, sword drawn, the boy didn’t flinch.

Slash. Blood sprayed across the forest leaves. The boy’s pale face finally gained a flush of color, but his eyes grew brighter. He tore a strip of cloth from his robe, wrapped the severed finger, and stepped forward until his neck pressed against the guard’s blade. He handed the bundle to the Emperor.

“I will not let Your Majesty’s hunting net come up empty.”

In that moment, the Emperor was stunned. He dismounted, ordered his guard to stand down, and took the bundle. “What do you want?”

“I have nothing to ask for.” The boy shook his head.

He looked up at the dense canopy. “I want the bird to fly high. But I am not the bird, and I cannot reach it. All I can do is prune the tangled branches in this forest for its sake.” He paused, a drop of blood staining his brow. “If I must ask for something… I ask for a clean government and a peaceful world.”

The Emperor had seen many ambitious men. But none were as contradictory as Cui Jue.

What had started as a whim during a hunt had turned into the cultivation of a “Alpha Wolf.” Cui Jue had masterminded the takeover of the Cui family, handing the family seal to the Emperor as a sign of loyalty. Since then, he had grown the family’s power until all other noble clans followed their lead.

But the Emperor was wary. Especially after hearing that Cui Jue had become the “matrilocal son-in-law” to Gu Wanlan.

“Shenzhi,” the Emperor said, using the courtesy name he had given the boy. “Years pass, and now you’re married—and as a son-in-law who took his wife’s name. Did that girl from the Protector’s Manor coerce you? Tell me, and I will set it right.”

Cui Jue set down his tea. “It wasn’t coercion. There was a misunderstanding at her banquet, and I needed to take responsibility. It was… a natural progression.”

“Natural progression? That doesn’t sound like you.” The Emperor smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

Cui Jue shook his head, a rare look of bewilderment in his eyes. “I don’t know. These years, I’ve felt that having someone by my side might not be bad.”

“Haha! Truly rare for you to want a home and a family.” The Emperor patted his shoulder, then lowered his voice. “But as someone who has been there—husband and wife only find harmony through honesty. You are lying to her. Have you thought about telling her who you really are?”

“There is no need, Your Majesty. This marriage is one of convenience. If there is no love, once she has control of the Manor, we will go our separate ways. If love grows… even then, in three or five years after our great plan is complete, I will still just be a painter from Mount Qiu with unknown parents. There is no need.”

Cui Jue’s expression was calm, but his heart was racing. The Emperor had summoned him regarding the hostage, but he was asking far too much about the marriage. Did he suspect Gu Wanlan knew his identity? Or did he fear they were forming a private alliance?

“Your Majesty,” Yuan Xi’s voice called from outside. “Commander Feiyan is here for her audience.”