I've Decided To Be This Tyrant's Dark Moonlight - Chapter 86

Xiao Qianxue let out a loud “Moo!” and quickly jumped off the bed to block Pei Que.

Pei Que frowned.
“Your body is weak. How can you get out of bed so casually? Back up you go.”

Hearing that, Xiao Qianxue obediently climbed back onto the bed, wrapped herself up in the quilt, and repeatedly emphasized that she really did like mooing.

“What’s wrong with mooing? Doesn’t Ri Yingying imitate birds all the time? This is called a hobby, a special skill! Something that can even make money in the Cold Palace!”

Pei Que was confronted with her bizarre train of thought and—strangely enough—found herself almost persuaded. She sat down at the bedside and asked softly:
“You truly feel no discomfort?”

Xiao Qianxue patted her chest.
“Me? I’m strong as an ox! If I had a field, I could plow it myself!”

Pei Que’s chest tightened. She reached out to touch Qianxue’s forehead and muttered,
“But you still have a fever…”

How did this girl turn silly from being poisoned?

Xiao Qianxue wriggled about under the quilt, showing off her supposed strength and boundless vitality. Suddenly, she noticed something, stopped, and stared dazedly at Pei Que for a long while.

The other woman’s eyes were lowered, the corners faintly red.

Her dazzling face was veiled in a faint sorrow, a melancholy that came and went.

Pei Que was beautiful—too beautiful. Her eyes were long and upturned, her nose bridge tall, even the curve of her lips was sharp and dangerous.

She was like a blade, sharp and deadly, seductive yet perilous.

Yet now, with her eyes rimmed red and her brows furrowed in fragility, Xiao Qianxue found her heart tightening unbearably. Chest stuffy, she whispered:
“Niangniang, what’s wrong?”

Pei Que turned her gaze away.
“You needn’t worry. From now on, I will take responsibility for you.”

Xiao Qianxue: ???

Xiao Qianxue: “Yay!”

Pei Que continued, “If your body doesn’t recover, no matter what precious herbs are required, just come to me. As long as I live, I won’t let you suffer.”

Xiao Qianxue beamed like a flower.
“Yay! Yay!”

Pei Que glanced at her, then added:
“In the army, if a soldier was gravely wounded and crippled, he would be granted a large sum of silver and arranged a light duty job back home to provide for his remaining years.”

To Pei Que, Xiao Qianxue was no different from a permanently injured soldier.

Her head suddenly felt heavy. She sighed softly.
“You being poisoned is connected to me… I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life.”

Xiao Qianxue’s eyes sparkled.
“Yay! Yay! Yay!”

Pei Que: “…I’m being serious. Can’t you tone it down a little?”

Xiao Qianxue grinned.
“Yay!”

—

Two days later, Xiao Qianxue had fully recovered. She was bouncing around, brimming with energy, often staring longingly out the window at the wheat fields.

“Ahhh, I really want to plow the fields…” she sighed, leaning against the window.

Pei Que rubbed her forehead and glanced at Wei Ying.
“Yingying, this won’t be a problem, right?”

Wei Ying smiled with squinted eyes and folded her hands.
“No, it’ll pass in a few days. Just some stronger aftereffects from the orange card.”

Because the autumn hunt had delayed them, the party prepared to return to the palace.

Pei Que’s sense of responsibility overflowed—she insisted on sharing a carriage with Xiao Qianxue so she could stop the girl whenever she tried to jump out and plow fields.

Originally, Li Consort rode with Xiao Qianxue. Along the way, she was terrified of the intimidating Imperial Consort, who was strict yet oddly indulgent with Qianxue, tugging at her robes with an expression that was both stern and doting.

Li Consort bit her fingerkerchief, feeling like an unwanted outsider, quietly rejected.

When the convoy stopped to rest, she secretly slipped out and headed for Wei Ying’s carriage.

Inside, Wei Ying was reading. Seeing her, she looked up with a smile.
“Why has Your Ladyship come?”

Li Consort dabbed sweat with her handkerchief, pouting unhappily.
“I was just with Qianxue, but she ignored me the whole time, only staring at the Imperial Consort. The Imperial Consort is so scary, so fierce…”

Wei Ying chuckled, picking up a golden orange and slowly peeling it.

Li Consort propped her chin in her hands, thinking: Yingying really is the best—gentle and considerate!

Just then, the carriage curtain was flung open and a figure in bright yellow leapt inside.

“Yingying, I—”

The Emperor froze mid-sentence, locking eyes with the wide-eyed Li Consort.

After a beat, the Emperor adjusted her robes, coughed lightly, and nodded with great imperial dignity.
“Li Consort is here as well. What a coincidence.”

Li Consort finally came to her senses and hurriedly bowed.
“Greetings, Your Majesty.”

Yun Zhao gave a curt “Mm” and sat down beside Wei Ying. Catching sight of the peeled orange in her hands, she nudged her with her elbow and blinked.

Wei Ying’s lips curved up as she popped a slice into the Emperor’s mouth.

Yun Zhao: “Mmm~”

Today, she was the one eating oranges—happy!

Li Consort watched the scene and once again felt excluded. Clutching her little handkerchief, she shrank into a corner, trying not to attract the Emperor’s attention.

She had heard that outside the capital, popular storybooks circulated, recording palace intrigues and the hidden lives of concubines.

Perhaps she should write one herself. She already had a title in mind: The Life of the Neglected Li Consort.

Li Consort tucked her hands into her sleeves in sorrow.

—

Back at the palace, Yulu Hall had prepared a grand feast as usual.

Virtuous Consort came running out of the palace, pulling Wei Ying’s hand, then Xiao Qianxue’s.
“Yingying, Qianxue, let elder sister see—have you both gotten thinner? I heard you even encountered northern assassins on the road. Were you hurt?”

Xiao Qianxue scratched her head.
“Huh? Assassins? When? Where?”

She had been asleep in the carriage the whole time and hadn’t noticed a thing.

Wei Ying smiled, pinched her cheek, and sat back down to recount the attack to Virtuous Consort—though she omitted the part where a blade had struck her and then shattered.

Virtuous Consort patted her chest in fright.
“It’s good you’re both safe. Even though I’ve been in the palace, I’ve heard the situation outside isn’t good lately. Next time, don’t go out and take risks. Just stay in the palace.”

Xiao Qianxue buried her head in food.
“Don’t worry, Lady Consort! I know martial arts. I can protect Yingying!”

Virtuous Consort laughed and shook her head.
“With you? Falling asleep in the middle of an assassination attempt? And you still say you’ll protect Yingying?” She smiled. “No, that’s fine. That’s just right.”

Xiao Qianxue: “Hehehe.”

Virtuous Consort looked at Wei Ying several times, eyes gentle, as if holding many unspoken words.

Wei Ying was sharp—she immediately understood. After making sure Xiao Qianxue, still under the lingering “buff of a wind-blown cow,” was eating enough, she accompanied Virtuous Consort to the study.

“Your Ladyship, is there something you wished to tell me?”

Virtuous Consort smiled.
“Yingying is clever—nothing escapes you.” She handed over a few scrolls of storybooks.
“New books have become popular in the capital. Would you like to read them?”

Wei Ying gladly accepted.

Virtuous Consort added softly,
“Actually, these were written by me.”

Wei Ying paused, tilting her head.
“Eh?”

Virtuous Consort sat primly on the bamboo couch, hands folded neatly on her knees, looking at her expectantly. When Wei Ying finally asked, she said curiously,
“Don’t you find it surprising?”

Wei Ying smiled.
“So it was Your Ladyship all along. I wondered why my likeness kept showing up in these books…” She described her feelings of being turned into a character, then leaned casually against the white wall, legs stretched out, smiling.
“What made you suddenly bring this up?”

Virtuous Consort twisted her handkerchief nervously, then admitted:
“Do you still remember Qian Qiuyue? The one whose book sales always surpass mine?”

Of course Wei Ying remembered the “Little Yellow Mosquito”—a famous pen name. She nodded.

Virtuous Consort clenched her fingers, lowering her head shyly.
“I never accepted it, but I did admire her talent. I never thought she would…”

“A while ago, when my nanny delivered my manuscript to the bookstore, the owner gave her a letter. Qian Qiuyue had entrusted it to be passed on to me.” Virtuous Consort’s lips curved faintly as she confessed with embarrassment,
“She praised me in that letter! It made me realize I was being childish.”

Wei Ying sipped tea and let her continue.

Virtuous Consort went on,
“Since then, we’ve started writing letters back and forth. She’s from the South Seas, tricked into coming to the capital, with no family, living in poverty…”

Wei Ying cut her off.
“No family? Impoverished?”

Virtuous Consort nodded, clutching her chest in pity.
“So pitiful, isn’t it?”

Wei Ying: “She told you this herself?”

Virtuous Consort blinked and tilted her head.
“Yes, why? Is something wrong?”

Wei Ying waved it off.
“Never mind. Go on. What else has she told you?”

Virtuous Consort sighed, fingering her enamel bracelet.
“I wanted to help her, but she refused any money. Such noble integrity—‘unmoved by poverty, unyielding to power, untempted by riches’…” After a string of praise, she frowned softly.
“I still want to help her somehow, but without hurting her pride.”

Wei Ying thought for a moment, then smiled.
“Then don’t give her money. If she can publish books, how could she really be short of cash? Since she admires your talent, just exchange letters with her, discuss literature. Wouldn’t that make you both happy?”

Virtuous Consort brightened, her brows curving.
“Yingying is right—such a good idea! I can write her letters, and I can make her some cakes to eat. I even learned South Sea pastries from the palace chefs—she’ll surely like them.”

After a moment, her smile dimmed again.
“But Yingying, there’s something truly difficult. I need your advice.”

Wei Ying tilted her head curiously.
“What is it?”

Virtuous Consort fidgeted, then said shyly:
“She asked me to meet her at the Lantern Festival on New Year’s Eve.”

Wei Ying clapped her hands.
“That’s not hard at all! If there’s a banquet in the palace that night, just feign illness. I’ll sneak you out. I’ll take you!”

Virtuous Consort’s face brightened, then dimmed again with a sigh.
“The hardest part isn’t that.”

“What is it then?”

Lowering her head, her gentle face clouded with distress.
“In my letters, I told her that though I live in wealth as a merchant’s daughter, I was born hideous, plain as an ‘ugly saltless woman,’ mocked by passersby, forced to shut myself away and write books.”

She lifted her beautiful eyes to Wei Ying, distressed.
“Yingying… when we meet on New Year’s Eve, and she sees I lied, what should I do?”

Wei Ying propped her chin thoughtfully.
“…That is a problem.”

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