The Emperor’s Bridal Gift to the Regent - Chapter 1

In the Emperor’s bedchamber, a heavy iron chain snaked across the floor from the dragon bed. Curled on the pristine ground was a disheveled figure with tangled hair and a body covered in scars. His thin garments failed to conceal his form, leaving two slender, fair legs exposed to the air.

The emaciated man tried repeatedly to push himself up, but he had been tormented too ruthlessly the night before. This morning, he had not even had a drop of water; he was utterly devoid of strength. His fingers clawed at the floor, his eyes brimming with resentment, indignation, and a desperate longing for the end.

Night after night of humiliation had long since shattered his dignity. His pride had been heartlessly trampled and crushed under the Emperor’s feet.

“Ngh!”

Finally, he managed to stand. Dragging the chain attached to his ankle, he moved slowly through the vast chamber. On a table sat food and tea brought by palace attendants earlier that morning. Mei Jinshu stumbled forward and grabbed the teacup, gulping down the liquid. Though it was stone-cold, it suited his current state perfectly.

If only I could just die.

He looked at the guards stationed around the room and closed his eyes in exhaustion.

When Meng Xueran returned in the imperial carriage and entered the room, he saw the frail figure on the floor. He picked the man up and carried him toward the dragon bed.

“What is this? Why do you insist on not sleeping in the bed?”

“Get out! Let me go!” The moment Mei Jinshu heard his voice, he began to struggle instinctively, recoiling in disgust. “You beast, you ungrateful wolf!” he rasped, cursing him.

Meng Xueran was not angry. Instead, he teased playfully, “Are you truly that afraid of the dragon bed?”

Mei Jinshu’s mind went blank for a moment before his pupils dilated. He began to struggle violently, kicking and clawing frantically to escape the Emperor’s hold. Amidst the chaos, he managed to leave a red scratch across Meng Xueran’s hauntingly beautiful face before being ruthlessly thrown onto the bed.

The man before him remained unruffled. His youthful face bore a maturity and malevolence that defied his age. Now that he possessed everything, he feared nothing.

But Mei Jinshu was terrified. Curling into a ball in the corner of the bed, he knew exactly what was coming. He resisted with everything he had, never cooperating. He could not endure being humiliated by the primal desires of the wolf cub he had raised with his own hands. He could not accept falling from the position of a high-ranking Prime Minister to an anonymous bed-slave.

This was a fate more painful than death.

Meng Xueran took hold of the chain and easily pulled him close. Pinching his chin, he said, “The dragon bed is only so large. Where exactly do you think you can hide?”

Mei Jinshu bit down hard on his hand and broke free. “You had better kill me now. Otherwise, I will kill you with my own hands!”

“Usurping the throne, deceiving the world, do you think having the exact same face as Meng Changqi can hide your despicable crimes? You stole your brother’s throne and humiliated your benefactor!”

“It was I who took you away from the cold, heartless palace. I was the one who led you out of the Shadow Pavilion where you had been imprisoned for ten years!”

“Shut up!” Meng Xueran choked him, his expression twisting into a mask of rage. “Shadow Pavilion! My entire life, I have been nothing but my Imperial Brother’s shadow!”

“Everyone reminded me that I was merely a shadow of Meng Changqi, that I had to remain quiet and hidden from the light my whole life!”

“Despite all that injustice, I never had the heart to seek revenge against Father or Mother. I followed behind you, timid and humble, playing the role of the good child because I believed that you were the one person in this world who cared for me most.”

“I could not bear to leave you. I was willing to give up everything to fly away with you.”

“But!” Meng Xueran began to cry, large tears rolling from his reddened eyes as if he were deeply wronged. His voice trembled. “You actually betrayed me and abandoned me along with my brother!”

“Did you really think I did not know about your illicit affairs with him?”

Mei Jinshu froze. He looked up and struck the Emperor across the face with a sharp slap, his entire body shaking with rage. “So, you have always believed that I was involved with Changqi?”

“It was I who petitioned the late Emperor to send you to the enemy kingdom for a political marriage.”

“You viewed a man being sent for marriage as an ultimate humiliation, but to save Changqi’s life and for the sake of the entire Great Sheng, I had to do it! Hate me if you want, resent me if you must, but even if I had to choose a thousand times over, I would still sacrifice you to protect Meng Changqi.”

“Changqi is the Heir Apparent, the future Emperor.”

“And you”

“Agh!” Mei Jinshu cried out in pain. The iron chain was wrapped around his neck. Meng Xueran no longer wanted to hear the words that had wounded him so deeply. In his eyes, everything was an excuse that could not change the injustice, humiliation, and torture he had suffered.

The four years of the political marriage in the enemy kingdom were the darkest, most regrettable days of his life.

He questioned Mei Jinshu: “By what right do you think a few casual words can erase all the suffering I endured?”

“Do you have any idea what kind of subhuman, beggarly life I lived in that enemy country?”

“But you still came back alive”

“Does that mean I was supposed to die?!”

“No, I did not” Mei Jinshu tried to explain, but the chain around his neck was tightening painfully. In Meng Xueran’s frantic state, any explanation only fueled his fury. Taking a deep breath, Mei Jinshu asked helplessly, “What is it you want?”

Meng Xueran loosened the chain and reclined carelessly on the bed. After a moment of thought, he spoke: “Then I will give you one more chance. Seven days. If you please me for seven days and nights, I will agree to send Meng Changqi to a remote fiefdom.”

“You?!” Sensing the malice in the Emperor’s words, Mei Jinshu felt a wave of unbearable shame. His fingers dug deep into the bedding.

Meng Xueran added, “Not only that, I will also recall General Mei from the bitter cold of the border back to the capital. Furthermore, I will allow the Empress Dowager to leave the palace to become a nun, so she can live out her days in peace.”

Mei Jinshu hesitated. Even if he did not care for his own life, he could never let go of his elder sister.

Years ago, his sister had been tricked into drinking drugged wine and ended up spending the night with the late Emperor. She became pregnant, and to avoid being trapped as a concubine in the palace, she endured the Emperor’s pressure and was eventually demoted to guard the border.

She had left behind her daughter, a princess not even a year old, and resolutely led her army away.

He admired her free-spirited nature, but through their letters, he could feel how much she missed the princess. Even if she could never hear the child call her “Mother,” just one look would have been enough.

Meng Xueran knew all his weaknesses. He was squeezing Mei Jinshu where it hurt most.

“Seven days and nights. Heh. I promise.”

“But you had better keep your word. If you go back on it, I will not let you go even as a ghost.”

“Rest assured. My word to you is as solid as a tripod.” The irony in his voice was thick. Meng Xueran was deliberately humiliating him, retaliating for the way Mei Jinshu had abandoned him for Meng Changqi without hesitation, how every promise and vow had been broken because of his brother.

He had lived for nineteen years like a joke. The pain of the first ten years was due to his parents’ decisions; everything after was thanks to Mei Jinshu.

Mei Jinshu had taught him how to let go and how to love, yet turned around and gave his heart to Meng Changqi. He had taken arrows for Changqi, broken his leg for him, and sent Meng Xueran away to an enemy state.

All of it was dismissed with a simple: This is what you ought to do.

At the beginning of the month, the sky was overcast with heavy clouds, creating a stifling atmosphere.

Mei Jinshu endured seven days and nights of torment, submitting to Meng Xueran day and night, praying only for time to move faster. The palace doors remained tightly shut, and shameful sounds often drifted out. Whenever Mei Jinshu cried, the servants would turn a deaf ear and stay far away.

After the seven days, Mei Jinshu fell ill for a long time. He looked as though his spirit had vanished, lying listlessly on a red sandalwood chair. He refused to drink any of the medicine brought to him.

Meng Xueran picked up the medicine bowl and sat beside him to feed him carefully, but he still refused.

“Where is she? My sister, why has she not returned?”

“Drink this medicine. In two days, she will surely appear before your eyes.”

“Good. I will wait two more days.” Mei Jinshu drained the bowl in one gulp and turned away, refusing to look at him.

Meng Xueran did not dare to push him further; he knew he had bullied the man too harshly recently. Seeing Mei Jinshu ill, he kept a stoic face but rushed to the chamber the moment court was dismissed.

Over these two days, Meng Xueran had been wondering why the journey from the border was taking so long. Doubt began to creep in. By the time he sent men to investigate, it was already too late.

Mei Xianxue did not remove her armor. Instead, she led her troops and charged directly into the palace gates. The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard. The gate guards screamed, “Mei Xianxue is rebelling! She is storming the palace!”

Archers surrounded the area, but the soldiers following Mei Xianxue were her trusted confidants from the border. They fought their way to the Emperor’s bedchamber, their blades dripping with blood. Even while riddled with arrow wounds, they were determined to take the new Emperor down with them.

“Get out here!” Mei Xianxue roared from outside the hall.

The moment Meng Xueran stepped out, she recognized that he was not the Heir Apparent. “It is actually you? You are not Changqi!”

“Why did you kill Mei Jinshu? Today, I will uphold justice and kill you, you beast!”

“I did not!” Meng Xueran protested. “General, there must be a misunderstanding!”

Before she could raise her sword, Mei Xianxue spat out blood. She forced herself to stay upright on one knee. Seeing Mei Jinshu rushing toward her, she pushed him away and grabbed his arm. “Xiao Shu!”

“Sister?”

“Xiao Shu, you are alive?”

“I have always been alive, worrying about you at the border.” Mei Jinshu’s eyes welled with tears as he reached out to touch her wounded shoulder. “You have been hit by an arrow!”

Mei Xianxue’s face was deathly pale. She swatted his hand away. “Do not touch it. It is poisoned.”

She collapsed onto the cold ground, blood pouring from her mouth. Mei Jinshu cradled her, screaming hoarsely, “Save her! Please save her! I will do anything if you just save her!”

The poison was too potent. Mei Xianxue whispered weakly, “I received your blood-stained official robes. They said you were dead. I was heartbroken. Fortunately”

By the time the imperial physicians arrived, the woman in his arms had already breathed her last.

“Hahaha!” Mei Jinshu snapped. He pulled out the poisoned arrow and let out a howl of grief and rage. Looking at Meng Xueran with utter despair, he said, “Seven days of bedchamber humiliation, only to be traded for a corpse?”

Meng Xueran shook his head, pleading helplessly, “It was not, it was not me! Please, calm down. Put the arrow down. I will give you an explanation.”

“I want you to pay with your life!”

“Good. Then kill me.”

“Will killing you bring everything back to the start?” Mei Jinshu shed a final tear. More than the Emperor, he hated himself.

He turned the poisoned arrow toward his own neck and plunged it in without hesitation. Blood splattered, blurring his vision. He chose to end this absurd and tragic life with his own hands.

The night grew cold, and Meng Xueran remained there, holding Mei Jinshu’s blood-stained body.

He gave Mei Xianxue a grand burial, but he could not accept Mei Jinshu’s death. Why was it that even after reaching the highest throne, sleeping with the person he desired most, and possessing absolute power, he still could not keep anything?

Was the fault his, or did it belong to everyone else? Or was it simply the cruel whim of fate?

He was in so much pain he could barely breathe, yet he personally wiped the blood from Mei Jinshu’s body and changed him into the wedding robes he had long since prepared.

In truth, he had known all along who had planted the poison. But facing the reality was a different matter entirely.

Mei Shiyi knelt in the hall, showing no fear.

“Is Your Majesty going to kill me?”

“Since you already know, do not hesitate.”

“Was it you?” Meng Xueran finally spoke.

Mei Shiyi answered honestly, “It was me.”

“You killed her? You were the one who dipped the arrows in poison!” Meng Xueran stood up, brushed aside the bead curtains, and lunged forward to choke him. He was like a madman, his sanity completely gone. “You orphan! You should have died long ago! He gave you your life, but you are just a piece of trash! A beast!”

“Hahaha!” Mei Shiyi suddenly burst into mocking laughter. Tears fell as he sneered, “When you locked Mei Jinshu in your chambers to humiliate and torture him, you did not think of yourself as a beast? I sent him to his death, and suddenly I am the beast?”

“Do you not find yourself pathetic?”

“Humble yet arrogant, did you think that because of your worthless love, your actions were not loathsome?”

“You cannot be stupid enough to think that if you slept with him for ten or a hundred years, he would lose himself and fall in love with you?”

“He is Mei Jinshu. He is the person you can never have, even from the highest throne. Actually, the one who should have died was always you, Meng Xueran. If he had not dug you out of the snow all those years ago, you would not even have had the chance to see this world.”

“You are right. I should be the one to die.” Meng Xueran drew his sword and drove it through the man’s heart. Mei Shiyi did not seem surprised; after all, he had come here ready to die.

Just as he could never have Meng Xueran, Meng Xueran could never have Mei Jinshu.

As he lay dying, Mei Shiyi looked at him pityingly and spat out his most poisonous words: “If Mei Jinshu’s soul is watching, he will surely thank me for killing him. Because the person he hated most in this world was you.”

Those words were like ten thousand arrows piercing Meng Xueran’s heart, shattering his last shred of hope. Perhaps from the moment he decided to take the throne, everything had gone horribly wrong to the point of no return.

What he wanted, in the end, was his very first wish.

In the first year of the Sheng Era, the new Emperor passed away.

Meng Xueran swallowed a lethal poison and was sealed into a stone coffin alongside Mei Jinshu.

Together in death, together in the grave.

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