The woman emperor rose, looking at Ning Chen’s flushed face, her red lips curling slightly upward.
“This emperor already told you—what this emperor wants, this emperor gets.”
“This emperor truly admires you. Too bad you’re obstinate past all reason… well, no matter. Within a year, you’ll come to the Wu Kingdom and serve this emperor.”
The woman emperor’s face flushed faintly, her eyes wavering, and at last, as though she’d made up her mind, she stripped off her armor and loosened her robes.
Two hours later.
The woman emperor set a white silk handkerchief down on the table, spotted with blood like a plum blossom in bloom.
She walked over, drew her silver spear, glanced once at the unconscious Ning Chen, and walked out of the tent… though her gait was a little awkward.
The woman emperor lifted the curtain and stepped out, then turned back and called into the tent, “General Ning, until we meet again!”
Shi Shan hurried forward, and seeing the flush in the woman emperor’s face, asked with concern, “Is Your Majesty all right?”
The woman emperor touched her burning cheeks and shook her head. “This emperor is fine. Just had a few cups too many.”
That said, she looked to Yuan Long and Pan Yucheng. “Your general had too much to drink. Take good care of him.”
That said, she had her horse brought over, swung up into the saddle, her willow brows creasing slightly, and rode off with her men.
Yuan Long and Pan Yucheng went into the tent.
Ning Chen’s face was flushed and he was dead to the world. He really did look drunk.
“Ning Chen, Ning Chen…”
“General Ning, General Ning…”
The two of them called out, but Ning Chen didn’t so much as stir.
Pan Yucheng’s face changed. He hurried to check on Ning Chen, and once he confirmed he was only asleep, he let out a heavy breath of relief.
He took down his water pouch and gave Ning Chen a little water.
The cold water ran past the corner of his mouth and down his cheek, and Ning Chen’s body gave a shudder—his eyes slowly opened.
Ning Chen’s head felt thick and foggy, his whole body worn out, like he’d been hollowed out from the inside.
Because he’d had a dream. A very steamy dream.
In the dream, he and the woman emperor had been locked in a desperate embrace, lost in clouds and rain.
Thinking of the woman emperor, Ning Chen snapped fully awake.
Something was wrong with that cup of wine.
He sat up with a start. “Where’s the Wu Kingdom’s woman emperor?”
Yuan Long said, “The Wu woman emperor left already. General Ning, you’d had too much to drink.”
“It wasn’t that I drank too much. I was drugged.”
Ning Chen said it without even thinking.
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long were both stunned.
Ning Chen looked toward the wine cup on the table, but his eyes were caught by the white silk handkerchief lying beside it.
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long noticed it too.
All three men’s faces froze.
They were men of experience—of course they knew what those plum-blossom stains on the handkerchief meant.
Pan Yucheng spotted a note lying next to the handkerchief. He picked it up, glanced at it, and his expression turned strange.
Ning Chen asked, “What does it say?”
Pan Yucheng held the note out to him. “See for yourself.”
Ning Chen took it and read it, his head buzzing. It read: This emperor’s proof of virtue, a gift left for you to remember me by. This emperor will be waiting for you in the Wu Kingdom!
Fuck!!!
Disaster.
It hadn’t been a dream. It had actually happened.
He’d slept with the Wu Kingdom’s woman emperor.
No—the woman emperor had drugged him and slept with him.
Ning Chen’s scalp prickled. Who had slept with whom didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was that the two of them were now man and wife in fact.
If the Xuan Emperor ever found out about this, no matter how much he trusted him, he probably wouldn’t be able to let it go.
He’d had an affair with an enemy nation’s ruler—the Xuan Emperor might just kill him outright.
“Fuck… that crazy bitch actually used herself as bait, I fucking—”
Ning Chen was so furious he couldn’t even get the words out straight.
When they’d met, he’d been on guard the whole time, worried the woman emperor might try something, careful at every turn.
But he never imagined she’d drug him and sleep with him.
What a deep game she’d played—she hadn’t even pushed him to drink. She’d just kept refilling her own cup, cup after cup, until he let his guard down.
That cup of wine—he’d gotten worked up in the middle of talking and picked it up without thinking, drained it in one go.
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long realized just how serious this was too.
If the emperor and the court officials ever found out about this, Ning Chen was in serious trouble.
An ordinary general would be executed just for keeping close ties with an enemy state.
And here was Ning Chen, who’d gone and become man and wife in fact with the Wu woman emperor.
How could the Xuan Emperor tolerate his own favored general having an affair with an enemy ruler?
Pan Yucheng said in a low voice, “Not a whisper of this can ever get out.”
As he spoke, he glanced at Yuan Long, a flash of cold killing intent crossing his eyes.
Yuan Long felt the surge of killing intent and eyed Pan Yucheng warily. “Pan the Gold Coat, are you planning to kill me to keep me quiet?”
Pan Yucheng said nothing, but his hand had already closed around the hilt of his blade.
Yuan Long said in a low voice, “I understand why Pan the Gold Coat would do this, for General Ning’s sake… but I, Yuan Long, followed General Ning north against the North Royal Court, and now we’ve retaken the frontier together—through life and death. I would never betray General Ning.”
“If General Ning wants me dead to keep this quiet, I’ll go to my death willingly… but I ask that Pan the Gold Coat come with me, to make sure no one else ever learns of this.”
Ning Chen frowned. “If the two of you die, that won’t keep the secret either… and there’s still the Wu woman emperor herself, who knows exactly what happened. Unless you can kill her too?”
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long froze.
That’s right! The Wu woman emperor herself knew about this.
If they wanted to keep this quiet, the two of them dying wouldn’t do any good—they’d have to kill the Wu woman emperor too… but that was completely unrealistic.
Ning Chen laughed bitterly. “I have to say, that woman played a vicious card. I honestly never thought she’d go this far.”
Pan Yucheng said in a low voice, “Even if the Wu woman emperor said something, who’d believe her? Who’d believe a reigning monarch would give herself to you?”
Ning Chen shook his head, his face full of helplessness. “If His Majesty and the court officials find out, even if they don’t believe it, they’ll still grow suspicious.”
“On top of that, there were two hundred musketeers outside the tent who saw the woman emperor and me in there for nearly two hours. I can’t exactly kill every one of them.”
“And even if I killed them all, there’s still Shi Shan and the rest of them. They saw it too.”
“Right now, there’s something else I’m even more worried about.”
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long stared at him. What could possibly be more of a headache than this?
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. He laughed bitterly. “What if the woman emperor’s pregnant?”
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long’s faces changed completely.
Ning Chen having an affair with the Wu woman emperor, with no proof—His Majesty might just be suspicious. But if there was a child on the way, then even if Ning Chen were the emperor’s own son, he’d be put to the sword.
But there was one thing Pan Yucheng couldn’t figure out. “The Wu woman emperor could easily have killed you instead. Why go to all this trouble?”
Because that madwoman wants to force me into serving her in the Wu Kingdom, Ning Chen thought sourly.
But that wasn’t something he could say out loud, so he made a joke instead. “Maybe it’s because I’m too handsome. Can’t help my own charm.”
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long looked at Ning Chen’s grimy face, the dried blood still on his neck… that wasn’t charm, that was nerve. How could he still joke around at a time like this?
Yuan Long said, “General Ning, so what do we do now?”
“Now…” Ning Chen thought it over, then said, “Now the two of you are going to write up a memorial saying I had an affair with the Wu woman emperor.”
Pan Yucheng and Yuan Long glared at him, not amused.
Ning Chen said, perfectly serious, “You do realize—by covering this up for me, if it ever comes out, the two of you will be guilty of concealment. That’s a death sentence, no question.”
(End of Chapter 281)