Ji Bozai shook his head, not daring to breathe. Their people had done their best, but who knew that Zhou Zihong would prove so capable? Not only did he stop their arsonists, but he also caught one of their inside agents.
Ji Bozai fell silent, his ink-black eyes fixed on the black stones of the chessboard. His back was hunched, the thin outer robe billowing in the night breeze.
“What’s wrong?” Qin Shangwu hadn’t understood what they were saying, but he sensed the sudden drop in mood and the suppressed agitation of the man across from him, causing his aura to become chaotic.
“Bozai, calm yourself.” He quickly stood up to establish a Yuan Power barrier for him, frowning at Bu Xiu, “You know he’s recovering. If there’s bad news, it’s best not to deliver it.”
“It’s alright, Master. I asked him to relay it,” Ji Bozai stood up, brushing aside the Yuan Power barrier. “I have matters to attend to. Master, please return and rest.”
“Where do you intend to go in this state?” Qin Shangwu frowned.
Ji Bozai didn’t answer, only instructing someone to escort Qin Shangwu out while he left the palace through another door.
“Your Majesty, this isn’t appropriate. The guards haven’t arrived yet,” Bu Xiu followed behind him, urgently speaking as they walked. “At least wait for a beast carriage.”
“There’s no time,” he muttered darkly.
Originally, it was already too late. This news was from half an hour ago. Whatever was going to happen had already occurred. What use was there in going now?
Bu Xiu wanted to say this but, seeing his master’s bloodless lips, he couldn’t bring himself to speak.
Ji Bozai stepped onto his flying sword and set off, arriving at the Yuan Power barrier of the inner courtyard in the blink of an eye.
As if specifically designed to keep him out, the inner courtyard’s barrier was thick and sturdy, not easily breached.
He laughed mirthlessly, his eyes devoid of humor, and walked directly towards the main gate.
The guards who originally intended to stop him recognized his face and cleared the way, even lifting the curfew and pushing the gate open a crack.
Ji Bozai passed through, his robes fluttering, disappearing around the corner in an instant.
Ming Yi suddenly opened her eyes in the middle of her sleep.
Zhou Zihong frowned, about to ask why she wasn’t sleeping properly when he saw her protective barrier expand to include him as well.
“What’s wrong?” he put down the book in his hand.
Ming Yi shook her head, sitting up in bed and looking towards the tightly closed carved lacquered wooden door.
Suddenly, the closed door was blown open by the wind. The early spring breeze of the third month was still cold, causing the room’s curtains to flutter and extinguishing the candles on the table.
Someone stood in the courtyard, riding the wind, his silhouette gloomy and his killing intent unconcealed.
Ming Yi collected herself and suddenly laughed: “If only I had Yuan Power as strong as Your Majesty’s. Then I could go kill anyone who got close to my beloved, just like you. That way, Tianyin wouldn’t have been able to leave your study alive.”
“The first time I caught you being intimate with someone else was in your study. If I hadn’t sensed her on the beam, you would have certainly gone all the way with her.”
Ji Bozai stepped into the room, his lips white: “Am I your beloved?”
Ming Yi grinned playfully: “At least I loved you once. Otherwise, knowing Your Majesty’s methods, I wouldn’t hate you so much now.”
“If you loved me, how could you not forgive me?” He lowered his eyes.
Ming Yi lay on Zhou Zihong’s knee, sighing and shaking her head: “Love can encompass romance and daily life, but it can’t hold filth. Besides, I only loved you in the past, not necessarily now.”
“Ming Yi.”
“Yes, I’m here.” She frowned slightly. “Isn’t Your Majesty tired in the middle of the night?”
“You like him?” He looked at Zhou Zihong beside her.
This man had delicate features and a scholarly air. He didn’t move even with Ming Yi lying on his knee in front of him as if challenging him.
He couldn’t see anything good about him.
“You don’t understand. Zihong has his own merits,” Ming Yi waved her hand. “Even if Your Majesty is as beautiful as a celestial being, one would tire of looking at the same man forever. What woman could look at only one man for a lifetime? Your Majesty should be more open-minded and stop having people set fires everywhere.”
He found this amusing.
These were all things he had said to others before. He never imagined he’d hear them himself one day.
Looking down, wasn’t it true? He used to think those women who clung desperately and refused to leave were pathetic. And now, how was he any different from them?
“My Queen will not be an unchaste woman,” he said in a low voice.
“What a coincidence, my husband won’t be an unchaste man either,” Ming Yi clapped her hands. “We think alike, that’s for the best.”
Ji Bozai found it absurd: “What chastity can a man speak of?”
“Isn’t a woman’s chastity defined by you men?” Ming Yi raised an eyebrow. “You’re allowed to set standards for women, but I can’t set them for men? I insist that men should be pure and faithful.”
She pinched Zhou Zihong’s chin: “Compared to a man like Your Majesty, who may be beautiful but is tainted, I prefer someone clean.”
Feeling a lump in his throat, Ji Bozai said coldly: “You don’t even ask if he likes you.”
“I do,” Zhou Zihong answered without hesitation, taking over his words. “No matter how many people are around Si Shang, as long as she’s willing to be with me, I like her.”
A person who usually seemed cold and indifferent was quite quick to cooperate with her when needed.
Ming Yi squeezed his fingers approvingly.
Ji Bozai took a deep breath.
He wanted to persuade himself to let it go. Ming Yi’s heart was no longer with him, and her behavior was so improper. They couldn’t be together now.
But he couldn’t move his feet.
The thought of this person being intimate with someone else, being as soft and sweet by another’s side as she had been by his, made him want to kill.
The night wind was icy, turning the back of his hand purple.
Ming Yi glanced at him and sighed lightly: “I have already completed the rites of Zhou Gong with him. I’m very tired now. Your Majesty, please be kind and let me go. I won’t be your Queen, and you won’t be my husband. Let’s each live our own lives and not interfere with each other.”
His heart felt as if it were being gnawed by ten thousand ants. Ji Bozai coldly looked at her, unable to speak for a long time.
Her words were aimed at completely severing ties with him. She expected that with Ji Bozai’s pride, he would never think of her again after she had been intimate with someone else. He had disgusted her once, and now she was returning the favor. They would be even, and from now on, they would only have the relationship of ruler and subject, with no other entanglements.
However, after a long while, the man standing in the room smiled.
“My interest in a woman never lasts more than a month. I hope it’s the same for you,” he said hoarsely.
Ming Yi was stunned. Before she could ask what he meant, Ji Bozai turned around, broke through the carved lacquered wooden door behind him, and strode away.
The wind rushed in through the hole in the door, leaving Ming Yi a bit dazed.
She turned to ask Zhou Zihong: “What did he mean?”
At this point, did he still want to revisit this in a month?
Zhou Zihong looked at the hole in the door, his face expressionless: “Nothing much. Breaking someone’s door in the middle of the night is not the behavior of a gentleman.”