In the thousand-year chronicles of the Six Cities, Ji Bozai has always held the title of the foremost tyrant, unmatched in history. During his reign, he executed over 230 officials. Regardless of their alleged crimes, this number alone was enough to instill fear in the hearts of many.
Moreover, he had Ming Yi by his side.
Ming Yi’s life was legendary. First, she won the Six Cities’ Grand Meeting as a man for seven consecutive years, earning the admiration of all. Later, she became the ruler of Chaoyang City as a woman. During her reign, the status of women in Chaoyang City reached unprecedented heights. At one point, the court was equally divided between male and female officials, and women gradually appeared in the teams participating in the Six Cities’ Grand Meeting.
Despite this, historical records still viewed her as the bewitching consort beside the tyrant. This was not for any particular reason other than the fact that a tyrant was expected to have such a consort. Ji Bozai’s favoritism and indulgence towards Ming Yi were universally acknowledged, to the extent that he even named the dynasty “Ming.”
In the tenth year of the Great Ming Dynasty, the Zeng clan rebelled. The Emperor personally led the campaign, beheading thousands until his thirst for slaughter was quenched. All officials were shocked and knelt to dissuade him, but they couldn’t stop his momentum. The palace messenger reported to the ruler of Chaoyang, who then rode to the scene. Upon seeing her silhouette from afar, the Emperor dismounted and removed his armor, bestowing it all upon Luo Jiaoyang, praising his bravery and appointing him as the General of the Western Garrison.
Luo Jiaoyang: “…”
To be honest, he had seen undeserved crimes before, but this was the first time he had witnessed such an undeserved military achievement. The armor still bore Ji Bozai’s blood, yet Ji Bozai dared to change into a scholar’s blue-and-white robe, greeting Ming Yi, who had come to reprimand him, in a gentlemanly manner.
“Did you miss me so much that you came to this place, Yi’er?” he asked.
Ming Yi’s face remained cold as she reined in her horse and looked down at him. “Someone said you got carried away with the killing and couldn’t stop.”
“How could that be?” Ji Bozai blinked innocently. “The enemy has already surrendered. How could I continue to pursue and kill them?”
As he spoke, he glanced behind her with a smile, his gaze falling on the palace messenger who had reported the news. His eyes lingered for a moment.
Ming Yi raised her horsewhip to block his line of sight. “What are you doing? Thinking of punishing someone again?”
“How could you think of me like that, Yi’er?” He pouted and sighed, withdrawing his gaze. “I’m worried that the battlefield’s smoke hasn’t cleared yet. If you come like this, what if you get hurt…”
Before he could finish, Ming Yi reached out and grabbed the throat of a fighter attempting to shoot an arrow from afar. With a slight increase in pressure, the man breathed his last.
The originally long white Yuan Power had become transparent after years of refinement. It could now be unleashed at a speed that required almost no preparation time, nearly comparable to Ming Xian’s former abilities.
Ji Bozai swallowed his words of concern and changed his tone: “What if it dirtied your new dress? That wouldn’t be good.”
Ming Yi wore a red dress today, adorned with the image of the rising sun. Sitting atop her snow-white horse, she looked as fierce as fire.
She glared at him, then led her people to clean up the aftermath before forcibly escorting this reluctant emperor back to the palace.
Bai Ying witnessed this emperor defending himself back: “I didn’t kill many people. You know me, I’ve been practicing well lately. There’s nothing I can’t control.”
“It’s good that Your Majesty has cultivated three Xuan Dragons for protection, but Xuan Dragons come from the underworld. They are inherently fierce and bloodthirsty, making it easy to lose control,” Ming Yi said, her eyes fixed straight ahead, clearly not believing his words.
Ji Bozai’s shoulders drooped helplessly, but there was a hint of joy in his eyes.
He loved how Ming Yi cared for him. In all of Qingyun, she was the only one who knew the dangers of the three Xuan Dragons. Others would only fear him and submit to him, but she would be angry at his indiscriminate killing and annoyed by his bloodthirst.
What could be more delightful than this?
Thus, while pitifully following her back to the palace, he happily held onto her sleeve and chatted with her: “Today, the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent many portraits, saying they wanted me to choose a consort. Guess how I responded?”
Ming Yi didn’t even bother to raise an eyelid. “How else could you respond?”
After so many years on the throne, naturally, there were people in the court trying to find ways to send him concubines. They would argue from ancient times to the present, asking which emperor had ever been devoted to one person for life. Even childhood sweethearts who had been through thick and thin together ended up with thousands of concubines in the end. How much more so for Ji Bozai, a tyrant who forced the noble families to rebel every year? If he could accept a few daughters from these families, wouldn’t it help quell the rebellions?
However, Ji Bozai said, “Why should we quell such interesting rebellions?”
With one sentence, he further nailed himself to the pillar of shame as a “tyrant.” The court historians would have to emphasize his name with two extra strokes when writing it.
Year after year, Ji Bozai used the portrait albums sent to the palace to roast sweet potatoes for Ming Yi, yet they still sent them every year. This year, when they were sent, Ji Bozai’s response was the same as always: “Go back and study the law thoroughly. When the emperor breaks the law, he shall be punished like a commoner.”
Qingyun implemented a monogamous system, from nobles to commoners. As the emperor, Ji Bozai naturally had to set a good example.
However, Bu Xiu reminded him countless times: “Your Majesty, you don’t even have one wife yet.”
The consequence of such reminders was that the esteemed first-class palace eunuch was sent to the laundry to wash clothes for a day.
But after finishing the laundry and returning, Bu Xiu would still ask: “When do you plan to marry Miss Ming?”
Ji Bozai was exasperated.
Was it that he didn’t want to marry? Didn’t he want to sleep embracing a soft, fragrant beauty?
He proposed to Ming Yi once every year, trying every method from forceful to gentle, but Ming Yi never agreed.
In her words, the world had just been stabilized, and many places still had people living in hardship. It wasn’t the time for her to get married.
Well, her consciousness was even higher than his as an emperor. So what could he do?
He worked diligently every year to govern well, but the Qingyun realm was too vast. There were always places that couldn’t be taken care of. To make every poor scholar in the world happy would take at least another ten years.
But in another ten years, how old would they be? They would have wasted more than half of their lives.
Nanny Xun, looking at the troubled emperor, held back but still couldn’t resist speaking: “Have you ever thought that maybe your method of proposing isn’t quite appropriate?”
Ji Bozai frowned. “After so many years, every time I propose, I rack my brains. How is it not appropriate?”
Twitching her eyebrows, Nanny Xun counted on her fingers: “In the first year, you lit the beacon fire outside the palace walls to propose to the City Lord.”
Ji Bozai raised an eyebrow. “That fire isn’t something that can be lit casually. Couldn’t she see my sincerity?”
Indeed, she could. At that time, all six City Lords rushed over, only to see him prepare a ground full of fresh flowers and casually say to Miss Ming, “In front of so many people, will you agree to our marriage?”
The consequences were predictable. Not only did Miss Ming not agree, but she also gave him a good thrashing and made him write out the purpose of beacon fires a hundred times. Her white cat supervised the work, and it wouldn’t do to miss even one repetition.
“In the second year, you built a house of gold,” Nanny Xun recalled, frowning. “That year happened to be a famine in Xincao City, and Miss Ming was worried day and night about tax collection. You took her to see the golden house, saying it was built with money from your private treasury.”