Beloved Empress

Chapter 61

There Must Be Something

"You may get up!" Jun Qian Che walks past her and sits on a long couch.

Mo Qi Qi turns around to face him and discover the tinge of drunkenness on his face. His cheeks are red and he is covered in the smell of wine. She cannot help but frown, "How much did you drank, Your Majesty?"

Jun Qian Che’s eyes fall on her. He narrows his eyes as he looks at her from head to toe.

Under the candlelight, her skin looks fair and smooth, like jade. It seems to glow, like a dim moonlight. She is wearing a thin, white nightwear, fitting her slender body perfectly, revealing and concealing just the right amount of things. Her dark eyes are gleaming with light while her dark long locks are let loose. She looks like some kind of celestial being.

Jun Qian Che is momentarily stunned as he got lost in the beauty before him.

When Mo Qi Qi notices the way he is looking at her, she thought he is angry, "Your Majesty, chenqie is not purposely dressing like this to anger you. Chenqie didn’t even know you will come, please wait for a moment, chenqie will change."

"No need to change it, there are no outsiders here," Jun Qian Che calmly stops her. What he means by that is he is her husband, she can dress like this in front of him.

"Yes!" Mo Qi Qi obediently says, indulging him so he can leave faster. "Why is Your Majesty here in the middle of the night?"

"Is zhen not allowed to be here without a reason?" Jun Qian Che asks, displeased.

Mo Qi Qi rush to explain herself, "That is not what chenqie means! Just, Your Majesty drank too much tonight, you should rest early so you don’t miss the morning court tomorrow."

"Why didn’t you give imperial grandmother the Ye Ming pearl?" Jun Qian Che looks at her.

Mo Qi Qi freezes. This bastard still remembers that even after drinking this much? She quickly sits next to him and massage his shoulders. She laughs while trying to explain herself, "Your Majesty, it is not that chenqie does not want to give the pearl to imperial grandmother, but when it comes to gifts, it needs to be given with consideration. It is about what they like, what they need. Imperial grandmother is the grand empress dowager, what kind of treasures have she not seen? The Ye Ming pearl may be a treasure, but it may not necessarily be what imperial grandmother need or like. Women care about their appearance the most, that’s why chenqie gave her a skincare set. Chenqie hope that Your Majesty is not angry at chenqie for calling my own shot!"

Jun Qian Che sighs, "Never mind, things have passed anyway."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Then—- the Ye Ming pearl?" Mo Qi Qi experimentally inquires.

How can Jun Qian Che not know what she wants?

"You can keep it if you’d like. If you don’t like it, you can reward it to other people."

"Reward it to other people?" Mo Qi Qi is not stupid enough to reward such a precious treasure to other people.

"Hehe, how can chenqie simply gift Your Majesty’s gift to other people? Chenqie should treasure it instead."

Jun Qian Che stares at her.

She feels a little awkward by the way he is looking at her, "Hehe, what’s wrong? Did chenqie said anything wrong?"

Jun Qian Che raise his hand and caresses her face.

Seeing this, she immediately gets up and avoids contact. She gives him an unnatural smile, "Your Majesty, you must be uncomfortable from drinking so much. Chenqie will ask Ban Xiang to cook you some porridge, so you can freshen up."

Jun Qian Che grabs her in the shoulder and pulls her over to him, letting her fall into his chest. The sweet smell of flower petals reach his nose.

He looks at her while mumbling, "You smell so good."

Her heart starts racing uncontrollably. She forces herself to laugh, "Your Majesty, if you like this scent, chenqie can teach Yang Meimei how to make them, so you can smell it everyday!" If she had known earlier, she would have rubbed durian all over her body.

Jun Qian Che caresses her soft face with his fingers. His voice is deep as he says, "Why must we go through so much trouble? If zhen likes it, zhen can just come over to the empress. We have been married for two years and we still haven’t consummate our marriage. Why don’t you serve zhen tonight?"

Mo Qi Qi’s heart might as well jump out of her chest. She quickly rejects him, "No."

He narrows his eyes dangerously, "You are rejecting to serve zhen?"

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"It is not that chenqie does not want to serve you, just, chenqie’s body is not well. My head hurts. Ever since chenqie fell from the viewing tower, chenqie keeps having headaches. It hurts so much right now," she massage her head.

The dangerous look in Jun Qian Che’s eyes is exacerbated even further upon the mentioning of the viewing tower’s fall.

Mo Qi Qi secretly converse with herself: Don’t tell me this bastard cannot control his lust and is going to kill if he doesn’t get what he wants? Huhu, no way! If I have to choose between my body and my life, I will definitely choose my life! Without my life, what is the point of having my body?

And so, Mo Qi Qi pitifully looks at Jun Qian Che, "If Your Majesty really wants chenqie to serve, chenqie will serve you even if my headache is killing me." She is saying that so pitifully, she refuse to believe that he won’t budge.

He angrily grabs her wrist before icily asking, "Who was the man in the viewing tower?"

Mo Qi Qi frowns, enduring the pain in her wrist before asking, "What are you talking about, Your Majesty? Chenqie does not understand you."

"Can’t understand zhen? Mo Qi Qi, stop pretending to be a fool. Zhen saw it with zhen’s own eyes!" The force he exerts unconsciously becomes bigger.

Mo Qi Qi struggles to understand what he is trying to imply.

Jun Qian Che’s eyes fall on the jade bangle in her wrist. Her thin sleeve slides down to her elbow, revealing her fair wrist. The white jade bangle is a thorn to his eyes. Cold air practically radiates from him as he asks her, "Why aren’t you wearing the bangle that zhen gave you? You don’t like it anymore?"

That bangle was something that she used to yearn for, even in her dreams. Now that she has it, she no longer has the desire to put it on. Seems like her heart has really changed.

<

Mo Qi Qi quickly tries to excuse herself to him, "Chenqie likes everything that Your Majesty gave chenqie. Just, chenqie thought this bangle looked good when paired with chenqie’s dress. That’s why chenqie put this on." She is telling the truth, that is really what happened.

But Jun Qian Che does not buy it. The grand empress dowager has returned to the palace and Mo Qi Qi and the 7^th imperial king have gotten closer, how can he not understand what she and Mo Clan are playing at?

He compose himself. He lets go of her wrist and calmly ask, "Did you arriving late to the banquet had anything to do with this bangle?" Mo Qi Qi, I am giving you a chance. I hope you will not waste it away.

Mo Qi Qi leans away from his embrace before saying, "You are right! Chenqie spent half a day just to figure out which accessories looks good with chenqie’s dress. Chenqie had similar conflict with imperial grandmother’s gift as well. Chenqie didn’t know what to gift her, the Ye Ming Pearl or chenqie’s hand-made skincare sets. Deliberating over everything caused chenqie to be late, us women are really troublesome, no?"

Jun Qian Che is very disappointed in her, though he does not show it on his face. Mo Qi Qi, you still chose him, in the end. Then, you should not blame zhen.

"Your Majesty, are you thirsty? Let chenqie pour you a cup of tea!" Mo Qi Qi walks to a table and pour a cup of tea.

Jun Qian Che looks at her back profile, "Who exactly are you?"

<

Mo Qi Qi freezes. She turns around and looks at him, confused, "What are you talking about, Your Majesty? Chenqie is your empress. Did you drink too much?"

He gets up and walks to her, "Although zhen’s empress was stubborn and unruly, she was very good in arts and was an excellent chess player. She was very good in verses as well. The only thing she could not do was dance. The current empress seems to be the complete opposite of the old one."

Mo Qi Qi’s head turns like a gear, "Are you doubting chenqie just because of that? Chenqie have always known how to dance, chenqie secretly learned them from the dancing girls in Duke Zhen’s manor. Chenqie originally wanted to dance for you, but you always ignored chenqie, so chenqie never really had the chance to. As for arts, chenqie is good at drawing and writing poems. Chenqie only wanted to anger you that day. If you don’t believe me, chenqie can recite a poem for you! ’The moon was bright in front of my bed, the snow was piled on the ground. I looked up to the moon and bowed down when reminded of my hometown.’ I can recite another one!"

(TN: She is reciting a poem from the Tang Dynasty.)

"That is enough. Zhen believes you. It is late, you should rest." Jun Qian Che walks out of her chamber.

Mo Qi Qi heaves a long sigh, "How dangerous! Jun Qian Che has gotten suspicious. Oh right, why did he mean by ’that man in the viewing tower’? This is not the first time he brought this up. What happened on the day Mo Qi Qi fell? I must dig that out, or else, I would die without even knowing why! Oh, so sleepy. Let me sleep first to recharge my energy."

Jun Qian Che’s mood is foul as he walks out of Feng Yang Palace. Mo Qi Qi, did you really think zhen is an idiot? Zhen has accommodated you so much, and you still lied. Perhaps, you really want zhen to kill you...

The sun is high up in the sky when Mo Qi Qi wakes up the next day. Her sleep was very sweet and all the fatigue is no longer here. She sits in front of the mirror while Ban Xiang helps her do her hair.

Mo Qi Qi is suddenly reminded of what Jun Qian Che said on the previous night. "Ban Xiang, did anything happened when I fell from the viewing tower back then? Did I do anything wrong?" Jun Qian Che’s face was so unpleasant when the viewing tower incident was mentioned. Something seemed to have pissed him off.

Ban Xiang looks at her in shock, "Did you remember anything, Your Ladyship?"

"No, but I could feel that something big had happened that day. I felt like I did something really bad that day," Mo Qi Qi tries to guess.

Ban Xiang secretly sighs in relief before laughing, "You think too much, Your Ladyship. If you did anything bad, the emperor would have punished you. Don’t overthink things. Breakfast is ready, come and eat them."

Mo Qi Qi nods, "Alright." Seems like she will not be able to get anything out of Ban Xiang. She gets up and walks out.

Ban Xiang pounds her own chest, her heart dropping to her stomach. Lucky the empress did not pursue the matter. The emperor ordered them not to speak of the incident, if the empress had pressed on, she wouldn’t know how to answer her.

For the next couple of days, Mo Qi Qi is busy digging out the viewing tower incident. Unfortunately, everyone keeps their lips shut. Some say they don’t know, some say they are not sure, while some say nothing happened at all. What they do not know is their answers only made her even more suspicious.

Since nobody dares to speak about the fall, it means that someone has ordered them to keep their mouths shut. Only a handful of people have that authority; the grand empress dowager, the empress dowager, the emperor and herself. The grand empress dowager was not in the palace during that incident, so asking her is out of the question. The empress dowager, on the other hand, loathes her. Asking her about that will only bring trouble to herself.

That leaves her with only Jun Qian Che. She wonders what she did to piss him off that much. Asking him is dangerous, but not asking means that she is being kept in the dark. And that will not give her a peace of mind.

After making a long consideration, Mo Qi Qi decides to go to Jun Qian Che’s palace to ask him about this. She must find out about everything the previous owner did. Knowing everything at least gives her the chance to fight. If she is in the dark, she has no chance to fight at all.

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