Author: Jiu Xiao Qi, Translated by: San Guniang

Chapter 95 - Blow

Ye Zhen Zhen found Ji Wu Jiu to be in bad condition.

First of all, even though he was attractive, but his face was not colorless pure white like Cao Cao (1) on show stage. On the other side, this guy had excellent build because he practiced martial art since childhood, so he had very ruddy complexion. Yet now his face appeared very pale, seems as if malnutrition. It was a gradual change process. Originally Ye Zhen Zhen did not pay attention, but suddenly one day she looked at him under the lights and felt that his good looking face resembled ice sculpture, cold and lifeless.

…… Absolutely disgraceful!

Another suspicious thing was this rogue unexpectedly very well-behave recently. Ye Zhen Zhen currently was pregnant, she was over-sentimental, even Su Yue could not stand it, but Ji Wu Jiu was very considerate towards her. Both of them naturally could not be intimate, but Ji Wu Jiu didn't complaint at all. He was well-behave like a eunuch. Ye Zhen Zhen extremely understood him, so it was abnormal.

Besides, he was always cheerful in front of her and often teased her to laugh, but Ye Zhen Zhen knew he was pretending. At first she thought he run into some problems in government affairs. In addition, he did not escape that often to Kun Ning Palace. Ye Zhen Zhen absolutely believed Ji Wu Jiu's ability, thus she did not ask, thought he would be okay in several days. Yet she didn't expect this situation continued more than ten days. On top of that, she found him had no desire in bed affair like a sage and after that she suddenly found his face was getting worse……

Ye Zhen Zhen did not know what problem Ji Wu Jiu had, but she was certain it wasn't small thing. Furthermore he deliberately concealed it from her. She wanted to directly ask him, but afraid he would not say, so she had to take indirect route and ask Feng You De first.

Originally, she also didn't expect she could get answer from Feng You De's mouth. Who would have thought once she asked, Feng You De greeted politely without saying anything, knelt down and raised his head, profusely cried.

Ye Zhen Zhen was startled, "What happened to His Majesty?"

"Empress Niang Niang, His Majesty is frequently coughing blood lately. His Majesty is afraid Empress Niang Niang will worry, so he did not allow nucai (2) to tell Niang Niang. But His Majesty's body is steadily deteriorating. He consumed a lot of medicine but not getting better. Nucai doesn't know what to do and have to ask Empress Niang Niang!" Feng You De lived in the palace for more years than Ye Zhen Zhen's age, now he didn't care about rules and etiquette, he cried while selling Ji Wu Jiu out. He was an excellent individual. Naturally he had seen mother and son friction between the Emperor and Empress Dowager. Although on the surface still maintained like that, but such thing still happened. The Emperor was not in good condition, the one who was able to decide the most was nevertheless Empress Niang Niang. Niang Niang was overbearing, her paternal family was also strong. She was also preoccupied with the Emperor. Hence he dared to disobey the dangerous imperial edict about Ji Wu Jiu's recent condition and told Ye Zhen Zhen.

Ye Zhen Zhen listened entirely. Her mind was buzzed and her face was pale and expressionless for a while before turning calm. She asked with heavy tone, "The Taiyi was not able to diagnose any illness until the end?" She worried the illness was too terrible. Feng You De was afraid to say anything.

"Nothing. The Taiyi just say the Emperor blood and vital breath was weak and prescribed medicine to enrich blood." However, he was not getting better.

Ji Wu Jiu covered this matter tightly. In the end, Feng You De also didn't know what was going on with him. Ye Zhen Zhen felt the detectives might knew, but calling the detectives to come was the same as directly asking Ji Wu Jiu directly.

She felt this matter was fishy. If Ji Wu Jiu only fell ill, he would not conceal it. Unless his illness was terrible, yet it didn't make sense, since currently Taiyi hadn't diagnosed yet.

But even Tie Taiyi who could treat all diseases also was not certain with this illness. Ye Zhen Zhen's heart tightened, she started to doubt. Ji Wu Jiu wouldn't conceal it from her only because Tie Taiyi couldn't treat it, surely there was different reason.

What is it then?

She squinted for a moment and asked Feng You De, "Is there something unusual before and after His Majesty fell ill? Report carefully."

Feng You De replied, "The Emperor went to Ba Jiao Pavilion once. He had conversation with guifei and his face was displeased when he came out."

"Anything else?"

Feng You De took a look at left and right and when he was ensured no one around he said in low voice, "His Majesty issued an imperial decreed forbidding the master of Ba Jiao Pavilion to go out. Moreover, it's a secret imperial decree, not allowing guifei to speak up. Also, the on duty secret guards of Gan Qing Palace are missing." Either give up, or go through to the end. Since the secrets had leaked, several times more also didn't matter. Anyway, he had only one head to be chopped.

Confinement and issuing imperial decree were unusual. He clearly didn't want her to know. Ye Zhen Zhen pondered and she understood right away that perhaps the missing secret guard went to monitor Bai Xiang Ru. This matter was certainly related with Bai Xiang Ru.

Hence, she let Feng You De returned and served the emperor and then she turned to go to Ba Jiao Pavilion.

The Mid-Autumn Festival were approaching, the j.a.panese Banana (3) in Ba Jiao Pavilion were all dried up, conspicuously desolate. Bai Xiang Ru stood in the middle of the courtyard to appreciate the autumn. The mood was even more desolate than the j.a.panese banana before her eyes.

He preferred to die than come to her here. Could it be that Ye Zhen Zhen that s.l.u.t was really more important than his life?

A hint of hatred stroke across Bai Xiang Ru's eyes, see how long you can survive!

At the same time, Ye Zhen Zhen arrived at Ba Jiao Pavilion in an impatient manner and pa.s.sed on Bai Xiang Ru to the inner room. They closed the door to have private discussion.

Bai Xiang Ru thought Ye Zhen Zhen came to negotiate the conditions with her, but actually Ye Zhen Zhen only wanted to probe the situation first. She was afraid Ji Wu Jiu did not tell the truth to her. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d was good in every aspect, only annoying in this one point. He was fond of carrying the burden alone when something bad happened.

Bai Xiang Ru didn't conceal anything. She admitted the troublesome thing she did and even focus on exaggerating how horrible in the end that Peach Blossom gu was.

Ye Zhen Zhen expressionlessly asked, "After all, when did you give him the gu? How did it go smoothly?"

Bai Xiang Ru had ready to risk everything. Her smile was very perverted, "I did it several days before you returned to the palace, but I didn't expect him to be able to withstand this long. Empress Niang Niang, His Majesty is truly faithful to you ah!" Said, the corners of her mouth pulled out a trace of irony and a little pleasure afterwards. She thought to herself, he might be faithful to you, but in the end still return to me, do not believe the grand emperor (4) will give up the entire world (5) and his life for a woman.

Ye Zhen Zhen nodded and asked, "You say. What do you want?"

Bai Xiang Ru began to shout the price, "I want to be the queen and I want you to disappear from his sight. If you agree with my condition, I can keep your life. If you do not agree means you do not sincerely love him. What will he think if he knows?"

Ye Zhen Zhen did not agree yet did not say no, "This condition is a little big, let me think about it."

"Well. I don't care how long Empress Niang Niang wants to consider, but I don't know how long His Majesty can hold."

"Do not worry, I will give you an answer as soon as possible…… I have another thing to do now."

"What does Niang Niang want?"

Ye Zhen Zhen slowly rolled up the sleeve embroidered with gold thread on the edge and went in front of Bai Xiang Ru with light Lianbu (6) move, only one foot away from her.

Bai Xiang Ru stood up and stared at her without fear. She had bargaining chip in her hand now, so her nerve was fat. Even though the Empress has status, sooner or later she will kneel to beg me!

Ye Zhen Zhen did not kneel to beg her. Instead, she raised her hand and slapped her (BXR) face with clear and loud sound 'pa'.

Bai Xiang Ru was off guard, slapped by the Venus in front of her, she covered her face with hand and said with anger, "You dare to beat ——"

The last word could not be said because Ye Zhen Zhen slapped her again.

Throughout Bai Xiang Ru's abundant life, she had seen women from every social cla.s.s. She had also seen many daughters of n.o.ble families, but she had never seen this kind of n.o.ble family's daughter who rolled up sleeve to beat up someone when she was not happy.

Hence she was a little dazed and as a result she got the third slap.

Ye Zhen Zhen was very generous. She showed consideration to both side of the face, afraid one side highly swollen and the other side averagely asymmetric and would not look good.

Even though Bai Xiang Ru claimed that she was not afraid of Ye Zhen Zhen, that was perhaps to deliberately give bargaining chip to strengthen her courage. In the hierarchy of hougong, as houfei(7), it was inevitable to fear the empress. This kind of fear was engraved to the bones, could not be changed in a short time, so she did not dare to resist.

Just endured for a little while.

Bai Xiang Ru finally realized she could escape from the Venus' eyesight! Unfortunately, when she just realized about this, Ye Zhen Zhen also realized. Afraid that Bai Xiang Ru might run away, Ye Zhen Zhen grabbed her collar, slightly lifted it, and slapped both sides of her face.

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!

In her mind, Bai Xiang Ru only thought that it was like bright and multicolored 'pi li pa la' fireworks explosion during New Year and also like countless 'peng peng ca ca' hits to copper gong, the noise of swollen-up-human-brain percussion instruments . Her face was as if she was choked by greasy hot and fiery pepper, yet it hurt and not to mention how difficult to bear it was.

So in the end, more than one can bear, she wanted to resist.

Considering Ye Zhen Zhen's skill in martial art could not beat Ji Wu Jiu and Lu Li, it was not because she was incapable, but the enemy was too strong. As a woman, she was surely regarded as master. Therefore towards Bai Xiang Ru now, although she was pregnant, it was practically as simple as sorting out chicks. She quickly pinned Bai Xiang Ru's hand and her other hand continued to slap her face without delay.

Bai Xiang Ru secretly vowed in her heart, sooner or later one day she would pay in full what this crazy woman did to her.

Actually, it was a bit difficult. Because Bai Xiang Ru could not count how many times this crazy woman hit her ……

Hearing the wailing inside, the palace maids and eunuchs outside wanted to come in and take a look. w.a.n.g You Cai and Su Yue could hear the outcry came from Bai Xiang Ru. Thus they informed the people of Kun Ning Palace to stop the people of Ba Jiao Pavilion, not allowing the servants to come in. Anyway there were a lot of men in Kun Ning Palace, this time Empress Niang Niang took along a few more to guarantee enough to have.

Slapping for a moment, Ye Zhen Zhen arms were tired, so she let Bai Xiang Ru go.

Bai Xiang Ru finally had a chance to breathe. Just now, she struggled for a long time yet did not escape the clutches of this crazy woman. While being laid down, she stared at Ye Zhen Zhen with hatred. She thought she finally did not need to suffer from physical pain, but did not expect Ye Zhen Zhen to silently grab the low stool in the corner ……

If you were no match for someone, run.

So Bai Xiang Ru screamed and ran out.

Ye Zhen Zhen still remembered that she was pregnant, so she did not dare to run too fast. Carrying the low stool behind her back, she leisurely chased. Seeing the door opened and a woman run away, the people outside did not recognized who this person was at the first glance — the face was swollen like a pig.

Finally they recognized from the clothes that this person was Guifei Niang Niang.

Bai Xiang Ru run outward as if she did not want to life and pa.s.sed by Su Feng. Su Feng seamlessly raise one leg. As a result, the swine face of Guifei Niang Niang at once came to close contact with the greenish black brick ground.

She could not attend her bearing now and miserably screamed until nearly piercing the sky.

Bai Xiang Ru personal maid wanted to approach and support her, but they were pressed aside. The rank of the other Ba Jiao Pavilion servants was average. This situation and circ.u.mstance perfectly ill.u.s.trated what the meaning of 'taking advantage of one's position to bully people' and 'to bully intolerably'.

Taking along her own palace servants to go to another palace and beat up the master, yet contained the opposite side's servants and not allowed them to obstruct, this kind of thing probably only Ye Zhen Zhen could do.

Bai Xiang Ru was only about to run away, Su Yue rushed in the room right away. Seeing Ye Zhen Zhen carried low stool, she hurriedly went up and hold to put down the stuff in Ye Zhen Zhen's hand. She helped Ye Zhen Zhen and persuaded, "Niang Niang, if you want to do something just order the servants. There is no need for you to do the job yourself. Careful with the child."

Ye Zhen Zhen's face was pale, her forehead emitted sweat. Su Yue's speaking voice lagged behind, both of her eyes flipped over and she lost consciousness.

~ Translated by: San Guniang ~

Glossary:

Cao Cao (155-220), famous statesman and general at the end of Han, noted poet and calligrapher, later warlord, founder and first king of Cao Wei, father of Emperor Cao Pi / The main villain of novel the Romance of Three Kingdoms Nucai: lit. means "this slave" (for male), a term used by a male servant to referring himself when speaking to those of higher status Ba Jiao literally means j.a.panese Banana (Musa basjoo) The term used here is '九五至尊' means '9 and 5 reign supreme' in English. According to the ancient Chinese beliefs, number 9 ranks as the highest number, and number 5 is a 'middle' or “central” number. Thus 9 and 5 together are regarded as a supreme combination which symbolized the emperor. The term used here is 'jiangshan' (江山), one of the Sinitic name for China. It literally means 'Rivers and mountains' and simply refers to the entire world. Lianbu: (archaic) light and airy steps (of a woman, as if floating on lotus leafs) Houfei: imperial wives and concubines

Notes: 3 more chapters of the main story and the rest are side stories. I wonder if I can finish translating this novel before New Year. Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, guys!!