Zhao Jingwen stood by the bedside and suddenly turned around when he heard a sound.
A woman emerged from behind the screen. She was tall and supple, with long legs, sturdy waist, and powerful physique. The open collar revealed fair and smooth skin on her neck and chest.
Her cheeks were rosy and translucent, clearly someone brimming with vitality.
It was his wife Ye Suijin, always radiating such compelling beauty.
Even men would feel easily overpowered by her if they showed any weakness.
He walked over and grasped Ye Suijin's shoulders with concern. "My lady, how are you feeling? Is there any discomfort?"
Ye Suijin looked at him.
The man looked so young now!
His skin was smooth, back straight, hands still firm with calluses from martial arts practice.
And that waist.
No matter how well one took care of themselves in middle age, they could never regain such a slender waist.
Ye Suijin stroked the man's face, squeezed his arms, then pinched his slim waist. The feeling of rebirth started to become real.
Yes, Empress Ye Suijin had died. When she opened her eyes, she saw her former handmaidens from long ago. Looking in the mirror, she saw her younger self.
The Ye manor was still there, the Ye troops still there. She was still the young mistress of Ye Manor in Dengzhou.
Now composed, she began to accept everything and scrutinized Zhao Jingwen from head to toe.
Zhao Jingwen wore black thin gauze clothing with flowery cuffs tying the sleeves. The sleeves and hem were embroidered with brightly colored flowers.
A man should dress elegantly. Plain clothes with colorful embroideries made him even more dashing.
This was Ye Suijin's aesthetic.
Not only was Zhao Jingwen dressed elegantly, he also looked clean and refreshing, with a faint fragrance of ointment on him. Clearly he had washed and changed before seeing Ye Suijin.
Whenever he came before her, he made sure to tidy up and look his best.
This reminded Ye Suijin why she hadn't resolutely given up this man at the very beginning, when she should have. It was precisely because Zhao Jingwen knew how to win her favor.
Surely this was also how he had beguiled Pei Lian.
Their worthless lifelong struggle began from sharing a husband.
But not this life.
Ye Suijin smiled and pinched Zhao Jingwen's face. "You're so handsome!"
Between spouses there were naturally intimate moments, but today his wife pinched him harder, making his cheeks hurt.
Moreover her gaze was unfathomable, seeming to hold disdain. This made him vaguely uneasy.
Zhao Jingwen quickly recalled recent events, confirming he had done nothing wrong or displeasing.
Thus reassured, he held Ye Suijin's hand and said, "I rushed back in a panic when I heard the news."
Ye Suijin said, "It was nothing, just a bad dream. Granny Yan gave me some talisman water and it went away."
Zhao Jingwen said earnestly, "You know how attuned we are. Three days ago I inexplicably felt a pang in my heart. For some reason I glanced west towards Ye Manor, and was vaguely anxious. Later when they sent me the message urging me to hurry back, I asked when it happened. What a coincidence, it was the exact same time I felt that pang. Don't you think that's mystical?"
Ye Suijin's eyes flickered.
If something like "fate" really existed in this world, there was no doubt his fate was closely tied to hers.
Rebirth was such a mystical twist of fate, a gift from heaven. Could he sense it?
"Oh? Is that so? You think of me so much in your heart?" Her hand casually caressed his neck. "Other than the pang, anything else?"
The throat, a human's weakness. Wring it and death followed.
But Zhao Jingwen misunderstood.
His Adam's apple was there, the male symbol. His Adam's apple was also beautifully shaped, which Ye Suijin had always loved during their intimacy.
Thank heaven for giving him good looks, reversing his humble origins.
"Of course there's more." He leaned in to kiss Ye Suijin, tender and devoted. "I miss you. I miss you so much when I'm away I can't fall asleep."
Ye Suijin and Zhao Jingwen had been husband and wife for a lifetime. Though he later became shrewder, she knew him too well, and could still discern when he told the truth or lied.
At this moment, Zhao Jingwen was being completely truthful.
The tenderness in his eyes was also real.
Right now Zhao Jingwen still loved her, Ye Suijin, wholeheartedly.
Looking up at her, yearning for her, humbly kneeling devotedly before her.
Zhao Jingwen!
Ye Suijin struggled against this man for a lifetime as husband and wife, schemed against each other for a lifetime, yet never reached the point of wanting to kill the other.
As he later said, in the end he still made her Empress, honoring her as official wife.
So what should she do with him?
Ye Suijin had shapely brows, a straight nose, alluring red lips, and vibrant beauty.
With just a touch of her lips, Zhao Jingwen was aroused, unable to resist embracing her slender waist as he kissed her deeply.
After some time, Ye Suijin lifted her hand to clasp the back of his head.
In Zhao Jingwen's life there had been no other woman, he didn't know how other women behaved in the bedchamber. But he truly loved Ye Suijin's fiery passion.
This was his wife!
Ye Suijin suddenly pushed him away.
Zhao Jingwen was startled, and Ye Suijin pushed him again.
Zhao Jingwen stumbled back onto the bed with a smile.
Ye Suijin lifted her leg over him, straddling as she gazed down.
She looked condescendingly with haughty eyes.
Zhao Jingwen panted heavily twice, aroused by her posture.
Ye Suijin smiled softly, tearing open his lapel...
Pei Lian, look clearly.
See how despicable this man is.
He was born to serve us this way.
Pei Lian, have some dignity!
There were always new beauties in the rear court, tender as flowers, willowy waists.
The emperor never failed to spend the night of the full moon in the Empress's palace. Ye Suijin never lacked for this privilege.
Only Pei Lian languished lovelorn at the palace gates, yearning for the emperor to summon her. Her desolation was even secretly written into a poem.
Palace melancholy.
Even the Crown Prince, her own son, couldn't bear to see it.
Everyone knew Zhao Jingwen would never give her the chance to bear him another son. One child of Pei bloodline was already too unsettling.
As Emperor, he would not allow another Ye Army or Pei Army to exist under heaven, only the Emperor's own army.
He would not allow those forces he didn't fully control to gather around any child through bloodline. Although this child was his firstborn Crown Prince, if such power coalesced around the Crown Prince as he grew up, it would become a threat.
Before her death, Pei Lian had entrusted the child to her.
"Your Majesty has no children of your own, and he has no mother. If you two join forces, it would be for the best." Peak Lian looked at her weakly. "Your Majesty...from now on, he is your son."
But the child still died in the end.
He hanged himself in confinement.
Ye Suijin was also powerless.
In an imperial clan, there was never true father and son.
The handmaidens sat in the corridor catching fireflies.
Hearing no summons from the room, one yawned in boredom. Suddenly a voice called, "Bring water, I'm going to take a bath."
The handmaiden perked up. "Yes!"
She immediately jumped up to pass on the order.
Quickly done. Young master had returned, so the little kitchen had been keeping hot water ready.
The young couple's affection was so nice. Sadly they would have no children.
To lead the Ye manor and master the Ye troops as a woman, Young Miss naturally paid a price.
The handmaiden sighed at the loss, and went to fetch water.
The main chamber was occupied, so the servant women came and went with buckets. Duan Jin in fresh clean clothes strode over briskly.
"Is Master well? Does he wish to see me?"
A wave of steam and scent of soap wafted by, the smell of youth.
The handmaid's heart skipped a beat, but she had to be stern and block him with open arms. "Don't just barge in! Go, go!"
Duan Jin protested, "Still not done?"
The maid glared. "Watch your mouth!"
Duan Jin craned his neck to peek into the main chamber, and humphed.
"Go back, go back, we'll talk tomorrow." The maid shooed him away.
"Master summoned me back specially! He must have something to discuss!" Duan Jin refused to leave, feet rooted. "I'll just squat here, I won't disturb big sister, I can just wait here right?"
The maid frowned. "You're trying to scare someone to death. What will people think, a grown boy squatting in the yard like before! If you must squat, go outside!"
Duan Jin sighed wistfully.
He had looked forward to growing up, only to find many downsides after coming of age.
One was many came proposing marriage. His peers who were already fathers constantly poked fun at him using his situation.
Another was though the manor had no strict divisions between inner and outer quarters, he could no longer casually barge into the main chamber like when small.
This was all thanks to that Zhao fellow.
Duan Jin reluctantly allowed himself to be shooed outside the courtyard by the maid, slinking over to squat by the base of the wall. "I'll just stay here. If Master calls me, shout nice and loud!" The maid propped fists on hips. "You're trying to scare someone to death!"
A grown man hiding in the shadows by the wall, only to suddenly rise, could truly frighten one to death.
Duan Jin wasn't leaving anyway, so he tore off a blade of grass to chew, pretending to gaze at the moon.
Can't hear, can't hear.
The maid rolled her eyes and went back inside.
Ye Suijin bathed again to wash off sweat and the man's scent.
She loved this feeling!
Those old battle wounds that had tormented her for years were gone. An overcast day no longer meant her legs would ache and she couldn't walk, the price of lying in icy river water overnight for an ambush back then.
Now her youthful body was full of boundless vigor, free of injury or scar.
Simply peak condition.
She emerged from the bath and glanced at the carved canopy bed.
The bed curtains were lowered, and she could vaguely hear the man's steady, even breathing.
Ye Suijin tugged at the corners of her mouth and walked out.
"I heard some sounds just now," she stepped out of the main room and asked the maids, "Has Duan Jin come back?"
Just as the maid was about to report, a shadow suddenly swirled in like a whirlwind.
"Mistress! It's me! I'm back!"
The platform in the main room was about knee-high.
Duan Jin stood at the bottom of the steps, having to look up slightly.
Starlight shone into his eyes, glittering and shining with a scalding heat.
Gauze skirt, arrow sleeves, plain clothes.
His figure was not yet as sturdy as it would be in his later adulthood, still retaining a youthful slenderness.
But the Adam's apple on his long neck was already prominently protruding.
Ye Suijin clutched her clothes as she looked at the teenager below the steps. She finally realized that she had been wrongly blaming Zhao Jingwen for one thing all this time.
It could be said that Zhao Jingwen both loved and hated Duan Jin.
The love was understandable - he wanted to be a benevolent ruler, so how could he not love a general of Duan Jin's capabilities?
But the hatred was something Ye Suijin had always found ridiculous and absurd.
Yes, she and Duan Jin had a very close relationship, closer than ordinary.
But they were lord and servant, sister and brother, teacher and disciple, monarch and subject, kin - everything but man and woman.
Zhao Jingwen was already emperor, with a harem full of beauties - this irrational jealousy made no sense at all.
But in that moment, looking at the radiant smile on the youth's face, the burning passion in his eyes, the unspoken intimacy and yearning, Ye Suijin could no longer blame Zhao Jingwen for being narrow-minded and absurd.
It was her mistake.
She now realized that Duan Jin was no longer a child at this time - he had already grown up.
