coobybook Chapter 236 The Living Abandoned Empress of the Cold Palace X The Invading Unruly Buddhist Son 70
Chapter 236 The Living Abandoned Empress of the Cold Palace X The Invading Unruly Buddhist Son 70
Yun Qian's smile faltered as she heard this, but her heart sank. Qi Heyao's casual words pierced her like a needle.
Memories of her past life came to her mind. At that time, she was demoted to the imperial temple, and the news of Yunli entering the palace was like bad news.
Yun Qian suppressed the surging emotions in her heart, her expression as calm as before. She gently took Yun Li's hand and said softly, "Your Highness, you are joking. Li'er is still young and it's time for her to have fun."
"It's normal for a girl of this age to be lively and cheerful." Qi Heyao chuckled.
Yun Li lowered her head slightly, pursed her lips nonchalantly, and said softly, "That's right, sister."
Yun Qian looked at Yun Li, but her heart felt heavy. In this life, she would never walk to her death again.
The fighting on the front lines reached a stalemate. In the depths of winter, the northern border was freezing cold, and snow poured down like swan feathers, burying the swords, guns, and corpses on the battlefield. The once grim battlefield was now reduced to a vast silence, as if the world itself were silently wailing.
Qi Jueyu's tent was located at the rear of the army formation. Outside, the wind howled, accompanied by snow flakes that whipped against the curtains. Inside, the camp was silent, its dim light illuminating only the dim shadows. Qi Jueyu lay half-reclining on his bed, wrapped in a heavy blanket. His once delicate and fierce features now had a sickly pallor. His lips were chapped, and his breathing was weak and drawn out.
Three days and three nights passed before his people found him. He was buried in the vast expanse of snow, his black cloak frozen solid. His blood had stained the vast expanse of ice and snow red, like a blooming dark flower. His wounds had long been frozen shut by the cold. If he hadn't been clinging to life, he would have been dead long ago.
When the news reached the rear, Qi Jueyu's uncle rushed over overnight. When he entered the tent, he saw Qi Jueyu half-leaning on the couch, his face as pale as snow, and he seemed to have been drained of all his life.
"Jueyu!" His uncle's voice was filled with uncontrollable anger, a mixture of heartache and anger. "Your life was saved, did you know that? If you really died in that icy and snowy place, how would I explain it to your dead mother?"
Qi Jueyu glanced up at him. His deep eyes seemed filled with a thousand years of frost, their gaze so indifferent that it seemed as if it didn't belong to a living person. He didn't say anything, simply lowered his eyes and leaned back on the couch, as if silently regulating his breathing.
"Jue Yu, what are you so obsessed with?" Seeing that he didn't answer, his uncle slammed the table in anger, his tone becoming more and more urgent, "Is it worth risking your life for a woman? She is now the Crown Princess of the Eastern Palace, someone else's wife. Don't you understand?!"
Qi Jueyu's eyelashes trembled slightly, but he still did not answer.
Seeing him like this, his uncle became increasingly anxious. He trod heavily towards him, his tone becoming more and more resolute: "Jueyu, listen to your uncle and let her go! It's not worth destroying your life for a woman who betrayed you! I will send you a few clean women, all gentle and virtuous, better than..."
"Shut up."
A low, weak voice suddenly interrupted his uncle's words. Qi Jueyu slowly raised his eyes, his gaze deep and cold, like an icy cave in the depths of winter, chilling to the bone. He looked at his uncle, his voice soft but filled with undeniable determination: "Stop talking, Uncle."
"Jue Yu!" His uncle frowned, almost jumping up and down in anxiety. "Why are you doing this? She's already the Crown Princess, someone else's woman, why are you still..."
"I'm the one who's dirty, not her." Qi Jueyu interrupted him lightly, his tone terrifyingly calm, as if he was stating an insignificant fact.
The tent was dead silent, with only the occasional crackling sound of the charcoal fire in the brazier, as if trying to tear a crack in the heavy air.
My uncle was stunned and looked at Qi Jueyu in surprise, as if he couldn't understand what he said for a moment.
Qi Jueyu slowly closed his eyes, a bitter arc curling up at the corner of his mouth, as if he was laughing, but also as if he was mocking himself. His hands gently clenched the blanket around him, and his fingertips turned slightly white.
Yes, she wasn't a sentimental person. Perhaps he should have understood earlier that Yun Qian's heart might not be with Qi Heyao, but it probably wouldn't be with anyone either. Even so, he couldn't tolerate anyone saying anything bad about her. Wasn't her coldness and ruthlessness the perfect match for someone like him?
After all... he's not a good person either, with blood on his hands and a deep hatred behind him, he's no longer compatible with this world. They're the perfect match, aren't they?
Looking at him like this, Gu Qianjun felt so suffocated that he couldn't speak. In the end, he could only sigh heavily and leave.
Silence fell once again in the tent, the only sound being the increasingly fierce howling of the wind and snow, as if to completely devour this lonely world. Qi Jueyu lay there quietly, letting the cold, like unhealed wounds, spread throughout his limbs. Even the slightest desire to live seemed to fade.
"Qian..." he whispered, barely audible, his voice as soft as a wisp of wind. Inside the tent, a charcoal fire burned brightly, its flames dancing in the copper brazier, casting an orange glow on a corner of the curtain. Warmth gradually spread, but it was confined to that corner of the tent. Outside lay a completely different, icy world.
The wind and snow howled, carrying the broken snow across the wilderness and hitting the tent, making a rustling sound, as if invisible hands were trying to tear the solid curtain apart.
From time to time, a fierce wind roared past my ears, like the howling of a wild beast, carrying with it all the coldness of the world, as if it would engulf the entire camp. Fine snowflakes slammed against the tent roof, making a crackling sound that repeated endlessly, each one making my heart tense, as if at any moment, the thin curtain would be completely swallowed by the wind and snow outside.
No one will hear this voice, including the person he is thinking about.
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On the other side, Yun Qian and Qi Heyao set out on a journey to the north with the army almost non-stop.
Just as the sky and the earth were bright, she didn't know why, but she felt inexplicably worried, as if something was bothering her.
She felt a little depressed and couldn't help but lift the curtain. Although Qi Heyao beside her was a little puzzled by this behavior, he didn't say much.
Yun Qian looked up and saw a lone wild goose circling repeatedly in one place among the boundless mountains and the vast sky. She was puzzled. It was supposed to be late in the season for the geese to migrate south, so why didn't this goose leave with the flock?