Blood-Sucking Empress

Chapter 20: Under the Moon

“Wangye,  please conduct yourself with some dignity and proper etiquette.
I am the Imperial Consort of the Empress.
Your Majesty may call me Ning guifei, or by my name!” This voice was cold, cheerless, but also extremely unyielding.
It had been Qin Ning, or Ning guifei who had just spoken, and the woman he had called wangye, was Qianhe Zongya, an Imperial Princess of the First Rank at court.

Wangye: literally means  Royal Prince, but in this case, it will be referencing to Royal Princess

Guifei: Imperial Consort of the highest rank and is below the Empress (King Consort in this book)

The former Empress was the mother of Qianhe Liyou, and was also the mother of seven princesses and eight princes.
Qianhe Liyou was the second Imperial Princess and Qianhe Zongya was the fifth Imperial Princess, the most useless and least ambitious of the lot.
However, it was precisely because of her uselessness that allowed her to survive.
In order to ascend to the golden dragon throne, Qianhe Liyou ruthlessly killed four of the seven Imperial Princesses.
Besides Qianhe Liyou, four of the seven Imperial Princesses had been executed by her.
There were only two Imperial Princesses remaining.
One of them was Qianhe Zongya, because she only loved looking at beauties and had no desire or love towards the jiangshan. As a result, she had been spared a life.
She was then bestowed an imperial title, the Prince of Zong, and besides her, there was another Imperial Princess, Qianhe Weijia.
The reason why Qianhe Weijia had been spared was due to her wicked personality and she had committed any unimaginable deeds one could think of.
Eating, drinking, prostitution, gambling, cheating, and stealing were all on this list.
This wanton Imperial princess had all sorts of hobbies: good gambles, good beauties, good food and drink.
Her father was merely an ordinary commoner, with no background and connections.
As such, no officials at court were willing to support her.
She had given up the competition for the dragon throne very early on in life and had been extremely lucky to live until today.
Over these years, out of the original eight princes, only six remained.
Two of them had become pawns swept up in the struggle for the Imperial throne.
As for the others, three had been married off, and the remaining three were still too young for marriage.

jiangshan refers to the country or ruling the country;the ruler of ancient Chinese empires would rule the jiangshan

“Ning’er, why do you purposely alienate yourself from this benwang so much? Benwang has liked you for so long, don’t you still understand this Imperial Princess’ intentions?”

-er is an affectionate term of endearment that people usually call to their lovers, children, family etc

benwang: how the Princes (Princess) of the First Rank refer to themselves, similar to ‘zhen’ that the Emperor (Empress) uses.

“Qianhe Zongya, are you not able to understand my words? As I told you last time, I have absolutely nothing to do with you.
Do not come to beg me again.
The reason why I came here to meet you today was to tell you this.
If you approach me again, don’t blame me for being impolite!” Qin Ning was not a good-tempered person, and what he hated most in his life was precisely this kind of shameful and annoying entanglement.
As for this wangye, he could no longer silently endure her actions anymore.

“Ning’er, don’t act like this.
I really do like you.
As to what kind of person the Empress is, it is not as if you are not aware.
She is just playing with you.
Why are you so foolish, still deciding to remain in her harem? You know, as long as you agree, I can bring you out of the palace.
Ning’er, leave with me, I will favor you very much…”

“Enough! Why are you so juvenile? I’m too lazy to continue this nonsense conversation with you!” Currently, he really wanted to brandish a sharp sword and swing it in that direction.
Talking to certain people was really wasting his time!

Qin Ning couldn’t actually assassinate the Imperial Princess in the palace, but he didn’t want to waste any more time, so he turned around and left promptly.

Qianhe Zongya, seeing that Qin Ning was about to leave, started to get inwardly anxious.
Ignoring proper etiquette, she stretched out her hand to grab at Qin Ning…

Qianhe Liyou silently stood at the top of the majestic tree, seeing all of this with an indistinguishable expression, her bearing and demeanor blatantly different from an ordinary person’s usual countenance.
Her expression was gloomy and her thoughts were indiscernible.

“Wangye, don’t force me to do it!” Qin Ning possessed high martial art prowess.
Before the opponent’s hand could grab at him, he had already flourished out a gleaming sword, pointing the sharp tip towards Qianhe Zongya.
This effectively stopped Qianhe Zongya’s lapse in etiquette, Qin Ning’s cold expression staring him down from the other side of the sword!

“Ning’er, don’t act like this, just why are you so indifferent toward me? As long as you agree, I will immediately request an audience with the Empress to discuss our matter…”

“We never had anything to do with each other, I…I won’t even bother talking to you!” Qin Ning could no longer stand this person anymore.  He promptly sheathed the long sword into a scabbard inside his robes, and used qinggong* to leave.
A pair of longing eyes looked admiringly as his disappearing figure.
It was Qianhe Zongya.
She stayed on the spot, and looked at the small figure a distance away.
After some hesitation, her expression seemed to stiffen as she made a decision.

*Qinggong is a technique that is visually reminiscent of parkour, the meaning of the first character is light/soft and the second character means achievement/skill; usually in these wuxia novels, this level of skill is exaggerated, granting martial artists the ability to move swiftly and lightly at superhuman speed, performing gravity-defying moves such as scaling, gliding etc

“Ning’er, wait, this benwang will definitely get you, definitely!” Qianhe Zongya left after speaking this.

Qianhe Liyou apathetically watched these two people come and go, no longer in the mood to admire the moon anymore.
A cold light glinted in her eyes, and her figure flashed once before she reappeared in her bedroom. 

In the bedroom, the well-groomed and freshly bathed Yun guiren knelt in the middle of the room, waiting quietly for the Empress.
He did not know where the Empress had gone, but since he had been summoned to serve, he naturally had to wait.
Tonight may be a night full of torture and abuse.
He had already decided to treat it as a nightmare, enduring it for a little bit and it would all pass over eventually. 

Compared to others, the Empress actually treated him quite well.
On the contrary, if the Empress were to not show up in the end, he would become the laughing-stock of the entire palace if he waited for the entire night, but the Empress did not once show her face.
For him, this would be a disgrace, a humiliation.

Therefore, whether the Empress showed or did not show up, it was not a good thing for him.

“Get up.
Do you see the bed located underneath the window? Sleep there.” Qianhe Liyou quietly materialized behind Yun guiren, walking directly to her dragon sofa, laid down, closing her eyes as if she was just about to fall asleep.

Yun Tailing was a little bit confused at this development, but he was originally a person with dull emotional reactions.
He wouldn’t ask or say anything.
He carefully got up, cautiously walking to the bed under the window and laid on it.
He looked to be asleep, but he was really feigning it…as to why, if there was a person who scared him lying just a few feet away, who could fall asleep so easily?

He couldn’t sleep and decided to give the matter a bit more contemplation.
Recently, too many events had occurred within the Imperial palace, and they were all very strange.
The most favored Imperial Consort had been imprisoned and then confined to reside in the Cold Palace.
The King Consort, whom the Empress had never liked, had been ordered to serve the Empress, making everyone conjecture that the Empress’ new favorite was Luo Weiqing.
Then, news came out that the King Consort had knelt outside the Empress’ quarters for a whole night, and then was sent back to his own residence.
Shortly after, An guifei had been summoned, but he had served for even a shorter amount of time.
Before everyone could react, it was already his turn.

He had a hunch that the Empress had summoned him this time was with the intent for them to take turns.
First the King Consort, then An guifei,  and now him…he just couldn’t see through the Empress’ intentions.
The semi-annual selection ceremony was approaching.
The Empress’ round of summoning all of the current members of the harem was most likely related to this selection ceremony.
The Imperial palace was always like this.
Once new players enter, they would naturally be different from the old ones.

But, these events had nothing to do with him.
He merely wished to spend the rest of his days peacefully and simply, even if it was dull.
He thought it shouldn’t be that difficult of a wish to realize.
The Empress didn’t seem too interested in him, she had summoned him to serve her without even touching him.
Once newcomers enter the palace, old people like him would become even less noticeable.
At that time, he would be able to grow medicinal herbs every day, brush up on his medical skills, and live a normal life.

Yun Tailing, after a long period of contemplation, he had long forgotten about the other person in the room.
In addition to his love of herbal medicine, he could be described as pure-hearted and uninterested in self-indulgence.
He had a sense of open-mindedness that allowed him to clearly understand some matters, and right now, he was very clear-headed.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his situation was really not that difficult or sad.
Feeling calmer, he drifted off into sleep without noticing.