Chapter 175

Chapter 175

Side Story II: After Receiving the Rebirth Script (Ningheng) 2

How could he take the woman he treasured so dearly before they were married, leaving her without even a rightful name or status?

This was the only time in his life he had ever given someone his whole heart. Such love deserved the grandest and most solemn wedding: all the proper betrothal letters and rites, a formal marriage celebrated before the world, and a wedding night beneath red candles. Only after they exchanged nuptial cups would she truly become his wife.

No matter how difficult his desire was to suppress, he could not act recklessly now.

For the first time, Sheng Zhaoning found herself deeply resentful of this man’s gentlemanly restraint.

Fine, he could abide by propriety and keep himself in check in other matters. But this was something they both wanted. What harm would there be in letting her kiss and touch him, and allowing everything that was bound to happen eventually to happen a little sooner?

Still, Sheng Zhaoning was not truly a bandit. She could hardly force herself on him.

In the end, she had no choice but to let him leave with his virtue intact, however unwillingly.

From that day onward, however, Sheng Zhaoning only became more brazen.

Her usual wandering hands were one thing, but twice, she even relied on her superior martial arts to sneak into the Eastern Palace and nearly robbed him of his “innocence” by force.

Wei Heng naturally could not understand how desperately impatient someone given the dreamlike chance to live a second life might be. Sheng Zhaoning feared that everything around her was no more than a fleeting illusion, destined to vanish, and wanted nothing more than to seize everything and everyone she could as quickly as possible.

All he knew was that a woman’s reputation mattered more than anything in this world. He could not compromise her honor simply to satisfy his own desires.

If word got out because of one moment’s carelessness, how was she supposed to face the world afterward?

Thus, even when Sheng Zhaoning’s hand had already reached down between them, he merely let out a muffled groan, caught the offending hand, and dragged it back out, his breathing unsteady.

“Don’t move,” he rasped, his voice already terribly hoarse.

Still pinning him beneath her, Sheng Zhaoning thumped him twice in frustration before spitefully biting the side of his face.

The next day, when the Heir Apparent stood in court, the suggestive red mark on his face sent the assembled officials’ imaginations running wild.

While Sheng Zhaoning continued seducing Wei Heng, her more serious plans were also proceeding at full speed.

She knew full well that every tragedy of her previous life had stemmed from the tangled love and hatred of the older generation. It was a dead knot that could not be avoided; the more one tried to unravel it, the more tangled it became.

Only by cutting it off at the source could she prevent all those future events from ever taking place.

She spent a long time secretly investigating the events of the past and eventually pieced together most of what had happened.

The Emperor of Wei, Prince Zhenbei, and Consort Mei had once been schoolmates.

Two imperial princes and the legitimate daughter of a military family had grown up together, and affection had quietly blossomed among them.

At the time, no Heir Apparent had yet been appointed, and every imperial prince harbored ambitions for the throne.

Wei Chengshi and Wei Chengjun inevitably became embroiled in the struggle as well.

Wei Chengshi was deeply calculating and never acted until he had planned everything out. He kept his talents hidden and maintained a low profile, so the Former Emperor did not favor him.

Wei Chengjun, by contrast, was a spirited young man who campaigned in every direction and repeatedly earned the Former Emperor’s praise.

Wei Chengjun loved like an inexperienced boy, charging ahead without thought. The more he liked a girl, the more he wanted to tease and bully her. He would not stop until he had made her flush red with fury every single time.

How could Wei Chengshi have failed to notice that his younger brother loved the same woman he did?

On one side stood power and the realm. On the other stood the woman he adored.

Wei Chengshi refused to give up either.

By the most critical stage of the succession struggle, the imperial brothers had nearly wiped one another out. Some were dead, some demoted, and others exiled. Only a scant few remained.

By then, Wei Chengjun had realized where the woman’s heart truly lay. Heartbroken, he left for Liangzhou, willing to step aside for her and his elder brother.

However, Wei Chengshi possessed no real authority at the time.

To secure his position at court, he had no choice but to marry the Grand Tutor’s legitimate granddaughter, thereby gaining the support of more than half the court officials.

Only then did he successfully ascend the throne.

Unfortunately, how could the high-spirited daughter of a military family, who was no less valiant than any man, willingly share a husband with another woman?

Her feelings had already been tangled and conflicted, forcing her to choose between the brothers before she had fully understood her own heart. Once she was betrayed, she finally saw everything clearly. She immediately turned her horse around, left the Capital, and followed Wei Chengjun to Liangzhou.

She and Wei Chengjun held a glorious wedding at the frontier.

They fought side by side as husband and wife, a perfect couple straight out of a storybook whom everyone envied.

Several years into their marriage, she gave birth to a son.

Yet no one could have imagined that Princess Consort Zhenbei would suddenly die of illness the following year. At the same time, a mysterious “Consort Mei” appeared in the imperial palace.

From there, everything that followed was easy to deduce.

The root of it all lay in that old grudge.

From Prince Zhenbei’s perspective, he had done nothing wrong.

How could the hatred of having one’s wife stolen ever be easily laid to rest?

But the one at fault was the Emperor of Wei, not Wei Heng.

Wei Heng should never have died such a horrific death.

Yet there was only one way to break this deadlock: resolve the old grievance and extinguish the hatred.

Sheng Zhaoning devised a plan to attack the Emperor of Wei’s mind. Using illusion arts and drugs from the Southern Frontier, she gradually clouded his senses and drew out the guilt and fear buried in the deepest recesses of his heart.

He began to sink into nightmares of the past every night, unable to escape.

Perhaps the Emperor of Wei truly had loved Consort Mei, but his love had been nothing more than selfish plunder and possession. He had never once respected her wishes.

After countless dreams, he repeatedly jolted awake from visions of Consort Mei’s death.

Then, in the final dream, he saw Wei Heng.

In the dream, the Liangzhou Iron Cavalry crushed the Capital’s defenses and charged straight through the palace gates.

His son died beneath the edge of a sword.

It was a gruesome death.

The Emperor of Wei could bear no more.

If he allowed matters to continue on their present course, everything in that dream might well come true.

He could die, but his son could not.

Prince Zhenbei had just returned to the Capital after winning a great victory.

Still dazed, the Emperor of Wei forced himself to remain lucid long enough to write an edict confessing his sins. In it, he proclaimed to the entire realm that he had stolen his younger brother’s wife and violated the bonds of human morality. He then left behind a letter releasing her from their marriage and took his own life before Prince Zhenbei.

The entire world was thrown into an uproar.

It was only then that Wei Heng and Wei Yi finally learned the truth of each other’s identities.

They were, in fact, blood brothers born of the same mother.

After Wei Chengshi’s death, Wei Chengjun took the letter of release to the Imperial Ancestral Temple and reclaimed Consort Mei’s memorial tablet, bringing her back to Liangzhou.

After more than twenty years, he had finally brought his wife home.

Only then did the world learn Consort Mei’s true name: Mei Yuan.

Wei Heng had apparently never imagined that such a painful and unbearable past lay hidden between his parents.

After the Emperor of Wei’s death, Wei Heng felt ashamed of the circumstances of his birth. He refused to accept the Imperial Jade Seal or wear the imperial crown. Yet he was the Heir Apparent, the rightful emperor, and no one had a stronger claim to the throne.

After reaching a compromise, the Cabinet agreed to divide the realm evenly along Huai Pass.

The territory south of Huai Pass would remain Great Wei. The lands north of Huai Pass, including Liangzhou, would become Northern Wei, marking the establishment of a new dynasty.

Liangzhou was made the capital.

At the beginning of the year, Wei Chengjun passed away and was laid to rest beside Mei Yuan.

Wei Yi proclaimed himself Emperor of Northern Wei and led his armies north once more, conquering more than half the enemy kingdom’s cities.

Wei Heng, meanwhile, governed with benevolence. He instituted the imperial examinations, placed great importance on the people’s welfare, and reduced taxes.

With vassal states paying tribute in the south and Northern Wei expanding the frontiers in the north, Great Wei flourished under its benevolent rule.

That April, Wei Heng and Sheng Zhaoning chose the anniversary of their first meeting as their wedding day.

Many years ago, she had passed the imperial examinations with flying colors and ridden through the streets on horseback, flushed with triumph as her steed raced through the spring breeze.

Now, she retraced that same route in a phoenix carriage, dressed in a phoenix coronet and scarlet bridal robes. After the ancestral temple rites and her investiture as Empress, she and Wei Heng bowed to each other and were wed.

Once they had exchanged cups of nuptial wine, red candles flickered all around them.

Layer after layer of gauze curtains fell. Amid crimson waves of brocade bedding, she pressed her forehead against his, her unrestrained breath spilling over his face as the faint scent of pine spread between them.

“Your Highness, are you still going to reject me?” Sheng Zhaoning asked, straddling Wei Heng’s waist and biting his ear.

Her fingers deftly undid his sash. With unmistakable intent, her fingertips slipped beneath his clothes, glided from his chest to his abdomen, lingered there for a long moment, then slowly moved lower…

This time, Wei Heng did not stop her.

With his most sensitive place under her control, his breathing faltered, and scorching heat swept through his entire body.

“Ningning, once this begins, you won’t be the one deciding what happens next.”

Sheng Zhaoning froze, still trying to grasp the deeper meaning behind his words.

In the next instant, he flipped her over with a forceful motion, sending her tumbling into the soft, disheveled brocade quilts.

His warm lips came down hard, fiercer than they had ever been before.

The desire Wei Heng had restrained and suppressed for so long poured out like a surging tide, engulfing her in an instant.

Sheng Zhaoning had never imagined that something she had always controlled would undergo such a startling reversal.

Wei Heng came at her relentlessly. No matter how unyielding Sheng Zhaoning usually was, at a time like this, even her bones seemed to melt into a pool of spring water. She had still been reveling in the delight of finally getting her way, but by the third time she found herself pinned beneath him, she at last realized that something was wrong.

“Again? Ah… Mm…”

The rest of her words were swallowed whole.

The night stretched on, while their spring night together seemed all too brief.

In the end, Sheng Zhaoning paid the price for all the fires her young and ignorant self had once gone around starting.

After their marriage, Sheng Zhaoning did not withdraw from court.

She simply no longer attended as a court official. Instead, the Emperor and Empress ruled hand in hand, their dragon and phoenix thrones standing side by side in Taihe Hall as they governed the realm together.

She was his one and only wife, and together they held the world in their hands.

By then, Sheng Zhaoning and Wei Heng had been married for half a year.

Everything about her previous life was too fragmented and horrifying in her dreams. The heart-wrenching pain felt all too real, and Sheng Zhaoning did not want to tell him about it.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tight.

Wei Heng gave a helpless laugh, his hand continuing to stroke her back without moving away.

Soothed by his gentle murmurs, Sheng Zhaoning soon grew drowsy and fell into a deep sleep once more.

The next morning, she felt lazy and did not want to attend court. She lay in bed, whining and shamelessly refusing to get up for a while. Wei Heng had long since grown accustomed to this.

So had the assembled ministers.

Surprisingly, the officials accepted the unprecedented arrangement of the Emperor and Empress ruling together with remarkable ease.

After all, they had already witnessed something as earth-shattering as dividing the realm equally. Who would still quibble over the trivial question of whether Sheng Zhaoning deserved a place in court?

Besides, Sheng Zhaoning’s accomplishments and official reputation had always been exceptional. As long as she remained wise and virtuous instead of becoming a wicked Empress who brought ruin to the nation, no one wanted to play the villain and make trouble for her.

Sheng Zhaoning finally received a truly extended leave during the second year of her marriage to Wei Heng.

When the Imperial Physician announced that she was with child, Wei Heng looked even more nervous than she did.

The entire Imperial Palace seemed to enter a state of wartime readiness.

Sheng Zhaoning had complete confidence in her own health. She thought Wei Heng was making far too much of the matter and paid little attention to his many restrictions.

That lasted until he caught her sneaking outside and using her martial arts to leap into a tree to pick peaches. She finally made even a man as mild-tempered as Wei Heng turn cold with anger.

Wei Heng refused to speak to her for three days.

Such a thing was exceedingly rare.

Knowing she was in the wrong, Sheng Zhaoning spent several days coaxing him, apologizing, and making promise after promise before his expression finally softened.

The little prince was born in early spring.

As the eldest legitimate son born to the Empress of Great Wei, he was named Heir Apparent from the moment of his birth.

On the day of the Crown Prince’s one-month celebration, congratulations poured in from across the world.

A congratulatory letter traveled thousands of miles from Liangzhou, the capital of Northern Wei, before reaching Sheng Zhaoning’s hands. When she unfolded it, only two words were written inside.

“Congratulations.”

Along with the letter came an exquisitely crafted black-iron heavy sword as a gift.

As Sheng Zhaoning’s child, the boy was certain to attain extraordinary skill in martial arts.

The heavy sword had been forged by the most renowned craftsman in Northern Wei using priceless treasures from across the world, making it exceptionally valuable.

Only such a gift was worthy of him.

The old grievances from their previous lives had long since faded like smoke. Treating him as she would any old friend, Sheng Zhaoning sent a letter back to Liangzhou, thanking him and accepting the gift.

The year Wei Xiao came of age, Wei Heng abdicated as quickly as he possibly could.

That very night, Sheng Zhaoning packed their belongings and fled with Wei Heng, afraid that if they delayed even a moment, that brat would detain them.

They had worked diligently for twenty years. Now that their son was grown, it was perfectly reasonable for her and Wei Heng to go out and see the world together… wasn’t it?

On the second day after Wei Xiao ascended the throne, he stared at the empty bedchamber of his Imperial Father and Imperial Mother and felt as though the sky had fallen.

Over the next several years, letters from all across Wei State arrived at the Imperial Palace one after another.

Buried beneath towering stacks of memorials, Wei Xiao glared furiously at Sheng Zhaoning’s latest letter, which announced that they had settled in Xuzhou. His face nearly twisted with rage.

They had abandoned him alone in the Capital City while the two of them retired to Xuzhou?

Wei Xiao was so furious that he could not sleep for days.

The two people far away in Xuzhou, however, naturally remained oblivious to his powerless rage in the Capital City.

Curled up in Wei Heng’s arms, Sheng Zhaoning lay beneath the warm spring sunlight as their rocking chair swayed gently.

Weathered by the passing years, the old residence stood in simple, solemn dignity.

Bathed in the radiance of the mortal world, they quietly felt the fresh breeze curl past them. Birds called high above, insects hummed below, and flowers stood in silence.

“Wei Heng,” she called out from habit.

“Mm. I’m here,” he answered, as he always did.

The thousand trials of their fleeting lives were over, and through the long days, a single lamp still shone.

At the end of a story that had spanned two lifetimes, she took his hand.

Together, they grew old.