The Princess Consort Wants to Rebel Every Day - Chapter 6

On Zhou Di’s birthday, the palace held a grand banquet.

As expected, Yelü Qingsu, the young heir of the Prince of Longnan, used his wine as an excuse to insult Zhou Ting’an.

“I hear the Regent is first-rate at hitting women. Would he care to spar with me tonight?”

The remark came so abruptly that even Zhou Ting’an, who had seen every kind of trouble, paused in surprise.

“Hitting women?” He glanced sideways at me and lowered his voice. “Apart from fighting you, when have I ever struck a woman? Is he standing up for you? What right does he have?”

I silently drank a cup of wine. “Perhaps there’s some woman you’ve entangled yourself with outside?”

Zhou Ting’an laughed angrily. He licked his lips, a dangerous glint coming over him, and actually leapt into the center of the hall with his blade.

He had already landed there when his words drifted back to me. “Jiang Qingye, this had better have nothing to do with you. Otherwise I’ll kill him tonight.”

Watching his back, I couldn’t keep the excitement from my eyes.

Kill him. Go on, kill him!

Kill him, take Longnan, and the throne wouldn’t be far behind.

The two began fighting in the center of the hall with an almost casual ease. Neither wasted a word.

I knew how formidable Zhou Ting’an was. Yelü Qingsu was no easy opponent either. The brute had trained with foreign fighters. His movements looked slow but struck with vicious force. One punch from him could leave a person bedridden for half a month…

The arrogance on his face brought back the unspeakable humiliation I had suffered in Longnan years ago. My teeth ached with hatred.

At sixteen, I had already made good progress in martial arts. Young and hotheaded, the first thing I wanted was revenge.

While my father accompanied the young emperor on a period of fasting, I dressed as a boy and rode hard for Longnan.

I learned that its prince had only one son, Yelü Qingsu. I planned to kill him so his father would know what it was to lose someone he loved.

The people of Longnan said Yelü Qingsu was arrogant and preyed on women. At eleven or twelve, he had abused servant girls in his household to death. As he grew older, his appetites grew worse. He was brazen enough to seize even young girls he saw in the street.

At first I had felt a little reluctance about killing him. His father’s crimes were not his. After hearing those stories, every scrap of reluctance vanished.

The beast’s son was a beast as well. Both deserved to die.

I lay in wait in an alley outside the pleasure house where Yelü Qingsu was drinking. Not until the third watch sounded did I see him, built like an ox, stagger out.

A girl had risen to relieve herself. As she was about to go back inside, he threw her to the ground. Her cries woke the neighbors and her parents.

Her father rushed out of their low house with a club, shouting. Neighbors came with whatever they could find. But when they met Yelü Qingsu’s dark gaze, their voices died as though hands had closed around their throats. One by one, they quietly shut their doors.

In an instant, the alley fell silent. The girl stopped crying and lay there like a corpse. Her slender body was trapped beneath him, frail as a fading purple blossom.

I crouched on the wall, shaking all over. The scene before me merged with memories in my mind, and rage and despair surged together through my head.

Why were people so cold? Before power, even those closest to someone could abandon her.

The world was unjust. I hated it.

I drew my blade and sprang from the wall, aiming for the back of Yelü Qingsu’s neck.

Kill him. Make him die. It was the only thought in my head.

But those trained from childhood are quick to sense danger. Though he had drunk heavily, Yelü Qingsu found a fierce will to live when death came for him.

He spun at once and dragged the girl in front of him, straight into the path of my blade.

Beast.

We fought in the dark, silent alley. Within a quarter of an hour I began to lose ground. He was strong. For the first time, I understood how far apart we were.

Had he not been drunk, had darkness not hidden me, I might never have left that alley alive.

Later he pinned me beneath his foot and kicked my shoulder hard. I heard a bone crack, but I stared back at him in defiance.

“You’re asking to die.”

“One day I’ll kill you.”

Yelü Qingsu threw back his head and laughed, then lifted his foot to deliver the final blow.

I fled. In that brief opening, I vanished like a ghost into the deserted alley.

Back home, I spent a full half month in bed. As soon as I recovered, I trained twice as hard and never let a day pass without practice.

I was as stubborn as an ox in my desire for revenge. I spent my days training or sparring. My father thought I’d gone mad. Jiang Yuhe thought I simply had too much energy because I lacked a man.

One day, while I trained, she propped her chin on her hand and bit into a peach.

“Little sister, aren’t you tired? Can’t you rest for a while?”

I could rest. But the time had not yet come.