Chapter 290: With Principal and Interest, The Real Beginning
Her cloud-like hair was in disarray, spreading across the bright yellow brocade like silken threads of passion.
Ji Qingwu blinked slowly, her senses returning. She looked toward the Emperor, her eyes washed clean by tears.
But the post-coital intimacy and tenderness she expected never came. Draped in his sleeping robe, Emperor Wu Su got straight out of bed.
’None of the moves I’d prepared had been of any use. I was like a delicate flower beaten down by an icy rain, utterly defenseless.’
Ji Qingwu rubbed her sore eyes. The dark, damp hair by her ears stuck uncomfortably to her face.
She brushed her hair back and tried to push herself into a sitting position.
But her back and legs ached so much she didn’t dare exert herself.
Watching him walk into the outer chamber, his steps powerful and brisk, she pouted as her eyes welled up with tears again.
The pain was mixed with a sense of being wronged.
Before long, the bedding dipped as Zhao Mingyan sat down before her again, having retrieved something from the outer chamber.
Ji Qingwu glanced at him, her eyes once again veiled with a vulnerable, watery sheen.
But the moment she saw the object in his hand, she instantly held back her tears.
Zhao Mingyan’s eyes were much clearer now, no longer dark and heavy, and a faint smile played on his lips.
The smile seemed faint, but it held the insatiable craving of one who had tasted bliss and now craved more.
One could tell this smile came from a place of genuine pleasure.
But to Ji Qingwu’s eyes, it carried a cruel undertone, and she shivered involuntarily.
Her body remembered. It was with that very smile that he had gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with his calloused fingertips, all while softly coaxing her to relax, and then...
"Ah Wu, do you still remember?"
His deep, hoarse voice sounded from above her head. Ji Qingwu flinched, and a sharp pang even shot through her lower abdomen.
’How could I not remember what Emperor Wu Su is holding?’
It was the very jade-green sash from the open-fronted dress she had worn to the Lu Ming Banquet, celebrating Li Chengxun’s success in the imperial examinations.
It had fallen into the Lotus Pond, and when she went back to look for it later, she couldn’t find it.
’To think he had kept it all this time.’
Zhao Mingyan leaned down over her. Ji Qingwu watched, wide-eyed, as the jade-green silk ribbon was drawn across her chest.
The end of it floated over her smooth navel.
Ji Qingwu tightened her stomach muscles, her eyes flickering wildly, her heart filled with apprehension.
’I know what’s coming, but not how it will happen.’
Zhao Mingyan’s hand followed the sash’s meandering path over her body, tracing its line down inch by inch.
The silk of the sash was smooth, but no match for the delicate softness of her skin. With the slightest touch, it slid right off her body.
The Emperor picked up the sash from the bright yellow brocade quilt, rubbing it between his fingertips as if savoring the memory of that moment.
"What I wanted to do back then... wasn’t just to pull it off."
’Whatever he wanted to do, or hadn’t done, hasn’t he already done it all now...?’
Seeing the smile on his lips deepen, Ji Qingwu scented danger.
Her voice still nasal from crying, she said quickly, "Your Majesty, surely you’ve already done everything you wanted to do."
Emperor Wu Su was noncommittal.
He lowered his gaze, pulling the jade-green sash taut. Just as Ji Qingwu’s alluring eyes were widening...
He laid it over her still-damp eyes.
Unable to see, Ji Qingwu’s eyelashes trembled ceaselessly.
"Your Majesty, what more do you want to do?"
"Ah Wu, I believe we still have a score to settle between us. What do you think?"
She felt her hands being bound by the silk cloth. Ji Qingwu struggled uneasily as her wrists were lifted and pinned above her head.
Only then did Ji Qingwu belatedly understand what score the Emperor meant to settle.
The night in the military tent.
’He’s going to demand repayment, with interest, for what I did to him.’
’Her grand-uncle, Le Xi, had been right. Emperor Wu Su was a master of forbearance; when he kept his peace, you could never guess his thoughts. But if you provoked him, he was certain to retaliate.’
Ji Qingwu had thought their recent encounter would be enough. She never imagined that in the Emperor’s eyes, it was merely an appetizer. The real meal was only just beginning.
She hurried to explain, "Your Majesty, back then I was just... I was just desperate..."
A forefinger pressed firmly against her lips, stopping her words. It kneaded the soft swell of her upper lip before pulling away.
"Hush now. We’ll talk later."
She couldn’t see Emperor Wu Su’s expression, but hearing the anticipation in his voice, Ji Qingwu panicked. ’What if I don’t survive to talk later?’
Blindfolded, she pleaded pitifully, "Let’s talk now... Can we please talk now?"
The man’s tone suddenly turned cold.
"Are you sure you want to talk to me, at a time like this, about what happened between you and Wei Ting at the Northern Border all those years ago?"
Zhao Mingyan stroked her head, his forefinger toying with her earlobe.
"Ah Wu, if you don’t want me to truly hurt you, don’t say another word."
Ji Qingwu pressed her lips together, not daring to bring it up again.
He was particularly patient this time, as if knowing the tender morsel before him could not escape. His efforts to slowly devour her became all the more tantalizingly torturous.
*
Ji Qingwu felt as if she were in a constant daze.
Blindfolded, she could no longer distinguish dream from reality.
The scent of ambergris at the tip of her nose transformed into the alluring fragrance of lotus flowers.
Ji Qingwu found she could open her eyes, but she was in a dim abyss.
Her eyes darted around, searching for the source of the fragrance. As soon as she looked down, she discovered she had become a lotus flower, growing in an abyss of swirling water.
The flowing water reflected her form—a fiery red lotus.
Although there was no sunlight, the water that nourished her was warm. She soaked in the warm current and contentedly closed her eyes again.
After a moment, something came to disturb her. Ji Qingwu shook her straight stalk, trying to drive it away and preserve her peace.
Seeing her ignore it and try to hide only piqued the other’s interest.
Ji Qingwu opened her eyes in displeasure to find an enormous Xuanlong before her. It was pure black, its thick scales shimmering brightly.
It lifted its eyelids, gazing at her lazily. It said nonchalantly, "When did a little lotus sprout here?"
The little life form was too delicate, so the Xuanlong hadn’t touched her with its claws. It had used the whiskers by its snout instead.
Ji Qingwu opened her mouth but found she couldn’t make a sound. She drew her leaves in, wanting nothing to do with its teasing.
The Xuanlong spoke majestically, "You sprout in my domain without so much as a greeting and block my path back. For such a little thing, you have quite a temper."
After speaking, the Xuanlong dove completely into the abyss.
As the massive creature entered the water, its tail swung, kicking up great splashes accompanied by a sound like thunder and wind. Ji Qingwu was completely drenched.
She shook off the water droplets in annoyance. At almost the same instant, her roots, buried deep in the abyssal pool, felt a strange disturbance.
Her stalk, not as delicate as her petals, was mercilessly prodded back and forth several times by a claw.
Her upper stem swayed along with it, making her dizzy as the water churned.
She looked down and could faintly make out the form of the Xuanlong, coiled beneath the current.