Super-Fertile Darling: Forced to Marry the Heirless Tyrant

Prime Minister’s Mansion.

After Prince Yong left, Ji Qingwu was also eager to leave.

But she still had one thing left to do.

Ji Qingwu surreptitiously glanced at the man beside her.

Her eyes met his dark, deep gaze. "Leaving again?" Zhao Mingyan asked.

Ji Qingwu replied, "I still have a small matter to attend to. Your Majesty is aware of it."

Zhao Mingyan repeated, "I’m aware?"

’He agreed to let me go when I ran into him in Su Fengyue’s courtyard earlier,’ Ji Qingwu mused. ’He even told me where to find it. Is he going back on his word now?’

She was still holding Su Daiyue’s last effects, which she had to return to her mother. She had made a promise, and she intended to keep it.

She reminded him, "Your Majesty gave me directions just a moment ago."

Emperor Wu Su remained noncommittal, his gaze landing on her disguised face. This appearance bore little resemblance to her true self.

Only her eyes retained their limpid brightness.

’She was right, I was aware,’ he thought. ’But the only way I knew was by finding out what she’d done through my Hidden Guards.’

Ji Qingwu had always been one to act first and report later. She looked timid, but in reality, she dared to do anything and feared nothing.

This girl had her own way of doing things: she might look as delicate as a willow in the wind, but she could actually stir up a hurricane.

Tonight, she had dared to bring the young maid from the Wei Family and barge into the Su family’s den of wolves. That alone was a display of courage most women did not possess.

Even Si Hai had been so sickened by the things in Su Fengyue’s secret room that he’d thrown up several times, yet Ji Qingwu had merely lamented the fate of those women, showing no strong reaction to the filth itself.

Most remarkably, Ji Qingwu had managed to find evidence that even his Hidden Guards had failed to uncover.

She was the one who had truly performed the great service today, the one who had brought down Su Fengyue.

She had removed a great mountain from his path, but he still had one lingering question.

Zhao Mingyan walked over to a nearby Taishi chair and sat down.

"There are other things I’m not aware of. For example, how did you obtain those letters of high treason?"

’By the looks of it,’ she thought, ’he intends to have a detailed talk.’

Ji Qingwu stood obediently before him, fidgeting with her fingers. She clasped her hands in front of her stomach, trying her best to keep her expression neutral.

"There’s a bronze horse in the secret room. There’s a mechanism in its belly. I happened to trigger the switch and it opened, revealing the letters and the seal inside."

Zhao Mingyan seemed very interested. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "A bronze horse? What’s it like? I’ll go have a look." As he spoke, he made a move to stand up.

’If Emperor Wu Su really goes to see that bronze horse, won’t I be exposed? How could I possibly explain where the key came from then...?’

’That it fell from the sky? That I picked it up off the ground?’

Ji Qingwu rushed forward, pressing on his arm to push him back down into the chair, her expression anxious.

If Emperor Wu Su didn’t want to be pushed down, no one could have forced him. He clearly sensed something was amiss and was just trying to tease her.

Ji Qingwu said, "It’s the kind of bronze horse they use on female prisoners in the dungeons. It’s nothing worth seeing."

"Nothing worth seeing..."

Zhao Mingyan raised a hand and beckoned with his index finger. Ji Qingwu drew closer, the hem of her white skirt brushing against his coarse-spun clothes.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her sideways across his lap.

"Why don’t you tell me, Ah Wu, just how is it not worth seeing?"

Nestled in his arms, Ji Qingwu figured that the more detail she gave, the less he would want to bother going to see it.

She recalled, "It’s a little smaller than a real horse, and it’s hollow. The bronze is very thin. It must be purely decorative; it couldn’t support the weight of someone sitting on it."

"Anything else?"

His hand rested on her hip bone, tapping it idly.

Ji Qingwu suppressed the ticklish sensation and continued, "Also, the bronze horse was originally covered with a silk cloth."

Zhao Mingyan moved his hand as if measuring her waist, spanning it a few times before asking casually, "Nothing else?"

’He wants to hear more?’

Ji Qingwu hesitated. She stole a glance at Emperor Wu Su’s face and saw the corners of his lips quirked into a relaxed smile.

She mentally made a back-and-forth comparison. ’They’re pretty close,’ she thought, ’but it’s still possible to tell which is bigger.’

She answered with brutal honesty, "It’s bigger than yours."

The moment those four words left her mouth, the room fell into a deathly silence.

Ji Qingwu tried to jump off him, but he held her fast, his hand clamped firmly on her lower back.

She had no doubt that if it weren’t for the fabric between them, his fingers would be digging into her flesh.

Ji Qingwu pressed against his wrist. "Your Majesty wanted to hear it. I told you, but now you’re not happy." Her voice grew progressively weaker, trailing off into the air.

Zhao Mingyan fought the urge to move the hand gripping her waist to the nape of her neck.

Ji Qingwu explained in a trembling voice.

"It’s a device for punishing criminals. Of course it has to be exaggerated to cause the prisoners unbearable pain. That’s how it serves its purpose."

But no matter how she tried to explain, his expression remained dark as a thundercloud.

No man would be happy to hear something like that.

Ji Qingwu said, "But..."

She hesitated again, unsure if she should continue.

"But what?"

Her voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz. "Yours... isn’t that far behind. There isn’t much difference between it and a torture device."

’If it weren’t for her special constitution and the support of her childbirth system, Ji Qingwu doubted she would have survived that day.’

Every word was spoken from the heart, and one look into her clear eyes told Emperor Wu Su that she wasn’t lying in the slightest.

A vein throbbed in Zhao Mingyan’s temple, and a nerve pulsed in his head.

He wanted to ask, ’So there wasn’t even a shred of pleasure?’ But he couldn’t bring himself to voice the question.

He took several deep breaths before finally loosening his arm.

Granted a pardon, Ji Qingwu scrambled to her feet. She hadn’t dared to move an inch, and her bottom had gone numb. She was no longer the naive girl she once was; she knew that if she touched something she shouldn’t, she would be the one to suffer.

She glanced at him again, her eyes full of hesitation.

"Don’t look at me."

Zhao Mingyan’s voice was laced with an anger and vexation that had replaced his usual calm.

But Ji Qingwu didn’t obey and look away. Instead, she stared at his clenched jaw, her expression so focused that she seemed to grow fascinated.

It was a rare chance to see Emperor Wu Su looking so vexed but unable to vent it.

Ji Qingwu was laughing inwardly, her eyes sparkling.

Zhao Mingyan glanced at the sky outside. He didn’t have much time left. The Su Mansion was still in chaos, and he had to leave before dawn. Besides, there was a pile of matters waiting for him to handle with Lu Juan.

Before news of Su Fengyue’s arrest got out, Prime Minister Su’s accomplices also had to be taken into custody. He could not stay any longer.

When Zhao Mingyan turned back around, he had already composed his expression.

"I will find a way to stabilize the military situation on the border as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Ji Qingwu’s eyes widened slightly. "Does that mean Wei Ting can come back soon?" she asked.

The slight improvement in Emperor Wu Su’s expression instantly vanished, replaced by a look of thunderous rage.