The room was dimly lit, casting flickering shadows across Feng Lezhen’s face. Qi Jingqing stared at her, dazed, as if still caught in a dream.
Feng Lezhen stood and poured a cup of tea. Taking a sip, she realized it had gone completely cold. Frowning, she set it aside. When she turned back, Qi Jingqing had already struggled to sit up.
Feng Lezhen stared at him for a long while. Her gaze then fell on the handkerchief in his hand. “So this… is one of the two things you were hiding from me?”
“…Yes.”
Feng Lezhen curled her lips into a faint smile. “When did you start harboring such thoughts toward me?”
“…Many years ago.” Qi Jingqing met her eyes.
Feng Lezhen raised a brow slightly. “Before I came to Yingguan?”
“Many years before Your Highness came to Yingguan.” His biggest secret was already exposed—there was no point hiding anything now.
Feng Lezhen chuckled. “You hid it well. Even I was fooled.”
She spoke as if joking, seemingly unmoved by his confession. Qi Jingqing silently watched her every move. Outwardly calm, yet inwardly, his heart was turning over and over.
After a moment, he asked, “Didn’t Your Highness say you would never see me again? Why did you suddenly come?”
“You should ask your parents that,” Feng Lezhen replied.
Qi Jingqing stiffened. Realizing something, his expression changed drastically. “They… they came to bother you again?”
Feng Lezhen didn’t respond.
“How could they…” Qi Jingqing flung off the blanket and tried to get out of bed, but his legs were completely useless—there wasn’t a trace of strength left in them.
As he strained until his eyes turned red, Feng Lezhen finally let him off. “Enough. They didn’t say anything else to me, just begged me to come see you. If you don’t want them pestering me, then take proper care of yourself. Look at you, making yourself seem like you’re on the verge of death—how could they not come bother me?”
Qi Jingqing’s breath hitched. “I… I didn’t mean to…”
“Then what?” Feng Lezhen pressed.
Qi Jingqing trembled faintly, feeling as though all the strength had been drained from him. After a long silence, he finally murmured, “…I don’t know…”
If he thought about it, he had taken his medicine on time, eaten properly, and never once slacked off. Yet somehow, his body just grew weaker day by day.
“I truly didn’t do it on purpose. Nor did I mean to use tormenting myself to force Father and Mother to yield… or force Your Highness to yield. I just…” Just what? Even Qi Jingqing couldn’t say.
Feng Lezhen stared at his lowered eyelashes and was reminded, for no reason, of the butterfly she’d seen last winter—its broken wings trembling as it struggled in the snow, fragile as though it would shatter at any moment.
And now, Qi Jingqing was like that butterfly—on the verge of breaking.
“The Marquis and Marchioness of Zhenbian have exhausted everything for your health. I know you wouldn’t recklessly harm yourself and cause them pain,” she heard herself say.
Qi Jingqing’s grip on the blanket eased a little at her words. “Thank you, Your Highness…”
His head hung low, spirit utterly wilted.
Feng Lezhen was about to say something more when she suddenly heard him state, “It must’ve been hard on Your Highness, being forced to come.”
Feng Lezhen laughed. “Looks like you didn’t listen to a word I just said.”
…He did hear it. She said they begged her to come. But in this situation, what difference was there between begging and forcing? Qi Jingqing’s pale lips trembled. Just as he was about to speak, Feng Lezhen’s cool voice cut him off, “If I didn’t want to come… do you think they could force me?”
Qi Jingqing’s fingers, resting on the blanket, trembled. He lowered his head and said nothing.
“I will make things clear to Father and Mother,” he said suddenly after a long silence. He lifted his reddened eyes to her, though his gaze had steadied. “They won’t bother Your Highness again.”
“And what about you?” Feng Lezhen asked.
Qi Jingqing’s chest tightened in pain. After a long pause, he answered quietly, “I won’t either.”
“That’s not what I was asking.”
Qi Jingqing fell silent, then gradually understood what she meant. His head lowered once more. “I’ll take good care of myself. I’ll get better as soon as I can.”
Feng Lezhen nodded, then turned to leave.
Qi Jingqing watched her decisive, graceful figure. Suddenly, a realization struck him—once she walks out that door, she might never come back. The thought surged through him, flooding his chest with bitter unwillingness. His mind went blank, and before he could think, he blurted, “Your Highness!”
Feng Lezhen halted and turned her head calmly.
“…Would Your Highness be willing to make a deal with me?” Qi Jingqing locked eyes with her as he spoke.
Feng Lezhen’s eyes flickered slightly. “What kind of deal?”
Qi Jingqing didn’t answer right away. He stared at her in silence for a long while. Then, straightening up slightly, he patted the empty space beside him on the bed.
Feng Lezhen raised a brow but didn’t move. Only when she caught the plea in his eyes did she slowly walk over and sit down by the bed. “Speak.”
“…Does Your Highness like me?” he asked, completely out of the blue.
Feng Lezhen smiled. “What do you mean?”
“Even if you don’t like me…” Qi Jingqing leaned forward, gradually closing the distance between them.
Feng Lezhen watched him calmly, making no move, even when their lips were mere breaths apart. He was the one who stopped—but he didn’t pull back either.
“Even if you don’t like me,” Qi Jingqing gazed into her eyes, his breath falling warm against her lips, “surely… you at least like my face.”
Feng Lezhen’s response was her slightly cool fingertips pressing against his lips. With a gentle push, she forced him back several inches.
“Speak plainly. I have no patience for your roundabout talk.” Feng Lezhen was indeed a little curious—just what kind of play this so-called “one of Great Qian’s twin prodigies” intended to perform.
The warmth from her fingertips still lingered on Qi Jingqing’s lips, his heart yet to calm from the sudden acceleration. Then he was met with her cold, even cruel, gaze. His hands, resting on the blanket, tightened involuntarily. It felt as though he’d been split in two—one part tortured by her indifference toward his suffering, the other frantically calculating, weighing gains and losses, desperately searching for the right words to persuade her.
“Though Jingren’s reputation in the military has grown over the past two years, the real backbone of the Qi family army is still Father. As long as he refuses to stand with you, you can’t truly claim control over the army. Now that you’ve stopped hiding your ambitions, that one in the capital must already be harboring murderous intent toward you. It’s only a matter of time before he acts. And when that happens… with your current hold over the Qi family army, I’m afraid… victory isn’t certain.”
Feng Lezhen looked at him properly for the first time. “Why bring this up all of a sudden?”
“I can help Your Highness persuade my father,” Qi Jingqing offered directly.
“You?” Feng Lezhen laughed. “The Marquis favors you, yes, but that doesn’t mean he listens to everything you say.”
“If he doesn’t want the Qi family army to split apart, then he must listen to me.” Qi Jingqing’s tone was resolute.
Feng Lezhen’s smile gradually faded, though the corners of her lips still curved faintly. “And what do you want?”
“I want…” Qi Jingqing’s voice trembled slightly. Only after forcing himself to stay calm did he continue, “…Your Highness to stay by my side. Give me… a place.”
Feng Lezhen had long guessed as much. Hearing him say it aloud didn’t surprise her.
“I don’t need the position of a legal husband… nor any title. If Your Highness worries that one day, when your grand ambitions succeed, having maternal relatives in power would become a curse, I… I can take medicine to make myself infertile, to ensure that no Qi bloodline is passed to you.” Qi Jingqing stared straight into her eyes. “Your Highness always says you like my face. I suppose, at the very least, my face pleases you. All I ask is a place at your side—in exchange, you get the Qi family’s loyalty for generations. Not a bad deal… is it?”
Feng Lezhen stared at him in silence for a long while before suddenly smiling. “Have you… never negotiated a deal before?”
Qi Jingqing was momentarily stunned.
“It’s true that the backbone of the Qi family army is the Marquis. But right now, the military command is in Jingren’s hands. Aside from a few veterans who fought and bled alongside the Marquis in the early years, the rest are newly recruited soldiers from recent years. These soldiers take my payroll and follow Jingren’s orders. Tell me… how much authority do you think the Marquis holds in their eyes?”
“Besides, the Marquis isn’t stupid. Whatever you’ve figured out, he naturally understands as well. Jingren has already chosen to side with me. Even if the Marquis refuses, to outsiders, she represents the Qi family now. Should my cause fail in the future, the entire Qi family will fall with me. For the sake of the Qi family’s survival, the Marquis has no choice but to stand with me. If he tries to divide the army now, that’s nothing less than courting death.”
“As for pledging allegiance… even if he resents it, for the sake of the family and the army, he’ll agree sooner or later. Your persuasion merely moves that day forward. Whether it’s one day sooner or later… makes little difference to me.”
Feng Lezhen watched his face grow paler and paler, her smile turning a shade cruel. “Shizi… negotiations are about balanced power—you give, I give, and we settle on a price that satisfies us both. Someone like you… who lays out all his cards from the very beginning… is bound to suffer a great loss.”
These things—Qi Jingqing had, of course, already thought of them. Not only had he thought of them, but he knew she understood them perfectly well too. What he hadn’t expected… was that instead of using this negotiation to grant him the position he longed for, she would tear the entire farce open—laying it bare, bloody, and brutal under the light.
“I thought…” Qi Jingqing’s words faltered halfway. His voice went hoarse, unable to finish.
I thought what…? That the childhood bond between them, plus a face she supposedly liked, might win him some leeway, some possibility. But the reality was… every word she spoke after his so-called “deal” landed like a slap across his self-deluded face.
All the courage he’d gathered over these days crumbled to dust. His entire being looked hollow, shattered. “It’s getting late… perhaps Your Highness should…”
“You’ve spent these sleepless nights thinking… about this?” Feng Lezhen cut him off.
Qi Jingqing lowered his head. “…Yes.”
Feng Lezhen chuckled. “And after all that thinking… this is the best you could come up with?”
Qi Jingqing gave a bitter smile. “Stupid, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Feng Lezhen replied bluntly.
Qi Jingqing tugged at the corner of his lips. “But besides this… what else do I have that could move Your Highness? If you were in my place… you might not have done any better.”
“Says who?” Feng Lezhen raised a brow. “You know I like your face. If I were you… I’d use this pretty, pleasing face to beg, to seduce, to humble myself, to kneel and play pitiful. Not blabber on about military power or grand ambitions. ‘A deal’? What a joke.”
Qi Jingqing paused. It took a long moment before he dazedly looked at her.
Feng Lezhen reached out and tilted his chin with a fingertip, studying him for a moment. “You’ve gotten so thin your face has changed.”
“I will…” Qi Jingqing’s voice was terribly hoarse. After struggling for a long while, he finally managed to utter the rest. “I will recover soon.”
Looking at his now bright and clear, beautiful eyes, Feng Lezhen’s lips slowly curved into a faint smile.
