EWRN - Chapter 36
Chapter 36: The Consort Selection Controversy (VIII)
Huo Jinyu's heart ached. She didn't know what to do or who she could confide in. Distraught, she headed straight for Jinxiang Palace.
News traveled fastest within the palace. Just a few hours after the guards had forcibly escorted Noble Consort Bai from Biluo Palace, a palace maid delivered the news to Jinxiang Palace. Inside, Yan Xi sighed, wondering how this noble consort had offended Huo Jinyu to be treated so harshly. Noble Consort Bai was still with child! Such rough treatment could very well harm her pregnancy.
The thought of Noble Consort Bai's pregnancy made Yan Xi think of herself. Her own body was perfectly normal; she had even summoned the imperial physician in the past two days, who confirmed she was in robust health. The implication was clear: she was not yet with child. It made sense. Aside from their wedding night, they had not shared any intimate moments. Could it be, she wondered, that a powerless princess from a small kingdom that existed in name only was simply not favored?
While Yan Xi was sipping her tea, lost in idle thoughts, a palace maid at the entrance of Jinxiang Palace announced loudly, "This servant pays her respects to Your Majesty!" The maids knelt in unison as Huo Jinyu stepped inside. She saw Yan Xi emerge from the main hall to greet her.
"This consort pays her respects to Your Majesty." Yan Xi curtsied, her hands at her sides. Huo Jinyu nodded and waved the palace maids away, leaving the two of them alone.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of Jinyu's visit to my humble palace? Shouldn't you be enjoying the soft, fragrant embrace of your new wife?" Remembering that Huo Jinyu had brought a beautiful head courtesan back from a brothel just the other day, Yan Xi's expression was cold. She maintained her icy demeanor, her tone indifferent.
Huo Jinyu felt a strange tightness in her own heart. An emotion was about to break through the surface and sprout, but she would never admit that she missed Yan Xi. "Xi'er is my consort, my lawfully wedded wife. Why can't I come to your palace for a visit?" Huo Jinyu showed a hint of displeasure. She was already in a foul mood and had thought that listening to Yan Xi play a tune might lift her spirits. She hadn't expected Xi'er to be so unwelcoming.
"If Jinyu wishes to visit, of course you may. The tea in my humble palace is of poor quality, and I would hate to slight you. That would be terrible." Every word was a polite attempt to show her the door. But Huo Jinyu remained glued to her seat, as if she had taken root.
"Xi'er, I'd like to hear you play the qin. Would you?" Huo Jinyu asked, shamelessly persistent, as if she had no intention of leaving until Yan Xi agreed.
Yan Xi almost laughed in exasperation at her shamelessness. Can this person really not take a hint? Yan Xi sized Huo Jinyu up and noticed something was amiss. The usually dashing Young Master seemed utterly dejected today, devoid of his usual vitality. His beautiful eyes were dim and lackluster.
Yan Xi actually detected a hint of pitiable vulnerability in Huo Jinyu! Heavens, have I gone mad? she thought. To see such a thing in the reigning Son of Heaven, that impossibly proud man... she had to be imagining it.
But the more Yan Xi looked, the more she sensed an air of pitiable distress about Huo Jinyu. After a long moment, she went inside and brought out a qin.
Huo Jinyu, doing her best to project a pitiful air, waited for Xi'er to play for her. Instead, she watched as Xi'er placed the qin in front of her before returning to her own seat.
What was happening? She had come to listen to music, not to perform it. What was Xi'er thinking?
As if sensing Huo Jinyu's confusion, Yan Xi said, "My hands have been a bit sore lately. I'm afraid I couldn't produce any beautiful music." She deliberately rubbed her hand.
"Have you seen the imperial physician for it? Is it serious?" Huo Jinyu asked at once.
"It's nothing serious. I've already seen the imperial physician, so Jinyu needn't worry," Yan Xi said with a smile. I'm no head courtesan from a brothel, nor an opera singer, she thought. Why should I play a tune just because Huo Jinyu demands it? Besides, he's already married a head courtesan. When it comes to playing music, isn't the newcomer more skilled?
Yan Xi was certain that Huo Jinyu, the dignified ruler of a nation, would never deign to play the qin in a consort's palace.
To her surprise, however, Huo Jinyu actually walked over to the qin, sat down, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to play. Yan Xi was speechless. She had never imagined Huo Jinyu would actually cast aside her imperial dignity to play a song for her consort.
She understood this person less and less.
With a resonant zheng, Huo Jinyu's strong, vigorous hands began to pluck the strings. A beautiful melody flowed forth.
Yan Xi recognized it! Huo Jinyu was playing of majestic mountains and rivers, of the magnificent beauty of the realm!
Huo Jinyu's hands moved faster, a dazzling blur across the strings. This passage spoke of prosperous cities and bustling streets!
The music continued to pour out, echoing through the palace, and Yan Xi felt as if she were riding the melody on a tour of the Great Yuan Kingdom, from its southern rivers to its northern plains.
But then, the tone of the music shifted. It spoke of clashing spears and armored cavalry, of thundering hooves and ringing steel. A bloody, murderous aura filled the hall, and a formidable presence erupted from Huo Jinyu. Yan Xi had only ever felt such an aura from her own imperial father. So this is his presence in the imperial court? wondered Yan Xi, who had never seen her there.
The music grew sharper, more piercing. Huo Jinyu's ten fingers flew across the strings. A cold draft whistled through the hall, whipping her long hair into the air. Her fingers struck the thickest string, producing a deep, heavy thrum. Then both her hands began to thrash back and forth across the bass strings, unleashing a torrent of sound devoid of beauty, as if its master was trying to purge something from within.
They say the qin is a window to the soul; you can know a person by the music they play. In other words, the music is a reflection of the musician.
Huo Jinyu's eyes were shut tight. She looked neither at the qin nor at her surroundings, her ten fingers a blur. She was lost in her own world. How long had it been? How long since she had last touched a qin? In her past life, after ascending the throne, she had been endlessly busy. Decades passed like a single day, filled with nothing but state affairs. She had never traveled the realm, rarely walked through bustling city streets, seldom listened to music, and had not touched a qin even once. She had never told anyone how much she loved the instrument. The qin could give voice to one's innermost thoughts, a release for one's emotions. To play when happy was to celebrate; to play when grieving was to vent…
She was miserable today. She had thought that enough time had passed, that everything from her past life was just a nightmare she could eventually forget. And she almost had. But seeing Prime Minister Bai's shameless old face, seeing the ministers watching the spectacle of the Bai family's downfall—it all came rushing back. That day. She could never forget that day! She would never forget how, in her past life, on that day in the imperial court, this pack of ministers had stood by and watched as the Second Prince forced her from the throne. How they watched as she was surrounded and defeated. How they watched as she was forced to her knees. How they watched as a sword tore her clothes to shreds! She would carry that humiliation to her grave!
Nor would she forget waking up the next day on the execution ground, barely clothed, gawked at by the common folk as she was torn apart by five horses! A monstrous humiliation! It was an absolute, monstrous humiliation!
An astonishingly heavy sound poured from the qin, each note a hammer blow to the heart. For a moment, Yan Xi felt as if she were standing in a noisy crowd, watching… something.
What was it?
It was as if this person was using the qin as a weapon, relentlessly confessing something.
Yan Xi desperately wanted to know what this person was trying to say. She had investigated Huo Jinyu before. Huo Jinyu had grown up in luxury, had never been bullied in the palace, and had been groomed as the heir apparent from a young age. The greatest upheaval in her life had been the death of her imperial father, followed by her empress mother. Then she had ascended the throne, and no one would have dared to cross her. She had never experienced any great wars. So where did this eerie scent of blood come from? From where did this murderous aura originate?
Her appearance now, the sound of her music—it all seemed to tell Yan Xi that she had suffered a terrible injustice. The grievance was so profound that Yan Xi's heart suddenly ached for her.
Yan Xi couldn't understand what had happened, what this person could have possibly experienced to become this way. Lost in her own world, Huo Jinyu had, for the first time, shed her disguise in front of an outsider. She was no longer the gentle, courteous Young Master, no longer the cynical rake from the brothels, no longer the languid figure from the imperial court. She was aggrieved, furious, hateful, twisted. She felt an endless pain. And she trustingly laid it all bare for Yan Xi to see, without even understanding where this sudden trust came from. Only many years later would she understand that it was love.
Looking at the person before her, Yan Xi felt another sharp pain in her heart. She moved forward without thinking, knelt, and wrapped her arms around Huo Jinyu from behind. Her hands gently pressed down on Huo Jinyu's arms, stilling their near-frenzied movements. The music stopped abruptly, leaving only a final, lingering note to echo among the palace pillars before fading into silence.
Huo Jinyu gasped for breath, her hands trembling slightly, her eyes still shut. Waves of phantom pain, of being ripped and torn apart, washed over her, as if her limbs and neck were no longer her own.
The person behind her suddenly wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling her into an embrace. Huo Jinyu slowly relaxed, leaning back against the body behind her. She lifted her trembling hands from the qin and placed them gently over the delicate hands at her waist. In that moment, all she wanted was to let go, to lean into Yan Xi's embrace and stay there for all eternity.
Yan Xi held the person in her embrace. She had never seen Huo Jinyu so vulnerable, as if he had suffered some tremendous harm. She had well and truly fallen for this man who did not love her back. Her heart ached for him, grieved for him. How she wished this moment could last forever.
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