CH 74

Villainous Prince (16)

Nie Qian Yu doesn’t know as to what’s gotten into her.

The girl in front of her looked pretty and well-behaved yet she was full of nonsense: she was clearly a princess but pretended to be a dancer, she clearly recognised her but deliberately pretended not to…

If she had been her usual self, she would not have seen the sun the next day with such a malicious-looking person by her side.

However, this time Nie Qian Yu was not bothered by the young girl’s appearance.

There was some anger and some amusement in her heart, but at the same time she was filled with interest to see how she would act…

But Nie Qian Yu had gotten the information she wanted this night.

Nie Qian Yu had not lied, she had indeed lost her memory.

She woke up a few years ago and found herself lying in the Prince’s bedchamber with a blank mind.

The Empress sitting by her bedside told her she was the Empress’ daughter and had been disguised as a man in order to secure the future of her mother and daughter as the Crown Prince. She had lost her memory shortly before because she had been bitten by a snake and the snake poison had entered her brain.

The Empress acted very loving, but Nie Qian Yu was inexplicably wary of the Empress from the inside, but she did not express her heart and kept playing false games with her.

After the Empress has left, the animals tell Nie Qian Yu the truth in the night: the Crown Prince Nie Qian Yu was indeed bitten by a snake, but the snake was released by Nie Qian Yu. Nie Qian Yu’s original intention was to poison Nie Qian Yu and cause turmoil in the court of Wu, but she never expected that Nie Qian Yu would be so addicted to wine and sex that he would not recover from the snake poisoning; Nie Qian Yu also never expected that the Empress would be afraid that she would not be able to hold on to her position after Nie Qian Yu’s death, and would go to Lishui to bring Nie Qian Yu back and use medicine to make her lose her memory and then let her continue to pretend to be Nie Qian Yu as the Crown Prince…

This is the opportunity delivered to her door.

Nie Qian Yu seizes the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and on the one hand, she fools the Empress and pretends to be convinced of her while on the other hand, she uses the name of the Crown Prince to recruit talents and secretly accumulate power…

Nie Qian Yu needed money to develop her power and at the beginning she did not have any money on hand.

The animal told her that the two hairpins in her bag contained a treasure map and that they had been given to her by a girl called Song Xu Yi, with whom she had been very close and was like a sister.

Her heart had no recollection of the two hairpins, and this was the first time Nie Qian Yu heard Song Xu Yi’s name, but at the time Nie Qian Yu scoffed at the suggestion that she and Song Xu Yi were like sisters: Nie Qian Yu knew beyond doubt her own personality and that she could never be close to anyone else in her life, let alone someone from the royal family.

Nie Qian Yu felt that all this was probably a false impression she had made in order to cheat the hairpin from the princess called Song Xu Yi, and she quickly put the name aside.

Nie Qian Yu followed the treasure map and found the treasure. Using the money to improve people’s livelihood and recruit talents, it didn’t take long for her to grow the Wu Empire, she overthrew the Emperor, placed the Empress under house arrest and kept the power of the Wu Empire firmly in her hands.

It was supposed to be a time of glory, but Nie QianYu found that deep inside she no longer felt happy, as if a hole had suddenly been cut in her chest, leaving only a cold wind swirling around.

Nie Qian Yu felt as if she had forgotten something very important——

She began to lose sleep throughout the night, and once she fell asleep, there was always a woman whose face she could not see in her dreams.

She felt a joy in that woman that she had never felt before, following her around the world, watching her shine like the sun on everything, everyone loving her, while she humbled herself behind her like a maggot, only dreaming of taking the sun into her arms.

And more often than not, in her dreams she did all the absurd things to that woman that were beyond the bounds of propriety.

Nie Qian Yu found it unbelievable: because of her male disguise as a prince, there were many women who wanted to come and climb into her bed, many of whom were extremely beautiful, and she had no compassion for those women, let alone the urge to do so, and even disgusted when she was touched.

Nie Qian Yu thinks she has gone mad, that’s why she imagines a non-existent woman whose face cannot be seen clearly.

Not wanting to be controlled by the emotions in her dreams, Nie Qian Yu began to deliberately keep herself from falling asleep, yet that was nothing more than self-deception.

She began to paint mindlessly, recording moments with the woman in her dream…

She has two letter birds that have been with her for a long time, and they see her painting and tell her that she is painting Song Xu Yi.

This is the second time Nie Qian Yu hears Song Xu Yi’s name.

The birds’ opinion of Song Xu Yi was surprisingly high. The Song Xu Yi portrayed by the birds was really as warm and kind as the sun.

Is there really a woman like the one in the dream?

Nie Qian Yu began to inquire about this princess on purpose.

The most widespread rumour was that Song Xu Yi had remained unmarried because of her absence and had finally become an old girl. In some rumours, the princess called Song Xu Yi was so despotic that she forced herself on her; in others, Song Xu Yi was like a reincarnation of a Bodhisattva, helping countless tenant farmers to survive in a world of human cruelty…

Nie Qian Yu has animals as scouts, so she knows more.

For example, those rumours about Song Xu Yi’s notorious reputation were put out by the Emperor of the Lishui Empire. The Emperor was dependent on and deeply scornful of the clans, and his previous fondness for this daughter was all a disguise to pacify the clans.

Deep down, the Lishui Emperor loathed this daughter of the clans, and had even secretly instructed Crown Prince Li He that if Li He wanted to take advantage of the clans when the time was ripe to succeed the throne, he could use Song Xu Yi as a raft——

The Emperor also did not expect Song Xu Yi to change her temperament overnight, and even helped the Wang family to consolidate their position.

The Emperor hated Song Xu Yi and could no longer pretend to be a loving father, and began to deliberately smear her.

……

And what’s the deal with her and Song Xu Yi?

Little by little, Nie Qian Yu pieced together what things really looked like based on the information she had received, and the truth of the matter was very different from the rumours: she, herself, was the one who had moved on among the two.

But how was this possible?

After hearing that Song Xu Yi had not given up looking for her all these years, Nie Qian Yu was suddenly born with the idea of meeting Song Xu Yi.

But Song Xu Yi was a princess who was confined to the palace by the emperor, so she could not see her in a short time…

What if Lishui Empire ceased to be a country?

As long as she became the Emperor of Lishui Empire, she could then go and see Song Xu Yi…

The idea of attacking the country was so strong that it had been in Nie Qian Yu’s mind all these years.

Nie Qian Yu didn’t know why she suddenly had this thought, it was clear that according to the animals, all she had thought about before was revenge or even destroying the Wu Empire, she had never thought about taking command of the two empires.

But Nie Qian Yu had always been a person with a strong sense of execution, and since she had such thoughts, Nie Qian Yu had secretly been making preparations for the attack on the Lishui Empire ever since she became the Crown Prince.

After the country had become stable and wealthy, Nie Qian Yu waged war as planned…

The war was just as Nie Qian Yu had predicted, and now the country of Lishui was within reach, but Nie Qian Yu did not expect Song Xu Yi to come to the front, nor did she expect Song Xu Yi to set up a trap to assassinate her…

She knew that Song Xu Yi was looking for her. After learning that Song Xu Yi had infiltrated the envoy group from Wanhua City, Nie Qian Yu deliberately left the group hanging for a while, but secretly watched Song Xu Yi for a long time from the stage…

The little girl shaking her fan was cowering in the corner, and could not be seen at all unless one looked closely. She seemed to be uncomfortable with the revealing dancer’s clothes, and kept secretly tugging at the hem of her garment. Nie Qian Yu’s eyes couldn’t help but drift towards the girl’s slender, snow-white waist, and she wanted to gouge out the eyes of everyone else who saw her slender waist!

Nie Qian Yu suddenly realised: she didn’t want to let the little girl go.

So Nie Qian Yu temporarily changed her plans and made some arrangements before finally appearing late at the banquet.

She noticed the little girl’s eyes drifting towards her face, and was delighted to know that she had come because she had not let her go, but she deliberately put on a cold posture to charm the envoy and his group, and then specifically asked Song Xu Yi to come to her palace to attend to the flowers and plants.

When she heard that the Emperor was making things difficult for Song Xu Yi, Nie Qian Yu even had the idea of committing patricide…

Fortunately, Song Xu Yi was intact.

The little girl was so inviting that it was probably not safe for her to attend to the flowers and plants, so Nie Qian Yu got her to come to her own bedchamber.

She deliberately took off her usual disguise and appeared in front of Song Xu Yi dressed as a girl in her bedclothes, but Song Xu Yi was not surprised at all.

So, Song Xu Yi really did know that she was a woman…

Nie Qian Yu deliberately tested Song Xu Yi’s reactions and took in all of Song Xu Yi’s behaviour, and finally verified her suspicions: Song Xu Yi really had no other feelings for her.

But since she had touched her own heart, how could she let her go again?

She told Song Xu Yi about her memory loss, just to lure her into admitting the past between them, but she didn’t think Song Xu Yi would go along with it and actually pretend to be a stranger to her…

Nie Qian Yu was furious, but she couldn’t tell Song Xu Yi why she was angry, so she could only drink with a blank face. She didn’t think she would be capable of doing so, but she was happy again because of Song Xu Yi’s advice to go to bed early, and she felt ridiculous because Song Xu Yi had inhaled the sleeping incense and fell asleep…

The two lanterns had a face in Nie Qian Yu’s heart after she saw Song Xu Yi, and she suddenly understood her dream: with Song Xu Yi by her side, even the most boring things would become full of fun.

……

The light of the night pearl filled the room, Nie Qian Yu traced Song Xu Yi’s face little by little, she only felt how this face made her happy, it was like she had gotten her favorite toy, she pinched Song Xu Yi’s face and rubbed her arm at once, remembering Song Xu Yi’s move of lying the whole night, she couldn’t help but curl her lips again——

“Little liar!” She picked Song Xu Yi up and put her on the bed, looking at their intertwined black hair, only to feel the empty piece inside her finally grow back at this moment.

Suddenly, Nie Qian Yu also felt sleepy, and she yawned softly, lying down quietly beside Song Xu Yi.

“You’re the little liar who tried to trick me, I’m the big liar who tricked two countries——”

“We deserve to be together…”