Plan A
The Days and Nights of the Courtesan 18
Goodbye
How long is fourteen years? Long enough for Su Xin to understand the meaning behind every frown and smile of Qu Feiqing, long enough for them to be exceedingly familiar with each other.
When Su Xin and Qu Feiqing met, Su Xin was sixteen, in her green years, so tender she could be pinched to produce water, and Qu Feiqing was twenty-three, in the prime of life, exuding a vigorous sharpness and an unstoppable momentum.
As time slowly passed, Qu Feiqing began to age, and she started to panic.
No one can resist time; everyone loses to the years.
She and her lover were seven years apart. When she was in the mature period of a woman, enchanting and charming, her lover was in the bloom of youth. But by the time Su Xin blossomed into a stunning flower, she had already started to grow old.
However, this subtle anxiety was insignificant in the face of great change. Qu Feiqing stayed panicked by Su Xin’s bedside, her face pale.
【Host, you are beyond saving. Based on the severity of your injuries, you will die in ten minutes.】
Fourteen issued the verdict in Su Xin’s mind.
Shujuan cried like a tearful person at the foot of the bed but dared not make a sound, fearing to disturb Su Xin.
The event happened suddenly, but it was indeed a long-planned assassination.
“I should have killed him earlier. I shouldn’t have kept him around, letting him take over my position in the future. I didn’t expect him to be such a good actor.”
Qu Feiqing said through gritted teeth, her voice full of hatred.
Qu Feiqing never imagined that Qu Xingchen would bite back at her so viciously and deeply, hitting her right at her weak spot, leaving her no chance to recover.
Qu Xingchen had transformed from the naive child he once was into the graceful young man he is today. He acted very well. After his father died, he grieved for a while, and after that period of grief, he behaved as if nothing had happened. He even showed disdain for his father’s death in front of his aunt, criticizing his father’s character as being very cowardly.
At that time, Qu Feiqing simply thought that this child had a ruthless nature and could take on heavy responsibilities.
She didn’t expect him to hide his hatred so deeply, enduring humiliation and shouldering heavy burdens, plotting for fourteen years.
“Qu Feiqing, I want you to taste the pain of losing your closest and dearest.”
Qu Xingchen prepared on two fronts, one being the former court (referring to the administrative body of the government), and the other being the harem. The former court failed, but it didn’t matter, Su Xin’s side succeeded.
Qu Xingchen had been ingratiating himself with Su Xin for over ten years. Even if Su Xin had doubts at the time, she never expected him to strike suddenly now.
The weapon pierced the heart; there was no saving her.
“You will be fine.”
Qu Feiqing held Su Xin’s hand.
“Treat her and cure her.”
Qu Feiqing’s expression was terrifyingly intense as she looked at the imperial physician holding the medical kit.
“Your Majesty, please restrain your grief. This humble servant is truly powerless.”
The imperial physician bowed and trembled, speaking with a quivering voice.
“Get out, all of you, get out!”
Qu Feiqing knew, restraining her emotions.
Shujuan knelt and refused to leave, but Qu Feiqing couldn’t be bothered with her.
“You will be fine.”
Qu Feiqing channeled her internal energy into Su Xin’s body, trying to warm the cold hand she held.
“Feiqing, I have to go.”
“Shut up.”
Qu Feiqing was somewhat losing control, she even looked at Su Xin with a pleading expression.
“Don’t go, please.”
“I’m sorry.”
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Su Xin rarely said sorry, but this time she did, sincerely.
“You said you would stay with me for a lifetime, you can’t lie to me.”
“I really have to go.”
Su Xin’s speech was already very labored, her voice very low.
“Feiqing, I am so cold, and in so much pain.”
“Feiqing, I am truly sorry.”
Truly sorry, I couldn’t accompany you for a lifetime.
According to her estimate, she could have stayed with her for another ten years.
Ten years, a very, very long time.
Su Xin didn’t speak again, Qu Feiqing held her.
“Didn’t you always want to go out before? After you get better this time, how about I take you out?”
“I’ll take you to see the most beautiful place in our Qu Liu Kingdom.”
“Feiqing…”
Su Xin called out one last time and closed her eyes.
Qu Feiqing’s expression froze, trembling as she placed her fingers under Su Xin’s nose, feeling for her breath.
Su Xin was dead.
She had really left, never to return.
A suppressed roar echoed from within the palace, making those who heard it feel panicked, their hearts heavy, and giving rise to much sorrow.
Su Xin lost consciousness in an instant, and when she reopened her eyes, she found herself in a white space.
Master Fourteen, she must be very sad.
【Host’s main mission completed. After deducting all consumptions, the remaining lifespan in the real world is ten months. Cryosleep terminated, returning to the real world.】
Su Xin opened her eyes, in Qiu Qingqing’s home.
Su Xin got out of bed to wash her face in the bathroom, looking at her face in the bathroom mirror.
The mirror was smooth, a modern glass mirror, unlike the ancient bronze mirrors that couldn’t reflect people clearly.
The face that should have been extremely familiar to her now felt somewhat strange.
After all, she had traveled back in time for fifteen years and had known that person for fourteen years, such a long, long time.
【Please, Host, enjoy your own time. Fourteen will notify you if there’s any new task.】
Alright.
『Extra—The World After Leaving』
Su Xin’s body gradually lost its warmth in Qu Feiqing’s arms.
Qu Feiqing silently held Su Xin, lowering her head and burying it in Su Xin’s chest.
Shujuan clumsily crawled over using both hands and feet, wanting to touch Su Xin, but was pushed away by Qu Feiqing.
“Get out.”
Qu Feiqing stood up, lifted Su Xin horizontally in her arms, and walked out.
Shujuan covered her face and cried; there was no difference between them now.
Although one was an emperor above tens of thousands, and the other was a lowly maid, Shujuan didn’t feel that Qu Feiqing was any better off than she was. Both were equally pitiable because of one person’s death.
Qu Feiqing carried Su Xin to the dungeon, where Qu Xingchen was imprisoned.
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Qu Xingchen was tied to a torture rack. Someone brought a chair for Qu Feiqing, and Qu Feiqing helped Su Xin sit on it.
“Good girl, I’ll punish him for you.”
Qu Feiqing kissed the corner of Su Xin’s lips with a gentle expression.
The jailers in the cell all kept their heads bowed, not daring to look at the scene.
Her Majesty might have gone mad.
Qu Xingchen showed a triumphant smile to Qu Feiqing, despite being covered in wounds.
“Aunt, everything you gave me, your nephew returns to you.”
Qu Feiqing looked at the torture instruments beside her, the gentle smile at the corner of her mouth turning into a sinister cold light.
Screams filled the air, even the seasoned torturers in the dungeon (天牢, heavenly prison, a term for the imperial prison) couldn’t help but feel their scalps tingle.
Qu Feiqing was torturing Qu Xingchen, yet she deliberately didn’t let him die, keeping him barely alive, and summoned the imperial physician to treat Qu Xingchen with medicine.
Qu Feiqing sat in a chair holding Su Xin, stroking her hair.
“She is already dead.”
Qu Xingchen’s face had already been destroyed. He lifted his head and spat out these words, smiling like an evil ghost.
“I don’t want to hear his voice.”
The imperial physician understood and poisoned Qu Xingchen to make him mute.
“I, the lonely one” kept repeating… “I, the lonely one.”
Qu Xingchen still died, executed by Qu Feiqing through lingchi (淩遲, also known as death by a thousand cuts, a historical method of execution).
At the time of carrying out the punishment, all the ministers were present. Someone cursed Qu Feiqing, accusing her of being an Emperor without benevolence and of cruelly harming her blood relatives, saying she would face divine retribution.
Qu Feiqing looked at that person coldly, her words carrying a bloody scent (血腥味, a metaphor indicating a harsh and murderous tone).
“If you think that way, then you can accompany him to hell.”
Inhumane Emperor? Qu Xingchen harmed Su Xin, and even a death of ten thousand times wouldn’t be enough for him. Even being cut into a thousand pieces wouldn’t relieve the hatred in her heart.
Cruelly harming her blood relatives? Since she ascended the throne, she had killed her father and brothers. Would she still fear killing her own nephew?
Divine retribution? Qu Feiqing did not believe in fate, but after encountering Su Xin, she began to believe.
Was it heavens’s arrangement that allowed her to meet Su Xin?
Or was it her own excessive cruelty, so the heavens made her suffer such pain?
On the day of Su Xin’s burial, Qu Feiqing changed her clothes. Despite everyone’s opposition, she had Su Xin buried in the imperial mausoleum and wrote Su Xin’s name into the royal genealogy.
From the perspective of others, both Qu Feiqing and Su Xin were extraordinary women.
Qu Feiqing emerged from the Cold Palace. Ascending the throne at a young age as a woman, she was known for her ruthless and violent methods. She murdered her father, killed her brothers, and forced her younger brother to death. She was a tyrant who disregarded human ethics.
Su Xin rose from being an unknown courtesan in a brothel to the bed of the Emperor of another country. In the end, she even entered the ancestral temple and was recorded in the family genealogy.
He Yunshu learned of Su Xin’s death and shed a tear in the distant capital city far from Su Xin.
In these fourteen years, they met three times. He Yunshu knew that Su Xin was doing well, so she felt reassured. She ignored the strange sour feeling in her heart and smiled to bless Su Xin. She also had her own man by her side.
But now that Su Xin was dead, He Yunshu felt an emptiness in her heart.
“Why are you crying?”
The man gently wiped her tears away.
He Yunshu shook her head and said one sentence.
“I was just thinking about the past”.
The youthful appearance from before, the beautiful girl she met when she first entered a different world, a glance under the street, unforgettable ever since.
Qu Feiqing buried Su Xin, and Shujuan went to guard the imperial mausoleum.
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All the brothers and sisters either died or got married. The only one nearby was Qu Feiyun.
The woman who used to laugh at the slightest thing had been sculpted by time into someone incredibly mature. She was already the mother of several children.
Qu Feiqing took the eldest child from Qu Feiyun’s children and began to teach him carefully.
She taught that child the art of ruling subjects and the way of the emperor.
Qu Xiling thought his aunt was a good emperor, although many people thought she was cruel and tyrannical.
Qu Xiling also felt that his aunt now seemed alive, but it was as if she was already dead.
“As an emperor, I must tell you, you must be decisive, and not show the kindness of a woman.”
“As your aunt, I must tell you, you must hold onto the things you like, otherwise you will regret it.”
“My lesson is that you must cut the weeds and eliminate the roots.”
If she had not softened her heart back then and had killed Qu Xingchen, perhaps Su Xin would not have left her.
She wouldn’t have had to become the way she is now, possessing a vast and beautiful land and enduring boundless loneliness.
When Qu Feiqing felt that Qu Xiling had learned enough, she let go and left without any reluctance.
That person’s heart is very wild, and if I don’t stay by her side, I fear she will forget me.
What I fear most is that she will forget me.