Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 35
by Little PandaPower Overwhelming the Court
Deposed Empress 10
Covering the Sky with One Hand
Xin Lan paused at her words, the wine rising to her head, leaving her feeling pleasantly lightheaded.
“That’s true. If you hadn’t entered officialdom and gone into the palace, Yan Yan, we might never have met — and then I’d have missed knowing a remarkable woman like you.”
Xin Lan tried to raise her cup, only to find the wine was already gone.
Qu Zhian was indeed a remarkable woman, rare even in this era. Xin Lan admired her greatly — and if she could stand fully on her side, she would admire her even more.
Qu Zhian offered a dazed smile, the clarity in her eyes giving way to a hazy blur.
“What am I to do from here…”
Xin Lan heard Qu Zhian’s murmured words and watched her sitting on the stool, propping her head on her hand.
“Yan Yan…”
“Mm?”
“Never mind. It’s nothing.”
Xin Lan hesitated for a moment, then still didn’t say it.
Truth be told, Xin Lan wasn’t entirely sure what she was hesitating over. She could accomplish what she wanted without Qu Zhian’s help — but with Qu Zhian at her side, she could strike at the Emperor’s weak spot far more effectively. If she kept Qu Zhian in the dark, they would inevitably end up as enemies, or at best, Qu Zhian would simply turn a blind eye to her actions.
“Say whatever’s on your mind. Aren’t we friends?”
Qu Zhian looked up, a smile playing on her lips.
Xin Lan paused, then shook her head.
She couldn’t exactly say, “I’m planning to rebel — want to join me?” could she?
In the end, she still didn’t trust Qu Zhian enough.
Her desire to kill the Emperor was understandable. Qu Zhian shared her contempt for the Emperor’s behavior — but that sentiment alone might not be enough to drive her to action.
Xin Lan knew that Qu Zhian genuinely wanted to help her, perhaps even hoped she could pull it off. But when it came to personally taking part, she might well hesitate.
If Qu Zhian someday achieved success and distinction, she might even do Xin Lan a favor. Xin Lan could push Wu Yanqing down and raise a new ruler — and Qu Zhian might be the first to kneel in homage below.
Xin Lan wanted more than that, yet she also felt there was nothing wrong with this outcome — which was why she hesitated and kept it to herself.
Qu Zhian gazed at Xin Lan, and silence settled between them.
They were both thinking the same thing. Qu Zhian very much wanted to help Xin Lan, but what held her back was exactly what Xin Lan had already anticipated.
After all, it could determine the course of the rest of her life. A different move on the board could mean a future turned completely upside down.
When Qu Zhian said she didn’t regret entering officialdom, she meant it — what she regretted was only meeting an Emperor like this.
If the Emperor hadn’t deliberately schemed against them both, the two of them would still have met.
You could only say the Emperor had shot himself in the foot.
That jar of Qiulu Bai1 wasn’t enough to get Qu Zhian truly drunk, but if she kept thinking deeper, untangling the problem to its root, her head began to ache. Yet if she set the matter aside and refused to think about it, she wasn’t so drunk as to be insensible — and so she couldn’t help but think about it anyway.
The best approach would be to know the truth in her heart but pretend she didn’t — yet she feared she wouldn’t be able to resist getting involved, couldn’t bear to let Xin Lan handle everything alone.
Qu Zhian propped her chin on her hand and studied the woman across from her — strikingly beautiful, her cheeks faintly flushed from the wine, radiating a loveliness that made one involuntarily mesmerized.
Hers was a cold, sharp, austere nature, yet she bore a face as vivid as spring blossoms. But if you looked at her for the first time, what caught your eye first wasn’t that face — it was the pair of eyes holding cold, piercing starlight.
As the poet wrote: A single branch of crimson beauty, dew congealing its fragrance; the clouds and rain of Mount Wu break the heart in vain2.
Such a tender beauty should be cherished, held close to the heart and doted upon — how could anyone bear to lay hands on her again and again?
Xin Lan called her a remarkable woman, and she herself was no less rare among the women of this world — a soul of extraordinary boldness.
The two sat in silence, the atmosphere inevitably growing awkward.
Xin Lan rose, swaying slightly, and looked at Qu Zhian’s face.
“The wine’s finished for tonight. I won’t trouble you any longer.”
“It’s late, and you’ve been drinking. Going back to the palace now might be difficult. My courtyard has other rooms — if you’d like to stay, you’re welcome to rest here.”
Qu Zhian didn’t know how Xin Lan had made her way here, but she worried that with the wine in her system, something might happen.
“No need.”
Xin Lan was a little drunk, but not so far gone that she couldn’t walk. Going back in the morning would draw attention — better to slip back under cover of night.
As Xin Lan reached the door and was about to push it open, she heard Qu Zhian’s voice behind her.
“If… if I decide to turn back, will we still be friends?”
If they were to walk different paths, would they still be friends who could share a drink like this?
“Friends, not enemies. I wouldn’t go so far as to say those on different paths can’t work together — but some things always carry a distance between close and distant. If someday I come to you for help, I’ll bring a couple of taels of wine and trouble you then.”
Xin Lan’s words were clear and plain, drawing a distinct line between them.
If they weren’t allies, Xin Lan naturally couldn’t be this at ease with her.
Three parts disappointment, three parts grievance, mixed with three parts drunkenness and one part chagrin — it all blended into a bitterness that filled Qu Zhian entirely.
“You should know there are some grudges that must be avenged, or the anger won’t subside and the resentment won’t rest. He humiliated me again and again — between us, it’s already a blood feud. Setting aside his grievances with the Xin family, I simply can’t stand to see him thrive. He climbed to that throne on the back of our Xin clan’s power, and now he finds the Xin family an eyesore he wants to be rid of — I can’t blame him for that. But he drugged me in the very first year of our marriage. That means it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision — it was long premeditated. After that came repeated degradation, and he even tried to stain my virtue.”
Xin Lan turned, those beautiful eyes holding something like flame, searing the heart of the listener.
“He showed me no mercy — why should I be merciful to him? Yan Yan, I know you’re a clever woman. You should know what I want to do.” Xin Lan paused. “And you know why I haven’t said it. Your reservations are my reservations.”
The advantage of speaking with a clever person was that she could fill in everything left unsaid. The disadvantage was exactly the same — what you hadn’t yet intended to express, she already knew.
“I’m decisive in everything I do. Whatever it is, I like to draw the lines clearly. If you choose to walk the same road as me, there’s no turning back. If you waver even slightly, I won’t be pleased. So, Qu Zhian — Lord Qu — I hope you’ll think it through with the utmost care.”
She no longer called her Yan Yan — she called her Qu Zhian, called her Lord Qu.
Qu Zhian felt a little sad. No — more than a little.
The wine had clouded her thinking. Emotion overpowered reason, and she felt deeply wronged.
She wanted to be good friends with this person, because they knew each other’s secrets, and she didn’t have to pretend around her.
They’d even shared the same bathtub, and drunk together — how could walking different paths mean cutting ties?
True, she had been the one to ask, and Xin Lan had given her a clear answer. And even knowing the answer would be this, she still had to ask.
Xin Lan looked at Qu Zhian’s miserable expression — half helpless, half amused.
Perhaps this was what the old saying meant — that loyalty and righteousness are hard to balance. Though Qu Zhian wasn’t particularly loyal to Wu Yanqing, she had never harbored thoughts of rebellion either.
But Xin Lan was going to usurp the throne. She had to drag that man down from his seat and let him taste what it meant to lose — what it meant to have nothing.
On this path, she would absolutely not allow an ally who harbored second thoughts.
Qu Zhian remained silent, giving no answer. Xin Lan spoke again.
“Do you know why I came to find you again tonight? Because I don’t want to end up with a formidable enemy. And you know — Wu Yanqing sees you as a useful minister, and as a woman he desires. If you were to drive a blade into his back, how stunned would he be? How entertaining.”
Xin Lan made no effort to hide the satisfaction on her face as she spoke of that scenario, laying it bare before Qu Zhian without the least concealment.
“I’m saying all this so you’ll know I’m not trying to make you my pawn. And I’m not afraid of you going to tell Wu Yanqing what I’m thinking.”
“I wouldn’t tell him. You know perfectly well I’d never do that.”
Qu Zhian retorted immediately. How could she possibly tell the Emperor such a thing?
She couldn’t protect Xin Lan fast enough — how could she make things worse for her?
“So,” Xin Lan fixed her gaze on Qu Zhian, eyes like a tiger that had locked onto its prey, and closed the distance with unhurried steps, “has Yan Yan made up her mind?”
Her voice went soft and intimate as she called her name, as though the sound itself were laced with honey.
Qu Zhian grew even dizzier. She tried to think, but her mind was off galloping through she didn’t know what.
“Do you have the courage to become my ally? I won’t force you, but I don’t like dragging things out. If you can’t answer me tonight, I’ll come again tomorrow.”
Xin Lan straightened up, her hands falling to her sides, a faint smile appearing on her face. She no longer pressed with the same intensity as before, something of a woman’s gentleness showing through instead.
Thanks to the tempering of thousands of villain worlds — she had always inhabited female hosts — she’d acquired a measure of softness. Her personality was no longer that of a total iron-straight man3, but was gradually changing.
After all, female Alphas4 didn’t have that particular anatomy — they relied on pheromones5 to conquer Omegas6.
That reminded her of her first time in a villain world — the host body she’d worn was the white lotus type, like Consort Man’s. She’d tried to intimidate someone with a glare. She couldn’t emit pheromones, but the aura was the same — yet that person actually thought she was making eyes at him. She’d been so furious she beat him senseless on the spot, teaching him the price of poor eyesight.
This time, before Xin Lan could even reach the door to push it open, Qu Zhian caught her hand.
“Stay the night here. No one will come looking for you at the cold palace anyway.”
“Has Yan Yan made up her mind?”
“I have.” Qu Zhian’s eyes brightened with a smile too. “If you’d been a bit softer, cried and poured out your grievances to me, I’d probably have hit the roof ages ago.”
“Oh? Is Yan Yan blaming me for not knowing how to complain?”
“But if you did complain, you wouldn’t be Miss Xin.”
The smile between Qu Zhian’s eyes grew softer. Xin Lan was like the king of all beasts, whose gaze alone could look down on the world. If she truly appeared as a weeping beauty, delicate and pitiful, it wouldn’t be her at all.
She simply adored this calm, sharp-edged side of her — the side that made everyone else pale by comparison.
“If this Emperor is no good, we might as well serve a different one — it’s all the same.”
Qu Zhian’s voice was soft, dissolving into the night.
She had left home to live freely. Why endure an Emperor who lusted after her — wronging herself, and wronging her Miss Xin.
The author has something to say:
First update! Second update at 7 PM! Everyone, please support Sister Xin and root for me!
I’ve noticed some readers aren’t reading carefully. The Commander = Zero Nine Senior (Commander-in-Chief of the Ex-Girlfriend Series) = System Big Boss = Shen Shuiyan = Qu Zhian.
The first time, the two of them met by chance. The second time, the Commander deliberately followed along — but she can’t carry memories.
The Commander has never been in a relationship because she’s a system! During missions, she exists in the System Simulation Space — no one can see her!
PS: The reader group link is at the bottom of the synopsis!
Commander: “Pick me for online dating — I’m super sweet, my fingers can extend, and I can shoot electricity :D”
Sister Xin: What kind of nonsense is this????
Footnotes
- A variety of Chinese baijiu (clear distilled liquor), its name meaning 'Autumn Dew White.'
- Lines from the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai's 'Clear and Peaceful Tune,' originally celebrating the legendary beauty Yang Guifei. 'Clouds and rain of Mount Wu' alludes to a goddess's mythical tryst and serves as a classical euphemism for lovemaking.
- Chinese internet slang: literally 'iron straight man' — a man who is emotionally dense and utterly clueless about romance.
- A dominance-oriented gender role from the 'omegaverse' fiction genre. Female Alphas in Xin Lan's world lack male anatomy and rely on pheromones.
- A biological substance emitted by Alphas in Xin Lan's interstellar world to assert dominance and subdue Omegas.
- The counterpart to Alphas in the 'omegaverse' genre — a gender role characterized by submissiveness; Alphas subdue Omegas through pheromones.
I really like both leads a lot, they’re quite straightforward