Saving the Obsessive Villain Boss [Quick Transmigration] (GL) - Chapter 7
The space fell silent for a moment. Xu Zhaosu’s hands were slightly cold, carrying a chill like early spring frost and snow, showing how long she had endured alone here.
Only upon closer inspection could one see the muddy water and bits of grass clinging to the edge of her light-colored skirt. The pure white skirt below the knees was completely soaked, clinging tightly to the woman’s slender, long leg bones. The weather in March and April was often characterized by biting spring winds, making the bone-chilling cold imaginable.
Her legs had long suffered chronic illness from the sunless dungeon.
Shi Qingyi deliberately kept her voice low: “It’s cold and damp outside. May this servant help Your Majesty return?”
The hand gripping hers involuntarily tightened a few more degrees. After a long pause, the Empress slightly nodded, signaling consent.
There were a few steps near the pavilion. The courtyard, which had been desolate for a year, had grown a layer of moss after the spring rain. Xu Zhaosu couldn’t see, and she immediately missed a step, fortunately steadied by Shi Qingyi’s support, preventing her from falling.
If Shi Qingyi hadn’t been here, and no one passed through this deserted courtyard, it was hard to imagine how she would have made it back to the inner chamber alone.
“Your Majesty, be careful.” Shi Qingyi’s voice was neither servile nor overbearing. She glanced sideways at Xu Zhaosu.
A drop of cold sweat gathered on the woman’s slender jawline in the sunlight. Her face remained arrogant and dignified, but the hand clutching Shi Qingyi’s was clenched so tightly it seemed ready to break her skin.
Xu Zhaosu’s legs were bad; she had to stop and rest every couple of steps. Finally, leaning half her body against Shi Qingyi, she managed to stumble back to Yu Ming Hall.
The hall carried the scent of burnt sandalwood. The spring light flowed through the lonely palace but no one was visible.
Since emerging from the dark prison, Xu Zhaosu’s temperament had drastically changed. She often erupted in anger and was hostile towards anyone who approached her. Aside from a few people, the entire Yu Ming Hall was empty.
Shi Qingyi had remained silent for a long time when she heard the news, eventually just lowering her eyes and saying: “As His Majesty pleases.”
Somehow, this single sentence, “As she pleases,” reached the Empress’s ears. That very night, Yu Ming Hall underwent an upheaval. Things were smashed, people were dismissed, and ultimately, the Empress was left alone, sitting listlessly amidst the wreckage, her palms almost raw with bl00d from clenching them.
Shi Qingyi knew when she did these things, yet she never came to see her.
Shi Qingyi’s mind quickly processed the news from those days. She helped the person onto the soft couch in the inner chamber. Just as she withdrew her hand and was about to turn, her wrist was suddenly seized.
She turned back. Half of the Empress’s face was hidden in the sunlight, her expression unclear. Her eyes were covered with a layer of white gauze. Her voice suppressed a difficult, heavy melancholy. Her sharp fingertips were almost digging into Shi Qingyi’s bl00d vessels.
“Are you leaving?”
It was almost one word at a time, squeezed through clenched teeth.
Shi Qingyi let her hold her wrist, then subtly reversed her grip, overstepping the boundary: “Your Majesty’s robes are soaked through. This servant will fetch some clothes for Your Majesty to change into, or you will catch a chill.”
Her tone was unprecedentedly soft. Whether Xu Zhaosu believed her or not, she released her hand after a long time.
She was probably terrified of being tormented in the dark prison. Cold on the surface, but actually still afraid inside, Shi Qingyi thought. She reconsidered and moved closer again.
Just as Xu Zhaosu thought she had left, the person came back and covered her with a warm cloak, tucking in the edges gently before leaving.
Clutching the warm fox fur cloak, Xu Zhaosu’s expression showed no warmth, only a hint of sarcasm and weariness.
After all these years, this person still didn’t know how to lie. The servants for Yu Ming Hall and Mingze Hall were always personally appointed. The so-called wet nurse Shen was only in charge of cleaning. How could she have the authority to manage the transfer of servants between the two halls?
Shi Qingyi had always deceived and lied brazenly, simply because she was sure that Xu Zhaosu would always believe her.
However, just because she didn’t speak about many things didn’t mean she didn’t know anything.
Including the sudden palace coup a year ago, it wasn’t that she hadn’t received a warning beforehand. She just thought Shi Qingyi wouldn’t do it. How could a person like her, like the bright moon fallen into the mortal world, with eyes above worldly affairs, be greedy for power?
She had dedicated herself to Shi Qingyi, almost offering the whole world to her. How could Shi Qingyi treat her this way?
Later, she found out that everything was merely wishful thinking on her part.
What was the purpose of this feigned closeness now? She clearly had nothing left.
The Empress lowered her eyes, her empty gaze fixed on a spot in the room. Aside from deep-seated hatred, what else did she have that was worth Shi Qingyi’s scheming?
—
Unlike Xu Zhaosu’s complex emotions, Shi Qingyi was earnestly selecting clothes. However, Yu Ming Hall had been abandoned for too long. The things she had managed to procure in the past few days were incomplete, consisting mostly of old items.
Among them was a pink palace ruqun (set of top and skirt), tailored from satin that Xu Zhaosu herself had brought down from Zhongnan Mountain for her birthday one year. It was smooth, soft, and shiny, with gold threads woven into the subtle cloud patterns on the edges. It was perfect for the current season.
When she returned with the clothes, Xu Zhaosu was still in the same posture, completely motionless, seemingly lost in thought. Hearing the sound, she slightly turned her head. If Shi Qingyi could see her eyes behind the thin gauze, she would surely have noticed Xu Zhaosu’s instant, unspeakable astonishment.
—She had assumed Shi Qingyi would leave and not return.
The charcoal fire was continuously stoked in the hall. Shi Qingyi put down the clothes, naturally extended her hand to the person’s waist, and was about to undo the sash when her hand abruptly froze in mid-air.
…
What was she doing? Stripping someone’s clothes? Undoing someone’s skirt?
Shi Qingyi’s expression suddenly became odd. Retracting her hand felt wrong, but not retracting it also felt wrong.
Normally, she might have just called someone else to do it. After all, with the biting spring chill, leaving Xu Zhaosu wearing clothes soaked through with snow water, given her frail constitution, would likely result in several days confined to bed. But Xu Zhaosu now absolutely refused to let anyone into the inner chamber.
Shi Qingyi quietly withdrew her hand and turned her back: “Your Majesty…”
Xu Zhaosu’s eyes instantly turned icy cold. Sure enough, even if she still needed something from me, she disliked me to this extent. She couldn’t even force herself to pretend.
—Shi Qingyi was perhaps truly uninterested in women. It was already difficult for her to condescend and humor her for power in the past, let alone now.
But now that she had nothing left, Xu Zhaosu was determined not to let her have her way.
“Unrobe me for the Lonely One (Me).”
Shi Qingyi’s breathing hitched. After a long moment, she turned around, wrapped her arm around the girl’s excessively thin waist, grasped one end of the sash, and gently moved her fingers to untie it.
She had become much thinner; her waist was truly too slight to grasp. The clothes fell like a flower scattered on the couch. Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, revealing a pale collarbone and the white inner slip beneath. The spring breeze blew in from outside the hall. Fearing she might catch a cold, Shi Qingyi gathered the silk quilt beside her, wrapped it around Xu Zhaosu, and then plucked up the courage to reach out and touch the last thin undergarment.
Xu Zhaosu was merely deliberately making things difficult for her, expecting her to find an excuse to leave. She was about to sneer when she realized Shi Qingyi was actually going to unrobe her. When the hand reached out again, she instinctively shielded her chest.
Shi Qingyi readily prepared to withdraw her hand: “Does Your Majesty want to do it yourself?”
Unexpectedly, the hand blocking her chest reversed its grip, grasped Shi Qingyi’s hand, and pressed it onto her collarbone. The fingertip rested against the warm collarbone, trembling slightly.
Her voice was still icy cold, word by word: “The Lonely One said, unrobe the Lonely One—”
She wanted to see how long Shi Qingyi could endure—this person who was clearly the most obsessive about cleanliness, the most solitary, the most averse to anyone approaching her. No matter how hard Xu Zhaosu had tried in the past, she could never get close.
The temperature on Shi Qingyi’s face rose inch by inch, but she finally sighed silently, turning her face away to undo the last constraint—she couldn’t keep the soaked clothes wrapped around Xu Zhaosu forever.
Her face was burning hot. She didn’t dare glance around, hastily pulling up the silk quilt and the cloak to bundle the person completely. The charcoal fire was burning, and the room was quite warm. After removing Xu Zhaosu’s clothes and handing her a hand warmer, Shi Qingyi lowered her eyes to look at her leg bones.
Xu Zhaosu’s most severe frostbite was on her hands, feet, and legs. Large patches of dark bruises covered her pale skin, looking truly horrifying.
Shi Qingyi slowly used a warm silk cloth to wipe Xu Zhaosu, warming her up. Watching the frostbitten, broken skin on her feet and legs, she felt a blockage in her heart.
In the previous life, she had never seen this. She was directly burned to death and never knew what kind of despair Xu Zhaosu had experienced, how difficult her life was afterward. How did she endure this entire year?
Later, she was blind and crippled, psychologically twisted. Shi Qingyi truly had not acted like a human being.
Thinking this way, an unspeakable guilt welled up in her heart. She put down the silk cloth and directly gathered Xu Zhaosu’s long, pale, frozen leg bones into her arms to warm them. The leg bones touching her shoulder blades made her almost feel like she was holding two blocks of ice.
“Is Your Majesty warmer now?”
Xu Zhaosu was completely bewildered. The bl00d that had been almost frozen suddenly boiled at this moment, as if someone had abruptly dragged her from an endless ice field onto a raging fire. She felt the core of her heart, which had been cold and seemed incapable of ever warming up again, tumbling in molten lava. The confusion of ice and fire made her tremble uncontrollably. Her arms were stiffly propped on the edge of the couch, and her vision swam.
She tried to regain her senses, her fingers trembling as they searched for the direction of the person beside her, wanting to grab something to prove it wasn’t an illusion. But she was lying on the edge of the couch, and she swayed, nearly falling off.
“Your Majesty, be careful.” Shi Qingyi narrowly caught the half of Xu Zhaosu’s body that was falling. Xu Zhaosu was only loosely draped in a cloak, which now opened, revealing a blinding expanse of white skin—icy skin, jade bones, and a graceful figure. Shi Qingyi subconsciously tried to look away, but her wrist was fiercely gripped.
The scent was hers—the familiar cold plum fragrance. But how, how could this be—
Shi Qingyi had always been extremely cold-natured, keeping everyone at a distance. Even when Xu Zhaosu had tried to please her, she never let her get close, let alone hug her. Yet now, she was personally washing and wiping her feet and legs. How could she condescend to this level—
Just at this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall. The moment the hall door was pushed open, Shi Qingyi instinctively pulled Xu Zhaosu completely into her embrace, covering her entirely, then coldly looked towards the doorway.
In the sunlight, the bowl of medicine held by the medicine boy in the doorway fell to the floor, shattering. He stared dumbfounded at the scene in the hall.
The Empress’s pink robes were scattered on the ground. Her long hair lay on her shoulders. She was disheveled, nestled in the embrace of the white-robed National Master. Her leg bones were draped across the National Master’s waist. At this moment, the National Master, who should have been handling state affairs in Mingze Hall, was staring coldly at him.
Her eyes were like knives and swords, clearly showing the displeasure of having her private moment interrupted.
Under the pressure of that sharp gaze, he had to lower his head. On the floor, water splashed, light and shadows floated, and scattered among the clothes was the Empress’s undergarment, which had just been delivered a few days ago.
The medicine boy’s knees weakened, and he knelt down, the bones of his hands supporting him on the floor trembling uncontrollably.
Xu Zhaosu ascended the throne at thirteen and had been steady and dignified for several years in power. She had never stumbled anywhere except with Shi Qingyi. Her personality had always been arrogant, but she was always unconditionally obedient to Shi Qingyi.