The Hostage Girl - Chapter 190-Final Chapter

Chapter 190-Final Chapter

Jiang Xiurun frowned upon hearing this.

She instinctively guessed that this person was Qin Zhao, whom Bai Qian had seen among the rebels in the three counties.

She had vaguely suspected that Qin Zhao possessed memories of a past life, and now she had the opportunity to confirm it.

That night, while entwined with Feng Liwu, Jiang Xiurun asked about Qin Zhao’s whereabouts.

Feng Liwu, without hiding anything, said, “He still has a list of Feng Wu’s spies hidden in the capital. After interrogating Feng Wu and verifying their testimonies, I will kill him… This tumor has been left for too long.”

Jiang Xiurun remained silent, but she wanted to see Qin Zhao.

If he truly had memories of a past life, she wanted to ask him who had ultimately instructed Lady Xu to harm her.

So the next day, under the pretext of comforting the families of loyal martyrs, she visited the prison.

Deep within the dungeon, the dim light made Qin Zhao’s scarred face even more grotesque.

His unwashed, tangled hair added to his disheveled appearance.

Seeing the ethereal woman descend the steps, carrying a faint fragrance, Qin Zhao opened his bruised and swollen eyes, greedily staring at her, his throat emitting a guttural, beast-like sound.

Jiang Xiurun frowned slightly, looking at the creature before her, neither human nor ghost.

She suddenly regretted coming here, seeking answers she might not want.

But just as she turned to leave without a word, Qin Zhao suddenly spoke, “Xiurun, I know you’ve returned too. Are you resentful that I never gave you a proper status in the past, so you deliberately changed your fate, brushing past me in this life?”

Jiang Xiurun slowly turned back to look at him and said, “You and I were never meant to have any connection. I merely stopped a disgraceful violation.”

Qin Zhao’s eyes widened in disbelief, filled with unwillingness, but he let out a strange laugh.

“My kindness to you became a violation? I was the one who loved you the most in this world! Me! But you? You forgot our past life as husband and wife and threw yourself into Feng Liwu’s arms? Do you think he truly loves you? Do you know who ordered your death in your past life? It was Feng Liwu!”

Jiang Xiurun’s breath tightened, but she calmly replied, “Even now, you still lie?”

Qin Zhao carelessly pushed his tangled hair behind his ear, his tone manic.

“What? Don’t you know how much the Crown Prince despised you in your past life? He publicly called you a seductive enchantress who would bring ruin to the nation when you first arrived in Luo’an, sending you to the laundry bureau. In the end, when I wasn’t around, he ordered Lady Xu to kill you… Isn’t that how our Emperor always roots out problems?”

Jiang Xiurun remained silent.

She thought that if she hadn’t recalled her past encounters with the Emperor in the Jieyou Pavilion, she might have believed Qin Zhao’s words.

But she knew Feng Liwu.

Whether in her past life or this one, beneath his cold exterior lay a tender heart.

Once he fell in love, his devotion ran deep.

Now, thinking back, after their night together, though he never approached her again as the master of the Jieyou Pavilion, he began to frequently cross paths with her at various banquets.

The way he looked at her when she wasn’t paying attention—how could she not understand now? It was the look of someone who couldn’t get enough.

No matter how low Feng Liwu might stoop, he would never order a woman in his household to drown her out of jealousy.

So Qin Zhao’s heart was truly vile, still trying to sow discord and frame Feng Liwu even now.

Jiang Xiurun couldn’t contain her disgust for this man and decided to add some discomfort to his final moments.

She slowly said, “You probably don’t know this, but in my past life, I already shared a night of passion with the Emperor, secretly pledging my heart to him… I really can’t imagine how he could have grown to hate me so much as to want me dead…”

Upon hearing this, Qin Zhao nearly leapt up, his eyes bloodshot.

“You… you’re lying! How could you…”

But halfway through his sentence, Qin Zhao swallowed his words.

Because he remembered how, in his past life, when he returned to find Jiang Xiurun dead, Feng Liwu had also been inexplicably grief-stricken.

At the time, he had found it baffling, but now, hearing Jiang Xiurun’s words, it all made sense.

For a moment, the fury in his heart was indescribable.

Though they had missed each other in this life, Qin Zhao had always comforted himself with the fact that he had once fully possessed her in their past life.

But now, Jiang Xiurun claimed that she had secretly betrayed him in that past life.

How could Qin Zhao accept this?

After hearing this, he threw himself against the iron bars, shaking them wildly, his voice hoarse as he screamed, “You treacherous woman! How dare you betray me!”

Jiang Xiurun had no desire to waste more words on this man.

She decisively turned and left, but behind her, she heard him shouting hoarsely, “If I had known this, I would have strangled you myself before Empress Yang could give the order! I would never have let anyone else have you…”

The Empress Yang he referred to was, of course, Yang Ruxu, who had successfully become Empress Dowager in the past life.

As for why Feng Liwu’s stepmother had instructed Lady Xu to harm her, it was likely related to Jiang Xiurun’s constant efforts in her past life to persuade Qin Zhao to send troops to save her homeland, the State of Bo.

After the fall of Bo, she had been determined to avenge her brother and incite Qi to attack Liang.

Later, at a banquet, she had coincidentally encountered Emperor Duanqing, who was reminded of the beauty from Bo he had missed out on due to his son’s interference.

Thinking about it carefully, if Emperor Duanqing had summoned her to the palace back then, what would she have done? She would have been disheartened, ready to risk everything, and gone willingly.

After all, in her past life, she had deliberately become a seductive enchantress.

If it meant avenging her brother, what did it matter to serve an old man?

With a concubine like her causing such a stir in the household, how could the self-proclaimed virtuous Empress Yang Ruxu turn a blind eye? She had likely acted preemptively, instructing Lady Xu to drown her…

As she pondered this, she suddenly collided with a tall man at the corner.

Looking up, she saw Feng Liwu standing there, his face filled with rage.

Jiang Xiurun was momentarily speechless, unsure how long he had been standing there listening.

But judging by his furious expression, he had heard everything…

The man deep in the dungeon was still hurling obscenities, but Feng Liwu no longer cared about the list of spies.

He drew a sword from a nearby guard and strode down the steps.

Qin Zhao, clearly mad, laughed maniacally upon seeing Feng Liwu.

“Feng, do you think that woman truly loves you? She’s just using you! She’s a demon, using every man she meets. You’re just wearing my old shoes…”

He never got to finish his sentence.

Feng Liwu coldly interrupted him, saying, “I don’t care. In this life, she will only bear my children and stay by my side. You… you don’t even have a single strand of her hair!”

Before he could finish, Feng Liwu raised his sword and with one swift motion, severed Qin Zhao’s head.

The head’s eyes remained wide open, filled with unwillingness and resentment.

A spray of filthy blood splattered onto Feng Liwu’s luxurious dragon robe, a few drops landing on his face and even dripping into his eyes…

That day, the Emperor and Empress returned to the palace in silence.

Feng Liwu ordered the execution of the entire Yang and Meng families, leaving no one alive.

After Feng Liwu finished washing up, he sat beside Jiang Xiurun, who was combing her long hair.

He waved for the maids to leave and then said, “Tell me, what exactly is going on?”

Jiang Xiurun pursed her lips and said softly, “Your Majesty, do you believe that a person’s life can be relived, starting over…”

And so, as the rain pattered outside the window, she began to tell a sorrowful and melancholic tale of a seductive enchantress in the twilight of the day.

Jiang Xiurun spoke calmly, the sorrow of her past life tempered by the passage of time, no longer as painful.

All the suffering was condensed into a few words, easily glossed over if one wasn’t paying attention.

Feng Liwu sat upright, his expression unreadable, listening to Jiang Xiurun’s dreamlike story.

By the end, Jiang Xiurun had nothing more to say and obediently closed her mouth.

Qin Zhao’s poisonous words before his death were truly vicious.

If Feng Liwu took them to heart, there was nothing she could do.

At most, she would pack her bags and return to Bo alone, leaving the Emperor to his peace…

But just as she fell silent, Feng Liwu suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace.

His body trembled slightly from the story he had just heard, holding her so tightly it felt like he might break her waist.

“That was just a nonsensical dream, unrelated to either of us now. From now on, you must never think of those grievances again. In this life, I will make it up to you…”

Jiang Xiurun had expected him to be jealous, to be furious, but she had never anticipated this reaction… The trembling of his body, she understood, was his heart aching for her…

She wrapped her arms around him and slowly smiled.

That night, after Feng Liwu had exhausted her completely, Jiang Xiurun fell into a deep sleep.

Feng Liwu, however, stayed awake, quietly watching her sleeping face until the night grew dark, and only then did he hold her tightly and fall asleep.

But a single drop of blood seeped from the corner of his eye, forming a full, round bead…

With Jiang Xiurun by his side, Feng Liwu had not dreamed in a long time.

But tonight, he had an exceptionally vivid dream…

In the dream, he was still young, standing in the court, mature beyond his years, calm and composed… Until a celestial maiden gracefully walked up the steps of the court…

He looked up and instinctively disliked her—another seductive enchantress trying to use her beauty to bewitch his father and control the Qi court.

With a few words, he easily crushed the petty schemes of a small border state.

Later, he stood in a high pavilion in the palace, accidentally catching sight of the laundry bureau in the distance.

The woman drawing water in the freezing snow looked familiar.

Before he could remember who she was, he saw a few palace maids push her to the ground, the icy water soaking through her tattered clothes…

She said nothing, only picking up the bucket again after the maids left, sobbing as she continued to draw water… That day, he had been unusually bored, standing in the pavilion, and ended up watching her fill five large vats of water with her frail arms…

For some reason, his usually cold heart felt a pang of pity.

He remembered who she was—the hostage princess from Bo.

How had she ended up in the laundry bureau? It must have been the officials from the Ministry of Rites, taking his harsh words in court as a sign to humiliate and mistreat her.

But just as he was about to order her release, he learned that his trusted subordinate, Qin Zhao, had already taken her out of the laundry bureau.

“Your Highness, Jiang and I have been in love for a long time. I beg Your Highness to grant us your blessing…”

When he questioned Qin Zhao, Qin Zhao had said this with a satisfied expression.

Since they were in love, how could he stand in their way? But from then on, for some reason, he found himself paying more attention to this woman, watching as she gradually shed her naivety and became the renowned Lady Jiang of the capital.

Once, while disguised to handle affairs at the Jieyou Pavilion, he encountered her again.

Unlike her usual smart self at banquets, she was drunk and crying for her mother.

He sobered her up and settled her down, looking at her small face, feeling an inexplicable ache in his heart…

From then on, he often met her in disguise.

Their conversations were few, mostly spent playing the qin or fishing.

Occasionally, he would listen to her talk about her longing for her homeland…

Perhaps it was their shared loneliness that drew him to her.

He grew more and more attached… But that damned woman was so fickle.

After a night of drunken passion, she had vanished without a trace, never returning to the Jieyou Pavilion for their secret meetings…

After that, she left no trace, remaining the charming Lady Jiang.

But he was left with a restless heart, no longer caring about propriety, ready to steal her from his subordinate.

Qin Zhao had not treated her well; she had not been happy.

He didn’t know if he could make her smile again, but he was willing to move heaven and earth to fulfill her every wish…

But in the end, just as he was about to confront Qin Zhao, he received the news of her death.

After her death, he learned more about her life—her unwillingness to be with Qin Zhao, the humiliations she had suffered in Qin’s household…

All of this, in fact, stemmed from his own words in court: “seductive enchantress.”

For the rest of his life, he found no joy.

He mastered the art of power, battling his father for half his life, and finally, after outliving his father, ascended to the throne.

But even as the supreme ruler, he found no pleasure.

Only at dusk each day did he find solace, visiting her grave to water and fertilize the Bodhi tree he had planted there.

A bald missionary from India had come, preaching the orthodox Buddhist scriptures.

The Bodhi seed, he claimed, was the very one held by the Buddha when he attained enlightenment, capable of guiding souls through the cycle of rebirth.

He built grand temples for the missionary and obtained the seed, planting it by her grave… praying that if reincarnation were real, he would hold her hand tightly and never let go…

In his final moments, as he lay dying, he seemed to see her smiling at him amidst green mountains and clear waters.

Her smile was sweet, so very sweet…

The state funeral of the Emperor of Qi was grand, but the noble families believed the imperial tomb contained his body.

In truth, it was empty.

The true dragon, having cast aside the power he had pursued all his life, was buried in simple cloth beside her grave.

Just as she had once said, “In the next life, I wish to find a true love. Even if we live in poverty, I would be content, to live and die together, to share a grave in death…”

As the dream faded, the bloody tear at the corner of his eye dried.

Feng Liwu slowly turned to look at the woman sleeping peacefully beside him.

Her warm, fragrant breath proved it was not just a dream.

He held her tightly. In this life, he had no regrets…

The golden age of Qi officially began in the fifteenth year of Shengwu.

The iron hooves of the Qi Emperor conquered all directions, pacifying the world and unifying the Central Plains.

The State of Bo, which had not originally bordered Qi, now stood adjacent to the powerful Qi dynasty.

But the Qi army halted at Bo’s borders, not daring to advance a single step further.

Emperor Shengwu paid homage to his ancestors, declaring himself the Heavenly Emperor, while the Empress of Bo was named the Heavenly Empress of Qi.

The Emperor’s eldest son was officially named Crown Prince, destined to inherit the vast lands of Qi.

The Emperor’s eldest daughter was granted the title of Saintess of Bo, destined to inherit her mother’s throne.

In the prime of their lives, the Emperor and Empress abdicated together, traveling the land and leaving behind many touching legends.

Of course, accompanying the Emperor and Empress was the once-renowned female general, Bai Qian, and her husband, Dou Siwu, who had married into her family.

The story of how the female general found her husband is another enchanting tale…

(The End)

(T/N: I will translate another novel from the same author (Crazy oh Crazy/Kuang Shang Jia Kuang) and publish the first chapter tomorrow. Both of these novels are written by the same author who wrote the novel for the Cdrama ‘Love of the Divine Tree,’….First chapter drops tomorrow! Prepare for MAXIMUM brainpower from the female lead, naturally. And, look, I hate palace politics with a burning passion, but these gender bender stories? I’m weak! So weak! Hehe!)

The Perilous Palace Dream

Synopsis:

Beside the emperor’s throne, how could another be allowed to sleep soundly? And yet, the one who insists on sleeping there is none other than the treacherous minister who dares to slay the monarch and seize the throne.

Even worse, she herself is not a legitimate prince but rather a false heir—a true princess in disguise.

All she hopes is that the Grand Tutor will hold his tongue and refrain from casually remarking, “Today is an auspicious day, Your Majesty. It’s time for you to meet your demise.”

This counterfeit emperor would rather abandon the throne and roam the world.

But what? He wants the dragon throne, and he also wants the person lying on it…

The heroine, Nie Qinglin, has concealed her true gender since childhood, living deep within the palace as an unfavored prince.

However, when a coup erupts, she is reduced to a prisoner overnight and forced onto the imperial throne by the ruthless head of the treacherous ministers, Wei Lenghou.

Now a mere puppet, she teeters on the edge of survival.

Nie Qinglin must guard her secret while maneuvering against the cold-hearted and unyielding Wei Lenghou to preserve her life.

In this perilous court, every step is fraught with danger.

With her composed intelligence and sharp wit, she unwittingly captures the heart of the arrogant male lead.)