Chapter 47 (2/2)

‘Why didn’t you use it?’ Yan Shi Ning asked.

‘If I can’t protect my wife and child,’ Pei Jin said. ‘Then I wasted more than twenty years of living.’

Yan Shi Ning didn’t know why Pei Jin’s stern tone warmed her heart.

‘Pei Jin, do you want to be the emperor?’ Yan Shi Ning asked.

‘Yan Shi Ning, I want to see how you’ll look as an empress and how you’ll fool the world thinking you’re a gentle empress,’ Pei Jin said.

Yan Shi Ning thought Pei Jin was a capable man. If he truly wanted to be emperor then she would support him. But she didn’t expect him to be amused at the thought of them being the emperor and the empress.

‘Then I don’t want to be the empress,’ Yan Shi Ning said. ‘If I’m the empress, I’m not allowed to move around while others bow in front of me. There’s nothing amusing about being the empress.’

‘Wife, if you’ll be unhappy as the empress,’ Pei Jin said. ‘Then your husband will continue being a carefree prince.’

Yan Shi Ning was certain Pei Jin didn’t want to be the emperor and she thought it was a pity to waste his abilities. She was curious how he would look wearing an emperor’s clothes and sitting on the throne. But an emperor had more than three thousand concubines. That thought soured her heart.

‘Shi Ning, you’re injured so it gives you an alibi to stay at home and make it easier for you to hide that you’re pregnant,’ Pei Jin said. ‘For the next year I’ll feed you and wait for our child to be born. Wife, why must you be pregnant? How will I endure the nights? Wife, think about it. I can see you, touch you but I can’t eat you. Isn’t this a way to kill me?’

Yan Shi Ning laughed at Pei Jin’s pitiful face. ‘Pei Jin, you can marry a second wife.’

Pei Jin looked at Yan Shi Ning like he wanted to kill her.

Yan Shi Ning pouted her lips. ‘I was being sincere.’

Pei Jin’s hands held Yan Shi Ning’s head. ‘Wife, wake up! Don’t dream during the day and speak nonsense!’

Yan Shi Ning didn’t show that Pei Jin’s words sweetened her heart.

‘Pei Jin, how are you going to deal with the empress?’ Yan Shi Ning asked.

‘Shi Ning, do you want to know about Bei Dou’s real identity?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘Yes,’ Yan Shi Ning said.

‘Shi Ning, do you know about what happened to the Thinh Household in the south?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘Thinh Household?’ Yan Shi Ning asked. ‘Are you talking about the Thinh Household that was convicted of treason, their properties were seized and they were killed a few years ago?’

Yan Shi Ning was surprised when she heard how many horse carriages it took to carry all of the Thinh Household’s properties to the palace.

‘Bei Dou’s real name is Thinh Kien Nan,’ Pei Jin said. ‘He’s the oldest son and the thirteenth generation of the Thinh Household.’

Pei Jin remembered after Bei Dou saved his life, Bei Dou pointed to the south and asked him to call him Bei Dou. But Bei Dou’s heart was in the north, Bei Dou wanted to kill the empress who framed and killed Bei Dou’s family.

‘Bei Dou didn’t want to be a merchant like his father and ancestors,’ Pei Jin said. ‘He likes learning about medicine. When his family home was on fire, I saved him from the fire. He suffered burns on his body and it was hard to recognise him. Wife, didn’t you always ask me why Bei Dou’s face doesn’t change expression? It’s because his real face was burnt.’

‘His… face?’ Yan Shi Ning asked.

‘In the past he wore a mask,’ Pei Jin said. ‘Later in Southern Jiang, he met a master physician who gave him a new face. That’s why no one knows his real identity.’

‘Why did you save him?’ Yan Shi Ning asked.

‘I met Bei Dou long ago,’ Pei Jin said. ‘At that time I was asked to perform duties outside the palace and I was attacked by assassins. It was Bei Dou who saved me. So when I knew about his family, I wanted to save his life.’

‘Did the Thinh Household commit treason?’ Yan Shi Ning asked.

‘What happened to the Thinh Household involves the empress,’ Pei Jin said.

***

End of Chapter Forty-Seven