Beloved Empress

Chapter 87

Mo Qi Qi laughs sillily, "Your Majesty sure knows how to crack a joke! Our Hua Chen Kingdom is prosperous, what could possibly happen? No need to worry about anything, Your Majesty!"

"Zhen is not worried. If zhen is worried, zhen would not have handed over the court matters to them," says Jun Qian Che lightly. The truth is he has made a careful contemplation of each and every step before taking them.

Mo Qi Qi feels like talking to him only wastes time, so she quickly shuts up. She is too lazy to care about these things. Besides, everything rests on him. If he says they leave, they leave; if he wants them to return to the palace, no one would dare to suggest otherwise. As for she, the only role she has to perform is as the spectator.

The carriage moves very fast. They continue the journey without resting, even at night.

She originally expect the journey to be smooth-sailing, but who would have thought that the assasins would be so persistent to kill Jun Qian Che. They are getting anxious now that Jun Qian Che is returning to the imperial palace. The Emperor rarely leaves the palace, so they must take this chance to properly end his life, otherwise, attacking him once he reach the palace will be hard.

And so, dozens of assassins appear on the muddy road of the mountainside. There are more of them this time compared to last time.

The guards pull the reins of their horses and stop.

Mo Qi Qi opens the curtain to look outside before quickly lowering them in fear. "The assassins sure know how to pick the place. They actually chose to ambush us in a rocky cliffside. There are so many assassins this time, we are done for!" She looks at Jun Qian Che who is still calmly sitting there with his eyes closed. She unhappily snaps at him, "You are still in the mood to sleep, Your Majesty? We are surrounded by assassins!"

"Don’t panic. If something is to happen, there is nothing we can do to stop it," Jun Qian Che calmly says.

Mo Qi Qi looks at him, aggrieved, "Being with Your Majesty is so dangerous. There are assassins everywhere. We can’t even travel in peace."

Jun Qian Che opens his eyes to look at her, smiling, "Don’t you find this thrilling, Empress? You should be grateful that you married zhen. Otherwise, your married life would have bore you to death!"

Mo Qi Qi gives him a fake laughter, "Haha, you are right! I am thankful to you for giving me this thrill! In fact, I am thanking your ancestors as well!"

"Stop being so preposterous!" scolds Jun Qian Che in dissatisfaction.

Mo Qi Qi purses her lips, "Aren’t you worried that you are going to die here, Your Majesty?"

"Can worrying solve anything? If you have the time to worry, why don’t you use it to figure out how to get rid of these assassins instead?" says Jun Qian Che casually.

Mo Qi Qi’s heart almost jumps out of her chest when she hears the sounds of fighting outside. Do not call her a coward; she has lived all her life in a peaceful country, she has never seen this kind of scene in her previous life. Fear is only natural for someone like her.

When Jun Qian Che sees that, he holds her hand before starting to comfort her, "Don’t worry. Zhenis here. Zhen will not let anyone hurt you. The carriage is not safe, let’s go," he holds her hand as he leads her down the carriage.

With him holding her hand, the fear inside her heart slowly dissipates.

The fight outside is very deadly.

Jun Yue Hen has also gotten off his carriage and is watching the battle from the sideline.

Mo Qi Qi walks over to him in worry, "Yue Hen, you do not know martial arts and is injured, you better go to a safer place."

Her worry made Jun Yue Hen’s heart feels very warm, "Thank you for your worry, Your Ladyship. You must be careful as well."

Jun Qian Che pulls Mo Qi Qi over to him and buries her against his chest before earnestly saying, "She is zhen’s empress. Zhen is the one responsible for her safety, no need to worry about her, Imperial Uncle."

Mo Qi Qi looks at him, completely speechless at his behaviour.

At that moment, an assassin spots Jun Qian Che and quickly flies over to him, directing a blow towards his direction.

Jun Qian Che looks at Mo Qi Qi before saying, "Stay here. Do not go anywhere." Then, he too flies towards that assassin and starts battling him.

Although Mo Qi Qi is scared, her heart calms down a little when she remembers what he said, that he will not let anyone hurt her.

She trains her eyes on him, who would have thought that he would be so powerful in martial arts? Now that she thinks about it, Jun Qian Che is still pretty good despite his cold face, haughty ways and condescending words. He is good in both strategy and battle, possessing the brain and the strength. He governs the kingdom really well. He also has a good-looking face to match his good body. If he was born in the modern times, he would have become the hero in every teenage girl’s dreams!

Pei Pei Pei! What on earth did she just say? What ’pretty good’? He is pretty good in being a trash! Since he raped her, she hopes that he will be killed by assassins this time!

(TN: Pei is the sound of spitting. She basically spitted on his name thrice.)

Although the assassins are many in numbers, Jun Qian Che has picked all the capable guards with them this time. Although there are not many of them in number, they are all strong in their own worth. It is not easy for the assassins to handle them. In the end, quite a number of the assassins die.

When the leader amongst the assassins notices that, he becomes anxious. His eyes fall on Mo Qi Qi who is watching the show from the sideline. He flies towards her, directing a blow.

Mo Qi Qi jumps up in shock.

"Careful, Qi Qi!" screams Yue Hen.

Mo Qi Qi quickly runs away.

Jun Qian Che is curently surrounded by assassins. He tries to shrug them off because he wants to check on Mo Qi Qi. Once his mind is in a mess, it is easy for him to become a target.

When one of the assassins notices Jun Qian Che’s distraction, he swings his sword towards Jun Qian Che whose eyes are trained on Mo Qi Qi.

That movement is noticed by Han Yi Xiao who immediately kills the assassin he is duelling with before flying towards them and stabbing the said assassin with his sword.

With Han Yi Xiao there, Jun Qian Che immediately runs after Mo Qi Qi.

As for Mo Qi Qi, she runs off until she reaches a dead end at the side of the cliff.

The assassin that chased after her laughs coldly, "Go on, run! I want to see where you want to run off to!" The assassin then swings his sword towards her.

Jun Qian Che is still a distance away from them. When he sees what is happening, he uses his inner force to shoot his sword towards that assassin’s wrist, disregarding the fact that it will speed up the spreading of the poison inside his body.

His sword hits the assassin in the wrist and the assassin’s sword falls to the ground.

Unwilling to give up, the assassin pushes Mo Qi Qi in the chest.

"Ah!" Mo Qi Qi falls backwards, into the steep chasm.

"Mo Qi Qi—–" Without even thinking, Jun Qian Che uses his inner force to fly down the chasm, hoping to get to her before it is too late.

Seeing that, everyone there immediately stops fighting as they watch the scene unfolding, stunned.

The imperial guards immediately run towards the side of the cliff, while the assassins withdraw, having achieved their aim.

The cliff is very deep that they cannot see it’s bottom. They cannot see the Emperor or the Empress anywhere. "Your Majesty—– Your Ladyship—-" calls some of them in grief.

Jun Yue Hen also runs to the cliff before kneeling on the ground helplessly, "Qi Qi—–"

Bai Jiu refuses to accept what she just saw. She shakes her head, "No way, the Emperor and the Empress will not die! I want to go down to look for them!"

Just as she is about to jump, Han Yi Xiao holds her back. "Calm down, General Bai."

Bai Jiu shrugs him off, "General Han, I already swore to protect His Majesty and Her Ladyship. It is due to our negligence that they fell down. I want to look for them!"

"I understand your feelings, General Bai, but we cannot lose our composure at times like this. His Majesty and Her Ladyship are still waiting for our help, how can we be of help if we lose our ability to think carefully? His Majesty and Her Ladyship are protected by the heavens, I sincerely believe that they are safe. For now, let’s find a better way to go down." Han Yi Xiao puts his hands on Bai Jiu’s shoulders comfortingly.

Who would have thought that the usually cool-headed Bai Jiu would lose his cool?

What Han Yi Xiao does not know is that the ones who fell are her sister and her brother-in-law, how could she keep her cool? Although she was raised in the Jianghu and is accustomed to the matter of life and deaths, she has never seen her own loved ones dying. If her sister really die, how will she face her parents later?

While the people above the cliff are busy worrying, the people below the cliff are no better.

Jun Qian Che who has jumped off the cliff after Mo Qi Qi manages to get hold of her hand. He pulls her up with one hand while his other hand is grabbing a rock, the only thing preventing them from falling to their deaths.

Mo Qi Qi is touched. She didn’t think that Jun Qian Che would jump off the cliff just to save her. However, when she looks at the bottomless chasm and at his hand that is holding onto a rock, she becomes worried, "You shouldn’t have jumped off to save me."

"Don’t waste your words. Zhen promised you zhen would protect you," Jun Qian Che holds on to the rock as he tries to figure out ways to go up. Since he is poisoned and has used too much inner force just now, he can no longer use qinggong. He looks around; there are no vines here that can be used to climb up and the rock that he is holding onto is not stable. The rock itself is not that big, yet it has to carry the weight of two people. The rock has turned loose now. Coincidentally, the hand that he used to grab onto the rock with is the hand that has been poisoned. His arm feels completely numb now. He can only force himself to hold on to it.

Mo Qi Qi can see that he is struggling, "Let go of my hand, Your Majesty! If you go on doing this, both of us will die for sure! Without me acting as a burden, you will be able to use martial arts to go up."

"Enough, zhen will not let go of you," Jun Qian Che admonishes her. If he really plans on letting go, he wouldn’t have jumped off after her.

Mo Qi Qi does not wish to implicate him. Although she normally hates him, she does not want him to die, much less in order to save her. She does not want to owe him anything. Although she really fears dying, when push comes to a shove, she will be able to accept it with an open heart. Perhaps, if she dies here, she will go back to her own world!

With that in mind, Mo Qi Qi becomes determined. She does not want to leave this era while owing him something, so she quickly shrugs her hand out of his grasp, "Let go!"

"Are you mad, Mo Qi Qi?" Jun Qian Che refuses to let go.

Mo Qi Qi looks at him angrily, "Do you know how much I hate you, Jun Qian Che? I feel like I am in a prison whenever I am with you. I am not free, I am not happy, I cannot be myself. I have to live my days in fear, one wrong word and I could end up offending you, so I had to try so hard to butter you up. What I really cannot accept was the way you forced me that night. I know that I am your Empress, but I am also a person. How could you treat your own wife like that? You did not respect my wish, you humiliated me, trampled on me. I hate you so much for that. Now, whatever it was between us is finally over. Although you are not a good husband, I have to admit that you are a good Emperor. Let go of my hand, Jun Qian Che. Set me free. Go back and be a fair ruler. Let the people live prosperously."

"Mo Qi Qi, zhen will definitely save you from this place."

"I do not need you to save me, I do not want to owe you anything. I do not want to take this relationship to the next life," she struggles against his grasp.

Jun Qian Che refuses to let go no matter what. When her hand starts slipping from his grasp, Jun Qian Che shakes his head, unwilling to accept it, "Mo Qi Qi, don’t!"

She smiles at him before whispering, "Goodbye."

Her hand slips down from his grasp and she falls down the chasm.

Serene: Wow, talk about cliffhanger, right?