After Discovering The Emperor Was A Woman… - Chapter 10

“They asked me to bring you plenty of gifts. They’re all right here.”

Guan Feilan quietly answered the first question.

As for the second…

Just moments ago, Ning’er’s mother had repeatedly warned her not to let anything slip.

Liu Jiuning was already seriously ill and could not withstand another shock. Besides, to any young lady from a noble family, that imperial decree was no different from a nightmare.

“Oh, you deliberately changed the subject!”

Liu Jiuning stared directly at her heroic-looking friend. When Guan Feilan guiltily avoided her gaze, her face turning red as she struggled to speak, Liu Jiuning finally laughed.

“All right, all right. I’m only teasing you! Even if you are hiding something from me, it’s no great matter. Since you don’t want to tell me, I simply won’t ask.”

She might be extremely curious, but there was nothing she could do if her friend truly did not wish to speak.

Only then did Guan Feilan sigh in relief.

She had the maids set down the gifts, then said that she wanted to speak privately with Liu Jiuning and asked the attendants and female physicians to temporarily leave the room.

Before they went, her gaze casually swept over the beams above the room, then shifted toward a large tree outside the window.

Only after everyone had truly left did she slowly walk to the bedside. Looking at Liu Jiuning’s thin little face, now so gaunt that her bones were visible, she sighed.

“You’ve suffered.”

Liu Jiuning smiled.

“As long as I’m alive, it isn’t suffering.”

She was smiling outwardly, but inwardly, she was silently cursing a certain emperor.

Yes, she had noticed where Guan Feilan had looked.

This friend of hers had once performed archery from horseback for a group of sheltered young ladies from the capital, hitting a willow leaf from a hundred paces before executing an acrobatic stunt on a galloping horse.

Liu Jiuning did not know exactly how skilled Guan Feilan was, but she certainly was not weak.

And now, her friend seemed to have sensed something unusual!

Who could it be besides the emperor’s shadow guards?

Liu Jiuning was about to ask, but then remembered that she could not drag her friend into this. She swallowed the question and changed the subject.

“I’ve finally been waiting for you to come! I’ve been bored to death lately, trapped inside this room every day with no one to talk to. Cuizhu and the others are afraid even a few extra words will exhaust me. They treat me like a fragile porcelain doll.”

“We wanted to visit you too, but the Liu residence wasn’t receiving visitors at first. Later, it became rather inconvenient.”

Guan Feilan poured a cup of water from the small table beside the bed. After tasting it herself, she poured another cup and handed it to Liu Jiuning.

Liu Jiuning accepted the porcelain cup and gave a soft huff.

“How was it inconvenient? I refuse to listen. You’ll have to comfort me with gifts.”

Only then did she slowly begin drinking the water.

Naturally, Guan Feilan could not explain the true reason.

Visiting a sick friend should not have been difficult, but her friend had become the future empress while gravely ill.

Had Guan Feilan not fought hard for permission and earned some military merit over the past few years, she might not have been allowed to visit at all.

She turned and carried all the gift boxes from the table to the bedside. The female physicians had inspected everything before allowing it inside, so Liu Jiuning could safely open them herself.

“What enormous boxes! They must have spent a fortune. Once I recover, I’ll prepare gifts for each of you too. Spending money wards off disaster.”

As she spoke, Liu Jiuning quickly began opening the presents.

She praised every single item she unwrapped. Even a small pouch embroidered by one of her friends with crooked, uneven stitches received extravagant compliments.

Unfortunately, despite all these gifts, there was nothing to eat.

Pouting, she complained, “Why didn’t anyone prepare food for me? I remember Yunlan is an excellent cook. Why didn’t she send anything? These medicines have been so bitter that I’ve nearly forgotten what sweetness tastes like.”

“The female physicians removed all the food earlier. You’re still sick, so behave yourself and don’t be greedy.”

As Guan Feilan spoke, she helped return the gifts to their boxes. While carrying them back to the table, her gaze once again swept toward the flourishing tree outside the window.

After thinking for a moment, she turned solemnly toward Liu Jiuning, who was holding her cup.

“Once you recover, how about I teach you a few martial-arts techniques?”

She did not expect Liu Jiuning to become particularly skilled.

It would be enough if she could dodge the emperor’s sword by even the slightest margin.

An empress held a very different position from ordinary consorts. The emperor should not be able to decide her life or death so casually.

At least, the court officials would never permit it.

The longer Liu Jiuning could delay, the greater her chance of surviving.

“Hm?”

Liu Jiuning responded in confusion.

Why had her friend suddenly decided to teach her martial arts?

Was it because she had been seriously ill for so long and Guan Feilan wanted her to strengthen her body?

But that did not seem right either!

When they were younger, Guan Feilan had once asked whether she wanted to learn martial arts. Liu Jiuning had still been a child then and believed that her black belt in karate from her previous life already made her extremely powerful.

She thought it would be very impressive to pretend to be a frail, ordinary person most of the time, then unexpectedly strike with overwhelming force when necessary.

So she had refused.

Later, when she discovered that this was a world where people could use qinggong and skim across water, she had regretted it terribly.

She was still young enough that training might not be too late. However, because her entire family consisted of civil officials, they would certainly never approve.

She could only abandon the idea.

Practicing martial arts would leave visible signs, but absolutely no one knew about her karate skills.

Pretending to be harmless while secretly possessing strength was the safest approach in this martial-arts novel.

If she ever provoked someone she should not have…

A surprise attack might give her a chance to survive.

It seemed she had already provoked someone she should never have provoked.

…

Was it still possible to learn martial arts now?

Blinking, Liu Jiuning stared sincerely at her friend.

“Do you think I could master peerless martial arts and become the kind of expert who kills one person every ten steps and leaves no trace after traveling a thousand miles?”

Guan Feilan did not answer.

She was afraid that directly denying it would wound little Ning’er’s supposedly fragile heart.

Undeterred, Liu Jiuning continued, “Then do you think I could master qinggong so incredible that I could come and go without leaving a trace and cross the Yellow River without even breathing heavily?”

…

Guan Feilan still could not answer.

That level of qinggong required several decades of accumulated internal strength. But after training for that many years, a person might already be too old for their limbs to remain agile.

She was honestly curious.

Why was little Jiuning’s mind always filled with such peculiar ideas?

“Then I won’t learn. It sounds exhausting.”

Liu Jiuning yawned and spoke listlessly. After thinking for a moment, she added, “Actually, you simply aren’t capable of teaching me, are you? Why don’t you find me a more powerful master instead?”

After successfully angering her friend into leaving with the words, “Rest early. I’ll visit another day,” Liu Jiuning guiltily folded her hands over her abdomen.

She looked at the female physician taking her pulse beside the bed.

“Doctor, is there any medicine that can make a friend stop being angry more quickly?”

After receiving a negative answer, Liu Jiuning became even more melancholy.

Had she known her friend would be so easily driven away, she would not have tried being humorous.

The old monk had much greater tolerance. After all these years, he had even surpassed her in verbal combat.

In reality, Liu Jiuning had not angered Guan Feilan into leaving.

The visiting time prescribed by the female physicians had simply ended. Staying longer might disturb the future empress, who had still not recovered from her lengthy illness.

Every day afterward, Liu Jiuning waited eagerly for her other friends to visit.

Ideally, they would smuggle some food inside.

Believing that the hint she had given Guan Feilan was obvious enough, she waited and waited with great anticipation.

Her friends did not come.

Instead, another imperial decree arrived first.

Because Liu Jiuning was still ill and could not be exposed to the wind, she did not go outside to receive it.

The empty room contained only her lying in bed, one female physician beside her, and perhaps several shadow guards hiding in unknown places.

Since she still carried an earth-shattering secret, Liu Jiuning felt extremely uneasy.

She could not shake the feeling that the imperial decree was most likely related to her.

She looked gloomily at the female physician.

“Do you think I can still recover from this illness?”

“Ninth Young Miss need not think too much. Simply rest and recuperate properly.”

The physician did not answer directly. Instead, she used the special type of response physicians had perfected over hundreds of years.

Liu Jiuning said nothing further.

She also wanted to recover peacefully.

She was simply afraid she would not be given the chance!

Before long, the maids and female physicians who had gone to receive the decree returned.

Accompanying them was a pale-faced eunuch with an amiable expression.

The moment he entered, he smiled at Liu Jiuning.

“This servant has merely come on the Empress Dowager’s behalf to see whether Ninth Young Miss is feeling better. Her Majesty also said that once you recover, you must remember to enter the palace and keep her company.”

Liu Jiuning stared blankly at the eunuch as he began questioning the female physicians about her condition.

Even after he left, she still could not understand what had happened.

Why did the Empress Dowager, who usually devoted herself to Buddhist worship, suddenly want to meet her?

Wait…

Wasn’t the current Empress Dowager the emperor’s biological mother?

There was no mother in the world who did not know her own child’s sex!

Was the Empress Dowager personally making a move against her now?

That did not seem right either!

If she intended to take action, why send a eunuch to announce it?

Wouldn’t that ensure everyone knew?

Liu Jiuning could not understand it no matter how hard she thought.

Then her father and mother entered, dismissed everyone else, and stood solemnly before her bed.

Her small heart began pounding wildly.

“Ning’er, we need to tell you something.”

Liu Yucheng looked at his daughter’s bloodless face and could barely bring himself to continue.

Seeing her parents’ grim expressions, Liu Jiuning prepared herself mentally.

She imagined every possible method of death. Gradually, her nervousness faded into calm acceptance.

“Go ahead. Whatever it is, I can bear it.”

It was only death.

It would not be her first time!

She was practically experienced. She only wanted to choose a method that would not hurt too much.

Liu Yucheng sighed softly.

“The matter actually began when you became seriously ill…”

As Liu Jiuning listened calmly, her expression gradually transformed from shock to complete bewilderment.

She stared at her parents in confusion.

“So, three months from now, I’m going to marry the emperor and become empress? With a bridal procession stretching ten li through the capital?”

Liu Yucheng, his face filled with worry, and Xie Danxue, whose eyes shimmered with tears, nodded simultaneously.

Liu Jiuning had no idea what to say or what expression she should make.

To summarize the situation simply, while she had been so ill that she was nearly dead, the emperor had issued a decree explicitly naming Liu Jiuning as empress.

Now that she was recovering, another decree had arrived, announcing that the emperor would marry her three months later with a magnificent bridal procession stretching across the capital.

How touching.

It was a beautiful love story in which love and death had fought a desperate battle, only for love to triumph at last and bring about a perfect ending.

Had Liu Jiuning not been one of the people involved—and had the other person not been the current emperor—she might almost have been moved.

After remaining dazed for a very long time, Liu Jiuning finally reacted.

“So… I don’t have to die?”

“You child! How can you say something so ominous?”

Xie Danxue could no longer hold back her tears and pulled her poor daughter into her arms.

Seeing this, Liu Yucheng sat beside them and embraced both his wife and daughter.

“Be good, Ning’er. Don’t frighten us. Never speak like that again.”

Coming back to her senses, Liu Jiuning saw that her mother was already crying uncontrollably. Even her father’s eyes glistened with tears.

She hurriedly smiled.

“Father, Mother, stop crying. This is wonderful news!”

She did not have to die!

The position of empress might be dangerous, but it was also the safest position possible!

Although the direction of events seemed rather strange, as long as she obediently followed the emperor’s wishes, nowhere could be safer than the empress’s throne!

Heh.

She was actually going to become the empress!