A Pharaoh and Her Beloved Queen - Chapter 2

After being treated brutally in succession, it wasn’t until a layer of cold sweat broke out on her forehead that Ye Zhiqing’s rapid, ragged breathing began to steady.

Having not had a drop of water for several days, Ye Zhiqing could clearly feel that her already weakened body was no longer able to contend with the moody and aggressively inclined Queen of Egypt. She proactively softened her stance. “Punt’s royal artisans have undergone years of specific training. No matter how skilled artisans from other nations may be, they cannot be replaced within seven or eight years.”

Edith stood up, arching an eyebrow. A flash of understanding crossed her silent amber eyes. She turned and began walking toward the door. “Punt has already fallen.” The flat statement was like a raging wind across a sea of sand; after the storm passed, it left only a clear, gritty pain.

Stepping outside, Edith heard the coughing from within the room. Her gaze darkened slightly as she decided to abandon her original plan.

Ye Zhiqing staggered toward the table, the crisp clinking of the chain echoing behind her. She drank a full glass of fresh water, only then feeling the searing pain in her throat recede slightly. She gazed out the window at the moving lake scenery, lost in thought.

Even though she had prepared herself, Edith’s violent and unpredictable temperament had caught her off guard. Just a moment ago, the tangible fear of impending death had climbed from her tailbone up her spine. The veins in her temples throbbed wildly; she was still shaken.

Closing her dry eyes, Ye Zhiqing leaned against the table. Anxiety settled between her gentle brows like a sudden cold draft. A deep sense of helplessness and exhaustion cried out from every corner of her body.

Her head was heavy and chaotic. She had been knocked unconscious outside the city and brought directly onto the boat. Did Virgil and the others manage to escape, or were they sent to Mastaba? When left alone, Ye Zhiqing couldn’t help but obsessively replay every detail of the day the capital fell.

The day the capital of Punt was breached…

As the heavy, ancient city gates slowly swung open, Ye Zhiqing took advantage of the chaos to let Virgil lead the royal secret guards in an escape according to plan. She could still see their figures lost in the frantic crowd when she was bound by Egyptian soldiers and brought before the Queen’s horse.

A cold blade slid from her hip to her waist. The short tunic caught on the back of the blade, wrinkling irregularly to reveal a lustrous white skin that seemed impossible to find in the vast yellow sands.

The brilliant sunlight licked every inch of Ye Zhiqing’s exposed skin with a scorching delight.

The blade pressed against her waist, rubbing slowly up and down, as if the sharp edge would slice her supple, slender waist in two at any second.

The surroundings were deathly silent. The disciplined army stood behind Queen Edith like stone statues holding sharp blades. A hair-raising, murderous aura spread silently outside the Punt capital, soaking into everything and ruthlessly crushing the fragile nerves of the prisoners.

Trembling. There was nothing left but trembling.

“Submit or die.” The red lips beneath the golden mask moved slightly, her tone cold, hard, arrogant, and merciless.

That was her first meeting with the Queen of Egypt.

The chains on her hands and feet were thicker than her forearms. They were so heavy that it took considerable effort for Ye Zhiqing to look up and clearly see the Queen of Egypt sitting high atop her horse, looking down at her.

Most of her face was covered by the mask; the remaining features were as deep and three-dimensional as if carved by a chisel—cold, hard, and haughty.

The intense violence radiating from the amber eyes staring back at her was terrifying.

In the rumors swirling along both banks of the Nile, this young Queen of Egypt was cruel, bloodthirsty, tyrannical, and debauched…

When the previous Pharaoh was on his deathbed, a sixteen-year-old Edith led an army back to the capital of Thebes to launch a coup. She swiftly ascended the Egyptian throne and exiled her six-year-old half-brother, Inanhote, to the barren and desolate frontier.

In just three days, the iron-blooded methods of a general were fully displayed. Whether they were nobles or temple officials, everyone could only crawl and gasp for breath under her lightning-fast tactics.

During her ten-year reign since then, she had continuously launched wars of annexation, swallowing surrounding small countries and expanding her territory. To date, under Edith’s leadership, Egypt had crushed the Sonjung Peninsula under its iron hooves and was steadily approaching the eastern coast.

The army under Edith’s command was famously known as the Invincible Golden Cavalry.

“Your Majesty Edith, once the agreement is fulfilled, Fu Jia will present all the grain and wealth you desire.” She tilted her head back with difficulty. Her cheeks glowed with a seductive flush from the exposure to the fierce sun, yet her tone remained neither humble nor overbearing.

Behind her, the surrendered subjects of Punt knelt with their torsos hunched and heads pressed to the ground, consumed by extreme panic and dread.

To the Queen of Egypt, they were like ants; crushing them was a matter of a single thought.

It felt as though their fragile necks would be separated from their bodies at any moment, with crimson blood quietly staining the ground.

As for the monarch of a defeated country, they would either be hanged in public or turned into a slave to be tortured and toyed with before execution.

In contrast to them, Ye Zhiqing’s posture was composed. She showed none of the fear regarding an unknown fate. Her calm black eyes were fearless; the noble elegance of the Queen of Punt was not diminished in the slightest by the chains on her limbs.

This Queen of Egypt was absolutely not as mindlessly brutal as the rumors suggested. On the contrary, they were both intelligent people—and when two intelligent people play a game, a single hint is enough to understand everything.

Aside from the slight disarray caused by being roughly shackled by Egyptian soldiers and dragged to the Queen’s horse during the surrender, Edith had to admit that this woman was as wise and charming as she had imagined.

Edith knew better than Fu Jia that her potential value would only bring more staggering surprises.

Edith didn’t speak. Her amber eyes fixed on Fu Jia, the violence in them mixed with an unknown scrutiny and the interest of finding new prey.

The form-fitting short outfit on her upper body outlined her exquisite curves perfectly. Her features didn’t look like a person of Punt at all; instead, they were like those of a person from the distant and mysterious East, inviting exploration. She had dark, lustrous, slightly curly black hair, and a complexion more radiant than any temple handmaiden. Her features were delicate yet dignified, and her pure black eyes were like the North Star hanging in the firmament.

Mysterious and alluring.

Edith opened her mouth slightly and licked her upper lip. An inexplicable, wicked thought rose in her mind: she wanted to watch this woman beg for mercy and weep beneath her. She wanted to crush this woman’s pride and self-esteem one by one, to tear away her calm mask until she could only tremble and crawl at her feet, submitting both body and soul.

Without warning, the sound of a blade tearing through fabric came from behind. At the same time Fu Jia felt the chill on her back, a sharp pain struck her neck. Her vision went black, and unable to struggle, she fell forward, sliding against the horse’s body until she knelt on the ground.

When she opened her eyes again, it was her current situation.

Ye Zhiqing pressed a hand to her forehead. Twenty-three years since falling from the 21st century into this foreign world—no matter how she thought about it, it felt absurd. Yet the truth was laid out plainly before her eyes; she had no choice but to believe it.

As a standout PhD student in the Archaeology Department of Peking University, Ye Zhiqing was already famous by age twenty-three. Her father was the director of the National Cultural Relics Research Institute, giving her unique advantages for studying historical artifacts. At the same time, her extraordinary talent in history had successfully landed her roles in several major international archaeological projects.

It was during one such international project on Ancient Egypt that a golden scepter, crafted entirely of an unknown chalcedony, overturned everything for Ye Zhiqing in the 21st century.

A brilliant pale gold halo, a strangely twisting vortex—and when she opened her eyes again, she was in a foreign land thousands of years in the past.

What was even more absurd was that Ye Zhiqing couldn’t identify which dynasty she belonged to. Egypt was still called Egypt, Punt was still Punt, and the majestic, smoothly flowing Nile nourished the people on both banks day after day. Everything seemed unchanged.

However, Ye Zhiqing had searched through every available historical record, and not a single familiar name appeared from beginning to end. It was as if history had silently swapped in a completely different set of people to write its story.

Twenty-three years ago, Ye Zhiqing was born into the Punt royal family as an infant. As the sole designated heir, she was immersed in the finest education. Combined with the complex knowledge system she had built in the modern world, she successfully took control of Punt after the old King and Queen went missing. Using modern knowledge to improve farming conditions and more, she helped Punt accumulate vast amounts of tangible and intangible wealth.

To the people of Punt, Queen Fu Jia was dignified and awe-inspiring, yet not lacking in kindness and mercy. A legal code so strict it seemed almost inhuman brought about a just and orderly social system, doubled grain reserves, and higher-purity weaponry… The Punt kingdom, which had been in decline, rose to power again at a staggering speed.

Simultaneously, Queen Fu Jia’s prestige in the hearts of the Punt people reached an all-time high.

Everything seemed to be heading in a good direction, yet the trajectory of history merged in a strange way at certain specific points in time. The Kingdom of Punt finally fell at the hands of Egypt.

A deep, insurmountable chasm already existed between Punt and Egypt.

Ye Zhiqing had made every possible attempt to slow down Egypt’s expedition and escape the node of destruction.

After a stubborn resistance, it proved to be a desperate futility.

Wars became more frequent, and more territory was seized until news returned from the front: the Queen of Egypt was personally leading the campaign. This crushed Ye Zhiqing’s final psychological defense, and Punt’s border defenses collapsed at a visible speed.

Before she could think further, her chaotic thoughts were interrupted by light, nimble footsteps. A quiet, graceful maid bowed her body submissively. She didn’t show the slightest contempt for Ye Zhiqing’s current disheveled state; clearly, she was not treating Ye Zhiqing as a mere prisoner.

“Please come and wash. The King is waiting for you to dine together.” Her tone was neither warm nor distant, striking the perfect balance of propriety.

Ye Zhiqing looked at the several people kneeling in the distance, a hint of admiration appearing in her eyes. The tyrant’s maid was much more gentle and sophisticated than the Queen herself. With a helpless, light laugh, Ye Zhiqing rattled the chain on her foot.

The crisp clinking reminded them that Ye Zhiqing could not walk out of that door.

Seeing this, the leading female official respectfully stepped forward and knelt on one knee, taking out a key to unlock the shackle on her ankle. “The hot water is ready. Please follow me.”

She followed the official leisurely. To an outsider, the queen of the defeated nation looked as if she were taking a lazy, casual stroll in her own backyard, not caring at all that Queen Edith was waiting.

The truth, however, was that Ye Zhiqing was so hungry her head was spinning and her footsteps were faint. Unable to show even a hint of it, she suffered in silence, exerting all her effort to maintain an elegant posture until she reached the bathroom and let out a long sigh of relief.

Sweet honey water nourished her parched stomach. Her fair, delicate hands toyed with the flower petals in the bath. Ye Zhiqing lowered her eyes, letting the warm water flow over her body, dispelling the exhaustion within.