Chapter 485: Demanding Their People
Tongue-tied, Anari lifted her head to stare at the glowering Siqin. “What do you mean?!” she demanded incredulously.
“My dear khan.” Siqin squeezed out the three words from the cracks of his teeth. He grabbed Anari’s wrist and pulled her in front of him, almost nose tip to nose tip. “Have you vented enough of your temper?”
The tassels on Anari’s hat swayed and chimed against each other, her wrist aching from Siqin’s grasp. However, she didn’t have much effort to spare for other thoughts at the moment. Her entire mind was preoccupied by a gravity she’d never seen before from Siqin.
"I am the khan! I have a plan for everything I do, and you say I’m having a fit of temper??”
Siqin ground his teeth together. “You are the ruler of a nation and your people watch your every move and word. Acting like such a shrew and not controlling your emotions in public at all, do you still care for your dignity with all these tantrums you’ve been throwing? What about losing face in all of this? What about my face?”
“Enough! What about your face? You’re only thinking about that vixen right now, you don’t care about how I feel at all! Why am I acting like this toward her? If you really love me with one heart and soul, if there wasn’t room for any suspicion and hurt—then why would I be like this?!”
Anari didn’t care about face or no face. Siqin had purposefully kept his voice down so as to not attract attention, but who cared about that? She was suffering! She’d bottled up so much irritation and grievance! And there was absolutely nothing wrong with her actions!
Thus, her shrill tones traveled far and wide, drawing the attention of everyone in the area. It seemed like she wouldn’t rest until the entire world learned of what was going on.
Though Qin Yining didn’t understand what they were talking about, she frowned with distaste at the sight of Anari ranting and raving.
The khan happened to turn back at this moment and meet the princess consort’s gaze. Her face burned hotly, like someone had slapped her a few times. She was the great khan, the most noble of Tartar women! But her husband was acting roughly to her, and on behalf of another woman as well!
Furious and humiliated, she struggled free of the vice-like grip and forcefully smacked Siqin’s face.
The crisp slap rang out and the man’s head snapped to the side. No flicker of emotion registered on his face, but the surrounding guards and soldiers all quieted down. They turned to look silently in the ruling couple’s direction.
Regret set in as soon as Anari slapped her consort. Siqin was an outstanding and great man, the antithesis of petty characters who curried favor for power and profit. Their marriage was a result of her initiative—Siqin hadn’t wanted to be a consort at first. After all, any man with talent and ambition wouldn’t want a label of well, sleeping his way to the top.
As the khan consort, he would only ever be Anari’s accessory. No matter how hard he worked for all his achievements, there would still be those who said he’d only accomplished those because of his woman.
Anari knew all that and knew that a knot of exasperation had slowly built in Siqin from all the years of repeated skepticism. It was precisely because of all this that she was insecure and obsessive, vowing to keep a close eye on him so that he would have no chance to leave her.
But what had she done now?
She’d slapped this proud man in public view!
Frantic, Anari groped for Siqin’s hand. “I didn’t mean that, it was just the heat of the moment…”
The man flung her hand away before she had a chance to finish. He turned and raised his voice, “Return to the palace.”
Four simple words sent the guards scurrying around in solemn action.
Qin Yining and Lu Heng traded a glance, reading deep meaning from each other’s eyes. It seemed that their guesses were right, that Siqin’s authority in Tatar army was the same as Pang Xiao and Ji Zeyu’s in the Valiant Tigers and Dragon Riders of Great Zhou.
Would such a man be content to take a place behind a woman and fall beneath her helm?
It seemed that Anari’s bodyguards and soldiers all highly respected Siqin, and she in turn was very used to the situation. This meant that it was actually Siqin who held the reins of power in Tatar, and that very few people rankled at the arrangement.
When it came to Anari, Siqin’s success knew no bounds. No matter how formidable the khan may be outside, she turned into a capricious little girl when it came to her husband. She displayed all of her wants and fears without reservation, making it easy for Siqin to completely grasp her.
That didn’t matter much for a woman in love, but it was a bit too dangerous for a woman wielding power.
Qin Yining and Lu Heng followed the guards to their horses, and a cold-faced Anari followed behind them.
On their way back, Lu Heng kept close to Qin Yining and steered his horse next to her so he could whisper, “Our situation is very dangerous, so you better be even more careful. Check all the food you eat and be on your guard around the servants. With how badly they’ve fought, the khan might even blame it all on you in the end.”
Qin Yining nodded. “You need to be careful too.”
“I’m fine, I can still work with them, but you’re different…” Lu Heng sighed. “You’ve gotten embroiled in this for no reason at all.”
The princess consort shook her head with a wry smile. “There’s no point in thinking too much now. We can only look ahead to the future.”
The gentleman nodded and stared at for a moment before murmuring, “A character like yours is most precious.”
“What?” Hooves clopping and the sounds of travel drowned out the soft murmur. Qin Yining could only vaguely make out that he’d said something.
Lu Heng abruptly came back to his senses and shook his head. “Nothing.”
Upon seeing him like this, she didn’t ask further.
Coming back empty-handed after a hunt but feeding all the slaves to the wolves—if it weren’t for Anari already losing her mind from rage, Qin Yining rather wanted to mock her and ask if she’d gone hunting or to feed the wolves?
The group flew past the city gates and headed for the palace when they saw the two youths appear in the distance again. They quickly stopped their horses, and Qin Yining finally got a good look at the two in the light of day.
Both young men sported handsome features, deeply set eyes, and rags for clothes. Though it was a chilly day, they were barefoot like the group of slaves from earlier.
The two knelt on the ground and respectfully kowtowed, asking reverently with their foreheads on the ground, “Great khan, please release our aav and eej!”
Already sullen with anger, Anari couldn’t control her temper when these two miscreants showed up to block her way. She cracked her whip and landed it on the bigger youth. “Out of my way!”
The young man cried out in pain, but didn’t dodge the blow. “Please release our aav and eej! The Minuo tribe submitted to the khan long ago, we are your people! Why do you not pardon us?”
Completely out of patience, Anari roared, “They’re all dead! Now get out of my way!”
Chapter 486: Old Friends
"Dead?" The teen blinked in disbelief and shook his head furiously. "That can't be, our aav and eej are both very healthy. They can’t have died. Please show them mercy, great khan—let them go!"
Anari sneered back, "They were trash who lost in battle! They're all dead. It's their fault for being so useless. They accompanied me on my hunt, yet they got themselves eaten by wolves. I have nothing else to say about these sorts of people. Stand aside, or I'll feed you to the wolves so you can join your aav and eej!"
Eaten by wolves?
The two teens paled, their eyes blank with shock. The older of the two stared dumbly at Anari as the younger strained his neck to search the group, evidently hoping that their khan’s words were a joke. The surrounding crowd of Tatar citizens grew, each and every one cluele
ss about what was going on.
Qin Yining, however, already knew everything thanks to Lu Heng's explanations. Looking at the two youths who’d lost their parents, her heart filled with grief. Anari was too cruel—there’d been no need for those slaves to die.
She was no saint herself; she also knew full well that success was built on a foundation of sacrifice, just as the Great Zhou Dynasty was built atop countless corpses. If the mountains crumbled and the rivers swallowed the earth, then displaced citizens were obligated to join the final stand. Even if slaves who lost their lives on the battlefield were dead all the same, their deaths were still honorable in that manner. Qin Yining wasn’t opposed to such a heroic way of dying.
However, there was no honor in the way these slaves had died; they were merely Anari's playthings. The only meaning to their deaths was to provide her with temporary amusement.
What kind of a leader was this? Anari's absurdity was almost on par with that of Great Yan's trash emperor!
While Qin Yining lambasted Anari in her mind, Siqin reached out to stop Anari from cracking her whip again. "Your parents have indeed passed," he sighed. "You must live on well, as the Minuo tribe still looks to you as their leader."
The two brothers stared vacantly at Siqin, whose eyes were tinged with pity. Overcome with sorrow, big, fat tears trickled down their faces.
Irked by their crying, Anari made a move to lash out at them, only to be restrained with a tight grip around her wrist by Siqin. The two had only just argued, so he showed no intention of loosening his grip. He looked as if he meant to break her arm, which fanned the flames of Anari's rage even further.
Yet she didn’t wish to lose Siqin. She had to exercise restraint, lest she continue to lose his face for him. Thus, she allowed her husband to pull at her wrist and made no further attempt to punish the two teens.
The remaining four thousand of the Minuo tribe were all elderly, weak, ill, or disabled. Without a leader acting as their pillar, the only thing the tribe could do was submit to her in servitude. There was no need to rush into killing them all. Wasn't it even better if they became slaves like the rest?
Her killing intent dissipated, Anari gave word to continue their journey. The entourage thus pressed onward and did nothing but walk around the two teens.
When Qin Yining walked past the two, the tears and despair in their eyes had her grieving along with them. And yet, her situation wasn't much better than theirs. As much as she wished to help them, there was nothing she could do when she could hardly save herself. Her primary concern was, in truth, what would become of her after returning to the palace.
Considering Anari’s animosity toward her, one false move could very well mean forfeiting her life.
When she returned to the room that served as her prison, she noticed that all of her guards and servant girls had been changed. Anari was indeed thorough. How was Qin Yining to escape, as a physically weak woman who wasn't proficient at martial arts or the Tatar tongue? Anari didn't even allow her the opportunity to bribe those watching over her.
In any case, Qin Yining thought little of it—she only needed to keep an eye on what she ate and used while exercising caution outdoors.
She didn’t have the faintest idea how Anari and Siqin worked things out upon returning to the palace, but when she saw them three days later, they seemed to be as close as they had always been. In fact, it seemed that they were more intimate with each other than before.
What astonished Qin Yining most, however, wasn't the fact that Anari and Siqin made up, but a familiar face before her.
Seated on the red wooden chair across from her and merrily smiling back was none other than the Soothsayer, Priestess Liu! She wore dark blue Taoist robes and appeared virtually unchanged, despite how long it had been since they last meant. Her flushed face beaming with vitality bore testament that life had been treating her well.
Standing behind the soothsayer was someone she also knew very well: Mu Jinghu, a man who had once protected her and saved her life.
The sight of the soothsayer raised a few alarms, but Mu Jinghu was a different story. Though the soothsayer was officially Mu Jinghu's uncle-master, she was also his actual master. It went without saying that master and disciple were extremely close.
The sight of them bolstered Qin Yining hopes of escaping. If Mu Jinghu was willing to help, she could go home. She had been away for so long; she truly worried how her family was faring.
The soothsayer spoke freely with Anari and Siqin, but she equally had no inhibitions about speaking to Qin Yining.
"Miss Qin, we meet again," she greeted. "It seems my calculations were correct, that the propitious star governing marriage did indeed move in your favor?"
Qin Yining flushed at her words; if it weren't for growing a thicker skin, she wouldn't have known how to respond to that. "It’s been quite some time since we last met. Priestess Liu seems as lively as ever. I didn't expect we would meet again at a place like this."
"Heh, I'm someone who goes with the flow, so of course I go wherever the living is good." The soothsayer chuckled. "With the khan and her consort taking care of me, I live in much greater comfort than I did in Great Yan. How about you? What are your thoughts on becoming a princess consort?"
"My thoughts?" Qin Yining nearly snapped at her. Was she, a prisoner, supposed to recount the heartbreak she’d endured after being forced apart from Pang Xiao?
The soothsayer smiled. "It's fine, if you don't want to speak, then don't. But you needn't worry—fate continues to smile upon you. I reckon a bit of your husband's luck has rubbed off on you, seeing as your good fortune has yet to run out. Just take it easy and look after yourself. You seem much weaker than you were before marriage."
Whatever her motives were, at least that last statement was made out of genuine concern. It seemed they were indeed old friends who had met each other in foreign lands by chance.
The first time she met the soothsayer was by her maternal grandmother's introduction. Thinking of her grandmother's home in the south, Qin Yining wondered if the women there were well. She dearly wished to return to Great Zhou, but she had absolutely no way of doing so.
Seeing Qin Yining and the soothsayer chat amicably with one another, Anari’s heart filled with jealousy. "It appears the soothsayer knows her well then."
Dimpling, the soothsayer replied, "We have crossed paths a few times. She is destined for greatness beyond words. Not unlike the khan, might I add."
Chapter 487: Slander
The Soothsayer’s tone struck Qin Yining in an odd way. She didn’t know if the priestess knew of her animosity with Anari. Regardless, whatever would the khan think if she heard that her destiny was similar to the princess consort’s?
Anari was a sensitive sort and highly strung when it came to Siqin, keeping a very close eye on her husband. Qin Yining felt nothing for the man and had never tried to approach him, but that in itself was already sufficient fodder for wild speculations from the khan. What would happen to all the delusions of seduction plots once the Soothsayer’s words were thrown into the mix?
The priestess was renowned for her accuracy in divining the futures of others.
Qin Yining furrowed her brow and looked thoughtfully at the other woman, meeting Mu Jinghu’s eyes by accident. He smiled apologetically at her.
Anari reacted just as the princess consort expected. Her face sank and she growled, “It’s quite rare to meet another with the same destiny as this kahn. I hail from noble origins and knew what my future held even when I was a babe. Does the Faithful Princess Consort of the First Rank feel the same way?”
Qin Yining responded with a smile that irked her captor. “I naturally cannot measure up to the khan. Not everyone shares a fate with the mandate of heaven.”
The Soothsayer looked merrily at the princess consort, then cast a glance at Anari’s belligerent assessment. “This humble nun is never wrong. The two of you have a similar destiny—your childhoods are difficult, but you later
see an eruption of accumulated fortune. Both of you are destined to marry true men with talent in both the martial and civil subjects.”
Anari’s eyes moved rapidly back and forth, more paranoia sprouting when she looked at Siqin beside her. Given the Soothsayer’s words, there was a very real possibility for something to develop between Qin Yining and Siqin, right?
This was a persistent fear that weighed on Anari’s mind. She knew that her looks didn’t hold a candle to Qin Yining’s, and that all men loved beautiful women. Ever since Siqin returned to her with the princess consort in tow, he’d never treated her with the same gentle tenderness that he’d always shown her. They’d grown up together, but it would appear that she didn’t occupy nearly the same position in his heart as the Great Zhou princess consort did.
She’d been thinking that Siqin favored Qin Yining’s looks, but now that she thought more about it, it was much more likely because of their similar destinies! Did Qin Yining mean to first take her consort and then her position?
Cold sweat broke out all over Anari’s body when her thoughts traveled here. Her pupils contracted violently when she met the priestess’ all-knowing gaze and the pity hidden within it. More fear, more anxiety.
No, she wouldn’t resign herself to death. She wouldn’t just wait for Qin Yining to steal everything from her!
Looking at Anari's expression, Qin Yining knew that the khan was completely barking up the wrong tree. The princess consort had met Priestess Liu back in Great Yan, and there seemed to be some sort of patron relationship between the priestess and prince. Why was she falsely incriminating Qin Yining now?
She really couldn’t fathom when she’d offended the Soothsayer and why these words were being uttered. Unfortunately, she had no control over what the priestess wished to say. She could only focus on the silver lining that all this was happening right in front of her. That was forewarning enough for preparations, so that sudden developments wouldn’t catch her off guard.
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