The Prisoner of Beauty

Wei Shao stayed in Dongjun for several days.

It wasn’t until Lei Yan came looking for him, reporting that the military advisor in Luoyang had grown anxious over the lord’s delayed return. Knowing that Wei Shao had personally escorted his wife back to Dongjun, the advisor had sent someone to inquire about his return date.

As night fell, Xiao Qiao returned to her room and saw Wei Shao lying on his back on the bed, with Fei Fei quietly sprawled on her father’s chest. Her tiny head pressed firmly against his chin, her little hands and feet clinging to his torso.

Wei Shao’s eyes were also closed, his palm resting lightly on Fei Fei’s back, as if he too had fallen asleep.

Earlier that day, the family of three had gone out in plain clothes to enjoy themselves. Fei Fei had laughed and played all day, and by now, she must have been exhausted. After giving her a bath, Xiao Qiao had left father and daughter in the room while she went out with Madam Ding and Chun Niang to prepare provisions and clothing for Wei Shao’s departure the next day. Once everything was ready, she returned to find the two of them already asleep like this.

Xiao Qiao tiptoed closer and only then noticed that Fei Fei’s little mouth was slightly open in sleep, a thin trail of drool trickling from the corner of her lips. It had already dripped onto Wei Shao’s robe, dampening the fabric and leaving a wet patch.

Just as Xiao Qiao reached to take Fei Fei away, Wei Shao suddenly opened his eyes. He lifted his head slightly to glance at the sleeping child on his chest, then raised a finger to his lips in a silent gesture.

Xiao Qiao paused, realizing he hadn’t been asleep at all—he had likely stayed still to avoid disturbing their daughter. Shaking her head, she bent down and gently lifted Fei Fei, placing her into the arms of Chun Niang, who had followed her inside.

Chun Niang carried Fei Fei out to settle her for the night. Turning back, Xiao Qiao saw Wei Shao still lying there, watching her. She walked over and sat beside him, taking a handkerchief to wipe away the drool stain on his robe. Softly, she said, “Everything you’ll need for tomorrow’s journey is ready, including provisions. Since you’ll be leaving early, you should rest now.”

Wei Shao made a low sound of acknowledgment and took her hand.

The night deepened.

Outside, a quiet rain had begun to fall at some point.

It was late autumn, yet the weather this year had been unusual. Even now, faint rumbles of thunder could be heard in the distance.

The candlelight flickered in the room, and the arms wrapped around her belonged to her husband—solid and warm.

Amid the distant thunder, Xiao Qiao nestled deeper into his embrace, finding a comfortable position with her face pressed against his heated chest. Just as she closed her eyes to sleep, she suddenly heard him whisper in her ear, “Manman, there’s something I’ve always wanted to know. But you’ve never told me the full story. I’m leaving tomorrow—I want you to tell me now.”

“Hmm?”

Already drowsy, Xiao Qiao responded vaguely without opening her eyes.

“Twice before, I’ve heard you mention your nightmares in my presence. I want to know—what exactly are these nightmares about?”

Xiao Qiao opened her eyes.

Wei Shao, who seemed to have been awake all along, was gazing down at her with dark, intent eyes.

“The first time I learned of your nightmares was when I marched troops to Yanzhou. You came to me and said it was because of a nightmare that you had always been wary of me. You told me that in your nightmare, I destroyed your Qiao family out of hatred. The second time, I saw you trapped in a nightmare, crying so hard you couldn’t wake. After I roused you, you said a man in a dragon robe tried to kill you with a sword.”

He paused briefly, as if recalling the scene.

“Manman, that can’t be all there is to your nightmares. I want to know everything. Tell me—no more hiding, all right?”“Who was that man in the dragon robe who wanted to kill you?”

“Was it me?”

He asked three times in a row.

Xiao Qiao gazed at him, silent at first, then slowly shook her head.

“It wasn’t you.”

“Then who was it?”

Xiao Qiao bit her lip and fell into silence.

“What’s going on? I want you to tell me everything!”

Xiao Qiao closed her eyes.

Suddenly, his lips pressed heavily against hers. After a brief kiss, he released her and moved his lips to her ear.

“Manman, I’ve always felt that you’re trapped too deeply in that nightmare, unable to free yourself. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been so guarded against me before. Tell me everything—hold nothing back, and don’t hesitate.”

“I want you to say it all! Who was that man?”

Xiao Qiao’s eyelids trembled slightly before she slowly opened her eyes, meeting his intense gaze.

After a moment of hesitation, she finally mustered the courage and whispered, “It was Liu Yan.”

Wei Shao’s eyes narrowed slightly, a shadow flickering across them. His arms tightened around her, pulling her closer.

“Tell me everything.”

Xiao Qiao took a deep breath. “Husband, are you sure you want to hear this? You won’t regret it?”

“Speak!” Just that single word.

Xiao Qiao held his gaze and finally began slowly, “A long time ago, for some reason, I kept having the same dream. It was vivid and coherent, and every time I woke up, I felt it wasn’t just an illusion—it was as if I was reliving my past life in that dream, over and over again… Just as you said, I was deeply troubled, completely unable to break free…”

“In that past life I dreamed of, the Wei and Qiao families were also connected by marriage. But the one who married you wasn’t me—it was my elder sister. After she married you, she never won your affection. You despised and neglected her for the rest of her life. Only Grandmother treated her kindly, but unfortunately, Grandmother passed away the same year my sister married into the Wei family…”

Wei Shao looked startled, his brows twitching as if he wanted to say something, but he held back.

“From then on, my sister had no one to rely on and lived a lonely life until her death. In my dream, you took Su Nu as your concubine and later became emperor. Over those years, my Qiao family members died one after another by your hand, until only my younger brother remained. Not long after you ascended the throne, my sister died in sickness and loneliness. Afterward, you made Su Nu your empress…”

Xiao Qiao’s tone remained calm as she spoke.

But Wei Shao’s expression grew increasingly grim. He stared at her, his eyes filled with deep disbelief and overwhelming disgust.

“What about you? Did you marry Liu Yan?”

After a long silence, as if struggling to suppress his emotions, he finally asked, his voice strained like a string about to snap.

“Yes.”

Xiao Qiao nodded.

“I married Liu Yan as arranged. Later, when the Han dynasty collapsed, just as in this life, he was proclaimed the Last Emperor by a group of loyalists, and I became his empress. But not long after, you pursued and besieged the city. My younger brother died protecting me as I tried to escape. In the final moments before you breached the city, Liu Yan, in despair, killed his harem. I swore to live and die with him, so he killed me—plunging a sword into my heart…”

Xiao Qiao closed her eyes briefly before opening them again.

“That was the final scene of my past-life dream. And it’s this very scene that has replayed endlessly in my nightmares, leaving me utterly unable to escape.”After speaking, she looked at Wei Shao.

Wei Shao's hand, gripping her arm unconsciously, tightened more and more until she felt the pain.

The veins on his temples bulged slightly like earthworms as his dark, brooding gaze fixed on her for a long time.

"So you couldn't eat or sleep peacefully, and from then on, you saw me as a venomous snake?"

As if finally realizing he had hurt her, he abruptly loosened his grip, yet still asked slowly in this manner.

Xiao Qiao let out a soft sigh.

"At that time, I had never met you. Not even in my dreams had I ever faced you directly..."

She raised her hand, her warm fingertips gently tracing the rigid lines of his face, as if soothing his emotions.

Wei Shao's expression finally relaxed somewhat.

"But this dream was too vivid. I couldn't help being affected by it, yet I couldn't tell anyone. I could only bury it in my heart, hoping it was just a dream. It wasn't until that year, when Zhou Qun of Rencheng raised troops to attack Yanzhou, and my uncle decided to marry my elder sister to you in an attempt to seek your favor, that I truly realized my dream might have been real."

"Because something similar to what I saw in my dream was about to happen."

"I was terrified. I knew I had to prevent events from unfolding as they had in my dream. That's why I went to great lengths to persuade my elder sister and Bi Zhi to leave home. At the time, I thought that without my sister, the marriage wouldn't happen, and my uncle would adopt my father's strategy to form an alliance against Zhou Qun. But I never expected my uncle to be so hopelessly weak-willed that he would break my engagement to Liu Yan and have me marry you in my sister's place. Caught between a rock and a hard place, through this twist of fate, I entered your Wei family's door and became your wife."

"Husband, you must remember, in the first year of our marriage, after the Luli Assembly, Grandmother fell ill, and you were about to leave for battle in Bingzhou. Before your departure, I tried everything to keep you from going. In truth, I was afraid Grandmother would meet the same fate as in my dream. Fortunately, she overcame the crisis. It was after this incident that I began to see hope of altering the ominous prophecy. Yet, the shadow cast by that dream was too deep. I still couldn't relax, which led to my urging my father to strengthen his forces—an act that later provoked your great anger..."

Xiao Qiao's voice grew even softer.

"What happened afterward... you already know, husband..."

Wei Shao's gaze remained fixed on her face.

The light in the tent suddenly dimmed. The candle had burned out, its flame flickering a few last times before the room plunged into darkness.

"Husband..."

After a long silence, she called to him.

"That night, you told me you considered yourself fortunate to have married me. But you don't know, in this lifetime, being able to marry you—isn't that just as much a blessing for me?"

In the darkness, Wei Shao remained silent. Suddenly, he pulled her into a tight embrace, his strength so great it seemed he wanted to crush her into his very flesh. Xiao Qiao could feel his heart pounding violently against her.

She closed her eyes and stayed perfectly still.

...

The night deepened, its hour unknown.

Boom—

Another roll of thunder echoed from the distant horizon.

Xiao Qiao instinctively shrank closer to the figure beside her, only to find empty space. The damp night breeze seemed to rush in through the window, stirring the bed curtains in waves.She suddenly opened her eyes and, by the fleeting blue flash of lightning in the night sky, saw a figure standing before the window against the wind and rain, his silhouette profoundly solemn.

Xiao Qiao slowly sat up, pushed aside the billowing curtains stirred by the night breeze, and walked to stand behind Wei Shao.

A gust of wind swept rain through the window, pattering onto the sill and splashing onto Wei Shao's chest.

His clothes were half-soaked, clinging tightly to his body, and his skin felt icy to the touch, as if he had been submerged in water.

Who knew how long he had been standing there like this.

Xiao Qiao embraced him from behind, pressing her cheek against his broad back.

"Manman, in that past life from your dream, was Grandmother supposed to be gone by now? Killed by Su Nu? And not only was I deceived by her, taking her in, but I even made her Empress?" he suddenly asked, his voice distant, like a man sleepwalking.

Xiao Qiao remained silent.

"And you were not my wife—you married Liu Yan, and we were strangers. The only connection between us was that in the end, I forced you to die by his sword?"

Wei Shao slowly turned around. His face was hidden in the darkness of the night, his expression unseen.

Only his hoarse voice, thick with bitterness, could be heard.

Xiao Qiao sighed softly, wrapping her slender arms around his neck. Her warm, dry body pressed against his cold, damp chest as she rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his rain-chilled ones in a deep kiss.

"My lord, I never spoke of it before because I didn’t want to burden you with unnecessary distress. Even if that truly was a past life, it’s all over now—nothing more than an illusion. What we have now is real..."

Another flash of lightning outside illuminated their faces.

Wei Shao’s face was streaked with rain, deathly pale, his eyes glowing faintly blue.

Seizing the sudden, fleeting light, he stared intently at Xiao Qiao’s face before cupping her head in his hands and kissing her fiercely in return.

The blue light of the lightning faded quickly, plunging the room back into darkness.

Amidst the rolling thunder overhead, he undid her robes with impatient, almost rough movements, greedily kissing her, his palms urgently tracing every inch of her warm skin that belonged only to him, Wei Shao.

Soon, his cold, damp skin grew warm, his blood boiling.

He couldn’t fathom how blind he must have been to have made Su Nu his Empress.

Even more unimaginable was that she had once married Liu Yan, that they had been strangers, and that in her eyes, even at the moment of her death, he had been nothing more than a faceless, terrifying avenger.

Even if it was merely a so-called past life from her dream, he found it unbearable.

Utterly unbearable.

Gripped by resentment, shame, and a deep, lingering fear, his breath grew ragged and harsh. He abruptly laid her down on a table by the window, tearing away his own restraints before pressing down on her like a ravenous beast.

He had not yet passed the hundred-day mourning period for his mother, but at this moment, nothing else mattered.

Only one thought remained in his mind—he had to possess her, right now.Only by possessing her, by truly feeling the tangible reality of her body entwined with his, could he convince himself that the truths he had finally extracted from her tonight were merely the nightmares of her dreams!

"Husband—ah—"

Xiao Qiao's throat released a trembling, delicate cry, which was swiftly drowned out by another roll of thunder overhead.

The night rain fell softly, the wind slapping against the open window, rattling the damp wooden frames. Intermittent flashes of lightning streaked across the pitch-black sky. Amid the unending thunder, Wei Shao claimed her with near-frenzy, seizing every inch of her skin, indulging in repeated possession, making her yield to him, shattering her heart, consuming her essence, and penetrating her very soul.

The long night finally gave way to dawn. The thunder faded, the rain ceased, and the sky cleared.

Xiao Qiao's cheeks were flushed, her body covered in the pitiful marks left by her husband's passionate torment. Exhausted, she lay on the pillow, lost in deep slumber, only to be forcibly awakened.

She opened her eyes slightly dazed, the faint morning light in the room revealing Wei Shao, already dressed and ready, his sword hanging at his waist, full of vigor, watching her from beside the bed.

Suddenly remembering, she hurriedly tried to rise, but he gently pressed her back onto the pillow.

"Manman, I must leave now. There’s no need to see me off. Stay at ease. When I return to fetch you next time, the world will belong to Great Yan. You will be my Empress, Wei Shao’s Empress, the true Empress of all under heaven."

He leaned down, planting a tender kiss on her forehead, then whispered into her ear.

Though his voice was low, each word carried an unspoken strength.