Chapter 46: There's a Huge Problem in Mangyuan

"Could it be that Prince hadn't found it strange that King Xia had suddenly changed his mind?" Yao Mowan lifted her brows towards Ye Junqing with an expression like 'you should've been able to guess this.'

"It's not strange!" Ye Junqing decisively denied it. The moment he admitted that it was strange, it'd cost him five million taels!

"King Xia seriously hasn't seen any money before. Just five million taels was enough to convince him to exchange an unpolished jade for scrap metal. Prince, you should be feeling lucky!" Yao Mowan ignored Ye Junqing's pale and colorless face as she ladled herself a bowl of ginseng soup.

"This prince can't feel lucky at all. This prince doesn't have five million taels of gold. This prince can't even pull out fifty hundred taels, so you can decide what to do with this!" By this point, Ye Junqing had already given up on arguing about things.

"Prince may not have it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that senior brother of yours doesn't have it." Yao Mowan tried guiding his thoughts.

"Unless Phoenix Feather Manor is sold." It was the first time Ye Junqing realized how terrifying it must be for Yan Nansheng to be his senior brother.

"Then have him sell it!" Yao Mowan was getting a little impatient now. Ever since her business in Mangyuan had shut its doors, the numbers on the account books had been rapidly going down. They weren't making enough income to cover the expenses, so for the first time, Yao Mowan was feeling a sense of crisis.

Three speechless black lines appeared on Ye Junqing's forehead. It was only when Yao Mowan saw Ye Junqing's expression that she realized she had completely lost control of herself just now.

"Ahem… If Prince doesn't wish to trouble Yan Nansheng, then please just sign!" At the side, Ting Yue attentively offered the writing brush that had already been dipped in ink. Ye Junqing didn't look at Yao Mowan or Ting Yue. He just closed his eyes without showing any intentions of signing the paper.

"Of course, if Prince is willing to repay with the body…" Before Yao Mowan even finished her words, Ye Junqing had already signed the IOU and in the blink of an eye, was passing it to her.

Yao Mowan happily tucked the IOU away, then picked up her bowl and chopsticks again. Every single dish tasted especially delicious this morning. Ye Junqing was furious, so he just threw down his chopsticks and left.

Once Ye Junqing left, Yin Xue silently appeared in the main hall, then respectfully passed Ben Lei's letter to Yao Mowan.

"How is the situation with Yao Suluan's side?" asked Yao Mowan as she opened the letter.

"She's heading towards Mangyuan. Don't worry, Master, with Liu Sha following her, there's no way for Yao Suluan to escape our control," reported Yin Xue.

As Yao Mowan read the contents of the letter, her eyes gradually turned cold and shocking waves filled those cold pupils.

"Master?" Yin Xue was able to guess by her master's expression that something bad had definitely happened to Mangyuan.

"This consort had been too careless. This consort hadn't expected for Thousand Paths to take advantage of the time while Yao Manifest Trade was closed to rapidly adjust the prices of their goods. They had actually been able to earn back all the loss they suffered before! How preposterous!" Yao Mowan angrily destroyed the letter as her brows furrowed worriedly.

"Thousand Paths is truly sly. Then what should we do know?" Yin Xue hadn't expected an outcome like this.

"Help this consort write a secret letter. Have Ben Lei and the others reopen business without changing the prices. At the same time, have them secretly divide and conquer. Have them buy things from Thousand Paths, then sell the items to neighboring counties to decrease our losses." For the time being, Yao Mowan couldn't come up with any better ideas and decided that earning a difference was still better than earning nothing.

"Yin Xue will get to it right away!" Yin Xue left, and at this point Yao Mowan had lost her appetite, so she returned to her bedroom.

That night, Ye Hongyi who had not appeared for a very long time walked in, dragging his weary body inside. An Bingshan was no longer around and the new eunuch didn't have his trust, so when Ye Hongyi came, he was by himself.

"Your Majesty came to visit Wan er!" Yao Mowan smiled brightly as always as she skipped forward to take Ye Hongyi's arm even as her heart filled with disgust.

"We missed Wan er… All we have left is Wan er now…" When Ye Hongyi opened his mouth, the strong smell of alcohol wafted over, causing Yao Mowan's brows to furrow.

"Your Majesty, you can't drink so much wine! It's bad for the health!" Yao Mowan helped Ye Hongyi over to sit down, then looked towards Ting Yue. Just as Ting Yue was about to pour tea for him, Ye Hongyi suddenly waved her off.

"You can withdraw. We wish to talk with Wan er properly for a while!" When Ting Yue heard this, she set down the tea pot and respectfully withdrew from Guan Osprey Palace.

As Yao Mowan took in how intoxicated Ye Hongyi was, a trace of a cold smile flashed across her lips. Everything she had done ever since her rebirth was finally bearing fruit. As of now, Ye Hongyi had already walked to the edge of finding himself utterly isolated. The important ministers of court appeared united with him, but were divided at heart and the consorts of the inner palace were in even greater disorder. Yao Mowan was getting increasingly sure that the right time had come.

"Wan er, say, are we a good person?" Ye Hongyi pulled Yao Mowan into his arms and coaxed her like she was a precious treasure. His voice was extremely soft like he was very worried about scaring the beauty in his arms.

"Your Majesty is a good person! Your Majesty is the best person in the world!" Yao Mowan leaned into Ye Hongyi's arms as she toyed with the jade pendant at his waist.

"So then why are they all leaving us? Consort Xian, Consort Shu, Yu Qing, Ye Liyu, Yi Zixiao, An Bingshan, Yao Zhenting, and Yao Suluan! We've never treated them unfairly, so why did they betray us? Why!?" Ye Hongyi's hand which was around Yao Mowan's arm reflexively clenched as his eyes filled with dark light.

"It hurts…" said Yao Mowan weakly, her eyes glimmering with tears. Now that she thought about it, she really had done quite a lot.

"Sorry! I'm sorry, Wan er! It's all our fault! We shouldn't have used so much force, please forgive us?" Ye Hongyi placed his hands on Yao Mowan's shoulders fearfully as he beseeched her like a child that had done something wrong.

"Wan er knows that Your Majesty isn't feeling well. Wan er doesn't blame Your Majesty." Forgive? Yao Mowan snorted. Ye Hongyi ah, not everyone in this world who has done things wrong has the right to be forgiven! Just based on what you've done in the cold palace, if I forgave you, then I really had died once for nothing!

"Wan er, don't leave us. All we have left is you…" This night, Ye Hongyi was extremely gentle as he stroked every inch of Yao Mowan's skin. He touched every part of her like she was the most fragile pearl in the world. This night, Yao Mowan felt disgusted like she had never felt before. There were several times that she had to do all she could to suppress the nausea churning in her stomach.

Yao Mowan knew that this was because of Ye Junqing. Although nothing had happened that night, she had already lost her heart.

The next day, six hours after Ye Hongyi left Guan Osprey Palace, he got an urgent report from the imperial hospital that said Yao Mowan had caught a severe illness. At this time, Ye Hongyi had just gotten out of court. After hearing this news, he rushed straight to Guan Osprey Palace.

"Wan er!" When Ye Hongyi arrived at Guan Osprey Palace, almost all the imperial physicians from the imperial hospital were surrounding the room with a grave expression. Yao Mowan was lying on her back on the bed, her facial color ashen and her eyes hazy. Her hands twitched from time to time like she was about to die.

"How can this be!? Imperial physician!" In this moment, Ye Hongyi felt like his heart was dripping blood. It was like a poisonous snake was biting at it furiously. It hurt beyond repair. It was the first time he had ever felt fear at the thought of losing a woman.

"Replying Your Majesty… Her Imperial Highness has caught a rarely seen disease that is known by the name of 'drowse.' There is no medicine for curing this illness. The only way is to send Her Imperial Highness to a place in Mangyuan called The Remote Springs to soak for 77419 days!" Imperial Physician Li's voice was trembling slightly and his face was extremely pale.

"Drowse? Mangyuan? We've never heard of this sort of illness before!" Ye Hongyi's brows were tightly furrowed as he sternly demanded answers.

"Your Majesty, this old subject had once read about the symptoms of drowse in a medicinal text. Her Imperial Highness's current symptoms correspond exactly. This old subject will go find the book for Your Majesty right away!" Imperial Physician Li's forehead was covered with sweat, but he didn't dare to reach over to wipe at it.

"What's the use of showing us a medicinal text? Do you dare to guarantee that the empress will come out unscathed from this after soaking in The Remote Springs in Mangyuan?" Ye Hongyi turned to look towards Yao Mowan. As he carefully stroked her cheeks with both hands, a tear actually slid down the corner of his eye.

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira

[Chiyomira's Corner]

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