Chapter 101

Lin Yu: ?

Lin Yu looked at Fu Ming. "You're the one with a fever-addled mind. How can you talk about me like that?"

The room fell silent. The imperial physician and the guard stood frozen in place, exchanging glances, neither understanding what was happening.

Sure, the Divine Maiden was of noble status, but one couldn't speak to His Majesty like that, could she? Anyone else might have gotten away with it, but this emperor of theirs was a man who killed without blinking. You could offend anyone but him...

The physician carefully studied Fu Ming's expression. Fortunately, there was no sign of anger on his face. The physician shuffled over to Lin Yu's bedside with the look of someone resigned to death.

Fu Ming wanted to move aside for the physician, but Lin Yu still clung to his sleeve, refusing to let go. Fu Ming said softly, "Let go."

Lin Yu, still groggy, opened her eyes and looked around, realizing Fu Ming was talking to her. Her grip slackened, her fingers shifting from the center of his sleeve to just pinching a corner of the fabric.

Lin Yu looked at Fu Ming. "Let go..."

Fu Ming looked at the fingers gripping the hem of his sleeve and let out a soft laugh. Fine, he'd let it be.

Fu Ming moved to the side, and the physician stepped in, pressing her fingers to Lin Yu's wrist. After a moment, she withdrew her hand and stepped back to address Fu Ming. "No cause for concern. The Divine Maiden is simply overexerted and caught a chill. A few doses of medicine for proper recuperation will do the trick."

"I'll write the prescription now and have someone prepare the decoction and deliver it," the physician said. "But this medicine is rather demanding—it needs a long simmering time, so I must ask the Divine Maiden to wait a while."

Fu Ming gave a vague nod. "Fine. You may go."

"Yes." The physician took the order without a moment's hesitation and slipped out as fast as her legs could carry her, not even sparing a glance for the guard still inside.

The guard watched the physician's retreating figure and twitched her lips. She pressed them together and said, "...Your Majesty, then I—"

Fu Ming didn't turn around. "Out."

"Got it."

Before leaving, the guard was considerate enough to close the door behind her. In her haste, the door shut with a loud bang, and Lin Yu frowned almost imperceptibly at the sound.

"What time is it now?" she asked.

"Chen hour," Fu Ming replied.

Lin Yu rolled over to face Fu Ming. Her gaze landed on the edge of the bed, staring absently at the dark patterns embroidered on his sleeve. Then, as if struck by a thought, she tugged at his sleeve to pull him closer.

Lin Yu grabbed hold of Fu Ming's sleeve again, refusing to let go. She stared at his brows and eyes for a moment before speaking. "They're all pretty scared of you."

She meant the physician and the guard from earlier.

Fu Ming gave a soft "Mm" in acknowledgment. In a joking tone, he said, "Everyone's scared of me, aren't they?"

"True," Lin Yu said. "I was pretty scared of you the first time I met you too."

Fu Ming curved his lips into an amused smile. "You? Scared?"

"Scared, yeah, terrified." Lin Yu nodded as she spoke. "Do you remember the first thing you ever said to me?"

Fu Ming actually couldn't quite recall. He asked, "What was it?"

Lin Yu said flatly, "Drag him out and kill him."

Fu Ming: "...Ah, so that's how it was..."

"Right." Lin Yu said it very seriously. "You have a fearsome reputation, you know. If I hadn't been clever back then, I'd have been chopped to pieces."

Fu Ming: "...Fine. I repent for that. From now on, I'll burn incense every day to atone."

"Incense is for the dead," Lin Yu added.

Fu Ming never worshipped gods. He only paid respects at the memorial tablets of the late emperor and empress, which were hidden within the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods. He always burned incense there in remembrance, so it was his instinct to say that.

Fu Ming: "..."

Seeing Fu Ming's expression, Lin Yu couldn't help but laugh out loud. From this angle, looking up at him, she noticed his eyelashes were very long, and his brows and eyes were handsome. On impulse, she reached out to touch his eyes.

Fu Ming's breath caught. Just as her fingertips were about to brush his brow, he reached out and caught her wrist, tucking her hand back under the blanket.

"You're already chilled. Don't move around," Fu Ming said, his voice low and rough.

Lin Yu wasn't the least bit annoyed at being pushed back. Her thoughts were unusually active, and she scrutinized Fu Ming from head to toe. Even he, for once, had a slight flush creeping onto his face.

Lin Yu's gaze then settled on the crown atop Fu Ming's head. The beaded tassels on the crown swayed with his every movement, and staring at them too long made her dizzy. "How did you become emperor, anyway?"

"Wait, your family had the right of succession anyway." As the words left her mouth, Lin Yu suddenly remembered. "Your brother was too foolish to compete. No wonder the throne fell to you."

"The throne... wasn't supposed to fall to us in the first place." Fu Ming pushed Lin Yu's restless hand back down again. "Before my father Ascended, he had already drafted the abdication edict. The one who should have taken the throne was my mother."

"I was only eight then, and Fu Zhao was just five."

"Your mother?" Lin Yu frowned in thought. "How come I've never heard of there being a female emperor?"

"Of course you haven't." Fu Ming recalled his childhood memories. "Not long after my father Ascended, my mother also Ascended to godhood."

Fu Ming paused before continuing. "Fourteen days."

Lin Yu was puzzled. "Fourteen days?"

"On the fourteenth day after my father Ascended, before the coronation ceremony could even be held, heavenly thunder descended." A smile crept onto Fu Ming's face. "On the day my mother Ascended, the sky was bathed in golden light. Purple-gold rays pierced through the clouds, and auspicious clouds drifted across the heavens. I'd never seen such a sunset before—it was so, so beautiful."

"My parents Ascending one after another was a grand occasion celebrated nationwide. Everyone was overjoyed, especially the Xianzun." Fu Ming said, "He was different back then from how he is now."

"Standing under that vast golden light, I was happy too. The plague that had ravaged for a year finally vanished, and the Yu Kingdom finally had gods to protect it."

"You're lying." Lin Yu gave a soft snort. "You weren't happy."

Fu Ming started slightly, wondering if he'd misheard. "What did you say?"

Lin Yu grabbed his sleeve and pulled him down. Caught off guard, Fu Ming's lips brushed across Lin Yu's brow in a flash.

From another angle, it looked as if Fu Ming had gently pressed a kiss to Lin Yu's forehead.

Fu Ming's heart suddenly raced. Heat rushed to his fingertips, his fingers curled involuntarily, and for a moment his mind went blank.

Fu Ming felt a strange warmth spreading through him. It seemed he'd caught the chill from Lin Yu.

"I said, you're lying." In her drowsiness, Lin Yu didn't notice anything amiss about the brief contact. She repeated the muddled words again near his ear.

"To everyone else, a mortal's Ascension is a good thing. But for you, it's not." Lin Yu's words pulled Fu Ming's wandering thoughts back somewhat. Her voice was very soft, and she seemed to be getting sleepy. "Look at you—a perfectly whole family, and in an instant your father and mother were gone, leaving you all alone."

Fu Ming blinked rapidly twice. The two of them were very close now, almost face to face. Lin Yu's breathing was slow and deep, and as their breaths intertwined, Fu Ming's cheek grew ticklish from her exhalations.

He stared at Lin Yu's lips, moving as she spoke. Perhaps because she was ill, her lips were very red. Fu Ming gazed at them absentmindedly for a long while before looking away.

"How is that any different from losing both parents? What's there to be happy about?" The sheer curtain by the bed caught Lin Yu's eye, and she noticed for the first time that it was woven from threads of several different colors, not plain white.

She turned her gaze back to Fu Ming. "Eight years old... When I was eight, I was out climbing walls and trees. You were already emperor."

With the late emperor and empress Ascended, and apart from Fu Zheng, Fu Ming had no other relatives. A vast kingdom fell into the hands of two children. Had anyone with ill intentions sought to seize power, overturning a dynasty would have been as easy as turning over a hand.

Fu Ming's heart was still pounding. "So... if I hadn't been a little crazy, who would have listened to an eight-year-old's words?"

"If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't want this throne." Fu Ming had paid far too much for this fading dynasty.

It began with the plague, then the rise of sacrifices, then temples springing up everywhere, then devolving into human sacrifice. Everyone coveted Ascension to immortality. Gods reigned supreme, striding across the world unchecked. Cultivators held lofty status and could cover the sky with one hand. All of this had come to pass in just twenty years.

How much longer could this dynasty flourish? How far was it from its downfall?

Twenty years? Fifty years? Or a hundred?

Faith was like wildfire—you couldn't extinguish it, couldn't kill it. As long as gods existed in this world, the era of blind worship would never end.

Lin Yu was getting sleepy. She closed her eyes unconsciously and gave a soft laugh at his words. "Then who gets the throne? Fu Zheng?"

Fu Ming thought about Fu Zheng's temper. "He probably wouldn't want to be emperor either."

"Neither of you wants it?" Lin Yu joked, half-serious. "Then pass it to me. Let me experience it for two days."

Fu Ming laughed softly. "Fine. I'll write the abdication edict to you right now. Tomorrow I'll send the imperial seal over as well. From then on, you'll be the first female emperor in the three hundred years since the Yu Kingdom was founded."

Lin Yu agreed without a second thought. "Great, then..."

Her words trailed off until even Fu Ming couldn't make them out. He leaned closer to her. "What?"

In answer, there was only the slow, even sound of her breathing. Unable to hold on any longer, Lin Yu had drifted back to sleep. Fu Ming looked at her sleeping face and shook his head, then brushed a few stray strands of hair from her temple back behind her ear.

His gaze then settled on the bright red mark between Lin Yu's brows—the mark that symbolized her status as the Divine Maiden.

Without realizing it, Fu Ming watched her for a long time. He thought of nothing, did nothing, just listened to her breathing.

Gradually, a smile crept onto Fu Ming's brow. He inexplicably wished that time could freeze at this very moment—never again to deal with the troubles of the mortal world, just being an ordinary man forever.

...

Three days later, at dawn, a rumor swept through the court at lightning speed. Someone had filed a lawsuit accusing the Divine Maiden of the Heaven's Mandate Tower of killing innocents without cause, harming the people, with despicable intent.

The man held up his written complaint, endured fifty blows of the spiked cudgel, and, drenched in blood, burst through to the Meridian Gate crying out his grievances. It happened to be the time when officials were arriving for morning court, so many of them witnessed the sight.

The man's words dripped with blood. When the Imperial Censor passed by and carefully read the complaint, he was moved to pity and brought the matter up during the morning session.

Most officials knew about it well enough—they were just waiting for someone to speak first. So when the Imperial Censor reported the matter, many people expressed sympathy for the one who had brought the petition before the emperor.

A petition before the emperor was not something an ordinary citizen could manage, let alone one that made it all the way to the imperial presence. Someone at court must have been backing him. All the officials knew it well.

And at that moment, everyone waited with bated breath to see how Fu Ming would respond.

Fu Ming listened to the so-called grievance attentively, then fixed the Imperial Censor with a faint smile. "Fine. Bring the petitioner before me. I'll ask him myself what evidence he has to dare slander our Divine Maiden so."