Chapter 213: Anyone Is Acceptable, Except Ji Xuan

The memorials scattered across the floor with a flurry of noise.

The Empress tightly clenched her fists, her gaze fixed downward on the memorials at her feet, remaining motionless.

“Wei Yang, in the other three countries, when male twins are born, only one can survive. In Xiliang, for female twins, the same rule applies. I carried both of you for ten months; I couldn’t bear to let go of either. If not for your poor health, which required you to stay at Baima Temple, by tradition, you would have been sent to the Great Zhou.

I am not only the Empress of Xiliang but also your mother. A nation is built upon both country and family, tightly interwoven, neither can be neglected. I put in all my effort to bring her back to Xiliang, allowing her to live freely, granting her the highest authority!

And what was the result?

You two played tricks right under my nose, switching identities! Such a thing—I could punish you for this!”

“I have already lost one daughter; I do not wish to become a cold-blooded executioner. I turned a blind eye, as long as you could govern Xiliang well.”

The Empress Dowager’s eyes gleamed with icy sharpness as she rebuked, “Look at what you are doing! Qi Min and Ji Xuan were doomed from the start. The Great Zhou was wary of Qi Min marrying into the Ji family, changing the royal surname of the Great Zhou to Wei. How could they trample upon Qi Min like that? A noble princess of Xiliang—how could she be subjected to such humiliation, casually married off to a despicable person? Qi…”

That name caught in the Empress Dowager’s throat, and she forcefully stopped herself, her expression growing even colder. “He actually dared to agree!”

In the Empress Dowager’s heart, she had always harbored resentment toward General Qi.

Back then, he refused to relinquish the responsibilities on his shoulders and thus did not return to Xiliang with her. She understood him, and they parted peacefully.

Yet in the end, for the sake of blind loyalty, he couldn’t even take control of his own daughter’s marriage.

The Empress Dowager’s dissatisfaction with General Qi reached its peak. She used any means necessary to take Qi Min away so that she would no longer be subject to others.

But Qi Min had disappointed her. Even while in a coma, she remained preoccupied with thoughts of Ji Xuan. So, the Empress Dowager decided to make her forget the past, to become the heir of Xiliang, and to start a new life.

Even so, Qi Min still refused to marry.

If asked for a reason, she would only say that she had not yet found that feeling of being moved.

To the Empress Dowager, this was utterly laughable.

Any kind of affection, given enough time, will eventually fade. In the end, the person by your side will simply become a habit, taking on the role of family.

“You brought Ji Xuan here—what do you intend to do? Even if Qi Min were to take a liking to a commoner, it absolutely must not be Ji Xuan!”

In the eyes of the Empress Dowager, Ji Xuan was just as useless as General Qi, unable to protect the people most important to him.

The Empress’s eyes reddened. “But Wanwan…”

As soon as she spoke, she stopped herself. She knew that her mother harbored deep prejudices against the people of the Great Zhou and feared provoking her anger.

These words, however, extinguished half of the Empress Dowager’s fury, though her expression remained far from pleasant.

At that time, the Empress Dowager had not considered Su Wan at all; her entire focus was on Qi Min. Even though she might feel some guilt, if given the chance to do it all over again, she would still make the same choice.

Others believed that she forcibly brought Qi Min back to secure her own position. Even Wei Yang thought this way. But the Empress Dowager never bothered to explain herself—regardless of her original intentions, the outcome was the same: she had brought Qi Min back at any cost.

Even if it meant disregarding Qi Min’s wishes!

The first time she saw Qi Min in Xiliang, the Empress Dowager had thought about keeping her. But ever since Master Mingjue returned from the Great Zhou and revealed that Qi Min was willing to have the poison gu planted in her body just to save Ji Xuan’s life, she abandoned that idea.