Chapter 907: The Young Empress (44)

Nan Yunchuan refused to leave the courtyard the Empress had purchased especially for him to recuperate in.

He believed that by remaining here, even if he could never see Her Majesty again, he could at least spend the rest of his days immersed in memories of her.

Tang Nuoyue came several times, but after discovering that Nan Yunchuan had become completely dispirited, she gradually lost interest.

In her previous life, this man had never been so sentimental. He had always been ruthless in everything he did.

He had schemed against the Empress, beguiled her with sweet words, and personally led the troops that surrounded the Empress's palace.

The young Empress had refused to become a prisoner. She had refused to show weakness before them, and even more so, she had refused to be used as a hostage and paraded around to confess her crimes and raise their morale.

Before everyone present, the eighteen-year-old Empress had drawn her sword and slit her own throat.

Before dying, the young Empress had spoken only one sentence.

“Mother Emperor, I'm sorry.”

Even after being reborn, Tang Nuoyue still could not understand what the Empress had meant by those final words.

If it had been her, she certainly wouldn't have possessed the courage to press a blade to her own neck.

Back then, Nan Yunchuan had watched the Empress take her own life without even blinking.

Tang Nuoyue looked at the absent-minded man before her, who was repeatedly wiping and polishing the items gifted to him by the Empress, and couldn't help feeling puzzled.

He was clearly the same person.

So why was there such a huge difference?

What had changed in the middle for Nan Yunchuan to collapse completely after losing the Empress?

“What good does this do?” Tang Nuoyue squatted down beside him. “I thought you liked me. I never expected you to love Her Majesty. If that's the case, why did you approach me in the first place? Wouldn't it have been better to stay by the Empress's side?”

Nan Yunchuan slowly lifted his head and glanced at Tang Nuoyue.

“Yes… why did I come and provoke you? Why didn't I simply stay beside Her Majesty? Why did I do all this and end up losing her completely?”

“So why?” Tang Nuoyue asked.

“Why?”

Nan Yunchuan froze for a moment before suddenly bursting into wild laughter, tears streaming from his eyes.

“Why? Why? How ridiculous…”

Why?

To restore the dignity of men.

To allow the men of Western Saint Kingdom to stand above all others, like the men of other nations, and become the rulers and masters of Western Saint Kingdom.

In the end, all of it could be summed up in a single word—

Power.

“You really won't come back to my residence with me?” Tang Nuoyue asked, propping up her cheeks with both hands. “The Empress has already decreed it. You're now part of Prince Yue's estate.”

“I won't go.”

Nan Yunchuan muttered softly and continued wiping the white jade chessboard in his hands.

It had been one of the Empress's treasured possessions, yet she had given it to him without the slightest hesitation.

He had clearly known that the Empress was treating him better and better.

Yet at the time, his mind had been filled with nothing but exploitation, power, and the desire to overthrow Western Saint Kingdom's rule.

If he had calmed down back then…

Would things have turned out differently?

When Su Qing heard the news that Nan Yunchuan had died from illness, he simply couldn't believe it.

Since he had not left the palace and knew nothing about events outside, and because Nan Yunchuan was extremely important, he had no choice but to activate his own network of informants to investigate.

But when he learned the truth, it shocked him even more than the news of Nan Yunchuan's death.

The Empress had personally caught Nan Yunchuan in an intimate moment with Tang Nuoyue. Heartbroken, she had announced his death on the spot, yet because she cared too much for him and couldn't bear to let him die—and because Tang Nuoyue was her elder sister—she had simply bestowed Nan Yunchuan upon Tang Nuoyue.

Su Qing frowned.

Nan Yunchuan…

was finished.
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