Li Jin Qing: The one behind it all

Chapter 60

Gui Fei might be an old woman with graying hair by now... but Jin qing couldn't help but still see her as the beautiful, seething young woman who had nearly single-handedly brought an entire dynasty to its knees. Her features haven't changed despite her age- the same sharp and calculating eyes beneath her arched brows, the same calm and composed look that her son had failed to inherit, and the soothing voice that would only break and start cackling like a witch when enraged. 

Jin qing instinctively pushed the two children back, shielding them with her body and arm. 

"You would very much want to send the two darling children away." Gui Fei said, turning her cold stare past Jin qing and toward the two children. "Our conversation might turn out to be a little bit... too mature for little ears like them. How adorable." 

Jin qing's eyes flickered toward someone who was standing beside Gui Fei's aging figure. Someone younger, someone with the same feeling. She turned around to the two children "Nian Zhen, do you think you can find somewhere to be for the time being?" Jin qing asked out loud, holding onto her shoulders before whispering under her breath "Qiang An should be guarding the path between the gardens and the kitchens. Go find him until I come and find you."

"What's going on...?" Nian Zhen asked, her eyes wide with confusion as she held onto her brother's hand. 

"I'm about to have a friendly chat with someone. Hurry along."


The two children must have heard the tightness in her voice, and Nian Zhen pushed her brother along. 

As they left, Jin qing walked in and slid the door slightly shut- just enough to block out the outside view but just enough for her to slip out just in case she needed to. 
She reminded herself that Shen feng should still be off in that campaign that desperately needs her attention in the Wei. "What do you two want?" 

"Tian Xiang told me that I was banned from seeing my stepdaughter, so naturally I became concerned about why he might do such a thing." Gui fei said with a faux mask of worry "But you're in obvious good health, from what Huan Le have told me."

"I'm on good health because that bastard of your son isn't here." Jin qing said freely, unafraid to speak her mind since there would be no immediate consequences of her saying so. 

"Barely? I daresay?" Gui Fei's mask morphed into a smirk "It's only been a week? Two weeks? Three? since you came here. I doubt any of your wounds have fully closed or fully healed."

"Unfortunately the poison I gave you from your tea should have already worn off thanks to the method I suggested..." Huan le let out a pitiful sigh that instantly got on Jin qing's nerves on just how obviously fake it was "That would be a pity."

"Pitying how someone got better?" Gui fei looked back slightly at Huan le "That's not how a lady of your age  should act."

Jin qing snapped "a lady of her age should act?"

The two women looked over at her. 

Jin qing continued "If you two are real ladies that are acting your age, Huan le should be in her room sewing and you should be in a coffin." 

Gui Fei scoffed, rolling her eyes at her words. "Shouldn't you be married and waking up in some man's bed like how your mother wa-"

"My mother is on a high standing that you ever will so you have no right to call her something that she wasn't." Jin qing interrupted her. 

"What your mother was and always will be." Gu fei finished her sentence with some alteration. 

Jin qing's closed fists shook underneath her sleeves.
Why was she here? Why were both of them here? Why did Gui Fei bring something like that up? 

She tried assuring herself that she was thinking too much and she can handle whatever they were planning... but this wasn't Huan le, not alone anyway. This was Gui Fei, and she is like herself in military planning... but in the affairs of the palace. 

It's a war in the home front, and Jin qing had only won against her once.