Afang cried out, then retreated to the side, lowering her head in silence.
Everyone, however, looked on with blank expressions.
The King was indeed there, but where was the Queen?
Inside the palace chambers, Grand Dowager Queen Huayang and Zhao Ji, along with the princesses of the six states, all turned their gazes toward the palace gates. The princesses stared at Ying Zheng and the girl whose arm he held, their expressions frozen in shock. They had inquired about the women around Ying Zheng long before their arrival.
They knew of Afang, but no one knew where this girl, Qingnu, had come from!
The two Dowager Queens, seeing Qingnu dressed in the robes of a Qin Queen, sucked in a cold breath.
Qingnu snapped back to her senses, her right hand clenching into a fist as she prepared to strike Ying Zheng's head.
"Teacher... help me!" Ying Zheng whispered hurriedly.
Hearing this, Qingnu's eyes widened even further as she cursed, "Help you? For the Yellow Emperor's grandfather's sake! I, this snake, have lived for over two thousand years, and you're the first one with such audacity! Help you? I'll help you with a punch!"
She knocked Ying Zheng's crown off with a single blow, turned, and fled.
If Ying Zheng weren't the future emperor and she didn't need him to take the throne to accumulate dragon qi, she would have long since smashed his head open!
Ying Zheng stood there with his hair disheveled, his expression wooden.
"Zheng'er, what is the meaning of this?"
Zhao Ji's brows were tightly knit as she watched the fleeing Qingnu and then the dazed, helpless Ying Zheng standing in his tracks.
Coming to his senses, Ying Zheng gave a light cough. He looked toward Zhao Ji and Grand Dowager Queen Huayang with a serious gaze and said in a heavy voice, "Grand Dowager, Mother, she is the one I have chosen to be my Queen!"
Grand Dowager Queen Huayang's face changed instantly, her voice rising in shocked anger. "How can this be?"
"Does the Grand Dowager feel that my Teacher is unworthy of being my Queen? If not for her, I would have died in Handan long ago. How could I have what I have today?"
Ying Zheng looked Grand Dowager Queen Huayang directly in the eye, speaking those words without the slightest hesitation.
As soon as he spoke, it wasn't Grand Dowager Queen Huayang who was the most upset; the princesses of the six states looked at one another, overcome with panic.
Had they traveled thousands of miles to the State of Qin just to witness this?
"But she..."
Zhao Ji frowned. She had seen it clearly just now—Qingnu had punched Ying Zheng and then run away.
He had chosen her?
What was the use of him choosing her!
Could a mortal truly make an immortal follow his will?
Ying Zheng took a deep breath and said solemnly, "I will handle this matter. You have all come from afar; my Great Qin shall not treat you poorly. Please, proceed to the banquet."
Proceed?
How could anyone still have an appetite?
The princesses were even more dejected. Facing a table full of delicacies, everything tasted like wax. They stared at Ying Zheng sitting on the high platform, their minds filled with various thoughts, many of them looking deeply aggrieved.
Qingnu sprinted back to the Jade Maiden Shrine. She kicked the door open and shouted to Hongluan, "Hongluan, we're leaving!"
"What's wrong?"
Hongluan rolled over on the offering table, lazily lifting its head. Catching sight of Qingnu's attire, it let out a chirp of surprise. "Those clothes are quite nice. Did Ying Zheng give them to you?"
Qingnu flicked its head and snapped, "Hurry up and move!"
Hongluan woke up fully. Seeing Qingnu so agitated, it was utterly bewildered. "Stupid snake! What on earth happened?"
"If we stay any longer, this snake will be packaged and sold!"
"Isn't that a good thing? You're so lazy; wouldn't it be nice to find someone to provide for you?" Hongluan grumbled.
"I'm so sorry for being so lazy!" Qingnu rolled her eyes at it and barked, "Get up, move it!"
Though Hongluan didn't understand, it complied. The person and the bird climbed out of the Qin palace in the middle of the night, racing toward the outskirts of Xianyang. By the time Ying Zheng managed to get away and came looking for Qingnu, she was already far from Xianyang, a snake vanished into the wild plains.
"Great King, we cannot find Teacher anywhere! In the Jade Maiden Shrine, the offerings are all gone too..."
Afang spoke to Ying Zheng with an anxious expression. She frowned, saying hesitantly, "Is Teacher... angry with us? Has she left?"
"Impossible!"
Ying Zheng's brow furrowed, his expression grim.
"When we were children and caused such trouble, didn't she always forgive us? How could she just abandon us and leave!"
But no matter how many people Ying Zheng sent to search, they could find no trace of Qingnu.
Hearing these reports, Ying Zheng suddenly began to laugh, murmuring to himself, "Teacher is gone... she really doesn't want me anymore! Afang, was I wrong?"
"The Great King can never be wrong," Afang replied with her head lowered.
Ying Zheng remained silent for a long time.
Qingnu fled through the night. By dawn, Hangu Pass was already in sight.
Hongluan had learned the whole story from her and laughed the entire way.
Qingnu was still grumbling, "Two thousand years I've lived, and for the first time, I was outplayed by a little brat! One I raised myself! Sigh, it seems life has been too peaceful these past few years; my reactions aren't what they used to be!"
Hongluan tilted its head and said, "Aren't you always being outplayed?"
It was just that in the past, she could usually rely on her own martial strength to smash through everything; this time, that hadn't worked.
As they walked, Qingnu suddenly stopped, looking at Hongluan with a wronged expression.
"Hongluan, I didn't take my clothes..."
That set of green robes was still in Ying Zheng's hands!
Hongluan circled around Qingnu and said, "The outfit you're wearing looks good too! Why not take this chance to get some new clothes?"
"These are the robes of a Qin Queen, I have to change!"
Qingnu sighed. These clothes were nowhere near as comfortable as her green robes, and they were a nuisance for movement. If she had been wearing her green robes, would it really have taken her all night just to reach Hangu Pass? She would have been out of the pass long ago!
Crossing Mt. Xiao, Qingnu entered the territories of the six states.
Yet she still didn't feel safe, so she continued heading east until she reached the borders of the State of Qi and finally stopped by the seashore.
The snake-girl transformed into a fisherwoman and took up residence on a small island near the coast.
However, she hadn't chosen this island at random; Duke Kang of Qi, Lv Dai, the nineteenth-generation descendant of Jiang Ziya, had died here. There was a family shrine he had built, housing the tablets of thirty-one monarchs of the House of Jiang. At the very top was Qingnu's old acquaintance—Jiang Ziya!
Unfortunately, after Lv Dai's death, the nobles of the House of Jiang had scattered and fled, and the shrine had long been neglected.
Qingnu carried a pole over her shoulder with a long string of red snapper hanging from the back. As she passed the dilapidated shrine, she pulled off a fish and tossed it onto the offering table.
"Don't you go saying in the afterlife that I don't care about old friendships!"
Hongluan didn't know Jiang Ziya, but it felt that after eight hundred years, if someone was still visiting the grave, he should be saying thank you instead!
The next time she heard news of Ying Zheng, it was already more than a year later.
He had married a princess of the State of Chu, yet he had never named a Queen. Furthermore, she heard he had established an organization called the Black Ice Platform. Its members were as terrifying as ghosts, monitoring the world and gathering intelligence.
The snake-girl shuddered, keenly sensing another purpose for this Black Ice Platform.
"That little brat... he's scouring the mountains and searching the seas to catch this snake!"
Qingnu hugged Hongluan, wailing and complaining, "This snake's life is so bitter! Now that I've been marked, who knows when I'll fall into his net, waah..."
Hongluan really wanted to roll its eyes. It scoffed, "Give it a rest! If he catches you, it's to make you his Queen, not to make snake soup!"
"Queen? I'd rather be snake soup!"
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