The wicked imperial concubine is courting death again; the comments section teaches her how to win w

The blade had penetrated more than halfway into the hilt, and blood was gushing out, staining the dark battle robe crimson.

Even at this moment, Qin Zhenxiong couldn't believe it.

He staggered two steps, his arms suddenly losing all strength, and the person in his arms slipped down, and they fell together onto the ground covered with gravel and blood.

"You..." A metallic taste rose in her throat.

Qin Zhenxiong wanted to ask why, but the words caught in his throat.

Even though Qin Jiangli was the one who started it, she cried more bitterly than anyone else, tears streaming down her face like a broken string, wetting her pale cheeks and leaving messy streaks of water.

Qin Zhenxiong struggled to raise his hand and, with his rough fingertips, wiped away his daughter's tears for the last time.

"...Why are you crying?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

Qin Jiangli raised her eyes blankly, gazing at him through her blurry, tear-filled eyes. "Father, do you remember... how Mother died?"

Qin Zhenxiong's pupils suddenly contracted. "You—"

His chest heaved violently, aggravating the wound and causing the blood to gush out even faster.

Of course he remembered Jiang Baoyun, his wife, who died from a poisoned arrow, postpartum hemorrhage, and passed away.

Over the years, when he spoke of it to others, he always did so with genuine emotion, which was truly moving.

But Qin Jiangli's next sentence dragged him back to the sandstorm of more than 20 years ago.

"Father, Mother could have survived, why did you do that?"

Qin Zhenxiong stood frozen in place.

The tide of memories surged back, drowning him and making it hard to breathe.

In his youth, Qin Zhenxiong was not as composed as he is now. Back then, he was full of passion and ambition.

He came from a respectable background and was quite talented, yet he was always outshone by a fellow soldier named Jiang Yun. In terms of military strategy and on-the-spot adaptability, he was always just a hair's breadth behind.

Qin Zhenxiong was arrogant and conceited, and he couldn't swallow this insult until one day he accidentally stumbled upon the secret—Jiang Yun was a woman!

Upon learning the truth, Qin Zhenxiong felt not romantic love, but rather resentment and jealousy that burned ever brighter.

The one who always outshone him was actually just a woman?!

At that time, Qin Zhenxiong decided to step over Jiang Baoyun to rise to power.

He approached her casually, concealing his identity for her, and said he was willing to be her only support in the military camp.

Jiang Baoyun was indeed moved and shared her plans, strategies, and even military achievements with him, lending him a helping hand. He rose through the ranks based on those achievements, and at a young age, he became a second-rank deputy general.

Qin Zhenxiong knew that he could have gotten this far even without Jiang Baoyun.

It just takes many more years to get through.

What others see as a prodigy is, in his own mind, a debt of charity.

This thought was like a thorn, pricking his heart day and night, making Qin Zhenxiong toss and turn, unable to sleep.

So he devised a plan to get Jiang Baoyun pregnant.

Her identity as a woman was now completely exposed. Even if her crime did not warrant death, she would never be able to stand in the military again in this lifetime.

Jiang Baoyun was expelled from the army, and Qin Zhenxiong asked the then commander-in-chief Huang Chun to preside over a simple wedding and bring her home.

To outsiders, he appeared to be a man of deep affection and loyalty, but only Qin Zhenxiong himself knew that his path to success was paved with the future of a woman.

Qin Zhenxiong was greedy for merit and reckless. On one occasion, he used living people as bait to try to annihilate the enemy army, but he was unexpectedly ambushed by the Northern Rong and trapped in Hulu Valley.

It was Jiang Baoyun, dragging her pregnant body, who charged into the encirclement and pulled him out of the pile of corpses.

She was struck by a poisoned arrow and then went into childbirth, almost sacrificing her own life to save the lives of the father and daughter.

Qin Zhenxiong was deeply moved and felt guilty towards this woman for the first time, thinking that he would treat her well for the rest of his life.

However, after Jiang Baoyun gave birth, she blackmailed him by accusing him of using living people as bait—she said that if he refused to confess to the commander-in-chief, she would expose the matter.

Qin Zhenxiong would not allow his years of hard work to be destroyed in an instant.

With a heavy heart, he put something in her medicine to make it look like she died in childbirth.

That night, he held Jiang Baoyun, whose body was growing cold, and cried his heart out. Everyone praised him for his grief at losing his beloved wife.

As for the sickly baby girl, Qin Zhenxiong had also considered killing her, thinking he would just strangle her to end it all.

But Qin Jiangli is really so small...

It was so small that it wasn't much bigger than his palm.

Even tigers don't eat their cubs, so Qin Zhenxiong figured it wouldn't be a big deal to keep them, since he had already dealt with all the people who knew about it.

Gradually, he learned to play the role of a father.

At first, it was all for show, portraying himself as a perfect widower and loving father who raised his orphan alone after losing his beloved wife.

But as the performance went on, even Qin Zhenxiong himself couldn't tell the difference anymore.

He watched the little dumpling who snuggled into his arms during thunderstorms grow bigger and bigger, the first word he uttered when he was learning to speak was "Daddy," and the one who held his fingers tightly when he had a high fever. He could never let go of him again.

Even after he had other children, his favorite was always Qin Jiangli.

Supplements and medicinal herbs were delivered to her courtyard in a continuous stream. The best tutor was hired to teach her to read. Because she was frail, he devoted all his attention to helping her recover.

More than twenty years have passed, and he has almost forgotten what he once did to Jiang Baoyun, forgotten that the child's bloodline carries that woman's hatred.

But he didn't expect that she knew all of this.

"How...how did you know?"

Qin Jiangli's face was streaked with tears, yet she possessed an eerie calm. "Father, the Zhao nanny you brought to serve me is actually an old friend of Mother's..."

Granny Zhao had been with her since she was a child and treated her exceptionally well.

At the age of eighteen, she told Qin Jiangli everything, and then took poison to avoid being discovered by Qin Zhenxiong and implicating others.

At that moment, Qin Jiangli completely collapsed.

She hated Granny Zhao for shattering this beautiful facade and leaving her alone to face it.

She also hated her father. Why did he have to do such a thing? Since he had already done it, why couldn't he have kept it a secret for the rest of his life?

Qin Jiangli struggled with immense pain; Qin Zhenxiong was not a good husband, nor even a good person.

...but to her, he was a good father.

Despite holding a high position and commanding three armies, he was more caring than the average father, teaching her to read and write and warming her medicine for her. No matter how busy he was, he would personally cook a bowl of longevity noodles for her on her birthday, making her younger siblings envious.

That year, she fell seriously ill and nearly died. He stayed by her bedside for three days and three nights without sleep, his beard becoming unkempt from exhaustion...

These are all true and real.

But she was born at the cost of her mother's life. Without her mother, there would be no her. They had shared the same body, and she couldn't help but avenge her mother.

So she sought out her cousin, the emperor, just for this day.

"Father, you once said that no matter how many brothers and sisters I have, I am the one you love the most."

"You also said that no matter how big a mistake I made, as long as you were still here, you would cover for me."

Qin Jiangli sat blankly in the pool of blood, her eyes vacant.

"I used to regard you as my everything, but you never said..."

Qin Jiangli trembled as she reached out her hand, stained with her father's blood, and gently closed his eyelids; her fingertips were icy cold.

"...What will happen to my daughter if the sky falls?"