Quick Transmigration: Counter Attack Of Various Characters

Su Li could hardly breathe. She waited for the Empress Dowager's response but the more time passed in silence, the more she felt her trepidation rising.

She didn't realise until her mother turned around to wipe her face that she was crying.

The other person made a haphazard attempt to wipe her tears with their sleeves but that made her cry even more – as if the dam had finally burst open and she couldn't contain the pain and hurt that she felt inside.

It took all her considerable will to not start bawling like a child.

"It's alright, my child. Ajia is not angry with you. How can Ajia be angry with you when Ajia hasn't even spent enough time to heal your wounds – physical and emotional? Hmm."

Su Li gave a wan smile at those words but they made despair and isolation rise like a waning tide inside her.

"Shh...Everything is going to be alright. Shh...Don't worry."

Su Li raised her head at those words and asked, "Does it get better? How do you live with yourself when you know that things might not turn out the way you want them to?"

The younger women laughed at those words and whispered, "I am afraid, Mother. I am afraid that I have forgotten hope and laughter. How can I laugh when I can't find joy in anything or anyone?"

The Empress Dowager had already come to the conclusion earlier in the evening that the person her son loved wasn't Zhou Sheng but someone else.

So, she didn't bother asking an inane question about the said person's identity and simply asked something else that had been on her mind.

"Will you tell me about the person you love?"

A silence fell at her words and Su Li felt as if the grief and pain she had tried to keep at bay might overwhelm her any minute.

She also realised that she had been swimming in her island of pain that she hadn't thought that someone could ease her suffering.

She hadn't thought that someone might offer her much needed comfort.

Maybe this could help lessen her sorrow?

At that moment she realised that she had almost drowned in her own pain and would lose herself if she didn't try and get the easily offered help.

Maybe she should try talking to this lady who freely gave her support and a willing ear?

Anyways, she felt so drained from bottling up all the emotions inside her.

Maybe, it was time to let go and try to live in the present and plan for the future.

Maybe, she should try to finish the first five missions and then get her answers from the system.

So, for the first time since she had arrived in this world, Su Li consciously tried to talk about him.

"That person...That person was akin to a shining beacon of light in my dark world."

She tried to hold back the sob that wanted to escape her throat.

"He always protected me from everything. From small mishaps created by my negligence to the bigger issues when people tried to get the best of me."

She saw how the Empress Dowager was all ears to her words and that emboldened her to continue.

Su Li knew there was more to it than that but she didn't think she had it in her to continue any further.

Meanwhile, the Empress Dowager looked as emotion after emotion washed her child's face as she talked about what he had and had subsequently lost.

However, it was the look of pain and agony on her child's face that was akin to plunging a knife in her own heart.

Her heart ached for what her child must have gone through.

She watched as he seemed to sink further and further in himself.

So, she tried to lighten the mood.

"Ajia thought that you loved Zhou Sheng."

Su Li spluttered at those words and the Empress Dowager laughed at the face her child made – wide eyes and opening and closing her mouth repeatedly.

The monarch blinked and looked at her as if he couldn't even conceive the idea and she supposed it must be awkward for him to think of a subordinate — a friend that way.

Then with a comical look on her face, Su Li asked, "What made you think that, Mother?"

The Empress Dowager shrugged her shoulders – a plebeian action, to be sure but she couldn't help herself.

"Just that you were closer to him and you at least tried to smile in his presence and his touch didn't seem to repel you."

Su Li blinked once. Twice and then shook her head in denial.

"No. You thought wrong, Mother. Zhou Sheng – He is a dear friend. Someone Zhen trusts with his life but no, Zhen doesn't love him."

The Empress Dowager gave a noncommittal hum at that.

However, it was at this point that Su Li realised a fallacy in the Empress Dowager's thought process.

She tried to curb her words but couldn't keep her curiosity in check and asked.

"Mother, it didn't bother you when you thought that Zhou Sheng was my beloved? I mean his gender?"

"Ajia is tired from standing for so long. Let's sit."

When Su Li saw how the Empress Dowager tried to deflect her question, her heart thudded in fear.

She wondered if this lady knew about her gender.

Was the system wrong with its information?

Did this lady now that she was a girl and wasn't a suitable candidate for the position of a monarch?

She stole a glance at her but still meekly followed her as the other person went towards a gazebo and took a seat.