Chu Yunge had just finished drinking the blood-replenishing red date soup and was preparing to sleep when she saw him, who looked like a thief sneaking in for a tryst. She paused for a moment and shifted inward. “This Princess thought you wouldn’t dare come.”
You had to admit, Pei Ji’s youthful appearance really resembled those consorts who came after having their plaques flipped.
After eavesdropping on the conversation earlier, she remembered. She really did have a green head plaque.
The Princess liked to imitate her imperial brother. Back then, after she had forcibly snatched a commoner man, so many people had submitted petitions, but the Princess hadn’t received any punishment. That was just because she had said one sentence: Why could her brother have one and she couldn’t?
The Eldest Princess felt that she had once substituted for her imperial brother, and that the Emperor had only survived thanks to her. They were twins, so why could the Emperor have it and she couldn’t?
The Emperor feared that when she substituted for him, she would brazenly flip the green head plaques in the rear palace during broad daylight to play around. In the end, he compromised and granted her green head plaques without names, but only warned her to fool around in secret.
She hadn’t brought out the green head plaque, but in reality, it wasn’t much different.
When Pei Ji heard her words and saw the look in her eyes, he stopped in his tracks, his face full of vigilance. His eyes widened roundly, and he nearly shouted for her not to come any closer.
He was only nineteen this year. Standing there under the lamplight, he truly stirred the imagination, making one want to say, “You can scream your throat raw, but it won’t help,” and ruthlessly push him down… Unfortunately, he was the Emperor’s man.
In an instant, Chu Yunge’s heart became as still as stagnant water.
“Are you planning to stand there all night? I’ve looked into it—contact is the most effective.” Chu Yunge patted the empty spot on the bed. “Come lie down. Holding hands works best. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything.”
Pei Ji took half a step back upon hearing this. “Sleep in the same bed… and… hold hands too?”
How could he casually hold hands? Once he held hands, what chastity would he have left?
His Infinite Divine Art…
“Stop dawdling. Aren’t you supposed to be an expert? Are you afraid of forcing yourself on a weak woman without the strength to truss a chicken?”
Stung by her words, Pei Ji immediately got onto the bed and lay down with a flop. “Would I be afraid of you?”
No sooner had he spoken than a faint fragrance reached his nose, and his arm accidentally brushed against something. He hurriedly pulled his hand back.
When he touched his sash and remembered that he had tied it twice, with monghan drug, muscle-softening powder, and various poisons hidden in his sleeve, he finally felt a bit more at ease.
But his heart still beat a little fast.
Chu Yunge glanced at Pei Ji. After she had pointed out earlier that he had deliberately worn red, he had changed colors tonight. However, this outfit was an autumn-spring style, wrapping his neck tightly.
This was the height of summer. Chu Yunge found it amusing. “Aren’t you afraid of heatstroke dressed like that?”
Pei Ji immediately hugged his arms tight and even pulled up the quilt that Chu Yunge had kicked to the foot of the bed, wrapping it tightly around himself.
“I’m naturally afraid of the cold.”
Chu Yunge: “…”
An eighteen- or nineteen-year-old young man, and a martial arts expert at that, claiming to be afraid of the cold. To protect his chastity, he had really gone all out.
“I won’t look at you. You don’t need to cover with the quilt. Don’t get heatstroke after sleeping with me for one night.”
Chu Yunge turned her head away and lay flat on her back, but Pei Ji lay right beside her. His presence was impossible to ignore, and the scent of saponaria from his body filled her nose.
In that instant, her heart felt a little out of control, a mix of sour and sweet. Chu Yunge couldn’t help but touch her chest.
In truth, the Princess had once been moved by Pei Ji.
Of course, she had also been moved by Xie Wangze and Qingchen.
The Empress Dowager favored males over females and only valued the Emperor. Outsiders thought she was deeply favored, but they didn’t know she was just a blood bag.
The Princess was the same as her—too lacking in love, which made her prone to falling in love easily. Whoever treated her a little better, she would love; whoever helped her, she thought loved her. Xie Wangze, Pei Ji, and Qingchen had all helped her.
And she wanted to possess whoever she liked. She had always been like that from childhood, even threatening death to force a marriage decree and make them enter her residence, not knowing that hearts were not easily swayed.
Xie Wangze had merely used her to return to the country, but the Princess wasn’t that easy to use. He had paid a heavy price.
Pei Ji had a righteous heart and helped casually, but he had a criminal record and couldn’t escape either.
The most wronged was Qingchen, who had simply helped her out of compassion. Yet the Princess thought that since Qingchen was so gentle and even loved all the people in the world, he would also love her.
But none of them loved her.
After being rejected, the Princess angrily drugged them.
But the Princess was particular about whom she drugged—only those she had liked.
However, no one noticed the Princess’s feelings because she hid her longing for love behind all that absurdity, not daring to let anyone detect it.
“Sigh.” Chu Yunge couldn’t help but sigh. The Princess really resembled her. The old her had been the same, repaying kindness with double or tenfold fervor because of a lack of love.
But the results were never good. They only felt pressured, or took it for granted out of pride, and in the end, no romance lasted more than three months.
After crashing her head and bleeding, she finally learned bit by bit that others might not love you, but you could love yourself.
Rather than vainly seeking others’ love, it was better to first learn to love herself.
At that moment, Pei Ji, sweating from the heat, had quietly lifted the quilt. Hearing Chu Yunge sigh, he instantly wrapped it back around himself.
“Why are you sighing? Don’t even think about slandering me by saying I seduced you.” She was still unrelenting, wanting his body after all?
Chu Yunge lifted her foot. “Believe it or not, I’ll kick you off the bed!”
She couldn’t even sigh now? There was no justice.
Pei Ji wasn’t afraid, but as he lowered his head, he saw Chu Yunge’s foot.
It was fair and jade-like, delicate and smooth, but… really so plump and small.
He couldn’t help but look up and stare a couple more times. “No, wait, Your Highness, why are your feet so fat and small? How can anyone’s feet be this fat? Hahaha.”
Chu Yunge: “Hm?”
He actually dared to say her feet were fat? Yes, her feet were very fat and didn’t match her face at all, but who gave him the right to mock her?
Chu Yunge’s death glare finally sobered Pei Ji.
Wait, what was he doing at a time like this?
How could he casually look at a woman’s feet, let alone those of this lecherous Princess? What if she used it as an excuse to cling to him?
He abruptly shifted his gaze away and grabbed Chu Yunge’s hand as it slapped toward him.
In that grab, he saw a red spot on her arm.
Pei Ji froze. That seemed to be palace guarding sand.
Everyone in the Chu State knew that Princess Yongning was debauched. Before he had been snatched in, she had already had countless male favorites, with flutes and songs every night. But how did she…
“How do you still have palace guarding sand?”
The unfamiliar and ancient term “palace guarding sand” made Chu Yunge frown.
“Can’t I have it?”
Chu Yunge shot back, her tone fierce.
Pei Ji released her hand. “It’s not that you can’t have it, it’s just that you have so many male favorites in your rear courtyard…”
Even if he, Xie Wangze, and Qingchen weren’t willing, there must have been other male favorites eager to serve her.
Chu Yunge gave him a look. “Do you think This Princess wants just anyone? They don’t even qualify to serve This Princess.”
This was the Princess’s true thought—those male favorites didn’t qualify.
Pei Ji was left speechless. Considering the rumors outside and her ferocious reputation, he had thought she had long since…
Though it was somewhat unbelievable, they were both first-timers. For some reason, his mood improved.
Chu Yunge didn’t see his expression. She reached out and rubbed the legendary palace guarding sand a couple of times.
Pei Ji: “What… are you doing?”
“Nothing.” Chu Yunge was just rubbing it to see. Then she directly placed her hand on Pei Ji’s now-relaxed arm, her handback naturally falling into his palm.
Pei Ji, who had just relaxed, was caught off guard. “You… what are you doing?”
It was as if he had been scalded or electrocuted. He immediately sat up, his voice stammering, his face flushed red. Seeing his reaction, anyone who didn’t know would think he had been forcibly kissed or molested.