Chapter 23: The Confiscated Storybooks: Huge Good News!

Lu Wensheng craned her neck and, seeing that Shen Hegui did not reply to her immediately, she impatiently applied the ointment to herself.

The bed was too cold; she couldn't wait any longer. Shen Hegui was practically the human furnace she'd always dreamed of—it was so comfortable to use!

Greed can amplify a person's audacity. Without hesitation, Lu Wensheng pressed his icy feet against Shen Hegui's thighs, applying heat to the soles and tops of his feet, and immediately moving on to the next spot when the heat was gone.

Shen Hegui's round eyes were instantly frozen into thin lines by the ice. In self-defense, snow-white scales uncontrollably surfaced, but Shen Hegui secretly suppressed them.

Is Lu Wensheng about to start taking advantage of him?

Shen Hegui restored his eyes to a human form, preparing to deal with any unexpected situations.

On the inside of the bed, Lu Wensheng kept a close eye on Shen Hegui's movements. Seeing that he had been frozen for so long and still showed no signs of waking up, he became even bolder.

A sinful little hand, desperately craving warmth, reached up to Shen Hegui's shoulder, intending to flatten her so she could warm herself up.

She stared intently at Shen Hegui's shoulder, constantly telling herself: Be gentle, be slow, be tender, and don't wake the heater or aggravate his wound.

Once the snow-white fabric perfectly matched the bed, Lu Wensheng almost raised his hand to applaud himself.

She's so smart!

Under the warm, dim light, Da Congming looked up and gazed deeply into the eyes of the heater.

Lu Wensheng: "?!" She was so surprised that she let out a loud hiccup.

Shen Hegui's gaze was fixed on Lu Wensheng, his voice showing no sign of exhaustion: "What are you going to do to me by turning me over?"

Lu Wensheng still clung to a sliver of hope: "Ha...haha, sorry for waking Your Highness, I'll go back to bed now."

She grabbed the blanket, covered herself with it, and pretended to be dead.

Shen Hegui's cool voice came through the blanket: "You haven't answered my question yet."

What could she do? She was just too cold and wanted to warm herself up.

Seeing that Lu Wensheng was pretending to be dead, Shen Hegui propped himself up and tried to lift the blanket.

The pillow shifted, revealing its blue cover. Shen Hegui raised an eyebrow and removed the pillow.

In an instant, his pupils were filled with colorful storybooks.

"The Overbearing Snake King's Fierce Love", "Rebirth: My Childhood Sweetheart Dragon Husband", "Love Across Three Lifetimes: The Demon Husband Above, I Below", "How to Conquer a Demon You Fall For"...

The titles were too straightforward, and some of them even matched the original form of Shen Hegui. He picked up one of them and started flipping through it quickly, almost as if possessed.

Lu Wensheng waited and waited in bed, but Shen Hegui's next words never came. Feeling uneasy, he secretly lifted a corner of the blanket to peek.

The undergarment she lent to Shen Hegui was ultimately too small; a large expanse of his fair chest was exposed, and just looking at it made her feel cold. Lu Wensheng's gaze lingered for only a moment before quickly moving upwards.

Huh? What's that rustling of pages? What's Shen Hegui holding?

Delayed memories surged forth.

Oh no, her treasured collection of romance novels!

Thinking of the explicit content, Lu Wensheng blushed from her face all the way to her neck, then instantly returned to her original skin tone.

Her slender fingers precisely grasped the storybook in Shen Hegui's hand.

Tai She is dead. Why did Shen Hegui flip through the pages so quickly? How much did he read?

Lu Wensheng strained his fingertips, trying to snatch the storybook back: "Your Highness, this is not good."

Shen Hegui raised his hand and lightly flicked the inside of Lu Wensheng's wrist, using a skillful force to force her to let go.

He calmly turned to the next page: "I think it's quite good, very fresh." He had flipped through the storybooks in the bookstore before when he was bored, but this was the first time he had seen something as absurd as what Lu Wensheng was reading.

Lu Wensheng rubbed his numb wrist, unwilling to give up, and decided to try again.

Before she could make a move, Shen Hegui dropped a nonchalant remark: "Choose one: an official position or a storybook."

What is a decisive blow? Shen Hegui's words are it.

Lu Wensheng instantly broke down, her face turning bright red as she shrank back into the covers, silently scratching at the three-bedroom apartment with her toes.

At this moment, she no longer felt cold or sleepy. She just clutched the corner of the blanket tightly, opened her eyes wide, and watched as Shen Hegui quickly flipped through one book and picked up the next one to start reading.

These storybooks were all custom-made according to her own preferences, featuring everything from non-human beings and forced love to uncle-sister literature and stepmother literature. Of course, with such stimulating themes, explicit content was a must, and stream-of-consciousness, aesthetic literature, and profanity-laden literature would appear every few chapters.

One of the reasons she bought this courtyard was to store her storybooks.

In just a short while, Lu Wensheng saw that Shen Hegui had changed to another book, this time titled "My Gentle Boss: The Domineering White Snake".

Lu Wensheng couldn't help but raise her hand to cover her eyes. She had just read this romance novel half a month ago, so she remembered the contents very clearly.

And what's more, it's quite a coincidence that in the story, the male lead is a high-ranking prince, and the female lead is a scholar disguised as a man. Except that the male lead is not human, the beginning situation is exactly the same as hers and Shen Hegui's.

In early spring, the male and female protagonists had a quarrel using classical allusions in the Fengtian Hall. The female protagonist lost and was demoted from the top scholar to the third-ranked scholar. That night, the male protagonist, who was the crown prince, couldn't help but transform into his original form and sneak into the boudoir, where he discovered that the female protagonist was a woman.

After that night, the two began to fall in love without any logic, and then there were all sorts of airplanes and rockets, but not a single baby carriage.

This storybook, I heard, was written by a scholar specifically for her preferences, and after many twists and turns, it was finally delivered to her by Shang Lian.

Not wanting to disappoint her, she frowned and read it from beginning to end. She thought the story was very well-written and the plot was excellent, but the male lead's identity was incredibly sexually suggestive. Because whenever the female lead called him "Your Highness the Crown Prince," she couldn't help but picture Shen Hegui's aloof and indifferent face, which made her feel particularly out of place.

Shen Hegui had a photographic memory and quickly flipped to the quarter-thick section: the female lead took the male lead on a pleasure boat trip to celebrate Qixi Festival, and then they had sex, hitting a home run. He glanced at Lu Wensheng meaningfully and sneered.

Lu Wensheng was puzzled by his laughter. She remembered that the author was very good at writing erotic stories, so why did Shen Hegui suddenly sneer while reading? Shouldn't he be blushing or reacting?

She didn't understand.

Thinking this, Lu Wensheng couldn't help but linger her gaze on Shen Hegui's hair and the tip of his nose. She had heard that when choosing a male concubine, the first thing to look at was whether the hair was black, and the second was whether the nose was straight. She thought Shen Hegui's appearance was perfect; his hair was black and shiny, and his nose was high and straight, like a hanging gall bladder.

Lu Wensheng's gaze was too direct; Shen Hegui couldn't ignore it even if he wanted to. He closed the book expressionlessly and asked, "Anything else?"

She figured that since Shen Hegui had already read the most ridiculous book, she was like a dead pig that doesn't fear boiling water, fearless of anything.

"There are several more boxes under the bed. If Your Highness can't sleep, light a candle and take your time looking through them. If you find anything you like, I'll give it to you."

After saying this with a sense of despair, Lu Wensheng began to comfort herself: other people's bosses want this and that, but her boss only wants a few storybooks. Compared to that, she is already very worry-free. She shouldn't be ungrateful.

Shen Hegui tidied up the storybooks he had found under his pillow, got up and placed them on the table. "All of these storybooks are confiscated."

Lu Wensheng was incredulous and advised, "This quantity is a bit too much. Your Highness might not be able to carry it all by yourself. Perhaps... perhaps we should just forget about it." She had been saving up her spiritual nourishment for four years. If it were all confiscated, what would she eat when she was in a bad mood? Was she supposed to eat Shen Hegui raw to vent her anger?

The story just told was still somewhat impactful. For the first time, Shen Hegui lied to Lu Wensheng: "Say one more word, or stand any closer to me, and I'll order the Imperial Guards outside to drag you to the Imperial Prison as a guest."

Lu Wensheng: "..." What a disaster! She should have added some arsenic when she was cooking the noodles to poison Shen Hegui. So what if a man can sharpen a knife and cut meat? She could have found a whole bunch for ten taels of silver!

Lu Wensheng, filled with deep regret, unknowingly fell asleep, while Shen Hegui, who was beside her, closed his eyes and pretended to sleep until the beginning of the morning.

Three cuckoo calls rang out from outside the courtyard, a secret signal between Lin Shoubai and Shen Hegui.

He raised his hand and stroked Lu Wensheng's sleeping acupoint, then took off his ill-fitting clothes and walked outside.

February is chilly, with morning temperatures barely reaching single digits.

Inside the courtyard, Lin Shoubai handed the prepared clothes to Shen Hegui, and then began to give his report: "Shen Zhao has been imprisoned in the lowest water dungeon of Zhaoyu Prison. All the officials involved in yesterday's assassination have been interrogated. Whether to kill or spare them is up to Your Highness to decide."

Lin Shoubai took out a list from his pocket and continued, "His Highness left the palace and did not return all night. All the officials who made any unusual moves last night are here."

After fastening his belt, Shen Hegui took the list and glanced at it. "Understood. Take a few people and move all the storybooks under Lu Wensheng's bed to the palace. Also, put the few on the table by my bedside."

"Yes." Lin Shoubai was a very efficient person. Although he was puzzled, his mouth always spoke faster than his brain.

"Don't wake him." Thinking of Lu Wensheng sleeping soundly in bed, Shen Hegui felt a strange and subtle feeling welling up in his heart.

Lin Shoubai: "Yes."

Lu Wensheng slept soundly until dawn. As usual, she stretched and rolled around on the bed. A faint, elegant fragrance wafted to her nose, entering her nasal cavity and awakening memories of the previous night.

Her storybooks!

Lu Wensheng gripped the edge of the bed and looked under it.

It's empty! Completely empty! Oh, and there's still some on the table.

She looked up and found that the tabletop was even neater than the pavement beneath her.

Lu Wensheng pounded the bed twice. Other people's political enemies raided homes, seizing valuable antiques and gold and silver; her political enemies confiscated all her storybooks. She should have taken the gamble yesterday; she shouldn't have been so soft-hearted as to save Shen Hegui.

Lu Wensheng sat up and punched the bed twice more.

"Hiss—" What's so hard?

[Ouch—Host, you hit my cracked shell!]

Lu Wensheng rubbed his hands and lifted the pile of blankets: "Why are you in my bed? Didn't I arrange for you to sleep in the next room last night?"

Xiao Yuan said, feeling wronged, "My body is cold-blooded, so I feel cold easily. I heard the male lead leave, so I touched myself and came over."

The turtle seems to be hibernating. Seeing the bright yellow system icon, Lu Wensheng instantly recalled the quest he'd overheard yesterday: "Why does your main quest have so many 'mouth' characters? Did you encounter some unfamiliar words?"

Xiao Yuan shifted her short legs a couple of times, then burst into tears: "[My anti-censorship system was broken, causing the quest to be censored, waaaaah—]"