Chapter 79 Punishment

The two were already in a cold war, and today's incident with Zhou Zhiyu only made Yang Qing's anger rise to another level. Even though Li Shangxuan deliberately gave up and ignored each other, and took the initiative to make peace with her, she still found fault with everything about him.

Li Shangxuan wanted to sleep, but she wouldn't allow it, pulling him up and angrily saying, "You actually have the mood to sleep!"

Li Shangxuan said helplessly, "Then I'll explain it to you, but you won't listen."

Yang Qing said, "Do you think I'm stupid? You're clearly just making that up to fool me."

Seeing him about to lie down again, she quickly grabbed his collar and shook him violently. "I must have been blind to marry you! It hasn't even been a year, and you've already become like this. I... I want a divorce!"

Li Shangxuan: "Didn't you say I forced you? How come you're saying you're blind now?"

He curled his fingers and tapped her forehead. "Have you ever heard of a crown princess who got divorced?"

Yang Qing sneered, "Fine, fine, then you can sleep now. The moment you close your eyes, I'll stab you to death with this hairpin."

Li Shangxuan chuckled softly, "So heartless? If I die, won't you become a widow?"

Yang Qing slapped away his hand that was touching her face in disgust, and said angrily, "I'd rather be a widow. If I were a widow, at least I'd have peace and quiet, and you wouldn't be in my way!"

Li Shangxuan said in a low voice, "That's not necessarily true. Haven't you heard the saying, 'A widow's door is always full of gossip'? I don't know what others will think of a pitiful little widow like Ah Xun, but I certainly can't help but think about her."

He became increasingly frivolous, giving Yang Qing goosebumps.

Li Shangxuan simply said, "Since you won't let me sleep or explain, why don't we do something else?"

He pressed the person down beneath him, his voice suggestive, "Is your period over?"

Yang Qing said, "No, and even if I did, I wouldn't want it."

Li Shangxuan originally wanted to pull off her undergarments, but stopped himself after hearing her words. Due to her period and three days of cold war, the two had not been intimate for almost ten days.

Because of the intimate contact just now, he was already distracted and didn't get angry when he was rejected. Anyway, he had been rejected so many times, so one more time wouldn't make a difference.

He pressed his face against her bare shoulders and neck, gently rubbing against her. "So what do you want? Tell me, and I'll do whatever you wish for."

He had already shared his thoughts with Yang Qing. He admitted that he truly did not remember Zhou Zhiyu becoming a Zhaoyi, and he knew very little about his past life.

He also assured that he had absolutely no other intentions towards this Miss Zhou.

The proposed solution was that Prefect Zhou and Lord Zhao would arrange a marriage between their children, so they wouldn't have to worry about finding a suitable husband for Zhou Zhiyu.

After their marriage, both Lord Zhao and Lord Zhou were meritorious officials. Li Shangxuan arranged for Lord Zhao to be assigned to a post outside the capital, far away from the capital.

Despite the seemingly good outcome, Yangqing still felt dissatisfied.

Li Shangxuan said helplessly, "Ah Xun, I really should go to sleep. I have to attend the morning court session tomorrow."

Yang Qing, being kind-hearted, let him off the hook, but secretly she thought to herself that if she had gone along with his wishes and agreed to do this or that, he probably would have stayed up until dawn. But after talking to her for a few words, he became drowsy.

Li Shangxuan was indeed no good.

The next day, she was still thinking about the problem, but she couldn't come to a conclusion.

Li Shangxuan suggested setting a date for Zhou Zhiyu and Young Master Zhao to get married, and then having Young Master Zhou go out to take up an official post, far away from the capital. She felt that this was only treating the symptoms, not the root cause.

After thinking for a long time, she still couldn't come up with a solution.

Zhuo Sigui would definitely side with Li Shangxuan, so she would try to get rid of her first.

Xiaoman is also Li Shangxuan's spy, so she definitely needs to be sent away as well.

But it would have been better if she hadn't said anything. Because of what she said, Xiaoman refused to leave and insisted on staying to protect her safety.

Yang Qing had no choice but to let Xiao Man stay and listen in.

The remaining few were mostly maids she had brought from home, and they were all around the same age. Yang Qing then tentatively asked, wringing her handkerchief, "What do you think you would do if your future husbands wanted to take other women as wives?"

The palace maids, all unmarried girls, blushed immediately upon hearing this.

Although Yang Qing did not say it explicitly, it was easy to guess that Yang Qing, the Crown Princess, was the only one here who had been married and had a husband. Therefore, the Crown Prince intended to take a concubine.

They wouldn't dare to make any unwarranted comments.

They dared not speak out, but some people just did.

Xiaoman is a person who, if you say she's smart, is like calling a deer a horse; if you say she's stupid, she can still think of things sometimes.

While everyone else remained silent, she immediately spoke up: "What! Your Highness has taken a fancy to another woman? Who is that woman? Just give the order, and I'll go and kill her right away. But if you find out who I am, you must tell His Highness that you ordered it."

Yang Qing said speechlessly, "Shut up, you little spy, you're such a coward."

Xiaoman said, "You make it sound so easy. You two are a couple, of course you won't kill me. I'm not related to him at all, so he can just kill me if he wants to!"

Yang Qing snorted, "Why don't you spend your time practicing horse stance and reading more books? All you do is fight and kill. Even if you kill that woman, what good will it do?"

Xiaoman immediately said, "How is it useless! If you kill her, His Highness will stop taking concubines, and you will be all alone in the Eastern Palace. You can have His Highness all to yourself again, wouldn't you be happy? Unlike now, with a frown on your face, sighing from morning to night."

Yang Qing was furious: "You idiot, don't talk nonsense if you don't understand. Who wants to monopolize him? Murder, murder, murder, what's the use of killing? If you kill one, there will be thousands more waiting. Besides, it's not the girl's fault that he has his eye on her. He has power and influence, and he's ruthless. If he has his eye on someone, he has to get him. It's an undeserved disaster for her."

No, this Xiaoman has no other skills, all she knows is how to annoy me.

She was determined to get rid of Xiaoman; she was even more infuriating than Li Shangxuan.

Li Shangxuan returned very early today. After noon, the sun was already setting slightly in the west. Yang Qing had nothing to do after lunch and was staring blankly at the puppy running around in the yard when she was suddenly hugged from behind.

She was startled, but quickly realized that in the Eastern Palace, only two people dared to treat her like this: Ming Luoqi and Li Shangxuan.

This aura clearly belongs to the latter.

Because he had been living in the same room for so long, he had also picked up the scent of the spices she usually used.

Yang Qing playfully scolded, "Why did Your Highness return so early today?"

Li Shangxuan wrapped his arms around her waist, rested his chin on her shoulder, and smiled, "Isn't it because I'm afraid you'll overthink things?"

Yang Qing was silent for a moment, then immediately knew that Xiao Man had gone to complain again. She muttered, "I really can't stand it anymore. Get Xiao Man away from me right now. I'm so annoyed by her."

Li Shangxuan said, "I won't feel at ease without someone by your side. What if something goes wrong again?"

Yang Qing said, "Can't you find someone smarter? Look at this Xiao Man, she's as dumb as a pig. She's never helped me at all, but she's caused me a lot of trouble."

Li Shangxuan held her close, leaning against her as if he had no bones, burying his head in her neck, and chuckled softly, "It's good that you're silly, because only a silly person can protect you without hesitation. If it were a smart person, afraid of this and that, wouldn't you still suffer?"

But besides himself, who else could make her suffer?

Yang Qing thought about it for a while, but couldn't think of anyone else who had bullied her.

Master Chi and his wife are the kind of parents who completely abandon their children. Empress Ming is proud and aloof, and she doesn't seem as cold towards her as before, but she won't deliberately make things difficult for her either. As for the emperor, he has no time to pay attention to her.

Besides him, there was only Ming Luoqi who would come to see her from time to time. Who else would dare to say a word against her?

Yang Qing felt that he was worrying unnecessarily, or that he simply wanted to have someone by her side to watch over her and report on her at all times.

Therefore, she did not accept his kindness, but only snorted coldly and did not reply.

Seeing that she didn't speak, Li Shangxuan wasn't in a hurry to ask. As if he had discovered something interesting, he kept sniffing around her neck. "What spices did you use today? Why do you smell so good?"

Yang Qing was speechless. She had heard her say this many times before, and she wouldn't even change the wording. It was clear that she was being extremely perfunctory.

Holding her breath, she said coldly, "Are you a dog? What kind of nonsense is this, sniffing around like that!"

Li Shangxuan said, "How can you blame me? You can only blame Ah Xun herself."

Yang Qing pushed him away and said coldly, "Don't talk to me like that. I hate you right now, I'm really angry."

Li Shangxuan said, "But I'm really happy when you're angry. The angrier you are, the more you care about me, and the happier I am, and the less I can control myself."

Yang Qing was speechless. Looking at Li Shangxuan's face, which was exactly the same as she remembered, she really didn't know what to say.

In his past life, his word was law. No matter what he said, she dared not argue back. She could only do as he said, afraid of upsetting him.

In this new life, even if she throws a tantrum and yells at him, he just gives her the cold shoulder. Does this mean that all the grievances she suffered in her previous life were for nothing? If only she hadn't agreed when he made those unreasonable demands, she should have just refused.

Yang Qing was truly disappointed in her past self, who had been so easily led by the nose.

Spring was in full bloom, and everything was in harmony. Li Shangxuan didn't want to upset her any further, so he suggested, "Since I'm free today, why don't I teach A-Xun how to play the zither?"

Yang Qing's face turned pale and then red as she remembered her past life.

She didn't know if Li Shangxuan had brought it up on purpose.

It was the same in her previous life; Li Shangxuan said he would teach her to play the zither.

Master Chi and Rongyue are both experts in the field, but Yangqing has little interest in the zither and has only scratched the surface.

Li Shangxuan was already the emperor at that time, and an emperor whose word was law. He had the leisure to teach her to play the zither, and Yang Qing had a reason to refuse.

But she soon found out what Li Shangxuan was planning.

It was a gentle, pleasant day like that. All the palace servants had left, leaving only her and Li Shangxuan in the room.

The young emperor had beautiful features, and his words, though not as forceful as those spoken in court, were far more wicked.

"Why are you still acting like a child? You study for a little while and then don't want to study anymore?"

This is not the proper posture for learning the piano. She was being held in his arms, her clothes were disheveled, and her face was flushed. How could she possibly concentrate on learning the piano?

Hearing his words, she finally couldn't hold back any longer and grabbed his hands that were running amok.

He simply chuckled, "He deserves to be punished."