Chapter 16 You shall serve your elder sister. ...
Sister.
It was just a tiny sound, but Yang Liuqing's mind was instantly filled with a cacophony of thoughts. She gasped sharply.
Biting her lip, she realized with almost trepidation that this time it was probably a real secret.
Rumors about the young emperor were rampant in the palace, and undercurrents were stirring. She had heard plenty of them when she was still in the Yeting Palace. After entering Xianning Palace, she heard even more of them.
The topic of intimacy between men and women is an enduring one. And the most dramatic and sensational stories are even more so.
As for the Yan family, there are so many stories about them that even official histories are unwilling to record them all.
The pieced-together information can be summarized as follows:
Mother and son, father and daughter, uncle and nephew, uncle and sister-in-law... even grandmother and grandson, grandfather and granddaughter.
The chaotic relationships that obliterated humanity resulted in an unusually pure yet unusually chaotic bloodline in the Jin Dynasty.
There were quite a few members of the royal family who were deformed. Most of them were secretly executed shortly after birth, and successors were chosen from the normal bloodline.
In short, apart from the first founding emperor, the rest all acted recklessly, and the chaos only increased over time.
The most infamous rumor surrounding Yan Dibai is that he had affairs with his sisters and coveted the wives of the clan.
The old emperor was able to father children.
Yan Dibai has many sisters. Dozens have established their own households, and dozens more have married and moved away. There are currently five or six residing in the palace. These five or six are either very young or much older, and some are particularly mentally unstable.
Whether she had affairs with only one person or mostly fell victim to his cruelty, no one can be 100% certain. Therefore, these stories are mostly tinged with fantasy, and are generally considered to be a mix of truth and falsehood, popular tales to be discussed in one's spare time.
Yang Liuqing always treated these as anecdotes. It wasn't that she didn't believe them.
A competent subordinate should not interfere too much in his master's private affairs. Her efforts over the past year have only been to gather the imperial aura from him and assist him in becoming a qualified ruler of the world.
Even though it's only an initial value, there's nothing wrong with following the rules you set for yourself.
Don't ask what you shouldn't ask, and you'll live a longer life naturally.
Her expression darkened.
Therefore, such transgressive behavior should not exist at all.
Yang Liuqing gathered her strength and moved backward little by little, supporting Yan Dibai's head as it was about to fall to the side. Then, panting, she tried to pry open the arms binding her waist, but she couldn't twist them.
They had no choice but to gather the quilt together and stretch out their arms to reach another one to cover Yan Dibai's body, so that he wouldn't freeze to death.
After all that has been done, all that remains is a long wait.
When someone comes looking for Yan Dibai, she can ask this big shot to leave.
Not long after, Yan Dibai mumbled something and then mumbled something indistinctly in his throat.
Like a puppy. Sometimes sighing, sometimes chuckling. Yang Liuqing felt as if she were sitting in an ice cave, her voice broken and hesitant for a long time. Yan Dibai's brows were tightly furrowed, her face gloomy. She let out a low groan, and her brows suddenly relaxed.
He covered his head, and his face suddenly rubbed lightly against his elbow. In just a few moments, most of the thick makeup on his face was gone, leaving only a thin layer. At this distance, Yang Liuqing could almost see the texture of his skin.
A chill ran through her, and she held her breath as she saw the thin, broken scar again.
Yang Liuqing shrank her head further into the quilt and lowered her eyelashes.
Sure enough, Yan Dibai lowered his arm and suddenly opened his eyes.
The maid sat before him like a clay idol, her eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
Yan Dibai twitched the corners of his lips and scrutinized her carefully. After hearing her faint but relatively even breathing, his sharp, unusually keen eyes quickly scanned her surroundings.
Behind the Wende Hall lies a small courtyard. Not a single tree stands there; it is desolate and dilapidated.
Rubbing his aching head, Yan Dibai tried to recall the fragmented memories from just now. His pupils gradually darkened.
The ground beneath him was cold. He lowered his eyes and froze. He was sleeping on the floor tiles, with only a tattered quilt roughly covering him.
The maidservant, meanwhile, was wrapped comfortably in her blanket, looking quite content.
Yan Dibai looked at Yang Liuqing, who had her eyes closed, with a chilling gaze. He scrutinized her from head to toe, but ultimately suppressed the urge to kill her as his gaze swept over her pale, trembling lips.
With a flick of her long fingers, the blanket was instantly torn away. Yan Dibai sat cross-legged, slightly adjusting the front of her clothes. Suddenly, she noticed layers of powder on her right arm.
He gazed intently, his fingertips brushing against his right cheek. Sure enough, he felt a patchy stain.
Yan Dibai stared silently at the powder on his fingertips, then suddenly grinned.
"If you keep pretending to be dead, I'll cut off your head right now."
Yang Liuqing's forced, steady breathing immediately stopped, and she raised her eyelids.
The blinding light of the snow blurred her vision for a moment. The girl's eyes welled up with tears, and her long eyelashes trembled uncontrollably.
Yan Dibai raised an eyebrow and smiled playfully:
"Did I promise to reward you when I was drunk?"
Yang Liuqing's pupils, which had just adjusted, suddenly dilated, and she quickly realized that he was testing her, trying to see if she had heard anything she shouldn't have.
Yang Liuqing loosened her grip on the quilt. "Your Majesty, Your Majesty only ate my porridge halfway through. After that, you were asleep and I didn't hear Your Majesty make a sound."
Yan Dibai made an "I see" expression, his smile deepening:
"I see."
Yang Liuqing glanced at the earthenware pot not far away and said blankly, "Really?"
Yan Dibai followed her gaze and glanced at the snow, where indeed there were fragments scattered on the ground.
He turned his head, his eyes crinkling with joy, while Yang Liuqing felt a cold sweat pour down her back. Fortunately, not long after, Yan Dibai said again:
"I ate your porridge, so I should reward you."
She hurriedly replied, "This servant wouldn't dare—"
Yan Dibai: "Why wouldn't you dare?"
He suddenly leaned closer, his eyes brimming with barely concealed aggression, and pressed himself mercilessly against the motionless girl. His breath brushed against her ear and flowed down her neck.
Itching, discomfort.
Yan Dibai chuckled and reached out to pinch Yang Liuqing's chin.
Yang Liuqing froze completely.
He sighed, "Are you afraid of me?"
Just as she was about to subconsciously deny it, those two fingers suddenly tightened, forcing Yang Liuqing into silence.
Yan Dibai, pleased with herself, roughly rubbed the little chin, turning it red. Yet, she whispered softly:
"Why don't you say you're not afraid? Strange, aren't you the best at lying?"
Yang Liuqing quietly clenched her hands.
Yan Dibai had many ways to humiliate people. Just as she said at the time, he was a complex being who could neither see truth, goodness, and beauty, nor falsehood, evil, and ugliness.
She guessed that he probably didn't believe her.
If that one word, "elder sister," is worth Yan Dibai's attention, its value is evident. It might even... be connected to the "white moonlight" mentioned at the beginning.
It is a secret place that should not be explored, but that she should explore.
Upon seeing this, Yan Dibai's smile vanished instantly. During the interrogation, he had also begun to recall bits and pieces of his past memories.
Almost immediately, he thought of the ridiculous wish she had made.
He recalled that back in Xianning Palace, this maid had been incredibly audacious, using her current injury as leverage to test him, and then shamelessly declaring that she wanted to become his subject.
I remember her eyes when she opened them, so calm and clear.
Yan Dibai paused in his movements, suddenly realizing something was wrong.
Why would someone with a treacherous mind have such eyes?
Many of his concubines initially appeared innocent and pure upon entering the palace. However, within just three months, this prison would unleash the evil within them, transforming them into ugly and grotesque figures, erasing all traces of their former innocence.
Lady Yue Rong of Yuhua Palace is the only concubine who has maintained her gentle and graceful demeanor to this day.
Yan Dibai doted on her, always wanting to see when she would be forced to take off this mask. For more than two years, he managed to keep it to himself.
However, it is still limited.
The lives of palace maids are only slightly worse than those of imperial concubines. This maid has been in the inner palace for half a year, so why does she have such an air of being living a peaceful and tranquil life?
He smiled.
He didn't believe it. He wanted to see how long she could keep up the act.
Suddenly, Yang Liuqing was startled. Her clothes were forcibly ripped open, and the boy maliciously reached out and pressed his hand against her neck:
"Upon closer inspection, you are more pleasing to the eye than before. I hereby grant you a promotion."
"You shall serve me. My concubines are boring; I find them uninteresting. You are more fun than them."
The snow suddenly started falling heavily. The girl was bewildered and helpless. She couldn't understand why things had turned out this way.
He felt she was still lying and was worried, so he wanted to keep an eye on her?
But why not kill her? To be honest… Yang Liuqing's heart pounded.
Or is he trying to use her as a new target?
“…” Yang Liuqing smiled bitterly.
This is terrible.
The rickety door creaked open, and Dai Yun returned with a baked flatbread in her pocket, opening the door with a smile. Yang Liuqing was startled and instinctively went to see what was happening.
However, before Dai Yun, who had just entered with a smile, could even look at Yang Liuqing, her legs went weak as she stared at the boy nestled in the girl's arms, and the baked flatbread in her sleeve fell into the snow. The young man knelt down and frantically begged for forgiveness.
Yang Liuqing's ears and mind were buzzing. She could hear everything, but she couldn't make out anything.
She looked at the cake by herself.
It's a real shame she hasn't eaten anything yet.
*
"That damned Yang Tongshi has been promoted again! Now she's a court attendant to His Majesty! I heard His Majesty wants her to ride in the dragon carriage and even gave her his own fox fur coat!"
"Such favor? No, what imperial attendant acts like this? Even a concubine wouldn't be treated like this!"
"She's just a backup concubine. She serves you with writing and calligraphy during the day, and in bed at night."
A note from the author:
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