Chapter 40: Hidden Yaoyao, what exactly do you hate? ...
Shu Yao stood by the door, not looking at him. Her gaze fixed on a single point in the air, her expression distant, as if covered by a layer of frost. "Your Majesty asked me to present myself as his wife at the banquet at Cao's residence, and now you're making such a grand gesture to take down the Cao family." A cold curve rose at the corner of her lips, her voice flat and steady. "How could the Cao family's minions let me go? The guards you left by my side are protection, but they're also surveillance. Even if I had wings, I couldn't fly away." She finally turned her gaze back to him coldly, speaking each word with emphasis, "Right now, staying by your side is my only chance of survival. I don't want to die yet."
"Yaoyao." Xiao Chengjing called her name. "Let's not talk about these polite words weighing the pros and cons." He leaned down slightly to meet her eye level. "I want to hear the truth."
"If this is not the truth." She raised her eyelids slightly when she heard it, and said in a light voice, "Then what does Your Majesty want to hear?" The candlelight reflected on her calm profile, as if no matter what he said, it could not cause a ripple in her. "Do you want to hear... I am concerned about Your Majesty's safety? I can't help it?" She tilted her head slightly, and there seemed to be frost in her eyes. "Or... I can't bear to see Your Majesty take risks? My heart aches?"
Staring at her distant eyes, he squeezed out the most sincere confusion from the deepest part of his chest: "Yaoyao, what exactly do you hate?"
The candlelight condensed into two cold stars in her eyes. "Hate?" Her voice was so soft that it seemed to drift. Her fingertips dug deep into her palms. "From the moment we met until now, which of these things have I ever been able to choose? Guest official, recognition, consort, or pleasure? Has His Majesty ever truly asked if you were willing?" She suddenly took a half step forward, her clothes stirring a gust of cold wind. "Now, in this situation, Your Majesty asks me what I hate?"
His pupils suddenly shrank, as if stabbed by something.
"If you hate me," he gritted out each word between his teeth, with a stubborn unwillingness, "then why... do you save me again and again?"
"Your Majesty, are you overthinking this?" She said calmly, "Even if it was a complete stranger collapsed on the side of the road, I would probably lend a hand. Does Your Majesty think that all my actions are due to my devotion to you?" She shook her head slightly, a hint of weariness in her voice. "Does it mean that just because you are so powerful and so beautiful, every woman in the world should be attracted to you? I save people because of who I am, not because of who you are."
The moment the words fell, the air suddenly froze.
The dark color in Xiao Chengjing's eyes was almost swallowing people.
Everything that happened in the past, in her opinion... was forced?
He suddenly raised his hand to Shu Yao——
"His Majesty!"
Cui Jinzhong's tense voice came from outside the house: "Lord Cao shouted that there is a huge secret that needs to be reported immediately... I dare not not report it..."
Xiao Chengjing's arms froze in mid-air, and his chest heaved violently.
The overwhelming rage rolled around him like a substance, but he finally suppressed it, condensing it into a terrifying dead silence.
He pushed open the door with a gloomy face and strode into a dark room.
The lights in the room were dim, and two palace soldiers were holding the embarrassed Cao Gong tightly, one on the left and one on the right.
Cao Gong's hair was disheveled and his clothes were stained, showing none of his former majesty.
Upon seeing Xiao Chengjing, Cao Gong suddenly broke free from the soldiers' restraint and fell to the ground, not knowing where he got the strength from.
Grasping the corner of Xiao Chengjing's robe tightly, he raised his head, the veins on his neck bulging, and his voice was like a broken gong: "If you insist on killing us all," his eyes were red, his breathing was uneven, but he still roared with his last strength, "The canal transportation between the north and the south will be cut off tomorrow! Millions of canal workers will be left without food and clothing in an instant, and there will be chaos. The court's annual taxes, the capital's food supplies..."
Xiao Chengjing listened quietly, his face expressionless.
He lowered his eyes and slowly smoothed out a tiny wrinkle on his cuff, his movements gentle and calm.
It was as if the anger just now was just a show he deliberately put on for others to see.
He looked down at Cao Gong, who was lying on the ground.
He smiled lightly and tilted his head leisurely, as if he was looking at an ignorant object.
After a while, he asked with a tone that seemed to be both compassionate and mocking: "The canal transportation is finished? Who told you?"
"Do you really think that your life was spared for the sake of grain transport?" Xiao Chengjing's lips curled up in a cold arc, "The only useful things from beginning to end are the ships under your name." Xiao Chengjing shifted his gaze indifferently and said in a low voice, "Liang and Jin are already unified. Even if there is no river transport, there is still sea transport." The last sentence was understated, but it was like a thunderclap, shattering Cao Gong's last struggle into pieces.
Cao Gong suddenly raised his head, his cloudy eyeballs trembled violently, his lips quivered, as if he wanted to say something, but only a few broken sounds came out of his throat.
"Drag him away." Xiao Chengjing waved his hand casually, as if brushing away a speck of dust.
In the midst of chatting and laughing, the life and death, honor and disgrace of a person or even an entire family are easily erased.
The palace guards received the order and quickly blocked Cao Gong's mouth.
Cao Gong, who had just been screaming at the top of his lungs, was now like a trapped beast with a broken spine. In his silent struggle, he was quickly dragged away until he disappeared.
During the time Xiao Chengjing was away.
Shu Yao's thoughts gradually became clear.
It would be of no benefit to her to completely break up with Xiao Chengjing.
Without safflower, the most urgent thing is to keep the promise of three times a month.
She looked out the window at the dark night, a stubborn glint in her eyes.
Even if she couldn't escape, she wouldn't accept her fate.
The moment Xiao Chengjing pushed the door open and walked in, the candlelight flickered slightly.
Before he could let go, he met a pair of wet eyes filled with murderous aura.
Shu Yao looked up at him, her eyes slightly red and a thin layer of watery light in them.
There were still tiny tears on her long eyelashes, which seemed to be about to fall with her trembling breathing.
She curled her fingers slightly and gently tugged at the corner of his sleeve. "Your Majesty, do you know... why I insisted on using safflower?" She lowered her eyes, her long lashes hiding a flicker. "I don't want my child to repeat my fate. Although I bear the title of princess, I come from a small, remote country. Although I grew up within the palace walls, I have never been treated as a noblewoman." Her voice choked with sobs, as if she had suffered great injustice, but she forced herself not to explode. "Even with Your Majesty's protection, but..." Her fingertips trembled slightly as she clutched his sleeve a little tighter. "If Your Majesty truly wishes to keep me by your side... please do not force me to have children again."
What she feared... was actually this?
The pain and satisfaction, like a wave of ice and fire, suddenly swept over Xiao Chengjing.
It stung her that she saw herself and their future in this way.
And that almost dark satisfaction stemmed from her fear, which was the same as his.
He was silent for a moment, one hand gripping her cold knuckles. "Silly talk." His other hand slowly brushed over the tears in the corners of her eyes. "I can hold you back for now." He lifted her chin, forcing her gaze to reveal it. "In the future, I will prove to you that your fear today..." He spoke with conviction, "is all false."
Xiao Chengjing didn't want to say it at first, so he won't force you to say it for now.
But for some reason, he always felt that she was like a thin layer of ice covering the water, seemingly flat but actually fragile at the touch.
He didn't want to and didn't dare to break the peace before him.
After hearing him say that he would not force her for now, Shu Yao knew that she had made the right bet.
Raise your eyes slightly.
The teardrops on her eyelashes rolled down at this moment, running across her cheek, leaving a slight chill.
She quickly lowered her head and spoke softly, her voice trembling with the slightest tremor of someone who had just survived a disaster: "Your Majesty...are you serious?"
He put his arm around her thin shoulders and gently held her in his arms.
His chin rested against her hair, his breath deep and warm. "If you don't want to, then don't." His voice rang in her ear. "You just need to stay by my side..." His arms tightened a little. "I'll take care of everything else."
Xiao Chengjing spoke sweetly, but Shu Yao knew the truth.
His concession today is just a temporary measure.
Once the Cao family fell, the remaining powerful families lost their backbone and could no longer stir up trouble.
Xiao Chengjing and Shu Yao boarded a towering ship they had never seen before, cut through the waves, and returned by sea.
The sea breeze was blowing, making Shuyao's clothes flutter.
She leaned on the railing and looked into the distance, seeing the endless blue waves.
I have no reason to think about it.
The future of the newly opened sea route is uncertain.
If you come here to do some insurance business, it might be a way to make money by attacking from a lower dimension.
That afternoon, a eunuch walked in quickly holding a brocade box.
It is said that this item was found in a secret compartment in the warehouse when Cao's mansion was searched.
The moment the brocade box was opened, Xiao Chengjing's eyes narrowed slightly, and he casually grasped the earrings in the box into his palm.
It was the one that Shu Yao lost a few days ago.
The footsteps came closer and closer, but when they reached the palace gate, they suddenly stopped, as if they were hesitant.
"Your Majesty, the Concubine Shu has arrived." Cui Jinzhong lowered his voice very low, as if he was afraid of disturbing the silence in the hall.
"Let her in."
The door opened slightly, and Shu Yao walked in with her head lowered.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you."
Xiao Chengjing didn't turn around, nor did he ask her to stand up. He just held the earring up to his eyes and looked at it carefully in the light from the window.
After standing still for a moment, Fang slowly turned around and asked, "How did your lost earrings appear in the secret compartment of Cao's mansion?" He looked at her, not missing any subtle changes, from the momentary astonishment, to disbelief, and then all the emotions settled down and turned into a cold understanding.
Shu Yao stood there, feeling it was ridiculous.
She knew it was a frame-up, and Xiao Chengjing definitely knew it was a frame-up as well.
What do you want to find out by calling her here?
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The author has something to say: I had a lot of things to do at work today, so I wrote a short post [Clown]
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