"What's different?" Zuan sat down on the edge of the bed with her in his arms, but didn't make any further moves.
Xiao Tuo turned her face away, pursed her lips tightly, and did not answer. Clearly, at this point, there was no point in saying anything.
Zuan smiled slightly: "Who told me to be so soft-hearted? I can forgive and forget what happened in the past. From now on, you just need to become my woman completely."
"You're dreaming!" Despite trembling with fear, Xiao Tuo mustered her courage and said, "The one I love will always be Brother Lian, and I will never submit to a tyrant like you."
Zu An smiled and said, "You're so devoted to Lian, but he might not trust you."
Xiao Tuo bit her lip tightly and said, "Brother Lian and I grew up together and understand each other's feelings. You can't sow discord between us."
"Is that so?" A hint of sarcasm flashed across Zu'an's face. "If you two were truly in love, how could he bear to let you enter the palace to serve other men?"
“Isn’t it because you and your son stole the throne that rightfully belonged to him? Since I love him, I will naturally do everything I can to help him,” Xiao Tuo replied.
"They're even willing to sacrifice their own purity?"
"I'm willing!" Xiao Tuo had calmed down by this time and said coldly, "Do as you please, don't waste your breath."
Zu An, however, showed an expression of admiration: "What a heroine! It's a pity she entrusted herself to the wrong person."
Xiao Tuo turned her head away, clearly not wanting to argue with him about this.
Zu An then said, "I wasn't just saying that Lian might not trust you. Think about it yourself. When you first entered the palace, you sent out intelligence very frequently, but the intervals between each intelligence report became longer and longer, and recently it has been a long time since you sent any reports. Why is that?"
"I..." Xiao Tuo's breath hitched. She couldn't explain why, and she herself hadn't even realized this change.
Zuan smiled and said, "Because you and I developed feelings for each other over time, you subconsciously felt sorry for me, and that's why you changed like this."
If he hadn't sensed the change in her, he wouldn't have bothered with all this talk. He would have just ordered the guards to take her away. Even if he didn't kill her, he should at least have thrown her into the imperial prison.
Xiao Tuo's face turned pale, and she hurriedly retorted, "Nonsense, how could I possibly have feelings for you!"
“You’ll develop feelings for a cat or dog after raising it for a long time, let alone a living person. Besides, we’ve been spending all our time together lately, doing things that are even more intimate than what a married couple would do. It’s not strange that a young girl like you, who is inexperienced in such matters, would develop feelings for me without realizing it,” Zu’an replied.
"No...no..." Xiao Tuo continued to argue, but her tone was no longer as firm as before.
She herself was somewhat bewildered. Could it be that, as the other party said, she had developed feelings for him?
But the one I like is Brother Lian, how could I be such a fickle woman?
Seeing her changing expressions, Zu'an continued, "No matter how good your relationship with Lian is, no man can be indifferent to such things. Even if he succeeds in seizing the throne in the future, he will definitely not be able to bear the thought of you writhing and submitting to another man in the past. So ever since you agreed to this plan, no matter who wins between me and Lian, your ending is destined to be tragic."
Xiao Tuo's face paled slightly. Actually, she had thought about it before, but she instinctively comforted herself that Brother Lian was not that kind of person and did not want to continue thinking about it. Now that the other party had seen through her, she understood that this was the most likely thing.
Zuan continued, "He feels uncomfortable thinking about your past. Considering that you've been sending him letters less frequently lately, could he suspect that you've been sleeping with me every day and have developed feelings for me? These two factors combined make things even worse, and there's absolutely no way you can go back to the way things were before."
Xiao Tuo took a deep breath: "I know all this, but so what? Since I agreed to help him, I'll be content as long as he succeeds in the end and occasionally thinks of me and remembers my kindness. I never thought I could live happily ever after with him."
"Remember your good deeds?" Zuan scoffed. "Naive! It's good enough if he doesn't hate you to the bone, how could he possibly remember your good deeds?"
"Nonsense, how could he hate me!" Xiao Tuo exclaimed anxiously. This was her only pillar of faith, and she would not allow anyone to destroy it.
Zuan reached out and lifted her chin, scrutinizing her beautiful face up close: "Since I knew your purpose from the beginning, how could I not be on guard?"
Xiao Tuo suddenly thought of something, and his expression changed drastically.
Zuan's fingers caressed her cheek, feeling her smooth and delicate skin: "You've been stealing a lot of information from me and passing it out lately, haven't you? Although you're always very careful, I'm on guard and I won't let you succeed."
"But I still found a lot of classified information," Xiao Tuo said hurriedly.
Zuan smiled and said, "Because I deliberately asked you to spread those false reports."
"False information?" Xiao Tuo's mind went blank for a moment, and she was completely distracted. She no longer cared that the other person's hand was touching her inappropriately—of course, given their close relationship recently, this was nothing at all.
Zuan nodded: "Speaking of which, I should thank you. It was quite troublesome for me to eliminate some of the opposition, but you misled Lian, causing him to kill a large number of his own trusted subordinates. Hahaha, he even thought that I had bribed those people. On the contrary, the people he later promoted and won over were really my people."
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