Yinzhen gazed at Yin Qingyi's sleeping face in the night, momentarily captivated. How long had it been since he'd seen this little woman? Only half a month, yet it felt like years. The familiar fragrance brought a rare relaxation to Yinzhen's tense nerves. The scent seemed even richer and more pleasant than before. Yinzhen greedily inhaled the aroma, his eyes darkening as he looked at Yin Qingyi, who had turned over. He hadn't visited for over half a month without saying a word; this little woman must be angry, right? Angry, yet she never showed it, always keeping it bottled up inside.
Yinzhen took two steps forward, wanting to reach out and touch Yin Qingyi's face, but the icy temperature of her hand made him stop.
Yin Qingyi felt the bedside sink, knowing that Yinzhen was sitting on the edge of the bed. Alarm bells went off in her mind. What did this bastard want to do?
However, Yin Qingyi was clearly overthinking things. Yinzhen simply sat there without making any further moves, just watching Yin Qingyi. Yin Qingyi didn't know how long Yinzhen had been watching her. She had only managed to stay awake with Yinzhen for less than half an hour before falling asleep again. It was because this person didn't speak or make any noise. Yin Qingyi was already asleep, and after being woken up and realizing it wasn't anyone else, she wasn't so nervous anymore, and drowsiness came over her. If she hadn't been afraid that Yinzhen would do something indecent, Yin Qingyi would have definitely fallen asleep again as soon as she knew it was Yinzhen, and she wouldn't have been able to stay awake for half an hour.
"Qingqing, what should I do with you?" Yinzhen sat in Yin Qingyi's room for an hour, looking at Yin Qingyi's profile. Yinzhen couldn't help but ask softly, but unfortunately, apart from his voice, there was only the sound of Yin Qingyi's sleeping breathing in the room. No one answered his question.
Yinzhen raised his hand and gently stroked Yin Qingyi's face. His hand had regained its warmth by now, and he lightly traced lines on Yin Qingyi's face.
While asleep, Yin Qingyi felt as if hair was floating on her face, and couldn't help but slap it with one hand. If Yinzhen hadn't reacted quickly, the slap would have landed on his hand. Yin Qingyi frowned slightly from the slap, her eyebrows twitching as if she was about to wake up.
Seeing this, Yinzhen was a little nervous. He seemed to be both looking forward to Yin Qingyi's reaction when she woke up and saw him, and afraid of seeing her reaction when she woke up. He was very conflicted. However, all of Yinzhen's worries were unnecessary. Yin Qingyi just turned over and continued to sleep facing outwards.
Yinzhen breathed a sigh of relief, but felt a little disappointed. However, when he looked at Yin Qingyi's face, his breath hitched. Just now, they were far away, and in the darkness, he could only vaguely see a silhouette. Now, with the moonlight shining brightly and Yin Qingyi's face turned towards him, Yinzhen realized that Yin Qingyi's face seemed to have changed. The bewitching aura in her eyes and brows had faded, and now she exuded a gentleness. However, her face was also too exquisite, so the combination of these features gave her a somewhat otherworldly feeling.
As Yinzhen gazed at Yin Qingyi's face, a sense of panic arose within him, as if this young woman was drifting further and further away from him. Yinzhen abruptly stood up, took a deep look at the sleeping Yin Qingyi, and turned to leave.
After Yinzhen left, Yin Qingyi opened her eyes. Actually, she had been awake when she slapped him, but she had pretended to be asleep to avoid facing him. She glanced at Yinzhen's departing figure, a cold glint in her eyes, and then closed her eyes again. It was too late; if she didn't sleep now, she wouldn't be able to sleep when her son arrived. Yin Qingyi no longer wanted to pay much attention to Yinzhen. What she needed to do now was focus on her cultivation. If she waited until her children were grown up and capable in a dozen years, no one could stop her from leaving. In any case, she would only be in her thirties when her children got married in a dozen years—still a carefree age in modern times.
Lost in thought, Yin Qingyi fell asleep. At midnight, she opened her eyes on time, got up, bolted the door, and jumped into the backyard for her routine cultivation. Now, only two kinds of light were entering her body. The withered yellow leaves on the peach tree had all fallen, so Yin Qingyi had clearly felt that her cultivation speed had slowed down in the past few days. It seemed that this was all she could do in the winter, and things should be better when spring came.
The next day, Yin Qingyi woke up at Chenshi (7-9 AM) as usual. Since she started cultivating, Yin Qingyi had never slept in again. It wasn't that she didn't want to, but she would wake up at that time on her own, and even if she didn't get up, she couldn't fall back asleep with her eyes closed. This didn't really matter to Yin Qingyi. She used to sleep in because she wasn't fully awake, but now that she woke up at Chenshi, she wasn't sleepy at all, so whether she slept or not didn't matter. However, this change in Yin Qingyi's habit initially caused a minor uproar in Luoxue Pavilion. Granny Qi even thought that Yin Qingyi was heartbroken and wanted to invite Imperial Physician Li to come and counsel her. But Yin Qingyi knew what was wrong with her and naturally refused. Moreover, if her brother knew that Yinzhen was neglecting her, she couldn't even imagine whether Yinzhen would still be the next emperor in the world. Although she hadn't seen her brother for a long time and wanted to see him, she definitely wouldn't do it in this way.
As a result, after Yin Qingyi finished washing up, she came out of the inner room and into the outer room, only to see the person she least wanted to see.
"Greetings, Your Highness. I was unaware of your arrival today and have failed to greet you properly. Please forgive me." Yin Qingyi's smile vanished immediately before she came out, and she greeted him with a curtsy, which was very proper, but perhaps a little too proper.
"Qingqing, I told you you didn't have to be like this." Looking at Yin Qingyi, Yinzhen felt a pang in his heart. He knew this little woman was truly angry this time, but there were reasons he couldn't reveal. Even if he did, she might not accept them. Last night, after leaving, he sat quietly all night, pondering what would happen if this little woman really left him. He wanted to remain the same person in front of others. The thought of her leaving him even made Yinzhen feel a void in his heart. Then he thought, what if something happened to her? Just thinking about it made his heart ache terribly, a dull ache he never wanted to experience again. That's why Yinzhen came early this morning. Today was a day off; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to come.
"Without rules, there can be no order." Yin Qingyi spoke indifferently, still kneeling in greeting, not rising, since Yinzhen hadn't told her to get up. Whatever, she could kneel for an hour if she wanted; she wasn't the same person she was just over two weeks ago.
"Get up and sit down to talk," Yinzhen said, pointing to the chair next to him, feeling uncomfortable with Yin Qingyi's bowing posture.
“This is against the rules. I should serve you my lord your meal.” Yin Qingyi rose and went to Yinzhen’s side, taking the chopsticks from Su Peisheng’s hand. She had never served Yinzhen her meals before, whether she was a concubine or not; it had always been Su Peisheng who served him. So when Yin Qingyi took the chopsticks from Su Peisheng’s hand, Su Peisheng even instinctively tried to dodge, but he couldn’t, and the chopsticks were still in Yin Qingyi’s hand.
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