When she turned around, Tang Ning's face still showed signs of shock. It wasn't until she recognized the black and crimson robes worn by the man at the door, which symbolized his imperial status, that she felt a chill and quickly curtsied.
"Your Majesty, I was unaware that this was Your Majesty's resting place. I entered unintentionally. I beg Your Majesty's forgiveness..."
Before she could finish her earnest words, Situ Yin, who had been standing at the door in a daze for a long time, suddenly came to his senses. He quickly reached Tang Ning in the blink of an eye, and without caring about anything else, he reached out and grabbed her wrist, raised it to his nose, and sniffed it lightly.
"That's the taste!" Situ Yin's eyes suddenly lit up.
He never expected that after searching for her everywhere, even turning the entire capital upside down, she would suddenly appear in his Pixiang Palace.
This must be what they call "searching high and low without finding it, only to have it come to you effortlessly," right?
Situ Yin, almost completely immersed in the aroma, hadn't felt this relaxed and carefree for nearly twenty years. This made him uncontrollably bring the snow-white wrist in his hand closer and closer to his nose...
Tang Ning, half-bowed, was caught off guard when her wrist was suddenly grabbed by an excessively cold hand and brought to her nose by the man who appeared to be the emperor. Not only that, she could even feel his thin lips, which were also slightly cool, occasionally touching her wrist.
Even though she was already married, Tang Ning had never had such intimate contact with a man before. She immediately stared wide-eyed in disbelief and felt a strange, chilling sensation spreading rapidly from her wrist. Goosebumps also appeared on her arm.
For a moment, not caring whether she would offend the man in front of her who was very likely the current emperor, Tang Ning used force to quickly pull her wrist out of Situ Yin's hand. Her other hand subconsciously pressed on the spot on her wrist that had just been touched. Her face turned slightly pale as she moved to the side, and her breathing became rapid in that instant.
As she pulled her hand away, she inhaled the fragrance on Tang Ning's wrist. In that short time, Situ Yin, who was already feeling slightly sleepy, noticed that his hand was empty and immediately opened his eyes with some impatience. His dark eyes looked directly at Tang Ning with a deep gaze.
Tang Ning's heart skipped a beat when she saw this. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the direction of the main gate and then subtly moved in that direction.
But as soon as she moved, Situ Yin, whose reddened eyes hadn't left Tang Ning, immediately noticed.
"where are you going?"
Startled by his slightly hoarse voice, Tang Ning was jolted awake. For a moment, she even forgot that the person in front of her was the emperor. She took a step back and turned to run away.
Tang Ning, who was dressed exquisitely and wore multiple layers of gauze dresses, was more of a burden than a beautiful woman. How could she possibly outrun Situ Yin, who was a man?
She stumbled and staggered, taking only two steps before Situ Yin grabbed her arm from behind just before the doorway opened. "You run..."
Before he could finish speaking, Tang Ning, overwhelmed with fear and panic, reflexively slapped the man behind her across the face.
Unfortunately, due to excessive panic and fear, she had long lost her strength in her hands. When she slapped Situ Yin across the face, it didn't feel like a slap at all. Instead, it was more like the weak, limp slap of a cat kept by women in the inner quarters, whose nails had been clipped, due to extreme anger.
"Let go!"
After she finished emptying the purse, her eyes reddened, her voice trembled, and she cried out.
Completely unprepared for the other party to hit her, and before he could even do anything, she started crying. Caught off guard, Situ Yin loosened his grip slightly, and Tang Ning immediately seized the opportunity to pull her arm away and ran away without looking back.
Situ Yin remained standing there, his brows furrowed as he watched the woman's figure disappear behind the palace walls. After a long while, he slowly relaxed his brows, leaned against the red-lacquered door frame, twitched his nose, and lightly sniffed the lingering fragrance in the air. Feeling his headache gradually subside, he smiled slightly.
A short while later, he also headed straight for the place where Tang Ning had just left.
He didn't even need to look at the road beneath his feet. Just by smelling the lingering fragrance in the air, he turned a few corners and found himself standing at the entrance of Changchun Garden, where the Spring Festival banquet was being held. He immediately spotted Tang Ning's profile in the crowd, her face pale and almost transparent, clutching a handkerchief in her hand.
Before long, Tang Ning, who was standing in the center of the garden, noticed something was wrong and turned around. Situ Yin immediately moved aside.
Tang Ning, who felt as if someone was watching her but couldn't see anyone when she turned around, squeezed into the center of the crowd again, feeling uneasy.
Meanwhile, Qin Qianqian, seeing that Tang Ning had managed to return before the Spring Festival banquet even started, was filled with disbelief. She had clearly bolted the door shut, hadn't she? Why... why was Tang Ning able to return so quickly? Who had helped her?
Why isn't even God on her side?
Is she really destined to forever look up at Tang Ning, watching her become the high and mighty Duchess, while she can only be her lowly concubine?
Thinking of this, Qin Qianqian's heart sank instantly.
It's such a pity that all her painstaking planning and humility have been wasted. Most importantly, after this incident, Tang Ning probably won't even let her get close to him again.
It was fortunate that Tang Ning was unaware of Qin Qianqian's inner thoughts, otherwise she would have definitely reached out and grabbed Qin Qianqian's hand, marveling at how her painstaking scheming had not been in vain!
Sure enough, a clever move led her to meet her last target, Situ Yin, in private. Moreover, during their first physical contact, Tang Ning witnessed a hidden plot that she had long anticipated.
It turns out that the imperial physician who helped the late emperor's most favored concubine concoct the poisonous "Beauty Fragrance" for Situ Yin was originally a renowned figure in the martial arts world. However, he was unexpectedly discovered by the concubine's family and sent to the palace to become an imperial physician, specifically to help this wicked concubine cause trouble and schemes.
However, when Consort Gui was killed by Situ Yin in a desperate counterattack, fearing that he would be implicated, he seized the opportunity and fled thousands of miles overnight. If he hadn't fallen ill unexpectedly in a small town in Jiangnan called Xihe County, he probably would have chosen to sail out to sea or escape to the Western Regions, and would never have returned to the Central Plains for the rest of his life.
But who knew that those who do many evil deeds will surely perish? It turns out that doing too many bad things really will bring retribution.
His illness came on so suddenly and violently that he developed sores on his head and pus oozing from the soles of his feet. He collapsed by the roadside, barely alive, unable to escape or even walk.
If he hadn't been rescued and taken home by a kind-hearted wealthy businessman surnamed Tang, he probably would have died that very night.
Unfortunately, no matter how many doctors this wealthy merchant surnamed Tang invited for him, he was always told that he was beyond saving. It was only when a barefoot monk who accidentally came to the Tang family to beg for alms saw him and muttered some kind of karmic retribution that the former imperial physician came to his senses.
When ordinary people curse someone, they often say that the person is so bad that their head is covered in sores and their feet are oozing pus. And now, doesn't his appearance seem like the result of retribution for all the evil deeds he committed in the first half of his life?
The imperial physician, who had never believed in such supernatural things before, suddenly seemed to have a profound realization at this moment. He no longer wanted to escape or seek treatment. He only asked the Tang family patriarch to send him to a nearby temple so that he could spend the rest of his days reciting scriptures and repenting.
Not only that, he also began to regret the ruthless poison he had prepared for Situ Yin. After all, Situ Yin was doing his job as the crown prince properly, without offending or provoking anyone. Why did he have to torture him like this?
Unfortunately, Situ Yin's cruel and bloody methods had already terrified him, making him dare not return to the capital to help others develop an antidote. Moreover, he was now unable to walk and could not even walk, so how could he return to the capital?
So he settled down in a temple near the Tang family's residence, repenting and searching for an antidote. During this time, apart from the kind-hearted Mr. Tang occasionally bringing his beautiful daughter to visit him on the mountain, he had no contact with anyone else.
Unfortunately, the man's condition was too severe, and he only lasted for six months before passing away.
But no one knew that, perhaps in the last six months of his life, due to guilt and dedication, he actually managed to develop an antidote to remove the "beauty fragrance."
However, by then the man was already on his deathbed and could no longer speak. He only managed to utter the two indistinct words "medicine" before dying.
Master Tang, however, thought that this was a life-saving pill left to him by a gentleman who seemed to have a great background and who usually studied various herbs, in order to repay him. Out of gratitude, he helped this person with his affairs after his death. Then, three months later, when his precious daughter had a high fever and was about to die, he took out the master's life-saving pill and fed it to her without hesitation.
Well, you know what?
The life-saving elixir is indeed a life-saving elixir.
After taking one pill, his daughter's fever subsided that very night, and afterwards, she developed a faint, unique fragrance that smelled wonderful.
Mr. Tang was overjoyed and burned countless paper money and ingots for the esteemed man buried on the mountain.
It's a pity that good deeds don't always bring good rewards. Mr. Tang, who did good deeds all his life and saved countless people, didn't even get to see his beloved child grow up before passing away.
The pampered young lady, now fatherless, learns that because she was her father's only daughter, and to ensure that someone would break the urn in his final moments so he could rest in peace, a son from a collateral branch of the Tang family must be adopted. Before the adoption, those people were all friendly to her, but once she was adopted, their attitudes immediately changed. They even started discussing behind her back how to marry the beautiful young lady off to the county magistrate, who was old enough to be her grandfather, as his second wife.
But fate had other plans, and she learned about her true identity at that time.
After she fought desperately and went to the capital alone, her life suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse. After being schemed against twice, she was sent to the cold palace in agony, with other people's faces showing her displeasure.
Having finally escaped, she only exchanged a glance with Situ Yin, who was at her wit's end and had been tormented by headaches her whole life. The mad emperor, filled with violent rage, killed her without even seeing her face clearly.
At that time, she had been in the cold palace for half a year. She was so smelly that she even had lice. The emperor, who was in so much pain that he had thought about ending his own life more than once, had no intention of getting to know a concubine who had long been banished to the cold palace and whose appearance and name he had long forgotten.
With that casual wave of his hand, he ended Tang Ning's life, and also his own.
How dramatic!
Tang Ning, whose face remained etched with a slightly shaken expression, sighed softly to herself.
Meanwhile, Situ Yin, who was standing in the shadows, felt the unique fragrance of Tang Ning dissipate in the air. When he sniffed again and could no longer smell any of Tang Ning's fragrance except for various pungent cosmetics, the black-clad man's eyes immediately darkened.
Not to mention that these people were chattering away like a flock of ducks in a garden, never stopping. Situ Yin's eyes darkened further, and he suddenly became agitated, a flash of bloodlust crossing his dark eyes.
He just wanted to shut all these people up, and ideally, for them to all disappear from his sight immediately.
Just as Situ Yin's eyes narrowed slightly, his personal eunuch, Wen Rang, finally found Situ Yin in the shadows just as he was about to explode. Wen Rang immediately rushed to his side, bowed respectfully, and said that the Spring Festival banquet was about to begin, and all the ministers had arrived and were waiting for His Majesty to take charge of the event...
Before he could finish speaking, the head eunuch, stared at by Situ Yin's bloodshot eyes, couldn't continue and began to tremble.
When did he become so tactless?
He rushed over without even checking his master's expression; he'd completely lost his mind, utterly overwhelmed by this rare spectacle in the palace. Oh no, oh no, oh no! If he could survive this ordeal, he would…
Before the Grand Eunuch could utter his oath, Situ Yin turned and glanced at Tang Ning through a gap before turning and walking away.
"By imperial decree, the Spring Festival banquet need not be divided into separate tables for female and male guests. Let both groups come together and celebrate together."
"Your Majesty, this... is against propriety..."
"What etiquette? My words are etiquette."
"Can……"
Before he could finish speaking, the head eunuch, who had only been casually glanced at by Situ Yin, immediately rushed to find Princess Qingping as if his pants were on fire. He relayed everything Situ Yin had said to Princess Qingping without missing a single word. Princess Qingping, who had been worrying about the Spring Festival Banquet for three whole days and had finally managed to get it looking somewhat done, immediately cursed inwardly.
Yes, she only dared to curse him in her heart. Even though Situ Yin treated her well on the surface, she didn't dare to openly offend him in the slightest.
Even now, when she closes her eyes, she can almost still recall the blood-red hue that filled the entire palace that night.
And then there was the thirteen-year-old boy, who sat atop a mountain of corpses, piled high and still gushing blood, holding a long sword almost as tall as himself. Even the white ribbon he used to tie his hair was stained crimson with blood. Two drops of blood, whose identity was unknown, were splattered on his right cheek. He slightly raised his head, gazing at the bright, flawless full moon in the sky, his face expressionless.
These two starkly contrasting scenes caused Princess Qingping to have nightmares for months, fearing every day that she would wake up to find herself beheaded by the young man's swift blade. Finally, in order to escape the palace where Situ Yin was present, she arranged to marry someone as soon as her health improved slightly.
Even so, Princess Qingping still feels her legs go weak whenever she sees Situ Yin.
Regardless of what outsiders say about her special relationship with Situ Yin, he must still remember her past kindness; otherwise, he wouldn't have arranged such a grand wedding for her and allowed her to act arrogantly in the Duke's mansion. Princess Qingping was still terrified of him.
Out of fear, Princess Qingping had no choice but to reluctantly prepare to combine the two banquets into one.
On the other side, Tang Ning heard the news of the merger and immediately found He Lanruo among the male guests. She quickly grabbed his hand and felt a little more relaxed.
Helan Ruo, however, took Tang Ning's slightly cold hand and quickly wrapped it in her own, breathing warm air into it before whispering, "What's wrong? Are you not dressed warmly enough? Why are your hands so cold? There's a cloak in the carriage; should I send someone to fetch it for you now?"
Seeing Helan Ruo's concerned expression, Tang Ning pursed her lips and replied softly, "No, I'm not cold, I'm just..."
"His Majesty has arrived!"
Before Tang Ning could finish speaking, a high-pitched eunuch's voice rang out in everyone's ears.
Upon hearing the voice, Tang Ning's pupils constricted as she recalled the excessively beautiful face she had seen earlier. Her hands trembled, and she knelt down along with He Lanruo.
Whether it was her imagination or not, she clearly felt a gaze, as if it were real, fall on her. This made Tang Ning's lips tremble and her face turn frighteningly pale.
"What's wrong with Ningning?"
After standing up, Helan Ruo immediately noticed that something was wrong with Tang Ning. She had just asked a question when Situ Yin, led by the stiff-faced Princess Qingping, walked straight towards them.
Upon seeing Situ Yin, Helan Ruo couldn't help but think of Mu Qing, who had been taken away by this man through such despicable means. He even found it hard to control his gaze, and unconsciously tightened his grip on Tang Ning's hand.
Lost in her own emotions, Helan Ruo didn't notice Tang Ning beside her. The moment she saw Situ Yin, her face turned even paler, and she even instinctively hid behind him.
"Aruo, hurry up and greet your imperial uncle!"
Princess Qingping was nearly scared out of her wits when she saw the resentful look in her son's eyes. She knew without a doubt that the brat was thinking about Ji Muqing again.
I've told him so many times: that old fox like Prime Minister Ji's granddaughter is not what a fool like him sees, and the incident when she entered the palace was definitely not as simple as he thinks.
If you were to say that Ji Muqing and Ji Xiang weren't involved in anything, she'd cut off her head and give it to him to sit on.
After all, given Situ Yin's personality, how could he possibly go crazy for a woman? Even if the sky were to fall, it wouldn't happen!
But this unfilial son of hers just won't listen to anything she says. He was depressed for three whole years because of Ji Muqing. Now he dares to show such an expression in front of this devil. Does he really think his mother has any face in front of this devil?
Even though she had said all that, Helan Ruo did not address him as "uncle," but simply lowered her eyes.
Princess Qingping was utterly exhausted by this.
To everyone's surprise, Situ Yin was not offended by Helan Ruo's impolite behavior; instead, he chuckled softly.
Upon hearing his laughter, not only Princess Qingping but also the chief eunuch beside him looked at their emperor with horror, then quickly lowered their heads, while inwardly screaming with rage.
What happened?
Why would His Majesty suddenly burst out laughing out of nowhere?
When was the last time he laughed?
Wait, did he laugh before?
The chief eunuch Wenrang was even more horrified.
If Wen Rang's reaction was one of horror, then Princess Qingping's reaction was one of terror.
They were so angry they were laughing out loud!
It's over, it's over!
What an unfilial son!
How could she have given birth to such an unfilial son! It's all over, now it's uncertain whether the Duke of Guo's mansion can even be saved!
No one knew what Situ Yin was thinking at that moment—
So she was Helan Ruo's... wife...
He remembered that someone from his harem before, who seemed to have a connection with Helan, who was it again?
Situ Yin genuinely couldn't remember.
He felt as if he could smell the other person's scent just by standing there. How could they smell so good? So fragrant.
So, I wish she could come to the palace to sleep with him every day.
Hmm, no, I wish I could just become one of his concubines in the harem.
I wonder if she wants to enter the palace?
Never mind, it doesn't matter whether she wants to or not.
It's fine if he wants to!
Situ Yin thought this was perfectly natural.
As for Helan Ruo, well, he remembered that he used to really like that person, so why not just trade that person for him? It's settled then.
He needs to think carefully about how to make the change.
So, while Helan Ruo was still resentful of Situ Yin's past despicable and wicked behavior, Situ Yin had already unilaterally declared in his heart that his new wife was his again.
happy.
Author's Note: Situ Yin: Your wife is mine.
He Lanruo: Uncle, are you even human?
Situ Yin: I'll switch with you.
He Lanruo: Change your mother's ass!
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