Chapter 83 The Human World Surpasses Heaven
Xiaoman rode her horse and arrived earlier than them. Sure enough, when Yangqing returned, Li Shangxuan was already sitting in the hall.
Upon seeing her return, Li Shangxuan put down the book in his hand, his smile being rather gentle and tender, but to Yang Qing, it seemed quite malicious.
With a cold face, she ordered the palace maids to prepare water for her bath. She was covered in sweat after going out, and deliberately ignored Li Shangxuan's question, "You're back?"
Li Shangxuan didn't say anything more, which surprised her. She secretly glanced at him and saw that the corners of his lips were still turned up. She immediately had a bad feeling, wondering what kind of bad idea he had come up with this time.
She found out not long after.
The East Palace has a bathhouse, but it was afternoon and there was still a while before sunset. For convenience, Yangqing didn't want to go through all that trouble, so the bath tub in the clean room was the quickest option.
Although the water was warm, it was still very comfortable to soak in it.
Yang Qing splashed water on her shoulder and noticed a clear red dot on it, causing her lips to curl downwards.
This happened the day before yesterday. She had clearly agreed to wait for him to come back, but she couldn't help falling asleep on her own. The punishment mark left by Li Shangxuan hadn't faded even after two days.
A male voice suddenly rang out at the door, instructing the palace maids guarding the entrance, "You may all leave now."
Yang Qing immediately shouted, "Don't go down!"
Li Shangxuan paused for a moment, then spoke with a clear smile, "Are you sure you don't want to let them go down?"
Yang Qing understood what he meant, blushed, and knowing there was no way to avoid it, she sank down and buried her head in the water, treating it as a practice in swimming.
This was the scene that Li Shangxuan saw when he entered: she was submerged in the water, but her black hair kept rising to the surface, like a fox's tail that couldn't be hidden.
The analogy made him laugh involuntarily, and he really wanted to tell her, but then he thought better of it and kept quiet.
He's easy to upset her with his words, and when he gets angry, she'll ignore him for at least three days. It's better not to say anything.
"Huh? Where did they go?"
He was happy to play along, pretending to search around the house and occasionally making sighs.
Yang Qing was almost amused by his clumsy acting. She popped her head out of the water and said, "You're really annoying."
When Li Shangxuan saw the lotus emerging from the water, his eyes lit up and his smile deepened.
He restrained his pace, trying not to appear too hasty, and slowly walked to the bathtub. "Why am I annoyed again? I'm here to serve the Crown Princess a bath, and Ah Xun is complaining that I'm annoying?"
Yang Qing was furious when she saw his lustful appearance: "Who needs your service?"
Li Shangxuan walked behind her, his hand already on her shoulder, and it was moving downwards. His lips and tongue were also restless, and he began to lightly caress the skin on her neck.
Yang Qing was ticklish and tried to hide, but it was obvious she wouldn't succeed.
"Since Ah Xun doesn't want to serve you, let's settle the score. I was only away from you for a short while, and I already attracted attention from others and even gave you a handkerchief. Tsk, there's a beautiful woman here, graceful and elegant, she really suits Ah Xun."
Yang Qing tried to remove his hand from her chest, and this time she succeeded. She didn't have to use much force to pry it off, and she was taken aback.
Li Shangxuan remained standing behind her, his breath brushing against her neck as he spoke, "Ah Xun, are you already tired of me?"
Yang Qing deliberately said, "You're old and faded, of course I'm going to get tired of you."
Li Shangxuan was taken aback, then laughed out loud, affectionately nuzzling her cheek. He spoke words of accusation, but his tone was entirely intimate, "You really are fickle and deserve to be punished."
He glanced at the bathtub and was not satisfied. "It's too small. I'm afraid it can't hold two people."
Yang Qing glared at him: "You still want to come in?"
Li Shangxuan seemed to have been enlightened: "Ah Xun is right, I can't go in, but you can come out."
Yang Qing was really angry now. What kind of appearance would she look if she came out of the bathtub completely naked?
*****
As Yang Qing straightened her clothes, she glanced at the man who was also looking for clothes, snorted softly, and felt quite speechless.
He's even more playful than in his previous life. She said he was fickle and easily bored, but he actually took on a new role and kept saying, "The Crown Prince is suspicious and jealous, and has no tolerance for others. The Crown Princess must protect him and not let the Crown Prince find out."
He made Yang Qing blush, and because she was caught "making a mistake" today, he unilaterally made a deal that next time she could play the role of a palace maid and have an affair with him, her "guard".
Yang Qing's answer was to kick him off the bed.
After he finished fooling around, Li Shangxuan was finally able to talk to her properly.
He twirled a strand of hair in his hand and teased, "I heard that Jiang Xi, the one who gave you the handkerchief, is a famous scholar and very handsome. What do you think of him, Ah Xun?"
Yang Qing said, "That depends on who you compare him to. If you compare him to a lecher like you, he's naturally a hundred times better."
She really didn't know why a person could change so much. Before the two of them revealed their relationship, he was still very proper, but since they revealed it, especially after they got married, how could he become so shameless?
Yang Qing thought she would never see Jiang Xi again after their brief meeting, or that he would pass the imperial examination and become an official in the court, and that the two would have a chance to meet again at a palace banquet.
Unexpectedly, things are unpredictable, and man proposes, God disposes. Zhou Zhiyu went to the palace again, her eyes red, and told her that Lord Zhou had arranged another marriage for her, and the man was none other than the famous scholar Jiang Xi.
Yang Qing was taken aback; she never expected to hear that name again after only half a month.
"Didn't he hear any of those rumors?"
Zhou Zhiyu's eyes were filled with tears: "Of course he heard it, but he said something about Confucius not speaking of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder, or spirits."
Yang Qing said, "That Jiang Xi, although he has a reputation for talent, is actually just a little bit mediocre. He's not much better than your sweetheart. I'm thinking that your father might not be as old-fashioned as you think. At worst, we can just bring this up and see what your parents say."
Zhou Zhiyu had no choice but to do this.
Lord Zhou seemed afraid that Jiang Xi would change his mind, so he arranged the marriage in a hurry and went through the formalities quickly, determined to marry his daughter off before the autumn examination.
Xu Pianran, who is also engaged to a scholar preparing for the imperial examinations, is much more relaxed. As the old saying goes, "Passing the imperial examinations brings good fortune and a wedding night," her wedding is set for this winter, which is still more than half a year away.
Xu Pianran's father seemed to have anticipated that his future son-in-law would pass the imperial examination with flying colors.
When Xu Pianran learned about Zhou Zhiyu's situation, she was quite dismissive. "Come on, all fathers in the world are cut from the same cloth. They're all smooth and sophisticated in public, but they only know how to throw tantrums at home. In my opinion, this Miss Zhou probably won't get what she wants."
Yang Qing shook her head: "That's not necessarily true. I've heard that Miss Zhou is an only child with no siblings, so her parents must cherish her. And look at the son-in-law that Lord Zhou chose himself. The original Zhao family son was an official's son, handsome and with a good reputation, and no bad habits. This Jiang Xi, the great talent, is a bit frivolous, but his reputation is very high. Many people think he will be the top scholar this year, and his future is limitless."
Xu Pianran said, "So what if it's loud? Miss Zhou already has someone she loves. Even if he's a reincarnation of a god, she still won't like him."
Yang Qing remained silent, thinking to herself that if it weren't for that experience in her previous life, it was truly hard to say. If she had really met a talented, handsome, gentle, and considerate man, Zhou Zhiyu might have actually been able to let go.
But because of that experience in her past life, with its many joys and sorrows, and its tragic ending, Zhou Zhiyu is absolutely unwilling to let go of what she lost and then regained in this life.
The emperor's health has been deteriorating recently, and Li Shangxuan has become even busier, leaving her with much less time. Yang Qing didn't object to this, nor did she have any particularly strong feelings about it.
That was the emperor, after all. She could never connect the emperor with her family. When the emperor died, she felt fear, but not much sadness, only a touch of melancholy about life, old age, sickness, and death.
She's finally realized that even though her reputation in her past life wasn't great, she was indeed a good and competent empress.
The Chi family was not a high-ranking or noble family, so she naturally had no vested interests to bind her, unlike Empress Ming who was caught in the middle between the court and her family.
The most criticized aspect is that she is not allowed to offer advice, but Li Shangxuan is clearly a very opinionated person, and he would not listen to her advice even if she did.
Thinking about it this way, Yang Qing felt incredibly capable and became bolder in her actions regarding Zhou Zhiyu.
Zhou Zhiyu had already told her parents that she and the guard Cheng Feng had secretly developed feelings for each other, which infuriated her parents. They locked their daughter in the house to reflect on her actions and became even more determined to marry her off to the Jiang family as soon as possible.
This meeting was only possible because Yangqing noticed that she hadn't appeared for a long time and ordered her to come to the East Palace.
Hearing Yang Qing's terrible idea, she hesitated, "Will this really work?"
Yang Qing said, "Let's just try it. It won't matter if it doesn't work."
Zhou Zhiyu thought that made sense. At worst, they could delay it for as long as possible. They had finally gotten another chance. This time, the chaos in Yunzhou would not happen again, and her mother would not die again. She had thought it through clearly. No matter what, she was going to be with Chengfeng.
The regrets of the past life must be made up for in this life.
When Zhou Zhiyu left the palace, she ran into Li Shangxuan returning. Li Shangxuan was quite jealous, saying, "Our Xun really has a good magnanimity."
Yang Qing rolled her eyes at him, didn't reply, and went about her own business. This year, the Chi family had two happy events: she and Rong Yue got married, but her eldest sister Huan Xi didn't attend. It was agreed that her eldest sister's family would come to the capital during the New Year, and Yang Qing wanted to make some small things for her two nephews to satisfy her aunt's heart.
Li Shangxuan glanced at what she was holding and said, "The weather is about to turn cold, why don't you make me a few too?"
The embroiderers in the palace were all incredibly skilled, far surpassing Yang Qing's abilities. She had initially wanted to accuse him of being nosy, but for some reason, she suddenly remembered the purse he had embroidered for her birthday that year. It was supposed to be a pair of mandarin ducks, but he had turned them into two ugly ducks. She couldn't help but smile, and her tone softened considerably as she playfully scolded, "All you do is order me around. I don't want to do this. You put so much effort into your clothes; making a set must have taken a lot of thought and effort."
Li Shangxuan was just making up an excuse to tease her, but he couldn't help it the other day and said that she ate as fast as a pig. Although he meant to say that she was lucky and that being able to eat was a blessing, he clearly angered her again.
Once the deadlock was broken, Yang Qing could no longer keep a straight face, so she simply brought up Zhou Zhiyu's matter with him, "If we had known that Jiang Xi was involved, we should have found an excuse to settle Miss Zhou's marriage after breaking off the engagement at the Zhao family. Sigh, we didn't even think of that. I'm sure some people won't believe those rumors."
Li Shangxuan reacted indifferently to Zhou Zhiyu's matter; he didn't remember Zhou Zhiyu at all, let alone the life-saving grace.
Yang Qing: "But it's really strange. They're cousins, share the same grandfather, so why is there such a big difference between Miss Zhou and that famous Young Master Zhou?"
Li Shangxuan laughed and said, "The dragon has nine sons, each different from the other, let alone cousins."
Yang Qing said proudly, "But everyone in the capital says that all four of our daughters are beauties."
Li Shangxuan, itching to pinch her cheek, quickly withdrew his hand before she could cry out in pain, and changed the subject, asking, "What terrible idea did you just give her?"
Yang Qing fell for the trick as expected and stopped worrying about being pinched on the cheek. "What do you mean by a bad idea? It's clearly a good idea, just like the 'crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide' stuff."
She lowered her voice and said, "Let me tell you, my parents fall for this the most. Every time I cry, they give in to me."
Li Shangxuan said, "Aren't I the same?"
Yang Qing glared at him again: "You're clearly not like that!"
Her crying only made him more agitated.
Li Shangxuan quickly understood, smiled slightly, and remained silent.
Yang Qing, however, was still ready to challenge her, asking, "What are you laughing at?"
Li Shangxuan said innocently, "What, can't I even laugh? Ah Xun is being too domineering."
Yang Qing glared at her: "Didn't you already know? I've always been this domineering. I have so many things to manage. If you marry me, forget about having a harem. You can only have me for the rest of your life, no matter what the reason."
Li Shangxuan took her hand and placed a gentle kiss on it, saying, "I couldn't ask for more."
He likes the domineering Ah Xun the most.
Less than three days later, news of Zhou Zhiyu's victory arrived as expected. Even she, who always adhered to etiquette, did not expect that Madam Zhou would fall for her so quickly. After two days of commotion, Lord Zhou finally relented and swallowed his pride to break off the engagement.
The Chi family wasn't idle either. After the autumn imperial examinations, Chu Ying's wedding date would be approaching, followed by Lian Tang's wedding. After that, the next generation would be getting older and would start looking for partners.
One happy event after another, accompanied by the booming sound of firecrackers.
The human world surpasses the heavens; why should the two stars need a magpie bridge to meet?
End of main text.
Author's Note: Here's a link to my ongoing series, "Let's Forgive Her After All."
It wasn't until his death that Jing Cong learned that...
His wife was nothing more than a supporting female character in a sadomasochistic novel.
As the male protagonist's only living sister by blood, she didn't enjoy any of the protagonist's halo; she was only responsible for adding some tragic elements to the male protagonist's revenge story.
She abandoned him after he appeared.
Her brother caused his family to be ruined and killed; it's unknown whether she played a role in it.
In short, Jing Cong was heartbroken by this ungrateful wretch. Even if he had another chance, he had no intention of rekindling their relationship. He wanted to send her abroad to get away from the plot so she wouldn't continue to willingly serve as a blood bag for the male lead.
But who can tell him what's going on?
The ingrate sneered as he tied his hands with a tie:
Even if I can't have your heart, I'll still have your body!
Well, as expected, she's still that ungrateful and unreasonable wife.
Straightforward pervert * Holy Father / Angry Holy Father
Evil Cow Cat * Darkened Samoyed
Two clean people, two adults and a cat, a family of three, a chaotic and hilarious situation.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
