novelAbuy Chapter 459 - 450: Not Too Late—Yao Jun Side Story 4
Chapter 459 - 450: Not Too Late—Yao Jun Side Story 4
The tip of the tongue swept over, as if tasting something."In your eyes, in your heart, there’s only me..."
Inch by inch, it invaded, thread by thread, it hooked.
Li Yao struggled to regain a thread of reason, trying to recall her original intention for coming here: "Liu—"
He suddenly stopped, pressing against her lips with a low laugh, "If you mention someone else again, I’ll go crazy."
The abrupt stop was discomforting for Li Yao too. Unconsciously, she touched his hands that encircled her waist, her thoughts in disarray, "Crazy? Crazy about what?"
He chuckled.
As the shadow covered her once more, the candlelight quivered, making every inch within her sight shake and scattered...
...
When Li Yao entered the palace the next day, it was already close to noon.
As she was currently in charge of the Six Palaces’ affairs, with no one really above her, she wasn’t too worried about anyone noticing her tardiness.
However, just as she walked into Lizheng Hall with a slight feeling of guilt yet mostly confident, she saw the maid of Empress Tang at the hall’s entrance.
"The Princess is here!" The maid’s overly sharp announcement cut off any chance of Li Yao sneaking away.
She braced herself and entered Lizheng Hall.
Empress Tang seemed like she hadn’t rested enough the previous day, lounging lazily against the desk, propping her delicate peach-blossom-like face with one hand, and writing something with the other, sporadically.
Seeing her enter, the Empress examined her for a moment, clicked her tongue, and said, "Even if you are the Princess, you shouldn’t disgrace the order, right?"
Li Yao was so startled that she stumbled, angrily retorting, "You, you are talking nonsense!"
"Oh?" Empress Tang pondered, "If you were forced, then it’s nonsense."
Li Yao’s face turned red and then white.
Of course... it wasn’t forced either...
Empress Tang sighed, "Look at your situation? Although we have a good relationship and you are the cousin of Your Majesty, the order is innocent, and I can’t be partial, right?" Saying this, she rolled the scroll on the desk and tossed it to Li Yao.
Li Yao received it and unfurled it.
It was an edict from the Empress.
Ordering her to return to secular life, re-designated as the Princess of Chu Country.
No mention of anything else.
Li Yao quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
"As for when you’ll get a title, handle it yourself!"
Empress Tang stood up, stretching her upper body.
Seeing her about to leave, Li Yao hesitated and asked, "Has Your Highness been to the Yu Mansion?"
Empress Tang blinked, "Do you mean that small shabby house in Xuanhua?"
Li Yao remained silent, but her eyes showed dissatisfaction.
So, you know it’s small and shabby, don’t you think it should be replaced with a better one?
Empress Tang said helplessly, "That’s the house he rented himself. The old Yu Mansion was returned to him long ago. If he doesn’t live there, who can he blame?" She tilted her head in thought, smiling, "Maybe he’s playing the sympathy card with someone?"
Li Yao: ...
...
"You have a big mansion; why don’t you live there?" Li Yao asked directly when she ran into Yu Jun upon leaving the palace.
Yu Jun was taken aback, a light blush appearing on his fair face, "Living in such a big house by myself, I always feel it’s too empty and eerie."
Li Yao: ...
Even though she knew he was pretending to be pitiful, imagining him locked alone in a dark, cramped room...
"Didn’t Your Majesty and Her Highness reward you with a lot of wealth? Why didn’t I see any of it?" Li Yao asked with a stern face.
She nearly believed the Empress and Your Majesty were stingy with him, almost to the point of being ridiculed by the Empress!
"Wealth... it’s all saved for the bride price," Yu Jun laughed softly, his eyes sparkling, "Does the Princess want to see it?"
Li Yao blushed uncontrollably.
"I don’t want to!"
She stepped onto the carriage.
The carriage started moving, and Li Yao leaned to listen to the sounds outside.
Unable to resist, she secretly lifted a corner of the curtain and, sure enough, there was someone following beside the carriage.
The reins lay loosely in his palm, with an inexplicable air of ease and joy around his lips.
Li Yao looked on in a daze for a while, then suddenly opened the curtain fully, meeting his smiling eyes.
Li Yao took a deep breath and said, "Back then you wanted to join the Ministry of Justice, it was I—"
"I know." He interrupted her halfway.
Li Yao was stunned.
He knew...
He knew she had obstructed his transfer to the Ministry of Justice back then?
"The Empress said someone thought my foundation was shallow and my temperament unstable, didn’t want me handling justice alone, afraid I’d become an official feared and despised by everyone—"
The laughter in his eyes deepened, brimming with pure joy.
"You didn’t like me entering the Ministry, so I didn’t particularly want to go either—"
"In your eyes, can I be considered well-behaved?"
Li Yao looked at him, only feeling shameless, grunting in indifference.
"In that case, would the Princess do me the honor of visiting my home to see the wealth?"
(Almost missed Pingyang’s extra, there are definitely 3 more extras, Tang Ziqian has one, Qin Xiao’s is yet to be decided, maybe none, Wei Sui’s story is already in mind, but it might not be written, because BE)