Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Pei Xingzhi spent the night in my palace.

No one disturbed us that night.

Without a word, he raised my waist higher. The veins stood out on the large hand gripping my waist as he called my private name over and over.

My eyes were half-closed, my arms draped weakly around his neck.

When I really couldn’t take it anymore, I trembled as I tipped my head back and offered him a damp kiss.

He stopped. His deep gaze fell on me, and he kissed me again. “Such a good girl.”

As he spoke, he was about to call the palace maids in again to change the water.

My voice came out hoarse. “Your Majesty… you still have morning court tomorrow. You should rest early.”

The man above me froze abruptly. “What did you call me?”

I opened my eyes in confusion.

Only then did I realize.

Before, in bed, I had always called him husband.

In the darkness, Pei Xingzhi stared into my eyes, emotion churning in his pitch-black pupils.

I quickly wrapped my arms around his waist and coaxed, “I’ve been calling you ‘Your Majesty’ all day, so it slipped out for a moment.”

“If my husband keeps being this petty, I’m going to get angry.”

I gently pushed him away, pulled on my clothes, and made as if to leave.

My toes had barely touched the floor when he caught me around the waist and pulled me back into his arms.

He seemed to let out a breath of relief. Pressing me against his shoulder, he showered me with kisses.

And yet his breathing held a faint note of restlessness and unease.

I didn’t know what he had to be uneasy about.

He was the emperor.

If anyone should have felt uneasy, it should have been me.

Pei Xingzhi compensated me with a pearl hairpin.

It was made entirely of gold, and actually more valuable than Song Liangyin’s.

It was just that, no matter how I looked at it, that sea pearl wasn’t as full and lovely as the original one.

So when I saw Song Liangyin again, my gaze couldn’t help lingering on her hair for a moment.

The snowy white pearl gleamed with soft radiance, making her skin look all the more luminous.

I bowed to her.

Her gaze fell to my waist, and her expression turned wistful. “His Majesty has a jade pendant exactly like Elder Sister’s.”

“When I attended him in bed, I asked His Majesty for it, but he refused to let me see it no matter what… Elder Sister, won’t you let me have a look?”

It was a jade pendant carved in a matching-knot design. Pei Xingzhi and I each had one.

Back then, we had promised to wear them on us at all times and never let anyone touch them, as though the two of us would see each other day and night and never be apart.

I hesitated for a moment.

But in the end, I untied the jade pendant and handed it to her.

I never expected that in the very next instant, a cold gust of wind would sweep past, and the matching-knot pendant would fall to the ground.

With a crisp sound, it shattered.

My expression darkened. Song Liangyin’s eyes immediately reddened. “My hand slipped…”

She looked at me, a faint trace of provocation in her expression. “Elder Sister, are you going to His Majesty again to complain?”

That one word, again, quietly extinguished the anger in my heart.

Yes. This wasn’t the first time she had broken something Pei Xingzhi had given me.

Back then, I had valued Pei Xingzhi above everything else.

So every time, I made a huge scene.

But in the end, Pei Xingzhi always took Song Liangyin’s side.

Thinking of that, I shook my head. “It’s nothing. Your Highness is the one dearest to His Majesty’s heart. What’s one jade pendant if you accidentally dropped it?”

“If it’s broken, then it’s broken. It was only…”

Before I could finish speaking, the palace maids beside Song Liangyin all dropped to their knees in unison.

Not understanding why, I turned my head.

And met Pei Xingzhi’s cold, ice-dark eyes.