Chapter 103
Chapter 103
“Little Ming, I still have things to do. You can’t hold me like this forever.”
Shengsheng Zhou patted the oversized stuffed toy before her on the back and spoke helplessly.
Instead of withdrawing, the man tightened his embrace.
He squeezed so hard Shengsheng felt breakfast threatening to come back up.
“I can. As long as Shengsheng doesn’t hate me, I’ll hold her for the rest of my life,” Siran Ming said.
*What does a little brat like you know about how long a lifetime is?*
Shengsheng thought he was still too young.
In the end, she coaxed him by every means available until he released her.
The price was an additional personal guard when she reappeared before everyone.
Weiqing Song’s madcap marriage proposal had already given her an enormous surprise, but Shengsheng held no hope at all for Siran’s part.
After all, the Yong emperor was currently… not quite normal.
When Zhiyu Jiang saw Shengsheng, her nose twitched. Then she said with disgust, “Shengsheng, you smell all over like Little Ming.”
Shengsheng fell silent.
How Zhiyu sent her straight back to the Yong palace with a single sentence.
Come to think of it, Zhiyu had often said the same thing to her there.
It was strange. When Siran was himself, Zhiyu was not sensitive at all. The moment he switched into Little Ming mode, her nose became as sharp as a dog’s.
Her gaze traveling between them, Zhiyu asked with a foolish grin, “Did Shengsheng and Little Ming make up?”
Shengsheng glanced back at Siran, who had never stopped staring at her. “We never quarreled.”
Siran nodded. “Right. Shengsheng and I are the closest.”
“You dog of a man!”
Meiren Liu, arriving late after following the scent, glared furiously at Siran.
Recognizing an old acquaintance, Siran’s expression sharpened. He looked at Shengsheng with heartbreak in his eyes.
*You brought this woman back, but not me?*
Shengsheng read the sentence in his gaze.
Like a player confronted by all his lovers at once, Shengsheng was momentarily speechless.
——
“Shengsheng, am I truly going to marry His Highness the Crown Prince?” Zhiyu asked listlessly, sprawled across the bed.
Shengsheng had dismissed the palace matron sent to teach Zhiyu etiquette. She brought pastries prepared in advance to comfort the exhausted girl.
Pinching up a pastry and feeding it to Zhiyu, Shengsheng said firmly, “No.”
The Jiang family would be executed for treason.
The Zhen Kingdom would never accept a criminal official’s daughter as crown princess.
But because of Shengsheng’s butterfly effect, she no longer knew what crime the Jiang family would be convicted of.
Their ruin, however, was certain.
Everything seemed peaceful now, but this was only the last calm before the storm.
The matter had not yet become common knowledge, but Xiaopingzi had recently told her that the Yu family had begun suppressing the Jiang family in subtle ways.
The Yu family obeyed the Empress Dowager in almost everything. They would never antagonize the Jiang family without cause; Yan Yu had to be behind it.
It was strange. Other families offered daughters to the imperial clan as gifts, and those daughters remained constrained by their birth families. With Empress Dowager Yan, the situation was precisely reversed.
Had the old Liu family stolen Ultraman Tiga’s light in a previous life? How else could they be so unfortunate that every consort they married was stranger than the last?
Now even a cross-dressing man had slipped among them.
What a family misfortune!
Shengsheng cried the words mournfully on behalf of the Liu ancestors.
Zhiyu stared. “Shengsheng, what’s wrong?”
In her excitement, Shengsheng Zhou had actually shouted the words aloud. She coughed. “Nothing… But Xiaoyu, I need to tell you something. It concerns your life and Concubine Duanmu’s, so listen carefully.”
Zhiyu Jiang nodded.
After Shengsheng finally finished talking herself hoarse, Zhiyu sat in a daze.
“Will the Jiang family cease to exist?”
Shengsheng nodded. “Don’t be sad, Xiaoyu. You still have us.”
“Then I need to warn Concubine Duanmu and dig up the treasure we buried under the big tree in the courtyard!” Zhiyu declared, clenching her fist.
Money was life. Without money, one could not eat delicious food.
No sooner had she spoken than she ran off excitedly.
Shengsheng remained seated, contemplating what exactly had gone wrong with Xiyuan Duanmu’s parenting.
“Shengsheng.”
While she was lost in thought, a familiar voice sounded beside her. Turning, she caught a sweet-and-sour scent she seemed to have smelled somewhere before.
Looking at the tall, powerfully built young man carrying an enormous pole of candied hawthorns, Shengsheng decided Zhiyu was not the only one whose upbringing had gone wrong. Little Ming’s education was problematic too.
Unfortunately, she would never have the opportunity to discuss it with Siran Ming’s mother.
“The one at the palace was from you too, wasn’t it?” Shengsheng brushed dust from the hem of his clothes.
Siran lowered his head and murmured, “Yes.”
“Does Shengsheng like it?”
*I love it to death. All I’m missing is a few cavities to show my respect.*
“How much did it cost?” Shengsheng took the enormous pole from his shoulder, deciding she would hide it later. If Zhiyu saw it, she could bid farewell to her teeth.
Siran said he had given the vendor a jade pendant.
Shengsheng clutched her heart in agony.
What?!
*You wastrel! Give that money to me and I could make you a mountain of candied hawthorns!*
Siran fell silent. His Shengsheng did not look very happy.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the capital, another candied-hawthorn vendor became rich.
Overnight, people going out discovered many new candied-hawthorn stalls along the streets.
The oldest vendor among them said mysteriously:
They were waiting for a miracle.
After word of this baffling phenomenon spread, a bird from parts unknown fluttered into the Jiang residence and headed purposefully toward a particular place.
Shengsheng did not yet know that her nemesis, Bird Duan, was minutes from entering the battlefield. At present, something else troubled her.
Staring at the stack of densely written papers in her hands, Shengsheng gave a cold smile.
Siran and his young guard Rong Li stood behind her without a sound.
After inspecting the papers, Shengsheng unhesitatingly destroyed this vile slander of her character.
She had not even finished reading. Who knew whether it recorded that business between her and Fusheng Duan when they kissed?
As the white sheets slowly turned to ash, reluctance filled Rong Li’s eyes.
After so much time together, she had grown attached to the paper.
Those sheets had accompanied her through every lonely night–especially whenever those illicit lovers insisted on conducting their affairs on the very branch where she was perched.
Siran was a little disappointed too. Shengsheng was beside him now, but he remained curious about what she had done while he was away.
Reading her emperor’s mood, Rong Li wished to say–
No, Your Majesty. You do not want to know.