Everything was silent.
Only the sensation of weightlessness continued to surge through her. In the corner of her eye, Yun Yi could see meteors constantly streaking across the sky.
Xiao Zhi, clearly enjoying himself, swept her along as he raced across the glazed roof tiles.
His feet moved even faster, the tiles emitting faint cracking sounds. Suddenly, he launched himself from the edge of the ridge. His robes startled the copper bells under the eaves—a string of crisp tinkling had barely begun to ring out when it was scattered by the fierce headwind.
He used the momentum, carrying her with him, and flew steadily toward another palace.
“How does this compare to riding clouds and mists in the immortal realm?”
He was parkouring across the palace rooftops! Yun Yi couldn’t answer. She closed her eyes in despair.
Someone’s lightness skill was extraordinary, but her acrophobia was even more so. In the terminal stage of acrophobia, she could never bend down to pick up money in this lifetime.
“Hold on,” Xiao Zhi said.
Yun Yi immediately wrapped her arms around his waist, her fingers practically digging into his back.
“Don’t look down.”
The wind howled in her ears.
She lifted her chin. Her eyes landed on Xiao Zhi’s clenched jawline. The small mole on the side of his neck pulsed with his artery, and her eyelids twitched in response.
Xiao Zhi could clearly feel her gaze fix on his face for a moment. Then, her fingertip gently poked the side of his neck.
His pulse skipped a beat. The spot where the mole sat was pressed by her cool fingertip, and the surrounding patch of skin inexplicably burned.
He looked down at her.
She, however, acted as if nothing had happened, her fingertip finding his carotid artery and pressing down lightly.
That was his mole.
“Is it fun?” His voice was flat.
“Not fun.” But shifting her attention to the small mole made her less afraid.
“That’s a capital offense.”
What, touching someone’s neck is a capital offense? Unconvinced, Yun Yi reached out directly, making extensive contact with the emperor’s neck.
The texture was very average. Not as good as Jue Wei duck neck.
Seeing a patch of tiny goosebumps rise on the emperor’s neck, Yun Yi quickly curled her fingers back and struggled, trying to push herself down with her feet.
His grip on the crook of her leg tightened.
Her center of gravity suddenly shifted upward as he threw her up—
“Ah!”
With an intense wave of weightlessness, Yun Yi grabbed wildly at the air before her body fell back into his arms.
Xiao Zhi caught her steadily.
Dog.
Emperor.
Yun Yi clawed at his neck, her fingernails raking across the skin, leaving behind several thin red marks.
In the distance, a meteor streaked across the night sky and vanished in an instant.
Xiao Zhi stopped moving.
Yun Yi grabbed his arm and used it to steady herself as she jumped down onto the glazed tiles, her mood heavy: I scratched his neck. Time to have my nine generations executed.
The glazed tiles stretched on and on. Majestic palaces, one linked to another.
She sat down close beside Xiao Zhi, burying her face in the cloak’s fur, leaving only her eyes exposed.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
After several days apart, did she have nothing at all to say to him?
Having finally adjusted to the height, Yun Yi stared blankly at the sand-table-like palace layout below, lost in thought.
“Yun Yi.”
“Huh? How do you know my name?”
“Is there a single matter under heaven that can escape the Son of Heaven’s eyes?”
Tch. Yun Yi remembered now—her father must have called her name on the phone, and Xiao Zhi had overheard.
She also recalled the ancestral tablet in the Xiao family village ancestral hall. “Then what’s your name?” she asked, seeking confirmation.
The smug-looking emperor’s face suddenly darkened.
From the emperor’s expression: Who in all of Great Yan doesn’t know the Son of Heaven’s personal name?
This little thief is detestable!
“My name is Xiao Zhi,” he said, extremely reluctantly.
“Ohhh~” Yun Yi drew out the syllable. “Not calling yourself ‘We’ anymore?”
“…”
Tormenting the emperor was quite fun.
The night wind abruptly shook the palace bells. Overlooking the imperial palace from above, rows of red palace lanterns lit up beneath the halls, making everything look eerily sinister.
Frightened, Yun Yi grabbed his sleeve. “I don’t want to play anymore. I want to go down.”
Xiao Zhi rose to leave. “You have been gravely disrespectful to Us. You are punished.”
And just like that, the dog emperor strode forward nonchalantly.
The roof was about thirty meters above the ground.
Abandoned by the emperor, Yun Yi trembled. “Hey…”
What kind of new punishment was this? Punishing her by making her stand at attention on the palace rooftop? Did Great Yan have no laws?
The emperor hadn’t gone far. He suddenly turned back and walked to her side, his tall figure almost enveloping her.
He extended both arms and suddenly hoisted her up—no one had held her like this since she started elementary school, not even Yun Guoqiang.
So the Son of Heaven’s punishment was to leap down from the high rooftop while carrying her like a grumpy father carrying a troublesome child.
The sensation of weightlessness hit her again.
Ahhh!
When they landed, Yun Yi’s upper body was folded limply against Xiao Zhi, like a dead shrimp.
I’m never playing again…
The palace attendants on duty saw the emperor arrive with a young woman.
Everyone was shocked.
The imperial guard captain recognized her immediately.
On the day of the assassination attempt, he had glimpsed the young woman’s fleeting figure.
Then a blinding white light had exploded.
And she had vanished right before his eyes.
Thankfully! She was still alive!
—
Having spent those days inside the imperial seal, Yun Yi had synchronized her schedule with the emperor’s. The moment she entered the bedchamber, a familiar scent washed over her, giving her a strange sense of coming home.
She familiarized herself with the layout and climbed onto the imperial bed.
The surroundings were as silent as a vacuum.
Yun Yi slowly turned her head and saw the emperor’s entourage of attendants and bodyguards—all their eyes nailed to her. She quickly scrambled down from the bed and gave an awkward laugh. “I thought I was at home.”
Everyone was shocked.
The emperor said, “Bring some food.”
“Hee hee.” Yun Yi rubbed her empty stomach and moved to sit on the footstool below.
Every day, she had watched Xiao Zhi face a table full of delicacies, eating with refined elegance, while she, trapped inside the imperial seal, had been tormented by regret: What a waste of heavenly treasures!
She had been dying of craving.
While waiting for the food, her eyes glowed green with hunger.
When the imperial dishes filled the table—all Michelin-level feasts—she was the only one eating, with a crowd of people attending her.
Oh, the wicked, decadent life of an emperor.
There were no communal chopsticks on the table, so Yun Yi had no choice but to pick up the chopsticks in front of the emperor and place a piece of crystal shrimp in his bowl. “You eat too.”
The palace attendants’ faces changed dramatically.
Those were the emperor’s personal gold-inlaid ivory chopsticks.
After the evening meal, Xiao Zhi didn’t eat anything else. Without changing his expression, he moved the shrimp to her bowl. “You eat.”
The palace maid twisted the corner of her robe and held her breath: The emperor is serving her food with his own chopsticks ahhh!
Yun Yi didn’t like eating alone. She was a person who loved to share.
Her lips murmured, “Let’s eat together,” and she moved the shrimp back to the emperor’s bowl.
Xiao Zhi stared at the shrimp that had made a round trip. If this continued, it would never end. He quickly ate it.
The eunuch was terrified out of his wits: The emperor ate without anyone testing for poison first! Today is definitely the last day of my career!
After the meal, the emperor asked Yun Yi if she had any other requests.
“I want to take a bath.”
“Take Miss Yun to bathe.”
The emperor hadn’t specified where.
The new emperor’s harem was empty. Where should this suddenly appearing young woman be sent? Sending her to any palace would violate the rules.
Seeing the palace maid’s look of extreme difficulty, Yun Yi quickly took her hand. “Little sister, just take me somewhere I can wash up.”
The palace maid pressed her palms together and begged for mercy repeatedly. “Miss, please have mercy. Please don’t make me do this.”
This was a woman who had just dined at the same table as the emperor—there was no way she could be sent to the servants’ bathhouse.
Yun Yi was led to a spacious, private royal bath chamber—one clearly meant for men.
Seeing the palace maid carrying clothes inside, Yun Yi quickly jumped into the steam-filled pool.
The water temperature was perfect, as comfortable as a hot spring.
The steam enveloped her, relaxing her muscles and limbs. As she washed, even the little bit of shyness and embarrassment she had felt washed away.
Suddenly, she remembered how the emperor had kept the imperial seal with him everywhere he went—never leaving it behind. That seal was basically his security blanket.
They ate together. They slept together. They bathed together too.
Yun Yi sank underwater and held her breath, trying desperately to banish the naughty thoughts bubbling up in her mind.
Splash—water went flying. Cozy and warm, idle hands do the devil’s work. She was done washing.
She wrapped herself in the clothes provided and immediately sensed something wrong.
The clothes were traditional—drab gray fabric, two wide front panels that overlapped, a tie at the waist. Extremely plain. She looked like she was about to head to the White Cloud Temple to become a Daoist nun.
These were Daoist robes!
“Miss Yun,” the palace maid’s gaze landed on Yun Yi, her pupils dilated in shock, then quickly looked away. “This servant will take you to rest.”
Rest, my foot.
“Where’s your boss?”
She was going to confront Xiao Zhi right now. What did he mean by this?
The palace maid would never dare to guess the emperor’s intentions.
Yun Yi gathered the hem of her Daoist robe, saving her last ounce of energy to confront the emperor face to face.
“Tell your emperor to come see me.”
The palace maid thought: Damn it all. Why did my parents have to send me into the palace to work?!
—
The emperor had already retired for the night.
Wang Delan and the palace maid discussed it and decided that such a minor matter was not worth disturbing His Majesty.
Wang Delan said, “We have heard that Miss Yun is an enlightened immortal who knows Daoist magic. His Majesty has set aside the alchemy chamber where the celestial master used to cultivate—you may rest there.”
The palace maid added, “Rest assured, miss. This servant has added a new mattress for you. I guarantee it’s ten times more comfortable than the alchemy chamber’s hard bed.”
Alchemy chamber? What the hell? Am I going to be refined into blood and water by the dog emperor? Before Yun Yi could protest, the two of them had her by the arms and hurried her straight into the alchemy chamber.
The late emperor had revered Daoism and had specially carved out a small Daoist temple within the palace. When the celestial master performed rituals or refined elixirs, there were a few quiet side rooms behind the temple for him to rest in.
Now that the celestial master had been dismissed by the emperor, those rooms had been vacated.
Yun Yi lifted the hem of her too-long Daoist robe—since there were no Daoist nuns in the palace, she was naturally given a male robe. The room had already been cleaned by palace attendants, and a maid was adding fresh charcoal to the brazier.
Switching from the emperor’s bedchamber to the Daoist room was like downgrading from an ultra-luxurious seven-star hotel to an Airbnb in a rustic Chinese temple.
Yun Yi rubbed her shoulder blades.
While scrubbing herself earlier, her shoulder blades had been vaguely sore. The palace maid beside her had caught a glimpse of the large bruise on her shoulder blade and gasped softly.
Now that she thought about it, it must have been caused by the hidden weapon when she protected the emperor.
Yun Yi trembled with anger. “Stinky emperor—I’m still the one who saved your life!”
—
Xiao Zhi couldn’t sleep soundly.
In a daze, he seemed to wake up. His hand instinctively reached for the pillow beside him.
Empty.
That was when he remembered—the “imperial seal” had been sent to the Daoist temple.
He hadn’t done it on purpose.
How could he have left a living person sleeping here?
A young woman suddenly appearing in the bedchamber—if the Empress Dowager’s spies caught wind of it, the consequences would be disastrous.
The emperor asked, “Where is she?”
“Your Majesty, Miss Yun has retired for the night.”
He wanted to say something more. His lips moved, but in the end, no words came.
After an incense stick’s worth of time passed.
The emperor rose from the dragon couch.
“Your Majesty?” Wang Delan said.
The emperor said casually, “I’m going to the morning court.”
“…” There was still an hour before the morning court session.
Their diligent emperor, who was so devoted to state affairs, was now walking under the starlight, treading through the night dew—in the direction opposite of the Wende Hall.
That was the direction of the Daoist temple.
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