Chapter 26

The moist sensation, mingled with a tingling numbness at the tip of her tongue, was followed by a sudden sharp sting in her fingertip that made her instinctively pull back.

She looked down. Xie Yan’s lips were stained with the lychee juice that had dripped from her hand, his deep eyes fixed directly on her. Noticing her gaze, he curved his lips and drew that lychee juice back into his throat.

“Xie Yan!”

Su Jiao’s entire face turned red in an instant, the tips of her fingers burning as though they had passed through flame, leaving her at a complete loss.

She rose to flee, but before she could move, she felt her waist give way — Xie Yan pressed down on her waist and pushed her back onto the bed. His tall frame immediately leaned over her, and before Su Jiao could react, his lips had already found hers.

The sweet, clinging lychee juice lingered between their lips and teeth. Eager and impatient, he sought to part her lips so they could share the taste together. His large hand sent a wave of tingling sensation sweeping from her waist upward across her body, and within moments her waist went soft, her mouth parting unconsciously.

A touch of warmth pressed her tongue open, and in an instant she tasted the flavor of lychee. A scorching heat came sweeping over her from all directions — there was no escaping it — and she struggled to breathe.

Su Jiao tried to pull away, but his kiss ensnared her so completely she could not escape. Those lips and that tongue fell upon her face, her brows and eyes, the tip of her nose, then returned once more to her lips and teeth.

A soft peck. Then another.

“Xie Yan… Xie Yan…”

She raised her hands and pushed him, pushing twice more before finally managing to push him away enough to catch her breath.

“Get up,” she said.

He lay pressed against her and did not move.

“Just hold me a little longer.”

He kept feeling that the faint, distant look in Su Jiao’s eyes a moment ago had unsettled him — had she been thinking of Su Wei, or of the world outside the palace?

It was certainly not an expression she wore when she was happy.

His heart was in turmoil, afraid that she was always thinking of leaving, so he held her tighter, calling to her again and again.

“Just a little longer.”

And so Xiao Tang remained at Yongning Hall to serve. Later, when Emperor Jia sent other servants over, Su Jiao dismissed them all.

Other people’s servants were not as useful as her own.

That evening, as they were having dinner, Chang Lin returned from outside once more.

“Auntie Gui has had a physician come to treat her, but the condition of her hands is truly difficult to cure. I’m afraid… she can barely be kept alive.”

Though his words were within Su Jiao’s expectations, hearing them still caused her mood to sink a little.

“My Lady the Prince’s Consort, please rest assured — His Highness has already posted people to keep watch over that inn.”

Seeing that she was not in good spirits, Chang Lin quickly added this.

Su Jiao glanced at Xie Yan. He still wore that calm, composed expression — yet she had not known he had already been so thoughtful as to make such arrangements. Something stirred in her heart, and she opened her mouth.

“Thank you…”

That calm composure vanished at once. He looked at Su Jiao.

“Still kissing me at the bedside this afternoon, and by evening it becomes ‘thank you’?”

With a crash, Su Jiao’s mind went suddenly blank. When she registered what he had just said, she frantically reached out to cover his mouth, her face flushing crimson all at once.

“Xie Yan! What nonsense are you saying?”

“Am I wrong?”

Xie Yan raised an eyebrow and looked at her. As he spoke, his lips grazed across her palm, sending a tingling sensation through Su Jiao’s hand, leaving her caught between pulling her hand away and keeping it there.

She bit her lip and shot him a glare, not daring to lift her head to look at Chang Lin or at Xiao Tang, who stood serving nearby.

She cursed him a thousand times in her heart.

Watching her huddled up like a quail, Xie Yan’s mood actually improved. He spoke with lazy ease.

“With another vigil at the imperial mausoleum, Su Wei will certainly have to go again.”

Chang Lin acknowledged this with an impassive face and withdrew.

Barely had his figure left Yongning Hall when word reached Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Jia’s most skilled shadow guard among his personal martial retainers knelt with his head bowed.

“Her Majesty the Empress’s words were not mistaken. The Third Prince has indeed sent men to the imperial mausoleum on several occasions.”

“Aside from Madam Su’s tomb, who else is buried near the imperial mausoleum?”

“This subordinate was unable to discover anyone.”

Yet Emperor Jia sensed something was wrong.

“Follow them.”

Whatever the reason behind the visits to the mausoleum — if it truly was because of the Third Prince’s consort that Xie Yan was behaving this way…

Emperor Jia furrowed his brow, already showing signs of displeasure.

Ever since returning from outside Yongning Hall that last time, Su Wei had been certain of victory, waiting confidently for news about Su Jiao — yet he had waited and waited, and nothing had come.

By rights, now that his younger sister had received the bracelet, she should have been mulling over what he had said to her.

Their mother was the one tie she had to this world, and Su Jiao could not possibly ignore Madam Su’s words.

After waiting nearly two or three days, Su Wei at last could sit still no longer.

After the morning court audience, he left the Imperial Study and made his way once again toward Yongning Hall.

Xiao Tang brought her the news, and Su Jiao’s eyes moved in thought.

“Let’s go.”

Su Wei was waiting for her as before, under the tree outside Yongning Hall. When he saw her coming, he first asked after her life in the palace these past days as he always did, before broaching the subject of the bracelet.

“What has Jiaojiao decided about what I said before?”

Su Jiao fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist, her head lowered.

“Naturally I’ve been thinking about it.”

A smile rose on Su Wei’s cool, detached face.

“Truly? Then I…”

“Only, the fake-death medicine from last time was thrown away by me… Something so precious — getting a second one would be rather difficult, wouldn’t it?”

Su Wei’s brow furrowed as expected.

That medicine had not been easy to obtain in the first place. The renowned physician possessed two kinds of fake-death medicines.

One was a pill — colorless, odorless, and painless — but the physician had only one of them, and a second one could not be obtained again in a short time.

Yet… Su Jiao had, with great difficulty, agreed to come out.

Su Wei lowered his eyes.

“There are naturally other methods of feigning death.”

His gaze shifted slightly, a reluctance flickering within it.

“But Brother does not wish to make you suffer.”

Su Jiao’s heart beat faster and faster.

“As long as I can get out, I’m not afraid of suffering. Brother still has other fake-death medicines, don’t you?”

She kept her gaze fixed on Su Wei without wavering.

Su Wei, with his mind entirely on the matter of her leaving the palace, did not notice her expression.

“There is indeed one more…”

He lowered his voice.

“There is a medicinal decoction — drinking it causes immediate loss of consciousness, the appearance of death, and no one would be able to detect it for what it is. However, this medicine can only last three days, and waking from it damages the body. If you were interred at the imperial mausoleum, your brother cannot guarantee that he could rescue you within three days.”

Loss of consciousness… three days…

Su Jiao’s heart sank. She had almost certainly guessed that this was what Mother Su had drunk.

That was why he had been in such a hurry to have her coffined, and why he had gone to disturb the grave.

Her mother… had not truly died.

Her heart beat faster and faster. Su Jiao did not know how much effort it took to restrain herself from showing any sign of what she felt.

She raised her face.

“Is such a medicine easy to obtain?”

“Not especially easy, but Brother still has one dose.”

Su Wei still felt reluctant. He reached out to take her hand.

“Jiaojiao…”

Su Jiao leaned her body slightly to one side and gently stepped back.

“Could Brother give me the medicine first?”

He had not expected her to be so forthcoming today. Su Wei nodded at once.

“All right, Brother will have someone fetch it when I return.”

He stepped back three paces, and was about to leave when he suddenly stepped forward again and gently embraced her.

“Brother will not let you suffer in the imperial palace.”

His movement had been too swift. By the time Su Jiao registered it, Su Wei had already turned and walked away.

She frowned, brushed off her sleeve, and watched the retreating figure as he left.

By this point she was almost certain that the fake-death medicine he intended to give her was the same one Mother had drunk — and whether her mother’s identical “cause of death” in her previous life had also been this fake-death medicine.

He had secretly kept Mother hidden away for several years, watching her suffer for all those years, while playing the role of a good elder brother before her.

He had exhausted himself scheming for her to leave the palace, had made trouble on her behalf over the concubines in Xie Yan’s harem, had been banished far away three times over from the imperial city — and yet, undeniably, he had done this thing that had caused such harm to her mother.

Countless scenes flashed through her mind. Thinking back on what she had believed without question in her previous life, Su Jiao suddenly began to doubt.

Were all those acts of kindness he had shown her truly genuine?

Whoosh —

A sharp arrow flew past before her, streaking at great speed toward Su Wei in front of her. Su Jiao startled and cried out instinctively —

“Brother…”

The words were only half out when Su Wei had already turned back. With a flick of his sleeve, the arrow clattered to the ground half an inch from behind his back.

The two siblings turned to look at the same time.

“Xie Yan?”

Su Jiao’s expression froze.

Xie Yan was still toying with the bow and arrow in his hands. Seeing them both look over, he revealed a smile that carried little sincerity.

“My deepest apologies —”

As he spoke, he raised the bow and arrow once more —

“Xie Yan!”

This time Su Jiao reacted in time. In two or three strides she reached him and blocked his movement.

Xie Yan’s expression darkened in an instant.

“Brother, please go quickly — His Highness is practicing his archery. Perhaps it was accidental.”

Su Jiao was still waiting for Su Wei’s medicine to confirm whether it matched what Madam Su had drunk, so she naturally could not let Xie Yan ruin things.

She gave Su Wei a smile. The moment Su Wei’s cool, detached gaze swept across her smile, the internal energy coiled at his fingertips dispersed.

He gave a slight nod of his head and was about to turn away —

“I did it on purpose.”

Xie Yan smiled and spoke to Su Wei.

“…”

Su Jiao hastily covered his mouth and pulled him toward Yongning Hall.

Entering the inner courtyard, the words were already on the tip of her tongue to scold him — but as her gaze swept across Xie Yan’s dark, nearly expressionless face, Su Jiao instinctively swallowed them back.

Years of experience before a tyrant in her previous life had taught her that his mood was genuinely poor at this moment.

It was strange, when she thought about it. In her previous life, during this same period at Yongning Hall, Xie Yan had been a prince of the finest temperament — even when he patiently coaxed her because she occasionally mentioned home, he had never shown such open dislike of Su Wei at this time.

In her previous life, that had clearly only begun after his accession to the throne — so why did she feel lately that his moody, unpredictable temperament was increasingly resembling the version from her past life?

She even vaguely felt he was more unhinged than when he had been emperor in her previous life — after all, back then he had never aimed an arrow at Su Wei either.

Noticing that she was walking alongside him with her arm around his, but had drifted off in thought, Xie Yan’s entire aura suddenly turned ice-cold.

That frigid presence jolted Su Jiao back to herself. She studied his expression and asked tentatively.

“When did husband return?”

Xie Yan had not been in Yongning Hall at all when she went out.

“When you called out ‘brother.'”

So he had heard everything.

Su Jiao laughed dryly a couple of times.

“Very pleased with yourself?”

Xie Yan looked at her calmly and raised the bow and arrow in his hand once more.

“He hasn’t gone far yet — shall I climb a tall ladder right now and shoot him dead, so you’ll be even more pleased?”

Su Jiao’s heart gave a jolt.

“No… no need, husband.”

Feeling the ice-cold aura emanating from Xie Yan, she held onto his arm and asked carefully.

“There are sutras inside — since there’s nothing else to do today, why doesn’t husband keep me company while we copy a few scrolls?”

This had been her habitual remedy whenever he was angered in her previous life. It could not truly be said to calm the mind — it amounted to nothing more than her staying close beside him and saying soft, gentle words.

Watching as Xie Yan did not move, Su Jiao rose up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on the side of his face.

“Come then, husband.”

With some effort she managed to draw him into the inner hall. They sat before the writing table, the sutra book spread open, and he set his brush to the page.

He had written only one line when —

“I wasn’t truly going out to see brother — I only thought that if I could obtain the fake-death medicine from back then, I would be more certain.”

The brush that had been tracing the Heart Sutra made a turn, and Xie Yan, his expression unchanged, wrote the two characters: “brother.”

Seeing that his expression did not change, Su Jiao continued.

“Besides, if I could use leaving the palace as bait…”

Xie Yan wrote again —

“Leave the palace.”

He went on writing in quiet calm. Su Jiao, thinking it was having an effect, added further.

“Why get angry over this — if we were to startle the snake in the grass…”

Xie Yan wrote again.

“My fault.”

“Getting upset would hardly be worth it — husband has always been a magnanimous sort. If you were to harm your health over this, I would be heartbroken.”

Afraid he might truly go out in a fit and shoot another arrow, Su Jiao heaped on every flattery she could muster, trying to bring him back to reason.

On one side were Su Jiao’s words drifting into his ears. On the other, a particular conversation with Su Wei from his previous life kept circling through his mind.

“Do you think she truly wishes to remain in your palace?”

Snap —

The string that had been pulled taut in his mind for a long while finally snapped. Xie Yan flung down his brush, one hand gripping her waist, and pressed her back against the writing table.

Behind her was a cold bronze mirror. Half her body pressed against it, and before she could say a word, a kiss came crashing down upon her from all sides.

He knew she was not going to leave now. He knew she had begun to doubt Su Wei. He knew that everything in this life was different from the last — yet Xie Yan still felt a tightness lodged in his chest.

What ability did that man have, to make her speak to him so pleasantly, to coax and deceive him?

He gripped Su Jiao’s wrists, arching her body toward him, and pressed past her lips and teeth in a forceful advance.

His hand rested against her waist, caressing it a few times before slipping beneath her garments.

“Mmm…”

Su Jiao’s face flushed at once, her writhing body going soft in his arms.

The corner of Xie Yan’s mouth finally curved into a faint smile. His cool lips lingered at hers, then moved downward.

They fell upon her neck, upon her collarbone — not an inch of skin was spared.

Su Jiao’s thick, dark hair had long since been mussed and tangled beneath him.

Xie Yan looked down. Her face, rosy beneath its fairness, was nestled in that fall of dark hair. Her lips were dewy and vivid, and in her bright eyes a haze and dazedness seemed to have crept in, making her skin appear all the more like flawless white jade.

His already deep eyes turned red in an instant.

Her garments hung in disarray, draped and tangled across her. He pressed close against the curve of her neck, the tip of his nose and his lips brushing lightly against her, as though he meant to breathe in every trace of her scent.

Kisses fell upon her wildly. He drew ever closer, ever more unable to stop himself.

Drowning in her softness, her fragrance, and the shallow breaths she drew that were almost too faint to hear, in her dazed and entranced state.

His hands gripped her waist, squeezing with a force he could not control, and a bruise appeared on her skin in an instant.

His gaze was nearly intoxicated, breathing in the scent of her.

Too soft. Too sweet…

He wanted to leave his marks all over her body, inside and out…

Breathing in unsteady gasps, Xie Yan’s gaze fell upon the neck she had tilted high in her effort to endure —

He suddenly lowered his head and bit down fiercely.

“Ah —”

Su Jiao let out a soft cry and was pulled from her daze. She turned her head to the side — there was the bronze mirror. In it she saw the rise and fall of her own skin, covered in red marks left by his ceaseless roaming and caressing, mottled and intimate, too much to look at twice.

Her waist, gripped by him, felt as though it might give way entirely. Though not even her garments had come off, he was exerting himself on her body with the same thoroughness he had shown in bed in their previous life. Moving his lips from the mark he had left on her neck, he went lower to kiss and bite —

“You’re like a dog!”

Su Jiao said in a hoarse voice, and raised her foot to kick him.

The kick landed solidly. Strangely, the anger that had been in Xie Yan’s body dissipated entirely. Looking at her flushed face, he pressed her fully down against the writing table, and with a low laugh reached for the ties of her garments.

Taking advantage of the moment, he caught the foot she had kicked at him and wedged himself between her legs.

“What of it, being like a dog — will you let me have another bite?”