40: Their Feelings Grow Increasingly Subtle (5)

"Don't touch me, I'm covered in sweat."

"I don't mind. Besides, I asked you before the parade yesterday; why didn't you say anything? I must have been blind—did you spend your past life as a ninja?"

"..."

Feng Jinyan pushed the door open, squeezed into the room, and pulled her toward the bed. "I'll get you an excuse for the sports meet. Lie down properly; I’m calling a doctor now."

"No need."

Ye Xiangwan leaned against the edge of the table, pausing for a moment to ease her dizziness.

"But..." Yan Wan could not continue. Yan Yixin always had a way of silencing her with his old tricks. All her protests gradually faded into silence, lost in a blur of sound.

In truth, several months ago, Zi Tong had indeed told Yi Bu a lie. At the time, he claimed he needed to go into seclusion for a year to break the seal within him. In reality, he had used a secret technique learned from the old Daoist Daotian to carve out five years of time for himself in an alternate dimension.

Over the next ten days or so, the Shunzhi Emperor spent five or six nights at the Kunning Palace. Several of the newly arrived imperial concubines had their name tags flipped.

Yi Fan scratched his head and took a light bite of the fruit, nearly breaking one of his front teeth in the process.

Gu Shibanniang would never allow her brother to fall into such a situation—at least, not while they were on the verge of total collapse. If that happened, relying solely on the two of them, they would be no match for Gu Yu.

"Is your antidote working? Don't tell me it can't neutralize this poison!" Huo Huang secretly crept up to Mu Feng and whispered.

He seemed to have found the root of the problem, a sinister smile spreading across his face. Before he could finish speaking, Gu Shibanniang grabbed his hand and bit down hard. The sharp pain made him instinctively jerk away.

Ye Mingjing touched his stomach and said to the new Empress beside him, "I can't reach it; you do it. Untie the hem of the robe." The corners of their wedding garments were tied firmly together. Beside the pillow lay two strands of hair tied into a lovers' knot.

Xie Suxin burst into uncontrollable laughter. Hu Xirong rubbed her stomach, fearing she might lose her breath, her face aching so much she couldn't spare a hand to massage it.

Mu Yingchen’s expression darkened. He jerked the steering wheel hard, but a collision with the car ahead was inevitable.

He rushed to the window, but the view outside was pitch black; he could see nothing, and the curtains seemed to have been drawn shut.

It was past eleven at night by the time he returned to the Wangjiang Hotel. Shen Ningzhu, Song Ke, and the others were already asleep. As soon as he entered his room, he saw Yang Guo playing on the computer, his eyes wide open and looking full of energy.

This was the attire of a concubine. If she wore it, wouldn't outsiders think that she had become... become a concubine to that wretched fellow, Sikong Yanfei?

"The new secretary to the Minister of the Grand Court of Justice, Xia Weixing? Xia Qingxiao’s father?" Yun Mo lowered his gaze and asked in a low voice.

Xia Qingxiao never expected a response from him, so she had already prepared her next lines. She could easily invent hundreds of thunderous names like Zhang Ergou, but just as she was about to speak, she heard Han Baimo’s intoxicating voice ring out.

Just as I prepared to pounce on him again, a roaring sound suddenly erupted. Listening closely, I realized it was the sound of a car engine.

Who could have known that Guan Zhinuo’s shot would be so accurate? But this was no time for talk; as the two of them rushed up, I moved as well.

"Xia Qingxiao, why did you have to come back? Why must you haunt me like a ghost?" Her gaze was icy as she muttered to herself.

Under the watch of the disciples of the Fire God Temple, Xia Luo, Long Qianhuang, and the others walked down the stairs with their hands tied behind their backs. They descended nearly twenty or thirty meters, the air feeling as if they were being baked in a furnace. Sweat poured from their bodies, only to be instantly dried by the heat.