Chapter 416: Chapter 414: Pretend I’m Crazy
Behind the heavy and luxurious drapes, Shen Yinning stepped out.
She held a tea cup with spilled dregs, her expression full of surprise: "Ah, I accidentally spilled tea on you, truly my apologies."
Lu Ying’s face remained impassive, letting the trickling tea drip from his chin, the wet stains already darkened on his robes.
Shen Yinning feigned ignorance of his disheveled state, gracefully curtsying with Haitang’s support. Her voice was soft as she said, "Tonight, I invited Your Majesty here to ask—have I committed some grave, unforgivable sin?"
Lu Ying took out a handkerchief, slowly dabbing away the water stains and tea leaves on his face, his thin lips pressed tight, offering no reply.
"I reflected on myself today and have always kept propriety since entering the palace. Occasionally I leave, but only to pay respects to the Empress Dowager or chat with my cousins at Chunxi Palace—or perhaps to take a walk in the Imperial Garden for my health. I dare say I have made no errors, nor disturbed others, so why would Your Majesty dispatch the Imperial Guard to surround Furong Palace so tightly? What am I to you, a prisoner under constant watch?"
Lu Ying finished wiping his face.
He folded the handkerchief neatly and tucked it back into his sleeve.
Under the questioning gaze of the girl, which harbored a restrained fury, the myriad words he had rehearsed all faded away, unsaid.
After a long silence, he gestured for Haitang to leave.
Haitang glanced at Shen Yinning with worry but dared not linger. She performed her bow and left the inner chamber.
Only the two of them remained in the inner chamber.
The calming incense from the golden censer was faint yet soothing, but the rows of golden candle flames burned with intense fervor. The heavy, dark-red drapes and tightly sealed vermilion doors and windows completely shut out the outside world.
Their shadows were cast by the candlelight onto the hanging gauze curtain.
Lu Ying’s shadow appeared especially tall and imposing.
His shadow moved step by step toward Shen Yinning’s, his boots on the thick carpet making no noise. The oppressive weight of his presence was like storm clouds pressing down before a tempest.
Shen Yinning froze in place.
Instinctively, she stepped back. "You..."
At first, she thought Lu Ying had stationed so many Imperial Guards to control her, intending to use her against Cui Ji or Lu Shiyan.
But tonight...
Something was wrong with Lu Ying.
His gaze was no longer the same.
Like a blizzard tearing through the eerie calm before arrival, his eyes burned with unabashed, scorching desire as they locked onto her.
Lu Ying’s narrow eyes shone crimson, his voice hoarse: "Zhaozhao, if... if I cared not for your past with Lu Shiyan, cared not that you carry Cui Ji’s child, could you... return to me? As things once were..."
Clearly, he was the subordinate in this emotion, clearly he was pleading humbly and lowly.
Yet his tall, robust figure loomed with the weight of kingship, forcing her to retreat step by step as he advanced relentlessly.
And just behind her was a rosewood canopy bed.
Shen Yinning refused to retreat any further, planting herself resolutely in place.
She lifted her chin, sneering: "I don’t care if you mind my past. What I know is you crowned your empress, took your concubines, treated me like nothing! You knew Shen Yunxi and I had sworn to be mortal enemies, yet you still made her your consort. Even Shen Xinya was allowed to climb into your bed! Return to your side? Lu Ying, are you mad, or am I?"
Lu Ying lowered his gaze, grasping one of her hands.
He edged closer, his chest nearly pressing to her soft, slender figure.
Shen Yinning tried to pull her hand free, but her efforts were in vain.
That familiar cedarwood scent wrapped lightly around her. The stifling weight of his presence forced her into retreat once again.
Before the canopy bed, the crimson and gold-draped curtains hung low, the candlelight outside casting deeper shadows tinged with red.
Lu Ying drew closer to her with every step, lowering his head to kiss her fingertips. A veil of frost seemed to cover his elegant features, his eyelids frighteningly red.
In a voice low and gravelly, he murmured, "Just think of it as me losing my mind."
The heat of his palms scorched.
Kisses rained down endlessly, not stopping even after trailing over all of Shen Yinning’s fingers. He tilted his head, opening his mouth to lightly bite.
His damp teeth left faint marks against the girl’s tender, pearly-white fingers.
He kissed her fingertips, gazing up at her as his voice grew raspier, darker: "Zhaozhao..."
He was born with icy, noble features, yet here in these crimson curtains, his cold detachment melted into boiling desire, flooding the space.
Shen Yinning’s heartbeat quickened.
Without hesitation, she raised her free hand and slapped him viciously.
Lu Ying took the blow without so much as a flinch.
Touching the red mark on his face, he looked at her and smiled. "Good hit."
"Pervert!"
Shen Yinning cursed aloud.
She had always thought herself a little mad.
But tonight, it seemed Lu Ying was far madder!
She had betrayed him, humiliated him with public kneeling and lashes, yet here he was, sneaking into her chambers in the middle of the night like a lunatic!
Lu Ying advanced on her again, turning his face slightly. "If it pleases you, you can slap this side too."
Shen Yinning’s embroidered shoe heel struck the bedpost. She had nowhere left to retreat.
The looming shadow engulfed her entirely, like a predator closing its jaws around its prey.
She pushed against Lu Ying, her face pale as she spoke in rapid succession: "You want me to return, to bow and scrape as I once did? On what grounds? Lu Ying, whatever I owed you, I’ve already repaid through the years of humiliation you heaped upon me! If you wish for my return, fine—grant me the title of Empress, and I’ll come back!"
Her clear, sharp Dan Feng eyes shimmered with tears as she stared firmly at Lu Ying, enunciating each word: "But tell me, Lu Ying, could you bear it? Would you dare?"
She was certain he would never agree.
Huo Mingyan’s position as Empress brought too many benefits.
He could not bear to depose her, nor face enmity from the clans outside the border.
And as for her, her father and brothers’ cases were still unresolved.
Her current identity remained that of a criminal’s daughter.
Having been married once, and serving as a concubine, not even the civil officials, nor the common people, would ever accept someone like her as the Empress of Great Zhou.
Their ending had long since been sealed—a deadlock.
Lu Ying gripped her chin.
Staring at her, he also spoke slowly, enunciating each word: "The Empress has committed no grave error; I cannot depose her. But Shen Zhaozhao, I want you. I am the Emperor. If I want you, not a soul under Heaven would dare say otherwise!"
Shen Yinning’s eyes gradually reddened.
The same words...
The same tired arguments!
Her voice broke as she cried, "You want me to stay with you without name or status. You want me to lower myself, to serve you humbly! You want me to be a caged bird, to break my back and legs! Even Cui Ji, for all his faults, dared at least to openly say he would marry me—even as a concubine, at least he offers a title! But you—you want me hidden away in shame, to stoop to this level of degradation! Lu Ying, is this what you call love?!"
The girl’s words came from the depths of her heart, piercing through to one’s very soul.
She seemed to unleash the grievances bottled up over the years.
Lu Ying fell silent.
"I don’t want your love..." Shen Yinning’s eyes were red as she pushed him away. "Your love is too terrifying, too selfish!"
She sat slowly on the edge of the bed, stubbornly turning her face aside. "Leave."
The flickering candlelight cast shadows all around.
In the bronze mirror adorned with peonies, Lu Ying’s tensed figure was reflected.
After an indeterminate amount of time, he suddenly lifted his thin eyelids. "Zhaozhao, have you misunderstood something? I did not come tonight to argue with you, nor to negotiate reconciliation."
He stood before Shen Yinning, raising a hand to gently touch her pale, delicate neck.
A hand accustomed to wielding weapons, long and powerful, roughened even on the pads of the fingers.
He brushed over her tender, flawless skin as if stroking the chin of a cherished kitten.
His thin lips curved slightly, and he spoke softly: "I came tonight to take what is yours—to claim it, whether you’re willing or not."