Stepping outside, Shen Yu walked alone toward the Baizhi Garden.
She rubbed her fingers together, as if still feeling some delicate sensation.
In truth, the reason Shen Yu had spoken those words to the Grand Princess was entirely the result of careful consideration on her part. At least to her, there was nothing improper about it.
To Shen Yu, Song Shiwei was merely a mortal, living for a mere few decades in the human realm. Furthermore, Song Shiwei simply could not live that long. Based on the pulse-taking from the previous night, Song Shiwei had at most two years left.
If a mortal karmic tie could be resolved in two years, why not?
Moreover, she did not believe she would truly fall in love, but she could spend two years weaving a beautiful dream for Song Shiwei, a dream of celestial couplehood, to create a legendary romance.
Even if she did fall in love, what could not be diluted by a century of seclusion?
Does the mortal world always say that time heals and fades all things?
At this moment, Shen Yu, who had yet to experience the hardships and pains of romantic love, thought about it with complete nonchalance.
Cultivators would use every means at their disposal to attain the Great Dao.
For her, this was simply choosing her own method.
She shed her garments and slipped into the water.
She felt her body and soul purified all at once.
With spiritual energy being so scarce, she could only continuously strengthen herself through incantation formulas. Her pores opened wide, and the meridians throughout her body were refined over and over. At this rate, in half a month at most, she would likely reach the level of the original Shen Lan.
Although the person named Shen Lan was hypocritical and affected, his cultivation techniques and ultimate skills were genuine and backed by real ability.
As his substitute, she could not fall too far behind, could she?
Cultivators perceived the mandate of heaven and earth, and she faintly felt that this journey of mortal karma would not be peaceful.
Yet what did it matter?
Shen Yu smiled indifferently.
Only by doing this would she live up to her ladder to immortality!
A trace of dark brilliance flashed through Shen Yu’s eyes.
She remembered that she had vaguely seen something at that time, right?
What was it?
Shen Yu painfully pressed her temples, feeling extremely troubled.
The illusions in her mind were layered one upon another, leaving one dazzled and mesmerized.
“Emptiness of spirit holding the primordial, circular nature guarding the unity.”
“Shen Yu, snap out of it!”
Shen Yu’s tightly closed eyes suddenly burst forth with a brilliant flash of light, her entire body drenched in cold sweat.
She panted heavily, like a dying fish stranded on the shore.
She clutched her chest, her gaze unfocused and somewhat dazed.
After a long while, her whisper, woven into the wind, could be heard.
“Thank you.”
This soak lasted until the moon climbed up to the tree branches.
With water droplets dripping from the tips of her hair and a faint mist of moisture lingering on her body, Shen Yu looked like an immortal under the moon, wrapped in a snow-white sleeping robe as she stepped out of the water step by step.
Lifting her gaze, she immediately caught sight of a lightly flushed face.
“Your Highness.”
She offered a proper bow. If one ignored their current location and circumstances, it would seem entirely appropriate.
Song Shiwei raised her chin slightly and remained silent.
Inwardly, however, she was working to calm her turbulent heart.
Song Shiwei, who had lived a strictly proper life for twenty years, was seeing such a bare, alluring scene for the very first time.
Yes, alluring!
Perhaps for a male identity like Shen Lan, this descriptor was extremely inaccurate.
Yet the visual that Shen Lan had just revealed simply offered no word more fitting than alluring.
Song Shiwei could not understand how Shen Lan, a grown man taking a bath, managed to look even more alluring than a woman.
Yet this allure was not vulgar. Every single frame resembled a fine painting, as though it were a masterpiece painstakingly crafted by an artist.
“Did Your Highness come here just to watch this subject bathe?”
Shen Yu put on her clothes and casually sat in the nearby pavilion, drying her hair.
It was just a pity that her clothes were worn extremely casually, loose and disheveled with her collarbones faintly exposed, while a playful water droplet dove deep into her neck. She looked irresistibly tempting.
The rosy flush that had just faded from Song Shiwei’s face crept up her cheeks once more.
“You are such a grown person, can you not even put on your clothes properly?”
Song Shiwei chided playfully, lacking any real bite.
Shen Yu smiled, ripples of faint, sparkling light dancing in her eyes like a glittering river of stars.
Song Shiwei was instantly captivated.
She discovered that not only was Shen Lan extremely handsome, but his eyes were even more captivating.
“So Your Highness came here to…”
Teasing played in her eyes as she cast a probing glance toward Song Shiwei, then looked down at her own collar, smiling playfully.
Song Shiwei was infuriated yet felt immensely embarrassed at the same time. The purpose of her visit was completely thrown to the back of her mind. In truth, she hadn’t seen much anyway, just the sight of Shen Lan walking over wrapped in a robe.
Yet for some reason, when spoken of by Shen Lan, it seemed to take on a completely different flavor.
A rustling sound filled the wind.
Shen Yu vaulted down from the pavilion, landing gracefully, though her collar slipped downward even further as a result.
“So, when Your Highness sought me out, were you going to give this subject an answer?”
Shen Yu stopped teasing the princess, well aware of the boundaries between herself and Song Shiwei.
Song Shiwei might tolerate her because she was her consort, but she would not tolerate her indefinitely.
All of Song Shiwei’s current concessions were merely based on her royal etiquette as a princess and that lingering sense of guilt.
Yet she did not need royal etiquette, and guilt even less so.
Mentioning business allowed Song Shiwei’s mind to gradually cool down.
With a haughty sound, she spoke: “You were right. I thought about it. Since we are already married to the consort, avoiding each other in the future is impossible. Living apart in heart while together is a way to live, and living in harmony and affection is also a way to live. Since that is the case, why should I not choose the option that treats myself a little better?”
“Besides, given my current reputation, aside from the consort, I suppose no one else would condescend to look at me.”
There was no lack of desolation in Song Shiwei’s eyes, but there was even more of a light that Shen Yu could not quite comprehend.
Shen Yu frowned, but this trace of puzzlement was quickly cast to the back of her mind.
Her hand brushed against Song Shiwei’s brow as she leaned in close, gazing into Song Shiwei’s eyes with an expression that was both earnest and lingering.
“Then does Your Highness agree to let this subject court you?”
The warm breath exhaled by Shen Yu brushed against Song Shiwei’s earlobe. Song Shiwei felt that, in all her years, this must have been the hottest her entire body had ever felt.
Yet her brain was still diligently capturing the sensitive keyword.
“Court?”
A hazy fog of bewilderment rose in those pretty eyes, as if she could not quite grasp the term Shen Yu had used.
Shen Yu curved the corners of her lips, her voice exceptionally slow and ambiguous.
“Meaning, seeking your affection.”
Song Shiwei felt her ears grow even hotter, and her entire body felt as though it were melting away.
How could Shen Lan be so shameless?
How could he utter such words so easily?
Where was his restraint as a scholar?
Song Shiwei’s thoughts drifted further and further away. Even when imagining Shen Yu saying such things to other girls, she quickly slipped into the mindset of a legitimate primary wife, her original shyness gradually replaced by a fierce, murderous intent.
As for Shen Yu, who was well aware of her own actual gender, she felt completely devoid of psychological burden.
After delivering those ambiguous love words, she prudently put some distance between herself and Song Shiwei early on, calmly admiring Song Shiwei’s blushing cheeks before watching firsthand as a murderous glare surfaced in the princess’s eyes.
?
Shen Yu was baffled.
What was wrong?
What on earth was the Grand Princess imagining?
Why did that expression look so much like what she had seen before?
Shen Yu’s brain worked at lightning speed as she gradually recalled her past friend in the immortal cultivation realm whose greatest hobby was visiting pleasure quarters, especially the ones situated at the boundary between the demonic realm and the floral realm. Yet every time she visited halfway through, she would be caught by her dao companion, who would then kick her out hand and foot. That ferocious expression…
Shen Yu carefully re-examined Song Shiwei’s expression. Unfortunately, during the time she had been lost in thought, Song Shiwei had long since reined in her expression, returning to her initial calm and collected demeanor.
Shen Yu widened her eyes, studying her carefully and comparing her to the image in her memory.
She told herself there was no way Song Shiwei could be anything like her friend’s dao companion.
When they first found out that her friend had formed a spiritual bond with that fierce female bandit, they had been utterly shocked for a full month, and afterwards, every visit to the pleasure quarters was met with relentless teasing.
Though they had only interacted for two days, Shen Yu could sense that Song Shiwei was a genuinely good person. Despite the thick layer of cold ice she wore on the outside, she was actually tender, delicate, sincere, and lovely on the inside.
This was also why Shen Yu chose to understand her mortal karma through the path of affection.
She was a good girl! Regardless of what her first half of life had been like, she hoped that in the days to come, the princess could be happy and joyful.