“I can extend the Grand Princess’s life!”
As the words fell, the surroundings suddenly grew dead silent. Not a single sound could be heard, and even breathing unconsciously grew faint.
Shen Yu raised her head slightly, her face showing a trace of confusion?
Her brow furrowed like that of an innocent, inexperienced child.
Her thin lips parted slightly, calm and devoid of fluctuation. In a tone that was nearly icy, clear and slow, she spat out the words one by one.
“Yet I don’t need her to live for very long!”
Her gaze was both innocent and playful.
It was as if she were speaking of some commonplace household matter.
That mocking, nonchalant attitude inexplicably cast a layer of gloom over him.
Jiang Jinghuan instantly experienced the third shock of his life!
This!
This!
How could there be such a person?!
How could such a person exist in this world?!
Her brows flew upward, and she looked deep and affectionate, like a polished, jade-like young master.
Her thin lips curled in mockery, devoid of emotion and loyalty, like a tyrant high above in the palace.
Jiang Jinghuan recalled Shen Yu’s various actions over the past few days with disbelief, her meticulous tenderness, indulgence, and pampering toward Song Shiwei.
Fake! It was all fake?!
His facial expression distorted in an instant, looking half-smiling, half-crying, neither laughing nor weeping.
This!
Seeing this, Shen Yu merely tilted her head upward and then said lightly.
“Unbelievable?”
She stated a question in a tone of absolute certainty.
Utterly contradictory.
“I, I.”
Jiang Jinghuan opened his mouth, yet didn’t know what else to say.
In the end, he could only shake his head, staggering backward with the look of someone utterly crushed.
“You.”
He fell silent for a long time before thoughtfully beginning to speak, but the moment a single word slipped out, he lost the thread of it.
He blinked his eyes, clearly still immersed in shock and unable to regain his senses.
Watching him in his dejection, Shen Yu felt a mix of puzzlement and a sudden spark of interest.
Why was he acting like this just upon learning that she didn’t like the Grand Princess? Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was the one who had just been dumped!
Was there anything worth being shocked about?
She simply didn’t like the Grand Princess; the Grand Princess wasn’t the Great Dao, did everyone have to like her?
So what if she didn’t like her?
At that moment, Shen Yu was standing aloof from the world, thinking of it all with utter indifference.
Jiang Jinghuan abruptly fell silent, not knowing what to say.
His grandfather used to say that people who had no desires or demands were the most terrifying kind. Jiang Jinghuan hadn’t understood back then, how could such people be terrifying?! Weren’t such people much easier to deal with?
Yet now, Jiang Jinghuan understood.
The Shen Yu before him possessed the air of an immortal, standing high above as if nothing could trap her or make her gaze linger.
From the very beginning, Shen Yu had never cared about what he thought were bargaining chips, qualifications, or conditions. They were all merely illusions, illusions that Shen Yu had deliberately manufactured for him.
She let his bargaining chips pile up, making him increasingly confident and self-assured under the delusion that he held the conditions to negotiate, only to appear in this posture and ruthlessly shatter his pathetic pride.
Ha!
Shen Yu, you truly did not disappoint my grandfather’s expectations!
Shen Yu noticed that a spark of brilliant color had reignited within Jiang Jinghuan’s previously defeated gaze. She frowned, her nose twitching slightly as if she smelled the scent of a conspiracy.
“So, do you have anything else?”
Shen Yu opened her mouth. The sky was growing dark, and her patience was gradually dropping to freezing point.
She stood up, her upright figure standing tall and firm within the room. With a mere lift of her hand, she could crush a domain.
Jiang Jinghuan took a deep look at Shen Yu, then unwillingly looked away, his voice lingering like a ghost.
As if reluctantly adding a final sentence, “You will come back to find me. You definitely will!”
“Shen Yu, I’ll be waiting for you.”
He watched the departing figure, murmuring with determination.
Shen Yu left nonetheless. She didn’t linger, didn’t spare a backward glance, and Jiang Jinghuan’s words seemed to leave no trace in her heart whatsoever.
Coming out of Ke Lai An, Shen Yu looked at Fu Cong waiting respectfully outside the door and smiled, even though the hour of You had not yet arrived.
Without hesitation, she lifted her leg and climbed aboard.
“Go to the Xuande Gate.”
Fu Cong responded in a low voice, then cracked his whip and dashed off in a certain direction.
Shen Yu sat lazily on the side bench, looking at the receding Ke Lai An in a slight daze.
Ke, Lai, An.
What a familiar and nostalgic name indeed!
People across the world truly chose names with striking similarities.
Shen Yu tapped out an unfamiliar tune, her eyes narrowing as an unnameable glint occasionally surfaced at the corners of her eyes.
She looked to be in a very good mood.
“Is the Prince Consort in such a good mood?”
Song Shiwei’s soft voice drifted from the main seat.
Indeed, Song Shiwei had not left.
“Of course I’m happy! I get to see the Princess as soon as I come out, how could I not be happy?!”
Shen Yu opened her eyes, her gaze brimming with vast expanses of emotion.
She looked smilingly at Song Shiwei, grinning from ear to ear, filled with delight.
With such an affectionate expression, who could look at her and not blush?
Song Shiwei was no exception. Gazing into those sparkling eyes, her heart tightened inexplicably.
Her delicate face felt as though it had been pressed against a stove, burning hot!
She looked as if she were acting coquettishly, casting a harmless, reproachful glare at Shen Yu.
Then she shifted her gaze elsewhere.
Fixating on a corner, she stared blankly.
Only the redness that had yet to fade betrayed her turbulent inner state.
Shen Yu didn’t press the matter further. She glanced at Song Shiwei and slowly said, “There is a beggar’s chicken place at the Xuande Gate, and their beggar’s chicken is exceptionally delicious. There’s a rumor saying that one bite of their beggar’s chicken gives you a hundred years of life, two bites let you achieve the Dao and become an immortal, and three bites make you surpass the immortals themselves. I wanted to let Your Highness have a taste.”
Shen Yu’s gaze was most of the time flat and unseeking, rarely carrying genuine earnestness or sincerity.
Therefore, when this look was laid bare at the bottom of Shen Yu’s eyes, Song Shiwei felt somewhat dazed.
She realized that she truly seemed unable to understand Shen Yu. Just as she couldn’t understand her younger brother.
Incomprehensible.
She knew that Shen Yu did not love her; her perception of emotional depth had reached an almost monstrous level.
No matter how well Shen Yu pretended, she could always sense the hollowness and falseness within.
Yet Shen Yu didn’t care, and Song Shiwei didn’t care either. After all, it was just a cheap life, and she, Song Shiwei, wasn’t someone who couldn’t afford to play.
Yet Shen Yu, you.
Song Shiwei looked at Shen Yu, her pitch-black eyes devoid of a single ray of light.
“The Prince Consort even believes such things?”
“To live is always to have something to look forward to.”
The carriage curtains were lifted by the wind, and the sunlight and worldly clamor rushed in.
Years of peace, human bustle!
Song Shiwei looked as though she had been captivated by the outside world.
She thought that, after all, she still liked being with Shen Yu.
At the very least, Shen Yu was the first person to bring her out to see the world.
Look at the mortal realm outside, how lively it was!
At that moment, Song Shiwei felt that she was probably a part of this mortal realm as well.
Shen Yu’s features were cast in a layer of light and shadow, looking unreal and somewhat dreamlike.
She looked at Song Shiwei, whose eyes were burning bright like countless glazed jewels, and the corners of her lips curved upward involuntarily.
Then, in a hidden corner, her fingers climbed up to the corners of her mouth, repeatedly tracing her own arc.
Stiff. As if realizing something, the curve gradually faded away.
She returned to that bland, gentle, and modest appearance once more.