When they reached the palace gates, she was dragged onto a carriage by Chu Liyuan again.
The carriage swayed and jolted, as if it had been traveling on a bumpy dirt road for a century.
Inside the carriage, the air was so cold it felt frozen solid.
Chu Liyuan sat across from her, the blood on his face already completely dried. Mottled, dark-red scabs wound across his pale skin, and paired with those sinister eyes that seemed ready to devour someone, he looked like a vengeful ghost that had just crawled out of hell.
Lin Yao huddled in the corner, cleared her throat, and tentatively tried to break the deathly silence: “Your blood… aren’t you going to wipe it off?”
Chu Liyuan, who had been staring out the window as if trying to burn a hole through the carriage curtain, finally turned his head slowly.
He didn’t speak. He just stared at her with those bloodshot eyes, staring until Lin Yao’s heart began to race with unease.
Suddenly—
He whipped a handkerchief out of his sleeve, lunged forward, and without a word pressed down on Lin Yao’s chin, scrubbing violently and roughly at her lips and neck!
That was where she had drunk wine with Chu Huaian. That was where she had left those red marks on Chu Huaian’s body. And it was the spot that he found most glaring, most disgusting.
“It hurts! Chu Liyuan, have you lost your mind?!” Lin Yao felt like her skin was about to be rubbed raw as she desperately tried to push him away.
But Chu Liyuan seemed possessed, his grip terrifyingly strong, as if he wanted to scrape off a layer of skin, to erase every trace he found filthy.
As he scrubbed, he gnashed his teeth and cursed: “Filthy! You reek of the Crown Prince’s ambergris incense… absolutely disgusting!”
Lin Yao violently shoved his hand away, clutching her burning chin, her chest heaving with fury: “Are you insane?! You’re covered in the stench of blood and sweat yourself, and you have the nerve to call someone else disgusting?”
Chu Liyuan froze mid-motion, glaring at her as the light in his eyes gradually turned cold. Then, as if throwing away trash, he tossed the handkerchief out the carriage window.
He crossed his arms, leaned back against the carriage wall, closed his eyes, and neither looked at her nor spoke again.
He radiated a dead, distant aloofness.
Lin Yao watched him like this and felt an inexplicable twinge of guilt, along with a tightness in her chest.
But then she thought again—this man was the very murderer who had killed the original A-Yao. He hadn’t shown an ounce of mercy when he drugged her back then, so what right did he have to be angry now?
So she irritably kicked his shin with her foot: “Hey, what happened to that wound on your forehead anyway? You lost so much blood.”
Chu Liyuan didn’t even lift his eyelids. He coldly spat out a few words: “None of your business!”
The two of them said nothing more for the rest of the journey.
Until the carriage finally came to a stop.
“Your Highness, we’ve arrived.” The young eunuch Li Cai called out from outside.
Chu Liyuan didn’t move. Still keeping his eyes closed, he coldly uttered one word: “Scram.”
Lin Yao rolled her eyes and had no choice but to lift the curtain herself and climb out.
The moment she looked, she was completely dumbfounded.
This is… the Prince’s residence?!
This looks like the haunted house set from a horror movie, doesn’t it?!
Before her eyes was a dilapidated estate. Most of the red paint on the main gate had peeled away, revealing the gray-black rotten wood beneath. Of the pair of stone lions flanking the entrance, the left one had lost half an ear, and the right one had a broken front leg—looking both comical and desolate.
Wind swirled dried yellow weeds around the doorway, carrying a sinister, deathly aura.
The most absurd part was that the lintel above the gate was completely bare—there wasn’t even a plaque!
Lin Yao instinctively wanted to turn back and ask: “Hey, did you take us to the wrong place? This place… doesn’t look like it’s fit for human habitation…”
But then she thought about it—after what had just happened, Chu Liyuan probably wanted to strangle her. There was no way he’d give her a pleasant face.
This was definitely that petty little brat trying to intimidate her!
Deliberately bringing her to a haunted house to scare her, make things difficult for her, and vent his anger!
Yeah, that’s right—vicious villains in TV dramas always do exactly this!
Just then, Chu Liyuan also stepped down from the carriage.
He stood before the rickety gate, his gaze sweeping over the crumbling walls and broken beams. A flicker of barely perceptible pain passed through his eyes, quickly masked by a thick layer of self-mockery.
“What? Too shabby for you?”
He turned his head, looking at the stunned Lin Yao with a cold sneer, his tone dripping with malicious satisfaction: “I suppose so. Compared to the resplendent Eastern Palace, this place really is like a tomb. How unfortunate for our delicate young lady of the Prime Minister’s household.”
Hearing this, Lin Yao’s stubborn streak flared up instead.
Want to see me humiliated? Want me to beg for mercy? Not a chance!
Remember—never lose your dignity!
Lin Yao lifted her chin high, ignoring his sarcastic remarks, and declared loudly: “I don’t believe in ghosts or gods. Why can’t a tomb be lived in?”
With that, like a female revolutionary about to march to her martyrdom, she flicked up her skirt and stepped over the tall, half-rotted threshold.
Chu Liyuan was momentarily stunned speechless. He stared at her retreating figure for a long while.
Then he looked up at this “Fourth Prince’s Residence”—this was also his first time seeing this estate.
Although he had mentally prepared himself the moment he saw the casual stroke of his father’s brush on the decree, standing here now, facing this scene of utter desolation, that barely perceptible sense of disappointment still pierced his heart like a needle.
This was the “home” he had earned with blood and broken bones—a ruin even beggars wouldn’t deign to occupy.
Chu Liyuan paused, let out a self-deprecating cold snort, and stepped across the threshold.
The Fourth Prince’s residence truly embodied the phrase “what you see is what you get”—
Past the crumbling screen wall, his gaze fell upon wildly overgrown weeds that nearly swallowed his ankles.
The side chambers on both sides stood crooked and askew, as if a strong gust of wind could send them tumbling down. Only the main hall remained, standing like a lone survivor, solitary yet relatively intact amidst the wreckage.
Lin Yao stood in the center of the courtyard, surveying the scene as if it had been ravaged by artillery fire, inwardly clicking her tongue in amazement:
This Chu Liyuan was truly something else—in a place as precious as the capital, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, how had he managed to find such a spectacularly dilapidated dump?!
This couldn’t possibly be his secret base for killing people and burying bodies, could it…?
But Lin Yao quickly comforted herself: This was definitely just a temporary intimidation tactic! Absolutely!
Just endure one more week—when the prince’s wedding arrived, all the civil and military officials would come to offer congratulations. He couldn’t possibly receive guests in a place like this, right? For the sake of the imperial family’s dignity, they’d definitely have to move to a proper residence.
If she showed weakness now, how could she stand her ground after the marriage? She absolutely could not lose now!
With that thought, Lin Yao took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the main hall.
The interior had clearly been hastily cleaned in a rush. Though the furniture was old and worn with a layer of patina, at least nothing was missing an arm or a leg.
The most eye-catching piece was the canopy bed, dressed in brand-new bright red bedding embroidered with dragons and phoenixes—so glaringly conspicuous in this drab room that it exuded an eerie sort of festivity.
Chu Liyuan caught the flicker of disgust that passed through Lin Yao’s eyes and couldn’t help but sneer. He strode into the main hall with the swagger of a conqueror and sat down by the table, his posture suggesting he was seated on a dragon throne rather than a rickety wooden stool.
“Well? Is the Princess Consort satisfied with her new residence?” He raised an eyebrow, his tone dripping with mockery.
Lin Yao’s hand, which had been smoothing the bedding, paused. She turned around and nodded without changing her expression: “Mm, satisfied! Quite satisfied! It’s airy and well-ventilated, rustic and natural—very much… the aesthetic of Syrian ruins.”
Chu Liyuan shot her a look as if she were an idiot. “As the saying goes, ‘a dog doesn’t despise a poor home.’ At least you have some self-awareness.”
Lin Yao’s lips twitched, and she shot back with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes: “The Prince flatters me. As I see it, this is called ‘marry a dog, follow the dog.’ Since my husband has no real ability, I suppose I have no choice but to accept my fate.”
Chu Liyuan narrowed his eyes, the jab about “no real ability” striking a raw nerve.
He was about to unleash a few harsh words to establish his authority as the head of the household, to teach her what “the husband guides the wife” meant.
But just as he opened his mouth, ready to spew a venomous curse—
“Grrrrrllll—”
An extremely loud, drawn-out, and melodiously winding sound abruptly exploded in the silent bridal chamber.
Lin Yao’s hands, which had been tidying the bed, froze completely.
She slowly, incredulously, turned around to look at the man with the cold posture and sinister expression.
Chu Liyuan’s face, pale as paper, was visibly flushing from ghostly white to a shade of liver-red, the color creeping all the way up to the tips of his ears.
Today, he’d first had his head split open by his father, then been so enraged by Lin Yao and the Crown Prince’s “romantic scene” that he’d nearly vomited blood. After a whole day of turmoil, he truly… hadn’t eaten a single grain of rice.
But of all times for his stomach to growl, it had to pick the moment he was trying to establish his authority!
“Even my own stomach is a traitor who bites the hand that feeds it!!”
Chu Liyuan cursed his stomach a hundred times over in his mind.
He abruptly stood up, glaring fiercely at Lin Yao as if she were the one who had made the sound, and roared in a fury born of humiliation: “What are you looking at! This is… anger! Anger caused by you!”
“The wedding has been postponed for ten days, and until then, you won’t take a single step out of this residence! Stay put and behave yourself!”
With that, he flicked his sleeve and stormed off as if a dog were chasing him.