Upon hearing this, Jiang Yu stared at her silently, his eyes filled with a storm of emotions.
“You were always meant to be my Empress.” After a long moment, he spoke slowly.
“I was merely doing what I’ve always wanted to do.”
“That doesn’t mean you should have blamed everyone,” Shen Lang shot him a cool glance.
“You knew, didn’t you…?” Jiang Yu said suddenly.
“You knew I was the one who wanted to marry you, yet you still married that man… Yin’er, you’ve been provoking me from the very beginning.”
“Marry you, my ass!” Shen Lang threw a pillow at him.
“Nothing happened between me and Qing Mei!”
After last night, Jiang Yu naturally knew that was true.
But he couldn’t help the sour feeling that still churned in his heart.
“But you did marry him, in the end.”
Shen Lang paused, a hint of surprise in her eyes.
“Whether I actually married him or not… you never investigated?”
Jiang Yu knew the truth perfectly well, but he lowered his gaze and said, “In all this time, you haven’t developed any feelings for him?”
Shen Lang: “…”
So she said bluntly, “Fine, then.
Send me back.
I’ll return to the Prime Minister’s Mansion and wait for my husband to be released.”
The words had barely left her lips before a powerful force slammed her down, pinning her wrists to her sides.
She looked up and met Jiang Yu’s furious eyes, his voice a guttural growl.
“It seems I haven’t been working hard enough, making the Empress forget who her husband truly is…!”
Shen Lang: “…”
And then, she was tossed and turned like a pancake on a griddle until not even the crumbs were left.
*
*
When Shen Lang awoke again, it was already evening.
The birds of twilight had all returned to their nests, flying in intimate pairs.
Shen Lang had been woken by hunger.
Her stomach was rumbling loudly.
“…Someone, attend me.”
Immediately, palace maids waiting outside the hall streamed in, carrying trays laden with delicacies.
“Your Majesty, it is time to dine.
The Emperor has instructed that you must eat a little more.”
Shen Lang scoffed inwardly.
‘As if I would let myself starve.’
The palace maids helped her rise and change her clothes, and then she began to eat.
Shen Lang lazily asked in her mind, “What’s the mission progress?”
[System: Female Lead’s Heartbreak Index is now full.]
[System: Female Lead’s Physical Suffering Index is now full.]
[System: Male Lead’s Affection Value is currently 90%.]
[System: Male Lead’s Hatred Value is currently 20%.]
Shen Lang smiled in satisfaction and raised an eyebrow.
“Didn’t you say before that his favorability toward the female lead was 70, and only 10 for me?”
[System: Host, please do not question the System’s judgment.
There must have been a bug in the system’s programming.]
“But I believed you… so what now?” Shen Lang took a slow bite of crispy duck, her tone nonchalant.
“My whole body aches, and now I don’t feel like letting anyone else have a good time.
So what should I do about that?”
[System: Host, please do not harm the male lead.
The male lead is innocent.]
“If I had known this would happen,” Shen Lang paused, then laughed.
“You shouldn’t have lied to me.”
[System: …] ‘It had a bad feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong.’
*
*
Shen Lang went to see Yu Ge.
Yu Ge, disheveled and dressed in a prisoner’s uniform, glared at Shen Lang with deadly intensity.
Her voice was full of venom.
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?!
You deliberately set me up!
You deliberately made me enter the palace in your place, only to end up like this!
Yu Yin—I won’t let you go even as a ghost!”
Shen Lang raised an eyebrow, her red lips curving into a dazzling smile as she said slowly:
“To live a second life and still fail to seize the opportunity… Yu Ge, you’re so weak that I can’t help but look down on you.”
Before she could finish, Yu Ge collapsed to the ground, her pupils dilated to their limit.
Her tone was frantic.
“You… How do you know?
Who are you?
You’re not Yu Yin, who are you!?”
Shen Lang chuckled.
“I’m your older sister.”
“Older sister…?” As if the shock had addled her brain, Yu Ge shivered.
“Why are you speaking like the Empress?
Has the Emperor made you the Empress!?”
Before Shen Lang could answer, she started sobbing to herself.
“On what grounds?
He deposed me, only to make you the Empress right after?
How are you any better than me!”
“Do you know… how my heart went cold on our wedding night, when he grabbed my throat and said, ‘You’re not her’?!”
“If I hadn’t struggled to say your name, he would have killed me right then and there… Yu Yin… tell me!
What have you ever done to deserve this?”
As she said this, Yu Ge’s voice was choked with sobs, and her body trembled.
Shen Lang lowered her gaze, looking down at her coldly.
“Did you know you were supposed to be executed today?”
Yu Ge’s head snapped up.
“You pleaded for me?
Who asked for your fake kindness!
I lost, but Yu Yin—don’t you dare think you’ve won!”
“…Do you think the Emperor truly loves you?”
Shen Lang paused, listening quietly as she continued.
“He only likes your face, this pretty shell.
When your beauty fades with age, what will you use to keep him pleased?
Yu Yin, he is the Emperor, and you are just one of his many women… In that regard alone, you can never win against me…!”
Hearing this, Shen Lang’s eyes curved up at the corners as she smiled.
“I won’t get old.
…But thank you for your concern.”
‘She would never allow herself to reach a day where her beauty faded.’
Yu Ge stared at her blankly.
“You’re that certain he loves you?”
Shen Lang smiled.
“I’m certain.”
‘She trusted the data.’
Suddenly, Yu Ge didn’t know what to say.
“But the Prime Minister was thrown into the dungeon because of you.
Don’t you feel the least bit guilty?!”
Shen Lang glanced at her and gave a lazy smile.
“If you don’t want to die an early death, don’t ask questions you shouldn’t be asking.”
‘She sneered inwardly.’
‘Guilty about the Prime Minister?
Maybe a little.’
But when she pleaded with Jiang Yu for him, all she got in return was an even more ferocious assault that nearly killed her in bed.
‘Even if she wanted to plead for him, she was powerless to do so.’
Shen Lang was scum, through and through.
Shen Lang gave her one last look, then turned and left.
‘Since the mission to torment the female lead was complete, all she had to do now was focus on the male lead’s mission.’
‘This trip to the dungeon was just to find a reason to torment Jiang Yu, body and soul.’
‘Now, she had found one.’
*
*
「Kunning Palace.」
Jiang Yu watched Shen Lang with dark eyes and held out a hand to her.
“Come here.”
Shen Lang paused, then shrank further into the corner of the phoenix bed, her resistance clear.
Jiang Yu raised a hand to rub his temples and chuckled softly.
“Have I made you angry again… hmm?”
Shen Lang said sullenly, “Release my father.”
Jiang Yu’s gaze hardened.
“Is it just because of that?” he asked lightly.
Shen Lang stared at him in disbelief.
“What do you mean, ‘just because of that’?
You threw my father into the dungeon.
Am I supposed to smile and flatter you for it?”
Jiang Yu stared at her grimly, not saying a word.
After a long moment, he said, “You went to the dungeons today and saw that sister of yours?”
Shen Lang wasn’t surprised he knew.
She averted her gaze and grunted in affirmation.
“Of course I had to go see her.”
Jiang Yu slowly approached.
Ignoring her resistance, he took her hand in his, toying with it as he lowered his gaze.
“…Do you hate me?”
Shen Lang was taken aback.
“Hate you?
…Why?”
Jiang Yu looked up, meeting her eyes directly, and said, word by word, “I took you by force and locked you in a cage.”