In front of the majestic imperial palace gates, traffic bustled as the streetlamps began to glow.
Lu Ci was the first to alight from the carriage. He then turned around, unexpectedly extending a slender, jade-like hand toward Su Tang inside.
Flattered and overwhelmed by the unexpected favor, Su Tang placed her hand in his and jumped down, her internal dialogue running wild with bullet comments:
[Whoa! Five-star review for this service attitude! Looks like that ten-thousand-liang budget for tiger penis wasn’t spent in vain; this man is getting more and more sensible!]
Lu Ci’s hand stiffened slightly. Suppressing the urge to shove her back into the carriage, he maintained an expressionless face as he led her by the hand toward the palace gates.
However, before they could take more than a few steps, a mournful voice pierced through the din, striking straight at their eardrums.
“Brother Ci…”
A frail woman wearing a plain white immortal skirt, her body as thin as paper, stumbled out from the crowd. Her face was pale and her eyes were brimming with tears; she looked so fragile that a breath of wind might knock her over—a living, breathing embodiment of a quintessential white lotus.
The surrounding dignitaries and aristocrats stopped in their tracks, the flames of gossip igniting fiercely in their eyes.
Su Tang stopped as well, her eyes lighting up instantly.
[Here it comes, here it comes! The legendary white moonlight script! Let me see what level of green tea bitch this one is!]
The woman rushed to a stop three steps away from Lu Ci, looking mournful as tears fell like broken strings of pearls. “Brother Ci… after three years apart, have you… have you truly married someone else?”
She cast a reproachful glance at Su Tang, as if Su Tang were some vicious female antagonist tearing a pair of lovers apart, before quickly retrieving her gaze to look affectionately at Lu Ci. “Have you forgotten all the solemn vows we made back then?”
“Solemn vows?” Lu Ci’s brow furrowed slightly, his gaze cold. “Who are you?”
Pfft—
Suppressed chuckles echoed from the onlookers.
The woman’s face froze and her body swayed, as though she had suffered a devastating blow. “I am Ruyan! Liu Ruyan! When we were young, we caught crickets together in the Imperial Garden… You said that when you grew up, you would marry me as your princess…”
[Liu Ruyan?]
The system in Su Tang’s mind instantly chimed ding!
[Gossip Target: Liu Ruyan.]
[Gossip Broadcast: Host, this tea is a bit spoiled! This Liu Ruyan does indeed know Lu Ci, but there were never any solemn vows! Back when Lu Ci was still an unfavored prince, she snobbishly spurned the poor for the rich and turned around to hook up with a grand general bound for the borderlands, becoming his eighteenth concubine!]
[Now that the grand general died in battle, the first wife found her unlucky and kicked her out. Hearing that Lu Ci became the Regent and holds absolute power over the court, she rushed back to eat leftover grass!]
The pity in Su Tang’s eyes instantly turned into contempt.
[Tsk, tsk, tsk, so she’s just a piece of recycled pork! You paid no heed back then, but now he’s out of your league—don’t you get it? Solemn vows? Catching a cricket counts as a solemn vow? Then I caught dung beetles with Ergouzi at the entrance of the village when I was young—am I supposed to marry Ergouzi too?]
Lu Ci’s mood, originally irritable from being interrupted, nearly cracked at the words “dung beetle.”
He looked coldly at Liu Ruyan, who was weeping piteously before him, his eyes filled with disgust.
Seeing Lu Ci remain silent, Liu Ruyan assumed he was moved by her words and felt secretly overjoyed. She was most confident in her “sickly Xi Shi” appearance; men always fell for it.
Gritting her teeth, she decided to push harder.
“Brother Ci, I know I still hold a place in your heart… I ask for no status. As long as I can stay by your side to serve you, even if it means being a maid who pours tea and fetches water, I am content…”
As she spoke, her legs gave way, and she swooned gracefully toward Lu Ci’s chest.
This fall was meticulously calculated in its angle—it would both display her frailty and allow her to fall right into Lu Ci’s broad, warm embrace.
The surrounding female relatives covered their mouths and gasped, as if they were already watching a scene of rekindled old flames.
However, right at that moment, Su Tang’s internal monologue exploded again:
[Don’t hold her! Whatever you do, don’t hold her! System says this woman has terrible halitosis!]
[To maintain this ‘sickly Xi Shi’ persona, she’s been taking microdoses of arsenic long-term to keep her complexion pale. The side effect is a rotting digestive tract, and the smell in her mouth… is stronger than Wang Er Mazi’s footwashing water just now! The moment she opens her mouth, nothing grows within a three-meter radius!]
Lu Ci: “!!!”
Bad breath?
Footwashing water?
Looking at Liu Ruyan about to throw herself into his arms, Lu Ci felt as though he were looking at a walking biochemical weapon.
As a Regent with a obsession for cleanliness, his body reacted faster than his brain.
The moment Liu Ruyan was about to touch the corner of his robes, Lu Ci did not reach out to catch her—instead, he raised his leg and kicked.
Bang!
A dull thud sounded.
Liu Ruyan, who was preparing to enter his arms in the most beautiful pose of her life, felt a sharp pain in her chest. Like a kite with a broken string, she flew backward in a arc trajectory.
“Ah—!!!”
Liu Ruyan shrieked as she flew three meters away, crashing heavily onto the stone paved ground before the palace gates, rolling several times before coming to a stop.
Her fairy-like white dress was instantly covered in dust, her hair bun disheveled; she sprawled on the ground like a madwoman, unable to get up for a long time.
Dead silence fell over the entire area.
Everyone’s mouth hung wide open, their jaws dropping to the floor.
K—Kicked her away?!
The Regent actually kicked his former “childhood sweetheart” away with a single boot?!
Was this the legendary “tender protective affection for women”? This was simply “ruthlessly crushing a flower”!
Su Tang was also dumbfounded, forgetting even to chew the melon seeds in her hand.
[Holy crap! That was awesome, my brother!]
[This kick is practically the hope of the national football team! Fast, precise, and ruthless, without a single shred of hesitation! Is this the ultimate realm of a green-tea detector? Physical exorcism?]
[Though… did he smell it too?]
Lu Ci retracted his leg and unhurriedly straightened his robes, as though what he had just kicked away was not a person, but a bag of trash.
Looking down coldly at Liu Ruyan, who was still coughing up blood in the distance, his voice rang out like frost across the palace gates:
“Where did this madwoman come from, daring to publicly assassinate This Servant?”
Assassinate?
Everyone was bewildered. She clearly came to throw herself into his arms!
Clutching her chest, Liu Ruyan raised her head in disbelief. Before she could even wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth, she opened her mouth to explain: “Brother Ci, I didn’t…”
A faint, subtle odor drifted on the wind.
Lu Ci immediately took a step back, covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve, and said with disgust, “Since it wasn’t an assassination, were you trying to stage a scam? This Servant is already married, and the Princess is gentle and virtuous. How could a shameless woman like you dare to claim a connection?”
With that, he pulled Su Tang—who was still dazed beside him—into his arms, declaring his sovereignty to everyone present:
“This is This Regents one and only Princess. In the future, if anyone dares to shove such messy women in front of This Regent again, do not blame This Regent for being cold and ruthless!”
Su Tang was somewhat baffled by this sudden domineering declaration. Her cheek rested against his firm chest, her nose filled with the cold fragrance of ambergris.
[Mm… Even though he’s using me as a shield, this heartbeat… seems a bit fast?]
[And these chest muscles… are really firm! Can I sneakily feel them? Just once!]
Lu Ci’s arm stiffened slightly, and he then pinched her waist punitively, whispering, “Pay attention.”
Su Tang immediately behaved, putting on a sweet (and dramatic) smile in cooperation. “Your Highness is truly good to me. I am so deeply moved.”
On the ground, Liu Ruyan watched this scene. Unable to catch her breath out of sheer rage, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted completely (this time for real).
“Drag her away,” Lu Ci said without taking a second glance. “Don’t let her dirty the ground before the palace gates.”
The shadow guards immediately stepped forward, dragging Liu Ruyan away like a dead dog.
A farce concluded with the Regent’s dominant “world-settling kick.”
When the surrounding ministers and noble ladies looked at Su Tang again, their eyes had instantly changed.
They had originally thought this new Princess of concubine birth was merely a placeholder who could be cast aside at any moment. Who would have thought the Regent favored her so much that he would kick away an old flame for her sake! It seemed the wind direction would have to change from now on!
Lu Ci held Su Tang’s hand, looking straight ahead as he walked through the palace gates.
Only after they had walked far away did Su Tang let out a long sigh of relief in her heart.
[Phew! Satisfying! So satisfying! This is the proper way to portray the male lead in a satisfying story!]
[Though… the hard battle comes next.]
Su Tang looked up at the towering palace, her gaze sharpening.
[Prime Minister Su, my dear father, I can’t wait to unwrap the ‘grand gift’ you’ve prepared.]
[System, get the gossip on Su Hua and the Crown Prince ready for me! Tonight, I’m going to cause a uproar in Heaven!]
Lu Ci glanced at her from the side, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips.
A uproar in Heaven?
If she wanted to cause a scene, then so what if he accompanied her to poke a hole in the heavens itself?