Then he saw Tie Ci bending over to change the bedding, smoothing out every wrinkle, stuffing the soiled sheets under the bed before turning to sit down, fully dressed and composed, looking as if she were sitting regally upon her throne.
Murong Yi: “…I suddenly remember a poem I once read: ‘The maidservant helps her rise, too weak to stand, this marks the first time receiving royal favor.'”
Tie Ci: “Hmm?”
“Are you even a woman?”
Tie Ci lifted her eyelids: “Didn’t we test that last night?”
Murong Yi rubbed his hands together: “I was too excited, don’t really remember. How about we test again?”
“You look exactly like Brother Wuneng eating ginseng fruit.”
“But are you really not tired at all? Isn’t it said that after women’s first time, that… that they all…” Murong Yi lewdly rubbed his fingers together.
Tie Ci leisurely crossed her legs and gazed at him with a smile: “Young Master, allow me to remind you. Strictly speaking, last night it was you who received favor, you who should be delicate and weak. You should now be soaking in bath water, awaiting my imperial decree and rewards. Not here making obscene gestures.”
Murong Yi blinked somewhat regretfully: “That works too. I was originally planning to help you bathe, but now you can help me instead. Come on—” He yanked at his clothes.
He undressed even faster than last night.
After all, practice makes perfect.
Murong Yi splashed into the bathtub with a loud plop, water spraying everywhere.
His calculations were perfect – while washing, he’d pull Tie Ci down with him, and they’d have time for another round before departure.
However, just as he jumped in, Rong Pu’s people arrived saying the carriage was ready.
Only then did they realize daylight was already bright – normally they would have finished breakfast by this time.
Murong Yi had to climb out and get dressed. When he wasn’t looking, Tie Ci secretly massaged her lower back with grimaces, but the moment he turned around, she immediately let go and appeared calm.
Losing face was not an option.
His Highness was vigorous as a dragon and tiger, indefatigable.
Emerging from the room to meet their subordinates, Chi Xue appeared normal while Dan Shuang looked bitter and resentful.
Dan Shuang secretly observed Tie Ci, seeing her walk normally with a frank expression, couldn’t help but look puzzled.
His Highness didn’t look like…
Could it be that last night actually nothing…
Dan Shuang felt wildly joyful.
But her beautiful dream soon shattered.
Because while Tie Ci concealed things well, she couldn’t withstand someone’s desperate desire to show off to the entire world!
The carriage stopped at the academy’s side gate. To facilitate Tie Ci’s departure, although the competition had ended, the academy was still hosting a scholarly lecture. The speakers were renowned scholars from various major academies – a rare opportunity that almost everyone attended.
The ten selected candidates wouldn’t follow Tie Ci to the capital but would be escorted to the capital by local government officials.
Shen Mi would return to the capital with Tie Ci, then report to Celu Academy afterward.
From afar, Tie Ci saw Rong Pu fearlessly holding his umbrella while chatting with Shen Mi.
Li Yuncheng also stood nearby, looking somewhat uneasy.
When everyone saw Tie Ci approaching, they stepped forward to greet her. Suddenly a figure rushed past Tie Ci very enthusiastically toward the group, grabbing the hand of Rong Pu who stood at the front, saying warmly: “Brother Rong, not seen for one night – I trust you’ve been well?”
Rong Pu looked up slightly at the beaming Murong Yi before him.
What was this guy up to? Had last night’s stimulation driven him mad?
He pulled his hand away and before he could respond, saw Murong Yi lean closer with a ghostly expression: “Ah, Brother Rong, haven’t you noticed any changes in me today?”
Rong Pu: “…”
What’s wrong with him!
“Brother Murong looks detestable every day – what could change?”
“Really nothing?” Murong Yi leaned his face closer: “Really? Take another careful look?”
Rong Pu very much wanted to smash his umbrella into that shameless face.
It should successfully disfigure him.
He simply stepped back and seriously looked him up and down: “Ah. Yes.”
“What?”
“Even uglier.”
Murong Yi laughed heartily, stroking his chin with the smugly victorious look of one who wouldn’t stoop to arguing with a loser, then turned to torment Shen Mi: “Brother Shen, do you notice any changes in me today?”
The bewildered Shen Mi: “…”
After a long pause, he tentatively said: “The Young Master looks more handsome?”
Murong Yi smiled: “Though not exactly right, not far off either. After all, spring wind and gentle rain are quite nourishing.”
He patted the even more bewildered Shen Mi’s shoulder, then turned to Li Yuncheng: “Little Li, what do you think…”
“Today the Young Master looks exceptionally spirited,” Li Yuncheng quickly answered.
“No red at the corners of my eyes? No sticky eyebrows?” Murong Yi pressed.
Li Yuncheng: “…”
What the hell are you talking about?
Murong Yi stepped back from them and stood beside Rong Pu, using a voice that others might not hear clearly but Rong Pu definitely could, stroking his chin and muttering to himself: “Strange, isn’t it said that after losing one’s virtue, the eye corners show peach blossom color and the eyebrows have a water-washed sticky feeling?”
Rong Pu: “??!!”
Then he had an epiphany: “Oh, that refers to women, not me!”
Rong Pu: “???!!!”
Dan Shuang, worried about this troublemaker, had been quietly following behind him. Hearing this, she reached for her blade again.
Chi Xue quickly rushed over and pulled her aside: “Have you forgotten last night’s lesson?”
Dan Shuang: “Don’t stop me! That bastard – I’m going to castrate him! After doing such shameless things, he still has the nerve to brag about it indirectly! Where does this put Her Highness’s reputation!”
She positioned herself by the carriage: “I’ll wait for him to get on. The moment he lifts his leg, I’ll chop off his thing!”
Chi Xue was both angry and amused: “The Young Master pursued for so long and finally… well, and has been constantly provoked by Dean Rong. It’s normal for him to strike back… He has restraint – he knows the dean would never believe it and wouldn’t spread it. Look, Supervisor Shen and Young Master Li didn’t hear anything.”
Dan Shuang: “Bah! Frivolous!”
“Who told His Highness to like him,” Chi Xue comforted. “Haven’t you said that His Highness has been bound by rules all her life, and only with Murong Yi can she live like a young girl? His Highness being happy is enough. For her, joy and indulgence are the rarest things.”
Tie Ci happened to walk over, reaching out with a smile to pat Dan Shuang’s blade back into its sheath, pinching her pufferfish-like cheeks: “Right, I’m happy as can be.”
Dan Shuang said seriously: “Your Highness, you didn’t suffer any losses, did you!”
“How could I!” Tie Ci said proudly: “My prowess was magnificent!”
Dan Shuang: …What?
Tie Ci: “Someone kept begging for mercy – a defeated opponent, no match at all!”
Someone walking by behind them picked up the conversation: “If so, allow me to regroup tonight and fight again!”
Tie Ci: “Yes… bah!”
Dan Shuang: “…”
Deflowering seemed to have also broken the Crown Princess’s originally clever little brain.
…
Though autumn winds were bleak, they couldn’t match swift hoofbeats. When Tie Ci’s carriage and horses reached the gates of the capital, the capital was experiencing its first snow of winter.
Tie Ci halted her horse before the city gate, watching the orderly queue of common people entering the gate, and breathed a long sigh of relief.
She had taken two long journeys in these past two years. The first time she returned, wounded and ill, she was blocked outside the city, going through countless hardships and setbacks.
Now before her eyes was peaceful harmony with the city gates wide open.
There should have been a grand welcome, but her formal entourage had returned to the capital a month ago. Tie Ci had sent word in advance explaining that if they planned a welcoming ceremony, it needn’t be extravagant, but should give these attendants who had worked hard for half a year respectful treatment.
So at that time, the Ministry of Rites had gone out ten li to welcome them, bringing imperial wine to reward all the attendants.
Now that Tie Ci was returning herself without prior notice to the capital, there would naturally be no grand welcome. Tie Ci didn’t care about such empty ceremonies anyway, but she also didn’t want to pretend to be approachable by queuing at the city gate – she was eager to return to the palace to see her father.
She was about to order Chi Xue to clear the way when she suddenly heard commotion from the city walls. With her extraordinary hearing and vision, Tie Ci focused and heard the friction of armor, weapons striking walls in hasty movement, and particularly heavy “thud thud thud” footsteps. It sounded like a group of people rushing down from the city tower, so urgently that she could make out one particularly stumbling set of footsteps mixed with faint exclamations of “…careful!”
Tie Ci’s expression turned cold as she signaled Chi Xue to return. Dan Shuang’s hand was already on her waist, while Murong Yi had silently appeared beside her.
He looked up and suddenly said: “Who’s on the city wall?”
Tie Ci was startled – weren’t the people on the wall coming down?
Earlier, from the corner of her eye, she seemed to have seen someone standing on the wall but hadn’t paid attention, thinking it was a gate official or such.
She looked up and saw a small figure on the wall.
The person wore luxurious clothes with hair piled high, waving large sleeves desperately at her.
Tie Ci was stunned, then stunned again.
For a moment she couldn’t believe her eyes.
How could Consort Jing appear here?
Since entering the palace, unless taken on imperial hunts, she never stepped outside the palace gates.
Her being here could only mean…
Tie Ci suddenly dismounted and rushed forward.
She kept pushing through the crowded queue ahead.
At that moment, a group also rushed out from the city gate tunnel.
The leader wore dark blue brocade robes like an ordinary wealthy gentleman – a handsome middle-aged man stumbling ahead of everyone, followed by a bunch of old men crying and shouting as they couldn’t keep up, and a group of armored guards sweating profusely as they tried to clear the civilians.
“My child—”
The shout nearly deafened Tie Ci’s ears.
She suddenly stopped and stared ahead in shock.
Just as the Emperor was about to pounce on her, he suddenly remembered his imperial status, hastily slowed his steps, straightened his crown, dusted his clothes, and adjusted his smile.
Before he could finish arranging his expression, Tie Ci had already “wailed” and rushed over.
“Father!”
Under everyone’s horrified gazes, Tie Ci embraced her father whom she hadn’t seen for half a year.
People rushed up to help, fearing that the martial arts expert Crown Princess might knock over her father, whose health hadn’t been strong recently.
However, the moment Tie Ci embraced her father, her hand cushioned his back, first using her own body to protect him while avoiding any possibility of assassination, then with a turn she pulled the Emperor back into the crowd, while the guards behind them immediately formed a protective circle around them both.
Tie Ci led her father into the city gate tunnel while surrounding civilians were shooed away then gathered again, looking bewildered at this “father and son” pair. Someone muttered: “Weird.”
Murong Yi stood still, arms crossed, watching Tie Ci’s retreating figure as she supported her father into the city gate, a faint smile in his eyes.
A’Ci, your luck is better than mine.
I hope your luck continues forever.
Tie Yan, supported by his daughter, had already seen Murong Yi but pretended not to, letting his gaze drift far away.
He pulled Tie Ci onto the prepared carriage. Consort Jing lifted the curtain, smiling at her daughter.
Tie Ci looked her mother up and down, seeing that not even a hair was out of place – very dignified. Perhaps from rarely coming out to get sun, her skin was several shades whiter than before. This woman in her thirties was still as delicate as a young girl, clearly having lived very comfortably recently.
She smiled at Consort Jing and performed a courtesy.
Then she turned to call Murong Yi to follow, but Tie Yan suddenly tugged her sleeve: “Our family of three rarely has a chance to tour the capital. Come, Ci’er, accompany me.”
Tie Ci had to help her father into the carriage and sit with him, thinking that Murong Yi didn’t need arrangement anyway and would naturally follow.
Suddenly there was a “bang” as if something fell to the ground, then the carriage sank. Tie Ci quickly lifted the curtain to see that the palace guard who had been driving was thrown off the cart, and Murong Yi was now brazenly sitting in the driver’s seat, picking up the whip.
While raising the whip, he laughed: “That’s right – our whole family’s going!”
Tie Ci: “…”
Tie Yan: “…”
Consort Jing: “…”