This little thing, speaking in circles, he'll deal with her tonight!
He squeezed her waist with his large hand, expressing his displeasure.
The Second Prince, unwilling to look at his rough face, huffed and flicked his sleeve before leaving.
"Hmph!" Xiao Shan snorted contemptuously, "If this wasn't your brother, I would have sent him to the army camp for training. Expose him to the sun for a month, and see if his skin can still be like a woman's!"
"How dare you speak of the Crown Prince, slap my face!" Ling Yao scolded.
Xiao Shan pouted and extended his face, "Please, Princess, bestow your punishment."
Yu Liu and Yu Shan, along with the guards, had already fallen back more than ten paces, their heads bowed low.
The path ahead was perilous; cherish life and avert your gaze from impropriety.
"Slap!" Ling Yao unceremoniously slapped Xiao Shan.
His skin was thick, and her hand hurt!
"Oh dear, your humble servant deserves death, deserves death." Xiao Shan grabbed her hand and kissed it a few times.
They were still outside, this shameless man!
Ling Yao pulled her hand back, her face flushed. She had been unhappy, but his antics made her forget everything.
"Let's go back to the room, I have something to show you," Xiao Shan winked.
"What is it?"
"What you want," he said mysteriously.
What did she want?
Ling Yao looked at Xiao Shan's strong physique, his powerful arms, his broad chest beneath the court robes, oh, it all exuded a captivating allure.
In these past few days, he had likely realized he was also her tonic. He had shed his previous timidity and now engaged in a balanced, nightly revelry.
She naturally benefited from it.
However, it was daytime!
This was not that secluded mountain village!
She felt a pang of worry, her heart pounding, and lowered her head as Xiao Shan pulled her into the room.
"Perhaps, we can look tonight?"
"Tonight has its own affairs!" Xiao Shan released her and walked towards the bed.
She would be too embarrassed to look in the mirror at night, how could she possibly handle it during the day? She had to tell him not to lift the bed curtains.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry over."
Xiao Shan held a paper-wrapped package, unwrapping it layer by layer.
"What is this?" Was this what he wanted to show her?
Alas, she had overthought it.
Did he buy her something to eat?
What was missing from the imperial kitchen? She was no longer lacking in snacks.
Xiao Shan had already peeled away the wrapping. It was a thick journal. Ling Yao's mind jolted, and she snatched it over.
"This, this is..."
"It should be what Eunuch Bai Xi mentioned. I had someone chip away the ice early this morning and find it from the cracks in the lotus pond."
Ling Yao's emotions were incredibly complex. She had learned most of the truth, yet Eunuch Bai Xi had sacrificed his life for this item. It was just one step away; he could have waited a little longer.
She opened the journal.
It was essentially a memoir, detailing events from Eunuch Bai Xi's entry into the palace at the age of seven, how he was bullied, how the Second Prince saved him, becoming his personal eunuch, and then rising through the ranks to become the Grand Eunuch.
The initial parts were not important, but one event later shocked her so much that the journal fell to the floor.
The Eldest Prince was not their father's son; he was the son of the traitorous Prince An! Meaning, he was her cousin!
No wonder their father had never favored him. If he hadn't promised the late emperor, he wouldn't have kept him!
Bai Xi even mentioned that due to their father's indulgence, the Eldest Prince was bullied and beaten by eunuchs and palace maids.
"No wonder the Eldest Prince became so cold and indifferent. How could this happen!"
The father she remembered was benevolent and respected, how could he be like this?
"It's already good enough to keep a traitor's son by his side. He is not an ordinary person; he is an emperor. What an emperor needs least is kindness," Xiao Shan said dismissively.
It was good enough to survive, and with a princely title, what more could one ask for?
"Just treat him as the Eldest Prince; no one knows anyway."
Ling Yao calmed herself and continued reading.
However, what followed was even more devastating. Compared to it, the Eldest Prince being a traitor's son was nothing.
She and her second brother were born to the Noble Consort!
Ling Xi was born to the Empress!
On the day of their birth, the children were swapped, and it was their father's doing.
It turned out that from the time the Noble Consort became pregnant, the imperial physicians had concealed her twin pregnancy, solely because a grand shaman had predicted that one of the children in her womb carried the destiny of a divine maiden.
And a divine maiden could not have any flaws; she must be born to the most noble of individuals.
On the day of childbirth, the Noble Consort gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Auspicious clouds filled the sky, and phoenixes cried out. Brilliant rosy clouds illuminated the night sky at midnight, truly giving birth to a divine maiden.
And the Empress gave birth to Ling Xi.
Being able to give birth simultaneously was also arranged by their father through the imperial physicians.
Ling Yao asked Xiao Shan blankly, "Why did Father do this?"
"Perhaps, he valued the divine maiden too much?"
"Heh heh." Ling Yao's smile was more bitter than tears.
"Father does not love Mother Empress; he loves no one. He loves the empire, he loves the divine maiden."
If he loved Mother Empress, he wouldn't have neglected Ling Xi. He was harsh to the Eldest Prince and lacked guidance for the Second Prince. Among all his children, only she was doted upon.
It was only because she was the divine maiden.
It was too laughable.
"Alright, stop reading. If I had known it contained this, I wouldn't have shown it to you." Xiao Shan took the journal and flipped through the later pages. "What's written later is similar to what we found. It was probably written in haste, only half finished. However, Bai Xi also suspected Prince Runan."
"A Shan," Ling Yao leaned onto Xiao Shan's lap, feeling utterly dejected.
"In such a large palace, with so few people, so many unspeakable things are hidden. Thinking about it now, Feng Que Tower was quite good, at least it was clean."
"I don't like it here. Once the court stabilizes, let's leave, okay? We can go back to Bozi Village, or anywhere else."
"Yes, I don't like it here either. It looks magnificent, but it's not comfortable at all. Like this bed, it's too soft and not supportive enough! Our large earthen kang is much better," Xiao Shan said with disdain.
"What are you talking about? Nonsense." Ling Yao listlessly got up.
"Talking about the bed! When you press down, you sink into the quilt, and I have to pull you out. It's thick and soft, and I'm afraid of hurting you if I use too much force. If I don't use enough, it doesn't reach the bottom. I can't just sit there all the time?"
Xiao Shan had this roguish nature, always able to say something utterly disarming with a straight face.
Ling Yao's face turned crimson. He leaned closer to her ear and said, "What were you thinking when you first came into the room? Your face was as red as if I were going to do something to you."
"You're using this trick to distract me again."
Xiao Shan bit her small, fair earlobe. Her lips were pursed tightly, clearly on the verge of succumbing. He couldn't help but feel smug, "Just tell me, is it effective?"
He used this trick to make her unable to think of anything else, her mind filled only with him.
She felt she was becoming more and more unrestrained. She was pregnant, yet she needed him more than before, unable to resist even the slightest provocation from him.
"You bad guy!"
Xiao Shan, however, seemed to take the scolding as praise and pressed her down, kissing her fiercely.
Finally, with lingering desire, he licked her crystal-clear lips and said with restraint, "Get a good night's sleep. I still have to go out. I'll be back tonight to properly serve Your Highness the Princess."