Chapter 233: Negotiation!

Before Su Ziyue's arrival, no definitive chord had been struck between Li Changan and Su Ruobing; though a mutual tenderness lingered between them, it remained veiled behind a thin, unbroken membrane.

Yet now, Su Ziyue had arrived only to forge an unwanted bond between them, shattering the unspoken understanding they had so delicately maintained, leaving behind a profound and palpable awkwardness.

Fortunately, neither of them was of an ordinary mold.

After a fleeting moment of constraint, it was Li Changan who finally stepped forward to break the silence.

What a preposterous notion of "three barren years"! When they wed three years prior, Du Zhongheng had slipped away to study across the sea without so much as showing his face; had Wan Jinzhi borne fruit in those three years, it would have been a scandal indeed, proving only that she had cuckolded him.

I nodded with a touch of diffidence, for to be thus ensnared by love felt altogether embarrassing to confess.

"And why, then, should I lift a hand to aid you in this endeavor?" the Seventh Princess demanded, rising abruptly with a gaze so icy it practically showed him to the door.

Jinse’s countenance bore a faint, resentful melancholy; though she had tended to the Emperor of Qin hand and foot for a fortnight, sharing his every waking hour, his demeanor toward her remained as steadfastly indifferent as ever.

Lin Ping clutched her trousers in a desperate grip, struggling with all her might, but her injured leg was far from healed, rendering escape an impossibility.

It was precisely for this reason that an immortal had intervened in days gone by, extinguishing his life and reducing his life's work to ash with a single strike of the palm.

Li Jia had long harbored a quiet resentment toward her mother, and upon hearing Fu Yunqin’s reproaches, that bitterness only deepened. Gu Xinyu observed the frayed tether between mother and son, but offered only a fleeting glance and held his peace.

This garment was a treasure of peerless worth, capable of unleashing immense power whether entrusted to the living or to the Land of Ghosts. Had I swaggered openly out of the gates wearing the Robe of Fire and Water Protection, the Lord of the Sin City would never have brooked it.

They felt a swell of joy mingled with a bitter pang, for they had played no part in nurturing Qingnian; by the time they claimed her as their own, she was already fully grown.

A trace of melancholy stirred within him; these men had followed him for years, some for over a decade, yet within a mere handful of days, Yu Danqing had utterly beguiled them with a few baskets of buns and dumplings, a great pot of braised pork, and a single hotpot feast, until they grew far fonder of her than of him.

In stark contrast, Wu Meiniang broke all precedents by elevating Di Renjie three ranks at once, transferring him from the modest county seat to the Command of the Luoyang Protectorate.

In other words, to the twenty-three-year-old Qi Qi, he was a faithless man; yet the five years of yearning and sacrifice he had endured were surely enough to acquit him of his debt to her.

"You're like a starved ghost reborn! These ground-bees are fiercely toxic, and the stingers in their tails are not to be eaten!" Old Tiger Qi scolded as he snatched the insect away, pinching off its venomous end before handing it back to He Yu.

Upon hearing that Boss Huang was merely delivering money for medical treatment, the driver’s ire vanished by half, and he signaled for those in the back to open the carriage door.

He was hardly the only soul to embezzle the river dike funds. By what right must he alone shoulder the blame for the entire affair in the end?

Han Dongfei spoke no further, training his gaze upon the road ahead, though he nodded deeply in silent agreement upon hearing those words.

It took a lengthy explanation from the magistrate before the matter grew clear: it turned out that Lantian County was home to a grand gentleman named Wu Tao, a merchant of cloth and the undisputed wealthiest man in the realm.

Only when he discerned that the newcomer was Yun Yan did Li Zhengdao breathe a sigh of relief, having truly believed that the Sage had descended upon them in absolute silence.

Chi Xia dozed lightly against the cushions of the sofa; Lu Yuheng had likely returned to the Lu Corporation following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and since time hung heavy on her hands, she thought she might as well attempt to coax some truths from Lu Xiurui.

Granted, severing the second corpse was hardly deemed a feat of grand consequence in the present realm of the Great Desolation. After all, of Wu Chu’s four disciples, three had already attained that very station.

The mere sight of the man’s face turned Zhang Fengwei’s stomach, igniting a fierce urge to step forward and deliver a sharp blow, yet the fellow chanced to be the master's own brother.

Yet Uncle Chen proved far less malleable than she had presumed, nor did he hold the child in such high regard as she had imagined.

She had divined that he and Lin Jiawan had once shared a love that tore at the very soul, but she had never anticipated that the pair had weathered such tortuous trials.

She kept herself tethered to a frantic state of industry, leaving no idle moment to ponder why he had appeared here tonight, how long he intended to linger, or the true purpose behind his inquiry regarding the hour of her release from work.