Chapter 55: The Seductive Shadow of the State Preceptor

Lu Yihuan’s breath caught in her throat. She had never imagined that Jiang Li would ask her that.

Which one?

A cold hook curled at the corner of Lu Yihuan’s lips. “Naturally, the one with the Crown Prince of Ling Kingdom.”

Jiang Li felt as though Lu Yihuan’s words had rushed straight into her brain and left her dizzy. Her brows furrowed tightly into a knot, and her mouth hung slightly open. “No…”

Did some kind of misunderstanding exist between her and Lu Yihuan? What marriage decree? As the actual person involved, how could she be completely unaware of it?

Yet, looking at Lu Yihuan’s utterly certain expression, Jiang Li didn’t dare to be entirely sure that the Emperor hadn’t issued an Imperial Edict behind her back.

Seeing Jiang Li’s hesitant expression, as if she had words stuck in her throat but couldn’t voice them, only made Lu Yihuan even more convinced of her suspicions.

She really had abandoned her.

Her gaze on the woman before her was deep and gloomy, like an unfathomable dark abyss. Rage coiled around Lu Yihuan’s heart as she pressed her lips together tightly.

Damn it!

Jiang Li’s waist suddenly tightened in a firm grip, interrupting her swirling thoughts. Panic flashed across her tense face. When her hand patted down, it struck the drenched outer robe clinging to Lu Yihuan’s side—she couldn’t tell if it was blood or rainwater that made everything so sticky and uncomfortable.

“Lu Yihuan! What are you doing?!” Her waist pressed against a lean shoulder, Jiang Li’s voice came out muffled.

She had been hoisted directly onto Lu Yihuan’s shoulder, and the Regent King was striding toward her own palace with her like that.

Lu Yihuan’s face was set in a grim mask as she marched forward. The gathered crowd slowly parted to either side, but no one dared step up to stop the two of them.

Everyone had witnessed Lu Yihuan drawing back her sword from Jiang Li at the last moment. If the Regent King called it quits right there, it would be a joyous outcome for all.

News of the Eldest Princess’s situation reached the Emperor’s desk.

At that very moment, Lu Yihuan’s army had already breached the inner palace, yet the Emperor remained steadily seated upon the Dragon Throne, his arms crossed in front of him.

It wasn’t until the report arrived that Lu Yihuan had struck at the Eldest Princess only to withdraw her sword at the final instant.

The Emperor regarded the Dragon-patterned guard standing before him. A smile slowly spread across his otherwise calm and unruffled face.

His laughter grew louder and louder, so bizarre that it unsettled everyone. The satisfaction in his words was equally incomprehensible.

His gaze fell upon another Imperial Edict laid out on the table before him. With a resounding slap, the Emperor brought his hand down and bellowed, “Excellent!”

A sharp glint flickered in his eyes. This former undefeated general, who had once conquered battlefields for the Jiang Kingdom in his youth, revealed the fangs he had kept hidden even as his body began to weaken.

Even with Lu Yihuan’s forces practically at his doorstep, the Emperor showed no sign of haste.

He simply closed his eyes and sat steady on the Dragon Throne, awaiting her arrival.

Jiang Li dangled over Lu Yihuan’s shoulder the entire way, cursing nonstop right by her ear, but she received not a single word in response.

Lu Yihuan paid no mind to the barrage of scoldings whispering into her ear. She simply kept walking with Jiang Li slung over her shoulder.

The maids still lingering in the hall stared in stunned silence at the sight of their usually radiant Eldest Princess being carried inside by the Regent King. They were just about to scramble for cover when that chilling gaze turned toward them.

How convenient—this happened to be the very maid who had delivered the letter and Paper Crane on the first day.

Lu Yihuan’s grim expression and words from that day were still fresh in the maid’s memory.

That freezing stare lingered on her for what felt like forever. The air was filled only with Jiang Li’s panting curses. The maid held her breath, not daring to move until Lu Yihuan finally departed, allowing her to feel alive again.

The two entered the room, and Jiang Li’s cursing continued unabated by Lu Yihuan’s ear—clearly, she hadn’t even caught her breath.

“You bastard! Do you even know what trust means?!”

“Which pair of lovers slaughters the other’s entire family?!”

Slap!

A sharp, crisp sound rang out.

Jiang Li’s floating words vanished instantly.

In the next moment, her fists rained down like a storm on Lu Yihuan’s back, dense and relentless.

Her body, which had just started to settle, now thrashed desperately. The flush on her face had come from yelling herself out of breath, but now shame burned even hotter.

How could she?!

“Lu Yihuan! Are you out of your mind?!”

The shame in Lu Yihuan’s eyes rippled outward from that single slap, like clear lake water brought to a boil.

Slap! Another crisp sound.

Stunned for just an instant, Jiang Li felt her body quiver slightly from the two spanks. Gritting her teeth, she forced her arms to brace against Lu Yihuan’s shoulder and pushed herself upright.

“You bastard!”

Her usual delicate voice was now thick with fury, her cheeks and neck flushed bright red all the way beneath her collar.

“Mm. I am a bastard.”

Lu Yihuan kept Jiang Li steady over her shoulder. Following her movements, she wrapped one arm around Jiang Li’s thigh while her other hand pinched the soft flesh of her buttock.

Jiang Li’s nonstop cursing had rung in her ears the whole way there, so the words buzzing by now were automatically filtered out.

Lifting her gaze to the shame twisting Jiang Li’s face, Lu Yihuan felt a restless urge stirring. Excitement gleamed in her eyes, the sensation from that spanking still vivid.

She wanted to do it a couple more times.

Those two swats had already ignited most of Jiang Li’s sense of shame. Now, she wished she could kick Lu Yihuan away and never see her again.

She—she had actually spanked her ass.

Jiang Li had never imagined that one day someone would spank her backside—and by someone who had her hoisted in midair while doing it, no less.

Remembering her body’s reactions just now, Jiang Li’s fingertips curled slightly where they rested on Lu Yihuan.

When Lu Yihuan spanked her, her thighs had curled up, pressing right against Lu Yihuan’s chest. Her waist trembled, her buttocks trembled.

All Lu Yihuan had to do was shift her gaze slightly, and she could easily see every quiver.

Her skirt had long since become disheveled. The soft flesh swayed with the barest movement, impossible to miss.

Ah!

The more Jiang Li thought about it, the more her face burned in a whole new way. Her brows and lashes quivered as she asked hesitantly, “Lu Yihuan, are you some kind of pervert?”

The question voiced the very thought Lu Yihuan had been harboring deep inside.

“Your Highness understands me all too well.”

With that, Lu Yihuan carried her to a nearby chair and sat down, still not releasing her.

The crimson in her eyes slowly faded. Now, as she looked at Jiang Li, her gaze was an unfathomable darkness—sharp and obsessive, as if it longed to swallow the woman before her whole.

Her hand remained pinched there, and Jiang Li eyed her warily.

“Ah!”

Everything flipped before her eyes in an instant. In a heartbeat, Jiang Li’s view shifted from Lu Yihuan’s obsessive stare to the floor.

This position…

A bad premonition gripped Jiang Li’s heart.

“Lu Yihuan, you can’t—!”

Slap!

Jiang Li’s attempt to refuse was cut short by a resounding smack.

A cry of pain rose in her throat, but she swallowed it down. Tears seemed to well up from the force of it, spilling over at the corner of her eye.

“You bastard!”

Her hand dug hard into Lu Yihuan’s thigh as she cursed, but the slaps continued to land one after another on her backside.

One smack—she flinched. Lu Yihuan pulled her back for another.

With her back facing Lu Yihuan, Jiang Li had no idea that those deep, abyssal eyes were now gleaming with obsessive excitement, fixed unyieldingly on her waist and back.

She moved—Lu Yihuan smacked.

Trapped tight in her arms, Jiang Li had nowhere to go.

She was hers.

Satisfied, Lu Yihuan lowered her gaze, letting it roam over Jiang Li’s waist and back.

The gown behind her fluttered slightly with the exquisite shape of her butterfly bones. Her slender waist and the curve beyond it shook fiercely.

The flesh beneath her hand quivered rapidly in her grasp.

Lu Yihuan controlled her strength carefully; each smack was light.

The room filled with curse after curse, but Lu Yihuan ignored them entirely. She poured out her pent-up emotions with every strike. Her eyes were like a deep pool, darkly rippling.

Deceived her—one smack. Abandoned her—one smack. Kept cursing her—one smack…

Until a fresh wetness spread across her thigh. Lu Yihuan’s leg tensed. She glanced down at Jiang Li, who hadn’t made a sound for a while now—her shoulders trembling faintly.

Crying?

Lu Yihuan lifted her into her arms. Jiang Li’s face turned stubbornly aside, a crystalline tear arcing through the air to land on Lu Yihuan’s sleeve.

Her gaze locked on. Lu Yihuan’s palm rose to Jiang Li’s cheek, her thumb gently wiping away the tears. She knew full well, yet asked all the same, “Shamed?”

Hiss.

Jiang Li snatched the hand from her cheek and bit down viciously, unleashing all her shame and fury on that palm in one go.

She had never dreamed Lu Yihuan would spank her—spank her ass… and deliver so many swats! They didn’t even hurt; Lu Yihuan hadn’t hit hard.

What shamed Jiang Li more was how Lu Yihuan would pause deliberately after each one, waiting until she had just barely recovered before striking again.

This was clearly on purpose!

Lu Yihuan ignored the pain from her hand. Teardrops pattered onto the skin of her hand, hot as brands.

“Your Highness, why the tears?”

Knowing there would be no reply, Lu Yihuan continued on her own, lips pressing thin. Her words made Jiang Li’s brows crease deeply.

“Clearly, I am the one abandoned by Your Highness. Yet Your Highness looks as though I am the one in the wrong.”

The charge of abandonment landed squarely on her shoulders. There was one thing Jiang Li had wanted to ask since earlier.

“The marriage decree you mentioned—was it with whom?”

A pained yelp escaped her lips. Seeing Lu Yihuan’s face darken once more, Jiang Li retaliated by reaching out and twisting viciously in revenge.

Lu Yihuan could spank her… so she could pinch Lu Yihuan. So what!

Those icy eyes bored into her. Through gritted teeth, Lu Yihuan spat out the two words, the mere taste of the name making her nauseous: “Ling Yue.”

Jiang Li was dumbfounded. Her and Ling Yue? Her Father Emperor hadn’t told her! She herself, the person in question, had no idea!

“That marriage decree…” Jiang Li wanted to ask how Lu Yihuan had found out about it—and where that so-called decree was now.

Lu Yihuan replied indifferently, “I tore it up.”

Tore up an Imperial Edict? Jiang Li’s eyes flew wide, only to slowly relax moments later. Lu Yihuan had already led her army straight into the palace; destroying an edict was hardly worth mentioning by comparison.

Her chin was suddenly lifted. Jiang Li met Lu Yihuan’s gloomy eyes. “Does Your Highness have nothing to say?”

Such as, what exactly had she discussed with His Majesty the Emperor to make this doting father issue an edict betrothing her to someone else.

Or, if Lu Yihuan hadn’t happened to intercept it from Ling Yue, when would Jiang Li have bothered to tell her.

Of course, seeing Jiang Li struck speechless now, a cold hook curled at Lu Yihuan’s lips. Perhaps she would have been just like the assembled officials and ministers—finding out only when the edict was read aloud in open court.

Jiang Li wouldn’t tell her.

Her fingers slowly crept up to the cheek before her. Two pitch-black pupils gleamed faintly in the dim light as Lu Yihuan gazed at the woman sitting so close. Her thumb brushed over soft lips.

It smeared a trace of blood across them.

The hand at Jiang Li’s waist tightened slowly from behind. A sense of foreboding rose in her heart. She stared into those eyes hovering right before her nose.

She was smiling, yet there was no mirth in those eyes at all. Jiang Li shivered from head to toe.

Lu Yihuan’s palm stroked her cheek, rubbing gently with her fingertips again and again.

“Since Your Highness refuses to speak, we’ll find another way to communicate.”

“You must cry out.”