The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

101

"......" His eyes were glued to her, his expression became innocent, and he couldn't resist touching her cheek with his lips: "Why?"

She stretched out her slim fingertips to point at his face first, and said succinctly, "Like...... a little white lotus." Soon after, she poked his chest again, like a small snake gently burrowing into his embrace: "but the core is black......"

She poked, and then changed it to rubbing, like a person who feels pain around their heart and rubs forcefully on the area to relieve the pain. She rubbed the clothing covering his chest with vigor, until both the hollow of her palm and the areas around her eyes were warm and she began making a scene: "Black in the end, don't try to be a hero......"

"Rip......"

Her words snapped to a halt. She struggled to raise her head up to look at him. The two silky rows of eyelashes which belonged to the young man were lowered, He held her new New Year's clothes, the petticoat ripped from the bottom, like tearing paper, being slowly ripped, the crimson skirt pushed up. Her pure white legs were pressed on the nanmu1 table, sending a shock of cold running through her.

The flowers and leaves in the room wavered, and the firecrackers and fireworks outside the window did not stop until very late.

At midnight, the red lanterns inside and outside the imperial city were lit, and the palace banquet was held until midnight. The banquet seemed as if it concentrated all the bustle of the entire imperial city.

There was a stifling silence in Fengyang Palace, and only one lamp was lit in this darkness, reflecting in the countless pairs of expectant eyes, a small flickering orange-red in the dimness.

The red skirt of the woman who sat inclined beside the lamp trailed over the ground. She was reclining, half-leaning on the chaise longue, the faint light shining on her chin, her skin showing a cold and sheepish texture, a mask as thin as a cicada hanging from her fingertips, carried out from the box.

The taoists kneeling in a row anxiously looked at the open box in the hands of the person kneeling upright at the forefront, but dared not speak.

Near the end of the year, the emperor was busy dealing with the backlog of documents. It had been many days since he had the time to care about the harem, and the Bureau had completely become Duanyang's domain. Even despite the festive New Year Eve's celebrations, the princess continued to stay behind closed doors, absorbed in mask testing.

Because of their failure to satisfy the princess, in ten days, she had secretly dealt with five people. Though there were many idle people in the Celestial Bureau, but they also could not take the torture she was putting them through, not to mention that they had sincerely believed that the princess had gone completely crazy.

That face which was as delicate as a flower, in their eyes, looked like a nightmare.

After putting on the mask, the princess's' index finger slowly smoothed out the creases at the side of her ear, stroking this completely different face as if no one else was there, and let out a sigh of satisfaction. A fine tremor ran through the mirror in front of her suddenly, and she raised her head to find that it was the hand of the skinny maidservant holding the mirror that was trembling.

"Pei Yun." She gently opened her lips, gazed at her unnaturally blinking eyes, and smiled, "Tell me, is it similar?"

Pei Yun had been sick before, it was as if she had been drained of her vitality by someone. She was so thin that only her skeleton remained, and her two eyes looked abnormally large, looking at the princess with trepidation, "Replying to Your Highness...... it is similar."

She stood up with interest, lifted Peiyun's chin ,and looked at her trembling lips: "Exactly the same?"

"Exactly...... the same......this servant...... can barely tell them apart." She stumbled in response.