The Scholar's Wife in the Emperor's Court 22

The room grew tense again.

Chen Yao stopped struggling. All the strength drained from her, and she curled up in the man's arms like a kitten soaked through by rain.

Xiao Mingting looked down at her delicate, pitiful state, and even his coldest heart softened.

He raised his hand, his warm fingertips brushing the damp corner of her eye. His voice was low, carrying a tenderness he hadn't realized he possessed. "Why are you so fond of crying?"

Hearing the pity in his tone, Chen Yao saw a glimmer of hope and gathered her courage.

She timidly lifted her face, looking at him with pleading eyes, and said in a frail voice, "Your Majesty, I beg you... let me go."

Xiao Mingting didn't answer. Instead, his calloused fingertips traced down from the corner of her eye, stroking her fair cheek before settling on the corner of her lips.

Chen Yao kept her eyes open, holding her breath. She felt his fingers kneading her lips, pressing slightly into her full, plump flesh.

"I've been drugged," Xiao Mingting said, his dark gaze fixed on her enticing red lips as his Adam's apple bobbed. "If I don't get relief, I won't let you go."

"There are so many women in the world... You could have anyone you want. Why... why must it be me?"

Chen Yao tilted her head back slightly, avoiding his fingers still pressed to her lips, then pursed her lips and spoke faintly.

"You want to push me to another woman?" Xiao Mingting's eyes sharpened, his face darkening as he asked coldly.

Seeing his fierce expression, how could Chen Yao dare to nod? She could only avert her gaze in panic, lacking the courage to meet his eyes.

Xiao Mingting then pinched her chin, forcing her to turn back to face him. "Why aren't you answering, hm?"

Chen Yao felt every muscle in her body tense. Her long lashes trembled like butterfly wings. She bit her lip, and tears threatened to spill again.

But the next moment, Xiao Mingting leaned in, pressing his lips firmly against hers with undeniable force.

Her lips were forced apart, and his tongue soon pushed inside, sweeping and scraping across every corner of her mouth.

Their tongues tangled together, and the wet, intimate sounds of their kiss echoed once more from behind the screen in the changing room.

All her breath was being stolen by the man's dominant possession. Chen Yao instinctively closed her eyes, the wet corners of her eyes flushed a delicate red.

Until... she vaguely felt something hard pressing against her lower abdomen.

Her scattered consciousness slowly refocused, and she wondered uncertainly: Was Xiao Mingting hiding a dagger at his waist?

*

Shen Yunxiu waited at the door for a while longer before she saw Chen Yao slowly open the door from inside, her head lowered.

She hurried over, but seeing the girl with slightly disheveled hair, moist apricot eyes, a faint blush on her pretty face, and unsteady steps, she frowned and asked with concern, "Yaoyao, what happened in there?"

Chen Yao instinctively bit her lip. She didn't dare look at Shen Yunxiu's worried gaze, only lowered her eyes and pretended to be embarrassed. "I'm sorry, husband. I accidentally fell and made you wait outside so long."

Her voice was soft and small, slightly hoarse, as if it had been overused, sounding particularly delicate and frail.

Shen Yunxiu was, after all, an innocent young woman who had never experienced the world. Even though Chen Yao was full of suspicious signs, she was puzzled but didn't let her mind wander to anything improper.

Hearing this, she let out a light sigh, then stepped forward to support the girl who seemed unable to stand steadily, asking gently, "Where did you fall? Does it hurt much?"

Chen Yao shook her head. When she felt Shen Yunxiu's hand on her, her small body even trembled slightly, overly sensitive.

"Bastard," Chen Yao said through gritted teeth in her mind. "The male lead isn't even human. He actually tricked an innocent girl like me?"

Her palms were still sore and weak, almost unable to lift her hands.

What was hidden under her clothes was even harder to look at. Her originally snow-white skin was now covered with finger marks and hickeys of varying depths that Xiao Mingting had deliberately left, especially near her inner thighs...

Although he hadn't gone all the way, just thinking about his lips against her earlobe, and the low, suppressed breathing sounds he made as if seducing her at the time...

Ah, ah, ah, her hands really couldn't be saved after all!

System 04, who had just been released from the dark room, "..."

It curled its lip. No matter how it looked, its host seemed rather enjoying it.

*

Inside Zichen Palace.

Since Xiao Mingting had always preferred quiet, the servants in the bedchamber had all been dismissed, leaving only Eunuch De to guard outside the hall.

On the wide dragon bed, he lay flat wearing only a moon-white brocade undergarment, with the collar slightly open, revealing a faint red scratch mark on his collarbone, clearly made by fingernails.

Even though it was late at night, he still felt no drowsiness, his gaze fixed on the yellow canopy hanging overhead.

Xiao Mingting unconsciously recalled the scene in the changing room, how Xie Chenyao had reacted so rawly and almost clumsily when he touched her...

She didn't seem like someone who had experienced intimacy before.

A secret, improper glimmer of hope surfaced in his mind: Could it be that Shen Yunxiu had never touched her?

Otherwise, the girl wouldn't have been so clueless—even more inexperienced than him, who had only looked at a picture book meant to educate. She didn't even know the most basic response.

And Shen Yunxiu's reaction afterward was also rather strange. The signs of abnormality in Xie Chenyao were so obvious, yet he hadn't given them a second thought and had immediately believed her explanation without doubt.

The thoughts in his head grew clearer. A dark, turbulent look churned in Xiao Mingting's eyes, and he suddenly sat up straight in bed.