Once the conversation started, the two stopped holding hands and walked forward side by side awkwardly, each with their own thoughts, with a distance of about a foot between them.
Xie Wangzhi's mind was full of Li Qishen's previous words. She was confused, embarrassed and shy, and didn't notice that she was walking in the direction of the bathing hall. After turning the corner of the palace road, she held her breath and secretly glanced at Li Qishen.
Li Qishen looked calm and composed. He looked good when he smiled, and he was lively when he was with her, but he was usually expressionless, and his eyebrows and eyes were as cold as the mountains after a heavy snowfall, making people wonder if this cold and handsome man was the same person who had just said that.
Xie Wangzhi turned his head and continued walking forward.
After walking a little further, when they were almost near the flower bed in front of the bathhouse, she couldn't help but turn her head and steal another glance at him.
Li Qishen still didn't respond.
Xie Wangzhi took another look.
"Why are you looking at me?" Li Qishen responded this time. Xie Wangzhi was not good at sneaky things, and the sneak glances were too obvious. He noticed it the first time, but he didn't say anything, waiting for her to speak first.
Three times the limit, if you just watch and don't say anything, you can't blame him for taking the initiative. Li Qishen smiled, romantic and a little malicious, he licked the corner of his mouth, "Can't wait? It's not dark yet."
Xie Wangzhi: “…”
She really didn't want to pay attention to Li Qishen, so she turned her head away and continued walking, each step so heavy that it seemed to break the ground.
It was obvious that she was angry out of shame, so Li Qishen stopped teasing her and just hurried after her, lest she get angry and not look at the road, and trip over it. Xie Wangzhi was annoyed, so how could he get so close to her, so he dodged in the opposite direction, not forgetting to glare at him.
However, she felt that her eyes were full of anger, and her face turned red, with a faint blush that went all the way to the end of her eyes, making her face as rosy as peach blossoms and jade. She didn't look like a frown, but more like a shy beauty. Li Qishen liked her like this, and shamelessly approached her again.
One was hiding, the other was sticking to him. Seeing that if they continued to make trouble, they would have to step into the flowerbed, Xie Wangzhi stopped hiding and obediently let Li Qishen walk with her sleeve half sticking to him. She still couldn't think of what to say to him. Just when she was thinking of using the half-opened flowers to make a fuss, something jumped over from the palace road a little further away.
The thing ran quite fast, and soon it was in front of Xie Wangzhi, and she could see clearly that it was a rabbit. Unlike a wild rabbit, this rabbit should be a well-fed domestic rabbit, with fluffy fur, short legs, and a round body. Its red eyes looked like rubies or agates, and it was adorable. Even Xie Wangzhi, who had been used to the Shangshi Bureau since childhood, only thought the rabbit was cute when he saw it for the first time, and could not associate it with the rabbit meat on the plate.
The rabbit was so close to his family that it stopped running around when it came in front of Xie Wangzhi. It turned to the side and started to eat the grass beside the flower bed.
After chewing it for a few bites, a pair of hands picked it up. The rabbit did not struggle, but just let people hold it like that. Its three-petal mouth kept moving, chewing the grass in its mouth bit by bit.
"I'm sorry, this rabbit is raised by me and I spoil it, so it ran around and disturbed you two." The person who spoke hugged the rabbit tightly and knelt down towards Li Qishen and Xie Wangzhi. The salute was quite polite and beautiful.
It was a woman, whose figure had not yet fully grown, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a delicate face and delicate makeup, which completely covered the childishness between her eyebrows and eyes. Judging from her face, she looked about the same age as Xie Wangzhi. She wore a skirt with a veil, a scarf loosely wrapped around her arms, and a snow-white little rabbit in her arms. She really looked like a fairy from the moon palace in a beauty painting.
Xie Wangzhi didn't recognize her, and was stunned for a moment before she realized that this must be Li Chengjing's concubine. A new emperor has new ministers, and the concubines must also change. When the concubines met, she wanted to hide in the ground in embarrassment. She was so choked that she squeezed out a sentence: "... It's okay. It's my fault. I came here by mistake and disturbed you."
She was too embarrassed to look at the lady opposite her, but Shangguan Xueshuang raised her head openly and looked at her and Li Qishen seemingly unintentionally.
Being able to walk freely in the Daming Palace and accidentally walk to the Bathing Hall, she looked about the same age, so she must be the new empress. Shangguan Xueshuang ignored Xie Wangzhi's beauty and felt awkward when she saw her slightly lowered head. She came to the conclusion that she was not to be feared. Besides, the two of them were so far apart, so it was obvious that their relationship was not that good, and they were not as close as the rumors in the palace said.
Shangguan Xueshuang took one last look at Xie Wangzhi with some contempt, and then turned her gaze to Li Qishen beside her.
He was indeed a handsome man, tall and slender, with a cold and beautiful appearance. He looked like a full suit even in his casual clothes, and his light amber eyes shone like molten gold in the sun. This look was completely different from Li Chengjing. It was worth it that Shangguan Xue had spent two lives to find this particularly cute rabbit, spent time teaching it to run in a fixed direction, and then dressed it up carefully every day, preparing for an unexpected meeting.
All these preparations were made just to imitate the Moon Palace Fairy and shock Li Qishen when he first saw her. Shangguan Xueshuang believed that she was both talented and beautiful, and compared with the concubines in the harem, she had never been favored by Li Chengjing, which just fit the man's calculative mind.
Seeing Li Qishen's eyes on the rabbit, she thought he liked rabbits, and smiled just right: "My dear, are you looking at..."
Li Qishen didn't let her finish.
He suddenly moved, turned his head abruptly, hugged Xie Wangzhi, tightly gripped the girl's slender waist, then lowered his head and buried it in her not-so-full chest, and said in a muffled voice: "... This rabbit is so scary."
Xie Wangzhi: “…”
Shangguan Xueshuang: "..."
The rabbit that was named couldn't understand human language anyway. It had just finished chewing the grass in its mouth, and rubbed its furry head in Shangguan Xueshuang's arms, looking innocent, cute and a little silly.
There are many grasslands in Fengzhou, and the most common prey are marmots and rabbits. Xie Wangzhi didn't believe that Li Qishen would be afraid of something that could be picked up in one hand. She thought he was either being stupid or taking advantage of her.
After the summer, clothes were thinner, and Xie Wangzhi didn't like to dress up. She didn't wear anything outside her skirt, and the scarf was wrapped around her arms, which couldn't cover her chest at all. Her headband was always tied high, so it didn't matter, but when Li Qishen put his face close to hers, she could feel the high bridge of his nose against her chest through the thin cloth, and it seemed that there was no difference between having this layer of cloth and not having it.
It didn't matter what they did on the couch, but it was another matter outside. Xie Wangzhi felt embarrassed and ashamed, but he couldn't bear to hit Li Qishen, so he had to turn around and glare at Shangguan Xueshuang, trying to hold up his momentum: "Why are you..."
She looked at the tiny rabbit and made up her mind, "… How can I scare His Majesty with a rabbit!"
Shangguan Xueshuang never expected that Li Qishen would say that rabbits are scary, and she didn't expect Xie Wangzhi to actually follow up on this. She suddenly felt that the two people in front of her were really a perfect match, and they were equally crazy.
But it has come to this point, and it is too late to retreat. She adjusted her panic expression, not wanting the rabbit anymore, and bowed hurriedly: "Your Majesty, I respectfully wish you good health. I did not know that Your Majesty was coming, and I offended Your Majesty. I hope Your Majesty will punish me, and I will have no complaints."
Li Qishen was reluctant to look up, but Xie Wangzhi had already secretly pushed him with his hand. If he continued to take advantage of her, he would probably be beaten on the spot. He rubbed her a little bit at last, still unsatisfied, and turned to look at Shangguan Xueshuang with a blank expression. His pupils were cold, and his eyes clearly reflected the woman in front of him, but the deeper part of his eyes was empty, as if he didn't even regard her as a human being.
"It's okay, it's just a rabbit." Li Qishen's tone was also very dull, "But everyone has a place to settle down. Rabbits should be in the hunting grounds, not in the palace."
"I understand. Thank you for your tolerance, Your Majesty." Shangguan Xueshuang had no choice but to retreat in order to advance. She slowly lowered her head, controlling the amplitude just right so that Li Qishen could see her graceful neck. Her voice was filled with suppressed tears. "It was my fault. I will order the rabbit to be sent away and I will send someone to inform you later."
Li Qishen felt a little annoyed. He looked like a person who didn't understand romance, but he wasn't stupid. Besides, there were several romantic men around him who liked to hang out in Pingkangfang, so he could easily see through this little trick. If Xie Wangzhi played this with him, he would be happy to cooperate and would hug her in his arms and comfort her carefully on the spot, but the person in front of him was Shangguan Xueshuang, and he would lose if he looked at her for even a second.
Shangguan Xueshuang's identity was awkward, and he couldn't say anything harsh, so he just cursed Changzu in his heart for not completing the palace move. He said to Shangguan Xueshuang calmly, "Just handle it yourself, no need to make another trip."
Li Qishen didn't wait for Shangguan Xueshuang to answer. He grabbed Xie Wangzhi's hand, put it between her fingers as before, turned around and walked back with her.
Being able to leave that awkward place was something they had been longing for. Xie Wangzhi walked faster than Li Qishen, and it was unclear who was leading whom. If she were not shorter than him and her steps were not so big, she might have been able to walk ahead of Li Qishen.
The two of them walked back to the vicinity of Taiye Lake without saying anything. When they saw the weeping willows and lotus, Xie Wangzhi slowed down. She breathed a sigh of relief at first, and couldn't help but think back to the person she had just met. She always felt that she was a little strange, but she was afraid that she was just overthinking. After thinking about it, she decided to be frank: "I think the lady I just met is a little strange... She should be a concubine of the previous dynasty, right?"
"It should be." Li Qishen didn't know Shangguan Xueshuang and was a little annoying, so he spoke harshly, "I don't think there is a need to move her to another palace. It would be better to send her directly to Ganye Temple."
Green lamps and ancient Buddhas nibbling on green vegetables, let's see if she'll be so greedy as to eat a rabbit. The second half of the sentence was even more harsh, Li Qishen stopped himself in time and didn't say in front of Xie Wangzhi, "Why did you mention her?"
"I just encountered such an incident. If I don't mention her, what else can I mention?" Xie Wangzhi couldn't guess what Shangguan Xueshuang was thinking. Since Li Qishen said so, she didn't care. But he had taken advantage of her for a moment just now. She refused to admit defeat. She blushed, looked around to see that there was no one around, and whispered, "Are you going to mention the time you took advantage of me?"
"Okay." She had underestimated Li Qishen. He was not panicked at all, nor did he feel ashamed at all. He was frank and honest. "Remember everything in the evening and tell me slowly."
The author has something to say: Alas, Changsheng is being a hooligan again (.)