Chapter 552

Chapter 552 – Long Live My Emperor

After being on the road for eight days, they finally reached the capital.

Ye Zhen looked at the majestic and sacred city gate in front of her and felt relieved that she didn’t have to face Mo Rongzhan day and night anymore. It’s a dangerous thing to be with such a man. When he decided to be good to a woman, no woman could resist his charms.

“Come back to the palace with me.” Mo Rongzhan held her little hand, rested his chin on her shoulder, and breathed warmly in her ear. “Imperial Mother misses you too, let’s go to the palace and stay for a few days.”

“Tomorrow… I will come to greet the empress dowager.” Ye Zhen turned sideways as she continued, “We are about to enter the city, should we take different carriages?”

Mo Rongzhan was not surprised by her words. All along the way, she had been uncomfortable around him, why would she want to go to the palace with him again?

“Imperial Mother is in Chengde Mountain Villa, I will take you to her tomorrow.”

“Your Majesty, you haven’t been in the capital for long… You would have a lot of things to deal with, I will just go to Chengde Mountain Villa to pay my respects to Her Highness by myself,” Ye Zhen immediately said. It would be better if the empress dowager wasn’t in the palace, this way she wouldn’t run into him if she went to pay her respects.

“I should also go to pay my respects to Imperial Mother.” Mo Rongzhan smiled and said, “You can rest at home for two days, I will have someone report back to Imperial Mother. She loves you so much, and will definitely not want you to go to pay her respects right after you return.”

Ye Zhen looked back at him with raised eyebrows and said, “Your Majesty, you and I are always together, aren’t you afraid of arousing Her Highness’s suspicion?”

Mo Rongzhan held her tightly in his arms and looked at her with a smile in his eyes. “What would the  Imperial Mother suspect about us? I have already explained to her that I want to marry you and make you my empress.”

“You—” Ye Zhen was so angry that she wanted to shoot him with an arrow. “You bastard! What if she misunderstands that I deliberately… deliberately seduced you?”

“Isn’t it so?” Mo Rongzhan trailed his rough fingers along her collarbone. “That night, you appeared before me like an enchantress in the hot spring pool and captivated me, heart and soul. And that time, you danced on the drum at the academy… And you still say you weren’t trying to seduce me?”

As Ye Zhen thought back to the time in the hot spring pool when she had kicked him in the face from fright, she regretted not having used more force. But the academy’s drum dance?  “Drum dance? I have only done the drum dance once. Were you there then?”

As Mo Rongzhan harked back to the scene of a gorgeous and alluring girl dancing on the drum, his heart raced. “You are not allowed to dance in front of others in the future. Even if it is the drum dance, you can only show it to me.”

From afar, she shone like the rising sun of morn; upon a closer look, she was delicate as a freshly blossomed lotus flower. This was the only impression he had of her. Any man who had watched her dance would certainly be drawn by her allure. How could he let anyone witness her beauty?

“Why are you so domineering?” Ye Zhen muttered but didn’t take his words to heart at all.

Mo Rongzhan sucked and kissed her pink lips and declared, “So what if I’m domineering.”

“We are about to enter the city gates,” Ye Zhen cried softly yet petulantly in his arms.

“Yaoyao, come back to the palace with me, okay?” Mo Rongzhan sighed softly, his thin lips pressed against her cheek.

As Ye Zhen felt him there against her lower abdomen, she knew deep down that he had endured this journey to the extreme. She shook her head hard and said, “I have been away from home for too long now. Grandmother and my parents must be very worried, I have to go home to apologize to them before I can do so.”

Mo Rongzhan stroked her head, knowing that it was reasonable for her to do so but was still reluctant to let her go back. “Then you go home for two hours.”

“No.” Ye Zhen rolled her eyes, not bothering to haggle with him anymore, and peeled open the window curtain to peek outside. “Your Majesty, look, Tang Zhen and the others are waiting for you outside the city gate.”

In addition to Tang Zhen, there were also several figures she was familiar with, the most surprising of them all was Lu Shiming.

Mo Rongzhan’s steely eyebrows knitted slightly, and he said in a deep voice, “I didn’t ask so many people to come to meet me.”

However, Ye Zhen was very happy to see Lu Shiming even if he was accompanied by Lu Lingzhi.

“Welcome Your Majesty, long live my emperor.” Prime Minister Xu led the way and knelt down at the front.

Although Mo Rongzhan went out of the palace in disguise, he conquered had Zhao Jia Island and nationalized all the weapons on Black Wind Island that could be used by the enemy, not to mention the food and herbs, which was enough to boost Jin’s national treasury.

Before they returned to the capital, all the officials of the court knew that Zhao Jia Island had submitted before the emperor, and not a single soldier had been injured or sacrificed in the process. And of course, the credit for all this went to the princess, who had discovered Zhao Jia Island and convinced its Island Lord to submit to the Jin Kingdom.

Ye Zhen did not know all this, she was just happy to see Lu Shiming.

“Go back to the palace.” Mo Rongzhan’s handsome face had returned to its frosty deameanor after getting off the carriage, there was no trace of the roguish smile that graced his lips when he was with Ye Zhen.

“Father.” Ye Zhen walked up to Lu Shiming and looked at him with some guilt and joy. “Did you come to take me home?”

Lu Shiming gently nodded his head and said, “Brat!”

As Mo Rongzhan got into the imperial carriage, he looked back at Ye Zhen, and said to Lu Shiming in a light voice, “Lu Shiming, you can send Yaoyao home first.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Lu Shiming immediately took orders.

When Lu Lingzhi caught sight of Ye Zhen, his gaze was fixated on her. She was even more attractive than before, her every frown and smile set his heart racing. It was only now that he realized how much he had suppressed his feelings for her. He thought that she was his cousin, so he had restrained his heart and buried his feelings. Now that he was no longer suppressing himself, he realized that he had already fallen deeply with her.

“Yaoyao…,” Lu Lingzhi called out in a hoarse voice, his scorching gaze boring into her.

Ye Zhen glanced at him lightly, “Eldest Brother, I heard that you have been healed, congratulations.”

Lu Lingzhi smiled bitterly in his heart, she was still as cold as ever towards him.

“Lingzhi, you go to the palace first, I’ll go home with Yaoyao,” Lu Shiming said, thinking that the emperor would assign him some tasks.

“Okay.” Lu Lingzhi was also clear that he couldn’t reveal his intentions to Yaoyao at the moment, besides, he had more important things to do, such as… how to make the emperor like Ye Yaoyao.

He just hoped that the emperor doesn’t suspect Ye Yaoyao’s true identity. When he had decided to help Lu Wushuang replace Ye Zhen’s identity, he was already prepared. He had been worried that his sister would not be able to bear the burden of the secret, and would one day collapse. As such, he had made a backup plan not only to protect the Lu family but also get an opportunity to redeem himself.

He had been hoping he would never use Ye Yaoyao, a long-established chess piece, but had been forced to use her anyway.

In the end, it was his little sister Shuang’er who was an disappointment.

“Yaoyao, go back with Third Uncle first,” Lu Lingzhi said to Ye Zhen in a low voice.

Ye Zhen returned a reluctant smile to him.

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