When the eunuch entered Jingyang Palace to report, Huanan Xin was sitting at the square table of three curved legs in lobular sandalwood, focusing on stringing watermelon green-carved beads on a rope.

On the table, three wisps of green smoke were ethereal from the hollowed-out golden-wire burner. The aroma was burning and the room was filled with warm fog.

On one side was a white glaze bottle with tangled branches and two light pink lilies were obliquely inserted into the bottleneck.

The flowers had six petals in pink and purple, which were rather enchanting. The yellow pistil was crystal clear and beautiful.

"Your Majesty, the honor guards of the Fourth Princess will enter the Nine Gate tomorrow."

"OK, I see..."

Huanan Xin did not move his eyes at all. He just answered languidly.

He straightened the eight-treasure bracelet with his hands and looked at it carefully. The arrangement of several beads displeased him.

The bracelets fell lightly on the soft wool felt. Huanan Xin took each bead off the five-colour diamond rope one by one and rearranged them with great attention. He couldn't stand any mistakes.

He especially made the bracelet for Gu Yunxi. He did it all by himself, from weaving the rope to carving each bead.

He loved the woman and knew that there was a man who personally made more than 500 red ropes for her during the two years of her sudden disappearance.

The beads used on bracelets included ice jade, yellow jade, floating flower jade, coral jade, five-color jade, pine stone and so on.

The carved beads were small but exquisite and the shapes were also diverse, such as peach flowers in spring, Sophora japonica, jade dragonflies and lotus seeds in summer, Osmanthus and wheat in autumn, and snowflakes and snowmen in winter.

Two months ago, Huanan Jiyan, Fourth Princess, and Solo Hua who was the Third Prince of Udan in western tribes officially married.

Just after they got married, she couldn't wait to run back to Dayi, saying it was to visit her family. But Huanan Xin knew clearly what she was up to at the moment.

His eyes turned to the double bed with continuous warmth, such as the light through the clouds.

A woman lay on her side with her back to the emperor. Her hair was like ink. She was graceful and had a good figure. Her chest went up and down with her light breathing. During such moments, she looked charming and quiet. Her gracefulness overflew from the thin and soft brocade, which enraptured the young emperor.

"Your Majesty, there's one more thing..."

The eunuch pondered for a moment and lowered his voice which was quite sharp.

Huanan Xin turned around and appeared somewhat impatient.

"Go ahead!"

The eunuch looked sideways at the bed and then nodded, and replied, "Your Highness... took 300 slaves out of Jing City last night and went straight to the northwest."

The master of Jingyang Palace here had a special identity. With her present, the eunuch had to watch his mouth. It didn't matter whom the "Your Highness" in his mouth referred to. As long as the emperor could know what it was, that would be fine.

"Hiss..."

Huanan Xin bared his teeth slightly and the folds between the eyebrows deepened, completely losing the interest of playing with bracelets.

He rose sharply. The emperor paced back and forth with his hands on his back. It seemed like he was speaking to himself and he also seemed to talk to the eunuch.

"What's he up to at this moment? What if he hurts himself a little...?"

He stopped talking and pacing. The emperor's gentle eyes fell on the silhouette of the beauty again. The bottom of his eyes was rather deep, showing a moment of peace and silence.

With a wave of the emperor's hand, the eunuch bowed out.

He approached the bed quietly. Seeing that the woman did not move a bit, Huanan Xin's heart sank and he felt a bit upset.

He knew she wasn't sleeping. It was just that she didn't want to get up and meet him.

It had been a year since he saved her and she had been the apple of his eye ever since.

However, she still hated him.

His face was clouded. He suppressed his usual gentleness and tiredness. The emperor faced the woman's back and slowly said in a hoarse voice.

"Yunxi, I've worn the newly carved beads on the bracelet. It's spring. I've carved a spring bird for you. The bracelet was filled with beads now. I hope I can wear them for you next time. Yunxi, I really want to hear your voice again. I want to talk to you again."

Flying a kite, walking along with the palace hand in hand, her body was covered with blood, the eyes filled with hatred…

Past events flashed across his mind.

A sour and astringent moment rushed to the throat and the pain made the emperor uncontrollably weep.

Seeing her covered with blood that day, he seemed to be really bewitched by her curses which could burn the sky and destroy the earth. And there were tears and hurt from then on.

He always thought that he had taken her from another man, so it was fine that she did not like him now.

As long as he treated her sincerely and considered her as his one and only lover, even a hard stone could be warmed by him.

Perhaps in the eyes of the world, what he did was wrong. But for her, even if he would be cast aside, so what.

...

The aroma of borneol incense was light and faint. The bedroom was silent.

Finally, there was a movement on the bed. The woman moved her body and sat up. Her decadent gaze swept across the window lattice and she felt the spring outside. It was brilliantly sunny outside.

It had been a year since she acted as an Evilshield for her darling.

When she woke up from a high-fever coma, she knew that she was resting in the Yonglu Temple in the outskirts of Da Yi in Jing City.

Since Gu Yunxi was glad that she had survived again, she had been in a low mood.

She was worried that she fell into the hands of Huanan Xin again. In addition, she thought about the whereabouts of her husband Huanan He all the time, who was Leng Qingtang.

She and her husband have long had a blood alliance. As long as the Evilshield was alive, the person whom the Evilshield protected would survive.

At present, her husband must be all right, but where was he?

Just before the family banquet on New Year's Eve this year, Huanan Xin took Gu Yunxi into the Palace.

Speaking of this, there was another interesting story.

Imperial Mother Xiao of the Cining Palace didn't favor Gu Yunxi at all. How could a dirty woman who married twice enter the imperial harem again and serve his son?

In order to let Gu Yunxi enter the Palace, Huanan Xin and his mother had a fierce argument.

Shi Yuanqing, the Noble Concubine Hui, couldn't stand it. Thus, she appeared very virtuous in front of Imperial Mother Xiao. She always spoke for her husband and firmly supported his decision to take Lady Yun back to the Palace.

Imperial Mother Xiao made a fool of herself and returned to Cining Palace angrily. She decided not to interfere with anything from then on.

Noble Concubine Hui thought that she would be awarded by the emperor for her generosity. But unexpectedly, her lover soon gave her a big gift.

After arranging a ceremonious guard of honor to welcome the woman he had been missing back to the palace, Huanan Xin directly placed her in Jingyang Palace. There were no less than 20 palace maids serving her and the cost of food and clothing was much higher than that of imperial concubine Hui.

Everyone knew that Jingyang Palace had luxurious architecture and was a palace only for rank-second imperial concubines. The style of the twenty palace maids was much better than that of the imperial concubine.

The reason was that the concubine was weak and needed to rest in a palace with a good environment.

The concubine was weak and needed more palace maids to take care of her.

Then, Huanan Xin held palace banquets in three days to welcome his favorite imperial concubine.

Such kind of violation of the ancestral system had never happened since the founding of Da Yi.

The whispers of palace maids and concubines finally made Shi Yuanqing realize that she had brought disaster upon herself. It was her love for Huanan Xin and her unprincipled compromise, tolerance and flattery for him that made her fall into a dilemma.

For standing up for the emperor, Shi Yuanqing had already offended Imperial Mother Xiao. Even if the current situation was extremely unfavorable to her, she dared not go to see the emperor's mother again. She had to compromise and endure the ridicule and irony from imperial harems behind her back. Outwardly, she had to appear virtuous and let it go.