Chapter 470

Duan Rongshi gritted his teeth.

The corners of his forehead also swelled up.

If he weren't really reluctant to be harsh with her, her jawbone would surely have been crushed by him now.

"Li, Qing, Luo! You can shut up now!"

"Otherwise, do you want to feel it first to confirm?"

Saying that, he reached to grab her hand.

Li Qingluo cried out in alarm, hastily rolled away from him, and rolled herself to the innermost side.

"Well, I was just teasing you."

"Since we can't break the precept against lust, we might as well each sleep on our own side."

She said, and she really crawled from one end of the quilt to the other.

The gap left in the middle seemed like a river of stars, broad and far.

Duan Rongshi sat up and looked at her, chuckling.

With only that bit of nerve, you still dare to ask him when he'll consummate the marriage?

He was about to roll over to give her a show, when he heard Li Qingluo mumble from under the quilt: "Ashi, I don't care at all about being a princess consort, or having another grand imperial wedding."

"In my heart, you are already my husband."

"Although I was muddled at the time of our wedding, once I became fully clear-headed I still remembered everything."

"We have an imperial edict of marriage, we have already bowed to heaven and earth, and we have also bowed to my grandmother and the others."

"We are already a properly married couple…"

"Besides, Prince Su faked his death and escaped—do you really expect me to have a ghost marriage?"

"If I have to wait any longer, I'll practically be an old maid…"

She is already past eighteen.

In a few more months she'll be almost nineteen.

In DaLiang, girls who are nineteen and still unmarried and childless are few and far between; although Li Qingluo isn't in a hurry, after all… since they are already married, she also wants to continue with the remaining steps.

Duan Rongshi had been quietly listening to her speak in detail.

When she fell silent, he then got up and left.

After a while, the noble Prince Su himself returned carrying a mattress.

Although Li Qingluo had already fallen into a deep sleep, he still carefully turned her onto the mattress he had prepared.

He covered her with the quilt, gazed at her peaceful sleeping face, and then Duan Rongshi softly replied, "All right, I understand."

However, this night was not peaceful at all.

The monks of Ningyuan Temple had suffered a dull loss and been angered here at Li Qingluo's place; in the middle of the night they would sometimes strike the bell, sometimes chant sutras.

Moreover, their south wing rooms were very close by.

That incessant chanting annoyed people to no end.

They were doing it on purpose.

Who doesn't know that?

But fortunately Li Qingluo had already anticipated that these monks wouldn't give up easily, so before bed she had ordered the killers to keep an eye on their movements.

When they began chanting over there, Kill One led ten people to stand outside that classroom.

They didn't speak, nor even knock on the door, just like ten wooden stakes, their gazes dark and icy as they stared at the door.

No matter how steadfast the monks' concentration, when they caught sight of those looming black shadows out of the corner of their eyes, they couldn't help but get goosebumps.

Sure enough, not long after, the monks hastily ended this impromptu midnight lesson.

One by one they hurriedly lay down, and then those shadows departed.

After everyone had left, Monk Kongqi suddenly sat up with a thump.

"Is there really nothing we can do about these people?"

"They are simply bullying us too much!"

"This Ningyuan Temple is our territory, yet now they're calling the shots, we have to watch their faces, and we're completely at their mercy."

"Not only us, but where will the abbot's face go from now on?"

"Don't you see, when we went to tell them what happened tonight, the abbot's face turned black with anger?"

Monk Zhichi: "Yeah. The abbot used to be the eldest son of a prominent family in Nan'an."

"Think about it: after he became a monk and cultivated here at Ningyuan Temple, the temple's incense flourished. Only then did the aristocratic families of Nan'an, out of respect for him, donate incense here even though the journey was far."

"The abbot gave us orphans a home, yet we're so useless as to let him suffer this kind of indignity today."

"It's all our fault—we're incompetent!"

Monk Kongqi threw a punch at the air.

Monk Zhicheng gave a cold snort: "What's the rush?"

"Just wait until the Second Princess and her entourage arrive tomorrow—then these bandits will get what's coming to them!"

At dawn, the rain stopped.

The young monks in the temple have already begun cleaning up the burn marks in the east wing from last night.

Although three courtyards were burned beyond use, fortunately there are still a few good side rooms.

But if we try to give the Second Princess and her party the spacious quarters they had before, that probably won't be possible.

Unless we can drive Li Qingluo and her entourage away.

The monks were hatching another bad scheme; after breakfast, Li Qingluo sat at the table and personally sketched an image of Guanyin.

Duan Rongshi and Qingyangzi were standing in the courtyard talking; when they entered, they saw that Li Qingluo had already finished a rough draft.

But he still recognized it at a glance—that was himself.

"Did you see it?"

He showed no surprise; evidently he had long known that the standing statue of Guanyin in Ningyuan Temple looked exactly like him.

Li Qingluo: "Actually, that's the Empress Mother, right?"

Duan Rongshi walked over, picked up his brush, and added a few strokes to the painting.

In an instant, the painting seemed to come alive and became vividly lifelike.

Li Qingluo felt a faint daze, as if she truly saw Zongzheng Qingyue.

"So it turns out the Empress Mother receives all the incense and merit of the world precisely because of this……"

Duan Rongshi: "What did you say?"

This time, he truly couldn't make out her mumbled words.

Li Qingluo lifted her head to look at Duan Rongshi, finally speaking: "Ah Shi, if I say I have seen the Empress Mother, would you believe me?"

Duan Rongshi furrowed his brows: "Is it the Empress Mother's portrait?"

"Haven't you seen it before?"

In the Osmanthus Garden, the portrait of Consort Yue had once been taken out and hung on her death anniversary.

Li Qingluo shook her head vehemently and explained: "What I mean by having seen her is a genuine face-to-face acquaintance, and…… I also spent some time with the Empress Mother."

Duan Rongshi reached out to touch her forehead.

Li Qingluo anxiously grabbed his hand and pulled it away: "Have you…… been to my past life?"

"Moreover, you even performed a soul-summoning for me at the Li household."

"You ransacked the Jiangjun Fu, but left my grandmother out."

"You also exposed the true faces of Zongzheng Yuer and the Crown Prince, decisively clearing away all those hidden dangers from my past life."

"Ah Shi, I have seen it all."

Duan Rongshi's pupils flickered violently.

He reached out incredulously to cup her face.

After she woke up, they hastily married, and then he hastily departed.

Upon his return, he began handling matters of the Witch Moon Sect.

They had not even yet had a proper discussion about the truth of her fainting and not waking up back then.

As it turns out, she really knows everything!

"Luo'er, could it be that you——you also went back?"

Li Qingluo nodded with tears in her eyes.

"Actually, when you went to the Jiangjun Fu to back me up and take revenge for me, I was by your side."

"You entered that room, and outside you burned paper for me, letting Qingyangzi set up a Daoist ritual site. I saw it all."

"Then I knew you too had gone to my past life."

Duan Rongshi pulled her tightly into his embrace.

"Luo'er, it's all truly real!"

"They really treated you that way."

"I truly hate myself for not having torn them apart by five horses!"

"So you came to my side because you died a resentful, unwilling death?"

Li Qingluo shook her head.

"It's because of the Empress Mother."