In the Zichen Palace, Huo Wei laid her on the dragon bed and tucked her two snow - white calves under the brocade quilt.
All the way here, Huo Wei hadn't said a single word to answer her.
The scene from last night popped into his mind. When he noticed those tiny bloodstains, he finally realized the reason for her pain. It was her first time.
Huo Wei's scalp went numb. He knew how important the first time was for a woman. With the way things had happened last night, Du Gu Luanyue would surely never forgive him.
Just as Huo Wei turned to leave, he heard Du Gu Luanyue roar from behind, "Huo Wei, we're even!"
Huo Wei stopped in his tracks but didn't turn back to face her.
Du Gu Luanyue sat up on the dragon bed. Under her red - rimmed eyes, a few strands of hair were stuck together due to the moisture, making her look a bit disheveled.
She said tremulously, "It was me who took the initiative to seduce you at first, making you fall into this and crave for more.
You got what you wanted last night. It's time to let me go. So we're even."
Hearing the words "we're even", Huo Wei felt as if his heart was about to split. How could she say they were even?
She had saved his life. How could they be even in this lifetime? Huo Wei's voice came like a ghost, "Accompany me to the hot - spring palace. We'll leave today."
Du Gu Luanyue got excited. When she flipped off the bed, her legs went weak and she knelt down instantly. After being tortured all night, her legs were still trembling.
"Are you going to imprison me? Huo Wei, how can you do the same thing to me as Mu Rong Min did to your mother!"
Hearing her fall, Huo Wei quickly turned back, squatted down and tried to help her up from the ground, but was pushed away by Du Gu Luanyue.
"Get out of here! What was the meaning of making Sheng Yunqi kneel outside last night?
His head was all bruised. Did you see that? How could you become so cold - hearted? You weren't like this before!"
Just thinking about how Huo Wei had forced himself on her while making Sheng Yunqi kneel outside alone, Du Gu Luanyue was filled with anger.
She knew what was on Huo Wei's mind. He just wanted to humiliate Sheng Yunqi and make him give up.
But Huo Wei didn't think of one thing. Unless the Sheng family voluntarily cancelled the engagement, once she returned to the Southern Chu, she would still have to marry Sheng Yunqi.
Putting that aside, after so many years of accompanying each other like family, it was simply humiliating to the core to be seen in such a situation by someone she knew well.
Huo Wei's bright - yellow figure moved. His thick black hair glistened, casting a broken shadow of his eyes.
"I just want you to accompany me alone."
His voice was calm, but there was a sense of heart - rending pain in it.
"If you're not willing, I'll have to use some means." He looked up at Du Gu Luanyue coldly.
Du Gu Luanyue wanted to struggle, but was intimidated by Huo Wei's fierce look.
"If you resist again, I'll throw your old maid and your fiancé into the lion and tiger garden to feed the little animals."
On that day, Huo Wei entrusted the affairs of the court to Shen Guilan and secretly set off for the hot - spring palace with Du Gu Luanyue. He also carefully brought the wedding clothes he had specially made for the two of them.
Three days later, Huo Wei took her to the hot - spring palace.
As soon as the new emperor arrived at the hot - spring palace, he dismissed all the palace servants. Almost everywhere in sight became a world just for the two of them.
In the Huaqing Palace, there was a large hot - spring pool. The palace was secluded and lofty. No matter how much noise they made day and night, no one would know.
There were new scratch marks on Huo Wei's face. He lifted his arm out of the warm pool water and touched his aching cheek, sneering, "Even the short - lived beauty snatched by force is still beauty."
Du Gu Luanyue was gasping for breath on the opposite side of the pool not far from him. It had been seven or eight days since they came to the hot - spring palace. She and Huo Wei were like a hunter and an eagle.
Huo Wei was the hunter and she was the eagle. He tortured her day and night.
He tried to wear out her spirit and her fierceness, just wanting her to be more docile.
As long as she showed a bit of gentleness, Huo Wei would be more lenient.
"You throw me in the hot - spring pool all day. I'm about to swell up." She looked at Huo Wei with a resentful look in her eyes.
Quickly, Huo Wei walked over from the water, picked her up around the waist and said, "Then let's go to the bed."
In the afternoon, the sun was shining brightly. The sunlight shone on the rippling pool water, glistening like golden coins scattered on the water surface.
The flickering light shone on the gauze curtain of the phoenix bed in the room. The light - cyan gauze curtain fluttered slightly, showing the figures on the bed moving and entangled.
Her charming and jade - like eyes were watery and she said, "Are you ever going to stop?"
Huo Wei's sinister eyebrows moved slightly. He stopped his movements, got off the phoenix bed, put on his long gown and stood at the palace door. He looked at the courtyard outside the palace lonely and dejectedly. A gust of wind blew, making his eyes red.
Huo Wei narrowed his long eyes and swallowed the sourness in his throat forcefully.
He stepped out, and Du Gu Luanyue didn't know what he was going to do.
About an hour later, she got up and walked around the palace but didn't see Huo Wei.
It was not until she saw the palace maids carrying some meals one after another that she asked, "I didn't order lunch. It's already well past noon."
The palace maid stopped and replied, "Your Majesty the Empress, this was made by His Majesty himself. He said he wanted you to have a taste."
Most of the palace servants in the hot - spring palace recognized Du Gu Luanyue. They should have called her Empress Dowager, but the new emperor had decreed that Du Gu was still the empress.
The palace servants roughly guessed what was going on. Since the new emperor only had a Concubine Li by his side and hadn't married a proper empress, and this empress was clearly the former emperor's empress.
The palace servants only dared to whisper about the new emperor's incestuous love with the empress dowager in private, but they could all see that the empress was forced.
After making the last dish, Huo Wei rolled down his sleeves and returned to the Huaqing Palace. He sat in front of the round table and picked up some food for her with chopsticks. "Try it."
Du Gu Luanyue didn't smash the food like she had done in the previous days. Since Huo Wei had lost his temper with her long ago, even if she smashed the food, he wouldn't say anything. He would just serve a new one.
She quietly took a bite of the pink sweet cake. The aroma of roses filled her mouth.
Du Gu Luanyue's jade - like eyes trembled slightly. "Where did the roses come from in this place?"
Huo Wei said calmly, "I had them planted before. The soil near the hot - spring palace is the most fertile. The dark - red roses can be easily grown here.
I used to raise them in the prince's mansion, but they all died. Only here can they survive."
Du Gu Luanyue looked at him sideways, her eyebrows knitted tightly. She felt like a female bully who had bullied a man. Huo Wei's face was scratched to a mess.
Her stomach churned. "I'm sorry. I won't hit you anymore."
Huo Wei was chewing a piece of beef. His black eyes were half - lowered. After a long while, he smiled faintly and said, "Okay."