Qin Huaiqiu was almost thrown into the carriage.
This was the emperor's exclusive carriage. He bumped his head into the dragon couch inside. Although the couch was cushioned, the impact still made stars dance before his eyes.
Si Kongting strode in and suddenly grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up at him.
Qin Huaiqiu winced in pain. He was shocked and angry, but didn't dare to do anything to Si Kongting. He could only let him lift his face.
Their breaths began to mingle in the air. Si Kongting could feel the warm breath of Qin Huaiqiu brushing against his cheek, carrying a faint fragrance unique to him. For some reason, his throat tightened, his nerves twitched due to this unprecedented change in his state of mind, and his heart in his chest almost instantly quickened its rhythm, like the drums beating before a battle began.
But it was different for Qin Huaiqiu. Being held in such a way by Si Kongting, he only felt extremely humiliated. His eyes turned red with anger, and his pale lips were almost pursed into a straight line.
"You..." Si Kongting gritted his teeth and restrained his actions. He saw the bite mark he left on Qin Huaiqiu's neck. Although he hadn't bitten hard, the mark still oozed a little blood and had started to scab. A flicker of pity flashed in Si Kongting's eyes, but he still said in a deep voice, "From now on, you stay here for me. Don't go anywhere!"
After saying that, he stood up and left with a flick of his sleeve.
The curtain of the carriage was closed by him. Immediately afterwards, the voices of the soldiers could be heard outside.
Qin Huaiqiu knew that Si Kongting had sent people to guard the carriage. Since he had run away once, Si Kongting probably wouldn't show mercy this time.
Damn it!
Qin Huaiqiu kicked over the incense burner placed beside him and cursed silently in his heart: Bastard!
The sun rose, and the procession set off again. Qin Huaiqiu looked out of the carriage. There were ten soldiers surrounding it in total. It would be almost impossible for him to get out. But he kept thinking about what had happened last night. He didn't know if Qin Lan had contacted Nie Rong. His heart just couldn't settle down.
He found a soldier and asked to see Qin Lan. But the soldier said that Qin Lan was now sitting in the carriage he used to be in and was strictly guarded as required by Si Kongting.
Wasn't this the same as him? They were both under house arrest by Si Kongting.
With no source of information and unable to leave the carriage, Qin Huaiqiu sat in the carriage. His body swayed with the carriage, and soon he fell asleep.
When he woke up, it was almost afternoon. He didn't even have time to have lunch before he parted ways with the main procession. Qin Lan was still under house arrest and went to the Yushan Palace with the carriages of the other concubines, while he followed Si Kongting, the other princes, and the soldiers to Fengquan Tang.
Although it was called Fengquan Tang, it was actually a natural hunting ground with many hot springs deep in Qishan. The Qishan Mountain Range had strong underground fires, so there were many hot springs. Nourished by the hot springs, the plants and animals in Qishan were also very prosperous. Since the previous emperor discovered Qishan, it had become a good place for the royal family's autumn and spring hunts, along with the Qinling Mountains, Yuweipo, and Huaqing Pool.
Fengquan Tang wasn't far from the Yushan Palace. They arrived in just an hour.
Si Kongting went to prepare for the pre - spring - hunt ceremonies, while Qin Huaiqiu was arranged to stay in Si Kongting's tent.
He hadn't had lunch and was extremely hungry. When he tried to go out to get something to eat, he was stopped. Angry, he kicked over the table in the tent to vent his anger. Having nothing to do, he simply lay down and went back to sleep.
Si Kongting discussed the pre - hunt arrangements with the officials from the Ministry of Rites. This spring hunt would still adopt the point - system. The Ministry of Rites was responsible for scoring and arranging the rankings, and the points were calculated for each individual.
Everyone already knew that the emperor would go on the spring hunt with the Noble Consort De. But everyone thought it was just a way for the emperor to flirt with the noble consort, so the noble consort wasn't within the scoring range.
When everything was properly arranged, someone came to call Qin Huaiqiu to have dinner together.
In the main tent, seats were arranged around the stage in the middle. From the bottom up were the sons of the ministers participating in the spring hunt, the military generals in the capital, the Second Prince and the Third Prince, and then Si Kongting. Of course, the Noble Consort De naturally sat beside Si Kongting.
As the only concubine present, Qin Huaiqiu stared hungrily at the prepared food in front of him.
But the sacrifice and ritual music arranged by the Minister of the Ministry of Rites were in progress, and he couldn't pick up his chopsticks yet.
"Growl—" Qin Huaiqiu's stomach growled embarrassingly.
Si Kongting, sitting beside him, heard it and frowned. "Hungry?"
Qin Huaiqiu glanced at him but didn't say a word.
"Brother Emperor, you've hidden your beauty away on weekdays. Why are you willing to let her out today?" the Second Prince, Si Kongyuan, joked. He was an idle prince who didn't understand government affairs. He just knew how to loaf around all day and had no talent for governing the country. So Si Kongting simply enfeoffed him as a prince without giving him any real power.
"Let her get some practice," Si Kongting said.
"Brother Emperor really knows how to court a lady," Si Kongyuan opened his folding fan with a snap and laughed. "The Noble Consort De is really lucky to have Brother Emperor's care. Right, Lao Yao?" Si Kongyuan poked the Third Prince, Si Kongchen, who was sitting on the other side.
Si Kongchen was dressed as a military general. Hearing this, he just replied woodenly with an "oh" and continued watching the dance.
Qin Huaiqiu bit his chopsticks and secretly glanced at the three brothers. Among the three sons of the previous emperor, it was indeed only Si Kongting who could inherit the throne. One of the other two princes was frivolous, and the other was as dull as a wooden chicken. Although Si Kongting was a moody madman, if the throne was to be passed on, there was probably no better candidate than him.
Just as he was in a daze, a hand reached out from his side and wrapped around his waist. Qin Huaiqiu trembled all over. Just as he was about to slap it away, he heard Si Kongting's voice, "If you're hungry, eat."
He didn't want to pay attention to Si Kongting. Enduring his hunger, he stared at the food in front of him and stubbornly refused to eat.
Seeing this, Si Kongting continued to ask, "Didn't you have enough at lunch?"
"?" It wasn't that he didn't have enough! He didn't eat at all!
Since the emperor had to organize the first prize of the spring hunt and the first person to enter Fengquan Tang every year had to be him, he originally wanted to have dinner with Qin Huaiqiu, but he didn't have enough time. So he quickly arranged for his servants to take care of it. But the servants didn't know that Qin Huaiqiu was in Si Kongting's carriage. The food meant for him was naturally sent to his original carriage, which was where Qin Lan was.
The food for the concubines was different from that for the ordinary maids. Qin Lan stared blankly at the two servings of food for a while and then果断 chose the more sumptuous one and ate it all up.
Seeing that he didn't move, Si Kongting exerted force with his hand and directly pulled Qin Huaiqiu from his own table and made him sit on his lap.
He reached out and picked up a mung bean cake from the plate in front of him and brought it to Qin Huaiqiu's mouth. "If you're hungry, eat. What are you looking at?"
Qin Huaiqiu glared at him. Unable to resist the temptation of the delicious food any longer, he took a bite of the mung bean cake.
One was satisfied with feeding, and the other was satisfied with eating. Neither of them noticed the expressions of the officials below.
The old officials were almost in tears, consoling the previous emperor in their hearts:
Your Majesty! The emperor has finally come to his senses! There will be an heir to the Great Sheng Dynasty.
The other officials:
The emperor and the Noble Consort De are really in love!
Well, they are really affectionate.
The Third Prince, Si Kongchen: The dance is really good.
The Second Prince, Si Kongyuan, was extremely excited: Yo yo yo yo yo!
Dou Yuan, sitting beside them: It seems that he's not afraid of women anymore.
In the entire main tent, everyone had their own thoughts. Only the two people involved were behaving properly and doing what they thought was normal on their own.
They didn't know yet that after this dinner, the rumor that Si Kongting doted on the Noble Consort De would spread like wildfire and even bring great disasters to them both in the invisible.
Of course, that was all in the future.