Full moon

  Full moon

  When leaving the Changde Palace, the noblewomen looked at Ye Li's expression and became somewhat strange. The meaning behind it was a mix of envy, jealousy, fear, and schadenfreude. To say nothing of the fact that in over a hundred years since the founding of Great Chu, or even going back thousands of years, no woman had ever dared to draw her sword in the palace, in front of the Empress Dowager and the Queen, and declare that she would kill all women who wanted to become concubines for their husbands. This courage and audacity naturally made these noblewomen, who endured having many wives and concubines at home, feel envious and jealous. At the same time, everyone knew that Princess Dingguo was destined to bear the reputation of being a jealous woman.

  "Lier." Ye Lier had just stepped out of the hall when Lady Xu was already waiting outside.

  Ye Li smiled and walked up, lightly calling out to her aunt. Mrs. Xue looked at her, sighed softly and shook her head: "This girl of yours..." Ye Li lowered her head and smiled: "Li has brought shame to Aunt."

  Mrs. Xue led her out while softly laughing and saying, "Does our Xue family really care about these empty names? Aunt is also a woman, how can she not understand the thoughts of women? It's just that the side of Ding Wang..." Lian'er was indeed reckless today in the palace, but as the princess consort of Ding Guo, it's hard to pin any serious crimes on her. So-called marrying wives and taking concubines is a family matter, as long as Ding Wang is willing to protect her, nothing will happen. But if Ding Wang is dissatisfied with her behavior today, Lian'er's future days may not be easy. Ye Lian blinked her eyes, looking at Mrs. Xue's worried gaze, and leaned against her while hugging her arm, smiling and saying, "Aunt, don't worry, I won't have any problems. Aunt, when you go back, please speak well of me in front of Second Uncle, so he won't scold me again." Mrs. Xue patted her hand and softly laughed, saying, "You little girl are too bold, no wonder your uncle wants to teach you a lesson. Just now in the palace, I was really frightened." Mrs. Xue came from a scholarly family and had never seen anyone dance with knives and swords in front of her before. When she saw He Lian Hui Min swing her knife at Ye Lian earlier, if it weren't for her usual composure and self-control, she might have cried out on the spot.

  "Ling'er knows she's wrong and it won't happen again." Ye Li hugged Xu Furen's arm and coquettishly said.

  Just after escorting Lady Xu out of the palace gate, I saw the curtains of the Dingguo King's carriage being lifted from the inside. A handsome man in a moon-white long shirt stepped down from the carriage, smiling at Ye Li standing at the palace gate, "A Li."

  In the past, the noblewomen didn't dare to stay and watch, but they also saw King Ding smiling and holding out his hand to Queen Wang. They couldn't believe that King Ding still didn't know what was going on in the palace, it seemed that King Ding really only had eyes for Queen Wang. Even when Queen Wang made such an overbearing and arrogant declaration in the palace, almost making King Ding lose face, he still doted on her as before. Lady Xu pulled Ye Li forward to pay respects, Mo Xiu Yao slightly turned his body to let them pass, smiling: "Lady is Ye Li's aunt, we're all family, no need for formalities." Lady Xu smiled: "Formalities can't be abandoned. Li'er is young and doesn't understand things, I hope the king will forgive her." Mo Xiu Yao smiled at Ye Li: "Lady worries too much, Ah Li is fine."

  "How did you get here?" Ye Li asked in confusion.

  Mo Xiuyao smiled in a low voice: "I heard that the wife was in Changde Palace, drawing her sword and shocking all directions with one anger. As a husband, isn't he worried about his wife's safety?"

  Ye Li couldn't help but roll her eyes at him, worried that her comfort wouldn't enter the palace to find her specially waiting at the palace gate to put on a show for whom?

  Mrs. Xü looked at the two of them and saw that they were indeed not paying attention to Li'er's actions in the palace, and even seemed to be delighted about it. With a smile, she bid farewell to the two of them and walked towards her own carriage with a sense of relief.

  As the carriage of the Ding Wang Fu also left, the palace gate gradually returned to calm. Not far from the city wall, Yelü Ye brought He Lian Hui Min silently watching the carriage of the Ding Guo Wang Fu go away, and after a long time, he heard He Lian Hui Min say with some reluctance: "Brother, can't we just let it go like this?" Yelü Ye smiled and scanned her with his eyes, saying: "What can you do if you don't give up? You can't get Ding Wang to take a liking to you, and you can't even handle the Ding Wang Fu. Are you really willing to go to the Ding Guo Wang Fu to be a servant girl? Don't forget what happened to the eleventh prince Yelü Ping. Do you think he is a kind-hearted person?" He Lian Hui Min couldn't help but shudder when she thought of the foolish and stupid Eleventh Prince Yelü Ping. She didn't dare to think about how someone could become an idiot from a normal person without being injured or poisoned, and what kind of inhuman torture Yelü Ping had suffered, all because he said something he shouldn't have at Mo Xiu Yao's wedding.

  "What... what should we do now?" He Lianhui asked with some worry.

  "Of course, we are waiting to welcome and escort Princess Chao back to Beirong."

  "But I..." He Lianhui frowned. Ye Luoye said lightly, "Letting you marry into the Dingguo Wangfu was originally a sudden whim with less than 30% chance of success, and this 30% depends on the Dingguo Wangfei. Now it seems that there isn't even half of that chance left, you'd better go to Beijun and properly become the crown prince's side consort."

  He Lian Hui Min's face changed greatly, and she said in a panic: "No... Brother-in-law, the Crown Prince will kill me, and... what happened in Da Chu will definitely be passed back to Bei Rong, the Crown Prince won't want me..." The Crown Prince's concubine... The rules and etiquette of Bei Rong and Da Chu are completely different. All the concubines below the Crown Princess become the Crown Prince's concubines, but they are all slaves of the Crown Princess. If you have a noble birth and a high status, it's okay, but for a woman like her who was born as a slave, even if she became the Crown Prince's concubine, she is not allowed to give birth to children, nor is she allowed to have her own property or freedom. Except when the Crown Prince favors her, she is no different from an ordinary female slave in daily life. Even if she were beaten to death, not even He Lian Zhen, who was her adoptive father, could say anything about it. Moreover, the Crown Prince and Ye Lu Ye had a deep grudge against each other, and women sent into the Crown Prince's mansion by Ye Lu Ye usually wouldn't last more than half a month before being sent out again. The miserable state of those women made He Lian Hui Min tremble with fear even in her dreams at midnight. So this time when Ye Lu Ye came to Da Chu to welcome her, she thought of every possible way to follow him and didn't hesitate to agree when Ye Lu Ye said he planned to send her into the Ding Wang Fu. Sometimes she even thought that as long as she didn't return to Bei Rong, even if she stayed in Da Chu as a maid, with her skills, she wouldn't be afraid of not having a good day. But returning to Bei Rong, what awaited her was probably only death.

  "Don't think of any bad ideas, after all, the Helian family has raised you for so many years and it can't be in vain." Yelü Ye glanced at Helian Huimin who was hanging her head in silence and said indifferently, "You can rest assured that not many people have seen you. As for Princess Ronghua, she hasn't even met you. And as for your name, just change it to another one, after all, Uncle's adopted daughter is not only you. Since you can't deal with the Crown Prince, then obediently accept your fate and go to the East Palace. The prince has given you an opportunity." Helian Huimin's heart trembled, she knew Yelü Ye's tactics. Hurriedly, she stammered: "I understand."

  Ye Lü Ye looked her up and down, then nodded in satisfaction and turned to leave. If Helian Hui Min wasn't the most talented of the women in the uncle's household, she would have been unnecessary to keep alive after this plan failed. However, Helian Hui Min was intelligent, but compared to Princess Ding Wang, it was still far from enough. Thinking back to the intelligence gathered in Chu Jing these days, Princess Ding Wang not only had a noble birth and was well-versed in literature and martial arts, but also led the Black Cloud Riders to defend the city of Yongzhou until the arrival of King Ding's reinforcements, which could be said to be an unforgettable feat. A woman who could command the Black Cloud Riders...

  The engagement between Bei Rong and the King of Ding Guo ended in nothing, but the name of the fierce wife of the King of Ding Guo spread throughout the capital overnight. The woman who dared to hold a dagger in front of the Empress Dowager, threatening to kill anyone who tried to enter the palace, made all the noblewomen in the capital tremble with fear. What's even more frightening is that the King of Ding Guo not only didn't show any anger towards his wife's declaration but also often accompanied her on strolls through the capital after work. The loving couple's affectionate appearance clearly told people that if a woman who tried to enter the palace as a concubine was really killed by the Queen, the King would absolutely not take responsibility for them. For a time, rumors spread that the King of Ding Guo loved his wife like his life, or that he was henpecked, but no matter how much people gossiped, it didn't affect the two parties involved in the slightest. At this time, Ye Li had no time to pay attention to these rumors, and as the full moon rose into the night sky, her heart became even more tense.

  Not long after Mo Xiuyao finished dinner, his face began to look unwell. Ye Li hastily called Shen Yang over, and after a half-day of silence, he only gave one word: Endure! The aftereffect of using Fengweicao was acting up again, with no medicine able to cure it, and all he could do was grit his teeth and endure through it.

  "A Lian, go to the side hall and rest." Looking at Ye Lian's pale face, Mo Xiu Yao said softly. It wasn't good for him to lose control in front of her, nor did he want to scare her. Ye Lian sat calmly beside him, firmly saying: "I'll stay with you, don't be afraid."

  Don't be afraid... Mo Xiuyao couldn't help but want to smile, yet his heart seemed to ache even more. For eight or nine years now, he had wandered countless times at the gates of hell, and countless times he was in so much pain that he almost lost all reason to live on. No one had ever asked him if he was afraid? Even the formidable Dingguo Wangye was just a person, let alone when Mo Xiuyao was first injured, he was only an eighteen-year-old youth. Of course, he too had been afraid. Every time his illness flared up, he feared that he would never wake up again, feared that the Dingguo royal family would be destroyed from then on, and that his brother's vendetta, his own vendetta, and the vendettas of tens of thousands of Mo family soldiers would go unavenged. But he couldn't show his fear in front of anyone; all he could do was endure. Yet now, his Ah Lian, his wife, sat beside him telling him not to be afraid...

  "It's okay, don't be afraid." Mo Xiuyao smiled faintly as he held Ye Li's hand.

  Ye Li was reluctant to recall how the day and night had passed. At first, Mo Xiuyao's pain was still bearable, and she sat beside him talking to distract his attention. However, after midnight, the pain suddenly intensified, and even someone as tough as Mo Xiuyao couldn't help but shudder all over, unable to utter a complete sentence. Any pain-relieving medication or acupuncture needles were completely ineffective. Ye Li could only watch as he tore apart the silk quilt on the bed and ripped down the silk curtains due to his intense agony.

  The usually calm and elegant man's painful and fragile appearance finally made Yeli unable to hold back her tears. She had never hated her own powerlessness so much before. She had promised to accompany him through this suffering, but in reality, she could do nothing except watch him and prevent him from hurting himself further.

  In the short, endless night, Ye Li finally understood what it meant to live a lifetime in a day. After Mo Xiuyao fainted from the prolonged pain, she could only carefully let him lean against her, not even daring to touch him. She just hoped he could have a brief respite before the next wave of pain arrived.

  As expected, Mo Xiuyao woke up again in less than half a time, followed by even more intense pain. This cycle of unconsciousness and wakefulness continued until the next afternoon, near noon, when it gradually subsided.

  The scene that Mo Zongguan and Shen Yang saw after pushing open the door was a room in disarray. The princess sat on the floor by the bed, leaning against it with a tired expression, fast asleep. In front of her, the prince rested his head on her lap, although he slept fitfully, but it was clear that he had also fallen asleep. The wounds on his body and hands had already been treated. Looking at this scene, two men whose combined age was nearly a hundred years old couldn't help but sigh sorrowfully. Shen Yang waved his hand and followed Mo Zongguan out of the room.

  Just after experiencing a full moon night, Mo Xiuyao lay on the bed again. This made Ye Li's heart even heavier as she was already worried about Mo Xiuyao's body.

  "Yelü, what are you thinking about?" Mò Xiāo Yáo lay on the bed smiling as he looked at Yè Lì who sat beside him, holding a book and lost in thought.

  Ye Li raised her head and looked at him, furrowing her brow: "Is your body going to travel thousands of miles to Beijiang?"

  Mo Xiuyao smiled and said, "This one night in a month is much better than before. If it were like last year, I'm afraid it would be really impossible. Now my body is no different from ordinary people, what's wrong with that?"

  Ye Li shook her head, this time she was by Mo Xiu Yao's side the entire time, and the process really made her feel shocked. Such heart-wrenching pain was probably something that even someone who had undergone professional torture training like herself couldn't bear, let alone Mo Xiu Yao whose body wasn't good to begin with. What was even more frightening was that this kind of pain had to be endured every month, and just the psychological shadow it cast was enough to drive a person mad.

  Looking at Ye Li's worried and heart-aching expression, Mo Xiu Yao smiled faintly and reached out to pull her into his arms, laughing softly as he said: "I used to think that I would never be able to get up again for this lifetime. But now look, isn't it fine? Even if every month will bring pain, what's the harm in that? I think it's worth it. Ah Li, I hope your husband is perfect and flawless, only then can he match my Ah Li..."

  Mo Xiu Yao's long fingers lightly touched Ye Li's beautiful lips as he whispered.

  Ye Li turned her head away, not allowing herself to look at the scars on his hands that had yet to fully heal. She suppressed the tears in her eyes and said: "Even if your leg can never be cured, I will not despise you." Compared to those so-called perfect young men with four limbs intact, Ye Li could confidently say that Mo Xiuyao was far more excellent than any of them. She had never thought that Mo Xiuyao needed to be a certain way in order to match up to her.

  "I know, but I hope Ah Lian has the best." Mo Xiuyao said with a gentle smile.

  Ye Li was taken aback, and still couldn't help but get teary-eyed. "What if you're used to being spoiled rotten?"

  Mo Xi Yao held her in his arms, "As long as Ah Lian wants it, as long as Mo Xi Yao has it, he will give it to you. Even if he doesn't have it, he will fight to get it for you."