The Dark Lotus Summons

Lin Qi and Princess Qingli talked through the night in the rear garden, while Elysian Heaven spent the entire night watching from a large tree beyond the courtyard wall.

When the morning sun began to rise, Lin Qi took Princess Qingli's hand and led her out of the rear garden. According to Blood Qin Empire wedding customs, Lin Qi was originally supposed to escort Princess Qingli back to the imperial city today to pay respects to her birth mother, along with completing a number of minor formalities. But Ying Zheng could not be bothered with such trouble. With an imperial word of gold, he granted Lin Qi three months of leave to wander wherever he pleased, and Lin Qi was more than happy to take the easy way out.

One had to admit that Ying Zheng's character carried far too much of the rough-and-tumble air of the grasslands. He had been the one to bestow marriage upon Lin Qi, the one to attend the wedding in person, the one to demand that the Blood Qin Empire preserve the local wedding customs in their original flavor—and in the end, he was also the one too lazy to bother, personally breaking the rules himself.

He was an emperor with few rules, doing whatever his heart desired. Those who suited his tastes would live very well; those who rubbed him the wrong way would die miserably.

They had only just stepped out of the rear garden when Elysian Heaven, wearing a gentle smile, blocked Lin Qi's path. "Would Your Highness like to bathe and change? Elysian has already prepared hot water and fresh clothes. Why not have Your Highness and the Princess Consort bathe together?"

Princess Qingli's pretty face flushed red. She looked at Elysian Heaven with a trace of anger. What sort