Chapter 103: Stillness
"Princess, if you propose to me and give me betrothal gifts now, won't your husband be angry when he comes back?"
"He wouldn't dare! Don't worry. When he gets back from the State-Protecting Temple, that'll be perfect timing. I'll make him sign the divorce agreement right away!"
"Oh? Princess, isn't this ancient book a treasured possession of the Hong Family? You're just giving it to me—"
"Jingyun, don't you understand how I feel yet? It's only a book. Besides, he already gave it to me—"
"Ruoxi, will your imperial brother agree to our marriage?"
"Don't worry, I've got everything ready. I'll come propose tomorrow, then take you back to my residence. Once we've consummated things, he'll have no choice but to agree!"
Akaseki: ...
Akaseki watched, utterly dumbfounded.
Never mind anything else—
What did she mean, once they'd consummated things, he'd have no choice but to agree?
Hadn't this already-married woman gone out to propose to someone else herself?
—
Clearly, consummating things wasn't much use!
Besides, however they cooked this up, it would still be half-baked!
At this point, Akaseki's genuine emotions could hardly muster any anger. Staying in "Happiness" mode throughout had worked quite well. He even felt that he might have laughed "Heavenly Pull," one of his lightning chakra transformations, all the way up to 10%.
As for the emotions being manipulated through his hypothalamus, they were, unusually, neither primarily anger nor sorrow. Instead, they were a feeling of "nothing is sadder than a heart that has died"—
Especially when Princess Ruoxi gave Su Jingyun that ancient book, one of Hong Yan's tokens of love. In his soul form, Hong Yan clutched his chest, as though a piece of his heart had gone missing.
Since the exam was still underway, Akaseki didn't spend too