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She had nowhere to retreat and could only stiffen her neck, pressing back against the wall. Her gaze drifted from side to side, and her lips trembled without managing to squeeze out a single syllable. She had never seen the Holy Emperor like this; he even withdrew the royal "Zhen" and referred to himself simply as "I" when speaking to her. Every previous time, she had successfully defused the inexplicable ambiguities that sprang up between the two of them. While the Holy Emperor always teased her, he would also retreat in a timely manner back to his proper position. Why hadn't she managed to slam on the brakes in time this sudden time... She hadn't even finished digesting her own feelings toward Young Master, let alone had the brain capacity to process this sudden, complicated emotion the Holy Emperor had blurted out.

I am promiscuous and unbridled, unlike that fellow who is a blank slate; I have too many women, unlike that fellow who has only you. When I compare us like this, do you think it's very ridiculous? You've neither ever regarded me as a man nor liked me treating you as a woman. His explicit and implicit hints had already been delivered, and he had played the game of ambiguity until he was sick of it, yet she persisted in playing dumb with him over and over again. Previously she used a man's identity to fend him off, and now she used a subject's official identity to fend him off. How came these rotten tricks were so useful against him? How come she never used a man's identity and family grudges to fend off Little Jing?

Since Your Majesty knew, what need was there to spell it out... She had watched the Holy Emperor interact with all sorts