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He had no intention of making a move. He planned to keep her trapped and let her choose how she would face him. She clearly knew that the more she retreated, the more he would want her, so she did not step back. Instead, she cunningly stayed where she was, watching him from neither near nor far, weighing their awkward relationship and observing how he, the one in power, intended to deal with her. Yet he refused to give her a clean resolution. He simply wanted to see how she would handle their strange relationship once she could no longer pretend not to know about it.

The relationship between a man and a woman could not escape a few basic patterns. Once everything was laid bare, they either had a relationship or they did not. He refused to accept that they had no relationship, so did that not leave only one possibility? Aside from being relatives, the relationship between a man and a woman was a romantic one. She had no choice at all. It was merely a matter of when she would face it.

He was not pressing her too hard, but his Lord Zhu suddenly stopped eating at the same table with him.

"Where is Lord Zhu?" She was not here, so he did not even know who he was supposed to perform the card-flipping act with the Head Eunuch for.

"Your Majesty, Lord Zhu said she has memorials to write these days. She is currently consulting materials in the Library Pavilion of the Imperial Academy. Your Majesty may dine first."

"..." She really had nerve.

Then half a month passed, and she never again ate at the same table with him. What exactly was hidden in the Library Pavilion of the Imperial Academy that made her so