After the banquet, Li Lingyue returned to the Princess's Residence in her palanquin.
The night was deep. The lights of countless homes in Chang'an City were gradually dwindling, leaving only a full moon hanging high overhead, silvering the entire city.
The ceremonial procession passed silently through the lanes between the wards. Lanterns swayed gently in the night wind, casting flickering light over the figure in the palanquin.
Li Lingyue reclined inside, her phoenix eyes half closed.
Tonight was the full moon. The Nine-Five Qi of her Purple Tenuity Heavenly Heart Formula was undergoing the reversal of qi and blood brought on by "The Haughty Dragon Has Regret." Her true qi flowed in fits and starts, and her meridians felt as though countless fine needles were slowly piercing them. The pain was not fierce, but it was relentless and difficult to endure.
She suffered this backlash every full moon. Long accustomed to it, she could bear it.
Tonight, however, she was in an excellent mood.
So excellent that even the pain of her reversing qi and blood had faded somewhat.
Whenever she recalled how those two old stubborn fools, Yao Chong and Song Jing, had been put in their place in the hall, she wanted to laugh.
Ordinarily, their mouths were full of "ancestral laws" and "the safety of the realm," and they would gladly have branded her a traitor and rebel. Tonight, though, they had been unable to offer a single rebuttal. The sight of them with a bellyful of objections and not one word they could spit out was more soothing than any miraculous medicine.
Beside the palanquin, Zhao Lanjun personally escorted her.
Li Lingyue eagerly recounted what had happened at the banquet-how Yang Ju had been frightened out of his wits, how Yao Chong had been struck speechless,