C33

In the evening, Tang Yuan came back.

Luo Yi was originally feeling dizzy, but the moment she heard Tang Yuan's voice, she suddenly felt refreshed and tried to look behind Tang Yuan with his eyes wide open.

Luo Yi also did not know what kind of answer she wanted to get from Tang Yuan. She did not even know why she asked this question, but it was for no reason at all.

She raised her eyes slightly and met Tang Yuan's gaze.

There was not much difference between the three of them when they counted the number of feelings they had between each other. If she did not listen to Lin Ting's advice, she might not have followed Tang Yuan's suggestion, but she was truly too helpless, so she urgently wanted to obtain comfort from Tang Yuan. It was just like when a child was scolded by their father, they would subconsciously go to their mother for protection.

Thinking about that, Luo Yi suddenly laughed, thinking that it was lucky that Yi Qiannan didn't know what she was thinking, otherwise he would have thrown her off the third floor on the spot.

Yi Qiannan was provoked by her sudden smile towards him, and he stroked his arm as he took two steps back.

Luo Yi laughed and turned back to look at Tang Yuan.

She felt that Tang Yuan could understand her, but he shook his head as his tone turned serious, "I don't understand you."

"But I respect you."

"Speaking of which, the biggest difference between Lin Ting and I is that I know I can't persuade you, but he just doesn't believe me.

Tang Yuan fiddled with his teacup, "I heard from Lin Ting about the relationship between the two of you and I and I roughly understand why you insisted on entering the palace. But Luo Yi …"

"Why are you so sure that you're the only one capable of doing this?"

Tang Yuan gave a short laugh, "Speaking of which, Lin Ting is probably not angry at you, but at himself. If he hadn't left you to come to Li City …"

"Then none of this will happen."

Lin Ting held onto his forehead with one hand and looked a little absent-minded after drinking. He had to put in a lot of effort to clearly see the position of the opposite Broth Yuan: "She shouldn't have been involved in all these matters."

So...

"Rest early." Tang Yuan pulled away from his memories, "You know very well in your heart that it's impossible for him to really ignore you."

Thus, early in the morning on the second day, Luo Yi waited at the entrance of Prime Minister's Estate.

The sky had yet to brighten, and the scattered stars scattered across the sky, reflecting the low moans of the unknown animals by his side, unexpectedly exuded a hint of warmth.

Luo Yi waited under the big tree at the entrance of Prime Minister's Estate. Not long later, she saw someone walking over under the cover of the night sky.

The man was walking hurriedly. His hair was very neat and tidy, and his clothes were clean, but he looked like he was in a weird predicament. If you looked carefully, you could see that his eyes were dark and blue.

Luo Yi suddenly appeared from beneath a tree.

Lin Ting did not expect to meet Luo Yi here, so he was stunned, and before he could even speak, he saw the dew on Luo Yi's shoulder. He thought he had been waiting for a while, and his face darkened again: "What are you doing here?"

Luo Yi walked two steps forward with a timid expression on her face.

In the past, whenever he angered Lin Ting, it would be like this, but this time, it was different. Lin Ting would definitely not be swayed by her little tricks again, thus his gaze wavered for a moment and quickly adjusted. He walked past her with a cold expression, as if he did not see her at all.

However, the moment the two of them stood shoulder to shoulder, Luo Yi's somewhat hoarse voice sounded beside his ears: "According to the imperial edict, I have three days to go to the palace to learn the palace rules, you really …"

Ignore me?

As he said the last few words, Luo Yi's voice practically trembled, his entire being seemed extremely pitiful, Lin Ting unsurprisingly stopped in his tracks, and after a while, he unyieldingly said: "As long as I help you reject Master Xu, you …"

What he wanted to say was immediately stuck in his throat.

This was the first time Luo Yi had ever called herself "big bro" since she was sixteen. Lin Ting thought bitterly.

When Luo Yi was young, she would always follow behind her and call her big brother instead, as if she was afraid that others wouldn't know about their relationship. After growing up, she wasn't as obedient as before, calling her "Lin Ting" every single time.

Lin Ting was not stupid, he obviously knew what Luo Yi was thinking, but he had indeed only seen Luo Yi as a little sister, so he had no choice but to pretend that he didn't know.

He sighed.

When Luo Yi saw that Lin Ting had indeed stopped walking forward, she could not help but heave a sigh of relief, and pulled on Lin Ting's sleeve for a few more times before continuing, "Actually, it wasn't just for him."

"I don't need it!" The moment she finished speaking, Lin Ting immediately asked with furrowed brows.

Therefore, Chen Jinyan did not need to worry too much about them. Although Chen Liyi remained in the palace, on the surface he was still the crown prince, but in reality, he was the hostage Chen Jinyan used to hold back the imperial faction of the Grand Emperor.

"You guys are outside the palace, so it's inevitable that you won't be able to handle the situation in the palace. You also have no way of knowing the crown prince's safety, so I'll help you, okay?"

Her voice was a little softer, even a little seductive, like a few layers of mist. Her voice was clearly right next to his ear, but he couldn't hear it clearly.

Because I will never betray you.

Luo Yi finally raised her head, and looked straight into Lin Ting's eyes: "I'm not helping Xu Shilian, I'm helping you."

Lin Ting did not know in the past that Luo Yi would give birth to such a clever mouth.

Then, he let out a light laugh from his throat, and when he opened his mouth again, his voice sounded as if it contained ten thousand years of ice. "Alright then, if it's really as you say, I won't participate in the Hall Competition, and won't participate in this battle to seize the throne, then we'll set out home tomorrow."

Luo Yi, "..."

"Do you understand what that means?"

Lin Ting immediately asked, turning a blind eye to Luo Yi's pale face, "That means I don't need you to help me."

After a long time without anyone saying anything, Lin Ting looked at Luo Yi with a gaze seemingly filled with disappointment, and her voice revealed a strong self-mockery, "I never thought that you would actually play with me, too."

Previously, no matter what kind of malicious words Luo Yi had said, they had never been able to cause the tears in her eyes to fall. But now, had immediately started crying because of this seemingly ordinary words from him.

She actually knew how outrageous her words were.

However, at that time, he had already personally agreed to it, and even if he went back on his words, it would be useless. She absolutely did not expect that in the blink of an eye, Lin Ting had already seen through her intentions, and not only did he point them out clearly, but it was also the first time in her life that she had used this kind of tone to tell him that she was very disappointed in him.

Lin Ting cruelly struggled free of the sleeve that was still in Luo Yi's hands, and for a moment, he actually didn't know whether he should rejoice that Luo Yi already had this type of self-protecting method, or if he should be angry that she actually used this method on him.

He watched as the grown-up girl whimpered softly behind him. When he looked down, he could see that her fingertips were trembling, but she was still holding on.

Perhaps even she wasn't sure if the person who had always been protecting her would ever forgive her again.

Lin Ting had already walked forward more than ten meters, but in the end, he still turned back.

He placed a hand on Luo Yi's head as the corner of his eyes turned slightly red. "Foolish lady …"

When the three words that carried a sigh entered her ears, Luo Yi's body even unwittingly trembled, as if afraid that someone would touch him. But when he heard the next words, he bit his arm and ruthlessly cried out.

"I'm sorry to drag you into this, but at worst, I will raise you for the rest of your life after you leave the palace."

Lin Ting pulled her arm, which was bleeding profusely. While holding a handkerchief to help her stop the bleeding, he listened to her small sobs which slowly turned into uncontrollable wails.

Tears fell down on the ground, blooming one flower after another. In the blink of an eye, they all died.

In the end, he still took her side. He didn't even notice the dark side of her face and instead said, in an extremely apologetic tone, "I'm sorry. It was my fault that you ended up being involved in this for your entire life."

Tang Yuan had said long ago that there wouldn't be an absolute winner between them.

On the day that Lin Ting entered the palace, he did not come to send her off. Luo Yi stood at the entrance of the aristocratic building and waited for a long time, but he did not see the figure of that person.

Luo Yi thought for a while, then decided to just bring the faceless wood person she got from the Prime Minister's Estate, and the hairpin Lin Ting had given her these past few days.

On the surface, the hairpin looked like a normal hairpin, but there was a small mechanism behind the hairpin. When you press it, a silver needle would come out.

She put away the two items along with the jade pendant that she had never left her side before taking two steps forward to say hello to the nanny who came to pick her up.

The official consort selection was half a month later. During this half month, the daughters who were sent to the palace by the ministers had to go through three trials in addition to studying the rules of the palace.

Luo Yi arrived late, and when the old wet nurse from the palace entered the room, the other three beautiful girls had already arrived. She gave him a cursory glance and was able to match the number of the people Yi Qiannan had shown her the night before — a total of no more than twenty officials above the third rank of the imperial court. Most of them had probably been to his residence before, so it was easy to find out who had delivered them to the palace.

Luo Yi ignored him, and turned her head to memorize the portrait in her hand.

The one who stayed by the door was the daughter of the Minister of Revenue. She was a famous talented girl in the Li City who was proficient in all sorts of ways of painting and the one next to her was the daughter of Master Zhang of the Ministry of Justice …

Luo Yi paused, and a strange expression instantly flashed across her face — — I heard that the Minister of Revenue and the Minister of Justice have always been at odds with each other.

Sure enough, thinking that it was because the family's lord had greeted them in advance, the two of them didn't like each other, so they lowered the temperature of the room by a few degrees with cold expressions on their faces.

Luo Yi turned her head in astonishment and met a pair of bright black eyes.

This person was the only daughter of the Shang Shu Family, and appeared to be only thirteen or fourteen years old. Just now, she must have been shocked by the atmosphere in the room, as she didn't dare to make the slightest sound, thus, when she saw the last person, Luo Yi, who arrived, as if she had seen her savior. Her eyes immediately brightened up by a bit, and involuntarily moved closer to her.

Luo Yi looked at her for a moment, and then extended her hand out to take it, but did not immediately put it in her mouth, and instead smiled as she greeted her.

She was only thirteen or fourteen years old, and seeing Luo Yi taking her things, she naively thought that she liked her as well. Her eyes couldn't help but brighten a little, and then, with light and light steps, she crawled from her bed to Luo Yi's side, calling her "big sister" with a sweet voice.

The child talked a lot, and before anyone could ask, he took the initiative to reveal his identity. Until he finished all the snacks in his hand, he was handed a cup of tea by his sister who was beside him. He realized that he was the one who had been talking, so he blushed and rubbed his face, "Sister, what's your name?"

"Me?" Luo Yi took the empty tea cup from her hands with narrowed eyes. Before he could even answer her question, she saw the mama who had brought her here turn back. "Miss Yi."

She bowed and saluted Luo Yi: "Please come with this servant."