Chapter 483: Chapter 422: The First Time Her Highness Took the Initiative to Kiss Him

Just as Sang Luo was about to let out a gasp, a hand shot out to cover her mouth. She fell back onto a pair of long, firm thighs, able to produce only pitiful, muffled whimpers. The man had even cunningly set up a sound-isolating barrier inside the sedan chair, preventing anyone outside from noticing the commotion.

She was facing the sedan door and couldn’t see her assailant’s face, but his build was clearly that of a man!

’What a brazen lecher, to dare something like this in the Princess’s own wedding sedan…’

The man reeked of alcohol, the smell so strong it made her nose sting.

Sang Luo immediately tried to run, but his strength was astonishing. The man forcefully gripped her chin, his kisses desperate on the nape of her neck. He moved from gently nibbling her earlobe to kissing the corner of her lips… His breath on her skin made her tremble, and a faint, numbing tingle spread through her.

“You!”

Sang Luo’s face flushed crimson, and her breathing grew ragged.

“Your Highness, it’s me…” the young man’s voice was breathy.

Sang Luo stopped struggling.

’Yun Qi!’

’How could it be him? He…! When did he become so bold?’

The two had shared a bed for so many days that Sang Luo was intimately familiar with his scent. But the reek of alcohol had clouded her judgment; he usually disliked drinking. With them so close, Sang Luo could faintly smell the light fragrance of spikenard hidden beneath the stench of alcohol.

“What are you trying to do?”

The young man didn’t press his advantage. He placed his hands on Sang Luo’s waist and turned her around to face him.

“Your Highness, don’t marry my brother, please?” the young man begged, his gaze fractured and shimmering with grief.

…

After they arrived in Fan City, the Nine-tailed Fox Clan sent an envoy to welcome the bride. When they lifted the sedan curtain, they found it empty!

The bride was gone!

Had she eloped? Or been abducted?!

“Someone! Find her, quickly!”

Meanwhile, on a certain mountaintop, Sang Luo stood in a fiery red wedding dress. With rosy cheeks and red lips, she looked both seductive and pure, but her face was filled with helplessness.

She found a flat rock to sit on and met the young man’s infatuated gaze, at a loss for words.

“You’re so beautiful today, Your Highness.” Yun Qi gently caressed her face, adding with regret, “If only you were wearing this wedding dress for me.”

“Yun Qi, take me back!” Sang Luo’s tone was cold.

The young man blushed and shook his head. “N-No, I can’t. I can’t let Your Highness go back. You’re going to marry someone else… It makes me sick. It hurts so much…”

’I feel so awful I could die.’

“Even if I die… I want to die with Your Highness. You’re mine… I was the first to marry Your Highness… I’m your husb—”

Sang Luo caught another whiff of alcohol from him and sighed. “You’re drunk!”

“No! I’m not drunk!”

Yun Qi stared at her stubbornly, his eyes bloodshot and glossy with unshed tears.

’…’ ’He only dares to act so brazenly because of some liquid courage.’

Sang Luo soothed him in a soft voice, “I know I’ve been too busy lately and have neglected you. I’m usually willing to indulge your little schemes, but today is a major event, an alliance between our two clans. I can’t allow you to cause such a scene.”

“If you don’t take me back soon and we miss the auspicious time, I’ll be truly angry.”

“If Your Highness is angry, you can hit me like you used to. I can take it.”

“Absurd!”

’The scoundrel. He knew I wouldn’t actually do that to him.’

Yun Qi took one of Sang Luo’s hands and placed it on the injured left side of his face. “Hasn’t Your Highness always wanted to know how my face was injured?”

Sang Luo looked at him in surprise. She had asked him about it before, but he had never said anything, and she didn’t want to bring up his painful memories.

Yun Qi gave a wretched laugh. “It was my brother who wanted to ruin my face. He hates having a shadow dangling before his eyes. He won’t allow anyone to have the same face as him!”

Disbelief was written all over Sang Luo’s face.

’How could Yun Rong possibly do something like that!?’

Seeing her disbelief, Yun Qi’s lips curled slightly. “My brother didn’t want to go through with the marriage alliance with the Princess, so he thought of me. I was so happy at the time, thinking that Father and the Fox Clan had finally accepted my existence. But on the night of my wedding, Yun Rong found me. He said… he hated me more than anyone, that an abandoned Black Fox had no right to call him brother…”

As he spoke, he touched that side of his face, his tone mocking—though of whom, it was unclear. “My brother clearly looks down on Your Highness, yet he was worried you’d be seduced by my face and your affections would stray… Don’t you think he’s ridiculous, Your Highness? So arrogant, yet so insecure. So that day, he put a special fire poison in my food and water. I don’t know anything about medicine, so I accidentally ingested it. On the way to the wedding, the poison flared up and ruined this half of my face.”

Sang Luo was stunned for a long time. She pursed her lips and stammered,

“Is what you’re saying… true? You’re not just trying to trick me?”

“I have never lied to Your Highness!” Yun Qi stared into her eyes, enunciating each word. “If Your Highness doesn’t believe me, you can divorce me on the grounds of slander and banish me from the Princess Mansion!”

“…I believe you.” Sang Luo closed her eyes, a bitter feeling flashing through her heart.

“Then… will Your Highness still marry my brother?” the young man asked urgently. “My brother sees me as a thorn in his side. He won’t tolerate my presence. After you marry him, I don’t know what will become of me. Perhaps… that will be my time to leave.”

’He’s even learned how to play pitiful.’

“Yun Qi, the marriage alliance was decided upon by our two clans. It cannot be changed, and it’s not something I can reverse on my own.” Sang Luo thought for a moment, then said seriously, “If you truly want to leave, I’ll write a letter of divorce when I get back, give you a sum of money, and send you away from the Princess Mansion. From then on, you’ll have no more ties to the Princess Mansion. You can change your name and live freely in the world.”

’Since I’m leaving anyway, letting Yun Qi go safely is one way to resolve this.’

“Your Highness!” The young man stared at her in shock, speechless.

Sang Luo let go of his hand and turned to leave.

The young man hugged her tightly, the veins on the back of his hands standing out.

“Fine… I’ll let Your Highness go. But can you answer one last question for me?”

“Go ahead.”

“Did Your Highness ever truly like me?”

The mountain wind had mostly blown away the smell of alcohol, and Sang Luo once again smelled the pleasant fragrance of spikenard on him. She hadn’t seen him in a month. He often tended to the herbs in the Plum Blossom Garden, and his body had picked up their faint, bitter scent, which made her mind drift.

Sang Luo turned back around and looked up at the young man’s handsome, bewitching face. The scar had healed a lot… He was looking more and more like *that person*.

’These past few days, I’ve wondered more than once who “that person” I wanted to see really is.’

At first, she’d thought it was Yun Rong, but after spending time with him, he felt like a stranger and didn’t stir her heart at all. In contrast, the young man before her had made her break her own rules time and time again.

A moment later, Sang Luo stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips.

The young man’s eyes widened, his heart raced, and his mind went completely blank.

The kiss was as fleeting as a dragonfly skimming the water, but the soft, sweet sensation lingered.

Sang Luo took two steps back, clasped her hands behind her, and gave him a faint, curling smile.

“After this wedding is over, I will give you an answer.”

’The answer will reveal itself after the wedding.’

’And she, too, was looking forward to that answer, to see if it was the one she hoped for.’

The wind blew through the mountain forest as night quietly fell. Yun Qi watched her figure disappear. The moonlight fell upon him like frost, making him seem lonely and apprehensive, yet with a hint of hidden anticipation.

He raised a hand and dazedly touched his face.

’This is the first time Her Highness has taken the initiative to kiss me…’

…

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