QT: LAC Chapter 147: Ninth World (12)

Chapter 147: Ninth World (12)
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Edited by Sulo

On the day of the bride’s visit to her home, Bai Duan and Cao YuYing came together to the Palace. After that, they had to go their separate ways. Bai Duan went to see the Emperor, while Cao YuYing turned to see the Enchantress for some normal gossiping.

Since she had ‘expectations’ for their love story long before they got married, the Enchantress always sent people to check out their situation. Naturally, she knew of their sweet love life together.

In this regard, the Enchantress was very satisfied. When chatting with the Emperor, she couldn’t help mentioning one or two things about them. So, the Emperor also knew that the couple had a good relationship. The Emperor showed Bai Duan a big smile of approval when he came to see him, and he also gave him generous rewards.

——Even if she was not favored, the princess still represented the face of the Royal Family. The Royal Family would never allow their blood to be bullied by the subjects.

It was a pity that although the Emperor was rarely so kind-hearted, Bai Duan didn’t want to deal with his inquiries. And all his attention was on Cao YuYing, for fear that an accident would happen during his visit to the Palace, exposing his real gender and causing death.

Luckily, Bai Duan’s absent-mindedness was seen as a concern for his wife by the Emperor. Although the Emperor was blinded by the Enchantress, he also knew that the Enchantress’s character was quite arrogant and she didn’t like the children born by other concubines. In addition, his second daughter was timid and cowardly. It’s understandable that Bai Duan was so concerned about her.

Believing that he understood Bai Duan’s concerns, the Emperor laughed and joked that he was allowed to leave. Bai Duan breathed a little sigh of relief, and could not wait to thank him. He backed out from the Royal Study, and then went to the Moon Palace where the Enchantress lived, under the guidance of the servants there.

The palace servants’ steps were not fast. Bai Duan followed behind him, but he was a little impatient. At first, he could still bear to walk slowly. Later, he walked past the servants and left them behind.

Ever since he was a child, Bai Duan had excellent spatial awareness, so although he had only been to the Moon Palace once, he would not be confused by the intricate corridors leading there.

After arriving at the Moon Palace, Bai Duan stopped and waited to be allowed inside. At the same time, he calmed down his breathing.

After a while, he received a response from the Enchantress, giving him permission to enter. Then he adjusted his clothes and stepped in slowly.

Although Bai Duan looked very reserved and polite, the Enchantress had heard from the female servant’s mouth that he was ‘quite unseemly’ when he hurriedly came to the Moon Palace. She couldn’t help but gently raise the corners of her mouth. When Bai Duan entered the palace, the first thing he did was to observe Cao YuYing, who was sitting carefully on the Enchantress’s side at the lower part of the hall. This made the Enchantress even more satisfied because this was indeed the look of a man who really cared about his wife.

Even though Bai Duan regarded her as a monster who might bully his ‘wife’, the Enchantress was still in a good mood. However, she felt sorry for Bai Duan, as he didn’t really match Cao YuYing.

Bai Duan was extremely beautiful, but Cao YuYing was not only plain in appearance, but also cowardly and dull in character, making people lose interest just by getting near her. If it wasn’t to wait for Bai Duan, and to see the couple standing together with her own two eyes, she would have sent her away long ago.

It has to be said that even though Cao YuYing had royal blood running through her veins, it did not show and she did not seem worthy of such an outstanding husband.

But what other reasons besides the power love could make such a different couple so loving? The Enchantress couldn’t see any falsehood in Bai Duan’s eyes. It was really exciting that she had no worries about them.

She was content to relax and lean on her couch. After chatting with Bai Duan for a while, she lost interest and decided to send them away — after all, she only wanted to meet them and confirm their love with her own eyes.

Bai Duan and Cao YuYing saluted the Enchantress and left. They breathed a long sigh of relief when they got out of the Moon Palace.

“Nothing happened before I came?” Bai Duan looked up and down Cao YuYing again and asked softly.

“Everything went well,” As he was still in the Palace, Cao YuYing kept a low voice and answered shyly, “The lady… did not give me any troubles.”

“That’s good.” Bai Duan nodded, not asking anymore.

They went out of the Palace gate, boarded the carriage, and returned to their home. Then they reported back to Imperial Counsellor Bai about their journey into the Palace.

When these things were finished, they returned to the courtyard where they lived. They could really close the doors and say what they wanted now.

“The Enchantress did not suspect that you are a man, did she?” Bai Duan sat down at the table and took a sip of tea.

“Of course not,” Cao YuYing chuckled, leaned on him, then he began to get handsy again. “I haven’t been in the Palace for that long, don’t worry.”

“How can I not worry?” Bai Duan moved his hand away from him and frowned, “You were hardly visible in the Palace before. I don’t think you met the Enchantress at all, but now you were with her face-to-face for a long time.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Cao YuYing’s eyebrows crooked and his eyes bent, enjoying Bai Duan worrying over him very much. “I’m not old yet, I have just started to develop my secondary sexual characteristics, and I can still pretend to be a woman.”

Bai Duan had never heard of the phrase ‘secondary sexual characteristics’, but unexpectedly understood its meaning.

He pursed his lips together, “If you were older, would it be hard to pretend to be a woman?”

“It would not be a problem.” Cao YuYing smiled, “My character in the Palace is timid and withdrawn. So it would be normal for me to stay in the back house after marriage and not go out to visit relatives or friends.”

——What’s more, he has the mental power to cheat, which could blur the judgment of people around him about his gender, and make others unable to doubt him.

Unfortunately, Bai Duan did not know that Cao YuYing had such a cheating artifact, and his face became more solemn. He pondered for a long time, and finally made a decision, “You have said before that because of your special identity, the best way to protect your secret is to leave the capital, and stay far away from the Emperor — I agree with that.”

Cao YuYing raised his eyebrows, “Do you mean…?”

“Let’s leave the capital,” Bai Duan said solemnly, “As early as my failure in the Imperial Examination, my father suggested that I go out to see the world, ‘seeing with your own eyes is better than reading a thousand books about it’, after all. I was still young then, so my father didn’t trust me to leave home alone. Later, he wanted to see me get married first, so he pushed it back. Now, that I am already married, and since your identity is not suitable for you to stay in the capital… Why don’t we go out on a journey?”

“If father-in-law agrees to it, I have no problem,” At the thought of being able to have a honeymoon trip with his lover, Cao YuYing naturally looked forward and smiled.

“I’ll talk to my father, and he will certainly agree,” After making a decision, Bai Duan also relaxed and smiled, “Where do you want to go?”

“Where do I want to go? How about going to the Miao tribe’s villages?” Cao YuYing quickly replied, “I wanted to send people to the villages to find a way to remove the poisonous insects from the Emperor’s brain for quite a while already. Now it’s more likely to succeed if I can go there in person.”

Bai Duan with a wooden face: “…………”

After a moment’s silence, Bai Duan opened his mouth and his voice was a little dry, “Wait a minute, did I hear you wrong? What did you just say? An insect in the Emperor’s brain?”

“Yes, you didn’t hear me wrong.” Cao YuYing chuckled, with a certain teasing tone. “He has rebelled against the wise and powerful teachings he had learned for years, doted on the Enchantress to the point of being ignorant, and ignored his offspring who were murdered. It is all because he was poisoned by the Enchantress.”

Bai Duan, “…………”

——Suddenly hearing such a shocking royal secret, of course Bai Duan would be in a panic. He felt like he was standing right up a cliff.

Seeing that his lover’s expression was a little broken, Cao YuYing explained the love and hatred between the Emperor and the Enchantress, which he had explored and summarized from the information he got from his network, letting Bai Duan get the whole story clearly.

Hearing the whole story, Bai Duan could not help but lament that people always find trouble. It was the same for both the Emperor and the Enchantress.

“Say, if you encounter exactly the same situation as the Enchantress, what will you do?” Cao YuYing remembered that he had brought himself into the Emperor’s shoes before, and he could not help being curious for a while.

“If it was me…” Bai Duan pondered for a moment, “I’ll probably try my best to leave. I am free, right? I will let go of the other side, and also give myself a breather. It’s good to leave at the right timing.”

Cao YuYing frowned at the answer. Although Bai Duan’s answer seemed free and easy, he could hear the coldness in it. Because there was no real love, it was okay for this person to just let go, so it was so easy to choose — very much like how he had imagined at the beginning that he and Bai Duan would not stand the test of reincarnation, and after forgetting their original intentions, they would part ways.

Not satisfied with the answer, Cao YuYing asked, “What if it was me? Imagine if one day you suddenly find out that I have other lovers…”

Before he could speak, he found Bai Duan’s face was heavy and his breath was cold.

“If it’s you…” Bai Duan narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked down at the position between Cao YuYing’s legs. “I’ll probably castrate you, and then lock you up, so you can’t be flirtatious any more.”

Cao YuYing felt cold from Bai Duan’s gaze and with a nice voice asked, “This… You can just lock me up, can’t you? Castration… What, is it necessary? In this way, wouldn’t your ‘sex drive’ not be fulfilled?”

Bai Duan stared at Cao YuYing, sneered and laughed, “You think you’re so great, that after you touched someone else, I would still allow you to touch me?”

Cao YuYing, “…………”

“What’s more, only the prior punishment would work on you,” Seeing through his lover’s ‘masochism’, Bai Duan slightly twitched his lips, “If I just locked you up, it won’t do you any punishment!”

Cao YuYing found this was absolutely irrefutable.

——What could he say? Although his lover’s answer showed his care for himself, Cao YuYing didn’t feel good at all, his back was cold and sweaty.

He secretly lamented that his little lover was becoming more and more ferocious. Cao YuYing’s wittiness stopped himself from discussing this topic further.

However, Bai Duan was not going to let it go easily. He frowned suspiciously, and his voice sank, “Why do you ask that? Don’t tell me you have affairs in the palace?”

“How could it be!” Cao YuYing hurriedly called out, “I’m trembling in the palace for fear of revealing my true gender. How could I find a good lover?! What’s more, you are the only one that I like. Other people are no different than air in my eyes!”

Bai Duan’s face was a little slow, and he also felt that Cao YuYing should not have the courage to have lovers in the palace. However, Bai Duan asked, “Then why are you so familiar with having sex?”

Cao YuYing, “…………”

——If I had kept my mouth shut, then nothing would have happened. Why do I have such a trashy mouth!

——Little lover, haven’t we already discussed this issue in the last world? Let’s not repeat the old story, please?

Cao YuYing, who had caused his own death, used an immense amount of effort to make Bai Duan believe that he was just ‘gifted’. But he still paid the price — he was banished from Bai Duan’s room for several nights to a small couch outside his bedroom.

Fortunately, apart from the ‘trouble’ between the two, the plan for their honeymoon trip was progressing smoothly. Imperial Counsellor Bai quite readily agreed with Bai Duan’s proposal, and thought that since he could not enter the palace as an official, he should go out and see how others live their lives, and travel to all the famous mountains and rivers. Only in this way would he grow into a real responsible and courageous man.

Of course, the Imperial Counsellor Bai also had a requirement for the two travelling together. That is, once Cao YuYing was pregnant, they needed to come back to the capital immediately without delay — Imperial Counsellor Bai would never agree to them putting their offspring in danger.

Bai Duan and Cao YuYing, silently promised.

——If according to the requirements of Imperial Counsellor Bai, they may not have a chance to return to the capital ever again in their lifetime.