The girl’s voice echoed by his ear as she took a slight step back. With a light and elegant robe fluttering, she turned around holding two unopened plum blossom branches. She was clearly charming and lovely in appearance, yet her words were full of grand ambition.
“I know that the peace in the Great Yan Empire is only superficial…” The girl turned around, the corners of her lips lifting into a smile, her gaze bearing the dominance of a ruler. “External threats have been quelled, but internal troubles are brewing. There is still much to be done. Royal Uncle, don’t you agree?”
“Your Majesty is absolutely right,” Jun Yulin replied, eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at Yan Luo.
What she said hit the nail on the head. Even without the dragon robe on her body, she still carried the aura of someone in power. But from her tone… had she already figured out some of those messy matters? Just how much did she know, and how exactly did she come to know it? Jun Yulin pressed his lips together slightly in contemplation.
Just as the words fell, the aura around the young girl shifted again. Her eyes brightened, and her face lit up with a smile.
She instructed the accompanying palace maid to take the peach blossom branch back and care for it, then tilted her head toward Jun Yulin, asking cheerfully, “Royal Uncle, it’s getting late. Would you like to stay and have dinner with me?”
[*Ding*—Jun Yulin’s Blackening Value -2 (78/100)]
Jun Yulin gave a light cough, seemingly pondering, just about to speak, when the little girl smilingly interrupted him: “But if Royal Uncle is busy with affairs of state, then I won’t insist.”
Jun Yulin : …
Yan Luo had already turned to head back, her steps light. Jun Yulin followed beside her, silent for a while before finally speaking up: “Your Majesty, I am not busy.”
Those five words were cold to the extreme. If she hadn’t been waiting and listening carefully to his tone, Yan Luo really wouldn’t have been sure what he meant.
Why did it feel like this time, his blackening value was so closely tied to her actions? As if every time she glanced at someone else, it increased, but when she showed a little affection toward him, it dropped.
Yan Luo still wasn’t certain about the exact nature of this world. She raised a brow and looked at the man beside her, who wore a calm and indifferent expression.
With that kind of look, he surely couldn’t be that petty… right?
But then again, if this pattern truly held, what about the supposed enmity between them?
Yan Luo glanced again at the cold-faced Jun Yulin, feeling she might be oversimplifying things.
There must be another deeper logic behind the rise and fall of the blackening value. Yes, that had to be it. Convinced of this, the two, each lost in their own thoughts, continued walking a short distance in silence until Jun Yulin finally couldn’t hold back and asked, “Has Your Majesty recently found someone you’re fond of…?”
“What?” Yan Luo arched an eyebrow and gave Jun Yulin a sidelong glance.
Jun Yulin paused slightly before explaining, “Wasn’t the matter of Your Majesty selecting a consort brought up recently? I just wanted to ask if there’s someone Your Majesty already has in mind, so I don’t accidentally screen him out later.”
There was something a bit off about the tone of his words.
Yan Luo licked her lips and replied in a teasing tone, “I don’t have anyone in mind, but if someone looked as good as Royal Uncle does, I’d be quite pleased.”
That was a blatant tease.
Jun Yulin paused briefly, his gaze darkening slightly as the corner of his lips quirked up. “I see… And what about the young master of the Lu family? What does Your Majesty plan to do about him?”
Everyone else could be dealt with, but Lu Xunche was different. In the little emperor’s heart, he seemed to still hold some significance.
And that would never do.
[*Ding*—Jun Yulin’s blackening value +1 (79/100)]