Chapter 1541 - 827: Why Is She Here? (Double-Length)

Consort Dong's expression grew incomparably grave. She slowly let out a breath and murmured:

"This really is… troublesome. I only came to stroll around anyway, and incidentally deliver myself to your door.

Look at you, heartless as ever—come help Her Ladyship check on Miss Donggong's progress… Who'd have thought we'd run headlong into something of this scale."

As she spoke, her slender fingers tapped idly at the air. Candlelight cast shallow shadows across her lovely face, revealing a trace of hesitation.

Chen Yi had been quietly observing the changes in her expression. Seeing the flicker in her eyes, that taut string in his heart immediately tightened again, and he asked aloud, "What are you thinking?"

Consort Dong jolted at his sudden question. She lifted her eyes, meeting his scrutinizing gaze.

Her heart pinched, but she swiftly tugged out a charming smile tinged with a hint of ingratiation, her voice growing softer: "Don't be so wary… Battalion Commander Chen, I've always been sincerely devoted to you."

"Sincerely devoted to our dealings?"

Chen Yi remained unmoved.

He had just relaxed a little earlier, but thinking on it now, he could not help being wary of this woman's origins.

She was born of Goryeo, from the royal family of the previous dynasty, yet was sent as a child to be fostered in a nunnery deep in the mountains, and after coming of age, shipped across the sea into the deep harem of Great Yu. Now she even serves that woman Empress An…

The charming smile on Consort Dong's face faded somewhat, a mocking gloom passing through her eyes. She did not refute him, merely let out a soft sigh.

"She doesn't much like me either." Consort Dong dropped this seemingly contextless sentence, her voice carrying a touch of grievance. "You've no idea how cruel she is to me."

This "she" naturally referred to the current Grand Empress Dowager of Dayu, of the An Family.

Chen Yi's brows lifted slightly; he did not respond.

Consort Dong lowered her lashes, her voice soft and low: "You don't know how miserable I've been since you left. I am a woman of foreign birth, with no one to rely on. Once you were gone, she found fault with me in everything. Those old matrons and palace maids—who among them doesn't act by reading her face? In food and clothing, in every daily matter, I am pinched and controlled. Cold words are the least of it; in winter there's no charcoal for heat, in summer no allowance for cooling off—those are commonplace. She never strikes herself, even puts on a show of pity for me before others now and then."

Chen Yi watched her in silence. He knew there might be an element of fishing for sympathy in these words, but he had always been soft-hearted toward women he'd been involved with.

He reached out and lightly patted her shoulder. The motion was somewhat stiff, but served as a kind of consolation. He said, "Enough, I won't press you. Let's talk business."

"Business…" Consort Dong's shoulder trembled faintly under his touch, then she relaxed again.

"The matter of the Golden Immortal Temple."

"Business…" she echoed, drawing out the syllables, her fingertips twining a lock of hair that hung over her chest. "I don't even know what counts as business. Perhaps… what the Empress Dowager considers business is sending me to your door, and, incidentally… sending Miss Donggong along as well?"

"Me?" Donggong Ruoshu, who had been curled up on the bed like an ostrich, heard her own name. She jerked her head up, pointed at herself, and stared in dumbfounded shock.

Consort Dong didn't look at her. Her gaze stayed glued to Chen Yi's face, her smile deepening: "Yes, see? Isn't this just neat and tidy? Who can fathom Her Ladyship's mind? Perhaps she feels one alone isn't enough, that she must send a few more to prove her sincerity?"

Chen Yi ignored the probing veiled in her suggestive words, merely said coolly, "Talk business. The Golden Immortal Temple."

"All right, all right, so unromantic." Consort Dong curled her lip and let the teasing drop. She leaned back against the chair, posture easing. "If you don't want to rush, we can start with something more leisurely instead. For instance… we might test the Golden Immortal Temple's depths a little? I have the feeling there's a Dragon Vein hidden inside."

"Do you know how many experts there are up there?" Chen Yi looked at her, his tone steady. "I've come down from there before."

Consort Dong blinked, not only unafraid, but showing a sly glint. She made a perfunctory gesture of putting her palms together in prayer and stuck out the tip of her tongue: "…I've got the Bodhisattva watching over me, you know."

In that instant she seemed rather girlish—quite different from her usual seductive air, like a private, pampered young lady showing off her Amulet.

Chen Yi, however, was not taken in.

What he had seen and heard today at the Golden Immortal Temple, added to his previous ordeal on the Dream Sea and the secret tidings Consort Dong had brought, all left him ever more wary of that place.

To go back up the mountain and risk another probe? Without sufficient certainty, that would be far from wise.

For now, it would be best to wait until he'd reunited with Zhou Yitang and then discuss. Earlier he had already sent the Tai Sha Sword out again with a message.

"Since it's a leisure matter, then let's not do it.

The more we do, the more mistakes we make; the less we do, the fewer mistakes."

Consort Dong was not offended. She gazed at Chen Yi with liquid eyes and said:

"As I see it… you're truly parched."

Looking at that face so close at hand, with that unfamiliar yet familiar fragrance curling at the tip of his nose, Chen Yi's heart did indeed stir faintly.

He gave a slight nod and said:

"I am parched."

Consort Dong's brows and eyes curved in delight. She was just about to say more, her body leaning toward him in a half-resisting, half- yielding way, as if she couldn't quite keep her balance,

her lush curves sinking into his arms, leaving Chen Yi somewhat intoxicated.

Suddenly.

ROAR!!!

Without the slightest warning, a deafening bellow tore through the night sky over Zi Wu Town.

The sound shook heaven and earth like exploding thunder. It was no ordinary beast's cry; the sound waves surged like a tide, rolling in from the direction of Zhongnan Mountain outside the town, and in an instant swept over the entire settlement.

The paper on the guest house's window lattices rattled, dust sifted down from the beams, the candle flame on the table flickered wildly, nearly going out. In the distance came the abrupt cessation of dogs barking, the cries of children startled from sleep, and the panicked shouts of people.