The abstinent prince, practicing Buddhism, is seduced by a voluptuous beauty into breaking his vows.

Chapter 192 Not a Little White Rabbit

The festivities of the Flower Festival continued, but Su Yaoyao's mind was no longer on it.

She looked at Xiao Chenyuan.

Xiao Chenyuan was also looking at her.

The two exchanged a glance, said nothing, yet understood everything.

"Let's go." Xiao Chenyuan took her hand.

Su Yaoyao nodded.

Anar was still confused.

"Go? Where to? This is just the beginning!"

Su Qingrun pulled her along.

"Stop fooling around."

Anar blinked, looked at Su Qingrun, then at Su Yaoyao and Xiao Chenyuan, and finally realized what was happening.

"Is there something important?"

Su Yaoyao nodded.

"Then let's—"

"You guys keep playing," Su Yaoyao smiled. "Don't spoil the fun."

He Qing stepped forward, unusually serious.

"Do you need any help?"

Xiao Chenyuan looked at him.

He Qing met his gaze, and the usual frivolity was gone from those peach blossom eyes.

Xiao Chenyuan remained silent for a moment,

"Not for now."

He Qing nodded.

"Okay then." He reverted to his usual nonchalant attitude. "Call me if you need anything, I'll be there anytime."

As he spoke, he naturally squeezed between Anar and Su Qingrun.

Su Qingrun looked at him expressionlessly.

He Qing smiled brightly: "My lord, shall we have a chat?"

Su Qingrun: "..."

He shouldn't have come today.

---

Su Yaoyao and Xiao Chenyuan followed Chu Qingzi through several alleys and arrived at a secluded courtyard.

Chu Qingzi knocked on the door three times, paused, and then knocked twice more.

The door opened.

An old woman peeked out, saw that it was Chu Qingzi, and quickly stepped aside.

"Is someone inside?" Chu Qingzi asked.

The old woman nodded: "He's awake, but he's still weak and can't get up."

The three of them pushed open the door and went inside.

A woman lay on the bed, her face as pale as paper, her lips devoid of any color.

She was so thin she was skin and bones, and her exposed wrists were covered with scars of varying ages.

Hearing the noise, she looked toward the door.

Those eyes were empty yet wary.

Chu Qingzi sat down by the bed and spoke softly.

"Don't be afraid, we're here to help you."

The woman looked at her without saying a word.

The woman remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.

My name is Shen Qingning.

Su Yaoyao's heart skipped a beat.

"Who is Shen Qinghe to you?" she asked directly.

Shen Qingning's eyelashes trembled violently for a moment.

Her fingertips instinctively curled up, gripping the blankets beneath her tightly, and her voice tightened.

"She's my sister."

She paused for a moment before cautiously raising her eyes.

"Is she...is she still alive?"

Su Yaoyao nodded.

"Alive. In the Empress Dowager's palace."

Shen Qingning's tears fell as she repeatedly murmured, "That's good, that's good."

But in his tone, besides the relief of surviving a disaster, there was also a barely perceptible tension, and his body even stiffened slightly.

She cried for a while before gradually calming down, and then looked up at the three people in the room.

"I know what you want to ask. I'll tell you everything."

----

Shen Qingning was "given" to the Empress Dowager by the Shen family three years ago.

"Father said that the Empress Dowager needed people to serve her, and he chose my sister and me." She smiled bitterly, "But we both knew it wasn't really about serving her."

Xiao Chenyuan asked in a deep voice,

"What did the Empress Dowager do to you?"

Shen Qingning was silent for a moment, then rolled up her sleeves.

His arms were covered with needle marks and knife scars, old and new, a shocking sight.

Su Yaoyao gasped.

Shen Qingning lowered her sleeves, her voice calm.

"On a fixed day every month, she would send someone to collect a bowl of our blood."

"Blood?" Su Yaoyao's eyes widened.

Shen Qingning nodded.

"Use that blood in the medicine. After she drinks it, her complexion will improve." She paused, "I saw it with my own eyes; after drinking it, her old face looked several years younger."

Su Yaoyao recalled the Empress Dowager's eternally kind and rosy face, and suddenly felt a chill.

"Three years," Shen Qingning continued.

"I was imprisoned for three years. I don't know how many people died, I only know that every now and then, people would be carried out."

Her voice began to tremble.

"Later, I couldn't hold on any longer and passed out. They thought I was dead and threw me into a mass grave. Luckily, I escaped..."

She looked at Chu Qingzi.

"And then, we arrived here."

Chu Qingzi gripped her hand tightly.

"It's alright, you're safe now."

Shen Qingning shook her head, then suddenly looked up at Xiao Chenyuan, struggling to kneel up from the bed, but Chu Qingzi quickly pressed her down.

"Your Highness, I beg you, please save my sister!"

Her eyes were full of pleading, but Su Yaoyao keenly noticed that when she said those words, her body subconsciously shrank back, as if mentioning her younger sister made her instinctively a little scared.

"She's only seventeen. The Empress Dowager is definitely keeping her alive with ill intentions!"

Xiao Chenyuan did not answer immediately.

"The Empress Dowager wants your blood, just for beauty enhancement and to prolong her life?"

Shen Qingning nodded first, then seemed to remember something and hesitated before speaking:

"Not just that. It seems like she's been... searching for something."

Su Yaoyao's heart skipped a beat.

"What is it?"

Shen Qingning frowned as she recalled.

"I don't know what it is. I overheard her talking to that old woman, saying something like, 'With that thing, we won't need to draw blood anymore.' She also said something like, 'The real deal is right in front of us, we can't rush it.'"

She paused, as if making a huge decision, but she didn't dare to look at the three of them:

"And... my younger sister Qinghe is different from all the other girls who were sent there."

Su Yaoyao's heart skipped a beat.

"Why is it different?"

Shen Qingning's eyelashes trembled violently, her gaze unfocused. "The Empress Dowager... has never taken her blood."

The room fell silent the moment those words were spoken.

As if afraid they wouldn't believe her, she hurriedly added...

"It's true. I've watched countless girls being carried in and out, each one destined to have their blood drawn, except for her, who was never once."

She stopped abruptly at this point, her lips moved several times before she continued speaking haltingly.

"They say they're keeping her locked up, but... everything she eats and uses is the best from the palace, even the proper ladies might not be as refined as her. Every day she has a dedicated nanny to apply beauty cream to her."

Su Yaoyao raised an eyebrow; that was strange.

Shen Qingning seemed to notice her expression and quickly added, her tone flustered, as if desperately trying to defend her sister:

"She...she's just a coward, she was terrified by the Empress Dowager! I secretly told her several times to find a way to escape together, but she just cried and said she didn't dare, and that escaping would only lead to death. Twice...twice I bribed the cleaning eunuchs, and I was just one step away from the final step, but then the maids suddenly came and locked me up and starved me for three days. I asked her if she had told them, and she just cried and said it wasn't her. I...I just assumed I had accidentally given myself away."

She spoke more and more urgently, but the more urgent she became, the more obvious her flaws became.

Her own words, which she herself might not even believe, were nothing more than self-deception.

Without needing to say anything more, the three people in the room all sensed that something was wrong.

Chu Qingzi looked at her and suddenly asked, "What is your birthday?"

Shen Qingning paused, then raised her tear-streaked face and replied blankly, "The eighth day of the third month of the twelfth year of Jiahe."

Chu Qingzi's expression changed instantly.

Xiao Chenyuan's brows furrowed sharply, and the chill emanating from him intensified instantly. Even his grip on Su Yaoyao's hand tightened instinctively.

Su Yaoyao looked at this and then at that, completely bewildered: "What's wrong?"

Xiao Chenyuan looked down at her, his phoenix eyes swirling with complex emotions. He said softly,

"Yaoyao, your birthday is also the eighth day of the third month in the twelfth year of Jiahe."

Su Yaoyao was stunned for a moment.

Not only the original owner, but also her own lunar birthday was indeed on this day.

What a coincidence!

The Empress Dowager had been raising Shen Qinghe for three years, not taking her blood, and providing her with good food and drink. Now, someone else had the exact same birthday... Countless thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant, and a chill ran down her spine.

She looked up at Chu Qingzi, whose face was pale and whose eyes flashed with panic so quickly it seemed like an illusion. Chu Qingzi quickly suppressed it and regained her usual composure.

"Sister Chu?" Su Yaoyao called out tentatively.

Chu Qingzi snapped out of her daze, forced a smile at her, and said, "It's nothing, I just feel... this coincidence is a bit too strange."

Is that a coincidence?

Looking into her eyes, Su Yaoyao felt that she knew more than just these things.

Chu Qingzi stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the night outside.

"I must see Shen Qinghe."

"The Empress Dowager spared her life; she must have other uses for her."

As Su Yaoyao watched her slender back, the strange feeling in her heart grew stronger and stronger.

---

It was already late at night when the carriage drove away from the courtyard.

Su Yaoyao leaned against Xiao Chenyuan's chest, her mind replaying the events of just moments ago.

"Your Highness," she suddenly spoke.

Xiao Chenyuan looked down at her, his voice so gentle it could melt your heart: "Hmm?"

"Do you think... Chu Qingzi, she," she paused, unsure how to phrase it, "is hiding something from us?"

Xiao Chenyuan remained silent for a moment before replying in a low voice, "Yes. Her reaction to hearing about the birthday just now was definitely not just a simple coincidence."

Su Yaoyao looked up at him, her eyes brightening: "Your Highness noticed it too?"

"Mmm." Xiao Chenyuan nodded, pulling her closer.

"But she doesn't mean us any harm, at least not to you. I can sense that."

Su Yaoyao leaned back into his arms and breathed a sigh of relief.

She felt the same way. Although Chu Qingzi was hiding a secret, she had never harmed them and had even helped them at crucial moments several times.

"Whatever she's hiding," Xiao Chenyuan's voice rang softly in her ear, filled with an unyielding mix of doting affection and possessiveness.

"As long as she doesn't harm you, I can turn a blind eye. But if anyone dares to lay a finger on you, I will make them wish they were dead."

Su Yaoyao felt a warmth in her heart, reached out and hooked her arm around his neck, leaned in and pecked him on the lips, smiling mischievously: "Your Highness is so kind."

Xiao Chenyuan chuckled softly, gripped her waist, and deepened the kiss until she was breathless. He then released her, his fingertips lightly tracing her reddened lips, and said through gritted teeth, "Behave yourself, we're still in the carriage."

"What are you afraid of?" Su Yaoyao raised an eyebrow, her flirtatious words flowing freely. "Doesn't Your Highness want to?"

Xiao Chenyuan's breathing instantly became heavy, his hand gripping her waist tightened, and he said in a hoarse voice, "Wait until we get back to the East Palace, and see how I deal with you."

Su Yaoyao nestled obediently back into his arms and closed her eyes.

But in her mind, she couldn't help but think of Shen Qinghe, who looked like a victim.

Could a girl who was raised by the Empress Dowager for three years, provided with the best food and drink, and whose even her own sister instinctively feared when she mentioned her, really be an innocent and harmless little rabbit?

She doesn't believe it.