Chapter 431: What I Choose, All Comes From My Heart

The first thing that answered Ji Qingwu was a gust of wind.

Before she could even register how the curtain was thrown aside, the space before her was completely filled.

Emperor Wu Su cupped Ji Qingwu’s face. His palms were searing, sending a jolt of heat straight to her heart.

He lowered his head, a glint of wildfire in his eyes.

Ji Qingwu was draped in his Great Cloak, and the faint, sweet fragrance from her bath drifted straight to his nose. They had clearly used the same soap, but on her, the scent was exceptionally delicate and sweet.

Ji Qingwu spoke first, asking the question she had always wanted to know.

"How exactly did you recognize me, Your Majesty?"

He had seen through her Disguise Technique on more than one occasion, and Ji Qingwu was desperate to know why.

But Emperor Wu Su’s thoughts were clearly elsewhere.

Zhao Mingyan brushed the tip of his nose against her flushed earlobe and said casually, "I can tell just by looking."

Ji Qingwu found the answer a bit dismissive, but since it came from Emperor Wu Su, it held a degree of credibility.

’Still, to know it’s me with just one look... for someone to have such a formidable skill... it’s no different from having eyes that can see through anything.’

As Ji Qingwu mulled this over, her gaze drifted away slightly.

Zhao Mingyan gently tilted her head back, not allowing her to look away.

He suddenly asked, "You’ve agreed, haven’t you?"

’Agreed to what?’

Confusion flickered in Ji Qingwu’s eyes, but she quickly understood. He was talking about their wedding after the army’s triumphant return.

A smile graced her lips before she spoke.

Her face, already flushed pink from her bath, deepened to a crimson hue under his intense gaze.

Zhao Mingyan’s voice was low and hoarse as he said, "Look at me. Answer me."

Her eyes glistening, Ji Qingwu replied in a tone that was both coy and petulant, "Do I have any other choice?"

Zhao Mingyan’s brow lowered. He took her hand and pressed it against his chest.

With his armor gone, she could feel the firm muscles beneath the layers of his clothing, and the powerful thumping of his heart.

’From a physician’s perspective, his heart rate is too fast.’

Ji Qingwu felt her own nervousness rising.

Zhao Mingyan didn’t hold her hand there. He simply placed it over his heart before letting go.

His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed once before he spoke. "Ah Wu, I’m only going to say this once, so listen closely."

Sensing the formality in his tone, Ji Qingwu focused her gaze, looking back at him without daring to let her mind wander.

"I’ve said it before. What I want is very precious, and only Ah Wu can give it to me."

Zhao Mingyan paused, then continued, "My only wish is that you choose me because it is what your heart desires, not as a compromise after weighing the pros and cons."

Ji Qingwu was stunned.

’So that’s why he asked if I had agreed...’

’Even though the imperial edict naming her empress was already in her hands, he hadn’t announced it publicly. Was he waiting for her to agree?’

His last words made the blood freeze in Ji Qingwu’s veins.

When she first came to this world, everything she faced was out of her control. To stay alive, she had no choice.

After returning to Lin’an, things had slowly begun to change. She had a family, and a peaceful life was beckoning to her.

But things rarely go as one wishes. The man before her pursued her relentlessly.

When she was confused, he would lay his heart bare for her. When she dared not believe, he would show her with his actions, gradually blurring the line that should exist between a subject like herself and the Emperor.

’Was it just a passive choice?’

’In the beginning, yes.’

’But now... at this very moment...’

The heartbeat beneath her palm grew stronger and stronger, as if it would burst from his chest. It felt as if his heart wanted to leap out and show itself to her, to make her understand everything.

"Zhao Mingyan."

Ji Qingwu murmured his name, her fingertips tracing the old arrow wound over his heart.

She suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and rose onto her tiptoes. The hem of the Great Cloak swung up, revealing a fleeting glimpse of long legs, pale and luminous as jade.

Zhao Mingyan was oblivious to anything else. His eyes were fixed on her face, the light within them growing ever brighter.

But Ji Qingwu stopped just as their lips were about to touch.

The scrape on Ji Qingwu’s knee had mostly healed thanks to the secret medicine, but the deeper muscle strain still needed a few more days to recover.

Her leg trembled slightly.

But it was nothing compared to the shiver that went through her when he suddenly tightened his arms around her.

Mere inches apart, she saw her own reflection in his pupils. ’So this is how I look in his eyes,’ she thought. ’Face flushed with emotion, looking soft and deceptively fragile.’

Ji Qingwu knew full well that in this world, her status and the Emperor’s could never be equal.

But at this moment, she wanted to speak to him as an equal—at least in terms of their height.

She slowly applied pressure with her arms. Zhao Mingyan cooperatively bent down until they were eye to eye. Seeing this, Ji Qingwu smiled in satisfaction.

Zhao Mingyan stared at the delicate curve of her upper lip, as plump and pink as a spring peach, and his Adam’s apple bobbed uncontrollably.

His large hand patted her waist, a gesture that suggested his patience was wearing thin, urging her to speak.

Ji Qingwu’s long lashes brushed against his face. His brow twitched. She lifted her gaze, and the light in her eyes seemed to hold the entire starry expanse of the galaxy.

She said solemnly, "What I’m doing now, what I’m choosing... it all comes from my heart."

Her words were met with an incredibly fervent response.

The words had barely left her lips before his sudden movement had her pinned against the wall of the tent’s washroom.

The sudden motion caused the Great Cloak she was wearing to slip down, leaving only the vermilion ties draped around her slender neck.

Only then did Zhao Mingyan realize she was wearing nothing but the cloak.

Her skin, as flawless and pale as snow, was exposed to his gaze, causing the man’s eyes to darken to a deep crimson.

Zhao Mingyan drew a sharp breath and groaned, "Ah Wu..."

The rest of his words were crushed by a fiery kiss.

The searing kiss threatened to devour her whole.

Ji Qingwu’s fingers curled and then uncurled, her fingertips unintentionally brushing against the scar on the back of his neck.

In the haze, she remembered the scar was from a wild wolf, inflicted by a Beast Tamer from the Xijin Association. For a moment, her reason returned.

’There’s still the mission...’

’The advance I took... I haven’t paid it back yet...’

Zhao Mingyan sensed her distraction. He kneaded the nape of her neck, pulling her forcefully into his embrace, making her feel his arousal, determined to ignite the same fire within her.

Ji Qingwu no longer resisted. She was like a soft, swaying strand of seaweed tethered to an unmoving stone at the bottom of the sea.

When the waves crashed over them, she swayed with the current. When the tide receded for a moment, she wrapped herself tightly around him.

A half-man-high hardwood stand was knocked over, and the jade bone comb clattered to the floor.

Li Yuzong, guarding the tent door, heard the sound of things falling one after another.

The soldier in charge of guarding the main tent said, "Eunuch Li, aren’t you going to go inside and take a look?"

Ever since Li Yuzong realized that the "demon concubine" was none other than Ji Qingwu herself, he had been grinning to himself for quite some time.

He said, "No hurry, no hurry. If something is wrong, the Holy Emperor will naturally summon someone."

But then came a loud CRASH, as if a stand had fallen over.

The guard said, "Eunuch Li, that was a really loud noise. Shouldn’t we go take a look?"