261: My love is overflowing! I've completely fallen in love with you!

The night was deep.

Inside Heaven Character Number One Private Room of the Wen Tianlai Theater.

Su Chen was tossing and turning on the soft couch like a pancake, his eyelids twitching violently; he simply couldn't sleep soundly.

[Strange, why do I feel so restless today?]

[I feel as if some earth-shattering event is about to happen.]

He was muttering to himself in suspicion.

For the past few days, he had been living a happy life like a pig.

Those two crazy women, Ye Linghan and Liu Ruyan, were completely obsessed with the joy of choreographing plays and had no time to bother him.

Every day he ate and slept, and slept and ate, occasionally writing in his diary to refresh some small rewards; he had truly degenerated to the ultimate state of a salted fish.

But today, he felt a strange and intense sense of unease.

[Could it be that scheming woman Ji Hongxue? Now that the war is over, is she preparing to free up her hands to deal with me?]

[That shouldn't be right. She should be busy consolidating the territory of the Jiuli Divine Dynasty, so busy her feet shouldn't even touch the ground.]

Su Chen was completely puzzled.

Right at that moment.

*Knock.*

*Knock.*

*Knock.*

A series of extremely light yet rhythmic knocks on the door sounded, as if they were tapping directly on his heartbeat.

"Who is it?"

Su Chen shouted weakly.

[It's the middle of the night, are you not going to let this fish sleep?]

There was dead silence outside the door; no response came.

Su Chen frowned, crawled off the couch impatiently, shuffled over in his shoes, and yanked the door open.

In the next instant, he froze on the spot.

At the doorway, the moonlight was like water, pouring down.

An exquisite figure stood quietly in the moonlight.

She had changed out of her dragon robes and was wearing only a well-fitted Golden Court Dress. Her ink-black hair draped casually over her shoulders, and her jade-like face, devoid of makeup, was breathtakingly beautiful.

That face, which was usually covered in frost and filled with majesty and arrogance, actually revealed a touch of softness never seen before and... the weariness of being travel-worn under the cold moonlight.

It was Ji Hongxue.

[Holy crap?! Why did she hunt me down all the way here?!]

Su Chen's brain crashed instantly.

[Shouldn't she be in the Imperial Palace reviewing Official Memorials? Why did she come to this theater all by herself?]

[This is a Hongmen Banquet! She's definitely here to drag me back!]

Su Chen's heart instantly leapt into his throat. His physical instinct was faster than his brain, and he subconsciously tried to slam the door shut!

However, a slender, jade-like hand was one step faster, pressing against the door panel.

That hand looked soft and boneless, yet it contained an irresistible power.

Ji Hongxue did not speak.

She just stood there quietly looking at him, her Phoenix eyes as deep as the starry sky, shining strikingly in the moonlight as if they wanted to suck his very Soul inside.

Su Chen felt his scalp tingle under her gaze, feeling like a plucked quail being seen through from the inside out.

"That... well..."

Su Chen squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying, trying to break this deadly silence.

"Hongxue... why are you here?"

"To what do I owe the honor of your visit so late at night?"

"Can I not come?"

Ji Hongxue finally spoke, her voice carrying a hint of raspiness from her long journey, yet every word was clear.

She didn't answer his question but instead asked one in return, taking a small step forward at the same time.

A scent of cool Ambergris, mixed with her unique body fragrance, instantly occupied Su Chen's breath.

Then, she spoke four words that shattered Su Chen's Divine Soul.

"I missed you."

BOOM!!!

Su Chen felt as if the crown of his head had been blasted open by a bolt of Nine Heavens Divine Thunder!

He was completely stunned, his mind a total blank.

[She... she she she... what the hell did she just say?!]

[She missed me?]

[An illusion! This is definitely a damn illusion caused by overwork! I must still be dreaming!]

Su Chen's facial muscles twitched, and he pinched his thigh hard with the hand behind his back.

"Hiss—!"

Intense pain arrived!

It was real!

Su Chen's eyes widened as he looked at Ji Hongxue, whose gaze was so burning it seemed she wanted to devour him whole. He felt he wasn't dreaming, but rather had fallen into an even more absurd reality.

This woman was not right today!

"You... don't make this kind of international joke."

The corners of Su Chen's mouth twitched wildly.

"We... aren't that close."

"Not close?"

The corners of Ji Hongxue's mouth slowly curled into a faint, mocking smile, tinged with self-deprecation.

"You even 'accidentally' barged into my bath and saw everything, and you still say we aren't close?"

Su Chen's face turned red from the base of his neck to the tips of his ears.

[Crap! Crap! Crap! This woman is really bringing up the one thing I didn't want to hear!]

[Can this be said to my face?! This is social death! This is a public execution!]

"Today, I unified Zhongzhou."

Ji Hongxue didn't continue to humiliate him with words. Instead, she changed the subject, her voice becoming low and her gaze deep.

"Um, I know. Congratulations, Your Majesty the Empress."

Su Chen responded absentmindedly, his mind still frantically calculating escape routes.

"But I am not happy at all."

Ji Hongxue's Phoenix eyes were locked onto him firmly.

"Because when I stood on the city walls receiving the homage of the masses and enjoying that supreme glory, you were not by my side."

"I conquered these ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains for you, yet the person I most wanted to share it with was not there."

"Su Chen, do you know? That feeling made me feel more... lonely than a total defeat."

Her words were no longer the declaration of a monarch, but like the gentlest spring water, silently flowing into Su Chen's heart which was always on guard.

Su Chen was stunned.

He looked at the Empress before him, who seemed to have shed all her imperial armor, exposing her softest and most vulnerable side nakedly before him. For a moment, he even forgot to think.

He realized that this woman who stood high above and schemed against the world was actually... just an ordinary woman who could feel lonely.

"Su Chen."

Ji Hongxue spoke again, slowly taking another step toward him.

The distance between the two was now less than a fist's width.

"I used to think that what I wanted was this supreme imperial power, this eternal and indestructible territory."

"But it wasn't until I saw your diary, until I met you, that I realized how wrong I was."

"Compared to you, those things have become... tasteless."

Her voice was very light and soft, yet it carried a sense of all-or-nothing determination.

"I like seeing you brazenly call me a scheming woman in your diary."

"I like seeing how you are clearly scared to death of me, yet you still stiffen your neck and pretend to be a stupid gentleman."

"I like seeing you use those rogue methods that no one would think of to resolve all crises effortlessly."

"Your good points, your bad points, your schemes, your laziness... I like them all."

At some point, Ji Hongxue's cheeks had been stained with a heart-stirring blush.

Those Phoenix eyes, which were usually full of majesty and calculation, now held only the purest, most burning... love that almost set him on fire.

"Su Chen."

She summoned the courage she had never possessed even when fighting on the battlefield, and in a near-whisper with a hint of a trembling voice, she spoke the words she had hidden in her heart that had long since overflowed.

"I seem to... no, I have completely fallen in love with you."

The moment the words fell.

Without waiting for Su Chen's already completely fried brain to make any reaction.

Ji Hongxue stood on her tiptoes, slightly tilting up that exquisite face.

Then, under Su Chen's gaze where his pupils dilated in shock.

She pressed her two slightly cool yet incredibly soft red lips, dominantly and awkwardly, onto his.

In that moment.

Su Chen's world went blank.

Time, space, and thought all vanished.

Leaving only the heart-stirring sensation on his lips and the lingering, cool fragrance unique to her at the tip of his nose.

.