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[Mind Storage Place]
Dayong Dynasty · Imperial Palace
On New Year’s Eve, beneath the hazy moonlight, the grand palace blazed with crimson candles, glowing with brilliance.
Gu Sui’an reclined lazily on a small couch within the hall, half-dozing in rest.
Just then, a tall, straight figure appeared outside the hall. With his arrival, countless black-armored guards silently filled the courtyard, sealing the palace in a heavy encirclement.
Hong Gui bowed low, noiselessly pushing the grand doors open before stationing himself outside.
Li Chongyan, clad in a dark imperial robe embroidered with twelve golden dragon emblems, stepped forward into the hall, one measured stride after another.
The candlelight fell upon his breathtakingly handsome face, casting it half in shadow, half in glow—both alluring and dangerous.
Drowsy and nearly drifting off, Gu Sui’an stirred at the sound of the doors, rising in confusion.
The instant her gaze landed on the man entering—Li Chongyan—her heart gave a startled jolt.
Gu Sui’an couldn’t help but wonder—wasn’t he supposed to be presiding over the grand banquet? Why had he come here instead?
Her confusion lasted only a moment before she hastily dropped to her knees in salute.
With a sudden bang, the great doors slammed shut behind them.
For reasons she couldn’t explain, a powerful sense of foreboding surged in her chest.
Li Chongyan advanced at an unhurried pace until he stood before her.
His gaze, lofty and imposing, bore down on the young woman kneeling at his feet.
Tonight, she wore a gown of smoky violet silk brocade, its flowing skirts fanning out gracefully around her. Pale skin, crimson lips—her beauty struck like lightning at first sight.
In Li Chongyan’s eyes, a chilling desire to possess suddenly deepened. He lowered himself into a crouch, his movements deliberate.
Extending his right hand, the pad of his finger lingered, unable to resist tracing along the delicate curve of her unpainted cheek.
Gu Sui’an instinctively tried to pull away, yet she could not escape his touch.
After a long pause, Li Chongyan exhaled softly. “Cousin, you are truly beautiful tonight.” His husky voice carried an unsettling strangeness.
His inexplicable behavior left Gu Sui’an stunned for several heartbeats before she stammered blankly, “Cous—Your Majesty, what… what brings you here?”
Seeing her dazed and bewildered, Li Chongyan’s lips curved faintly.
He leaned in closer, tilting his head, his breath brushing her ear as he coaxed and tested in a low, deceptively gentle tone: “Suisui, why don’t you come into the palace to keep your cousin company?”
The gentleness was laced with something eerie.
Gu Sui’an blinked, bewildered. “…Doesn’t Suisui already come into the palace often to visit you and Aunt?”
Li Chongyan fixed his gaze on her, uncertain whether she was feigning ignorance or truly naive.
A low, chilling laugh rumbled from his throat. Then, enunciating each word with frightening clarity, he commanded: “Gu Sui’an, I want you to enter the palace—and become my Empress.”
“What!?”
Gu Sui’an’s eyes flew wide in disbelief, her expression as if she had seen a ghost.
Surely she had misheard.
Someone tell her what on earth was happening here!
Wasn’t Li Chongyan supposed to make the heroine, Ruan Liuzheng, his Empress?
Why was he saying such things to her—the cannon-fodder supporting role?
Before she could make sense of it all, the suffocating heat of a man’s presence descended upon her, overwhelming and inescapable.
Li Chongyan gazed at her delicate, snow-pale face and could no longer resist—he reached out and pulled her tightly into his arms.
He had coveted her for so long; now that he had spoken his heart, he refused to suppress it any longer.
His lips crashed down heavily upon her crimson ones.
Gu Sui’an’s mind went utterly blank, her ears ringing. Only when he tried to deepen the kiss did she snap back to her senses, shoving him away in a frantic panic.
“You’re insane!”
She stumbled toward the doors, desperate to flee, but had barely taken two steps before being yanked back with brutal force.
Li Chongyan seized her from behind, his arms locked around her like iron. His breath poured hotly against her ear, his expression twisted and feral as he ground out through clenched teeth, “Yes, I am insane. From the moment you fell for that lowborn man and agreed to marry him, I went mad!”
“Since childhood, Mother told me you would be my wife. I have always waited to marry you—yet you betrayed my heart!”
“Why, Suisui? Wasn’t it me who stayed by your side as you grew up? The one you should love ought to be me.”
“The most laughable thing is that Mother even asked me to let you go. Why should I let you go? How utterly ridiculous!”
His voice grew more frenzied, and with a feverish obsession he pressed closer, his lips brushing against her cheek. “You are mine. In this life, you can only belong to me.”
Gu Sui’an was utterly dumbstruck by his words.
Wasn’t the male lead supposed to have always treated her like a younger sister?
The male lead was supposed to love the heroine, right?
The male lead had gone mad.
Fear finally hit Gu Sui’an; she thrashed wildly in his arms. “Let go of me!”
Li Chongyan held tight around Gu Sui’an’s slender waist, breathing in the faint fragrance from her body; his breath grew ragged.
He had waited year after year—now he would not wait any longer!
He suddenly scooped her up at the waist and carried her toward the bed.
“Suisui, be good. After tonight, I will make you my Empress.” His voice was tender, yet strangely eerie.
Gu Sui’an screamed and struggled, “Let me go, I don’t want—”
Li Chongyan ignored her.
Watching the bed draw nearer, terror pushed her to the edge. She kept fighting, but could not break free.
Seeing the handsome face before her, she slammed him hard across the cheek.
“Slap—”
Li Chongyan halted, an expression of disbelief on his face.
Suisui had struck him!
His grip loosened a little.
Taking advantage of his momentary inattention, Gu Sui’an tore free and sprinted for the palace doors.
This time she reached the doorway, only to find the great doors already locked from the outside.
The man she had slapped regained his composure; the red handprint still visible on his face, he stepped toward her with no expression—like a beast toying with prey trapped in a pit.
Gu Sui’an saw the doors locked and tried to leap for the window, but it too was fastened.
Desperate, she pounded on the window and shouted for help.
Hearing the footsteps drawing nearer from behind, she wheeled around, trembling, and tried to threaten, “I have a betrothal—granted by the late Emperor himself. Aren’t you afraid the ministers will object if you do this?”
Li Chongyan halted, a careless smile tugging at his lips. “Now that I am master of this realm, who would dare question me?”
A flash of venom crossed his face. “I’ll kill him.”
When threats failed, Gu Sui’an tried deceit instead. “Cousin, I never imagined you harbored such feelings for me. I always thought the one you liked was Miss Ruan, and that you only treated me as a younger sister.”
“In truth… in truth, I like you as well. I just didn’t want to come between you and Miss Ruan, so I agreed to another engagement.”
“How about this—why don’t you let me go for now? Later, we can take our time to plan. I’ll dissolve the engagement, and then you can marry me openly, with full honor, into the palace. Wouldn’t that be better?”
Her soft, coaxing voice wrapped around his ears. For a moment, inexplicably, Li Chongyan felt himself swayed.
Could it be… Suisui truly liked him?
But then an image seared through his mind—her, smiling and close with that “wild man.” His expression darkened instantly.
“You’re lying to me,” he said flatly.
“I’m not, Cousin,” Gu Sui’an forced out a nervous smile.
Li Chongyan’s eyes glinted with a terrifying gleam as he let out a low, chilling laugh. “Do you take me for a fool?”
With that, he seized her wrist and dragged her toward the bed.
Realizing threats and persuasion were useless, and that he meant to force her down, Gu Sui’an panicked and thrashed, kicking out blindly. Her foot struck the table, sending a teacup crashing to the floor. The sharp shatter of porcelain rang through the hall, making Hong Gui at the door stiffen in alarm.
But a woman’s strength could never match a man’s. Li Chongyan flung her onto the bed and pinned her beneath him.
At that moment, terror surged through Gu Sui’an’s veins, breaking past her defenses. She lashed out with raw fury, screaming, “Let me go, you perverted bastard, you damned idiot—mmph!”
Li Chongyan’s brows twitched at her crude words—so Suisui knew how to curse?—but the surprise lasted only a breath. His lips crashed down on hers again, fierce and unyielding, plundering the sweetness within with rough aggression.
His large hands, ignoring her struggles, began to wander restlessly, unable to hold back.
His belt was yanked open; the sharp tearing of brocade rang in the air as lengths of satin and purple gauze were flung aside from the red-canopied bed curtains.
“Let go of me, let go—” Gu Sui’an couldn’t hold back her sobs.
Li Chongyan halted, eyes bloodshot, looking down at her. Her raven hair fanned like water beneath her; her brows, like ink-strokes, were knotted; her once-radiant face was streaked with tears—an unbearably beautiful sight that struck like lightning.
He adored this image of her.
Li Chongyan slipped further from reason, endlessly demanding with a mad hunger, murmuring her name over and over with possessive, fevered low notes.
“Suisui, Suisui… you can only be mine—mm.”
In a daze, hearing his dark, fever-tinted gaze and the frantic possessiveness in his voice, fear welled up in her and she continued to cry out, “You perverted bastard… scoundrel….”
Soon Gu Sui’an could no longer form a single coherent word.
In a haze she felt as if she were dying.
How long passed she could not tell, until she heard the man, his voice hoarse and raw, say:
“Good girl, once more.”
This time her eyes rolled up and she finally fainted.
The night deepened; the mingled sounds of man and woman and the bed’s creaking went on through the whole night, only quieting when dawn slowly broke and the world grew light.