Chapter 102 – A Kiss

“Ugh, fine…Good night…”

She wasn’t sure if it was because she felt safe, sleeping next to somebody, or her body was exhausted. But in a short while, she had no trouble falling into a deep slumber.

Mo Linyuan paused, then softly asked, “What do you mean by ‘good night’?”

Ye Mu vaguely remembered a common phrase back in her old life and in her drowsiness, she unconsciously blurted out, “Good night…good night. I love you.”

“I… love you?” Mo Linyuan did not hear her words clearly, but the bizarre phrase ‘I love you’ rang across his ears, making him more extremely confused.

Although he did not understand the meaning behind her words, he still felt that it uttered in affection, so he repeated it under his breath a few times. When he had wanted to ask her again about it, he had found out that she had already fallen asleep.

All right, another time then… Mo Linyuan looked at her sleeping profile, staring at it for a long time. Finally, after hesitating for a moment, he leaned over and kissed her on her forehead.

After his lips touched her forehead, it was as if he was seized by clarity and rendered stunned. He did not understand why he wanted to kiss her!

But…this feeling wasn’t bad at all. On the contrary–

He touched the spot on his chest, right above his heart. Is it beating slightly faster than before? He wondered in amazement.

When the inky darkness came, he finally laid down beside Ye Mu, secretly grasping her hand. The faint smell of milk emanating from her body comforted him to an easy sleep.

After a while, he closed his eyes and said with a smile poised on his lips, “Good night to you too.”

In a sweet, comfortable slumber throughout the night, he never would have thought this birthday would make him feel extremely at peace. Because of this, he held fresh hopes in his heart—that Ye Mu would spend time with him once more on his next birthdays.

However, their peaceful days didn’t last long. After Ye Mu’s training in internal martial arts had just reached the first stage of the Supreme Heart Sutra, the emperor suddenly fell into a coma.

And all along while the emperor was in bed, it was his six highly respected cabinet ministers who had managed the government together in his absence. Now, with the emperor unconscious, and this fact displayed to many of them, the court officials now certainly know that he was in a terrible condition.

How could anyone with ulterior motives sit still?

The first person to make their move was the first prince. He had gathered his private army to launch an attack from the east side of the city, but before he could even reach the palace gates, he was annihilated by the Prince Zhao**.

**T/N: I had made a translation error in this part. It’s actually Prince Zhao, not Emperor. Ahh my apologies, in Chinese, the literal translation is Zhao Wang. And ‘Wang’ is usually a suffix for royalty. Huhuhu no wonder I was so confused why the Zhao country wasn’t part of the story xD

The empress’ son seized the opportunity to attack Prince Zhao under the appellation of ‘Qing Jun’. Although his attack was mighty, it was still defeated by Prince Zhao in the end.

As the younger brother of the emperor, Prince Zhao also had the right to inherit the throne. In addition, he had great military power, and his methods of attacks were extremely ruthless.

In short, with Prince Zhao’s absolute military strength and cunning strategies, he had become the perfect candidate to ascend the throne in just over a month! Although the other princes still had some remaining forces obstructing their way, most of them were out of sorts. The only one who had a headache seeing all this chaos was the second prince, he didn’t show too much enthusiasm to fight for the throne.

Although this abrupt storm seemed dangerous, the undeniable outcome is already decided.

However, there was a saying: the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

***

Inside the palace, Ye Mu was dutifully practicing her martial arts.

Meanwhile, Mo Linyuan had already disappeared. After the emperor fell ill, no one came to find him anymore. It was as if they had forgotten all about him. Mo Linyuan had also been very busy, often sneaking out of the palace.

Ye Mu knew that he was helping Ye Li rebel. When the Prime Minister fell, Prince Zhao had lost a lot of support. Furthermore, he had gotten wind that ‘Official Liu had reached an agreement with Ye Li for a covert operation’.

If anyone had a grand scheme and immense wealth under their sleeve, that would only be Ye Li who had the ancestor’s treasure in addition to the forbidden map of the Imperial army. Even if she didn’t make a move for his benefit, Prince Zhao would definitely still be beaten.

Thus, there was no suspense in this one-sided battle, and Ye Mu opted to leave it to him.