Chapter 24: He Was Convinced She Did It on Purpose!

Gan Qiongying’s carriage was quite spacious. Inside, she and Lihua sat facing each other. When the collision occurred, she was completely unprepared and had nothing to hold onto. The violent impact sent her flying from her seat, and with a loud “bang,” the back of her head struck the carriage wall.

The blow was severe. Gan Qiongying even felt as though her soul had been jolted out of her body.

For ordinary people, a blow to the head often results in a period of dizziness and confusion.

But for Gan Qiongying, her mind felt like muddy water stirred up from the bottom—a chaotic swirl. In her dazed state, countless images flashed through her mind like a rapid slideshow.

Her eyes were open, yet she experienced a sense of detachment, as if her soul had left her body. In an instant, her limbs grew weak and limp.

But that wasn’t all. As the carriage righted itself after the collision and tilt, she was helplessly thrown by the momentum directly toward the opposite side—right into Lihua, who was seated directly in front of her.

Hairpins and ornaments flew from her head. Lihua was pinned beneath her on the seat, while she lay sprawled on top of him, clutching his shoulders and shaking her head in an attempt to regain clarity. Yet her expression remained dazed and unfocused, almost as if she had deliberately thrown herself into his arms…

Lihua instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist, his pupils contracting sharply. Up close, he stared at Gan Qiongying’s face, his breath catching in his chest like a tightly cinched sack.

The carriage came to a stop, and chaos erupted outside—shouts from the attendants, pained cries and apologies, and the murmurs of onlookers filled the air.

The carriage door was knocked twice, and Silver Moon’s panicked voice called from outside, “Princess, Princess, are you all right?”

Gan Qiongying heard Silver Moon’s call, but at that moment, she was in a state where her mind and body felt utterly disconnected.

Propping herself up weakly, she remained half-sprawled over Lihua. Before her eyes, his appearance shifted—one moment, it was his gentle, refined, disguised face; the next, it was his breathtakingly handsome true visage.

Everything before her seemed distorted, as if bewitched. That strikingly handsome face suddenly turned fierce and sharp. He sat astride a tall horse, holding a black whip, looking down at her as he spoke.

Gan Qiongying’s ears buzzed, and she couldn’t hear a thing. Yet she knew from the shape of “Lihua’s” lips that he was saying, “You will all die.”

“Every last one of you!”

The scene before her twisted once more, shifting to the chaos of a palace coup—the clash of weapons, the raging fires.

Amid the distorted flames, the Emperor, his chest stained with blood, staggered and reached out to touch her face, saying, “Elder Sister, what you seek… I cannot give it to you. Run, run now…”

“Run!”

The voice gradually faded, becoming an indistinct echo. But soon, a sharp shout pierced her ears: “How dare you, insolent commoner! You’ve collided with the Princess’s carriage, and now you dare to flee!”

This rebuke struck her like a massive bell tolling overhead.

With a resounding “dong,” it slammed Gan Qiongying’s floating soul back into place.

As her thoughts snapped back to reality, she found herself staring into the very pair of eyes she had glimpsed in her dazed, detached state—eyes filled with hatred and bloodshot intensity.

A moment later, she saw the person before her part his lips slightly, but she couldn’t make out what he said.

For an instant, illusion and reality seemed to overlap. The overwhelming fear and trembling panic she had felt in the vision merged with the present moment.

Gan Qiongying shuddered violently, and the strength in her arms gave way completely.

“Princess?” Lihua also sensed something was off with Gan Qiongying and had already called her several times.

But before his next words, “What’s wrong with you?” could leave his mouth, they were firmly blocked.

Gan Qiongying completely collapsed toward him, her partially loosened long hair—some of it already fallen from her hairpin—along with her entire striking face and brows, pressing down on Lihua.

Just then, Silver Moon and Manyue, who had called out twice without receiving a response from Gan Qiongying, panicked completely. Without a second thought, they directly pulled open the carriage door.

Then the two of them froze in place, their pretty faces turning from red to pale, then from pale back to red.

Manyue acted swiftly, slamming the carriage door shut with a “bang.”

Inside the carriage, the moment Gan Qiongying fully collapsed onto him, Lihua had already stiffened there, like a corpse long dead.

Only his lips could still feel a soft cheek that did not belong to him, and his ears could still perceive breaths that were not his own spraying against his neck.

His rigid arms supported the soft, limp body in his embrace, and from Silver Moon and Manyue’s perspective just moments before, it looked as though he were intimately kissing the person in his arms.

Lihua had never been this close to a woman in his life. The gradually tightening veins in his neck looked as though he were enduring immense agony.

His burning red ears, like an incurable contagion, spread the heat from his ears down to his collar, and finally even to the hands supporting Gan Qiongying.

The warmth continuously spread between their pressed-together bodies. Gan Qiongying had now snapped out of her dazed state, feeling utterly embarrassed, wishing she could close her eyes and die, then start anew in another world.

“I didn’t mean to…” Her body remained weak, the back of her head throbbed faintly, and aside from her mouth, she had no strength anywhere else.

But her futile and awkward explanation, combined with her apparent reluctance to get off him, seemed like nothing more than playful flirtation.

But God as her witness, Gan Qiongying had never intended to take advantage of anyone.

Who knew that what those idol dramas portrayed actually had a certain probability of being true!

It was so clichéd!

If Gan Qiongying hadn’t mustered every ounce of her strength to turn her head at the most critical, life-or-death moment, she would have certainly ended up planting her lips on Lihua’s.

Gan Qiongying closed her eyes for a moment, then slightly turned her head and said, “Help me up…”

She wanted to say, “Help me up, I have no strength.”

But she didn’t realize that although she had turned her head in time, her cheek had landed on Lihua’s lips, narrowly avoiding the “falling inevitably leads to kissing” trope.

However… they were pressed together. At this distance, when she turned her head and spoke, her breath brushed teasingly against him, her lips almost imperceptibly touching the corner of Lihua’s mouth as she spoke, making it seem as though she were deliberately provoking him.

Coupled with her refusal to get off him, wasn’t she just taking the opportunity to act like a rogue?

Thus, Lihua, who had finally snapped out of the stiffness from the “accidental contact,” felt the breath and touch at the corner of his lips. With a forceful push of his arms, he directly shoved Gan Qiongying aside.

Gan Qiongying landed back on the soft cushion of the carriage. It didn’t hurt, but she was already dizzy, and the impact had left her dazed.

She let out a muffled groan and lay there motionless.

Of course, she hadn’t fainted—she simply had no strength and couldn’t bear to lift her head.

This matter simply couldn’t be explained. How could she possibly tell Lihua that she hadn’t intentionally stayed pressed against his chest without getting up, or that when the maid opened the carriage door, she had accidentally pressed her cheek against his lips?

She certainly couldn’t say that she had just bumped her head, seen hallucinations, felt as if her soul had left her body, and still lacked the strength to control her movements.

Even she wouldn’t believe such words!

After Lihua pushed her away and stood up, he sat bolt upright, as if a steel spear had been thrust into his spine. His hands clenched tightly at his sides, his body leaning against the carriage wall. A flush of crimson spread across every inch of his exposed skin as he stared fixedly at Gan Qiongying, his sharp gaze tinged with shame and anger.

He was convinced she had done it on purpose!

He had thought she had changed, but it turned out she was merely pretending for a while. Before she could even lure him through the gates of the Princess Manor, she was already this impatient!

The carriage wasn’t jolting too violently, but after she had thrown herself at him, she… had pressed against him, refusing to get up, and even deliberately let the maid see.

The faint trace of goodwill Lihua had felt toward her the previous night vanished without a trace in an instant.

He could only laugh at his own foolishness for imagining he could seek any warmth from such a lust-driven woman.

It was too humiliating. Why should he let himself become a stray dog wagging its tail and begging for scraps again, drowning in fleeting, illusory warmth?

He stood up, pushed open the door, and leaped out of the carriage, his heart filled with desolation, shame, and anger. He headed straight for the carriage following behind, unable to stay in the same carriage with Gan Qiongying as if nothing had happened.

Gan Qiongying had been lying there, pretending to be dead, but when she sensed Lihua getting up and leaving the carriage, she instinctively knew things were going badly.

She had finally managed to coax the God of Wealth out, and he was almost invited home—she couldn’t let it all fall apart now!

After lying there for a while, she had regained some strength. Gritting her teeth, she scrambled up and stumbled out of the carriage door.

Seeing Lihua refuse the maid’s assistance and head toward the carriage behind, her suspicions were confirmed—he was trying to escape!

The carriages behind were all from his Consort’s residence, filled with his belongings. If he got into one and turned around, he would simply go home.

“Consort!” Gan Qiongying called out to him in her panic.

Lihua paused slightly at the sound of her voice but didn’t even turn his head, continuing to walk away.

In her desperation, Gan Qiongying’s voice carried a mix of grievance and frustration: “Husband! Where are you going?”

Poor Gan Qiongying, who had already hit her head quite hard earlier, grew so anxious that she nearly ran out of breath. Her knees weakened, and she tumbled out of the carriage.

Hearing her call him “husband,” Lihua halted his steps and glanced back slightly, intending to say he was only going to sit in the carriage behind. But as he turned, he saw Princess Duanrong leaping from the carriage toward him!

He immediately turned around, instinctively opening his arms, and caught Gan Qiongying firmly in his embrace.