The Side Character Wants to Lie Flat-Chapter 115: What an Interesting Little Thing You Are

Chapter 115: Chapter 115: What an Interesting Little Thing You Are

The air fell into a long silence.

Just when Hua Manman thought Li Ji wouldn’t speak again, he suddenly began, his voice low and deep.

"Many people believe I am his son."

Hua Manman asked cautiously, "Is it true?"

Li Ji countered with a question, "What do you think?"

Hua Manman laughed awkwardly. "I do not know."

Li Ji asked again, "If I said it wasn’t true, would you believe me?"

Hua Manman nodded without hesitation. "I would!"

Li Ji stared at her. "Why?"

Hua Manman said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Compared to all that gossip, I naturally believe the Prince. After all, you are my husband!"

After spending this time together, she had come to a preliminary understanding of Prince Zhao.

’He might not always act like a decent human being, always looking for ways to torment me. He’s a sharp-tongued, irritating jerk, and he isn’t all there in the head.’

’But he has never actually lied to me.’

Li Ji, hearing her inner thoughts: "..."

He should have been happy she trusted him, but he didn’t feel the slightest bit of joy.

Instead, it felt like his heart had been stabbed repeatedly.

It was truly vexing.

Li Ji reached out, unerringly pinching the nape of her neck, and said with a smile.

"I never thought you trusted me so much. I’m truly touched."

His words sounded appreciative, but Hua Manman could clearly sense the danger in them.

She wanted to pull back, but his grip on her nape held her fast. She could only brace herself and continue the act.

"I was just speaking my mind."

The pad of Li Ji’s thumb slowly caressed her nape, his voice low and soft.

"I know you’ve always been honest and obedient, never deceiving me. I hope you can keep that up. Don’t disappoint me, now."

Hua Manman felt there was a hidden meaning in his words, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. She could only reply obediently.

"I will certainly not disappoint Your Highness."

Li Ji squeezed her nape, not too hard and not too soft, and said with a laugh, "So obedient."

’He had gone against his father’s dying wish, choosing to trust her.’

’If she betrayed his trust in the future, he would have no choice but to kill her.’

’He would make her repay the trust he had placed in her with her own blood and flesh.’

Hua Manman instinctively felt that Prince Zhao was very dangerous at that moment.

She suppressed her unease and forced a change of topic.

"Wen Zhaorong has a blood feud with you, and Yichongyuan wants to pave the way for her son. Both of them have a motive to frame you."

Li Ji released her nape, leaned back, and said lazily, "And?"

Hua Manman resisted the urge to rub her nape and answered calmly.

"I suspect they both had a hand in framing you, but one was the mastermind, and the other simply took advantage of the situation."

Li Ji raised an eyebrow. "Why don’t you think they conspired together?"

Hua Manman analyzed earnestly.

"They are both concubines of the Saint, which makes them natural competitors.

This means they could never coexist peacefully.

If they conspired to frame the Prince, it would be like personally handing the other person leverage over themselves. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

They wouldn’t do something that stupid."

Li Ji laughed again.

"If you were this clever back when you were studying, you wouldn’t have ended up farming."

Hua Manman: "..."

’A dog’s mouth can’t spit out ivory, as they say. The ancients were right all along!’

Hearing her inner thoughts, the smile on Li Ji’s face faltered for a moment before he burst out laughing even more freely.

He even reached out, pulled Hua Manman into his embrace, and forced her onto his lap, squeezing her slender waist.

"You truly are an interesting little thing."

Hua Manman’s waist was very sensitive.

At his touch, half her body instantly went limp, and a blush crept over her little face.

She said coyly, "My Lord, please don’t~"

’You’re the little thing! Your whole family is made of little things!’

Li Ji was still laughing, his gaze on the woman in his arms growing ever brighter.

In the past, Li Ji had often found the Mind Reading Technique to be a troublesome ability.

He could often hear people’s unspoken thoughts, most of which were filthy, sordid, and dark.

Hearing them so often inevitably made him irritable. Sometimes, he even felt the urge to destroy everything.

’If he just destroyed everything, he wouldn’t have to hear those sickening voices anymore.’

Hua Manman was the sole exception.

Her inner thoughts didn’t disgust him; on the contrary, he found them amusing.

Her arrival had finally brought a splash of color to his boring, gray, and tedious life.

Just being with her, even doing nothing at all, would put him in a good mood.

「Three days later.」

Prince Zhao presented a batch of fine wine to the Emperor.

The Emperor was delighted and hosted a banquet in Yuqing Palace that very evening, inviting everyone to taste the fine wine.

When Yichongyuan heard the news, she was filled with a sense of foreboding.

She didn’t want to go.

But she dared not refuse the Emperor’s gracious invitation. Besides, everyone else was attending; if she were the only one absent, it would surely arouse suspicion.

After much hesitation, she finally gritted her teeth and resolved to attend the banquet.

Once she was ready, Yichongyuan gazed at her reflection in the Glazed Mirror, her expression distant.

It had been ten years since she entered the palace.

For these ten years, she had lived every day as if walking on thin ice. This was especially true after giving birth to Yi’er; she was careful in all things, terrified that he would be the target of a scheme.

She had painstakingly seen Yi’er through to his current age.

Now, she had begun to worry about his future.

To be born into the Royal Family is to be destined for a life of struggling for power.

Yichongyuan did not want her son to become a stepping stone for someone else’s success.

She had to fight and claw for every advantage to win her son more leverage.

With that leverage, even if she were gone one day, her Yi’er could live out the rest of his life in peace.

Just then, the Sixth Prince, Li Yi, ran in, calling out affectionately, "Mother!"

He was only six, and having been born prematurely, his frame was much thinner and more delicate than the other Princes’.

Yichongyuan bent down and smoothed the wrinkles on her son’s collar.

She instructed him.

"You are to stay in your room tonight. Don’t go anywhere."

Li Yi asked blankly, "Why? Isn’t Father Emperor hosting a banquet tonight for us to taste wine?"

Yichongyuan coaxed him softly, "You’re still too young to drink. Be a good boy and go to bed early tonight. I will make you sweet rice balls tomorrow."

Li Yi absolutely loved sweet rice balls, but his mother said the sticky rice was hard to digest, so she rarely let him have them.

Hearing that he could eat his favorite treat, Li Yi’s eyes immediately lit up.

He agreed to his mother’s request without a moment’s hesitation.

Yichongyuan lovingly stroked his cheek.

She didn’t know what was going to happen at the banquet tonight.

But countless past experiences told her that Prince Zhao never acted without a purpose.

For him to present fine wine to the Emperor at a time like this, he must be planning to use the occasion for something.

Yichongyuan couldn’t guarantee that she would escape this time unscathed.

She could only hope that her son would not be dragged into it.

...