The Obsessive Crown Prince Can't Let Me Go
Chapter 188 - 186: Do You Dare Say You’ve Never Liked Lu Shiyan?

Chapter 188: Chapter 186: Do You Dare Say You’ve Never Liked Lu Shiyan?

Shen Yinning covered her mouth and nose: "Second Cousin, you’re so filthy. If not for the high reward money I offered, even the maids around me wouldn’t be willing to clean up after you. You’re an adult now, you should be more mindful."

After saying that, she closed the secret chamber door with an expression of disgust.

Shen Xinglei trembled as he sat in the darkness, his pants long soaked through.

Bound to this chair, he had no way of finding a place to relieve himself!

All these days, he could only urinate on himself.

Back when he was at the border, he used to enjoy tormenting the common folk, locking them in stables as if they were livestock, watching them eat, drink, and defecate in cramped shacks, laughing wantonly with his soldiers at their shamelessness, filth, and stench.

He never imagined that one day, such a fate would befall him!

Thick waves of helplessness and shame washed over him.

He closed his eyes, and two streams of tears silently rolled down.

He had no idea when his elder brother would come to rescue him.

He was on the verge of being driven insane by Shen Yinning’s torment...

The fight in the courtyard ended in a stalemate.

After Lu Shiyan left, Lu Ying stepped into the private room of the bedchamber. He saw Shen Yinning standing before the bookshelf, and when she turned to notice his entrance, a flash of panic briefly crossed her face.

He attributed her panic to the guilt of seeing an old flame.

His expression turned grim: "Seeing your former lover—are you happy now? Why didn’t you call him ’Shiyan Brother’ just a moment ago? Is it because you don’t like him?"

Shen Yinning leaned against the bookshelf, shielding the mechanism of the small bronze bird that opened the secret chamber with her body.

She hid her hands behind her back and silently restored the bird’s wings.

She replied aloud, "When I was thirteen, I was bestowed in marriage to the Crown Prince. For the next two years, I remained His Highness’s fiancée, until the Shen Guogong Mansion was raided, and I was exiled to Gan State. Tell me, where would I have had the time to romantically involved with Prince Wu? How could I possibly have been lovers with him?"

"You and I were betrothed, and yet that did not prevent you from secretly entangling with him."

"When have I ever entangled with Prince Wu?!"

Lu Ying was enraged.

He had seen it with his own eyes—how could it possibly be false?!

The fact that he caught them in broad daylight only underscored the degree to which they must have developed their relationship in private!

But without evidence, there was no way to force Shen Yinning to admit it.

He spoke slowly: "Heaven sees all that is done, Shen Yinning. You know in your heart who you’ve seduced."

Shen Yinning’s indignation flared: "I know nothing of the sort! I’ve never done what you’re accusing me of!"

Prince Wu had treated her kindly.

Even after she was bestowed in marriage to Lu Ying, he continued to treat her with warmth and gentleness, accommodating her every need.

But they had never overstepped the boundaries even once!

Indeed, it was only that year when Prince Wu discovered evidence of Lu Ying privately smuggling salt and iron for huge profits, and she feared that Lu Ying might be implicated, that she humbled herself to curry favor with Prince Wu. Before his departure to his Jiangnan enclave, she stole the account ledger from his possession and quietly burned it to ashes.

Aside from that incident, she felt she had done nothing to wrong Lu Ying.

Moreover, her actions had been intended to safeguard Lu Ying’s position as Crown Prince.

But the more she denied, the angrier Lu Ying became: "Do you dare to swear by your parents’ names that you harbor absolutely no feelings for Lu Shiyan? Before you were betrothed to me, in those tender years when you first blossomed, do you truly claim never to have admired Lu Shiyan even the slightest?"

Shen Yinning unconsciously tightened her grip on the bookshelf behind her.

In those years before her marriage to Lu Ying...

Back then, she had only begun to understand the ways of the world as a young girl.

She remembered how everyone around her would say that the Emperor favored Zhang Noble Consort’s son, Lu Shiyan, and that Lu Shiyan would be Crown Prince and the future Emperor.

At the time, she was the most remarkable young lady in the Capital, renowned for her beauty and lineage.

Everyone said she and Lu Shiyan were destined for one another, that she would be Lu Shiyan’s Crown Princess Consort and the future Empress.

When she was young, she had been raised too high on others’ words.

She was vain, proud, and chased after glory.

She believed that everything those people said was true.

She thought she was so beautiful she was born to stand at the pinnacle—to pair with the most powerful and influential man in the world.

And so, as a young girl, she often spent time with Lu Shiyan. She liked his snowy white attire and jade-like warmth; she admired his imperial lineage and unmatched talents; she adored how he catered to her every whim and cared for her like an older brother.

Later, when she was bestowed in marriage to Lu Ying, she even felt quietly sorrowful for a time.

But that sorrow did not last long, because Lu Ying quickly ascended to the position of Crown Prince.

She was delighted.

She could once again become the Crown Princess Consort.

Faced with Lu Ying’s questioning, Shen Yinning fidgeted with the bookshelf, unsure of how to respond.

Her silence, to Lu Ying, spoke louder than words—it was tacit admission.

He lowered his thin eyelids, his long lashes casting shadows beneath his eyes. Though physically near Shen Yinning, it felt as if a gulf separated them.

What was it about him that fell short compared to Lu Shiyan?

Why did the Emperor not favor him, why did Shen Zhaozhao not favor him?

Even the cousins led by Lu Jiazhe seemed closer to Lu Shiyan, while treating him as if he were a predator.

It was the first day of the new year; Lu Ying refrained from quarreling with Shen Yinning.

After a lengthy silence, he asked quietly, "Have you finished your dumplings?"

Shen Yinning retrieved a plate from the shelf’s opening: "Here."

Lu Ying accepted the plate of dumplings.

The young woman, picky as she was, had eaten only the shrimp and seafood-stuffed dumplings, had taken a bite of an amaranth and minced meat dumpling before discarding it, and left all the others untouched.

Shen Yinning watched him, unable to fathom what he was thinking, only feeling that his demeanor was deeply unsettling. She quietly slipped away.

Lu Ying sat by the window with the plate of dumplings.

He picked up the dumpling left half-eaten by Shen Yinning and began eating it slowly.

As a child in Noble Consort Liu’s palace, nobody ever spent the holidays with him.

He decorated his chamber with lanterns himself, cooked food like zongzi, green rice cakes, dumplings, and longevity noodles in the small kitchen by himself—following tradition to seriously celebrate festivals and birthdays alone.

Today was the first day of the year; dumplings shaped like ingots were customarily eaten.

He thought, since Shen Yinning’s father, brothers, and mother were no longer around, he should accompany her in eating dumplings.

But the young woman didn’t enjoy them.

Lu Ying swallowed the dumplings.

They had already gone cold.

...

Shen Yinning rode in a carriage, accompanied by Haitang and Wei Yu, quietly returning to Gao Family’s residence in Lotus Flower Alley.

Nanny Chen presented an invitation: "This was sent by the Crown Princess Consort, inviting Madam to a banquet in the palace on the third day of the new year. I’ve heard it’s a banquet hosted by the Noble Consort specifically for Prince Wu and his Princess. Quite a few people have been invited."

Shen Yinning was indifferent.

A banquet hosted by Zhang Noble Consort, yet Shen Yunxi went out of her way to extend an invitation to her—obviously because she almost married Prince Wu in the past.

She wanted to provoke jealousy in Prince Wu’s Princess, intending to use her to deal with Shen Yinning.

Shen Yinning rested her cheek in her hand.

Had she known things would be this troublesome, she wouldn’t have allowed herself to become entangled with Lu Shiyan all those years ago.

As she was brooding, Yin Shanshan and Gao Yun suddenly arrived to pay her a visit.