Five years after her death, she awoke on the dragon bed.

Chapter 76 Plain Clothes Outburst: There are so many women, why do you have to keep me here too?!

Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Chen walked to Murong's side and asked with concern, "Why did you suddenly decide to return to the palace?"

Murong's expression was indifferent, revealing neither joy nor anger: "I have some matters to attend to and have decided to return to the palace first. I did not mean to disturb Your Majesty's enjoyment. I will take Your Majesty to Yi Garden again next time."

Empress Dowager Chen felt that something must have happened that she didn't know about, and not wanting to make things difficult for Murong, she followed the imperial procession back to the palace.

It was only then that Empress Dowager Chen belatedly realized that Lou Suyi was missing. Not only Empress Dowager Chen, but Consort De and Consort Liang also discovered that Lou Suyi was nowhere to be found in the procession returning to the palace.

Lou Suying, who was hiding inside the Wuliang Hall, was unaware of the commotion outside.

She had been waiting for a long time and was a little hungry. Seeing the food for offering to the gods on the table, she said "Amitabha" and apologized to the Buddha in her heart before bowing her head to eat the food.

As darkness fell, there was still no sound outside, which she found eerily quiet.

She disappeared for several hours; Yan Hui should have noticed her absence long ago, right?
If that's the case, does it mean that Murong doesn't care whether she stays or leaves?
If that's the case, should she leave Yi Garden under the cover of night?

She did have some loose silver on her, because she felt it would be easier to leave Yiyuan last night while she was sleeping, so she deliberately carried the few loose silver pieces that the emperor hadn't taken with her, just in case.

She waited for another hour in the Wuliang Palace. When the night was deep, she hesitated and then took her hand out of the Wuliang Palace.

The garden was quiet and deserted.

Yi Garden covers a large area and is a royal garden-style building. She walked for a long time before she saw two palace maids in the winding corridor not far away.

She immediately hid and overheard two palace maids discussing why the imperial procession had suddenly returned to the palace.

Lou Suyi was overjoyed when she heard that the imperial procession had returned to the palace.

She had initially thought the quietness of Yi Garden was somewhat eerie, but if Murong had returned to the palace, then the quietness of Yi Garden was normal.

Seeing that it was getting late, she realized it wasn't safe to leave Yi Garden at this time. To be on the safe side, she decided it would be more prudent to leave Yi Garden early the next morning. So she sneaked into a garden, found a water source to quench her thirst, and planned to rest on a deck chair for the night.

She wasn't hungry after eating the food, so she lay down comfortably and soon fell asleep, exhausted both physically and mentally.

She woke up before dawn the next day and found that it was still quiet around her. She became even more convinced that Murong did not care whether she left or not, so she mustered her courage and went to the gate of Yi Garden.

There were guards standing in front of Yi Garden. The moment they saw her, she straightened her head and puffed out her chest, looking very confident.

The guard watched Lou Suyi approach. Lou Suyi was uneasy, but she didn't show it on her face.

Upon reaching the guards, Lou Suyi said "Amitabha" before continuing, "I overslept yesterday and was unaware that the imperial procession had left Yiyuan. I will now return to the palace to see the Empress Dowager."

She believed that anyone with eyes could see that she entered Yiyuan Garden with Empress Dowager Chen yesterday, which meant that she was Empress Dowager Chen's person, and the guards had no reason to stop her.

The guards still looked at her with strange eyes. It was the lead guard who was the first to come to his senses and said to her, "Please, Abbess!"

Lou Suyi was delighted upon hearing this, but forcibly suppressed the upward curve of her lips.

She walked briskly out of the gate of Yiyuan, thinking to herself, "How did things go so smoothly? She's really lucky..."

But when she looked up and saw the tall figure standing with his back to her in front of the Imperial Garden, she immediately stopped smiling.

When Jiqing saw her, he came forward and said, "Yesterday His Majesty returned to the palace first, but unexpectedly he left the Fourth Miss behind. So His Majesty came to personally fetch the Fourth Miss back to the palace."

Lou Suying's face was very pale, and she stood there, unwilling to move.

This was clearly giving her a glimmer of hope only to dash it later; Murong was toying with her like a cat playing with a mouse! Just as she was feeling down, Murong, standing in the dim morning light, finally turned to look at her, his eyes unreadable.

"When you've had your fun, head back to the palace. I don't have that much time to play hide-and-seek with you. This is a one-time thing, and there won't be another." Murong said, and took the lead in getting into the carriage.

Lou Suying was seething with anger. She wasn't playing around; she genuinely wanted to leave the palace. Couldn't he just set her free?

Seeing that Lou Suyi was still standing there without moving, Ji Qing whispered a reminder: "Miss, please don't say anything that will displease His Majesty, otherwise no one can save you."

Lou Suyi was unconvinced; she had a protective charm in her belly and wasn't afraid of Murong.

However, she knew that nothing she said would make a difference, but she was really unwilling to return to the palace like this.

Thinking of this, she moved closer to the carriage, lifted the curtain, and said, "I'm always bad at speaking and clumsy in my actions, and I'm afraid I might accidentally anger His Majesty again. Could His Majesty please let me return to the Lotus Nunnery?"

Murong looked at her with cold eyes, his thin lips uttering the merciless words: "No!"

Lou Suyi looked around and found that apart from Ji Qing, there was no one else there. So, it wasn't impossible for her to run away.
Ji Qing then quietly appeared behind her: "Miss, don't anger His Majesty anymore, you can't escape."

Fourth Sister was still too naive.

The whole world belongs to His Majesty, let alone the Fourth Miss. Even if the Fourth Miss manages to escape by chance, His Majesty will still bring her back.

"If Fourth Miss doesn't get on the carriage, I'll take action!" Ji Qing threatened, seeing that Lou Suyi was still trying to make a last-ditch effort.

Lou Suyi reluctantly got into the carriage. She deliberately sat in a seat far away from Murong, but the carriage was only so big, where could she hide?
Fortunately, Murong closed his eyes to rest and seemed not to care about her, which relieved her.

Because she had gotten up early, she yawned, leaned against the carriage, and quickly became sleepy.

She slept on and off the way until she arrived at Xianfu Palace.

After she disembarked from the carriage, she walked briskly into the palace. Yan Hui saw her and was about to speak, but when she saw the emperor following behind her, she immediately fell silent.

"Yan Hui has failed to serve properly. Guards, give her twenty strokes of the cane!" Murong ordered calmly.

Lou Suying quickly pleaded for Yan Hui: "It has nothing to do with Yan Hui, it's not her fault..."

"Thirty strokes of the cane!" Murong's voice was devoid of warmth as he looked at Lou Suying.

Lou Suyi looked at Yan Hui kneeling on the ground, knowing full well that she was the one who had harmed her.

She could not challenge the emperor's authority; if she pleaded for mercy again, Yan Hui would only beat her even more severely.

Fearing things would escalate further, Ji Qing quickly ordered his men to drag Yan Hui away.

Lou Suying felt a pang of sadness, her eyes reddening: "I don't think I've done anything wrong. I never wanted to be His Majesty's person. I never belonged to the palace..."

Before she could speak, Jiqing, Jili, and Jinshu all knelt down at the same time, looking at her with pleading eyes.

Lou Suying was instantly enraged and shouted, "Am I wrong? I am a nun, what kind of talk is it for me to be hanging out with your master all the time? He has so many women, why does he have to keep me on as well?!"

I've seen many people asking when my son will discover that Su Yi is pregnant. Although I don't have an outline yet, it should be in the next day or two.

(End of this chapter)