Jiaojiao is getting married, and the male leads fall for her and fight over her.

Chapter 332 He's Leaving Beijing
Pei Xizhou scoffed upon hearing this: "I can see right through you with just a blink of your eye, stop pretending."

Upon hearing this, Li Yi pulled Pei Xizhou to sit down: "You only criticize me, but aren't you the same? Save your breath, you're too ashamed to criticize me."

Pei Xizhou remained silent and did not respond.

"If only Cousin Shen had a few, we could each have one, wouldn't that be perfect?" Li Yi muttered to himself.

Li Yi thought that it would be good if it could really be like that, but it was impossible.

He rarely left the palace, and being with Pei Xizhou allowed him to be himself again. Now that he was emperor, he had to maintain a certain image in public, which made him quite uncomfortable.

“Let’s stay like this for the rest of our lives, okay? You’re not allowed to change, and I’m not allowed to change either,” Li Yi suddenly said.

Pei Xizhou scoffed, "I think you're already turning bad."

Li Yi couldn't help but nudge him: "Isn't it normal for an emperor to turn bad?"

"Why don't you appoint an empress?" Pei Xizhou asked suddenly after laughing.

Li Yi was caught off guard by Pei Xizhou's attack, but he quickly regained his composure: "The Crown Princess's status is not high, so it's not good for her to be the Empress."

"Could it be that the position of empress was left vacant for the sake of your cousin?" Pei Xizhou leaned closer to him.

Li Yi felt that Pei Xizhou was too close to him, and he pushed Pei Xizhou away with disgust, saying, "There's a limit to your jokes. Do you think I would do something like this?"

Pei Xizhou, however, disagreed: "What you can't have is always the best. I understand that you're giving up the Empress's position for your cousin. But you must remember that you are the Emperor. You can no longer be as willful as before. You now bear the fate of the Great Qi on your shoulders. You haven't given birth to a prince yet; you should hurry up..."

He began to lecture incessantly, but Li Yi did not respond at all.

When he turned his head, he found that Li Yi had actually fallen asleep.

Li Yi slept exceptionally soundly that night, the deepest he had ever slept since becoming emperor. But he woke up before dawn the next day, and upon seeing Pei Xizhou on the bed, he quickly got out of bed in disgust.

Startled awake by his sudden movement, Pei Xizhou asked indistinctly, "Are we going back to the palace?"

Li Yi paused in his dressing: "Okay, I'm going back to the palace. I'll come out to visit you when I have time."

Pei Xizhou felt that Li Yi wouldn't have time to spare in the future; being an emperor was not like being a spoiled prince.
"Alright, I'll come to the palace to see you whenever I have free time. Look at you, so useless, you're hardly the emperor," Pei Xizhou said with a sneer, noticing Li Yi's low spirits.

Li Qi's lips immediately curled up: "Fine, you're just an idle good-for-nothing anyway."

“Who said that? I plan to leave the capital after my cousin’s child is born,” Pei Xizhou said without warning.

Li Yi's expression changed upon hearing this: "I won't let you leave!"

Pei Xizhou found it amusing: "What, you've realized you've fallen in love with me?"

"I'm telling you, now that you're gone, I don't even have my last friend left." Li Yi felt sad just thinking about it.

“I’ve left the capital before, but I’ve never seen you act so pretentious.” Pei Xizhou was speechless.

Li Yi was speechless. Yes, Pei San used to travel outside the capital often, so why didn't he find it inappropriate? Perhaps it was because after becoming emperor, while he gained power, he had fewer people around him who truly cared for him.

“I have to move forward. If I stay in the capital, I worry that I will develop resentment and ruin my brother’s and cousin’s relationship.” Pei Xizhou just felt that he didn’t want to become a second Pei Nanzhou.

He needs to go out and broaden his horizons, so as not to confine himself to romantic love.

Li Yi scoffed, "That's all you've got!" "Even though I'll be away from the capital, I can come see you every year or two. Besides, isn't my older brother your friend too?" Pei Xizhou offered a half-hearted attempt at reassurance.

Li Yi shuddered when he thought of Pei Dongzhou's ever-smiling face: "I get scared when I see Dongzhou's face, and I subconsciously treat him as my teacher."

"Alright, this is still uncertain, you should go back to the palace first." Pei Xizhou was exhausted and turned around to continue sleeping.

Li Yi turned to look at Pei Xizhou, reminiscing about the times they used to enjoy wine and women at Baixianglou. Those wonderful days were gone forever.

When he walked out of the West Garden, he found that Pei Dongzhou was already waiting outside. Upon seeing him come out, Pei Dongzhou said in a low voice, "Your Majesty should not leave the palace casually in the future, so as to avoid any accidents."

Li Yi ignored Pei Dongzhou and headed straight for Fusang Temple.

Pei Dongzhou saw through his destination and reminded him, "If Your Majesty doesn't set off for the palace soon, you will be late. It's not good to keep the ministers waiting too long."

Li Yi glanced back at Pei Dongzhou: "I just wanted to take one last look at Cousin Shen..."

The next moment, Pei Dongzhou blocked his way: "Your Majesty, please return to the palace!"

Li Yi could see Pei Dongzhou's resolute attitude; it was clear that the young master Pei didn't want him to see his cousin Shen, which was why he was blocking his way.

He glanced in the direction of Fusangin, and although he felt a little regretful, he still changed course.

However, he still held a glimmer of hope: "Dongzhou, you should take your cousin Shen to the palace more often. The palace has everything, and your cousin should go there to see a different kind of scenery."

Pei Dongzhou ignored him, finding Pei Shizi dull, boring, and utterly uninteresting.

Ever since Pei Dongzhou rescued Shen Shuyi from Pei Nanzhou, he has been in a busy mode.

Shen Shuyi knew that the reason he was busy was because Li Yi relied on him for everything, and with the new emperor's ascension to the throne, many people were eager to make a move, so Pei Dongzhou needed to help Li Yi stabilize the situation.

Pei Dongzhou had only been back in the capital for less than half a month, but he had already visibly lost weight, which made Shen Shuyi very distressed.

But there was nothing she could do to help Pei Dongzhou. All she could do was make him some nourishing soup, hoping it would help him recover.

This actually made things difficult for Pei Dongzhou. He could only look at his delicious wife but couldn't eat her. He would rather be busy so he wouldn't have time to think about other things.

Inside the palace, Li Yi went to visit the retired emperor that day and saw Xia Nianchu carefully attending to his illness.

He was very satisfied with Xia Nianchu's dedication to the Emperor Emeritus. He talked with the Emperor Emeritus for half an hour and had a cup of tea. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly felt unwell.

He was very young and never needed to take any aphrodisiacs, so he had never experienced the effects of aphrodisiacs before. As a result, he only realized how potent this stuff was after being drugged this time. He almost lost control and pounced on Xia Nianchu who was standing next to him.

However, he still maintained some rationality and knew that something was amiss.

Furthermore, this tea came from the Emperor Emeritus's palace, and Xia Nianchu was the one who attended to the Emperor Emeritus during his illness. This suggests that Xia Nianchu was very likely the one who administered the medicine.

If he really touched Xia Nianchu, then he would truly have fallen into Xia Nianchu's trap.

Li Yi was right; Xia Nianchu had indeed administered the aphrodisiac. She was so young; how could she spend her life serving the retired emperor? Her presence to attend to him was also a ploy to get closer to the new emperor.

She had been preparing for a long time and felt that today was a good opportunity, the timing was just right, so of course she had to successfully serve him in bed.

(End of this chapter)