Gu Chengyin shook his head and followed along.
On the desk lay a bolt of bright yellow brocade, upon which rested an imperial edict, set down with perfect precision.
The scroll's rollers were carved from fine celadon jade, each end inlaid with a clasp of woven gold cloud motifs that gleamed with a soft luster in the sunlight.
Through the bright yellow silk, the faint outline of ink traces could be glimpsed—the words that symbolized the will of the Son of Heaven, every character carrying supreme authority.
Gu Chengyin walked to the desk, his gaze landing on the edict.
He did not reach for it immediately, but stood quietly for a long moment.
The bright yellow silk gleamed softly under the sun, and the light reflected in his pupils, yet revealed no emotion.
Luo Zhao sat in the seat of honor, her gaze fixed on the side of Gu Chengyin's face.
From this angle, she could see the sharp lines of his jaw and his slightly lowered eyelids.
Her eyes drifted down of their own accord, settling on his arm—the spot she had bitten just moments ago.
A clear ring of creases was visible there: the mark left by her teeth.
The tips of Luo Zhao's ears flushed a shade deeper.
She quickly averted her gaze and looked straight ahead, her back straightening even more.
At last, Gu Chengyin reached out and picked up the edict from the desk.
The edict's contents were extensive.
The opening followed the usual string of exceedingly ornate formalities, followed by long passages of parallel prose and classical allusions, florid in diction.
The emperor's grace, the welfare of the state, family standing, and the match of a fine man and fair maid were all laid out in lavish detail, stretching to several hundred characters.
But once the cumbersome formalities were stripped away, the core of the matter was simply this: a marriage arrangement.
Gu Chengyin's gaze swept line by line over the edict, his expression initially calm.
But as he read on, his brow gradually furrowed.
His eyes moved back and forth over certain lines, as if confirming something repeatedly, or as if deliberating over something.
Luo Zhao keenly sensed that something was off with Gu Chengyin's expression.
She had been watching him without pause.
From the moment he picked up the edict, her gaze had not left his face.
Gu Chengyin's furrowed brow meant he had seen something he found unusual.
But Luo Zhao had also read the edict herself.
She had gone through it from beginning to end and had found nothing wrong.
The wording was the usual style the Ministry of Rites employed, and it had no flaws.
The betrothal named Lin Qingyan and Gu Chengyin—clear as day.
The imperial seal stamped at the bottom held rich, even vermilion ink, unmistakably authentic.
What could possibly be wrong?
"Is there a problem with this decree?" Luo Zhao couldn't help but ask.
Gu Chengyin's eyes remained on the edict, still fixed on those particular lines.
His lips moved, and he answered Luo Zhao's question.
"The phrasing is wrong."
The phrasing is wrong?
Luo Zhao blinked.
Without thinking, she glanced again at the edict in Gu Chengyin's hand. Though from this angle she could only see the hidden patterns on the back of the silk, she knew the contents of the edict by heart.
The old pedants at the Ministry of Rites would never make a single error in these matters.
How could the phrasing be...
Wait.
Luo Zhao suddenly realized something.
The words themselves were not the problem; the problem lay in the very foundation of the decree.
Because she could tell that this edict was not originally a marriage bestowal, but a summons for an imperial consort.
It was only because the name was Lin Qingyan instead of Luo Zhao that the edict was treated as a bestowal.
To summon meant to invite from outside, to have the Son of Heaven, from a position of authority, take a chosen minister into the imperial family.
An imperial consort entering the royal household might bear a noble title in name, but in reality served as subject to sovereign, as inferior to superior.
To bestow meant for the Son of Heaven to grant a woman to a minister as a favor.
Both were unions of two families, but between "summon" and "bestow," the positions of host and guest were precisely reversed.
That was the problem.
If it were truly a bestowal of marriage, why not draft the content anew, rather than merely swapping in a name on what was originally a summons for an imperial consort?
Luo Zhao knew her father's methods all too well.
The Son of Heaven would never issue a decree so carelessly.
If he truly intended to bestow Lin Qingyan in marriage, he would have ordered the Ministry of Rites to redraft the edict, revising the wording from top to bottom.
Adding where needed and cutting what was superfluous—there was no way he would resort to such a superficial patchwork.
Unless, that is, no real change was ever intended.
That left only one possibility.
Emperor Luo was not bestowing a marriage at all. He still wanted to take Gu Chengyin as his imperial son-in-law.
This was where the issue of phrasing came in, as Gu Chengyin had said.
Just as "marrying in" and "marrying up into the palace" were entirely different concepts, the wording of the edict determined the nature of the marriage.
Who was host, who was guest, who stood above, who stood below—all of it lay hidden in a few crucial characters.
If the edict were to summon an imperial consort, then Gu Chengyin was the one brought into the royal house—titled a consort, but in truth a subordinate.
If it were to bestow a marriage, then Gu Chengyin was the one granted a wife, marrying with full propriety, host and guest in their proper places.
Now, this edict in hand—though the name was Lin Qingyan—still bore traces of the summon-edict on every line.
Like a new patch sewn onto an old garment: from a glance it seemed new, but on closer inspection, every stitch and thread was old.
So then, how could they make Gu Chengyin become an imperial son-in-law while still marrying Lin Qingyan?
Simple. After this edict, issue another.
And that second edict would be to bestow upon Lin Qingyan the title of princess of the Great Luo Empire.
Given Lin Qingyan's status, position, and strength, no one at court would dare to object to such a bestowal. After all, it was only the title of princess—not that of a prince, nor any change to the succession.
Who would court Emperor Luo's displeasure over such a minor matter?
At most, the old pedants at the Ministry of Rites would quibble over ceremonial details.
Once that was done, Gu Chengyin would automatically become an imperial consort.
Luo Zhao ran these threads through her mind in swift succession, and the more she considered it, the more unsettling she found it.
This move by her father seemed like a retreat, but in truth, it had not yielded an inch.
He had only changed a name, changed a phrase, changed the rationale into one no one could fault.
The underlying calculation remained exactly as before—indeed, it had been plotted a layer deeper.
Gu Chengyin could fend off Luo Zhao, but could he also fend off Lin Qingyan?
"Why does Father want you to be his imperial son-in-law so badly?"
When Luo Zhao asked this question, genuine confusion colored her tone.
Gu Chengyin lifted his gaze from the edict and looked at her.
Luo Zhao sat with her hands folded on her lap, poised and proper, back straight, her eyes filled with earnest puzzlement.
She was truly asking the question—not probing, not fishing for answers, merely wanting to know.
Gu Chengyin looked at her earnest expression, and the corner of his mouth suddenly curved upward.
As if holding back a laugh, or as if plotting some mischief.
"Could it be that His Majesty wants you to be a junior wife too, Your Highness?"
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
