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?"
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
