70: Duke Shen: Your mother has her reasons.

After returning to the Princesss Residence, Mo Yingqi finally noticed that the entire residence was decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, bustling with excitement.

"It is fine now. Once we are in our own home, there is no need to worry about those things." Luo Yongan handed her round fan to the maid beside her, then nodded at Ying Hong and said, "Send the banquet to our courtyard. Also, do as I said and tell them all."

"Understood, Your Highness."

Ying Hong nodded, then turned to the maids and matrons and said, "Today is the joyous wedding day of the Princesses and the Prince Consort. The Two Highnesses have ordered a reward of one hundred taels of silver for each of you!"

"Thank you, Your Highnesses! Thank you, Prince Consort!"

Although these people were very clear about the temperaments of Luo Yongan and Luo Yongning, they would still go through fire and water for them without hesitation. For one, many of these people had been personally selected and carefully trained by the sisters for five years. Otherwise, many of them might have been sold into brothels and had their lives ruined in those places of ill repute.

Secondly, the two sisters were truly generous to their subordinates. Moreover, as long as one did not touch their inverse scale, Mo Yingqi, the sisters would not treat their servants harshly; on the contrary, they were extremely considerate towards them.

Furthermore, two-thirds of the maids in the Princesss Residence were the sisters' death soldiers. They were trained from a young age and were the type who would truly die for them.

"That is enough. Just leave a few to serve the Princesses and the Prince Consort closely, and as for the banquet, you all go and eat as well," Ying Hong continued. "Although it is a joyous day today and you are allowed to relax, you must still keep a close watch on the gates. Those who are on duty must not indulge in too much wine. Now, all of you, disperse!"

Mo Yingqi felt that this was unnecessary, because compared to usual, today, apart from the extra silver and the banquet, it seemed that for these people... there was no difference.

"Let's go, Yingqi. The wine and food are all prepared, just waiting for us to eat." Luo Yongan pulled his left wrist. "I have skipped the remaining rituals; Yongning and I have never believed in those. As long as you are the one held in our hands, and it has always been you, that is enough."

"However, there is one that cannot be skipped, oh?" Luo Yongning held his other hand. "The nuptial wine, we still have to drink that, right?"

"Can I drink water instead?" Mo Yingqi was truly afraid of hearing the word 'wine' now. "Every time I have drunk wine those two times, it has caused a pile of trouble..."

"Oh, Yingqi, it doesn't matter. Now that everything is official, besides..." Luo Yongning said this, her face actually showing a hint of a blush and shyness. "Besides, now that we have done everything, even if you drink wine, it won't be considered as ruining things, right?"

"It is fine, if Yingqi wants to drink water, let him drink water." Luo Yongan said with a light laugh. "However, Yongning is right. Even if you drink wine now, it won't be considered ruining things; it should be considered..."

As she spoke, she leaned gently into Mo Yingqi's ear and whispered softly, "It should be called the joy of the boudoir."

Hearing them say this, Mo Yingqi only felt his face burning and his heart racing. However, perhaps because the three of them were now inseparable every day, Mo Yingqi had not had those dreams that made him blush and his heart race, yet were somewhat strange.

Moreover, what was strange was that in the two days he could not see them—for instance, when he was on official duty raiding the homes of those officials, or last night when the sisters had devoured him completely and then dragged their exhausted bodies back to the palace to prepare for today's wedding—Mo Yingqi's longing for them had become overwhelming.

To call it longing did not seem quite appropriate; it was more like a habit, a habit that had slowly seeped into every corner of his life.

This feeling was a first for him. Although he had experienced something like this once before when they had left quietly five years ago, but... this time it was different, very different.

"What is wrong, Yingqi?" Luo Yongan asked curiously as she pulled him along. "Is there something on your mind?"

"Oh, no, perhaps I just haven't rested well?" Mo Yingqi shook his head and temporarily cast this matter to the back of his mind. "Let's go, Sister Yongan, Sister Yongning."

Meanwhile, in the Empress's palace, the Duke's wife was sitting on a chair drinking tea. Nangong Wumeng, Empress Shen's biological mother, the former leader of Partridge Sky, and senior martial sister of Xie Qingfeng.

Sitting beside her, wearing official robes, looking imposing yet carrying an air of scholarly refinement, was the old man who was her husband, the current Duke, and the elder brother of Shen Xian, Shen Zhen.

"Mother, it is not that I want to criticize you, but how could you indulge Yong'an and Luo Yongning in concocting 'Love Follows'?" Empress Shen's voice trembled slightly. "Do you know that there is no cure for that poison? If Mo Yingqi truly dies, they will also die of a burst heart!"

"I heard you. Can you be quieter?" Nangong Wumeng just looked at her teacup, as if what Empress Shen said had nothing to do with her. "Your father and I also have 'Love Follows' in us; it is not the first day you have known this, so why make such a fuss?"

"Mother, was I born then?" Empress Shen was about to be fainted with anger by her own mother. "If I had been born then, I would definitely have stopped you from doing so! Father, can't you say something to her?"

"Say what?" Shen Zhen just waved his hand helplessly. "Forget it, forget it. Girl, your mother naturally has her reasons for doing this. Moreover, everything has settled now, and Yong'an and Luo Yongning have also fulfilled their wish to marry the boy they wanted to marry. Isn't this a happy ending for everyone?"

It is hard to imagine that this Duke Shen, who fought battles abroad and rendered great meritorious service for the Daxing Dynasty, was so accommodating in front of his own wife, and even had deep love in his eyes.

Nangong Wumeng smiled and turned back, wiped her husband's forehead with a handkerchief, and then turned to glare reproachfully at her daughter. "Your father traveled day and night just to attend Yong'an and Luo Yongning's wedding. After dealing with things over there, he came to your palace to visit you. You girl, you don't feel for your father, but I still feel for my husband!"

"Mother, that is not the issue we are discussing now!" Empress Shen retorted with extreme dissatisfaction. "You promised me back then that you could teach them anything, but you absolutely could not teach them 'Love Follows'. How did they still learn it?"

In fact, ever since Mo Yingqi was drugged by the sisters in the palace for the first time, Empress Shen had already had some suspicions. Now that everything was a fait accompli, she could only endure without erupting, waiting for her parents to arrive to question her mother in front of her father.

She had long known that her mother was a madwoman, but she had not expected that her father, who used to be reasonable, would have absolutely no reaction when he learned that his granddaughters had done such things!

"Girl, just set your heart at ease." Shen Zhen smiled slightly. "With The Emperor, with our Shen Family, and with Partridge Sky, those three children will be fine."

"Father, I am a parent myself now, and besides, that child Mo Yingqi is innocent. Just because he was fancied by Yong'an and Luo Yongning... Back when you and my mother were together, she schemed against you in the same way!"

Empress Shen gritted her teeth; there were some words she felt she had to get off her chest. "Yong'an and Luo Yongning are now acting like maniacs, and they even used 'Love Follows'. Mother, please do not think that your daughter understands nothing. It was one thing that you and my father used this strange poison back then, but now it is Yong'an and Luo Yongning using it. None of us know if there will be any variables!"

"I know, you only have eyes for my father. Whether it is me or my brothers, we are all just what you call 'children'. But now, you should not have harmed my daughters and harmed my son-in-law!"

A cold, chilling aura slowly spread from Nangong Wumeng, and her gaze, devoid of any warmth, looked at her own biological child.

"Wumeng, what are you doing?" Shen Zhen frowned and reached out to gently hold his wife's wrist, and that chill instantly dissipated. "Girl, I know you have resentment in your heart..."

"It is still the same saying: your mother has her reasons for doing things. Moreover... you are not the fish, how do you know the joy of the fish? How do you know that I was not willing, and how do you know that the child... is also not willing?"