Hua Qingqing grew anxious at the sight and hurriedly said,

"That’s my pouch!"

Li Ying gripped the pouch tightly, his gaze fixed on Hua Qingqing.

His stare was so intense it felt tangible, as if it could see right through her.

Hua Qingqing felt very uncomfortable under his gaze, but she still extended her hand and said earnestly,

"That’s the pouch I accidentally dropped just now. It’s very important to me. I hope the Fourth Prince can return it to me. I would be eternally grateful."

Li Ying asked, enunciating each word, "This pouch... is it really yours?"

Hua Qingqing was confused. "Of course, it is. It was hand-sewn by my mother. I could never mistake it."

The "mother" she spoke of was Madam He.

Madam He had first made a small pouch for Hua Manman. Later, feeling it wasn’t right to only make one for her own daughter—making it seem like she was deliberately slighting Hua Qingqing—she made another small pouch with the same pattern but a different color and gave it to her.

Hua Qingqing was quite fond of this pouch and had always carried it with her.

Li Ying pressed, "Did your mother ever make any other similar pouches?"

Hua Qingqing frowned. "Why is the Fourth Prince asking so many questions?"

Li Ying stared into her eyes, his voice low and demanding.

"If you don’t tell me, I won’t give this pouch back to you."

Hua Qingqing was furious. ’I can’t believe the Fourth Prince is so shameless!’

In order to get the pouch back, she had no choice but to answer.

"My mother made two such pouches in total."

Li Ying’s heart pounded even harder.

’The search for the person I’ve been seeking for years might finally be over.’

"Where is the other pouch?"

Hua Qingqing gave him a strange look. "It was given to my sister, of course."

Even if Li Ying paid no attention to the affairs of the inner palace, he knew Hua Qingqing had only one younger sister: Hua Manman, the one who had just completed the wedding ceremony with him.

He instinctively turned to look back, searching for a glimpse of Hua Manman.

However, the doors to the mourning hall had already been closed.

Li Ying couldn’t see the person he was looking for. He reached out to push the doors open but was stopped by Chen Wangbei, who was guarding the entrance.

Chen Wangbei reminded him, his tone respectful yet firm.

"Fourth Prince, tonight is the wedding night of our Prince and Princess Consort. Outsiders are not to disturb them. Please leave this place at once."

Li Ying stared blankly at the closed doors, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

’The person I’ve been desperately searching for for over a decade... could it really be Hua Manman?’

’If it really is her, then what was I just doing?’

’I actually completed a wedding ceremony with her in place of another man.’

’This is utterly ridiculous!’

Li Ying couldn’t accept this reality.

He wanted to force his way into the mourning hall and demand answers from Hua Manman herself.

Chen Wangbei didn’t budge an inch, absolutely refusing to let Li Ying get near the mourning hall.

The two sides were at a standstill, the atmosphere tense and ready to explode. A fight nearly broke out.

The Emperor, who hadn’t gone far, heard of the matter and his face immediately darkened.

"Take the Fourth Prince away!"

At the Emperor’s command, the Flying Dragon Cavalry immediately took action, forcibly removing Li Ying.

Hua Qingqing seized the opportunity to have the Flying Dragon Cavalry help retrieve her pouch.

She finally had her pouch back and breathed a sigh of relief.

Afterward, the Emperor issued another decree, ordering Li Ying to reflect on his actions in confinement for ten days.

For these ten days, he couldn’t go anywhere and could only stay in his residence to reflect.

Li Ying had often been punished before. Confinement was a mere drop in the bucket for him. Normally, he wouldn’t have cared at all about such a minor punishment.

But things were different now.

His mind was still preoccupied with Hua Manman.

He wanted to find her and get a clear answer.

Countless thoughts swirled in his mind, causing his emotions to fluctuate wildly. His eyes reddened, and it felt as if he were on the verge of losing control.

The little eunuch assigned to serve him saw this and was so scared he trembled, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Outsiders only knew that Prince Zhao had a moody and terrifying personality.

But they didn’t know that the Fourth Prince, Li Ying, was actually not much better than Prince Zhao.

His usual taciturn and quiet demeanor was just a facade to deceive the world.

When he went berserk, he could be just as bad as Prince Zhao.

...

「Deep into the night.」

Hua Manman was the only living person in the mourning hall.

At first, she was a little scared, but then she remembered the deceased was Prince Zhao, and her fear gradually subsided.

She hadn’t eaten a single bite since morning and was starving.

Now, seeing the abundant offerings on the altar table, her stomach couldn’t help but let out a RUMBLE.

It was a call of longing.

Hua Manman bowed to Prince Zhao’s memorial tablet. "Since you’re not going to eat all this anyway, why not share some with me? We were husband and wife, after all."

After bowing, she reached out without any guilt, picked up the offerings from the altar table, and began to eat.

After eating and drinking her fill, she felt sleepy again.

But there was no bed in the mourning hall, so she could only drag a meditation cushion over beside the coffin.

She sat on the cushion, leaned her back against the coffin, took off her outer robe to use as a blanket, and closed her eyes, starting to doze off.

As she was drifting in and out of sleep, she suddenly felt the coffin behind her move slightly.

Hua Manman was instantly jolted awake.

She quickly turned to look behind her and saw the coffin was still sitting there properly, with nothing out of the ordinary.

She suspected she had just been groggy from sleep and had imagined it.

She relaxed, ready to go back to sleep.

However, before she could close her eyes, she felt the coffin behind her move again. At the same time, a RUSTLING sound came from inside, like the sound of fabric rubbing together.

This time, Hua Manman was scared completely awake.

’Holy crap, is the corpse reanimating?!’

As if to confirm her suspicion, the next moment, the coffin lid was slowly pushed open from the inside.

Then, a large, well-defined hand reached out from inside and rested on the edge of the coffin.

Hua Manman’s eyes widened.

She was so frightened she could barely breathe. Her heart was pounding uncontrollably, and she even forgot to scream for help.

She just stared blankly as a man sat up from inside the coffin.

The man wore a black, wide-sleeved long robe. His jet-black hair was loose behind him, his face was pale, and the lines of his side profile were impeccably handsome.

When he turned his head to look at Hua Manman, who was standing not far away,

Hua Manman’s heart leaped into her throat.

She hastily grabbed a candlestick from the nearby altar table and stammered out a warning.

"Y-You, don’t come any closer! Or I’ll—I’ll call for someone."

Li Ji watched her, amused.

"What are you just standing there for? Aren’t you going to come over and help me up?"

Seeing that he could still speak, with clear enunciation and sound logic, he didn’t seem like a ghost at all.

Hua Manman couldn’t help but ask, "A-Are you a man or a ghost?"

Li Ji replied without hesitation.

"I am your husband."

Hua Manman: "But you’re already dead."

But Li Ji just smiled. "I was fooling you. I’m not actually dead."