Chapter 110: The Monkey Spirit Su Jingluo Makes Her Debut

"Care to guess?" Su Jingluo spread her hands, refusing to divulge anything. Given how you are capable of exploiting even those you love to the very marrow, a transmigrator like me would surely be ground to dust if I let you use me. It is far better to act as if I have completely given up on you right now.

"If I could guess, I wouldn't be asking you. I only know that my junior sister is already gone." The Emperor was nearly driven to madness by the woman before him. She possessed a face so hauntingly familiar, yet every word and action was utterly alien.

"I am Su Jingluo. However, you are correct in saying that your junior sister is dead. Five years is more than enough to wither a person away. But since she is dead, why dwell on it so much? You and I have no further entanglement; you are the Emperor high above, and I am the Princess of Prince Jing." Su Jingluo had thought this through clearly: one should not entangle oneself too deeply with those in high power. To walk with a monarch is like walking with a tiger—who knows when that tiger might turn on you? Especially given her own lawless and loose-lipped nature.

"I refuse!" The Emperor's gaze deepened. He realized that while he missed the days of his youth, this Su Jingluo before him held an even greater fascination for him.

Ugh, so this is that saying about how the unobtainable and the lost are always the most beautiful?

"Your Majesty, I am here to treat the Empress Dowager. You insist on saying I am dead and demand I tell you who I am—isn't that asking the impossible?" Su Jingluo was growing weary of the endless bickering. Is this Emperor a three-year-old child?

"So, you refuse to say it, is that it?" The Emperor persisted. He was desperate to understand this woman; lately, he had even begun to lose sleep pondering her.

Su Jingluo closed her mouth, her gaze drifting to the refreshments on the table. She gingerly picked up a piece of cream pastry and popped it into her mouth. Mmm, the palace food really is delicious. She wondered if she could pack some up to take back for Yunbai.

"Do not eat that!" The Emperor, unaware of her plan to pack leftovers, felt a surge of rage at being ignored.

Plop. At the Emperor's roar, the pastry fell from Su Jingluo's hand to the ground. Her heart ached for such a delicious treat, and she could not help but knit her brows.

"Your Majesty, in this world, nothing forced is ever sweet," Su Jingluo said, looking up at the furious Emperor once she finished lamenting the lost pastry.

"If I want it to be sweet, it must be sweet." The Emperor slapped the stone table. The table remained unscathed, but his hand turned bright red, the impact aching to the bone.

"There now, your hand hurts, doesn't it? This isn't about whether it's sweet or not; it's about whether it hurts or not." Su Jingluo thought this was a perfect analogy.

"I am willing to endure it." The Emperor was momentarily speechless, only managing such a stubborn remark after a long pause.

"I am certainly not. Only a fool would let themselves suffer and get hurt." Su Jingluo was still savoring the lingering sweetness of the pastry in her mouth.

The Emperor truly felt helpless against Su Jingluo. He could hardly drag her out to be beheaded. He felt that the situation was so unlike his usual self, and he was even slightly annoyed by his own lack of resolve.

Finally, the Emperor slumped back into his seat, his voice muffled as he said after a long silence, "You saved the Empress Dowager. What reward do you want?"

People are truly like this: they let what they possess gather dust in any corner, often forgetting it for a lifetime, but the moment someone else threatens to take it, they suddenly remember how precious and rare it once was. They go mad trying to reclaim it, yet Su Jingluo’s demeanor left the Emperor feeling utterly powerless. The naive Su Jingluo was dead, and the wily, sharp-witted Su Jingluo had officially taken the stage. His old tactics no longer worked.