“Are you feeling unwell anywhere? If you don't want to go, we can reschedule with him another day.”
Huo Shao Ting looked at her with concern in his eyes. Rong Dai hurriedly collected herself.
As she looked at the man before her, he was always able to arrive by her side timely whenever she needed him most, and he always kept her in his thoughts every moment.
Facing such an outstanding and considerate man, she could not restrain her heart from stirring, even though she had experienced the dust of the mortal world in her previous life.
It was precisely because she had been forced to temper a heart of iron in her previous life that she desperately needed to be cared for and warmed.
So when Huo Shao Ting appeared, her heart had unwittingly sunken for him.
This was her downfall, and also heaven's punishment for her previous life.
To love yet be unable to attain it, she could finally understand why Wen Shi Lan had developed such immense hatred towards herself after being rejected by Huo Shao Ting repeatedly, driving her to madness.
In her previous life, although she had been infatuated with that young gentleman, from some point in time, that affection had flowed away like water, gradually drifting farther and farther.
What she had to do was maintain the majesty of an empress, and be a motherly figure to the entire nation.
Carefully thinking back, she really had not experienced feelings like she had now in her previous life.
She understood what she needed was to give up and let go of herself, but her heart still inadvertently hoped against hope, trapped in an extremely contradictory vicious cycle.
“I'm fine, just thought of some matters which made me feel anxious in my heart.”
She shook her head, revealing a strained smile on her face.
Seeing her strained appearance, Huo Shao Ting could not help but frown.
“How about that dress just now? I've been cooped up at home for a long time too, going out for a walk is a good thing.”
She did not dare meet Huo Shao Ting's eyes, afraid that if she took one look she would be unable to step out from them for the rest of her life.
She was afraid.
Rong Dai had never imagined that she would fall so thoroughly for a man of the modern times, her thirty years as an empress had really been in vain.
“Are you really alright?” Huo Shao Ting asked suspiciously.
He had seen her expression just now very clearly - lonely, anguished, struggling. These were not the emotions one should have when anxious over some matter.
Just what was she agonizing and struggling over?
Rong Dai silently regulated her breathing, calming the various chaotic thoughts in her heart. Her gaze recovered its usual gentleness.
“I'm really fine, just thought of some things from the past which made me feel sad, that's all.” She gave a faint smile as she replied, “Didn't you say you wanted to bring me to see someone? After we've seen the person, could you accompany me to buy some things?”
She promptly changed the topic with a smile. She could not keep tormenting herself like this, she had to maintain clarity.
Seeing her say this, Huo Shao Ting did not continue questioning her either, afraid that pressing her too hard would instead make her even more uneasy.
He got up to retrieve the dress, but embarrassingly, Rong Dai had no way to pull up the zipper at the back of her waist. Her face instantly flushed red.
“Shao Ting... could you come over and help me with this?”
She sat inside the walk-in closet, her entire face burning red with embarrassment.
When Huo Shao Ting heard the voice from inside the closet, his body instantly stiffened. He wasn't an idiot, he knew very well what he would see upon entering.
The scorching heat in his heart instantly surged upwards again, burning him until his limbs were practically cooked.
He was a normal man. Even if he had never experienced such matters before, he had at least seen a pig run before even if he hadn't eaten pork.
He hesitated for a moment before stiffly entering the closet.
The moment he set foot into the closet, he froze on the spot. His blood pressure skyrocketed, churning and clamoring within him!
Gazing at the woman's smooth, delicate back skin, her beautiful waistline, and the allure of where her waist extended, it set his imagination aflame.
Huo Shao Ting only felt as if his entire being had been flung into a great fiery furnace, the scorching agony making him nearly go insane!
He had never thirsted so badly to possess a woman before. Seeing Rong Dai quietly sitting there, the tips of his fingers couldn't help but turn hot. He subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
The walk-in closet had three mirrored sides, and this tiny movement of his just happened to catch Rong Dai's eyes. Her cheeks burned even hotter.
Her heart pounded wildly alongside his, and her breathing also gradually grew ragged. Sensing the aura emanating from his body, she felt as if her back was pressed against a giant heating stove, her entire body's blood seething as well.
“Is it this one?” Huo Shao Ting's willpower was astounding. Although a certain part of him had reacted such that he nearly went mad, his tone remained extremely calm.
“Mm...” Rong Dai did not dare look, her hands clutched tightly into fists, anxiously sweating a sticky layer.
Huo Shao Ting secretly took a deep breath before bending down to pull it up for her.
But the moment he reached out to touch her lower back, the pads of his fingers made contact with the skin of her waist.
He didn't know if it was because of his extreme longing, but her skin felt unbelievably smooth and delicate, just like warm, silky soft tofu.
The two of them were trying their utmost to restrain the surging within their hearts, but this slight touch made them shudder in unison.
The lighting in the closet seemed to have grown scorching hot as well, the high temperature and pressure causing their breathing to turn chaotic.
Huo Shao Ting's gaze inch by inch swept over her back, her nape, her slender, fair neck, her elegant silhouette, fully arousing his desire.
“Shao Ting...”
Rong Dai felt his gaze was like a torch, slowly burning her back. This kind of scalding, suppressed sensation threw her mind and heart into great disorder. The tiny shreds of reason she still clung to forced her to call out to him.
Huo Shao Ting instantly regained clarity upon hearing this. He hurriedly and quickly pulled the zipper up for her, but his heart was still thundering away like beating drums.
That stretch of snowy white, delicate skin on her waist which contained immense beauty still lingered in his mind, refusing to dissipate.
“I'm going to get some water, come out after you're done.”
Huo Shao Ting anxiously instructed her before fleeing the closet in a panic. He desperately needed to quell the surging tides in his heart and body.
Silence descended upon the closet once more after he left. Rong Dai also heaved a sigh of relief, the sensation from earlier had been too crazy!
She had even yearned for and hoped that Huo Shao Ting would do something. She believed she would not have refused him.
If he wished to, she was willing to give herself to him.
Although she had been an empress in her previous life, she had never experienced the feelings Huo Shao Ting evoked in her now. If it were still her past life, there was no way she would have done anything so scandalous.
But she was now Huo Shao Ting's lawfully wedded wife. Her heart did not reject the notion either.
If heaven truly meant to punish her in this life, then she was willing to accept it. Even if she was destined to live out her remaining years in loneliness, she would have no regrets.
But Huo Shao Ting had restrained himself, fleeing the very instant his gaze met hers. At that moment, Rong Dai's heart held a shred of loss.
If he had truly acted, perhaps she could have released more of the shackles around her heart. But he did not.
Rong Dai softly sighed. After settling her emotions, she was startled by the thoughts that had run through her own mind, gazing at her blushing reflection in the mirror.
She reached up, fingers brushing over her burning cheeks as her eyes grew firm. If Huo Shao Ting truly needed her, she would not refuse him.
If doing so could ease the torment in her heart, bring him even the tiniest sliver of joy, she was willing.
