"What do you mean my background is shady?" Yi Qing pointed at herself, her nose almost crooked with anger.
Did she dig up the emperor's ancestral graves in her past life? Or was it that the emperor was truly in love with Xiao Tian? Why else would he target her again and again?
"It has nothing to do with you," Xiao Tian took her hand. "The emperor is just overthinking. I've already written to him and told him his suspicions are baseless."
Seeing that she was about to explode, Xiao Tian quickly tried to calm her down.
But Yi Qing sneered. "Really? If you've already solved the problem, then why are you so eager for me to marry you?"
Xiao Tian sighed and didn't say a word for a long time.
Yi Qing was just too smart. She could sense the seriousness of the matter from just a few words.
"I'm just worried about you. I'm afraid something might happen to you," Xiao Tian said.
"What kind of thing? If you don't explain it clearly, don't even think about me agreeing to marry you," Yi Qing pressed on.
After thinking for a long time, Xiao Tian suddenly showed a bitter smile on his face. "The emperor thinks... you're not one of us."
Yi Qing was glad she wasn't drinking water at that moment, or she would have surely spat it out.
"What do you mean 'not one of you'? Does he suspect that I'm a reincarnated fox spirit?"
"Sort of," Xiao Tian answered honestly. "Don't be in a hurry. Listen to me slowly."
It turned out that there was a strange woman in Xuzhou who claimed to know everything about astronomy and geography, and even the history of the past five thousand years.
Moreover, this woman declared that she was going to the palace to serve the emperor.
But according to what Deng Xiao's men had found out, what she actually said was that she was going to be the queen.
In other places, she would probably have been regarded as a crazy person long ago. But she happened to be the younger half - sister of the prefect of Xuzhou. After having a long talk with her, the prefect believed that his sister was no ordinary person. So he really wrote a memorial to the emperor about this matter.
The emperor was very curious about this. Besides, it was a woman being sent to him, so he readily accepted and wanted to see how amazing this woman was.
Unexpectedly, after entering the palace, this woman spouted nonsense in front of the emperor and described a world that made the emperor afraid - a world that was terrifying because of the huge disparity in power. So the emperor had her locked up.
Among other things, this woman said that in her dream, she had been to a place where doctors could cut open people's bodies to save them, and she even accurately described the scene of the operation.
"... So the emperor began to suspect your background."
Yi Qing was speechless for a long time.
She was too shocked.
It turned out that she wasn't the only time - traveler in this world.
But why was the only fellow traveler she had heard of so far such a fool...
She felt that this woman was like a naive girl who had read too many stupid time - travel novels and then just traveled through time.
Who did she think she was? Did she really think that just by changing the world, she could become a high - ranking person? Could she generate electricity or build cars? Did she really think that just by talking, she would be a valuable commodity?
Without real skills, the emperor would only be curious about her for a while and treat her as a toy. She would never catch the emperor's eye.
Instead, she had completely exposed herself and was being watched like a monkey.
Seeing that she was silent, Xiao Tian thought she was scared. "I don't believe in such supernatural things. Besides, even if you really come from the same place as her, she can't compare to you."
Yi Qing was so smart and patient that she would never do something as stupid as showing her cards to others.
"I don't care where you're from or what your family background is either," Xiao Tian continued. "I'm already grateful to heaven for letting me meet you. Maybe it was heaven's mercy that brought you from a distant place to my side and ended my half - life of loneliness."
Yi Qing smiled. "You're really open - minded. Are you willing to die for love?"
Xiao Tian glared at her. "Don't talk nonsense. I really like you."
Yi Qing said lazily, "Got it. I just don't understand one thing. Even if I really come from another world like that woman said, what does it matter to the emperor?"
She was very curious about what the emperor had written in the letter.
Xiao Tian pursed his lips before saying, "The emperor is worried that you're spies..."
"Spies?" Yi Qing laughed like a fool. "Since the emperor loves listening to stories so much, hasn't he heard that the weapons in that world are beyond your imagination? If we really wanted to attack you, even you wouldn't be able to fight back."
Xiao Tian didn't say a word, but his expression showed that he wasn't convinced.
Yi Qing didn't bother to explain further to him. How could people in the era of cold weapons imagine what nuclear weapons were like?
"So we don't need spies at all. If possible, I'd like to meet that person."
Xiao Tian didn't expect her to admit her origin so readily. His mood became complicated.
- He realized that there were so many things between him and Yi Qing.
He was also a bit depressed. He thought that the two of them had reached the closest stage, but Yi Qing still had things to hide from him.
He said sullenly, "What do you want to meet her for? To catch up?"
Yi Qing glanced at him and deliberately said, "I want to ask her how she got here. Maybe we can study how to go back together."
"You're leaving?" Xiao Tian asked nervously, his eyes hurt. "Even if you don't want me, don't you want Baozi either?"
Yi Qing ignored him.
Xiao Tian wasn't sure. "You're just joking, right?"
Yi Qing couldn't help rolling her eyes. "You have so little confidence in yourself. If I could really go back, couldn't I take you all with me?"
She had grown up under the red flag and didn't have a heart to exploit others. So she would rather go back to be a social animal and enjoy all the conveniences of modern times than be a high - ranking person who was served like a star but never truly free.
"Then if you go back, you must take me with you," Xiao Tian said.
"What can you do in my world? Are you going to live off me?" Yi Qing squinted at him.
"The doctor said my stomach is weak. I can't eat hard food," Xiao Tian said seriously, obviously realizing that Yi Qing was teasing him.
He reached out and hugged Yi Qing. "Don't leave, okay? For my sake."
"The emperor sees me as a scourge. There's nowhere under the heaven that isn't the emperor's land. Is there still a place for me here?"
"He's just suspicious. He's still hesitant and doesn't dare to touch you," Xiao Tian said. "I know the emperor. Since he told me first instead of sending people to arrest you directly, it means he's actually accepted this. He's just waiting for you to go back and explain it to him voluntarily."
Xiao Tian understood the emperor's pride.
"Why should I go and explain it to him? I'm not going."
"If you don't go, I will. All I want now is for you to marry me."
Yi Qing immediately seized the opportunity. "I have to marry you to be protected by you? You still say the emperor has no ill intentions towards me?"