Lotus in a Bottle - Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The moment Shen Huaihuan saw Tan Lian, he forgot everything else. He stammered something about taking a wrong turn, then fled in a hurry.

Silence fell outside.

But as time passed, the burning in my lower abdomen spread throughout my entire body.

I couldn’t help cursing Shen Huaihuan for getting me into this mess.

The Gu Nanzhou he’d mentioned was the reigning Prince Regent, a man whose power and influence could scarcely be overstated. Yet even such a calculating, ambitious man had fallen under the spell of Tan Lian’s beauty.

Shen Huaihuan had most likely been set up by him too.

The Third Prince had only meant to drug me unconscious and preserve his Brother Tan’s chastity. The Prince Regent, however, had been aiming to kill two birds with one stone. He wanted the Third Prince to personally cuckold Tan Lian while crushing both Shen Huaihuan and me in the process.

Some Prince Regent. His methods were no more honorable than those of the scheming women of the inner court whom he looked down upon.

Just as I was cursing the Prince Regent to have sons born without assholes, light suddenly flooded my vision.

At last, my bridal veil had been lifted by the man meant to remove it. A face I had seen many times before, yet one whose breathtaking beauty never failed to stun me, abruptly filled my sight.

Tan Lian usually favored pale colors, but today was his wedding day, so the groom had changed into a red robe. It left the bewitching allure he normally kept so carefully restrained with nowhere to hide. He was like a snow lotus whose crystalline frost had melted away, revealing the true, decadent splendor beneath.

I stared at him, dumbstruck.

The heartthrob might attract trouble wherever he went, but he truly was gorgeous.

Tan Lian chuckled, apparently taking no offense. But when his gaze dropped and he noticed the bite marks on my lips, his smile faded slightly.

He seemed to misunderstand something. He did not question me, however, and spoke with all the thoughtfulness the rumors attributed to him.

“Are you that nervous, my lady? If you aren’t ready yet, I can sleep in the side room tonight. The Tan Family doesn’t stand on ceremony, so you don’t have to…”

I swallowed the rest of his words.

Perhaps the heartthrob truly did possess some kind of magic. The instant I saw Tan Lian’s face, fireworks exploded in my mind, and the desire simmering inside me shattered what remained of my reason.

My unfocused eyes locked on those two crimson lips. Unable to bear it any longer, I lunged forward and bit down on them.

Cool and sweet. He really was like a snow lotus that had gained human form.

I had no idea how long I spent nibbling and biting him. My vision dissolved into a chaotic blur of red and white. Perhaps I had absorbed the White Lotus’s vital essence, because the feverish heat inside me actually began to subside.

In the final moment before I lost consciousness, I met Tan Lian’s pitch-black eyes.

The shock and suspicion in his gaze brought a tiny scrap of reason back to me.

Oh.

I had just taken liberties with the heartthrob.

Right.

I was dead.