Chapter 1179: The Princess Consort Whose Memories Were Altered (54)

“Shangguan Jing is not a good man, and Shangguan Yi is even worse. Neither of them will cherish you properly.”

“When you finally see their true colors, you'll understand.”

System: So are you going to steal Host away or not?

“If Shangguan Yi dares bully you, I'll find a way to kill him,” Yan Huo said. “To be honest, right now I want nothing more than to snatch you away to Northern Yan and hide you where no one can find you.”

System: Then after all that talk, this guy still isn't going to do anything? Just take her already! Host doesn't care about some silly reputation. As long as she lives comfortably, that's all that matters.

System simply couldn't understand Yan Huo's way of thinking.

His status was obviously not low. He could enter the imperial palace with ease. Taking one person away should be effortless.

He clearly adored Host, so why wasn't he acting?

This was a patriarchal world. When men set their eyes on a woman, weren't they all like Shangguan Yi and Shangguan Jing? One simply issued an imperial decree and made her his consort, while the other resorted to underhanded schemes and switched people.

Yet this man was different.

“That is precisely why he has won my heart,” Tang Guo said after Yan Huo left, having learned of System's thoughts. “The love of Shangguan Yi and Shangguan Jing is built upon control. Receiving their love is nothing more than being placed in shackles. When they love a woman, they treat her no differently from an object. Objects have no life, no thoughts—and in their eyes, they shouldn't have any.”

“They believe that because they love a woman, that woman must naturally accept them. Standing at the top, they never consider what the woman they favor truly thinks, or whether she even wishes to be with them.”

“Take Shangguan Yi. If he takes a fancy to some woman, one imperial decree is enough. Who would dare refuse? In this world, no one would think him wrong because he is the Emperor. His words are law. Commoners dare not object, and even ministers must submit. To put it plainly, he controls all the power and resources of the nation. Even if many resent him, they have no choice but to obey. What they fear is not Shangguan Yi himself, but the power over life and death that he possesses.”

“In his eyes, the women of the imperial harem are merely rare collectibles. Their duty is to please him and obey him. The more favored they are, the better they live and the higher they stand. Once they stand high enough, they gain the right to trample those below them.”

“What about that guy?” System asked.

Tang Guo smiled.

“He's different. He fell for me, but because I was Prince Jing's Princess Consort, he endured it. Rather than confess and bring unnecessary trouble into my life, he preferred to suffer unrequited love in silence. That's what makes him different.”

“Now that he knows how Shangguan Jing has treated me, if he were like Shangguan Jing or Shangguan Yi, he would have forcibly carried me away without a second thought. If he had done that, it would only prove that he regarded me as an object as well—and I wouldn't go with him.”

“He didn't do that because he respects my wishes. In this era, a man who truly understands respect is rarer than rare.”

Tang Guo narrowed her eyes and smiled.

“Do you think he cast some kind of curse on himself? Is he planning to behave this obediently in every world because he's afraid I'll abandon him?”

Do you even need to ask? Every time Host died in those worlds, you told him that if he wasn't obedient, you wouldn't want him anymore. Poor guy suffered enough already. Putting curses and restrictions on himself is perfectly understandable.

System couldn't help muttering.

Tang Guo: Was this really her system?