Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-One

I slightly pause upon hearing this, turns out I didn’t just dream of Yuwen Rui last night, but also……called out his name?

“An, Ke, Lan!” He Lian Chen’s handsome face is filled with unhappiness, “Must you rile up zhen so much before you’re willing to stop?!”

I carefully think things over and innocently say: “Your majesty, you’re overthinking it, of course I didn’t mean this.”

“Then what do you mean?” He aggressively says.

“I……” I gulp, “I didn’t mean anything.”

He Lian Chen narrows his golden eyes, “Is it not thinking during the day, dreaming during the night?”

I deliberately feign solemnity as I say: “Dream, presumably dreamed it, but during the day……really didn’t think about it.”

His expression slightly pauses, then darkens again, “Didn’t think, yet you still dreamt it?”

I feel my hair rise under his stare, what is wrong with this person? Always dissatisfied no matter how I respond, this just makes responding all the more frustrating, how exactly does he want me to respond? I blatantly remain calm under this pressing situation, looking at him and saying: “How would your majesty like me to respond to this?”

“……” His brows tightly knit together, eyes looking a little dejected, “Ah-Lan, are you that unhappy by zhen’s side?

The vulnerability in his eyes makes me feel guilty, my heart suddenly softens. But in the very next second, I find that this isn’t right, why should I feel guilt and soften up to him? It’s not like I did anything to him. This guy, is actually playing this move on me. And so, I coldly say: “When it comes to serving people now, what can I be happy or unhappy about, as long as your majesty is happy.”

He Lian Chen slightly twitches his eyes, but his eyes grows increasingly pure, “Ah-Lan, is it not good to stay by zhen’s side?”

I feel a shiver run up, what is he doing? I say: “What your majesty speaks of, I am ultimately Yun Mi’s princess, no?” As if I will stay just because you say so.

“Isn’t this easy?” He Lian Chen grabs my hands, thin lips lightly starting to speak: “Have someone sent to Yun Mi as matchmaker in a few days.”

“Matchmaker?” I laugh, “Then rise from being the eunuch that serves you to a consort that attends to you?”

The happiness in He Lian Chen’s eyes slightly darkens, “Can’t do this, can’t do that, what exactly do you want zhen to do……?”

My face forms a big 囧, this person sure is capable, how could he throw it all onto me? I pull my hand free, calmly saying: “Your majesty is best not thinking too much about it, isn’t it pretty good as it is now?”

“Pretty good?” He lowly mutters, when he raises his eyes again, he once again restores his usual dominance, “Zhen doesn’t find it any good at all.”

Having said that, he covers my eyes with one hand, then leans down to bury his face into my neck, taking in a deep breath. My body slightly stiffens, just as I wanted to push him away, I hear him hazily order: “Don’t move if you don’t want zhen to do anything else.”

And so, I could only quietly let him hold me, a trace of subtle romantic ambiguity spreading into the air. I originally thought, he only wanted to treat me like a hugging pillow and hug me for a bit, who knew that after a while of quietness, he starts to make a move. I could feel the increasingly nearing, increasingly warm breath, beside my ear, then the soft lips flittingly touching down. I slightly turn my head to avoid his intimate action, but all I got was his big hand preventing me from moving further away, as his body and lips presses closer to me.

He begins to rub his cheek against my ear, right hand holding my forehead, not allowing me to move, then tentatively kiss my earlobe with light feathery kisses. I reach out to pull his collar back, but didn’t think he would actually open his mouth and bite down on my ear, paining me to sound a little cry.

Hearing this, He Lian Chen proudly smiles, then sticks out his warm tongue as he delicately starts licking, that type of hot and humid feeling makes me unable to refrain from feeling goose bumps rise along my skin. I secretly curse at him, pervert, then use all my power to butt my forehead into the side of his face, waiting for him to release me in pain, before I leisurely say: “It’s getting late, your majesty should get going to the study room to look at the memorials to the throne now.”

He Lian Chen holds his face and glares at me, “Boorish! Barbarous!”

I get up and wipe my ears nonstop, sending him a shallow smile: “Per-, -vert.”

He isn’t angered and instead laughs, proudly saying: “Many thanks for the praise.”

……my lips could not refrain from twitching a few times when I see his handsome smile, indeed, a tree without bark will die without a doubt, a person without face (integrity), is peerless in the world.

Just like that, the poisoning incident had considerably calmed down, that bunch of palace maids and eunuchs came to me to express their gratitude, like thanking the heaven and earth. I sensitively notice one little eunuch look at me slightly anxiously, but did not say anything in the end and left. I lament, who is to blame when speaking of this, nothing but a pawn, not much of a loss if dead, not much of special use if alive. Of course, this is spoken from our point of view, to the pawn themselves and those that care about the pawn, he is not just a simple little pawn.

Important or not, just depends on who.

Due to the food poisoning matter, my body had gotten a lot weaker, very naturally, this is another opportunity to give me some time to rest. I no longer need to closely accompany He Lian Chen, but every afternoon, he would spare some time to come sit here with me. As to what he does……en, it’s best left unspoken.

This morning, I am currently leaning against the bed as I read the unofficially documented history He Lian Chen had brought me, within the quiet room, the sound of me turning pages sound in particularly clear and crisp. I suddenly sense something wrong, in my hearing, there seems to be another sound other than the turning of book pages. I place the book down and furrow my brows, but once I fully concentrate on hearing that sound, it completely disappears. I thought I was just imagining things, but just when I pick up the book again, I once again hear that sound, although very subtle, although barely detectable, I can confirm it’s there.

My heart gives rise to a bad feeling, just as I wanted to remove the covers and get out of bed, I abruptly withdraw my foot and jump back in. I round my eyes as I stare at that moving thing below the bed, as if resorting to poisoning me once isn’t enough, to actually bring out a snake this time? There’s truly no end to this ah.

I slightly narrow my eyes, then pull up my sleeves and put my hands on hips. En-heng, snake, to tell the truth, I really am not afraid of this cold-bloodied plaything. Doesn’t it just spot a target within seven inches and then squeeze them to death, today, I shall let them see what it’s called to meet a ghost, kill a ghost, encounter a snake, strangle a snake.

Whilst I eye it with eyes of a tiger, that nimble black snake had already slithered its way up the bed frame, I wickedly laugh, just as I was prepared to throw my hands into action, I hear someone loudly call out from outside: “Ah-Lan, I’m coming in!”

After being alarmed by the voice, the originally slowly moving snake lifts it body, charging towards me like black lightning. I throw down my hand as I smash the book at it, whilst unable to refrain from sounding “pei”, how great of you, He Xing Yan, really come to deliberately bring me harm!

After being hit by the book, the black snake has clearly gotten highly agitated, threateningly opening its mouth at me, seemingly wanting me to take a clear look at those two sharp and vicious teeth. I make an agile jump off the bed, then when it comes leaping towards me, I turn and dodge to the side, throwing out my hand as I aim to grab its seven-inch body, and then proudly strengthen the hold as I gently say to it: “Why must you pick on me, why, oh why……?”

Whilst I’m juggling it around, the doors were pushed open by He Xing Yan, followed by his loud cry of, “Watch out!”

I reflexively jump a big step forward, when I look back, I see a green snake that had been shot down by He Xing Yan’s dart, fresh blood dying a part of the floorboard red.

He Xing Yan is still maintaining the posture of throwing the dart, eyes dull and soulless. When he sees the black snake in my hands, he reveals an absolutely ruthless expression, walking up to my side and directly cuts down the black snake’s head with another dart. After doing all this, he finally grabs onto my hand strongly: “Fortunate, fortunate I shot it just now……”

Of course, I know what he’s trying to express, it was all thanks to this child saving me just now, if not, even if I was able to dodge the black one, I wouldn’t be able to escape the green one. and so I stroke his hair, saying with a smile: “That’s right ah, all thanks to you.”

He Xing Yan’s expression is still a little blank, he gulps and says: “Have……have……have I ever told you, I’m scared of snakes the most?”

I shake my head, then reach out to pinch his cheeks as I say: “You are much greater than they are.”

He Xing Yan’s eyes slightly brightens up a bit, “I, I can’t even move once I see a snake……”

“That was only in the past.” I laugh, “Look, you’ve defeated them.”

He Xing Yan’s eyes looks back and forth from his own hands and the snake on the ground several times, then sets onto my face. He asks somewhat doubtfully: “I……really defeated them?”

I wipe away the traces of blood on his hand with my sleeve, jokingly saying: “Could it be, the ones standing right now isn’t us?”

“The ones standing are us.” He Xing Yan firmly says.

I lightly chuckle, holding his hand as I say: “The last ones standing, are the winners.”

What He Lian Chen sees is such a scene: I have He Xing Yan – whose hands are tainted by blood – held in my embrace, sleeves stained with quite a bit of blood, and lying on the ground are two dead snakes, and two rows of red. His handsome face is instantly washed over with anxiety, striding forward and grabbing one person in each arm, saying: “Who’s injured?”

I see true anxiety in his eyes and suddenly feel a little touched, “We’re both fine.”

He Lian Chen’s sharp eyes looks the both of us up and down several times, then the gold in his eyes intensifies. He dangerously narrows his eyes, deep voice saying: “Xing Yan, take her to your room first, then tell people to thoroughly inspect this room.”

He Xing Yan nods, “Yes, Imperial Brother.”

He Lian Chen tightly purses his lips and turns to leave, even his back figure is vaguely releasing an air of fury.

He Xing Yan tugs at my sleeve, anxiously asking: “Imperial Brother……is angry?”

I solemnly nod, “As long as he’s not angry at us.”

Only then does he laugh, but when he sees the dead snakes again, he furrows his brows in disgust, pulling me out, “Let’s go to my place first.”

I burst out laughing, indeed still just a child, “Alright.”

When He Xing Yan and I walk up to the door, we just happen to run into the hurriedly coming Eunuch Qu, Eunuch Qu covers his mouth and says in surprise: “Ninth Prince, you two are……”

He Xing Yan coldly says: “Have people inspect this building thoroughly, best not let there be a snake nest.”

Eunuch Qu’s expression appears slightly unsightly, “This servant shall obey orders.” He then anxiously asks: “Does Ninth Prince perhaps know where his majesty is right now?”

He Xing Yan says: “What’s the matter?”

Eunuch Qu holds up the orchid gesture, narrowing his fine brows as he says: “Yun Ze’s envoy is currently waiting for his majesty in the hall, what to do if we can’t find him~ does Ninth Prince perhaps know where his majesty is right now?”

I think for a moment, then give He Xing Yan a little push towards Eunuch Qu, “Eunuch Qu, take Ninth Prince to clean up, leave me to go find his majesty.”

Eunuch Qu waves his arms, “Aren’t you going to hurry and go then!”

He Xing Yan sends him a sharp look, causing him to withdraw his arms and awkwardly say to me: “We have people waiting right now.”

I give He Xing Yan a pat on the shoulder “I’ll go find your Imperial Brother, you go first.”

He Xing Yan furrows his brows, “You know where Imperial Brother went?”

I half lower my eyes, the place He Lian Chen went to……is most likely Consort Mi’s palace hall, no?

When I arrive at Consort Mi’s palace, I see not a single palace maid nor eunuch, and so I was even more sure of my guess – He Lian Chen had certainly come angrily rushing over to here, then sent all the servants away, preparing to settle this with Consort Mi.

I have never come to Consort Mi’s palace hall before, but fortunately, the set out of the palace halls are all more or less the same, so I was able to easily find her bedroom. Just as I walked up to the door, wanting to knock on, I hear Consort Mi’s wailing as she asks: “Lian, you once said you only love me, but right now, you’re instead interrogating me for that damned wench, exactly what’s so good about her?!”

The hand of mine that was about knock, pauses, only to hear He Lian Chen say word by word: “Whether she’s good or not, is not important, what’s important is that zhen cares about her, more so than anyone else.”