Chapter 55

55 NOT ON THE FLOOR, BUT ON THE LAP

[“STOP CRYING! DON’T YOU KNOW THAT IT’S ALREADY MIDNIGHT WHEN PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO SLEEP?”

He heard the yell again and again, and he could only use his small hands to cover his ears as if his tiny palms would be able to block the loud voice from entering his ears.

He kept getting the same treatment from the person who had just shouted at him, but he couldn’t escape no matter how hard he tried. The iron bars restricted his movement, and his skinny hands weren’t strong enough to break them and escape his agony.

His blue eyes seemed to be wet with tears, and even if he knew that the woman shouted at him because he was crying, sobs still escaped his thin lips as he couldn’t stop his pitiful cry right away.

It was indeed late at night, but he couldn’t sleep no matter what. When he turned his gaze to scan his surroundings, he could see that the place was extremely dirty with dog droppings and urine, and even the smell made him want to throw up.

He really couldn’t sleep, and he could only press his body into the corner of the cage. Hugging his folded legs in front of his chest, he tried to swallow his sobs because he didn’t want to hear another scream from that woman.]

“I’ve moved the books to make a room for you to sit, but you don’t want to sit there, Your Highness? Don’t you think you’re ungrateful here?”

For a minute that felt like an eternity, Bai Chen thought that he had returned to his past life when the memory suddenly flashed across his mind. He thought that he once again woke up in his past life, and his heart almost fell into a pit.

It was his own memory, not the memory that belonged to the owner of the body he was ‘borrowing’ now. He almost drowned in the same misery even if it was only in his head, but Zhu Ge managed to pull him away from the whirlpool without even realizing it.

.....

Maybe Zhu Ge didn’t even know that he had just saved Bai Chen, but the owner of that pair of blue eyes was very grateful that the voice managed to pull him out of the nightmare. It wasn’t really a nightmare because he wasn’t sleeping right now, but his body was shaking slightly as the memory flashed through his mind again.

No matter how he tried to erase them, the memories would still return to him from time to time, and he couldn’t even control himself after moving to this new world.

‘Why didn’t Bai Lang erase my memories from my previous life?’ He secretly blamed the little wolf even if the wolf wasn’t with him. ‘Things would be easier for me if Bai Lang erased those memories from my previous life. I have a new identity in a new world, but why should I recall memories from my previous life?’

He thought it was unfair to him, but he couldn’t even voice his protest because the little wolf had given him a second chance to start a new life in this world. How could he request more?

Taking a deep breath before shaking his head, he tried to shake off the thought while looking at Zhu Ge. The taller man had indeed worked hard to prepare space for him to sit down, and perhaps the man was not wrong when he mocked him as an ungrateful brat.

“I’d better read the book in Jing Pavilion,” Bai Chen finally replied, but it was just a way to ignore Zhu Ge’s earlier question.

Bai Chen had indeed chosen to ignore Zhu Ge’s question when he got the idea of ??taking the book to Jing Pavilion so he could read it there. He was indeed slow because the idea came to him so late, but he considered that the idea was the best choice for him even if Zhu Ge purposely prepared a place for him to sit down.

When he saw Zhu Ge’s unhappy expression, he somehow felt guilty in his heart, but he still believed that reading in Jing Pavilion was much better than reading while sitting on the dirty floor.

Bai Chen had made up his mind, and he was about to walk away from Zhu Ge to return to Jing Pavilion, but to his surprise, someone caught his wrist and immediately stopped his movement. Looking to the side, he found Zhu Ge looking at him glumly, and even the grip on his wrist tightened.

Of course, it was Zhu Ge who suddenly grabbed his wrist, and the man looked so irritated now.

“Why?” Zhu Ge asked grimly. “You don’t want to sit on the floor because it’s dirty?”

Perhaps Zhu Ge remembered the time when Bai Chen even refused to drink the water from the river while they were on their way to the palace. Back then, Bai Chen did think that the water from the river was dirty, and he didn’t want to drink it even if his throat experienced drought.

Zhu Ge forced him to drink then, and he ended up drinking the water because he didn’t want to die from dehydration.

Perhaps those memories were still fresh in Zhu Ge’s head, and that was why he was able to guess exactly what was going on in Bai Chen’s mind.

“I thank you that you have prepared the space for me, but-”

Instead of finishing his speech, Bai Chen yelped because Zhu Ge suddenly pulled his wrist, and before he could react, he was already sitting on Zhu Ge’s lap.

He was very slow to process what had just happened to him, but when he was able to understand the situation, he knew that Zhu Ge was only pulling his wrist so that he would sit down as he had previously instructed, but instead of directly sitting on the floor, Bai Chen was sitting on the man’s lap because the man had sat on the floor first.

Bai Chen’s heart was pounding, and there were two reasons for that. The first reason was that Zhu Ge suddenly grabbed his wrist and he thought that he would fall to the floor, and the second reason was because of his position on Zhu Ge’s lap.

Zhu Ge was sitting cross-legged on the floor, and Bai Chen’s buttocks were on the man’s lap. Not only that, Zhu Ge was still holding Bai Chen’s wrist as if he wanted to hold the Prince in place.

“You don’t have to touch the dirty floor. Are you happy now?” The whisper greeted his ears directly, and Bai Chen felt his body shiver.

His back was against Zhu Ge’s chest, and he could feel the heat of the man’s body from the contact. Zhu Ge didn’t even use a cloth to cover his nose and mouth anymore, and now his lips were right next to his ear. His mental state wasn’t any better because of the dangerous position.

“L-let go of me...” Bai Chen voiced his request weakly. He was the Prince here, but he was helpless when he was in Zhu Ge’s arms.

He was hugged by a man, but his body still reacted like this. It hurt his pride as a straight man, and he tried to free himself from the man as he used all his strength.

Unfortunately, Zhu Ge was still stronger than him. With his strong arms, Zhu Ge hugged Bai Chen even tighter, and Bai Chen couldn’t even breathe in a normal rhythm because of the hug.

“I’ll stop holding you like this, but you have to promise me that you won’t run away,” Zhu Ge suddenly voiced a condition, and Bai Chen groaned after hearing it.

Even if Zhu Ge hadn’t done anything evil to his body, he still felt uncomfortable being this close to the man. His heart was beating faster than usual, and his body even felt hotter from being in contact with the man.

Bai Chen didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he chose to give up in the end, “Alright! I won’t run! Are you happy now?”

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Bai Chen was furious, but he couldn’t even speak too harshly to the black-haired man. And luckily, Zhu Ge kept his word when he finally stopped hugging his body.

Bai Chen was still sitting on Zhu Ge’s lap, but he was able to heave a sigh of relief after his body was no longer enveloped by Zhu Ge’s strong arms. He had promised that he would not run away, and that meant he would have to read the book while sitting on Zhu Ge’s lap.

It was embarrassing, but Bai Chen wasn’t someone who would break his promise, so he quietly propped the book on his lap as he was about to read it. However, before he started reading the book, he suddenly felt something warm on his cheek.

His body froze because the perverted man named Zhu Ge suddenly landed his lips on his cheek after pulling down the cloth that previously covered his mouth and nose.