Inlaid With Jade - Chapter 109

Chapter 109
Extra 1
Lin Wan X Zhu Xi

Lin Wan didn’t know how Zhu Xi could ask this question so calmly. He had made a big mistake in the past. Didn’t he have any regrets?

She was anxious, but Zhu Xi couldn’t control himself with the soft fragrance in his arms. His hand around her waist moved slowly, moving up through her clothes along her slender waistline, but when he was about to touch the soft part, he stopped restrainedly.

Lin Wan trembled and hurriedly pulled the hand under her chest: “Since you know it’s wrong, you shouldn’t repeat the same mistake. Doesn’t the King Chu understand such a simple truth!”

Her heart beat like a drum, and her tone was stern but also anxious and incoherent: “One can’t violate human ethics. You shouldn’t mention such treasonous words again in the future. Let go!”

Lin Wan looked angry and sweated on her forehead, but Zhu Xi smiled when he saw her like this. In front of others, she always treated him with aloofness, even a little cold, unwilling to look at him, and even refused to say a word. When had she ever shown such a lively expression?

She was highly annoyed but had no choice but to sit in his arms without any resistance. She was still trying her best to maintain the dignity and majesty that the Empress Dowager should have.

Unfortunately, the Empress Dowager’s words could not move this lawless son.

Zhu Xi was born and raised in the palace. He had been accustomed to the scandals there since he was a child. In this seemingly glorious and majestic palace, there were unpopular concubines, eunuchs, and lonely maids everywhere. These poor people were imprisoned in the cold, deep palace, comforting each other like trapped birds. Zhu Xi had encountered them countless times. He taught Zhu Yu the principles of sages, but he had long become numb to ethics and morals.

He kept a low profile and killed his blood relatives. He brought Zhu Ming’s head to Emperor Chong’an three years ago. He was a heretic in his bones. He didn’t care about human ethics at all.

Zhu Xi raised his hand to touch Lin Wan’s charming face, lowered his head to approach her, and his cold breath brushed her ear. He whispered, “If I let go, will Mother leave?”

She was used to running away. Back then, she left him in messy clothes and ran away alone.

Lin Wan stammered, not knowing how to convince him, but before she thought about it, she realized that the arm on her chest slowly lost its strength.

Zhu Xi removed the loose gold hairpin on her head and pinned it back in her hair. His cold, long fingers slid down her ear, touched the small ear hole on her earlobe, and opened his hands. He placed his hands on the armrests, and the beautiful fox eyes under his eyebrows looked at her gently: “Let’s go. If Mother is determined to leave, I can’t stop you. I can’t catch up with you with my legs.”

His straightforward words stabbed Lin Wan’s heart, and she didn’t dare to look at his eyes full of affection for a while.

Everyone said that Zhu Yu had clear fox eyes, which looked very much like her, but no one noticed that the regent of the current dynasty also had a pair of beautiful fox eyes.

Lin Wan held the armrests to stand up without noticing that her left palm pressed on the back of his hand. The wheelchair under him rolled back half a circle because she stood up, instantiating the distance between them.

Lin Wan straightened her clothes and raised her hand to touch the gold hairpin on her head to see if it was stable. Her eyes swept across the sleeve stove that fell beside the wheelchair. Without saying a word, she went into the side hall and carried out the sleeping Zhu Yu.

When she came out, Zhu Xi was still standing there, but he had picked up the sleeve stove on the ground. He brushed off the dust on the sleeve stove, held it in his hand, and watched her leave with Zhu Yu in his arms.

When leaving, Lin Wan looked back at him. At this moment, he was very different from his usual gentle and elegant appearance. He put away the gentle smile on his face and sat silently in the center of the cold palace with dim lights as if he were the only one left in the world.

Loneliness and darkness wrapped him mercilessly like an airtight black cloth. Lin Wan reluctantly withdrew her sight and left Wuying Palace.

Faintly, she heard a suppressed and violent cough coming from the hall.

Outside the hall, the imperial guards surrounding the door had retreated to the palace road at some point. Her maid stood beside the leading general with a lamp, and the two seemed chatting. When the maid saw Lin Wan carrying Zhu Yu out, she hurriedly left the guard and ran over with the lantern. She keenly noticed that the gold hairpin on Lin Wan’s head had changed its position, but she said nothing and took the heavy young emperor from Lin Wan.

Lin Wan was unhurried to return to Renshou Palace. She approached the imperial guard and asked him: “Where are the people serving in Wuying Palace? The lights and candles in the palace have been extinguished. Why don’t I see anyone going in to light them up?”

Her voice was gentle, but between the lines, there were accusations. The imperial guard hurriedly lowered his head and said: “Reply to the Empress Dowager. There was a palace maid who wanted to seduce the King before, and the King ordered someone to drag her out and beat her to death. Since then, no one is allowed to serve in the palace after the sun sets.”

Lin Wan hadn’t expected this to happen. She frowned and said: “Still, how can you let the palace freeze like an ice cellar? What if King Chu is ill and delays state affairs? At that time, won’t you, this guard, will be punished?”

How could the man bear such a severe crime? He suddenly knelt and reported: “Empress Dowager, the King has been ill. He often stays in Wuying Palace during this period and does not return to Jinghe Palace. He is also alone at night, waiting for court. When Lord Xu comes in the morning, the stove in the palace is always off.”

Lin Wan was stunned for a moment and suddenly understood where the thick quilt she saw when she entered the side hall just now came from. She turned her head and looked at the half-open palace door, and she was angry: “Why does he stay in Wuying Palace when he has a home? He is making trouble. Don’t you know how to persuade him?”

The man shook his head worriedly: “I have persuaded him, but you know the King’s temper, and I really can’t convince him. The King said that even if he returned to Jinghe Palace, he would be alone, so it would be better to stay in Wuying Palace, saying that it is closer. Lord Xu and I persuaded him several times but got fined half a month’s salary.”

He gritted his teeth and said earnestly: “You are the King’s mother. In this world, except for the emperor, only your words can make him listen.”

Xu Wen taught half of the imperial guards’ words, and what Xu Wen had taught was learned from Zhu Xi’s actions, but Lin Wan didn’t know it. She looked at the vast snow with a headache. If he slept for a night when the stove turned off, he probably froze to death.

She thought of Zhu Xi’s cold body temperature and thin clothes, stood there momentarily, and finally said helplessly to the imperial guard: “I will advise the King. You should send a few people to escort the emperor back to Renshou Palace.”

The imperial guard was delighted and immediately breathed a sigh of relief: “Yes.”

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Author Notes:
The previous chapter is about the muddleheaded friendship “four” years ago. I won’t change it, as it’s very troublesome to change it; just read it for now.