Inlaid With Jade - Chapter 110

Chapter 110
Extra 1
Lin Wan X Zhu Xi

Lin Wan returned to the palace, and Zhu Xi was still sitting in the same place without moving. He held her sleeve stove in his wide sleeves with both hands and looked up at her as she entered the palace. His posture was well-behaved and calm as if he knew she would return.

He offered her the sleeve stove and said, “Mother, are you here to get the sleeve stove?”

“No.” Lin Wan said. So he hid the sleeve stove in his sleeve again.

With her previous experience, she did not approach too rashly. Two steps away, she stopped in front of Zhu Xi and whispered, “Your people told me that you did not return to Jinghe Palace at night but stayed in Wuying Palace.”

Zhu Xi did not want to talk about this matter. He looked at her gentle face and said, “Who said that to you?”

Lin Wan frowned, “Yes or no?”

Zhu Xi saw that he could not avoid it, so he said, “Um,” softly. He explained, “I have a disability, and it is so troublesome to run around. Anyway, I am alone, and where I stay doesn’t matter.”

He said the words “alone” lightly, but Lin Wan felt uncomfortable as if she were the one who had made him lonely and helpless. She turned sideways to avoid his gaze and whispered, “Since you know that you have a disability, you need someone to serve you. Now, you are alone in this cold palace. Would you be happy if you get frozen?”

Zhu Xi heard that she was slightly angry and couldn’t help but chuckle and comfort her, “How could it be? A charcoal fire is in the side hall. Mother, don’t worry.”

When Lin Wan went to pick up Zhu Yu just now, she saw the stove. It was still burning, but there was not much charcoal left. How could it burn all night? It would probably turn off in the fourth period.

“Only relying on those pieces of charcoal?” Lin Wan was angry because he didn’t care about his health, so her tone was naturally not very good: “When Yu’er was sleeping, you knew to warm up the side hall, but now you are sitting here in the cold hall for no reason. How can you let others not to worry?”

Zhu Xi looked at her steadily: “Are you worried about me, Mother?”

Lin Wan was stunned. Zhu Xi pushed the wheelchair towards her slowly with one hand: “Really? Mother.”

His voice was gentle, but there was a sense of forcing and questioning. Lin Wan subconsciously took two steps back, and the distance between the two people immediately widened again, even half a step further than before.

Zhu Xi saw Lin Wan’s defensive face, loosened the wheel, and stopped. He said gently: “What are you afraid of, Mother? I said that if you are determined to leave, my legs can’t catch up.”

After he said that, his face suddenly changed, and he lowered his head and coughed violently again. He didn’t care that the sleeve stove in his hand rolled to the ground, and soon, his ears were red from coughing.

Seeing him hunched over and coughing so hard that he couldn’t breathe, Lin Wan approached him without thinking and rubbed his back to help him breathe. Her slender hands stroked the thin clothes on his back, and her fingers could almost feel the jagged spine on his back.

She rubbed the thickness of the material on his body, frowned, took off her fox fur coat, and put it on him. Worried and anxious, she spoke as if to order: “With this cough, you can’t stay here tonight. After returning to Jinghe Palace later, you must ask the imperial physician to check you…”

As soon as Lin Wan finished speaking, Zhu Xi grabbed her hand tightly, with such force that the base of her palm turned white.

Lin Wan was not cruel enough to shake him off at this time, so she had to endure the pain and let him hold her. For a moment, the whole hall could only hear his suppressed cough. If he didn’t have any illness, he looked as if he was going to cough himself to death.

Zhu Xi had been mistreating himself for several days, but he finally got what he wanted when he caught a cold. The coughing stopped, and after a long time, he slowly recovered.

He lowered his head to look at the warm pale palm in his hand and then glanced at the circle of warm fox fur around his shoulders. The fox fur on his body was soaked in her body temperature, and it had an especially pleasant fragrance.

He lowered his eyes, sniffed gently, and raised his head slowly, looking at Lin Wan, who looked anxious and confused.

Her care had exceeded the distance between a mother and her son. Zhu Xi smiled and said, “Mother still loves me after all.”

Because of coughing, his voice was hoarse. Lin Wan pretended not to hear it. She said, “I’ll have someone take you back to Jinghe Palace…” and was about to pull her hand back from his palm.

Zhu Xi did not bug her and let her go. He bent down to pick up the sleeve stove on the ground and said, “The wind and snow are too strong. If I return to Jinghe Palace, I will get a mouthful of cold wind on the way. If that happens, I’m afraid I really can’t get up tomorrow. Let’s sleep here tonight.”

He coughed and seemed to realize the severity of the cold. He pulled the white fox fur on his shoulders and put the sleeve stove into his sleeves again to cover it tightly.

He looked up at Lin Wan: “I just coughed hard and don’t have much strength now. Can you push me into the side hall?”

Lin Wan was a little uncomfortable with his sudden change of att*tude, but seeing his pale face, she couldn’t bear to refuse. She pushed him and said: “Since you are going to rest in Wuying Palace, you need to leave someone to take care of you. I will find an eunuch to bring some charcoal later. Don’t drive him away.”

Zhu Xi said: “I don’t like eunuchs, even if they are lame or castrated.”

“Then, I’ll find a quiet maid.”

The wheelchair rolled into the side hall door, and Zhu Xi said: “I don’t like maids either.”

For the first time, Lin Wan knew how difficult it was to serve him, so she asked, “What do you like?”

Before she finished her words, she suddenly heard the oil lamp on the wall “pop.” She paused, suddenly realized something, shook her hand, left the wheelchair, and turned to leave.

But unexpectedly, before she could take a step, Zhu Xi, who had just said he had no strength, suddenly turned the wheelchair in a different direction, quickly grabbed her slender waist, and brought her into his arms.

Her thin back hit his chest, and Lin Wan fell on him weakly. She looked back in panic. Zhu Xi laughed muffledly above her head, his lips pressed against her gold hairpin and whispered: “Mother is too soft-hearted to me. That’s why you fell for the same trick twice.”