Chapter 35 (1/2)

Chapter 35: Departure All reproductions of this work not on volaretranslations are stolen copies.

Taking a deep breath, I backed away, only sparing a single glance inside. I told myself not to think too much and ran down the steps, calling a young eunuch to tell Nongyu to make two bowls of soup for sobering up.

The candles of the the Cold Palace had all been reserved for the main house.

Pitch-darkness covered the courtyard, but someone was quietly giving orders before everyone scattered to busy themselves with their tasks. Their footsteps were very light, and the soles of their shoes exceptionally soft, so that there was no sound when they walked.

My feet felt a little wooden, and my legs rather stiff. I couldn’t help casting backward glances at the room with every few steps. Thanks to the rising wind, the paper coverings on the windows were rattling with noise.

I stood for a while before sitting on a stone bench to s.p.a.ce out. A hand propped up my head as I looked at the candlelit reflections of two figures against the windows. Though I knew these were only shadows, the flickering flames distorted their shapes and made them seem very intimate.

There was a thread of bitterness within my heart.

I suppressed my grief as a sudden warmth rose up to fill my eyes. My sleeve roughly rubbed at my face as I stood up, feeling at a loss.

Yifu was mine.

He was Shao’er’s Fang Hua.

My hands clenched, but the stuffy feeling in my chest remained.

“The soup was prepared long beforehand by the imperial kitchens, shall we deliver them now?” Little Li asked as he walked over, carrying two bowls. His gaze settled on me in astonishment. I ignored him, staring fixedly at a point as coldness penetrated to the depths of my heart.

The shadows in the window seemed to draw closer and closer to each other, and the shabby paper covering rustled in the wind, enough for me to vaguely discern that person’s brilliant yellow robes.

Only then did I notice someone pulling at my own clothes, and lose my concentration.

“What’s happened with you?” Little Li gave me a rather caring look.

“Nothing.” I turned away, my heart filled with agony. Though I wanted to grin, just trying to move my lips made my eyes grow hot.

“You were fine just awhile ago, but who provoked you now?” he said and stopped, glancing in the direction of the room before smiling mysteriously. “How fortunate, we don’t even need to deliver the sober-up soup this time.”

What happened?

Why did he say that…?

My body shook as I followed his gaze to the room. There were no more shadows in the window, only darkness…the lights had gone out inside. Abruptly, my mind grew blank.

I didn’t think of anything, nor could I think of anything.

I only knew that Fang Hua and Han Zichuan were the only ones in that room. I don’t know where my viciousness came from, but I suddenly lost my head and seized the soup from Little Li’s hands, valiantly pus.h.i.+ng him aside to charge inside.

“You can’t go in, hey…little ancestor[1], why aren’t you listening to what I say?” Little Li’s voice grew smaller and smaller until he shrank back and retreated…because I’d already used three parts of my internal energy to push against the door with a creak until it opened. Without a lantern, the lighting in the room was very dim. However, the moonlight coming in from another window was enough to illuminate everything.

The table was empty besides a single jug of wine.

My vision swept past to see Han Zichuan leaning over to lie on the bed. A pair of hands looped around his neck to rest upon his shoulders, but I couldn’t see the expression of the person beneath him…

My frame of mind now, how to put it…

It was indescribable.

It felt like a weight had rammed into my heart until I’d forgotten how to breathe. I didn’t know when my hands started shaking, too weak to support something so heavy. An ear-piercing noise caught my attention from the floor, causing me to retreat a few steps.

Stunned, I realized just then that the soup bowls were cracked, and the floor was covered in porcelain fragments. The spilled soup was still surging across the floors, drenching my shoes and forcing me back like the sight before me. They both left me at my wit’s end.

“Who told you to come in?” An angry voice filled with reproach came from the side of the bed, infused with a rare boldness.

“Your servant will leave as soon as she’s cleared the mess.”

I hurriedly knelt down. Strange, wasn’t it, that something kept flowing uncontrollably from my eyes. I lowered my head and split my mouth into a grin, wiping my face with my sleeves as my heart s.h.i.+vered in pain.

“You…”

Han Zichuan kept his reclining position, lying over Fang Hua with a hand supporting his head. He seemed flabbergasted…a complicated expression in his eyes as he prepared to get off the bed. “Come here, let me take a better look.”

I stubbornly remained kneeling on the floor.

There was the sound of someone getting off the bed. I took a deep breath and crawled towards the door, my hands trembling as I prepared to rush out.

Someone firmly gripped me by the shoulder.

That person had monstrous strength, as if his fingers were digging into my flesh.

“Let go.” I waved my hand and shook him off, but forgot that he was the crown prince. Before me, all the eunuchs were either kneeling or flat on their stomachs.

“I won’t…I know it’s you. Shao’er…”

Han Zichuan embraced me from behind, arms fastened tightly around my waist. My throat burned like fire, as if he was squeezing all the air from my lungs. Still, I kept up my stubborn struggling.

“I almost went with Nongyu back to our house in the forest to look for medicinal plants. But my spies told me the house was empty, and no one lived inside…you followed me back to the palace a long time ago, right?”

His face rubbed against me, the words pitiful and weak. “Why didn’t you tell me?” In the end, he roughly turned me around and spoke word by word. “You should know how much I worried about you.”

I stared at him with wide eyes. He was drunk to the point of expressing tender feelings, fingers unhurriedly brus.h.i.+ng towards my face, my eyebrows…but I raised my brows and turned around, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Yet he forcefully resisted me with his hands, leaning over to look at my face.

“I should have realized early on that you changed your looks. Who taught you, was it Nongyu?”

I couldn’t make out anything from his tone, but only felt…there were many things I couldn’t grasp. All I could see was the image of him lying on Fang Hua, the latter holding him in his embrace.