Chapter 47: Xiao Wan is Like His Wife
If it could be said that Wei Wanlan’s earlier demeanor was quite convincing, his attitude towards Su Jingzhi was respectfully courteous.
But now, hearing Eunuch An’s words, he was completely dumbfounded. Heaven knew how vicious the Regent King, the big bad guy, was:
Getting up early every morning, losing a lot of free time, facing his cold face at noon, and now even his evenings weren’t free?
Wei Wanlan quickly blinked his two deer-like eyes, discovering that he hadn’t completely feigned his composure, and that when he blurted out his true feelings, it was already too late:
—What did I just say? I, a little puppet, dared to dislike the Regent King!
404 wasn’t here either. He didn’t want to continue, did he want to quickly move on to the Jinling plot?
Intense tension and anxiety quickly filled Wei Wanlan’s entire body. His skin was tense, his blood cold, and his scalp numb.
What to do?
What to do!!!
The big bad guy’s face had just cleared, but with this single sentence, it returned to its gloomy state, rendering the entire evening’s geography lesson useless.
The big bad guy didn’t say anything.
But Wei Wanlan was already frightened by this expression, turning into a pitiful little rabbit in the Zichen Palace, wanting to play dead.
An Ruyi quickly smoothed things over, “Your Majesty, that’s not what I meant.”
An Ruyi had his limits.
Although he could keenly sense that his true master, the Regent King, might have designs on the young emperor.
But An Gonggong’s pleasure lay in appreciating the natural development of feelings; he liked the two of them being good to each other and didn’t want to be a fawning slave, scheming to create opportunities for the Regent King to have a relationship with the young emperor. He was upholding the professional ethics of a eunuch.
An Ruyi spoke again in a soft voice, “I didn’t express myself clearly. I hope Your Majesty will rest early. It’s late, and the Regent King probably won’t be able to return to the Prince’s Mansion; he should also rest well in the Zhongshu Province.”
This time, the explanation was clear enough, right?
“Oh…”
Wei Wanlan was finally relieved. His small shoulders slumped.
At this time, Su Jingzhi frowned, unsurprisingly expressing his displeasure. The breath he exhaled was somewhat heavy, releasing invisible pressure. But he absolutely wasn’t because he coveted sharing a bed with Wei Wanlan.
It was purely because Wei Wanlan’s attitude was unpredictable—
He had once thought that Wei Wanlan was very dependent on him. The young emperor always acted close, so close that it made him feel that Wei Wanlan couldn’t live without him, that the sky would fall at any moment;
But now he discovered that Wei Wanlan would occasionally inadvertently show distance.
Wei Wanlan would always, without warning, suddenly prick him, raising his heart high, swaying in the wind, unable to find a foothold.
He couldn’t figure out Wei Wanlan’s pattern.
But his intuition could feel that there was indeed a distance between Wei Wanlan and himself, a distance he couldn’t describe.
This made even the Regent King, who held great power, seem to control everything, his decisiveness and wisdom were all false. In reality, he was always being controlled by another person’s thoughts.
The Regent King was the helpless one.
But Su Jingzhi raised his head even higher: “Hmph.”
The cold hum expressed his disdain, and the Regent King turned to leave.
But he didn’t expect that this cold hum brought about such fluctuating emotions in Wei Wanlan:
Wei Wanlan hated himself for easily showing relief at being let off, turning into deep fear and self-reproach—The big bad guy was even more unhappy, and he, a small puppet without any cards, had completely angered the big bad guy.
Would he wake up the next day to find that the Zichen Palace had changed hands, that the Regent King was dissatisfied with him easily usurping the throne, and that in the future, he would sleep on the dragon bed whenever and however he pleased?
The more he thought about it, the more afraid he became…
Wei Wanlan trembled his ears, his thoughts turning rapidly. The Regent King had been dissatisfied with him during the lecture, hadn’t he?
The situation couldn’t help but be carefully considered.
The little puppet felt extremely desolate.
After a brief silence, Wei Wanlan quickly changed his mind and gently approached, taking the Regent King’s heavy wrist:
“How can I let our Prince sleep in the Zhongshu Province’s office? My dragon bed is very large, Regent King, sleep with me.”
Su Jingzhi’s throat suddenly felt dry: “Hmm?” This was a questioning uncertainty, filled with disbelief. His heart was stirred again.
Wei Wanlan didn’t dare let him disbelieve.
He had to make up his mind, it was urgent, it was a matter of life and death:
“Eunuch An, quickly take the Regent King to wash up, and then ask someone to go to the Zhongshu Province to fetch the Regent King’s underclothes. Also, prepare the shaving tools for the Regent King.”
Wei Wanlan: Is the service good enough? Are you still angry? Please spare me, Regent King?
This service wasn’t just good, it was too thorough.
It made Su Jingzhi, his tall and straight figure standing before Wei Wanlan, stunned, speechless for a moment.
He felt that Wei Wanlan’s words just now were different from usual.
Before, he thought Wei Wanlan was like a cute child, like a docile little animal. His feelings for Wei Wanlan, perhaps initially stemmed from a protective instinct towards the beautiful and dependent Wei Wanlan.
But it was different this time.
When Wei Wanlan started caring about his clothes and washing, even going into detail about shaving, these daily and private matters made Wei Wanlan not seem like a clumsy emperor at this moment.
—Like his wife.
Su Jingzhi swallowed. At that moment, he felt as if a family member he had been separated from for many years had been found again.
After dismissing An Ruyi, Wei Wanlan diligently approached the Regent King, first unbuckling his sword, and hanging the bloodstained weapon in the furthest corner of the study, far, far away from them.
Actually, the sword was very heavy. Without the sword, Su Jingzhi also felt relaxed. The murderous aura on his body lessened somewhat, revealing some of his mother’s inherent grace and elegance; his aggressiveness decreased. He liked Wei Wanlan helping him remove his sword.
Wei Wanlan, on the other hand, was relieved that he had paralyzed his enemy, removed the tiger’s teeth, and removed the Regent King’s weapon.
His small claws patted Su Jingzhi’s chest with satisfaction:
“Then Regent King, wash up first, I’ll also wash up, see you later, Regent King~”
Su Jingzhi breathed slowly and heavily. His suspended heart softly fell back into his chest. Then he looked down at the place on his chest that Wei Wanlan had lightly patted.
An Ruyi reported that the bathing tub was ready, and Little Luzi had brought back the shaving tools that the Regent King usually used from the Zhongshu Province. The underclothes he had brought were clean, with the lingering woody scent unique to Su Jingzhi.
Before bathing, An Ruyi bent down and asked in a low, thin voice:
“Your Highness, do you need hot water at night?”
Su Jingzhi’s heart throbbed again, suppressing the surging heat. He understood An Ruyi’s meaning, but his face remained calm: “No. Don’t need anyone to stay up.”
“Yes.”
The bathroom door closed.
Su Jingzhi closed his eyes, feeling the humid steam.
To obtain the body first, then the heart, he could certainly do it at any time, but he disdained it.
Even if it would take time to obtain Wei Wanlan’s heart, he would find ways to strive for it.
Zichen Palace bedroom.
Wei Wanlan was looking at paintings in his pajamas, humming a little tune.
Gu Xiwei probably never imagined that the flattery he thought was successfully offered actually hit the mark.
Su Jingzhi entered and saw Wei Wanlan using a painting to cover his face, his engrossed expression making him already plan a generous reward for Gu Xiwei, of course, in the name of the Regent King’s private estate.
The charcoal brazier in the Zichen Palace was burning well.
Wei Wanlan disliked wearing too many clothes even though he was afraid of the cold. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his bare feet dangling, his toes pink and white. The silk garment embroidered with dark dragon patterns made Wei Wanlan’s limbs appear slender.
When the Regent King arrived, Wei Wanlan was obviously startled.
Actually, looking at the painting was just a cover.
He was using the painting to cover his face while studying the new “Sage Emperor Cultivation System,” discovering that although it had a wide array of props, it also had obvious shortcomings: the categories were too messy, and the props didn’t have item descriptions, so he could only guess their function from their names.
So it was a very crappy system.
No wonder it came with a smart assistant. Otherwise, relying only on the host to randomly fiddle with it, finding something would take forever!
—【Please set login password】
A small line of text suddenly appeared on the system screen.
Wei Wanlan blinked. He held the New Year’s picture even steadier, using the paper as a backdrop to make the words clearer.
The voice input icon was flashing.
A sentence popped out of his mouth: “Regent King, big bad guy!!!”
“Who is the big bad guy?”
Su Jingzhi didn’t know that as soon as he approached Wei Wanlan, he was inexplicably scolded. Why was this little thing secretly cursing people?
He asked in a low voice.
Then Wei Wanlan moved the painting down slightly, revealing his round deer-like eyes, his eyes instantly widened, and he half-truthfully squeezed out a bit of grievance:
“Because I… waited for you for a long time.”
“Your Majesty is very much looking forward to sharing a bed with this King?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
It was impossible to tell whether it was the truth or a perfunctory response; the most difficult thing to guess was a person’s heart.
Su Jingzhi’s heart, which had been put back, seemed to be scratched again by small claws, lightly lifted. The expression on his brow was uncertain.
At this time, Wei Wanlan dared not cause any more trouble.
Because of his random operations, too many changes had occurred tonight, so he decided to just go to sleep and sleep early.
Wei Wanlan led the person to the dragon bed: “Come on, Regent King, you can sleep outside or inside, I’m fine with it.”
Su Jingzhi was led to the bed by his not-so-strong force, his knees sinking into the soft bedding, seeing Wei Wanlan neatly tucking his thin legs, making room.
“Sleep inside.”
“Okay.” Wei Wanlan nodded.
Usually, it was Eunuch An who drew the bed curtains.
But Eunuch An didn’t seem to be there tonight, and there didn’t seem to be any eunuchs or maids on duty outside, it was very quiet.
So quiet that Wei Wanlan thought that even the Jinwu Guards weren’t on duty in the Zichen Palace tonight.
Yes, after all, with the Regent King’s skill, he didn’t need anyone’s protection.
But he couldn’t, could he? Didn’t this mean that tonight, from dusk till dawn, his entire life and death would depend on the Regent King’s mood?
“…”
Wei Wanlan’s body curled up tighter in the quilt. The skin on his back was numb, like shrimp in a cold storage. This situation of being at someone else’s mercy made him recall 404’s warning repeatedly:
【He is the big bad guy, you are the little puppet.】
【—Remember the Jinling plot!!!】
“Are you cold?” The Regent King suddenly asked.
The dragon bed was very spacious.
But because the Regent King was so tall, it wasn’t that spacious compared to sleeping alone.
Wei Wanlan suddenly felt the pressure from Su Jingzhi. This person, even if he had his sword removed, if he wanted to kill him, it wouldn’t take any effort.
Wei Wanlan bit his lip, burying himself deeper in the quilt, doing his best to play the ostrich.
As a result, this avoidance not only failed to calm the Regent King, but instead made him dissatisfied, moving his body in the quilt, suddenly very close to Wei Wanlan—
!!!
His heart was about to jump out.
QAQQAQQAQ…
The little ostrich closed its eyes tightly in the quilt.
Then, through his eyelids, he felt his vision become darker, discovering that the Regent King had somehow extinguished the palace lamp. Then he heard the bed curtain being untied, the rustling of silk. The dragon bed was closed with curtains.
The space between him and the Regent King became even smaller.
Su Jingzhi was lying beside him, less than half a foot away, emitting a faint woody scent, a strong and powerful body.