Part 2
Actually, from the beginning, this marriage was wrong.
It was my aunt wanting to maintain power and status, and it was also my wishful thinking.
I shouldn’t have provoked him.
Shouldn’t have from the start.
Fortunately, it’s not too late now; there is still a chance to remedy it.
The corners of Zhao Yiyi’s eyes turned slightly red. A faint, indifferent smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and she said softly, “Your Majesty once said you disliked the daughters of the Zhao clan. This consort’s words today should align with Your Majesty’s wishes. Why this appearance?”
Gu Zhen was stunned, looking at her in bewilderment. The hand holding her wrist gradually lost strength and hung down sluggishly.
His heart beat faster and faster, his fingertips trembled slightly, and his throat felt blocked by something, slightly choked.
“Yiyi.” He suddenly called out in a low voice, his voice uncontrollably trembling. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words. “Where did you hear that from?”
“Where did I hear it from?” Zhao Yiyi looked up at the fragrant ball hanging from the top of the bed curtains and smiled. “Let this consort think carefully.”
Outside the hall, it was drizzling, the sound of rain tapping on the windowsill crisp and pleasant. When Zhao Yiyi turned her head, a flash of lightning happened to strike, illuminating his face clearly.
Usually cold and handsome, his face was actually somewhat pale at this moment.
She said warmly, “Didn’t Your Majesty say this yourself?” Sensing his breathing gradually becoming rapid, Zhao Yiyi found it even more laughable. “That day at the Altar of Agriculture, when Your Majesty was speaking with Chancellor Cheng, did you ever think that this consort was not asleep?”
Boom—
The thunder finally crashed down. Accompanied by this spring thunder, his heart felt as if it were tightly gripped and torn by a large hand, crushing him to the point of breathlessness.
She heard it?
The reason I spoke in the room that night, separated only by a screen, was because I thought even if she heard it, it didn’t matter.
But now knowing she really heard it, why… why do I suddenly feel so terrible?
My heart is twisted into a knot.
“Yiyi…” He opened his lips with difficulty and called out.
Zhao Yiyi turned her head away and said softly, “Your Majesty, don’t call me that. This consort cannot bear it.”
So it turns out he also knows my childhood name.
Pity, it is at a time when I have decided to give up on him.
With a creak, the door was pushed open again, and the rich, hot smell of medicine wafted through the hall.
Accompanied by slow footsteps, it seemed Yunzhu had brewed the medicine again and brought it over.
“Your Highness, this slave heated another bowl. Drink it quickly while it’s hot.” Yunzhu bent down, intending to hand the celadon medicine bowl to her.
But it was taken by Gu Zhen.
“The door hinges need some oil,” he said inexplicably, then instructed Yunzhu amidst her confused look, “You go down first.”
Following the open door, the desolate wind of the rainy night drilled in, skillfully bypassing the screen and blowing into the bed curtains.
Zhao Yiyi couldn’t help but pull the brocade quilt tighter. Her small face became even whiter, and her lips, usually red without rouge, had lost all color.
When Yunzhu left, she lit a few more candles and closed the door.
For servants like them, they naturally hoped from the bottom of their hearts that His Majesty and Her Highness would be well. No matter what family, a woman falling out with her husband would not have a good life.
Especially since Her Highness was the Empress. Between an Emperor and Empress, there was never talk of divorce, only deposition.
She had wanted to persuade her at first, but every time she saw Her Highness’s pale face, saw the repeated disputes and quarrels between her and His Majesty, and saw her unhappy face, she lost the heart to persuade.
Yunzhu couldn’t understand. It clearly wasn’t like this before.
The Empress of the past, as long as His Majesty was mentioned, would subconsciously purse her lips and smile, her eyes filled with endless light. But since the incident at the Marquis of Huai’an’s residence, that light has gradually extinguished.
Between the two, there are only endless quarrels.
The room suddenly became much brighter.
Doing his best to suppress the panic in his heart, Gu Zhen scooped a spoonful of medicine with a trembling hand and softened his voice, “Be good, stop making a scene, okay? Drink the medicine and sleep, and you’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Zhao Yiyi didn’t answer, just staring at the medicine in his hand.
Those clear almond eyes seemed to contain many unspoken words.
After staring at each other for a long time, Gu Zhen finally lost the battle, allowing her to reach out and snatch the medicine bowl away.
The prescription was roughly the same as the previous two days, just with a few more ingredients added because her illness relapsed today. The medicine tasted bitter. Zhao Yiyi felt annoyed just smelling it. She lowered her head to sniff it, then grasped the bowl rim and the spoon together, and under his gaze of shock and anger, drank it all in one gulp.
Gu Zhen was furious and snatched the medicine bowl from her hand, only to see she had already drunk it all, leaving only a little residue at the bottom of the celadon bowl.
“Do you not want your life?” he asked sternly. “Can’t you feel how hot this medicine is?”
Zhao Yiyi didn’t answer. She wanted to take a handkerchief to wipe the corner of her lips, reaching out to fumble by the pillow, but couldn’t find a trace of the handkerchief.
Maybe Yunzhu took it away. She thought blankly, and was too lazy to look for the handkerchief anymore.
Gu Zhen slammed the medicine bowl onto the side table and grabbed her arm. “You’re angry to this extent? You were already sick, yet you’d rather abuse your body than disobey Zhen?”
Zhao Yiyi’s face was wooden. That hibiscus face lost its usual vividness and spirit. She leaned weakly against the headboard, staring at him blankly.
“Does Your Majesty know?” She smiled, a glimmer of light suddenly appearing in her eyes. “I used to like Your Majesty. From the first time I saw Your Majesty, I liked you. I liked you so much, so much.”
Liked you so much that at every banquet, big or small, my eyes subconsciously chased your figure, and I had to look away before being discovered by you. If our eyes met, I had to pretend to look away inadvertently, while in reality, my heart felt like it had eaten a piece of malt sugar.
Very sweet.
Sweet enough to make my heart jump for joy.
Liked you so much that I cared for nothing else, putting your wishes first in everything. For you, I was willing to endure strict palace rules, difficulties, interrogations, and contempt.
For you, I lived without a shred of self.
But even so, he still didn’t like her.
Didn’t like her from the very beginning. Disliked her to the point that all the officials in the Eastern Palace knew, only she herself didn’t know.
Still foolishly moving forward.
Afraid he didn’t despise me enough.
At that time, he must have thought: how could there be such an annoying person in this world?
How could someone be so annoying, using all means to marry him, and still delusionally hoping for favor?
Her eyes looking at the bed curtains were a bit dry. Zhao Yiyi blinked slowly, turning her head to look over. Seemingly looking at him, yet seemingly looking through him at something else. “Back then, if Your Majesty even said a single word to me, it was enough to make me happy for a long time.”
Gu Zhen’s brow jumped, his breathing stagnating for a moment. Like a dying person wanting to grasp something, he tightly gripped her arm, a layer of blood color gradually surging in his eyes. “What about now?”
Now? Now?
Her head suddenly hurt again, a pain like being pricked by needles. Zhao Yiyi smiled at him. “Now? That should be… not liking anymore.”
Not liking anymore?
How ridiculous.
The Zhao Yiyi who used to be full of him, whose every move told him of her liking, today tells him she doesn’t like him anymore.
The blood color grew thicker. Gu Zhen’s face was as gloomy as water. Gritting his teeth, he asked her word by word, slowly, “Is your liking or disliking so easy?”
How can she be like this.
Clearly, the Zhao Yiyi who forced him to say whether he liked her or not when drunk not long ago… how can she just look at him and lightly spit out a sentence: not liking anymore.
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