Chapter 46: Xiao Wan Still Needs to Sleep Together
The Regent King finished his morning meal at the Zhongshu Province. After dealing with all his affairs and appeasing Gu Xiwei, the governor of Suzhou, who was worried he had flattered the wrong person, he returned to see Wei Wanlan.
He thought Wei Wanlan should be happily looking at New Year’s pictures.
The New Year’s pictures from Suzhou’s Taohuawu were brightly colored and lifelike. Besides pictures, there were also picture albums, very fitting for the New Year atmosphere.
Every year before the New Year, Gu Xiwei would present many paintings as gifts to the court.
Su Jingzhi thought that such easy-to-read materials were perfect for Wei Wanlan. Just like last time, he left Wei Wanlan a “Shan Hai Jing Picture Album.” An Ruyi said that Wei Wanlan found it very interesting and often read it until late, reluctant to sleep.
Su Jingzhi left the Zhongshu Province without any attendants, not even Tang Tuan, and went to the Zichen Palace alone. He stood outside the palace for a while, preparing to greet Wei Wanlan happily. As for Wei Wanlan not finishing copying the books, he had already thought of the words to reprimand him, and had also found a way to let him off easily.
“Your Majesty, if you can’t finish copying the required amount in one day, then finish it within three days. Three days later, this King will come to check. For every missing character, I will confiscate one of your New Year’s pictures.”
Su Jingzhi adjusted his expression and repeated these encouraging words in his mind several times. He felt that these words were impeccable, combining leniency and strictness. Then, he lifted his robe, crossed the steps, passed through the corridor, and arrived at the study.
The lamp in the study was still on.
The door was unlocked.
He gently pushed open a small crack.
He first saw a box of New Year’s pictures blocking the doorway; the seals hadn’t even been opened.
The light in the room was warm orange; in the cold winter air, the light seemed somewhat warm. The lamp on the desk was covered with a glass cover, and the light reflected Wei Wanlan’s thin figure.
—He was still… clumsily copying books.
Su Jingzhi’s body tensed outside. He inhaled a breath of cold air.
His dark pupils reflected Wei Wanlan, who was still writing without stopping.
On the young emperor’s desk was a plate of osmanthus cakes, untouched; five cakes were still neatly arranged on the plate.
This sudden diligence and dedication made Su Jingzhi stand outside and watch, as if he wanted to treat Wei Wanlan as a New Year’s picture, carefully pasting him in his heart.
But as he watched…
—A sense of guilt inexplicably arose.
Wei Wanlan had never undergone the training before becoming emperor.
No one knew that the previous emperor would die early due to debauchery; everyone thought that the previous emperor, who was so greedy for beauty, would not lack heirs even if he died.
No one expected that the one who finally entered the Forbidden Palace would be the King of Lin’an, the younger brother of the late emperor, who had been exiled to a fiefdom.
Now that Wei Wanlan could gradually curb his bad habits and improve, he should be satisfied with Wei Wanlan’s progress.
Actually, it was the Regent King himself who was unsatisfied. Clearly an assistant minister, he reprimanded Wei Wanlan for not understanding anything. It was he who had set his expectations too high for Wei Wanlan, who was too hasty.
Usually, the Regent King was a dictator. Whether it was military or court affairs, he always had his way and rarely considered the emotions of those being decided upon; he only needed them to execute his orders.
Now, Su Jingzhi decided to empathize with Wei Wanlan, and he did so, realizing his own excesses.
Su Jingzhi stood outside the Zichen Palace study, glanced again at Wei Wanlan, who was copying books while holding his wrist, thinking that his wrists were thin and couldn’t withstand this kind of forced growth, and that this might be another blow to Wei Wanlan’s enthusiasm for learning…
After much thought, the Regent King felt a tightness in his chest.
He felt regret, and for a moment, he forgot to breathe.
Therefore, such a skilled person couldn’t hear Wei Wanlan’s muttering several times:
“The Regent King is such a bad guy, so bad! So bad! So bad…”
The Great Wei monarch, Wei Wanlan, copied a stroke, cursed a stroke, and then timidly continued copying a stroke. He used the tip of his pen as a knife and the paper as the Regent King’s face. Stabbing this old turtle!
As for why Wei Wanlan was still copying, it was because he remembered that when he was forced to eat in the morning, Su Jingzhi had threatened him with the palace maids and eunuchs of the Zichen Palace.
If he didn’t finish copying, An Ruyi and the others would definitely be punished…
Moreover, the Regent King even said that he would put his copy into the National History Museum!
What a solemn place was the National History Museum?
If he carelessly copied the books or made mistakes, those who borrowed them would be misled. Those who could borrow the Shanhe Picture Album would definitely be doing great things. If his mistakes misled others, he would be greatly guilty.
And also—
If the students who came to borrow books discovered that the copy was wrong! Then he, the emperor, had made mistakes in copying books and writing characters, which would be a laughingstock for eternity. A complete disgrace!
So no matter what, he couldn’t stop copying the books QAQ
The bad guy was forcing him to copy properly!
404 was so right, this person would use any method to make things difficult for him, he just couldn’t stand him.
Countless pufferfish swelled in Wei Wanlan’s heart.
The bulging pufferfish exploded bang bang bang, exploding into a mess, but his hands didn’t stop.
He didn’t want to implicate others. He wanted to cause as little trouble as possible.
If he had to cause trouble, he only wanted to make things difficult for the bad guy, to trouble the bad guy to death.
At this moment, the pen in his hand ran out of ink—
Wei Wanlan’s little claws trembled slightly, and he looked back with a bitter expression. Seeing that the Regent King was standing behind him at some point, taking away his brush, he pouted.
“Regent King.”
Wei Wanlan’s expression was not good, but he didn’t cry. He looked at the Regent King with wide, deer-like eyes, his eyes filled with moisture, his lips trembling.
“How much have you copied?” Su Jingzhi coughed lightly.
“Sixty-five more times…”
Wei Wanlan said in a hoarse voice. After briefly making eye contact with the Regent King, he moved his gaze back to the paper.
The Regent King frowned, feeling somewhat strange. Wei Wanlan didn’t beg for mercy, nor did he cry or make a fuss. He just hung his two soft, curly strands of hair, not playing according to his expected script.
“You…”
“Don’t punish me, I won’t sleep yet, I’ll copy the book properly.”
So well-behaved.
So well-behaved that Su Jingzhi felt a little depressed.
Actually, he had already noticed that the corners of Wei Wanlan’s eyes were red.
According to the eunuch’s testimony, Wei Wanlan had already cried and made a fuss, but he hadn’t cried or made a fuss to him. The scene he had envisioned in the Zichen Palace in the afternoon, where Wei Wanlan would act coquettishly and beg to be let off, hadn’t appeared.
In front of him, he seemed very sensible.
However, his sensibility made Su Jingzhi feel as if a crack had opened in his heart. Vinegar and sourness surged in his heart.
—Who saw his vulnerable and cute side first?
Su Jingzhi swallowed. He took the book from Wei Wanlan: “Don’t write anymore. Writing so many times won’t help if it doesn’t go into your head.”
Wei Wanlan became more and more frightened as he listened.
He didn’t take it as a sentence of exemption from punishment. Wearing colored glasses, he thought that the Regent King of Great Wei said he was stupid, and he was afraid that he would vent his anger on him and others.
“I’m sorry, Regent King… I’ve been writing and memorizing. Little Luzi and Little Quanzi, they can all testify that I’m very serious.” Wei Wanlan softly defended himself, saying in a low voice, “Since you left, I haven’t even left my seat.”
Two eunuchs who looked very similar knelt down in the study: “We can testify.”
The Zichen Palace was all the Regent King’s own people.
These two eunuchs were no exception. One of them, Little Luzi, was the one who reported to the Zhongshu Province in the afternoon, saying that His Majesty was crying.
With these words, Su Jingzhi solved the case. It turned out that these eunuchs had wiped away the little thing’s tears first, and the two eunuchs had taken the lead in becoming Wei Wanlan’s own people.
And he, the one who assigned Wei Wanlan the task of copying books, had become an outsider in his eyes, a bad guy.
The Regent King picked up his teacup and took a sip of water, coldly ordering: “You two may retreat.”
The two eunuchs obeyed.
All the irrelevant people left.
The Zichen Palace study was so quiet that only the sound of the flames flickering could be heard, accompanied by Wei Wanlan’s shallow breathing.
Su Jingzhi felt that he had to do something to recover his slightly distorted image, so his stiff head and back finally bent slightly, and he sat down beside Wei Wanlan again.
As a result, Wei Wanlan moved his body slightly, looking pitiful, and apologized again:
“I’m sorry, Regent King. Please don’t punish others, just punish me if you’re still angry.”
Who wants to punish you…
What does heartache feel like?
Su Jingzhi couldn’t understand it before.
But now, seeing Wei Wanlan apologizing to him pitifully, he felt as if his heart was being held by a soft hand, squeezing out a heart full of bittersweet juice.
He had been thinking “acting coquettish won’t work” before, but now Wei Wanlan wasn’t acting coquettish at all, and it still worked.
The Regent King’s anxiety of hating iron for not being able to make steel was completely defeated by his pity.
So he sat beside Wei Wanlan and opened the atlas. He used a gentle tone that he himself couldn’t believe, pointing at the strokes of the Shanhe map with his fingertips, and said calmly: “Let’s not copy for now, this King will explain it again.”
Wei Wanlan nodded obediently. He unconsciously twitched his nose. His little nose twitched lightly.
So cute.
If he wasn’t trying to maintain the persona of a cool Regent King and still cared about face, he really wanted to hug Wei Wanlan and rub his head.
Liking someone is an unreasonable thing.
It made him change from a hardworking machine full of court affairs to someone who had a place to go after work, someone to have dinner with, someone he cared about. This is him now.
The Regent King suppressed his thoughts and spread out the Shanhe Atlas—
“This is Chang’an, the center of the world, where the dragon veins are located. The city is strong, it is the most important place in the country, and it is also where the people from all over the world come to pay tribute.”
“The Jade Gate Pass is the throat of the western border, the key point of the Silk Road. Not only does it bring lasting benefits to the people of our Great Wei through the coming and going of merchants, but it is also a strong barrier against external threats.”
“Jiangnan is the land of fish and rice, abundant in resources, and the granary of the Great Wei. It can also communicate with the sea area and connect with overseas countries, and is the gateway for the Great Wei to trade.”
…
This was the second time he patiently explained it to Wei Wanlan.
Compared to the last time, the lecturer’s attitude had become much gentler.
Wei Wanlan was also very attentive when listening, sometimes nodding in cooperation with the Regent King, after all, no matter how much he could understand, he didn’t want to copy books anymore.
An Ruyi came to add lamp oil outside the study.
When his steps reached the carved wooden door, hearing the low voices of the monarch and his minister, he stopped. Seeing the Regent King and the emperor, one explaining patiently, and the other listening like a chick pecking at rice, through the crack in the door.
An Ruyi’s mouth couldn’t help but reach his ears.
At this time, it was past the Hai hour, and the city of Chang’an was already under curfew, and the inner palace was also under palace curfew.
Su Jingzhi was very perceptive, seeing An Ruyi standing at the door, he slowly stopped talking: “Let’s talk about this today.”
Wei Wanlan softly said: “Hmm.” Very softly. Because he was tired of listening.
However, Wei Wanlan rubbed his eyes and tried to praise in front of people, giving a thumbs-up: “The Regent King explained it very well.”
The lamps in the study seemed to brighten for a moment.
Su Jingzhi’s eyes flashed.
He was a peacock, proud of himself, but he might not even bother to listen to the flattery of others. But when he heard Wei Wanlan praise him, he felt incredibly useful, and his heart was filled with joy.
At this time, An Ruyi quickly took the opportunity to urge them to finish: “It’s getting late, should Your Highness and Your Majesty rest early?”
Unexpectedly, this sentence took away most of Wei Wanlan’s drowsiness. Wei Wanlan’s eyes widened, and his wet, deer-like eyes were instantly filled with disbelief.
A sentence blurted out:
“——Why does the Regent King want to sleep with me!?”
Accompanying him to eat, forcing him to copy books, getting up at five o’clock wasn’t enough? Wei Wanlan was terrified.
The superficial harmony of the Zichen Palace was suddenly broken.
An Ruyi carefully recalled his wording just now, and seemed to have discovered that there was indeed some ambiguity. In fact, Eunuch An meant that they should finish early and go home to rest.
…Could it be that His Majesty understood it literally, thinking that he was advising the Regent King and His Majesty to sleep in the same bedroom?