Chapter IBMLS Ch.94 Late-night talks (3)
Xie Xuanchen closed his eyes, and all he could see was pitch black and hopeless darkness before his eyes. But on the back of his hand, there seemed to be a blaze of fire, which came alive in this abyss.
Mu Mingtang didn’t know if it was her illusion. After she fumbled around for Xie Xuanchen’s hand, she vaguely felt that his fingers flinched, but then returned to its unresponsive state again, as if nothing had happened. Mu Mingtang was propped up for a long time, and now her arm felt slightly numb, she slowly laid back on the bed and asked: “My lord, I noticed that you don’t really like the Empress Dowanger. How is her relationship with you?
“Her?” Xie Xuanchen snorted, “She was a kept mistress of my father when he was stationed outside. When my mother was still alive, she wasn’t even qualified to greet my mother.”
Mu Mingtang understood, she had heard about this before that when the former Emperor and Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou were fighting against each other, they emphasised on the emperor’s failure. Combining Xie Xuanchen’s words now, she can probably guess the whole story.
The first emperor passed the throne to his younger brother after his death, and the current Emporer Dowager was actually the emperor’s sister-in-law. It turns out that the Emporer Dowager was not the first emperor’s given wife, or even his legal wife. Xie Xuanchen, as the eldest young master of the family, facing this mistress, of course wouldn’t treat her nicely.
No wonder Xie Xuanchen dared to be so rude towards the Emporer Dowager, and the people around her didn’t dare to refute his words.
These topics were too heavy. Mu Mingtang didn’t want to touch Xie Xuanchen’s sore spots. Instead, she changed the topic and said, “My lord, if I’m locked up again next time, you don’t have to hurt your body to save me. It’s not a big deal. It’s not painful to lock me up for two days and strave me for a few meals. You forcibly walked to me today, the damage to your own body is much greater than mine.”
“No.”
“How is it not, I can run and jump, but look at how weak you’ve become after you got back. According to a businessman’s thinking, you’re incurring a loss.”
“There won’t be a next time.”
In the darkness, Xie Xuanchen’s voice sounded faint, as if he was too lazy to speak. Mu Mingtang was suddenly speechless. She thought Xie Xuanchen was talking about his own body, but she didn’t expect that he actually meant that there won’t be a next time that she’ll be locked up.
Mu Mingtang had prepared plenty of great principles to mention to him, but at this moment, she felt that she didn’t need to mention anything. Xie Xuanchen was sometimes so annoying that she just wanted to hit him to death, but sometimes he was very gentle.
“Thank you.” Mu Mingtang nestled under the blanket. After a while, she whispered, “Good night.”
Xie Xuanchen dismissed these cringy words. He closed his eyes and laid on the bed. After a while, he still couldn’t sleep. Xie Xuanchen moved, and said in a tough tone, “Hey.”
However, there was no movement on the other side of the bed. Xie Xuanchen waited for a long time, he couldn’t help but open his eyes and looked back at Mu Mingtang. Mu Mingtang laid sideways on the bed, with her face pointing in his direction, her eyes were closed. Xie Xuanchen stared at her for a long time, then he stretched out his finger to poke Mu Mingtang’s forehead: “Are you really asleep?”
Mu Mingtang didn’t respond from the poke. Xie Xuanchen saw this and his mood became extremely complicated, he didn’t know what to say for a while.
“She really fell asleep, how trusting can you be.” Xie Xuanchen didn’t know whether to feel moved that Mu Mingtang trusted him, or to worry that this naive girl would trap him. Xie Xuanchen laid back to his position and stared at the bed net for a long time, he didn’t feel sleepy at all.
Ever since his illness, he would randomly faint, he’ll faint after taking two steps, or even when he’s in the middle of a conversation, he’ll faint. This was the first time that Xie Xuanchen wanted to sleep but couldn’t.
Xie Xuanchen didn’t know what was going on, and the image of the mandarin ducks that were playing in water on the pillows suddenly appeared in his mind, as well as the words he had heard back when he was in the army.
How terrible, Xie Xuanchen thought in silence, which bastard thought that it would be a good idea to give him a wife when he was still sick?