“Your Highness Should Conduct Yourself with Restraint.”
Lu Lingshuang raised a hand and pointed at him. “Lu Ronghuai, how dare you use such foul language to curse me? I shall return and tell Father Emperor and Mother Empress!”
“Oh? Then go ahead. There is no need to inform this Prince.”
Lu Ronghuai looked at her with amusement, his gaze plainly declaring that he did not care in the slightest.
Lu Lingshuang bit down on her molars, her handkerchief clenched tightly in her fist.
“Third Brother, this is Prince Qi’s residence. Third Brother should mind his words, lest others make a spectacle of you,” Liu Jinglan said, lifting her embroidered handkerchief to lightly cover her mouth and nose.
“Make a spectacle of this Prince?” Lu Ronghuai rose to his feet and took five plump, crimson cherries from the fruit platter. “This Prince has been cultivating his temperament of late. My temper has improved considerably. Should there truly be someone so fearless of death, this Prince would at least grant them an intact corpse.”
Liu Jinglan had always known him to be arrogant, but this was the first time she had felt so closely the murderous chill that seemed to radiate from him.
She drew in a quiet breath and said nothing more.
Lu Ronghuai returned to Chu Yuan’s side and lifted the thin stem of the cherries, dangling them before his eyes.
“Do you wish to eat one?”
Chu Yuan ignored him.
Lu Ronghuai pressed his advantage and lightly brushed a cherry against Chu Yuan’s pale, delicate cheek. “These cherries are as enticing as Ah-Yuan. Fragrant and sweet.”
Those present: “…”
Chu Yuan lifted his gaze. Beneath his lashes, his eyes were like frost-formed ice flowers, unstained by dust. “Your Highness should conduct yourself with restraint.”
“You are willing to speak to me now?” Lu Ronghuai chuckled softly and held a cherry to his lips. “Taste one. The skin is thin and the juice abundant. Sweet and fragrant. When Ah-Yuan was in the Kingdom of Chu, you surely had no chance to taste such a thing.”
The frost in Chu Yuan’s eyes sharpened into icy spikes. “Indeed. Your Highness knows this subject inside and out. Whether this subject has eaten it or not, Your Highness would naturally know.”
Lu Ronghuai: “?”
He truly did know Chu Yuan had not eaten it. This variety of cherry was not one commonly sold in markets but a specialty of the Kingdom of Lu, produced in small quantities each year and reserved for members of the imperial clan.
Had Ah-Yuan misunderstood his meaning?
What did he mean by knowing him inside and out?
Even in the previous life, though they had spent years together day and night, only after Chu Yuan’s sudden passing did Lu Ronghuai awaken to the realization that many truths had never been told to him.
By then, he had no opportunity left to make amends.
Lu Ronghuai abruptly flung the cherries aside. In one motion, he pulled Chu Yuan into his arms and said in a low voice to the others, “All of you, leave.”
“This Crowned Princess has words to speak with Third Brother,” Liu Jinglan said.
She had come today intending to dampen his arrogance. Because of the Crown Prince’s broken leg, he had been confined to the Eastern Palace for over a month, his temper worsening by the day.
She resented Lu Ronghuai for striking too harshly, causing the Crown Prince to miss court. The upcoming Wanchao Hui had originally been entrusted to the Crown Prince to oversee. Now that meritorious opportunity had fallen into Prince Qi’s hands.
With double blessings upon him, even Consort Fang in the palace had recently dared to carry herself with haughty pride before the Empress lately.
“Do you also wish to break a leg?” Lu Ronghuai’s eyes were heavy and dark as he looked at her.
Liu Jinglan’s fingers tightened upon her handkerchief. Her breath halted for a moment before she rose calmly.
“Since Third Brother is occupied at the moment, we shall speak another day.”
Lu Lingshuang was unwilling to concede. She had come to Prince Qi’s celebratory banquet with impure intentions, intending to berate Lu Ronghuai and vent the Crown Prince’s anger.
Not only had she failed to anger him, but she had also instead angered herself.
“Third Brother, Elder Brother now has a son. When shall I be able to drink the full-month wine at Prince Li’s residence?” she asked deliberately, her gaze fixed on Chu Yuan.
Held within Lu Ronghuai’s embrace, Chu Yuan turned his head slightly to look at her.
Lu Lingshuang smiled at him, that smile like a venomous serpent flicking its tongue, clinging and cold.
“If your mind is diseased, go seek an imperial physician. Now get out,” Lu Ronghuai said without courtesy, cupping Chu Yuan’s face and pressing his small head into his chest.
“Hmph!” Lu Lingshuang turned and ran off.
Liu Jinglan rose with composure. “This Crown Princess shall go see the little nephew.”
Once they had all departed, Xian Yu closed the doors of the warm pavilion with trembling hands.
“What is wrong with you?” Xian Feng asked in confusion.
Xian Yu looked on the verge of tears. “I feel that my small life may not be preserved.”
Xian Feng laughed despite himself. “What grievous error have you committed?”
Xian Yu glanced at the tightly shut door, hugged his head, and slowly squatted down. “Wuwuwu… wuwuwu…”
Xian Feng: “?”
It seemed quite serious.
Yet he very much wished to laugh.
Inside the pavilion, with all others dismissed, Lu Ronghuai directly lifted Chu Yuan onto his lap.
“What did you mean by those words just now?” He stared into Chu Yuan’s eyes, his expression stern.
Seeing his posture as though preparing to demand an explanation, Chu Yuan an unpleasant stir in his chest and struggled to get down.
“They meant nothing. Your Highness, release this subject!”
“Until the matter is made clear today, I will not set you down.” Lu Ronghuai restrained him firmly, his tone growing heavier without intention.
Yet he maintained control over his strength, ensuring he would not truly injure him.
His arms were like iron clamps, locking him in place so that not the slightest movement could free him.
Chu Yuan thought of the concerned gaze, the considerate care, the attentiveness of these past days. He thought of how it might all have been feigned. He thought of the words spoken to him, all perhaps deception.
The more he thought, the angrier he became. The more he thought, the more his chest ached.
In the end, his eyes reddened, and tears fell.
Lu Ronghuai: “?!!!!!!”
He panicked instantly, hands flustered as he tried to wipe away the tears, only for Chu Yuan to swat him aside.
“This subject wishes to get down!” His voice was choked, anger still laced within it.
“Very well, very well. You may get down.” Lu Ronghuai dared not refuse. He loosened his hold, and before he could reach to steady him, Chu Yuan supported himself against the chair and hopped down.
“Be careful.”
Chu Yuan ignored him and hopped to another chair, turning his back and secretly lifting a hand to wipe his tears.
Too shameful. To be angered to tears by this man.
Chu Yuan felt that something was wrong with himself today. Why should he cry over this man? Having seen his true nature, he ought to feel fortunate.
Behind him came a cautious and pitiful voice. “Ah-Yuan, you… you need not cry.”
It felt as though his heart were shattering.
“I am not crying!”
“Yes, yes, you are not crying. It is I who am crying,” Lu Ronghuai said in utter humility.
“I… I did not mean to make you cry. Ah-Yuan, I only wished to speak properly with you. I do not wish you to misunderstand me.”
Tears still clung to Chu Yuan’s lashes. “Misunderstand what, Your Highness? From the very beginning, Your Highness had me investigated. These past days of deliberate kindness, were they not meant to lower this subject’s guard and turn me into a puppet at your disposal?”
Silence fell behind him.
Chu Yuan’s heart grew cold. A self-mocking smile curved at his lips.
Footsteps sounded. Lu Ronghuai strode before him and dropped to one knee.
“I am sorry. In the beginning, I did indeed instruct Xian Yue to investigate you. At that time, I did not know you. The marriage had been arranged by the Empress. I could not afford not to guard against danger.”
Chu Yuan closed his eyes. “This subject understands. Your Highness need not explain.”
“You do not understand,” Lu Ronghuai said with a bitter smile. “I have survived these years by sheer fortune. In childhood within the palace, my birth mother paid me no heed and allowed others to bully me. Later, to survive, I petitioned to go to the battlefield.”
“That year, I was only thirteen.”
Chu Yuan opened his eyes. “Is Your Highness deceiving this subject again? This subject has heard that Your Highness first entered battle at fifteen.”
Lu Ronghuai shook his head. “I went to the battlefield at thirteen. I was too young to be sent to the front lines, but even so, that time, I nearly did not come back alive.”
“After returning to the palace and recovering from my wounds, Father Emperor told the outside world I had been injured while hunting. During those two years, I trained day and night without cease. I did not wish ever again to feel death so near.”
Chu Yuan listened quietly.
“Dangers surround me. Assassination attempts have never ceased. Perhaps Ah-Yuan finds me cruel and cold-blooded, yet I had no choice. The environment in which I grew up would not permit me to become a gentle man.”
“Investigating you was to ensure that no hidden enemy stood at my side. Later, when Xian Yue showed me the letters, I discovered that you… at that time, I did indeed intend to test you.”
“Discovered what about this subject?”
“Your life was severed entirely from the age of ten. The final period you spent with your… Mother Empress was erased completely.”
“So Your Highness suspected that this subject had some kind of problem??”
“That was not the reason.”
Each person has secrets. A fragment of one’s past proves nothing.
“What truly aroused my suspicion was that before your departure, you met secretly with your father.”
Chu Yuan’s face was expressionless. “Your Highness is truly formidable.”
“Did Your Highness suspect that I was a spy of the Kingdom of Chu?”
Lu Ronghuai regretted deeply that he had not been reborn a little earlier.
Had he returned at the time of their marriage, none of today’s troubles would exist.
He would already have embraced his beloved and lived in harmony.
“I once suspected it, but after I awoke from the assassination attempt, I understood.”
Chu Yuan’s expression changed faintly.
It was true that after that incident, Lu Ronghuai’s attitude toward him had changed markedly.
“A father who allowed his child to live in a dilapidated temple for ten years without concern, and who only sought him out before his marriage, would do so for no reason other than coercion.”
“So Your Highness still suspects that I am a spy.”
“No. I felt heartache for you.” Lu Ronghuai reached out and tentatively clasped Chu Yuan’s hand upon his knee.
Chu Yuan’s expression remained cold, yet he did not pull away.
Joy flickered in Lu Ronghuai’s heart. “Ah-Yuan is intelligent and principled. You would never agree to such a demand.”
“Is that so? Since Your Highness never suspected me, how then do you explain your conduct these past days?”
Lu Ronghuai was puzzled. “What conduct?”
“This subject’s memory is not poor. I have not forgotten Your Highness’s attitude when I first entered the residence before the New Year. In merely a few dozen days, Your Highness has become like a different person.”
“Your Highness’s conduct causes this subject fear.”
In this world, what good comes without cause? What love exists without reason?
Lu Ronghuai looked into Chu Yuan’s eyes, clear and cold as though they could see through all things.
He found himself at a loss for words.
The matter of rebirth was strange and mystical. Had he not experienced it personally, he would never believe it.
Yet he could not explain such a thing to Chu Yuan.
“I like you. You do not believe it, do you?” Lu Ronghuai tightened his grip on Chu Yuan’s hand and asked softly.
“This subject is not a spy and will not harm Your Highness. If Your Highness fears I may act against you, you may confine me within Baichun Courtyard. This subject will harbor no resentment.”
“You truly do not believe.” Lu Ronghuai sighed, unable to discern whether the feeling within him was disappointment or something deeper.
“If it were Your Highness, would you believe?” Chu Yuan asked in return.
“I would not,” Lu Ronghuai replied.
“Then…”
Lu Ronghuai lifted him into his arms.
“Then what of it? I shall prove it to you at once.”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Lu Dog: Some people cry like pear blossoms in the rain (my wife). Some people cry with bubbles of snot (a certain steward).
Xian Yu: Run! Run! Run!
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