The temperature in the room remained constant. Compared to the sweltering heat outside, it was much more comfortable inside. Even Sushan, the little cat who usually loved darting around the courtyard to play, did not want to go out, spending the whole day lying beside the copper basin filled with ice blocks.
Exactly like Lu Hexu, who liked to sleep sprawled on the floor.
Su Zhenzhen was temporarily staying in this room. She slept in the bed every day, while the man originally slept on the floor, without any padding, just sleeping directly on the hard ground.
Seeing Su Zhenzhen sleeping on the bed, he eventually followed her up.
Originally, they each held a bamboo wife to sleep.
As they slept, who knows where Lu Hexu's bamboo wife went, but whenever Su Zhenzhen woke up, she always found a warm furnace pressed against her back.
If it were winter, Su Zhenzhen would have welcomed it.
But it was summer.
It was so hot.
Su Zhenzhen stared at the bed curtains for a while and noticed them twitching.
She tilted her head and saw Sushan clawing at the curtains, squeezing in through a gap.
Cats particularly loved enclosed spaces.
It loved these multi-layered curtains the most.
Su Zhenzhen still remembered when she was in the modern world, putting up a bed canopy.
That little crippled cat refused to sleep outside the canopy, insisting on sleeping with her.
Halfway through the night, it would want to go out to eat, drink, or use the litter box.
If it could not get out, it would meow right by her ear until she woke up.
Regarding this, Su Zhenzhen could only console herself that it was a good cat.
At least it did not pee or poop on her bed, but instead woke her up to open the canopy.
Later, feeling helpless, Su Zhenzhen just left a gap open for it, and then it brought mosquitoes inside to nest in her bed canopy.
"Meow..."
"Shh."
Su Zhenzhen carefully extracted herself from Lu Hexu's embrace, then placed Sushan on the pillow.
"You sleep here and keep him company."
With that, Su Zhenzhen slid off the side of the bed.
Separated by three layers of curtains, Lu Hexu was still sleeping peacefully on the bed.
Wei Heng brought over the construction blueprints for the shop, which had the exact same layout as where she previously lived.
"Miss Su, you may alter it however you wish."
"Thank you, Godfather."
Wei Heng smiled and led a young eunuch to replace the ice blocks in the room with a fresh batch.
Then he walked softly around the room, brightening the glazed lamps a bit, and reinforced the reed blinds at the windows to block out the light.
In the past, Wei Heng would never have dared to come in.
Wei Heng glanced at the quiet bed, then at Su Zhenzhen sitting behind the imperial desk.
Although it was daytime and the sun was blazing outside, the room was dim, illuminated only by the light of two glazed lamps.
A tall stack of memorials to the throne sat on the imperial desk. The woman rested her chin on one hand and, holding Lu Hexu's brush dipped in cinnabar ink, made alterations and sketches on the blueprint.
Add an herb garden here, a pharmacy there; put up a grape trellis here, and a cucumber trellis over there.
The clear spring pool in the middle of the courtyard could be expanded.
The bathroom could also be renovated while they were at it; the previous one was too small and dark, so a window could be added here and hung with reed blinds.
A private room could also be partitioned off in the pharmacy, so if a female patient had an unmentionable ailment, she could be brought inside to discuss it in detail.
Su Zhenzhen altered many places in one breath before finally setting down the cinnabar brush.
She stood up and stretched her limbs.
It was very hot outside. Aside from taking his medicine every day, Lu Hexu now generally slept during the day and became active at night.
This kind of schedule would really suit him going back to the modern world with her to work night shifts like a corporate slave.
Su Zhenzhen walked over to the icebox and gently opened the lid. A refreshing chill hit her face. Although it was still inferior to a modern refrigerator, owning such an icebox in ancient times already meant one belonged to a wealthy family.
Su Zhenzhen counted on her fingers; based on her shop's current revenue, it would take three years of going without food and drink to buy the most ordinary icebox.
Su Zhenzhen took out a few grapes and placed them on a plate.
Then she added some sliced watermelon, sweet melon, peaches, and waxberries.
Having prepared a plate of fruit, Su Zhenzhen quietly pushed the door open, left a gap, and squeezed out sideways.
Under the eaves, Wei Heng was standing guard at the door. Seeing Su Zhenzhen come out, he stood up from the corridor to bow.
After returning the greeting, Su Zhenzhen handed him the fruit plate.
Wei Heng took a grape.
"Godfather," Su Zhenzhen said, sitting under the corridor to talk with Wei Heng. "How long has His Majesty been like this?"
Wei Heng pinched the grape in his hand, slowly twirling it between his fingertips.
He kept his head down. Perhaps because he was castrated, he carried a gentle, faint aura of pure elegance.
When wearing ordinary clothes, his features were gentle and refined, and his manners were elegant. No one could tell he was a palace eunuch; instead, they would think he was a noble young master raised in a scholarly family.
"A long time. From the moment I saw His Majesty again, he was already like this."
"Again?" Su Zhenzhen caught the keyword.
Wei Heng pressed his lips together, hesitation showing on his face. He turned to meet Su Zhenzhen's clear, black-and-white eyes, and looking at her soft, delicate face, his heart ultimately softened. "His Majesty once lived in the Yeting."
An emperor, growing up in the palace servant quarters.
Su Zhenzhen was stunned. "Then he must have suffered a lot."
Wei Heng nodded and said, "Life in the Yeting is very bitter."
"Then, Godfather, can you tell me about it?"
"I can tell you some things about the Yeting. As for His Majesty..."
Wei Heng said tactfully.
Su Zhenzhen understood.
Arbitrarily discussing the Emperor was a grave crime.
Wei Heng and Su Zhenzhen sat there, speaking in low voices about the Yeting, until half an hour later, when they finished the fruit plate, the conversation temporarily came to a close.
"Later, when His Majesty was ten years old, he was taken out of the Yeting. Where he went, I do not know. Well, I must go brew His Majesty's medicine." Wei Heng stood up.
Su Zhenzhen nodded, watching Wei Heng walk away, then slowly lowered her head.
Wei Heng's days in the Yeting had not been easy.
He said it was very cold in the winter, wearing only a single layer of clothing that froze stiff, like being wrapped in stones.
In the summer, it was so hot that even when the sun peeled their skin, they could not go inside to rest; they had to finish washing the day's quota of clothes.
Even very young children had to work.
In the winter, their fingers would often freeze until they looked like rotting radishes.
A look of heartache appeared on Su Zhenzhen's face.
"Before His Majesty left, he was still normal." Before leaving, Wei Heng left this sentence behind.
So what exactly did Lu Hexu experience after that?
Su Zhenzhen hoped that one day, Lu Hexu would be willing to tell her about his pain.
Su Zhenzhen continued to sit alone under the eaves, her gaze falling on the clear spring pool in the courtyard, gleaming under the sun.
There had also been a clear spring pool in her courtyard that burned down.
Actually, the location of this shop was not great, and the price was not cheap either.
But the first time Su Zhenzhen saw it, she took a liking to this clear spring pool and decided to rent it.
She stood up, stretched lazily, then took off her gloves and spread her hands out in the sunlight.
The wound on her hand had healed, leaving only a shallow scar. She persistently applied scar-removing ointment every day, and having done no heavy chores over the past few days, her hands were nourished to be even more delicate and fair than before.
The torn-off fingertip had grown back halfway, its soft pink hue hidden inside the glove, showing no trace at all.
Su Zhenzhen turned around, and just as she was about to enter the house, her gaze shifted and caught sight of the plantain tree under the window not far ahead.
Summer was the season when plantains grew wildly, but this particular plantain didn't look too well.
Su Zhenzhen walked over and bent down to observe it.
She first pinched the leaves, then looked at the roots and stems.
Squatting down, she stroked the soil through her glove, dug up a tiny bit, and brought it to her nose to take a light sniff.
This smell... wasn't quite right. Why did it carry the scent of medicine?
-
Lu Hexu woke up in bed.
He hadn't slept for such a long time in a great while.
He reached out to touch the space beside him, but Su Zhenzhen was already gone. Only Sushan was sleeping on her pillow, its body sprawled out like a white blanket.
He was covered with her clothing, a faint herbal scent lingering around his nose.
Lu Hexu buried his face into it, rested for a moment, and then raised his hand to open the bed curtains.
Night had already fallen. The windows were open, the reed blinds rolled up, and a faint incense burned in the room.
Because there were many plants in the courtyard, there were naturally more mosquitoes and insects indoors.
Su Zhenzhen had placed a copper burner in each corner of the room to drive them away.
Wei Heng brought over a food box containing today's meals.
Wei Heng was an extremely meticulous person. Of course, if he wasn't meticulous, he couldn't have stayed for so long by the side of this picky and mentally unstable Majesty.
In just a few short days, he had already figured out Su Zhenzhen's tastes.
She liked a light diet and preferred the original flavors of the food.
August and September were the perfect season for eating crabs.
Besides some stir-fried vegetarian dishes, Wei Heng also brought several large steamed crabs.
"These were freshly delivered from Yangcheng Lake today by fast horse," Wei Heng said as he arranged the dipping sauces from the food box.
There were only a few crabs, but there were over a dozen dipping sauces.
The sauce dishes were shaped like lotus petals, and when pieced together, they formed a giant lotus flower.
Lu Hexu finished freshening up and walked out from behind the screen.
He sat down beside Su Zhenzhen, carrying the scent of soap locust on him.
Su Zhenzhen didn't really like eating crabs because taking them apart was too troublesome.
Lu Hexu stretched out his clean hands and dismantled a crab.
The crab roe and crab meat were placed on a small patterned dish.
"Try it."
After dismantling one crab, Lu Hexu helped her dismantle a second one.
Su Zhenzhen picked up a chopstick-full of crab meat and dipped it into the most ordinary soy sauce.
She didn't know if it was because Lu Hexu was the one who dismantled it, but the crab tasted exceptionally delicious.
Su Zhenzhen ate a small bowl of rice paired with some dishes and two crabs.
This dinner was already a bit excessive, considering she was someone who didn't digest food easily.
Wei Heng brought over another food box, which contained freshly crushed ice.
This was what Su Zhenzhen had prepared to use to make Sushan.
Lu Hexu, who was eating his first meal of the day, saw the Sushan, and his gaze flickered slightly.
Wei Heng cleared away the remains of the eaten crabs from the table, then took out the Sushan, followed by bringing out many toppings that could be paired with it.
For example, cherry jam, osmanthus jam, strawberry jam, and so on. There were also various fresh fruits from the icebox, which Wei Heng had selected, peeled, seeded, and placed on a plate nearby.
Su Zhenzhen took out her needle kit, pinched a silver needle, and poked it into the Sushan, then poked it into the various jams and fruits.
After confirming there was no poison, she picked up a small spoon and took a shallow taste of each food item.
Some poisons couldn't be detected by a silver needle alone.
Sometimes, her tongue worked better than a silver needle.
"Mm, no poison."
Su Zhenzhen poured various jams over the Sushan, then topped it with fruit.
After finishing his dinner, Lu Hexu scooped up a bowl of Sushan and ate it slowly.
"Why would there be poison?"
Su Zhenzhen's expression instantly turned extremely serious. "That plantain tree was poisoned."
Lu Hexu paused, following the direction of Su Zhenzhen's finger with his eyes.
The emerald green leaves of the plantain had turned yellow and withered, looking droopy.
"The roots are completely ruined. I tasted a bit of the mud underneath, and the smell was wrong."
Not knowing what he was thinking, Lu Hexu lowered his head and took another bite of Sushan.
"You don't realize it, but your reputation outside isn't very good. You've made too many enemies, and it's very dangerous." After saying that, Su Zhenzhen glanced at the spoon in Lu Hexu's hand. He had just scooped up a spoonful of Sushan drizzled with cherry jam.
Su Zhenzhen lowered her head and ate that spoonful of Sushan.
All that talking had made her thirsty.
"Did you hear me? You need to be more careful with the food you consume from now on."
"Mm," Lu Hexu responded vaguely.
After dinner, Su Zhenzhen and Lu Hexu sat together looking at the construction blueprints for the shop.
"I plan to add an extra bathroom here."
"I also want to expand the kitchen a bit." Saying this, a troubled look appeared on Su Zhenzhen's face. "The space isn't big enough."
"A door can be opened here."
Lu Hexu, holding a cinnabar pen, drew a door for the courtyard.
The location of this door perfectly connected to the side door of this mansion.
"There's a flower bed here that can be converted into your herb garden. The space here is very large, so you can dry your harvested herbs."
Su Zhenzhen, pinching her own cinnabar pen, didn't refuse, lightly replying, "Oh."
Compared to Su Zhenzhen's chicken-scratch handwriting, Lu Hexu's handwriting was obviously much more beautiful.
There were still many spaces on the blueprint.
Lu Hexu stood behind her, his arm pressed against hers. Reaching around from behind, he held the cinnabar pen and extended the blueprint outward.
After opening a small door in her little courtyard, the man moved the herb garden Su Zhenzhen originally had in her narrow yard over to his mansion, expanded it several times over, and even wrote down the types of herbs Su Zhenzhen wanted to plant, annotating their habits.
The man's breath wafted over from behind, and Su Zhenzhen suddenly felt her face grow hot.
[The weather is so hot.]
Lu Hexu raised his eyes to glance at the sky and subconsciously frowned as well.
Wei Heng walked in carrying a food box. Seeing Su Zhenzhen, he paused for a moment. "Your Majesty."
"Is the medicine ready?" Su Zhenzhen ducked out from under Lu Hexu's arm, watching Wei Heng place the food box on the table and open it to reveal the porcelain bowl inside.
Su Zhenzhen took out a silver needle and tested the porcelain bowl.
There was no problem with the medicine.
She lowered her head and drank a little bit.
No problem.
"So hot."
Freshly brewed medicine was naturally hot. Fortunately, Su Zhenzhen had only drunk a tiny bit.
Lu Hexu walked over, the pad of his finger brushing against her scalded tongue tip, probing slightly inside.
Wei Heng, standing to the side, bowed and retreated outside.
"It's fine now."
Su Zhenzhen took a step back, noticing the man's fingertips were wet.
Her face grew even redder.
Lu Hexu lowered his head, glancing at the bowl of medicine. "It's very hot."
"It is quite hot. I'll wait a while before drinking it."
Su Zhenzhen went to the icebox to find some fruit to eat.
She took out a grape and popped it into her mouth.
In truth, she hadn't really been burned; rather, she had been startled by Lu Hexu.
He had actually probed his finger directly into her mouth to check, right in front of Wei Heng.
Su Zhenzhen bit into the grape in her mouth, the cool, sweet, and rich sensation bursting forth.
She brought one for Lu Hexu.
The man reached out, took the grape from Su Zhenzhen's hand, and then popped it into her mouth.
Su Zhenzhen, her cheeks bulging, looked up at Lu Hexu.
"That was for you to eat..."
"Mm."
The man looked at her and leaned down.
It was only when Lu Hexu's lips pressed against hers that Su Zhenzhen suddenly understood.
[So this is how he meant to eat it.]
The table had already been cleared, and Lu Hexu lifted Su Zhenzhen onto it.
With her feet off the ground, she felt insecure. She tried to step on a stool but ended up stepping on the man's knee.
Lu Hexu bent slightly, letting her step on him, then lowered his posture, cupping Su Zhenzhen's face to kiss her even deeper.
The summer breeze blew into the room, but the air felt thin.
Lu Hexu kissed Su Zhenzhen as if he were breathing in oxygen.
Again and again, each time deeper than the last.
Su Zhenzhen felt a slight ache from being kissed so hard. She opened her eyes and saw the man's eyes.
Lu Hexu's eyes were lowered, his long eyelashes casting a faint shadow that concealed most of the emotion in his gaze, leaving only a glimmer of deep, heavy light.
As their lips and teeth gently ground together, something shifted ever so slightly in the depths of his eyes, and then he suddenly pulled back.
His gaze swept over the woman's moist, glistening lips. His originally light breathing gradually grew hot and ragged before he leaned in to kiss her again.
Su Zhenzhen tilted her head up, and their breaths tangled once more, entirely enveloped between their pressing lips.
-
Because of that banana tree, Su Zhenzhen began to observe everything and every corner in this residence.
She discovered more residual medicine juice by the window at the back of the house.
This medicine looked even thicker and darker.
"Your Majesty."
Wei Heng brought over today's medicine.
Lu Hexu sat alone in the room, reading memorials.
The memorials had piled up for several days. Wei Heng had taken out the more important ones first and placed them on the imperial desk.
Lu Hexu nodded without even raising his head.
Wei Heng placed the porcelain bowl on the table, opened it, and let it cool.
Lu Hexu finally finished reading the memorial and looked up. "Where is Zhenzhen?"
"I ran into Miss Su just now. She said she was going to see how the shop's tidying up was coming along."
"Mm."
Wei Heng bowed and retreated.
Lu Hexu closed the memorial.
He stood up, picked up the porcelain bowl from the table, shifted his gaze away from the banana tree outside the window, thought for a moment, walked into the courtyard, and poured the medicine into the spring water pool.
The thick black medicine instantly dyed the spring water, rolling and diluting within it.
After pouring out the medicine, Lu Hexu turned around and saw Su Zhenzhen standing under the corridor.
Lu Hexu: ...
The moonlight was beautiful today, and the sound of cicadas echoed in the courtyard.
Lu Hexu lowered his head, avoiding Su Zhenzhen's eyes.
Su Zhenzhen narrowed her eyes and walked up to him.
She was much shorter.
Feeling a lack of imposing presence, she stepped onto the edge of the adjacent spring water pool.
The edge of the pool was rather high, and after stepping on it, Su Zhenzhen was slightly taller than Lu Hexu.
She was a bit angry. Standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, she tried hard to calm her anger before communicating, "Why aren't you drinking your medicine?"
The man continued to keep his head down and said nothing.
Su Zhenzhen pursed her lips. "You don't think I would poison the medicine, do you?"
Lu Hexu shook his head and finally spoke, "No."
The man stood there with his head lowered. From Su Zhenzhen's angle, she could see the slender, fair lines of his neck.
Drooping so low, it actually conveyed a sense of pitifulness.
"Then why?" Su Zhenzhen's tone also softened.
Lu Hexu gripped the empty porcelain bowl tightly, the remaining medicine seeping through his fingers.
But he still didn't speak.
Su Zhenzhen reached out and cupped Lu Hexu's face. "Tell me, okay?"
She tilted her head to look at him, her eyes shining with gentleness.
The woman's fingertips brushed across the man's pale cheek, like the gentle caress of moonlight.
Because he hadn't been exposed to sunlight for a long time, Lu Hexu's skin always gave off a pale and frail impression.
But in reality, the man himself didn't give off that feeling at all.
Instead, because of this paleness, he had an added touch of gloominess.
His black pupils fell upon Su Zhenzhen's face, swirling with the flowing light of the moon.
"Because I don't want us to be even."
[What does... that mean?]
"If my illness is cured, you're going to leave again."
Lu Hexu lowered his head. He reached out his arms and wrapped them around Su Zhenzhen's waist.
While Su Zhenzhen was stunned, the man had already lifted his foot and stepped onto the spring water pool.
He didn't stand on the edge of the pool; instead, he stepped right into the water.
Then, he pulled inward with his arms.
Su Zhenzhen's body tilted, and she was pulled in by him.
The pool was very large, much larger than the one in her small courtyard.
It was connected to a large artificial rockery at the back.
The spring was living water, channeled in from the rockery, converging into a thin stream within the rock crevices, winding down along the texture of the stones, splashing against the rocky edges, and slowly making its way into this pool, carrying the fresh scent of vegetation and stone.
Lu Hexu lowered his head, letting his hand drop into the water. His fingertips were chilled by the spring water, and that slight coolness darted upwards, making his hands look even more pale and jade-like, the joints so pale they were almost transparent.
That hand, wet with spring water, climbed up to Su Zhenzhen's neck.
Su Zhenzhen felt a force pressing down on her, pushing her into the pool.
She tilted her head back as she was pressed into the water.
Her black hair, held up by only a simple wooden hairpin, scattered and floated in the pool.
Su Zhenzhen opened her eyes underwater and instinctively raised her hands to struggle, only to find that she wasn't being restrained.
Underwater, her gaze met Lu Hexu's.
The water rippled and sparkled, and she noticed a watery glint shimmering in the man's dark eyes.
Su Zhenzhen wasn't sure.
Whether it was the reflection of the spring water in Lu Hexu's eyes or the trace of tears.
The next moment, Lu Hexu leaned down and kissed her.
The pool water gently parted to the sides.
The man's lips were slightly soft, pressing tightly against hers through the spring water.
Su Zhenzhen had her lips pried open by him, swallowed a mouthful of spring water, and then was blocked by him.
The pool wasn't deep. The man knelt on the bottom, pressing over her.
Su Zhenzhen reached out her arms and clung to Lu Hexu's neck.
She couldn't catch her breath.
The next moment, Lu Hexu brought her up, emerging from the pool.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Su Zhenzhen clung to his neck, coughing hard.
Lu Hexu sat cross-legged in the pool, the spring water reaching just above his waist.
He held Su Zhenzhen in his arms, his face and body covered in water.
His eye sockets were slightly red, making it impossible to tell if it was spring water or tears.
[Could he be crying?]
Su Zhenzhen raised her hand, wanting to touch Lu Hexu's eyes.
[If they are tears, they should be hot.]
Before Su Zhenzhen's fingertips could reach him, her body suddenly dropped.
She was once again pressed into the pool by Lu Hexu.
The water surged up again.
The man's eye sockets were washed by the spring water, becoming even redder.
He held her tightly, kissing her cheeks, the tip of her nose, her brows and eyes, and biting at her long hair that the spring water had washed everywhere.
He hooked her sash, gently pulled it open, and kissed her neck.
Su Zhenzhen kept her eyes open and saw the moon in the sky, divided into strips by the rippling spring water.
She finally found an opening, groped through the spring water, and extended her fingertips to touch Lu Hexu's eyes.
The man's eyes were hot.
That fleeting warmth spread from her fingertips before being completely washed away by the spring water.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Su Zhenzhen clung to Lu Hexu's neck once again as they emerged from the spring pool, her body completely drenched.
She sat on Lu Hexu's lap, the man burying his face in the crook of her neck.
Neither of them spoke.
Deprived of oxygen, their chests heaved up and down as they panted heavily.
The spring pool had been heated by the sun during the day, and even now in the night, it still carried a warm aura.
Once Su Zhenzhen finally caught her breath, she reached out and stroked Lu Hexu's back.
The man's body stiffened slightly, but he did not struggle; he just obediently kept his head resting on Su Zhenzhen's shoulder.
The woman was very thin, her shoulders slender.
When leaning against them, one could feel the bones underneath.
But, it was so warm.
"If you want me to, I won't leave."
Su Zhenzhen spoke slowly, her voice a bit hoarse.
Lu Hexu's head, buried in Su Zhenzhen's shoulder, shifted slightly.
He said to her, "Hug me."
Su Zhenzhen slid her arms down and wrapped them around Lu Hexu's waist.
The large frame of Lu Hexu was nestled in her embrace.
"Then you need to take your medicine properly," Su Zhenzhen said. "What a person should cherish the most is their own body."
The man did not answer.
Su Zhenzhen reached out and pinched his ear.
She originally just wanted to give him a little warning.
[Eh? It feels so nice to pinch.]
The man's earlobe was pale, thin, and soft, completely different from his otherwise rock-hard body.
Moreover, Lu Hexu's earlobes were quite small and a bit wet from the spring water, so it took some effort to pinch them.
[Just one more pinch.]
By the time Su Zhenzhen realized what she was doing, she had already pinched Lu Hexu's earlobe red.
Su Zhenzhen: ...I couldn't help it.
Su Zhenzhen looked down, meeting the man's gaze.
Lu Hexu furrowed his brows. Although he had not stopped Su Zhenzhen's "violent" behavior, his eyes expressed a hint of dissatisfaction.
"I want to, too."
Then pinch it.
Su Zhenzhen watched as the man leaned in, opened his mouth, and licked her earlobe with the tip of his tongue, pulling it into his mouth as if eating Sushan.
[Weren't you going to pinch it?]
Su Zhenzhen instinctively trembled, only to be held tightly by the man.
Lu Hexu turned his head to kiss her, his eyelashes lowered, catching sight of the red flush spreading up from the woman's neck.
