Lu Xiaoyun's lips twitched, and she forcefully pried Zhu Yu's hands off her waist: "Go to sleep, I'll stay here and watch over you, I won't leave."

She just woke up, why are you holding her so tightly? You're almost strangling her.

Zhu Yu looked at Lu Xiaoyun with a mournful expression in his small eyes: "Really not leaving?"

Lu Xiaoyun's mind was buzzing. Why was Zhu Yu, this irritable man, suddenly acting all cute? She forced a smile and said, "I'm not leaving. But you have to listen to me, lie down and rest. This is my body, you have to take good care of yourself."

"Okay." Zhu Yu lay down, but he didn't close his eyes. He stared at Lu Xiaoyun with his phoenix eyes open, as if he wasn't looking at his own body, but at a woman he had admired for a long time.

Lu Xiaoyun felt a chill run down her spine under his gaze. She coughed lightly and asked, "Why aren't you asleep?"

Zhu Yu patted the bed and moved over to the other side: "This bed is big, you can sleep on it. You've taken care of me for so long, you must be very tired."

Lu Xiaoyun's body went numb: "Well, you're injured, and if I accidentally bump into you, I'll sleep on that couch."

"Nothing is more comfortable than a bed."

Zhu Yugeng craned his neck and stared at Lu Xiaoyun: "If you don't come up here to sleep, I won't sleep."

Lu Xiaoyun felt her scalp tingling from being stared at. Oh well, she wasn't interested in her own body anyway, so she took off her shoes and got into bed.

However, Zhu Yu didn't have much room to move in, and given his already large and imposing physique, it immediately became crowded when Lu Xiaoyun lay down on him.

Zhu Yu leaned closer to Lu Xiaoyun.

It was even more cramped, and she felt that sleeping on a couch was more comfortable.

"Zhu Yu, move over a bit. Look, there's still a lot of space inside. This bed is big enough for four or five people to sleep on."

Zhu Yu frowned: "No, I'm injured and in pain, I can't move."

Looking at the way he was pressed against her, Lu Xiaoyun thought, "I don't believe you for a second. You're just trying to take advantage of me."

So Lu Xiaoyun got up, ignoring Zhu Yu's resentful little eyes, hugged him closer, and then took a quilt from the wardrobe and put it on the bed.

The two lay side by side on the bed, neither of them able to sleep. Lu Xiaoyun made conversation: "Ren Yong'an, she...you're not going to marry her, are you? Uh, it seems she didn't intend to marry you...but she did save your life after all."

Zhu Yu said, "Ren Yong'an likes all sorts of novelties, rare pearls and jewels. During my ten years away on campaigns, I would do everything I could to get these things for her wherever they were and send them to her."

"Five years ago, when I returned to Shengjing after being enfeoffed as a king and establishing my own government, I happened to be there during the autumn hunt and rescued her from the jaws of a tiger. Whether she truly saved the wrong person thirteen years ago or I was fortunate enough to be saved and her life was not meant to end, the debt I owed her has long been repaid."

Lu Xiaoyun recalled the extremely long scratch on her body: "That long scar on my waist and abdomen must be from when I was injured by the tiger, right?"

"Um."

Lu Xiaoyun understood what Zhu Yu meant.

Late at night, the two of them finally drifted off to sleep.

When Zhu Yu woke up the next day, he felt pain all over his body. There was Lu Xiaoyun, who was tall and strong, sleeping in his arms, with one of her long legs draped over his now petite legs.

The veins on his forehead throbbed a few times, but seeing that the person in his arms was sleeping soundly, he endured the pain and remained silent. She must not have slept well these past few days taking care of him.

Zhu Yu stared unblinkingly at the person in his arms and whispered, "Lu Xiaoyun, from now on, it's my turn to protect you. From now on, I will never get hurt again and make you sad, nor will I let anyone hurt you."

"You said you came from an era called modern times, without parents, and relied on your younger brother Ayan for survival from childhood, suffering all kinds of bullying in the orphanage."

"As for me, ah, I have a father and a mother, but one of them sees me as an ant and the other avoids me like a snake. They both wish I would die sooner. I have suffered all kinds of humiliation from the people in the palace since I was a child. I only have a group of brothers who follow me."

"Lu Xiaoyun, thank you, thank you for not abandoning me, thank you for not giving up on me even after knowing how many bad things I have."

And thank you even more for falling in love with me.

Half an hour later, Lu Xiaoyun stirred and slowly woke up, and Zhu Yu immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.

She hadn't slept well for the first half of the night because Zhu Yu, a woman in a man's body, was sleeping next to her. His eyes kept staring straight at her, making her feel uneasy all over.

I couldn't stay awake any longer and fell asleep in the middle of the night. I hadn't had a good night's sleep since I returned home after the assassination attempt at Ganlu Temple. As soon as I closed my eyes, I slept like a log.

She opened her eyes and was stunned. When did she end up sleeping on Zhu Yu? And how did the blanket end up on the floor?

Her sleeping posture isn't that bad, is it?

Fortunately, Zhu Yu was fast asleep.

Lu Xiaoyun quietly lifted her leg, slowly pulled herself out of Zhu Yu's arms, and tiptoed out of bed.

I breathed a sigh of relief after getting out of bed. Seeing that the person on the bed was still sleeping soundly, I gently opened the door and left the room.

Zhu Yu opened his eyes, a slight smile spreading across his lips. Looking at the quilt on the floor, his smile widened.

Now that she's a woman and seriously injured, it's truly remarkable that she managed to put a grown man to sleep by striking his pressure points, kicking the blanket off the bed, and then pulling him into her arms.

When Lu Xiaoyun finished washing up and had breakfast, she returned to the front yard and saw Lu Yuyan with his hair tied up in a jade crown, wearing a coral red silk robe with flowing clouds, a fine mutton fat jade pendant hanging on one side of his waist, and a folding fan that he had somehow found on the other side of his waist. At that moment, he was leaning against a pillar in the corridor, holding a corn cob in his hand and eating it.

Ah Yan was already good-looking, with fair skin, a tall and slender figure, eyebrows like ink paintings, and a face like peach petals.

Lu Xiaoyun found his appearance amusing; he possessed both the gentle and refined qualities of a young master and the air of a spoiled brat, two extremes cleverly and harmoniously blended into one person.

Lu Yuyan smiled, his beautiful phoenix eyes fixed on Wu Chuan, who was kneeling on the bluestone slab, his upper body bare, being tortured.

Wu Chuan gritted his teeth, remaining silent as the whip lashed his flesh.

While munching on corn, Ayan kept saying, "Hey, you have to hit him, but you can't be too lenient. But you can't hurt his spleen or his shinbone. If you guys keep messing around like this, the good medicine in the Prince An's pharmacy can't withstand your abuse."

The guard replied respectfully, "Yes, we will certainly not trouble Mr. Lu."

As he spoke, he lashed Wu Chuan's back with the whip again.

Wu Chuan had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, his body was taut, and there were dozens of bloody marks on his back.

Lu Xiaoyun walked over.

"Hey, Your Highness, would you like some corn?" Lu Yuyan handed over the half-eaten ear of corn in his hand.

Lu Xiaoyun's lips twitched, she shook her head helplessly, glared at him, and really wanted to remind him that this place was not suitable.

The guards beside him kept their heads down. Sure enough, it was true that the prince and this Mr. Lu had an unusual relationship. Look at the prince's doting eyes.

"Your Highness, Miss Yong'an has arrived." Yuan Xiu rushed over.