Chapter 39: The secret of her body showed that Xuanye did not want to let her go...

Seeing that Xuanye had no intention of letting her go, Xiu Yu simply started to play tricks: "Just tell me whether my painting is good or not!"

"Great, really great!" Xuanye simply held up the blueprint and examined it again and again. "But I'm still a little surprised." He looked at Xiu Yu with suspicion. "You... you're capable of both housework and family life. You can dismantle a Western telescope, and now you can even modify the blueprints for this riverbank. Yu'er, you seem like someone sent to me by the heavens."

"I was sent by Heaven?" Xiu Yu's eyes widened. She had never expected Xuanye to say such a thing. But then she thought about it again. She had traveled through time from the 20th century, and it really seemed like Heaven had sent her here.

"Alright." Xiu Yu smiled sweetly, looking into Xuanye's searching eyes, and said, "If you truly believe I was sent by Heaven, then I will be considered one."

"Nonsense!" Xuanye regretted it again. He raised his arm and gently scratched Xiu Yu's straight nose. He smiled and said, "I remember your date of birth very clearly! You were born and raised outside the Great Wall. You and I are truly from the same Qing Dynasty. You and I are exactly the same."

"So," Xiu Yu touched her injured arm and said, "I'm a mortal, and I get hurt too. I'm just like you, an ordinary mortal in this Qing Dynasty." She waved her hand and shook her head, "I'm not sent by heaven."

Xuanye laughed heartily, pulled Xiuyu into his arms, and said, "I won't pursue the question of why you're considered a 'jack of all trades.' Perhaps it's precisely because you're so bright and insightful that I, I, feel differently about you."

Xiu Yu lowered her eyelids and pouted, "How could you possibly think I'm some kind of 'jack of all trades'?"

"Isn't it?" Xuanye patted Xiuyu's shoulder again and again, saying, "Think about it yourself. Compared to other princesses, aren't you a little too 'powerful'?"

Xiu Yu pursed her cherry lips and smiled faintly. Her current abilities were the result of two lifetimes; it would be a miracle if others could match them. "Actually, I have a near-fatal flaw, and you haven't discovered it yet."

"Oh?" Xuanye became curious. "What kind of flaw is it? It could be fatal. I've never heard of it before."

"You sent someone to check on me?" Xiu Yu's expression changed immediately: "So..."

Xuanye's explanation came quickly: "You misunderstood. I didn't send people to investigate, but every princess who entered the palace was checked. It's just that..." He placed the blueprint on the pile of memorials, took Xiu Yu in his arms, and walked towards the warm room: "I care more about you. I have remembered everything about you."

"Your Majesty, you really know how to make excuses for yourself." In fact, Xiu Yu knew in her heart that what Xuanye said just now was true, but she was used to teasing the emperor, and she also knew that the emperor could tell what was her true words and what was her joke.

Xuanye naturally didn't care. He took Xiuyu in his arms and sat on the bed, smiling and saying, "If I were talking to someone else, some of my words might be perfunctory. But when it comes to you, I don't want to be perfunctory, and I can't be perfunctory. If I were to be perfunctory, I would feel that I would be failing myself."

"Okay, time to sleep." Xiu Yu suppressed her laughter and got on the bed with her legs bent. "You're not sleepy yet, but I am."

"You're sleepy, so am I." Xuanye and Xiuyu lay down on the bed together. He had other thoughts in mind, but looking at Xiuyu's injured arm, he had to put his thoughts aside and sighed, "In this weather, I'm afraid I'll catch a cold if I take a cold shower. If I don't take a shower, it's really uncomfortable."

Xiu Yu knew that the "big pig's hoof" had finished dealing with the serious matters and was starting to have evil thoughts again. She really couldn't understand where the emperor got so much energy. It seemed that the emperor really needed someone with extraordinary energy to become one.

However, as the saying goes, 'When you live under someone's roof, you have to bow your head!' Xiu Yu still leaned closer to Xuanye, kissed him lightly on the cheek, and then asked softly, "Do you still feel hot like this?"

Xuanye touched Xiuyu's forehead and said, "Forget it! As long as you are by my side, why should I think about those trivial things anymore! You are the softest part of my heart. I admit defeat."

"This is just the beginning! How can you admit defeat?" Xiu Yu was held in Xuanye's arms, and she felt a sense of security she had never felt in her previous life: "Don't forget, decades later..."

"Still in this place, still on this bed?" Xuanye answered quickly, as if the promise, the oath, had been engraved in his heart: "You are a smart person who can remember everything. I, the emperor, am not stupid either! As long as I say it sincerely, I will remember it for the rest of my life. Don't worry."

"Whether I can rest assured or not, we'll know in a few decades." Xiu Yu could feel her upper eyelids fighting with her lower eyelids. She yawned and said, "I'm sleepy, Third Master. Let's rest."

"Rest, I'll watch you sleep." Xuanye's words about 'taking a cold shower' weren't entirely false. Xiuyu's revisions to the riverbank blueprint had already satisfied Xuanye, and it was hard to fall asleep when one was excited. He recalled Xiuyu's words about her having a 'fatal' flaw, so he pinched her slender nose and said, "You haven't finished what you were saying yet. What flaws does Princess Yu have that are so 'fatal'?"

As the saying goes, "sleepy as a mountain falling down." Xiu Yu was truly utterly sleepy, but the idiot emperor refused to let her sleep. Half asleep, she replied, "My handwriting isn't good, otherwise..." Before she could finish her sentence, she fell asleep.

Listening to half of the words really makes people scratch their heads. Xuanye touched Xiuyu's forehead again and said, "If not, what will you do?"

Xiu Yu snuggled into Xuanye's arms and said, "Let's sleep. I'm really sleepy."

"Alright." Xuanye looked at Xiuyu's sleepy face and finally put away his curiosity. "There's still a lot of time to go on. One day, I'll dig out everything in your heart."

Xiu Yu murmured, "Whether I dig or not, what's the point? I'm already here, and I'm yours. The past isn't that important."

Seeing that Xiu Yu had fallen asleep, Xuanye gently stroked her back again and again. He looked like he didn't want to let go but was afraid of waking her up, and he was extremely careful.

After making sure the person in his arms was sound asleep, Xuanye lowered his voice and said, "Of course you, a heartless person, don't know. If you like someone, you want to know everything about her. Naturally, there must be a past and secrets that you keep deep in your heart. You are unwilling to tell me now, and there must be a reason for not telling me. Perhaps you still don't trust me. But I believe that one day you will be honest with me, and there will no longer be a single secret between you and me. Until then, I will not ask you any more questions. I promise you."

Xiu Yu, who had fallen asleep, seemed to have heard Xuanye's words. She snuggled into his arms again and murmured, "Studying literature and science, what great secret is there? It's not worth digging into it."

Studying literature and science? The very words made Xuanye frown. He thought to himself that he wasn't an isolated emperor. Even if it was the knowledge brought by foreign missionaries, he would be willing to study it diligently. But Xiuyu, this princess from outside the Great Wall, spoke and acted in a way that even Western missionaries didn't know. Could it be that these things were really popular outside the Great Wall, as Xiuyu said?

That same night, Xiaozhuang couldn't sleep either. Since her mistress didn't sleep, Su Moer naturally stayed by her bedside.

"Su Moer." Finally, Xiaozhuang couldn't lie in bed anymore, so she got up and got out of bed.

Su Moer took the fox fur coat and draped it over Xiaozhuang's shoulders, saying with a smile, "Gege, why can't you sleep today? You didn't even drink tea before bed."

Xiaozhuang gathered up her fox fur coat, got out of bed, glanced at Su Moer, and said, "Don't you know why I can't sleep?"

"How can a servant know everything that's on your mind?" Su Moer helped Empress Xiaozhuang sit down on the couch, picked up the teapot, and poured some warm water into the tea bowl. "It's too late, Princess, please don't drink tea or milk tea."

Xiaozhuang held Su Moer's wrist and said, "Don't be busy, sit with me."

"Yes." Su Moer bowed and sat opposite Xiaozhuang.

The candles on the table formed a flower. Xiaozhuang took a sip of water and said, "You know that Xiuyu was injured in the hunting ground."

"So this is why the princess couldn't sleep." Su Moer was certainly brooding over this, but she couldn't say it out loud. She had to listen to her princess herself. "I thought only the emperor's affairs would concern the princess so much."

Xiaozhuang sighed, "Now, what's the difference between what happened to Guo Luoluo and what happened to Xuanye?"

Su Moer said tentatively: "Gege means..."

"As the saying goes, 'a tall tree attracts the wind.' I've said it before. In this harem, too much favor is not a good thing." Xiaozhuang looked at Su Moer. "You are an experienced old nanny. What do you think about what happened to Xiu Yu?"

"What can I think?" Su Moer hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "Princess, I'm going to say something inappropriate, but judging from Princess Yu's appearance and temperament, even if our emperor were to hold back on her favor, wouldn't all those messy things still happen? When you were Emperor Taizong's concubine, the hardships you endured weren't all due to his favor, right? In my opinion, Princess Yu is a blessed person. She's experienced everything she should have experienced, and she's grown up."

"Yes." Xiaozhuang also sighed with Su Moer. She frowned again and said, "You said, this matter is..."

"I dare not say that." Su Moer stood up and walked to Xiaozhuang, helping her daughter up. "Didn't you say you were old enough to grow flowers and plants? I believe the emperor will handle these matters."

Empress Xiaozhuang shook her head and said, "Xuanye, he is indeed a wise emperor, but his wisdom is only in the past. He still lacks the ability to handle the affairs of the harem."