Chapter 83 A Beautiful Dream

Worried that Chu Mingheng's illness was not getting better, Lan Wu thought of sending him some soup to clear heat and reduce inflammation. However, she also thought that the affairs of the previous dynasty were still unresolved, and it would not be appropriate for her to go there at this time. So she put it aside and only asked someone to prepare it at dinner.

She waited for Chu Mingheng to come over that evening.

Chu Mingheng finally arrived at dusk.

Lan Wu looked at his face and, seeing nothing wrong, breathed a sigh of relief.

"The imperial physician said His Majesty should be better after taking one dose of medicine. I was worried, but it turns out the imperial physician was right!" She reached out to touch Chu Mingheng's forehead again, and found it to be normal. She smiled.

Chu Mingheng gently brushed her hand away, then pressed his forehead against hers and chuckled, "Worried that I won't come to find you, Awu, you're really hard-hearted."

Lan Wu wouldn't allow him to talk nonsense about her. She snorted and pointed to the embroidered cloth beside the soft couch, slowly saying, "Your Majesty, take a look. Didn't I want to embroider a purse for Your Majesty? If I were really so heartless, I wouldn't have paid any attention to Your Majesty."

Chu Mingheng put his arm around her and looked at the pile of embroidery cloth again, but no pattern had been embroidered yet, and the things looked a bit messy.

"So much material, and you're only going to embroider one purse for me?"

Hearing this, it sounded like she was saying how reluctant she was to part with it. Lan Wu said rather embarrassedly, "I'm not very good at embroidery. There should be some material for me to try out."

Chu Mingheng smiled at her, reached out and lifted the top piece of fabric, revealing the slightly rough embroidery thread. His eyes darkened, and he asked Lan Wu, "What do you do with things that are ruined?"

Lan Wu hurriedly flipped the cloth over to cover it up, and pushed Chu Mingheng away, saying, "Put it away, it's ruined anyway."

Chu Mingheng stopped talking, turned around and looked at the embroidered cloth one last time, staring at it in a daze.

Lan Wu didn't know what he was up to, but Chu Mingheng said he had a dream last night, so she didn't dare to fool him or play around with him today. After they had dinner, Chu Mingheng taught her to play chess for a while, and then Lan Wu clamored that she wanted to go to sleep.

This time was earlier than usual when he would go to sleep, but seeing Lan Wu standing in front of him looking quite serious, Chu Mingheng just smiled and agreed, then led her to bed.

The hall was still somewhat dark, but Lan Wu nestled in his arms, which made him feel at ease.

Perhaps because they stayed up late last night and woke up early today, the two of them went to bed early, thinking they would both be unable to sleep, but soon fell into a deep sleep.

In fact, Lan Wu hadn't had a dream in a long time, and what she had was always a nightmare, but today she had a beautiful dream.

In her dream, it was the dead of winter, and on the second day after New Year's Eve, Chu Mingheng took her out of the palace.

Although it was winter, there were rare sunny days with warm sunshine.

Early in the morning, Chu Mingheng dragged her out of bed, ordered someone to do her hair and makeup, put on her winter clothes and cloak, and then took a carriage to the palace.

The street was bustling with activity.

She sat uneasily in the carriage, both lucid and somewhat frightened, glancing at Chu Mingheng every now and then, not daring to ask him where he was taking her.

Chu Mingheng found it amusing. He glanced at her, then turned her face and asked, "Didn't you say last night that you wanted to go to the street to watch the excitement? Why aren't you happy yet?"

"You're talking about this even in your sleep, how can I refuse you?"

Lan Wu's fair face flushed red, and her watery eyes met his deep gaze. She curved her eyebrows and murmured shyly, "It must be because I was too happy last night that I talked nonsense in my dream."

"I was just talking nonsense, Your Majesty, why are you still responding to me..."

Muttering to herself, Lan Wu happily snuggled into Chu Mingheng's arms, refusing to look at him.

From morning till night, Chu Mingheng took her to play outside the palace all day long. It wasn't until they were tired at night that they called a carriage to return to the palace.

He said that if she liked it, he would take her outside the palace often when he had time.

When Lan Wu woke up, she felt like she was being held tightly by something. She opened her eyes, still not fully awake, and reached out to struggle, only to find that Chu Mingheng was holding her too tightly.

"Your Majesty... relax, relax a little." She moved her arm back slightly.

After saying that, he waited a moment but didn't get a response from Chu Mingheng.

She turned around with difficulty, using the sliver of light from the window to look at Chu Mingheng, and called his name again.

"Your Majesty, you're going to squeeze me—you'll hurt me."

Chu Mingheng then relaxed his strength a little.

Lan Wu looked at him curiously: "Is Your Majesty dreaming again?"

A slightly hoarse, deep voice came from beside him: "I wasn't dreaming. I woke up when I heard you calling my name."

Is she calling him?

Lan Wu belatedly realized what was happening and smiled as she whispered to him, "Oh, I dreamt of Your Majesty."

"What did you dream about me?"

"You took me out of the palace for a stroll, and I like a hairpin, but I have no money, and neither does Your Majesty..."

Before she could finish speaking, Chu Mingheng interrupted her: "When I take you out of the palace, I always have to bring palace servants with me, and they have money on them."

Lan Wu couldn't help but laugh even harder: "Yes, Aunt Luo Yun and Eunuch Chen were with us, but His Majesty said they were following too closely, so he made them step back a few feet."

They had no money and looked at each other suspiciously. Even the hairpin seller looked at them with suspicion, seeing that they were so well-dressed yet had no money to spare.

"Fortunately, Aunt Luo Yun noticed that we had been standing there for a long time and quickly came up to pay the bill."

The hairpin was a silver pendant with a jade camellia design, which didn't quite match the clothes she was wearing that day. She said she didn't want the hairpin, but Chu Mingheng took it and found a place to put it on her. She wore it all day, and when she returned to the palace and looked in the bronze mirror, she realized how ugly he had made it.

She was smiling, and Chu Mingheng smiled slightly as well. He reached out and brushed a stray strand of Lan Wu's hair aside, asking her, "Why did you dream about this? Do you want to leave the palace to play?"

Lan Wu couldn't very well tell him it was something from a past life, so she gently shook her head.

"Dreams are baseless. Didn't Your Majesty dream yesterday that your concubine was missing, and he was searching for her everywhere?"

Is Your Majesty particularly afraid of not being able to find any concubines?

Lan Wu spoke, feeling a little shy. It was just a casual question, but she heard Chu Mingheng reply with a "yes."

Chu Mingheng's voice sounded very serious.

"Awu, don't let me lose track of you."

"I don't like that."

Lan Wu was momentarily speechless with emotion. At this moment, Chu Mingheng said he didn't like it, but in her previous life, she begged him to take her to Changyong Mountain, but he refused.

Although Changyong Mountain was a long way away, she wasn't afraid of those things.

Chu Mingheng always felt he knew what was best for her, but in reality, the result was the worst.

This emperor was used to being arrogant, thinking he could control everything. I'm afraid he won't understand in the end why they were separated by death after only a few days apart.

Will Chu Mingheng grieve for her death?

At first, Lan Wu didn't believe that Chu Mingheng would be sad for her, but now... she felt that perhaps he would, maybe Chu Mingheng couldn't bear to see her die.