Chapter 46

The hot spring was man-made and contained medicinal herbs that could relax muscles and promote blood circulation. After sweating, Luo Yan felt refreshed and slept soundly until dawn.

When she woke up, Zhu Yun was fiddling with her eyelashes, seemingly having waited so long that he was getting restless.

Luo Yan turned her face away: "You're so annoying."

He then reached into his undergarment and carefully touched his chest and back.

Zhu Yun was surprised by her enthusiasm. His Adam's apple bobbed heavily. He hugged her and twisted her like a pretzel, panting as he said, "It's broad daylight, you should restrain yourself."

"You're dreaming." She struggled to get up from Zhu Yun's arms. "I just wanted to see if you'd sneaked out in the middle of the night."

It was early winter, and a thin layer of frost had already formed in the valley that morning. If Zhu Yun had returned from outside, her body temperature would have been low. Just now, she had indeed touched something cold, and was about to ask what it was when she noticed that she was wearing shackles with bells embedded in them on her ankles.

Luo Yan felt both disgusted and that she should still give him face.

He's already in this state; it would be impolite not to comfort him.

She hastily wrapped his wound with a handkerchief, but he took the opportunity to kiss her cheek.

Luo Yanyi didn't dodge and got a solid kiss.

So all that fuss he'd been up to was just to get a kiss.

Luo Yan was very impatient, but she was afraid that Zhu Yun would become suspicious, so she didn't refuse too obviously and pinched his wound hard.

He endured it without uttering a sound, and the pain bloomed into a strange little flower on his wound.

Zhu Yun reached out to untie Luo Yan's belt. Her inner garment was bright white and became uneven because he had pulled it off halfway, revealing a small patch of skin on her chest. She was very thin, and from the backlighting angle, you could see her sternum, which was lightly covered by a layer of skin.

She covered her chest with one hand and pushed him away with the other.

He directly tucked her slender waist under his legs and pressed her down onto the carpet.

"Luo Yan, do you want some?"

Although he verbally asked Luo Yan for her opinion, he didn't actually give her the right to refuse, and his hands didn't stop moving.

Luo Yan knew that women should not have sex during pregnancy, so if the child could be miscarried because of Zhu Yun, that would be a good thing.

She obediently lay on her side and covered her face with a handkerchief.

Luo Yan's ribs were clearly visible. He reached out and touched them, as if playing a zither.

Luo Yan thought that human bones could be made into musical instruments. If she died, Zhu Yun might turn her into a zither and caress her day and night.

Her ribs undulated like waves, and her hair had fallen down, turning a bluish-black color in the light. He touched her chin; it was sharp, the bones felt hard, and her skin was smooth.

The smooth skin and sharp bones created a strange tactile sensation as he reached out to touch her iliac crest.

There is a Zen practice called the White Bone Contemplation, which says that by visualizing the white bones beneath the skin of a beautiful woman, one can get rid of attachment to lust.

He stared wide-eyed at her intact body, imagining her rotting away, crawling with worms, and finally turning into a skeleton.

The craving did not subside because of the bloody fantasy; his body became strangely even hotter.

The inside of a rose is only a soft and delicate stamen.

Afterwards, Luo Yan felt a sense of self-loathing.

She inexplicably felt that she had done something wrong, as if she had betrayed Qin Sizhao.

If he knew he was this kind of person, he definitely wouldn't like her anymore...

Luo Yan lowered her head, her black hair obscuring her face.

It's one thing to have made mistakes before, but she just keeps making the same mistakes... She wanted to never have anything to do with him again, but things didn't go as planned.

She was so ashamed and furious that she couldn't bear to see Qin Sizhao again... But the desire to die and the desire to be saved were the same intense emotion, like two different colored flowers blooming on a twin lotus.

Luo Yan vaguely began to hope that Qin Sizhao would still be willing to save her even after seeing her in this state.

"Luo Yan, your hair is messy, let me comb it for you."

Zhu Yun's voice interrupted her reverie.

The person she wanted to see wasn't him, yet his hand always seemed to land on her body.

Luo Yan put on her inner garment and sat in front of the dressing mirror.

Zhu Yun watched as her hair, as light and smooth as silk, melted slightly in his palm, and a feeling like sugar icing melting welled up in his heart.

All his experiences of emotions and desires came from Luo Yan. She had monopolized his imagination of the word "husband and wife." Now, he was so confused by the strands of hair in his hand that he couldn't imagine life without her.

Looking at her reflection in the bronze mirror, Luo Yan's mind was filled with only the mandarin duck purse she had given away.

Her body showed no abnormalities; the evidence of her crime was still inside her.

She thought that Zhu Yun's mother probably chose a good seed to improve the royal bloodline, which is why this fetus was so resilient.

Zhu Yun suddenly pulled hard and yanked her hair.

He disliked this dizzying feeling; he felt like he was being led by the nose by someone else, and sooner or later he would lose himself in front of her.

Luo Yan winced in pain and glared angrily at Zhu Yun.

How could he force her to look at him in such a way?

Her eyelashes drooped, clearly indicating her displeasure.

"Zhu Yun, what's gotten into you again?"

In public, Luo Yan is often the one who is crazy, but in private, she becomes Zhu Yun, unable to suppress her madness.

"I can do whatever I want to you, can't I? Luo Yan, that's the truth."

He roughly forced Luo Yan to get close to him.

"I'm only being polite and yielding to you normally, and I don't hold grudges against you over small things. But in reality, I can do whatever I want with your life."

Zhu Yun knew he was just bluffing, and his temples pounded nervously.

He was starting to wonder if Luo Yan still loved him; her recent reactions to him had been unusually cold.

He took her hand in front of the bronze mirror, threading his fingers through hers. Hatred, desire, and unease flowed between their fingertips, pricking them both with pain.

He suddenly wanted to mark her, to prove that she was a woman who had tormented him to the point of self-harm with love.

"Luo Yan, would you like a tattoo? We can pick out a design together."

Thump—

A coral ornament hit him on the head. The coral was blunt in shape. He didn't bleed, but he got two bruises.

"Get out of my way!"

She clenched her teeth nervously, widened her eyes, gripped the coral ornament tightly, and then slammed it against his head several times.

"Don't even think about... don't even think about leaving any mark on me..."

His incriminating evidence was already in her belly, yet he still wanted to leave other evidence on her body with a tattoo.

Zhu Yun didn't dodge or reach out to block; the waves of dizziness and pain were somewhat captivating to him.

He really liked this feeling; he felt that Luo Yan was paying close attention to him and constantly confirming his presence.

He simply held her waist and bit her neck hard; blood, bruises, and teeth marks were clearly visible above her neck.

"Luo Yan, I succeeded... Look what I left on your neck?"

He bit very deep; the mark probably won't disappear for at least ten days to two weeks.

Luo Yan's neck throbbed with pain, as if she was tired of smashing it, so she tossed the coral ornament aside.

The maid at the door was named Ping'er. Today was her first day on duty. She heard clanging and banging coming from inside the house, which startled her so much that she quickly went to find her sister Jinzhan for help.

"Sister Jinzhan, I hear a lot of noise inside the house...it seems...it seems like they're fighting..."

Jinzhan looked completely unsurprised.

"It's common for Miss Luo Yan to fight with the prince; you'll understand once you've stayed longer."

"Hey, why is our prince hitting people... That Miss Luo Yan is so frail, how many blows can she withstand?"

Jinzhan couldn't help but chuckle.

"I've never actually seen the Prince hit Miss Luo Yan. I'm afraid that's not the case."

"ah……"

Ping'er was stunned with fright, and Jinzhan flicked her forehead.

"I'll take care of it later. You go and water the flowers."

Fearing that the girls under her command might talk nonsense, Jinzhan rarely allowed other maids to enter Luo Yan's room to tidy up, as her room was full of inappropriate things.

She swaggered over to Luo Yan's door and knocked.

"Miss Luo Yan, are you inside? May I come in?"

"Oh my, Your Highness is here too. I'm so sorry to have offended you. Greetings, Your Highness..."

She pretended not to know that Zhu Yun was also inside, and hurriedly bowed to him.

Jinzhan glanced at the two of them discreetly. Zhu Yun had several bruises on his forehead, and Luo Yan had a tooth mark on her neck.

She didn't care about any of that; the real problem was... the mess left all over the floor that she had to clean up...

Jinzhan Dunyun felt a surge of anger, but he couldn't vent it, so he swallowed his resentment.

She went out to get the cleaning supplies and asked a servant to bring her a headband, which she then handed to Luo Yan.

"Miss, please put the headband on the prince."

Luo Yan dawdled as she found a silk scarf and wrapped it around her neck, but Zhu Yun pulled it off.

"What's there to hide... Just go out and walk around, let everyone see."

Luo Yan, unable to bear it any longer, raised her hand to slap him in the face, but Jin Zhan rushed up and stopped her.

If those two start fighting again, all her cleaning will have been for nothing; she just finished tidying up the house...

"Good girl, please give me some face and put the headband on the prince first."

She shoved the headband into Luo Yan's hand, but Zhu Yun knocked it away from Luo Yan's hand.

"Hmph, if you only put it on me if someone else persuades you, then I don't want it."

He walked away with a cold face, as if he were very angry, and the bruise on his forehead.

Luo Yan sat down with a cold laugh, thinking to herself that the child in her belly was really sturdy; even after all that trouble, nothing had happened.

However, in all respects, Zhu Yun's health is indeed fine, and he has no bad habits, so he is probably normal.

Jinzhan pretended not to see anything and found a silk scarf to wrap around Luo Yan's neck.

"Even a young lady has her limits when throwing a tantrum. He is a prince; how can you act like this?"

Luo Yan slapped Zhu Yun hard across the face. If word got out, it would be a huge loss of his dignity as a prince.

"He deserves a beating, and I'm not afraid of dying. Let's get it over with first."

Luo Yan said coldly.

Jinzhan remained silent, thinking that what Luo Yan said seemed to make sense.

Zhu Yun only regained her senses after leaving the Prince's mansion.

He looked at the bruise on his forehead, touched it carefully, and felt a wave of disgust. Luo Yan was just too much of a troublemaker.

She's been spoiled too much; she actually dared to hit him directly. Next time, he should teach her a lesson so she'll be afraid of him. Or, he should just break up with her altogether.

If people knew how he got the bruise on his forehead, he would be laughed at to death.

He made sure to cover the bruises completely with his forehead ribbon before going to court.

He caught a glimpse of a purse falling out of Qin Sizhao's sleeve; it looked somewhat familiar.

Zhu Yun was far away and could only see a blurry pattern, and could only tell that the needlework on the purse was not skillful.

In a flash, Qin Sizhao put the purse back into his sleeve and carefully hid it.

I remember now.

In the original story, when Miao was bitten on the ankle by a poisonous snake, Cui Wuyang removed her silk stockings and sucked out the venom with his own mouth. From then on, the young girl secretly fell in love with him.

Zhu Yun glanced down at her and said sourly, "While Yan Yan was blaming me, your cousin Cui was busy flirting with someone else."

Luo Yan bit her lip awkwardly and retorted, "When did I blame you?"

"snort."

"I was wrong, I was wrong." She smiled and took his hand. "You deliberately had Changsheng say this to me, didn't you? Alright, now that Cousin Cui has left the valley, let's not talk about him anymore."

Zhu Yun: "Cui Wuyang is surrounded by many beautiful women, and they always call him 'brother' this and 'brother' that. You don't need to call him 'cousin' anymore. From now on, just call him Ye Ning."

"oh......"