Chapter 18 Jealousy Xiao Yu lowered his eyelashes, hiding the secret in his eyes...

The next day the sky brightened.

Maybe Yan Shu woke up early today. After opening her eyes, she found that the person next to her had not left, which was rare.

Yan Shu raised her eyes and her gaze fell on Xiao Yu's sleeping face.

Her skin was still pale, but her thin lips were an exceptionally bright red. Her long, black eyelashes cast two silhouettes beneath her closed eyes. Her straight nose was so smooth that it always touched her cheek when he kissed her.

Yan Shu blushed, feeling embarrassed and annoyed at her wild thoughts.

Then she remembered his unusual warmth last night, and carefully reached out to touch Xiao Yu's cheek. She felt slightly relieved after feeling the faint warmth.

Just as the girl was about to withdraw her hand, the man suddenly opened his eyes.

His dark eyes were clear, and he obviously didn't look like he had just woken up.

Yan Shu's cheeks flushed slightly, and she quickly withdrew her hand, feeling guilty as if she had been caught. "When did the king wake up?"

Xiao Yu did not answer, but gently caught the little girl's escaping hand, and with his long fingers slightly closed, he wrapped Yan Shu's hand in his palm, and then pulled her into his arms.

"It's still early, lie down for a while." He said in a low voice.

Yan Shu was forced to lie on Xiao Yu's chest, and the sound of his steady and strong heartbeat came to her ears.

Perhaps because she had gotten enough sleep last night, Yan Shu felt no desire to sleep. Sniffing the cool pinewood scent of Xiao Yu, Yan Shu had a thousand questions in her mind.

For example, what happened to him last night?

Or who was he with these days? Why didn't he see her?

And why is Yan Qingwan not in the Library? Is she related to him?

Yan Shu was lost in thought until a warm breath fell on her neck, and she came back to her senses.

When she looked up, she saw Xiao Yu lowering his eyes and kissing the side of her neck. The big hand around her waist tightened quietly, and his slender fingertips gently hooked the thin belt.

The temperature in the tent gradually grew hotter, and Xiao Yu's intention was obvious.

Yan Shu trembled slightly, as if she thought of something, and immediately raised her hand to press the back of his hand.

Seeing this, Xiao Yu raised his eyebrows at her, seemingly puzzled.

Yan Shu bit her lip, feeling really uncomfortable.

To put it bluntly, Yan Shu had her own principles regarding matters between men and women. Although she was born into the royal family of the Yan Kingdom and was accustomed to seeing the countless concubines in King Yanwen's harem, she still felt deeply disgusted with such an unfaithful man.

In Yan Shu's opinion, if a man does not cherish his chastity and walks among flowers without getting even a single leaf on his body, then this man must be extremely dirty.

After all, if you truly love only one person, how can you enjoy the pleasure of love with others?

So Yan Shu felt quite uncomfortable at this moment.

If Xiao Yu had really favored Yan Qingwan in the past few days, and now he was sleeping with her in such a tender and affectionate way, it would be really disgusting.

Although she was in a difficult situation now, she should be patient with such trivial matters. Moreover, now was a good opportunity to practice those silk paintings with him, so she should actively cooperate.

After all, as long as she was pregnant with Xiao Yu's child, she wouldn't care who he favored.

But when Yan Shu thought about Xiao Yu and Yan Qingwan being so close, she always felt uncomfortable.

She lowered her eyes, feeling extremely conflicted, and finally asked the question that had been brewing in her mind for a long time.

"Why hasn't the king seen me these days?" Yan Shu looked at Xiao Yu, her watery almond eyes looking at him, with a layer of mist in her eyes.

"Minister Zhou always says that the king has been busy with government affairs these days, but why did he refuse to see me when I went to deliver soup yesterday?"

The girl spoke softly, as if she was acting coquettishly, but also as if she was complaining.

"I didn't see the king yesterday, so I planned to go to the library to chat with Sister Wanji. But Sister Wanji wasn't there either. I was so disappointed."

Yan Shu tentatively mentioned Yan Qingwan again, pretending to sigh while secretly observing Xiao Yu's expression.

Xiao Yu seemed stunned for a moment, and then a smile with an ambiguous meaning appeared in his dark eyes.

"Does Yanyan care about me so much?"

The man seemed very happy, so happy that his narrow eyes curved into crescents.

Of course, Yan Shu didn't understand why Xiao Yu was laughing like that. She just wanted to know why.

Fortunately, after Xiao Yu finished laughing, he lifted a strand of her hair and kissed it on his lips.

"I've been sick these past few days and didn't want to worry Yanyan. I never thought Yanyan would miss me so much." Xiao Yu's tone was filled with a smile.

Yan Shu was slightly startled when she heard this. Thinking of Xiao Xiaoyu's appearance last night, she couldn't help but ask, "How did the king get sick? Why was he so cold yesterday?"

"It's just a cold." Xiao Yu half closed his eyelids and said nothing more.

Yan Shu was half-believing and half-doubting.

If he didn't see her because he was sick, then why hadn't Yan Qingwan been at the Library these past few days? And in his previous life, when Xiao Yu was away every month, could it be that he was sick?

But this is not the previous life, Yan Shu can't ask why those days happened, but Yan Shu still wants to find out what happened to Yan Qingwan in the past few days.

"Your Majesty, you should take better care of your health. You can't neglect it just because you're busy with government affairs." The girl obediently lay on his chest. "Your Majesty's behavior last night made me very worried."

Yan Shu's words were half true and half false, seven parts falsehood mixed with three parts truth to coax her.

Then he pretended to be casual and said, "I just don't know where Sister Wanji has gone. I haven't seen her in the Library for several days."

After going around in circles, the topic returned to Yan Qingwan.

Xiao Yu stared, his eyes dark, but his tone was somewhat understated.

"Yan Yan really cares about that concubine. It seems that she worries about me even more than she does about me." After Xiao Yu said this, he gradually tightened his grip on the girl's waist, lowered his eyes, and his tone did not reveal his emotions.

"The Queen Mother will be returning to the palace soon, and sacrificial ceremonies will be held then. I have ordered the people from the Secretariat to sort out the old items in the ancestral temple one by one. Perhaps she will be among them."

What Xiao Yu said was not false. Empress Dowager Jing Zhao would return to the Xiao Palace in a month, and the things in the ancestral temple did need to be sorted out and put back in place.

But of course he would not tell Yan Shu that he had deliberately moved Yan Qingwan even further away from Baohua Palace than before.

After hearing this, Yan Shu just opened her eyes wide, a little dazed.

After her rebirth, she was so busy looking for ways to survive that she forgot that Empress Dowager Zhao Jing was about to return to the palace.

Empress Dowager Jingzhao was originally the wife of Ning Guojun and was also Xiao Yu's nominal mother. After Ning Guojun passed away, she went to the Baidi Temple in the far suburbs of Yongcheng to pray for the country.

Now that his legitimate son Xiao Yu has succeeded to the throne, it is natural to invite Madam Zhao Jing to return to the Xiao Palace and be honored as the empress dowager.

Yan Shu still remembered that when Queen Dowager Zhao Jing returned to the palace in her previous life, she was accompanied by her niece, Chu Yuan, the daughter of Lord Pingyang of Chu.

Empress Dowager Zhao Jing was originally a princess of the State of Chu, and her niece Chu Yuan was also close to her, so in her previous life she had always hoped that Xiao Yu would make Chu Yuan the queen.

But in her previous life, Xiao Yu "only favored" Yan Shu, and there was no one else in the harem. He also rejected her wishes to persuade Chu Yuan to be the queen several times, and was obsessed with Yan Shu alone. Therefore, in her previous life, Empress Dowager Zhao Jing had always been dissatisfied with Yan Shu.

Yan Shu was also young and energetic at that time. After Xiao Yu doted on her alone, she didn't take others into consideration at all.

Empress Dowager Zhaojing disliked her, so she never went to see her.

As for the noblewoman from Chu, Yan Shu didn't care at all. She firmly believed that with Xiao Yu's unique favor for her, he would make her the queen of Xiao sooner or later.

But who knew that what Yan Shu finally waited for was not the throne of queen, but a cup of poisonous wine that penetrated her intestines and lungs.

Yan Shu now thinks that if she had not been so arrogant in her previous life, and instead had won some favor from Empress Dowager Zhao Jing, perhaps she would not have died so miserably.

And if the method of having an offspring doesn't work now, perhaps she can still seek a glimmer of hope from Empress Dowager Zhao Jing.

After all, in such a huge Xiao Palace, the only one who can compete with Xiao Yu is probably Empress Dowager Zhao Jing.

The more Yan Shu thought about it, the more she thought about it. She had already forgotten Yan Qingwan and was only thinking about how she should show her goodwill to Empress Dowager Zhao Jing after she returned to the palace.

And in someone's eyes, the girl's distressed look meant that she was dissatisfied with his arrangement for Yan Qingwan.

Xiao Yu lowered his eyelashes, hiding the hidden jealousy in his eyes.

He simply pinched the girl's chin with his fingers and leaned over to press her down.

Yan Shu was lost in thought when suddenly someone took her breath away.

It was obviously different from the past. This kiss seemed to carry a hint of punishment, making Yan Shu unable to resist at all.

Afterwards, she was tossed about by the red waves, and the little girl had no time to think about Empress Dowager Zhao Jing.

Fortunately, Yan Shu finally thought of the silk paintings, and coaxed Xiao Yu into doing the poses in the paintings with her.

After doing most of the movements, Yan Shu finally felt that the suffering she had endured early in the morning was not in vain.

Afterwards, Xiao Yu was quite curious about Yan Shu's sudden behavior and asked her several times where these postures came from.

Yan Shu naturally wouldn't be so foolish as to tell the story of the silk painting. She just blushed and said that she loved novelty the most.

After saying this, Yan Shu felt that Xiao Yu's gaze on her was even more meaningful.

However, it is better to be embarrassed than to let Xiao Yu know what she is thinking. If this matter is exposed, it will be impossible for her to conceive a child.

So in the following month, Yan Shu tried many moves with Xiao Yu.

There are countless postures such as lying, sitting, standing, etc.

Even on the fifteenth night when Yan Shu was poisoned, she did not forget to draw on the silk.

But even after working so hard for a month, there was still no sign of Yan Shu being pregnant.

Yan Shu was a little anxious for a moment. She asked Qingtao to ask Aunt Jiang, but Aunt Jiang just said not to rush and to persist for a while before seeing the effect.

Upon hearing this, Yan Shu had no choice but to give up.

The weather has been getting hotter in recent days, and Yan Shu, who was already worried, became even more depressed by the hot weather.

I just lay there all day long and didn't want to step out to feel the heat.

That day, Yan Shu was lying on a small couch by the window, eating small bites of chilled watermelon with a bamboo stick while listening to the chirping of cicadas outside the window in a daze.

In the hot summer, the chirping of cicadas really makes people drowsy.

After eating a few bites of watermelon, Yan Shu really felt sleepy. Just as she was about to close her eyes and fall asleep, Qingtao came into the hall chattering and delivering a message.

"Princess! Princess! The king has sent someone to deliver something!"

Seeing Qingtao's happy face, Yan Shu, who was originally sleepy, also became a little interested.

"What good thing makes you so happy?" Yan Shu shook the round fan in her hand, leaning on the couch, and asked lazily.

"Princess, just come out and take a look and you'll know!" Qingtao said happily, and then she was about to step forward to help Yan Shu walk out.

Seeing her mysterious look, Yan Shu became quite curious, so she stood up and walked out of the hall with Qingtao.

As soon as they arrived at the palace gate, Zhou Tong had already led dozens of eunuchs to carry the things to the courtyard and placed them safely on the ground.

The object was obviously not light, and it took dozens of temple servants to lift it. At this moment, it was covered with a layer of red cloth, so Yan Shu really couldn't tell what it was.

"Mr. Zhou, what is this?" Yan Shu walked into the yard, holding a round fan to shield herself from the sun, and walked around the thing curiously.

Zhou Tong smiled cordially and clapped his hands. The eunuchs standing on both sides immediately removed the red cloth covering the head.

Suddenly, a translucent emerald green jade bed appeared in everyone's sight.

Yan Shu's eyes widened in surprise.

"The king knows that the beauty has always been afraid of heat and always has trouble resting in summer, so he specially ordered the construction of this ice jade bed to be sent to the beauty to relieve the heat." Zhou Tong said, bending his body, his hands folded in front of his abdomen, his eyes full of respectful smiles.

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