Chapter 63: No Taboo Jiang Tong saw him hunching over and refusing to move, his fox eyes...
It was midnight in the cell, and Jiang Tong had no idea when she'd fallen asleep. When she woke, she felt, half-groggily, that the biting cold she'd grown accustomed to wasn't there. Instead, she felt warm, as if she were home.
Jiang Tong turned over slightly, and immediately heard Su Guanqing's gentle voice: "Awake?"
Jiang Tong opened her eyes sleepily and found herself in Su Guanqing's arms, both of them covered with a thick quilt.
"Where did the quilt come from?" she asked.
Su Guanqing said, "The jailer brought it to you while you were asleep."
"Oh, it should be the bed I was in before." Jiang Tong closed her eyes again. She was wrapped in warmth and felt so comfortable that she didn't want to get up.
Jiang Tong was talking, and then he dozed off for a moment. He realized that he was resting his head on something, and he woke up with a start: "Your hand!"
She actually rested her head on Su Guanqing's arm!
Jiang Tong got up quickly, complaining to him, "Why didn't you wake me up?" while hurriedly checking his wound.
Su Guanqing said gently, "It's okay, my arm doesn't hurt."
——It’s just numb and I have no feeling at all.
Jiang Tong still carefully checked the wound. It seemed that her ten fingers were fine and were still as straight as before when she tied them up.
Jiang Tong covered him back with the quilt: "Does it still hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt anymore. Maybe it's because the broken bones have straightened out," Su Guanqing smiled weakly at her. "Thanks to you."
"It really doesn't hurt anymore? Don't lie to me!"
"...Actually, there's still a little bit, but it's really just a little bit. The main thing now is that I'm a little hungry." Su Guanqing said.
"I'll go get some food." Jiang Tong said.
Their food had already been brought in and placed next to the iron railings. It consisted of two steamed buns and two bowls of porridge.
When Jiang Tong brought it over, Su Guanqing had already struggled to sit up.
Jiang Tong looked at the two tightly bound hands he stretched out, and her heart was clenched with pain again: "Put your hands down, don't move."
She held a steamed bun in one hand, took a bite herself, and then fed Su Guanqing a bite.
The two of them finished their meal, taking turns to eat, then wrapped themselves in the quilt and huddled together to talk.
Su Guanqing talked about what happened after she left -
"Tongtong, don't worry about home. I've made all the arrangements. Quesheng promised me that she would stay at the Jiang family and help take care of her uncle and aunt. I've explained everything to her, including the monthly expenses, the amount of each item to be withdrawn, and the monthly wages for the servants."
"Did Quesheng not go back to the Zhao family?" Jiang Tong asked.
Su Guanqing said, "No, Shopkeeper Zhao wanted to take Quesheng away, but the child refused to leave. It was also thanks to her presence that I was not fooled by the servants when I was the housekeeper."
"Young Master Feng didn't help you? With someone like him in charge, who would dare to fool you?"
When Jiang Tong said this, she noticed that Su Guanqing's expression was not right. She poked him in the waist and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Fu Liu is gone."
Jiang Tong was surprised: "Where did he go?"
"He said he wanted to go back to his hometown first." Su Guanqing looked a little sad.
Jiang Tong remembered that she had already returned the indenture to Feng Fuliu. If he wanted to leave, no one could stop him. She was just a little surprised. She could see that Feng Fuliu really cared about his friend Su Guanqing, but she didn't know why he would leave alone at this critical juncture.
"Forget it. Everyone has their own aspirations. I can't keep dragging him down with my affairs." Su Guanqing said.
The two talked for a while. Perhaps because he had just drunk the porridge, Jiang Tong felt a little urgent, so he got up and went to the toilet in the corner to do it.
Su Guanqing heard her footsteps coming towards him, endured the pain, opened his arms, and lifted the quilt on his arms, revealing the place that belonged to her alone.
Jiang Tong didn't think twice and went to the warm place. Halfway there, she suddenly looked at Su Guanqing thoughtfully. It was already the second day since she moved in, so why didn't she see Su Guanqing go to the toilet?
She casually asked, "Guan Qing, don't you need to go to the toilet?"
Su Guanqing showed an embarrassed expression on his face: "I, I'm okay."
That means there is a need.
Jiang Tong's eyes fell on Su Guanqing's hand, and he secretly blamed himself for being careless. Guanqing had an injury on his hand, so how could he take care of himself?
"Don't hold it in. Come, let me help you." Jiang Tong lifted the quilt off him and was about to help him up.
Su Guanqing panicked immediately: "Tongtong, this won't work. It really won't work. Tongtong, you can't do this."
"What? Are you shy?" Seeing him hunched over and unwilling to move, Jiang Tong narrowed her eyes and reached for his belt. "Didn't you say you'd listen to me in everything from now on? Are you going to go back on your word now?"
Su Guanqing instinctively wanted to pull her hand, but as soon as he moved, Jiang Tong grabbed his wrist.
Jiang Tong was frightened by his action: "Don't move! Be careful of getting hurt!"
"Tongtong..." Su Guanqing pleaded.
"Alright, alright, I promise, I'll close my eyes, okay? There's nothing I can do about it, just bear with it and it will pass. Hurry up, I'm freezing!"
Su Guanqing had no choice. He really couldn't hold it in any longer, so he had to bite the bullet and get up.
Jiang Tong helped him walk to the toilet, lifted the hem of his shirt, and started to untie his belt.
He was wearing prison clothes, with nothing on underneath his shirt and trousers.
Jiang Tong had just untied his belt and was about to pull it down when Su Guanqing, who had been drooping his head, suddenly reminded him in a muffled voice, "...Remember to close your eyes."
He looked so shy, yet he had to put on a serious expression. Jiang Tong couldn't help laughing. She wanted to tease him, but she held back. She suppressed her laughter, said "OK", and really closed her eyes.
Then I heard the sound of splashing water.
Hearing how loud the noise was and how long it lasted, Jiang Tong secretly felt lucky that she had pushed him, otherwise he would have been really suffocated.
After a while, the sound of water stopped. Su Guanqing said softly, "It's done."
Jiang Tong tried to help him pull up his pants, but failed because the waistband was stuck on something. Jiang Tong subconsciously looked over and saw what was stuck. She was stunned for a moment because she had forgotten that men's body structure was different and that thing was hanging outside.
She didn't feel embarrassed. In her past life, over ninety years, she had seen everything. Although she had never married, she had been dressed as a man since her apprenticeship, and the people around her were basically all men. Her fellow apprentices never avoided him, so it was inevitable that they would see him when they were caught off guard. At first, she had to pretend to be calm, but later she just turned a blind eye.
But Su Guanqing was obviously not as calm as her. When his pants got caught, he was stunned for a moment, and then he tried to pull them out by himself in panic. However, his hands were tied, so he pulled in vain. In just a short moment, Jiang Tong had quickly helped him pull them up.
Su Guanqing's head exploded with a roar, and he stood there in a daze as if he had been struck by lightning - Tongtong must have seen it!
Jiang Tong said nothing. She helped him tie the belt, then helped him back to sit on the straw stack. She gathered the quilt for him and crawled in herself. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief: "I'm freezing to death."
Su Guanqing obviously had not yet recovered from the embarrassing state. He lowered his head sullenly and tried to shrink his neck into the quilt as much as possible.
Jiang Tong found him looking fresh and new, so she simply lay in his arms, looking up at him. After looking enough, she asked him with a sly smile, "Guan Qing, do you know what you look like now?"
"...like a turtle?" Su Guanqing said hesitantly.
Jiang Tong burst out laughing. She reached out and squeezed his face hard, messing up his handsome features. "Okay, stop it. It's just a glance. It's not like you'll lose a piece of flesh. At worst, I'll take responsibility. When I get out of prison, I'll marry you home in a grand sedan chair. Is that okay?"
Su Guanqing responded sullenly again.
Seeing how embarrassed he was, Jiang Tong stopped teasing him and changed the subject: "By the way, I saw the 'Immortal Scroll' you added. Su Guanqing, you're so bold that you actually hid something in a painting for the emperor."
Su Guanqing smiled in surprise when this was mentioned: "You saw it? I thought you wouldn't notice it because of the rush that day."
"How could I not notice? Those two fairies look exactly like you and me! You should be glad that the eunuch didn't notice it at the time, otherwise I would have been taken away." Jiang Tong said this, but he was already smiling.
"It's not easy to be seen. I specially picked two positions that are hidden in the team." Su Guanqing said seriously. He promised her that he would paint a new "Double Immortals Picture" for her, but he didn't have the chance to paint a second one, and he didn't want to break his promise to her.
Jiang Tong rubbed his chin with her fingertips playfully: "This time you drew me taller than yourself." Her expression was very satisfied.
"Actually, it's not like that. You are standing on clouds, I just didn't draw it." Su Guanqing smiled, with a hint of pride on his face.
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Tong grabbed the flesh on his cheek and rubbed it: "Well, Su Guanqing, I'm still shorter than you, right? Right?"
"Don't take advantage of me because I'm blind. I could see things during the first few days after I regained my sight. You still have to work hard to grow taller." Su Guanqing said with a smile.
Laughter and joyful chatter could be heard from the gloomy and cold cell.
For a moment, both of them felt that it would be nice to just live like this.
However, ten days later, just when Jiang Tong had finally gotten Su Guanqing to accept her help, an imperial decree came down, pardoning her sins.
When Jiang Tong heard the jailer say that he could leave immediately, he was not happy at all.
This means that Emperor Zhengtong approved the practice of replacing one person with another, and Su Guanqing's situation will only get worse.
Su Guanqing tried hard to force a smile: "Tongtong, this is good news. You should go home quickly, take a hot bath, and have a good meal."
Jiang Tong was not at ease to leave Su Guanqing: "I won't leave, I have to take care of you."
The messenger had already left. Today's jailer wasn't one of Aqiao's men. Seeing Jiang Tong dawdling, he became a little impatient: "Are you leaving or not? If not, I'll close the door!"
"I won't leave!"
"I'm leaving!"
The two spoke almost at the same time.
"Brother jailer, don't close the door yet," Su Guanqing said anxiously, "Tongtong, listen to me. Only if you get out can you save me."
"But if I leave, what will you do?"
Su Guanqing said, "It's only a temporary hardship, I can endure it, but Tongtong, besides you, is there anyone else out there who is willing to run around for me?"
When Jiang Tong heard this, he immediately realized that, yes, besides himself, who else would care about Guan Qing's life or death? He had to go out to try to save him.
She was not the type to drag her feet, so she decided to leave immediately.
"Then wait for me, I will definitely find a way to get you out." She hugged him tightly, her voice choked with sobs.
"Okay, I'll wait for you." Su Guanqing's eyes were full of reluctance, but he just smiled at her.
He kept that smile until Jiang Tong's footsteps completely disappeared.
This small room, which was once filled with laughter and joy, suddenly turned back into that gloomy and cold prison.
Su Guanqing's life became extremely difficult. Fortunately, after Jiang Tong went out, he would occasionally ask A Qiao to pass in some things, such as clothes, hand warmers, or just a few words.
He knew that everything was fine with her outside, so he felt more at ease.
But three months later, the situation changed drastically.
The Jinyiwei noticed something was wrong, and the several secret channels that Aqiao used to infiltrate the imperial prison were completely eradicated, and no information or things could be passed in anymore.
After Su Guanqing endured three months of miserable days, he finally heard news about Jiang Tong again.
That day, when the jailer came in to clean his toilet, he casually chatted with him:
"Congratulations, Master Su."
"What's there to be happy about?" Su Guanqing asked curiously.
"Young Master, you might not know this yet! Lately, everyone in the capital has been talking about how Heaven will not destroy the lineage of King Qing, and has even instructed His Majesty to find King Qing's orphan. His Majesty only has one brother, King Qing, and although the two brothers had some unpleasantness before, His Majesty is kind-hearted and deeply considers the brotherly love. Ever since he found the orphan, he has been overjoyed and plans to have the orphan inherit his father's title. He has even personally arranged a marriage for the orphan, expecting him to inherit the title after the marriage. I heard that His Majesty is so pleased with this matter that he will grant amnesty to the entire country, and then Young Master Su will be able to go out!"
"That's a good thing indeed." Su Guanqing was naturally delighted when he heard that he could go out.
"Not only that, the young master also knows the future Princess of Qing." The jailer seemed to be getting more and more excited as he spoke. He didn't care about the toilet and sat there and started talking to Su Guanqing.
Su Guanqing asked curiously, "But I don't know whose girl she is?"
"Oh! Who else could this girl be? It's Jiang Tong, Miss Jiang!"
It was as if someone hit Su Guanqing's back with a hammer. His body shook violently and his face turned pale in an instant.
"This, how is this possible? Tongtong, Jiang, and the Jiang family are just ordinary families. How can they be related to the royal family?" Su Guanqing was already confused and spoke incoherently.
The jailer said, "Why not? Wasn't Miss Jiang previously engaged to the Prime Minister's son? I think Miss Jiang is destined to be a noble woman. She just saved someone out of kindness, and she saved the orphan of the King of Qing who was stranded in the world. Do you think this is a match made in heaven? No wonder His Majesty wanted to grant them a marriage."
Su Guanqing could no longer hear what the jailer said. He didn't even know when the jailer left. He just sat alone in the cold and dark cell, motionless and silent.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
