Chapter 41
Luo Yan clutched her chest and gagged, then heard Zhu Yun say helplessly, "It's not like I'm forcing you to swallow worms whole."
"How dare you say that?" She brushed his hand away impatiently, her eyes filled with resentment. "You know perfectly well that I hate that thing the most, yet you still fed me that thing. Now I hate you just as much as I hate that thing."
After hearing three consecutive "I hate you," his expression turned completely cold. Without a word, he lifted her onto the horse's back with a domineering force, as if he wanted to nail her to his chest.
Luo Yan struggled uncomfortably, only to have his cool lips hold the back of her neck, followed by his warm tongue probing out and licking her repeatedly.
Like a wild beast.
She froze, her ears turning bright red. Zhu Yun looked directly at her with an undeniable possessiveness: "Still angry?"
The piercing coldness spread upwards from the inside of her thighs, and the phantom pain made her abdomen tremble incessantly, as if her internal organs had been shattered and hollowed out by the bone-chilling cold.
She couldn't help but convulse and collapse onto the bed, tears streaming down her face as if she had lost control of her bladder, but she couldn't cry out loud.
Today is her twentieth birthday... Luo Yan thought that her mother had promised to give her her dowry when she turned twenty; it was a small shop.
Her mother told her with a smile that when she turned twenty, she would let her be her own boss, manage the shop, and be responsible for her own profits and losses.
If her mother knew in heaven that her daughter was going to suffer like this, she would probably be heartbroken even in the afterlife.
With a thud, the iron hook fell to the ground.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
Luo Yan didn't know who she was apologizing to.
"This is terrible... I'm so useless... I can't do it..."
She covered her face with her hands.
Luo Yan opened her eyes and looked at the iron hook. A strong sense of self-loathing welled up in her heart. She never thought she was such a coward.
Why is it that even though she has made up her mind, she still can't bring herself to do it?
"Are you done yet? How much longer are you going to stay? The next patient needs to see you."
The female doctor pushed open the door, her tone impatient and reproachful.
"Go outside and cry if you want to. Think it through before you come back. Don't waste my precious time. What were you doing all this time?"
Luo Yan reached out and grabbed the wall for support, then stood up shakily, her face deathly pale.
"Didn't you say you couldn't bring yourself to do it? Why are you so slow even standing up?"
She left the cabin slowly without saying a word.
She remembered the hateful soldiers coming to collect taxes. Her family couldn't come up with 280 taels of silver all at once, so they had to hastily sell the shop her mother had planned to give her. Her mother felt sorry for her and cried for a long time at home.
A decent belt of Zhu Yun's cost more than 280 taels of silver. It turns out that the silver that her family had worked so hard to pay was casually spent by people like Zhu Yun.
Luo Yan discovered that her resolve was utterly worthless; she couldn't accomplish anything.
Qin Sizhao could easily become the top scholar in the imperial examination, so why can't I even solve this little thing...?
"Girl, what's wrong?"
Luo Yan looked up and found a man in black standing in front of her.
The man had an ordinary face that would blend into a crowd, yet he looked vaguely familiar to everyone. She couldn't remember who he was.
To be honest, he was just a stranger she would only meet once in her life. It wouldn't matter if she grabbed him and cried and told him all her secrets.
But the man's tone was cold, as if he were questioning her, which made Luo Yan somewhat annoyed.
"nothing."
Jiang Jiuzhou knew that Luo Yan did not recognize him, so he deliberately went up to her to try and get information out of her.
The women's clinic was deliberately designed with no hiding places inside to prevent malicious people from spying on female patients' privacy. Jiang Jiuzhou figured it was faster to get information out of her than to follow her.
Why do you look so unhappy?
"I'm unhappy because you're talking to me, and I don't want to talk to you."
Luo Yan rolled her eyes, stood up, and left.
She needs to go back to the palace to get some anti-nausea medicine.
An old man was setting up a fortune-telling stall by the roadside. When he saw Luo Yan passing by, he said:
“Young lady, you have such a beautiful face. In my opinion, you are destined to be an empress and will surely have a noble son.”
These words immediately reminded Luo Yan of Zhu Yun's child in her womb, and without thinking, she retorted:
"You know nothing! What do you mean by 'the destiny of an empress'? Bah! And a precious child? What bad luck! Did I ask you to read my face before you started spouting nonsense!"
The old man was unhappy when he first saw a girl being told she was destined to be an empress. He shrank his neck, looking extremely embarrassed. In fact, whenever he met a girl, he would tell her she was destined to be an empress, and he could usually make her smile happily.
After she finished yelling, Luo Yan calmed down and felt somewhat guilty and regretful.
"Don't give people face readings anymore..."
She muttered to herself as she hurried away.
He's just an old fortune teller with a stall, he's just spouting nonsense to make a living. I was too impulsive and bullied him.
Luo Yan returned to the Prince's Mansion by carriage, only to find Jinzhan lounging in the courtyard, basking in the sun and being lazy.
With Zhu Yun and Luo Yan away for the past few days, Jinzhan was both anxious about potentially losing her job and happily started slacking off.
"Oh, girl, you've come?"
Jinzhan jumped up from the rocking chair, looking a little embarrassed. This rocking chair was usually reserved for the master.
"Okay, don't worry about me, I'm just taking some things."
Jinzhan was secretly pleased that Luo Yan ignored her, so she happily continued to lie back in the rocking chair.
She knew that Luo Yan was prone to tantrums, but she also knew that Luo Yan wouldn't treat her like a human being. Generally, Luo Yan wouldn't hold such a grudge over such trivial matters.
Looking at the room she had lived in for six years, Luo Yan felt inexplicably unfamiliar. Why was she standing here?
She was just a commoner, living a comfortable life with no worries about food or drink. What did this royal mansion have to do with her? She shouldn't have come here in the first place, and she shouldn't have met Zhu Yun. This was not her original life at all.
Luo Yan desperately wanted to believe that she had only gone astray temporarily and that one day she would return to the right path instead of sinking deeper and deeper into the mire.
There must be other possibilities in her life. Neither the royal palace nor the prince's mansion is a place she should belong.
She went into her room and skillfully rummaged through the drawers.
She placed the anti-nausea medicine under a stack of erotic films, knowing that Jinzhan usually wouldn't touch that spot.
Luo Yan picked up the stack of erotic films, but found the bottom empty.
Unconvinced, she flipped through the erotic pictures again, and finally, in a fit of impatience, threw them haphazardly on the ground, scattering obscene material all over the floor.
Even so, there was still no anti-nausea medication.
She was in a hurry to get some more medicine from the clinic, but at the same time she was worried that Jinzhan would find out about her pregnancy.
Why did she take her anti-nausea medication...?
Fearing that something was amiss, Luo Yan hurriedly picked up the erotic images scattered on the floor and put them away before returning to the clinic by car.
"Miss, I am the coachman sent by the prince. You can ride in my carriage. Why do you need to call another one? Would you dare to ride in one of those dubious carriages?"
Luo Yan was so angry that she gritted her teeth. Zhu Yun had actually sent people to keep an eye on her.
He used to not care where she went at all, but now he's actually interfering. What right does he have to interfere?
"Did Zhu Yun order you to keep an eye on me?"
"His Highness was just worried about your safety alone, so he specifically instructed me to take good care of you. You can still go wherever you want. Besides, the palace is a very important place, and not just anyone can enter. You can only go back in my carriage."
Luo Yan was impatient to listen to the driver's long-winded rambling, so she simply got in.
"Go to the female doctor's clinic."
"Didn't you already go to the clinic? Are you going again?"
"Hmm, something was left behind."
"There are imperial physicians in the palace. If you feel unwell, just go to one of them. Why go to these shabby little clinics?"
"Stop talking nonsense, just go."
She frowned; she figured she could gloss over these things anyway.
Not far from the female doctor's clinic, an old man was telling stories.
"This prince is truly the most upright gentleman, pure and virtuous. There are always people who fabricate rumors about him to smear his reputation... In reality, he is the most loyal and righteous, selflessly helping orphaned girls without asking for anything in return..."
Luo Yan sneered after hearing this. This Zhu Yun is really shameless. He has the nerve to say anything in order to promote his ascension to the throne.
The man next to him yawned and said:
"Sir, please try a different approach. These past few days it's all about the prince... The tabloids are full of his glorious achievements... I'm sick of hearing it."
Luo Yan went to the female doctor's clinic and bought anti-nausea medicine, thinking that this medicine could help her hold on for a while. If Yunjian stayed in the dark for too long, she would eventually be unable to hide it from him.
Now she's just trying to delay as long as possible. If things get really bad, she might as well just confront Zhu Yun and ask him to find a doctor to help her get an abortion.
She lowered her head... There was one thing she simply couldn't say to Qin Sizhao.
Luo Yan casually bought a tabloid, which contained rather nauseatingly sycophantic descriptions of the prince's benevolent "great achievements," making Luo Yan frown.
The tabloid also published a tragic love story, which tells of how the prince fell deeply in love with a beautiful and elegant cousin when he was young. However, his cousin died young, and he was heartbroken. He vowed to love only his cousin and never marry. He supported an orphan girl as his adopted sister, but only for the sake of accumulating good fortune for his cousin's next life. He had no selfish motives whatsoever.
Although this sadomasochistic story did not name names, Luo Yan frowned upon reading it.
Does Zhu Yun have a cousin? I've never heard him mention it...
What kind of twisted sense of humor led him to fabricate such cheesy little stories and then spread them around, just to prove that he and she had nothing to do with each other...?
Luo Yan sighed. She had known all along that Zhu Yun was a man who cared about his reputation, and there was nothing he wouldn't do to maintain his "clean" name.
He sent people to spread these rumors, firstly to build momentum for his ascension to the throne, and secondly to distance himself from her.
Even if Luo Yan is dispensable to him, he still has to use this method to ensure that he has no moral flaws whatsoever.
This was his usual practice, and now she no longer felt heartbroken over such things; she simply calmly thought of a solution.
She and Zhu Yun truly parted ways amicably, each finding their own happiness.
Luo Yan casually stuffed the tabloid into her sleeve, took some anti-nausea medicine, and returned to the palace.
Zhu Yun seemed to have been waiting for her for a long time, and hurriedly came to find her.
"Luo Yan, I heard you went to the clinic. Are you feeling unwell?"
"You want to listen to women's illnesses? Shameless! Stop your babbling, I'm not going to die anyway!"
Luo Yan rolled her eyes and cursed. There are many things that ordinary girls can't talk about, so there's nothing wrong with her answer.
"Can't even I listen?"
He held Luo Yan's hand, and with his other hand he slipped into her sleeve and naturally touched her forearm.
"No, get out."
"There are imperial physicians in the palace. If you have any problems, just call one of them to take your pulse. There's no need to go to a clinic."
Luo Yan was able to keep it a secret until now because Zhu Yun had never really cared about her health. If he were to call a royal physician to examine her now, she wouldn't be able to hide it anymore.
Luo Yan quickly changed the subject, impatiently slapping his hand away and coldly asking:
"Zhu Yun, let me ask you, do you have a cousin?"
Zhu Yun not only didn't blame her, but instead smiled and said, "Buy a few sets of women's clothes, choose the best fabrics and bright colors. Then, send over a clean locket."
Akong hurriedly clasped his hands in a fist and palm salute: "Yes."
He took two steps and suddenly realized something was wrong. What did the young master want him to buy? A woman's dress? A lock ring?
What kind of new torture method is this?
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