Chapter 75 The Wife-Stalking Maniac
Chi Ying didn't expect him to ask about that lock of hair.
What was her intention? In the past, she was a fake and had no right to say such things. Now, she was a sinner who had betrayed his true feelings. He, on the other hand, had ascended the throne and was in charge of the world. The difference between them was like heaven and earth, so she had even less right to say such things.
The man noticed her hesitation, his gray eyes like an impending storm. He gritted his teeth and pressed closer, until her back pressed against the cold wall. Only then did he grab the back of her head, his thin lips covering hers, forcefully prying open her mouth.
Trapped in front of him, Chi Ying trembled all over, tears silently falling.
The person she longed for day and night was right in front of her, the one she had joyfully called her husband. Greed and dependence were instinctive; her lips and tongue trembled as she met his caresses. When her legs were too weak to stand, she could only cling tightly to his shoulders.
Noticing her subconscious response, Yan Xuecui finally stepped back slightly, his fingertips caressing her lips, which he had kissed until they were red, his voice deep and husky: "If you won't say, then what were you doing just now?"
Chi Ying's eyes stung with tears, and after a long silence, she finally spoke in a trembling voice: "I know you cherish me dearly... and so do I. Since returning from the hot spring resort, I've been thinking about finding an opportunity to confess to you, regardless of whether you forgive me or accept me, I'm willing to bear any consequences. But you're busy with your work, so I thought I'd wait until you return to talk to you..."
Little did they expect that the farewell poem they wrote would become a self-fulfilling prophecy, separating them by thousands of miles and almost preventing them from ever seeing each other again.
She took a deep breath and said, "That day you said you wanted something that belonged to me personally. I thought about it for a long time, and nothing could express my feelings better than this... I had already decided then that no matter what you do with me, I will never have anyone else in my heart for the rest of my life..."
As soon as he finished speaking, his lower back tightened suddenly, and he was pulled into his arms.
Chi Ying clung tightly to him, tears streaming down her face.
Yan Xuecui closed his eyes and pressed his lips deeply against her shoulder, finally tasting the joy of something lost and then regained.
All he wanted was for her to stand safely in front of him and say that she had him in her heart.
Nothing else matters anymore.
He lifted her face and gently kissed her cheeks and lips. All the self-doubt that had grown up in the countless dark nights, and the anxious longing that could not be found, vanished in this intimate embrace.
Chi Ying returned his kiss passionately, and in the empty and quiet room, only their hot and heavy breaths remained.
The kiss slowly moved down along his soft, snow-white skin. Chi Ying felt a sharp pain as his slightly rough chin rubbed against her, but beneath the pain, a tingling, numbing sensation also arose.
Just as tensions were about to rise, the door frame suddenly made a sound.
Qingze cautiously said from outside the door, "Your Majesty has had a long and arduous journey. Why don't you take a bath and change your clothes first to prevent the cold from affecting your health?"
Yan Xuecui paused slightly, her face darkening as if it were dripping with water.
Chi Ying then belatedly realized that his outer robe was soaked with rain, his face was pale, and he was full of gloomy weariness. He quickly advised, "Your Majesty, you should take a bath and rest first."
Yan Xuecui, however, simply stared intently at her.
Realizing something, Chi Ying quickly assured him, "Don't worry, I won't leave. I'll wait for you here."
Yan Xuecui looked at her for a while before turning and leaving.
Chi Ying took off her cloak; her clothes were damp from the rain and slightly smudged. Just as she was about to find a handkerchief to wipe them, there was a knock on the door, and a maidservant brought her a clean dress.
Cheng Huai followed closely behind, bringing over medicine for the injuries.
Chi Ying was slightly taken aback: "Your Majesty is injured?"
Cheng Huai sighed and said, "His Majesty searched for the Empress for half a year. At the beginning of the month, he went to the mountain temple where the Empress had lived, only to find that she had already left. He then traveled day and night to Jiangnan. During this time, he only slept for a few hours. His palms were worn raw by the reins, and the wounds he suffered from the assassination attempt earlier also flared up."
Suppressing the trembling pain in her heart, Chi Ying asked softly, "When...did he find out I was gone?"
Cheng Huai naturally knew better than anyone else, "The night His Majesty returned to the capital, that imposter princess was imprisoned in the dungeon."
It turns out he saw through it that very day.
Chi Ying couldn't express her feelings. Just as he said, he knew her inside and out. How could she hide the fact that the person next to her had been replaced?
He has always been like this, strategizing and handling things with ease, and has even secretly taken care of everything for her.
But if he doesn't tell her, how can she know whether what lies ahead is a broad road or a bottomless abyss?
She could only cautiously explore, and even if she glimpsed his true feelings, she dared not easily confirm them. Call her cowardly or stupid, she just couldn't guess and couldn't afford to gamble.
After Cheng Huai left, she changed out of her slightly damp dress.
Not long after, there was a commotion outside the door, and Yan Xuecui, dressed in a black satin nightgown, pushed the door open and entered.
She got up to look at him, but as soon as she got close, he pulled her into his arms.
Even if he were to leave for a moment and soak in the hot soup, the feeling of gain and loss would linger like a bone-deep sore, chilling his spine and burning his heart.
Only when he returned and confirmed with his own eyes that she was still there did his anxiety subside.
Seeing that he wouldn't let go, Chi Ying used a little force to pull away from his embrace. She looked closely at his palms and found that they had developed a thin, bloody callus, with overlapping marks that faintly revealed a scarlet color.
Just now, the candlelight in the house was dim, and she was so overwhelmed with the shock and sorrow of the reunion that she didn't even notice.
Her eyes reddened, and she felt that the bloodstains were extremely glaring. She quickly pulled him to sit down by the bed and applied medicine and bandages to him.
After making him search for so long, she still felt it necessary to explain, "Last year, my mother and I got lost in the snowy mountains. The heavy snow blocked the mountain, so we could only stay in a dilapidated temple temporarily. I... did not mean to hide from you."
Yan Xuecui's Adam's apple bobbed: "I know."
Chi Ying was a little confused: "How did you find that dilapidated temple?"
Yan Xuecui remained silent for a moment, then said, "Your being trapped in the mountains was deliberately caused by someone."
He revealed the truth: Princess Xuan had sent people to deliberately lure them into the deep mountains.
"Princess Consort Xuan?" Chi Ying never expected it to be her.
Yan Xuecui did not want her to know about the dark thoughts that the Prince Xuan had about her, and only said, "She wants to take revenge on Chi Yingyue, thinking that it was she who left the mansion that day."
He paused abruptly, his gaze fixed on the red marks between her slender white fingers, and immediately asked, "What happened here?"
Chi Ying curled her fingers up slightly. "It's... chilblains. It's nothing serious; it'll get better when the weather warms up."
Yan Xuecui gently held her hand, staring intently at the marks. He knew she had had a hard winter, but she never complained to him. Even during their sweetest times, she rarely acted coquettishly.
Chi Ying finished bandaging his hand and asked, "Cheng Huai said your old injury flared up again. Where was it?"
Yan Xuecui pursed her lips and did not answer, lowering her eyes to look at her waist and abdomen.
Chi Ying blushed and waited for a while. Seeing that he still didn't make a move, he just sat there casually watching her.
She had no choice but to bite the bullet and resigned herself to taking off his nightgown, and sure enough, she saw the old scar that ran across his abdominal muscles.
Perhaps due to the exhaustion of the past few days, the scabs broke open again, and the skin and flesh of the wound rolled back, a shocking sight.
Chi Ying held her breath and gently applied the wound medicine to him. But as soon as the towel touched his skin, the man's waist suddenly tensed up. Her face turned red and then white. She could only move gently, breathing softly on the wound as before to relieve his pain.
After applying the ointment, she got up to get the gauze, but her wrist was suddenly tightened as he yanked her hard. She felt dizzy and disoriented, and before she could react, he had already flipped her over and pinned her down.
Seeing that he seemed completely unfazed by the pain, with his newly bandaged hands braced on the mattress on either side of her, Chi Ying hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, your hands..."
He didn't care at all, saying, "What's this little pain? It's nothing compared to the heart-wrenching pain I felt when I lost you these past six months."
Chi Ying felt a bitter taste in her mouth, but still tried to persuade him, "Cheng Huai said you haven't slept for days, why don't you rest first? You really need to rest..."
He is no longer the carefree prince who can do as he pleases. The fate of the entire nation rests on his shoulders. If his health is harmed because of this, she will be guilty of a thousand deaths.
Yan Xuecui lowered his head and kissed her, his lips lingering on hers with longing. His voice was low and husky: "I will sleep when I want to, but I can't sleep now that you're next to me... Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
Chi Ying had nothing to say; she never had a choice in such matters.
He ran his fingertips over her skin inch by inch, his throat hoarse: "You've lost weight."
Chi Ying trembled slightly and forced a smile: "You're one to talk, I haven't had a full meal in two months on the mountain."
Yan Xuecui's eyes were dark red, and her Adam's apple bobbed: "It's my fault."
Chi Ying hadn't cried before, but upon hearing this, her eyes welled up with tears again.
His body was much thinner than before, but even more vigorous and powerful, able to lift her up steadily with a single palm.
Chi Ying, mindful of his health, could only try her best to cooperate and not let him exert too much force. However, after being separated for so long and suppressing their feelings for so long, the moment they touched, it was like a wildfire.
A suppressed groan escaped his throat, like a trapped beast tasting blood, eagerly swallowing its prey whole, skin and bone, with exhilarating pleasure.
He loved it to death, he was greedy to death. Like countless restless and anxious nights, his longing surged like a raging beast, crashing against the cage that imprisoned it again and again, not caring even if he was covered in wounds.
Chi Ying was held in his arms, and after trying for a long time, she still couldn't let go of her restraint.
It's not quite the same as before.
Before, when he was blind, he could barely suppress his embarrassment when she spoke, since he couldn't see her anyway. But now, every subtle expression of hers is clearly visible to him.
But he refused to close his eyes and kept staring at her.
When she got nervous, her body couldn't help but shrink back, and both of them broke out in a sweat.
Outside the window, the night rain pattered against the corridor, and the wind rustled softly. As dawn broke, those sounds—some exhilarating, some repressed, some indulging—gradually faded into the night, disappearing without a trace.
Even after he closed his eyes and fell asleep, her heart remained restless, a tearing, clamoring sound surging within her very being.
After a long while, she gradually calmed down and was about to get up from the bed when the person who was clearly asleep suddenly opened his eyes, gripped her wrist tightly, and asked in a deep voice, "Where are you going?"
Chi Ying felt as if she had encountered a ghost in broad daylight and almost couldn't help but scream.
She sighed helplessly, "I'll clean the bedding and then re-bandage your wound."
His waist and abdomen had not yet healed, yet he fought with increasing ferocity, and the wounds were visibly reopening.
Seeing that he was still holding on tightly, Chi Ying had no choice but to pat the back of his hand and soften her voice: "Don't worry, I won't leave."
Yan Xuecui looked at her for a while before slowly letting go of her hand.
Chi Ying got out of bed and brought over new bedding. He still hadn't closed his eyes, and just watched her tidy up the soaked mattresses and pillows, mixed with his things and hers, it was hard to tell whose were more.
She changed the bedding, washed her hands, and came back to bandage his wound. He was still staring at her.
Chi Ying sighed helplessly, "Go to sleep, it'll be bandaged up soon."
Yan Xue remained completely unmoved.
Chi Ying found it quite amusing and momentarily forgot the rules, reaching out to cover his eyelids. But when she removed her hand, he was still looking at her with his eyes open.
As she laughed, a strikingly similar scene suddenly flashed into her mind, and she couldn't help but say, "At the hot spring resort, the night you got drunk, you looked at me like this too."
Yan Xuecui did not deny it: "Yes."
Chi Ying: "Hmm?"
She immediately realized what he meant, her face blank with surprise: "You remember?"
Yan Xuecui: "I remember, that time when I was drunk."
His throat bobbed slightly. "You asked me if I would still like you if you did something to hurt me, or something I could never forgive? My answer is yes."
Chi Ying's eyes reddened, "You..."
He remembers it so clearly, could it be that he wasn't drunk at all that night!
Yan Xuecui looked at her and continued, "You asked me if I would still like someone else if they had married me back then? I said, I would only like you."
He sighed softly, raising his hand to stroke the corner of her trembling, red eyes. "Ah Ying, I told you the answer a long time ago."
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Author's Note: Someone's going to become a wife-obsessed maniac, living a life of constant anxiety and insecurity. [Sunglasses]
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