Cannot do
Tears still glistened in Ming Chuqing's beautiful eyes. She was usually so dignified and rarely acted like a little girl, and Wei Qiao's heart softened for a moment. Since he had married the princess, it was only right that he consummate the marriage with her. He withdrew his hand from Ming Chuqing's and, after pondering for a while, said to her, "I will stay at the princess's residence tonight."
When Wei Qiao withdrew his hand, Ming Chuqing thought he would refuse her that night, but she didn't expect him to agree in the end.
As the moon rose above the treetops, Ming Chuqing rose from the zither stool and gracefully approached Wei Qiao, who was seated in a round-backed chair at the head of the table. "Your Highness, it is late. I will take a bath first, and then serve Your Highness to rest in peace."
Wei Qiao nodded to her, "Alright, Your Highness, go ahead."
After Ming Chuqing left, Wei Qiao remained seated for a long time. As he prepared to get up, his gaze fell upon a pot of chrysanthemums on the flower stand beside the zither platform. The chrysanthemum's blossoms were facing him directly; the center of the flower was yellowish-green, the petals pure white, and the edges of the petals were a delicate touch of peach pink. He recognized the variety; it was the Jade Pot Spring chrysanthemum that Wei Kang had taken him to see years ago.
When he went to the bedroom, Ming Chuqing had already finished bathing and Cuiju was drying her hair. When she saw him enter the room, she said considerately, "Your Highness, I have already had the water prepared for you. You can go and take a bath now."
“Alright, I’ll go right away,” Wei Qiao said.
As Wei Qiao passed the dressing table, he glanced up at her. Ming Chuqing was dressed in a plain white inner robe, with a pink embroidered gauze over it, looking like a fairy in a peach blossom forest. The princess was also a beauty, but when he faced her, he couldn't feel a ripple in his heart.
In the bathtub, he thought of Xichun, who had been in his arms that morning. She was sleeping peacefully, her head buried in his chest, a few strands of hair hanging down her face. She was without any makeup, but in his eyes, she was already extremely cute.
As A-Gui helped him put on his undergarments, Wei Qiao confirmed something he didn't want to admit but was true.
He preferred Xichun to the princess. But the princess was, after all, his legal wife; she had done nothing wrong, and he shouldn't neglect her and subject her to gossip. Perhaps he didn't understand the princess well enough, or perhaps after their wedding night he would become infatuated with her.
Wei Qiao was lost in thought, while A Gui noticed the prince's tense expression.
He couldn't understand why the prince had such high expectations for the princess before the marriage, spending lavishly on betrothal gifts and repeatedly inquiring about the wedding arrangements, striving to make everything perfect and give the princess a grand wedding. Now that she was married, the prince avoided her at every turn. The concubine was already pregnant, but whenever the prince stayed overnight at the manor, he would mostly go to the Chaoxia Courtyard to sleep with the concubine, while the prince had only stayed overnight with the princess for one night.
Seeing that the prince still showed no intention of going to the inner room, A-Gui reminded him, "Your Highness, your clothes are on."
Hearing A-Gui's voice, Wei Qiao finally came to his senses. He took a deep breath and stepped out of the bathroom.
Ming Chuqing had already dried her hair and was sitting on the rose stool with her eyes closed as Cuiju combed her hair. She liked Changqingzhai's osmanthus hair oil, and she would put a few drops on the comb after each wash, so that her hair would have a faint osmanthus fragrance.
"Your Highness, the Prince has come out," Cuiju whispered to Ming Chuqing as she caught Wei Qiao's glance out of the corner of her eye.
Upon hearing this, Ming Chuqing opened her eyes and looked towards the bathroom. She saw Wei Qiao wearing a moon-colored undergarment, his hair slightly damp. From his profile, he bore a striking resemblance to Wei Kang in her mind.
A faint smile played on her lips as she pressed down on Cuiju's hand, which was combing her hair. "Go down."
Cuiju knew that tonight was the day the princess and the prince would consummate their marriage. She looked up at Wei Qiao and then at her own princess, shyly said "yes," and slowly left the room.
Seeing this, A-Gui also quietly left the room, closing the door to Ming Chuqing's bedroom behind him.
"Your Highness, have you finished bathing?" Ming Chuqing got up from the rose stool and walked towards Wei Qiao.
"Mmm," Wei Qiao responded softly. As she moved, Wei Qiao smelled the increasingly strong fragrance of osmanthus in the air—the princess's scent.
Ming Chuqing took Wei Qiao's hand, looked up at him with a smile, and said, "Your Highness, let's go to bed."
Wei Qiao stiffened the moment Ming Chuqing touched his hand. Looking at the flickering candlelight beside the dressing table, he gently brushed her hand away. "Your Highness, please go to bed and wait for me. I will go and extinguish the candles before I come back."
Although Ming Chuqing had been taught about wedding night matters by her nanny before her marriage, today was truly her first time. She nodded to him and shyly moved to the canopy bed.
Wei Qiao extinguished the candlesticks one by one, leaving only the two closest to the bed curtains. Using the dim candlelight, Wei Qiao moved to the bedside. Ming Chuqing lowered the bed curtains, and the pink curtains later reflected her hazy figure.
Wei Qiao took a deep breath and reached out to pull back the bed curtains. He saw that Ming Chuqing had already taken off her undergarments, and was only wearing a light pink bodice. Glancing at her snow-white arms, Wei Qiao thought of Xichun again. Her skin was as white and delicate as the princess's. That night at the inn, they had been so happy together.
Now she is his concubine, pregnant with their child. On their wedding day, he was frantic when he learned that Xichun had gone to Miao Wendao; he couldn't bear for Xichun to love another man besides him. But besides her, his heart also belonged to the Princess, with whom he would have children in the future. What about her? Would she feel the same pain he had felt back then?
But what about the princess? The princess was the wife he longed to marry. Wasn't the princess, whom he neglected, just as pitiful?
"Your Highness, what's wrong?" Ming Chuqing saw him stare at her and then freeze, assuming he was bewitched by her beauty. She moved towards Wei Qiao, grabbed his collar, and pulled him towards her.
Chu Qing is his wife.
Chu Qing is his wife.
Wei Qiao silently recited these two sentences in his heart and obeyed Ming Chuqing's strength, leaning down and pressing her down beneath him. He wanted to continue, such as kissing her, or untying the ribbons of the princess's bodice, but his hands resisted such things, resting obediently on both ends of the brocade pillow.
Ming Chuqing waited for a long time but Wei Qiao made no further move. The two of them were close together, but there was no romantic feeling whatsoever. They were like strangers who accidentally bumped into each other in a noisy market during a temple fair. She couldn't miss this opportunity. Wei Qiao might go to Jiangnan again in a while and wouldn't be back for several months.
Ming Chuqing suppressed her pride and reached up to Wei Qiao's neck. The moment she felt her hand touch his skin, Wei Qiao's body suddenly stiffened. She didn't understand why, and just as she raised her neck to kiss his lips, the person on top of her abruptly pulled away.
He was deliberately avoiding her advances.
"Your Highness, why?" Ming Chuqing asked, looking at Wei Qiao sitting by the bed. He could have children with that concubine in Chaoxia Courtyard, yet he struggled so much to consummate his marriage with her, his legal wife. She, Ming Chuqing, was no less than anyone else; why did Wei Qiao treat her this way?
Wei Qiao sat on the edge of the bed, unable to explain why the princess had climbed onto him. He smelled an even stronger fragrance of osmanthus, and anticipating her next move, his body instinctively pulled away. He looked at Ming Chuqing beside him; in the dim light of the bed curtains, he could feel her eyes fixed on him.
She wanted an answer, and so did he. He should have consummated his marriage with the princess and had her bear him a legitimate heir. But when the time came, he just couldn't do it.
Wei Qiao lifted the bed curtains, put on his shoes, and said apologetically to Ming Chuqing inside, "Your Highness, I'm sorry, I'll go back to Ming'an Hall tonight. You should rest early."
Hearing his footsteps fading into the distance, Ming Chuqing, lying on the bed, sat up angrily and threw the brocade pillow onto the floor. She had never suffered such humiliation; her husband, who had offered himself up to her, was completely unmoved.
A-Gui and Cui-Ju waited at the door for the sound of someone calling for water. Seeing the candlelight go out, A-Gui assumed the Prince and Princess would finally consummate their marriage. However, less than half an incense stick's time later, the Prince emerged from the Princess's room. Seeing the Prince only in his undergarments, he quickly went up to him, "Your Highness, has something happened?"
Wei Qiao turned around and glanced at the princess's bedroom, shook his head, and said, "Return to Ming'an Hall."
As Cuiju saw the prince and Agui leave Yunhe Hall, she hesitated whether to go into the princess's room to take a look, when she heard the princess calling her from inside.
"Your Highness, why did the Prince suddenly leave?" Cuiju asked, puzzled, as she helped the princess get dressed.
Ming Chuqing gritted her teeth and glared at the coat that Wei Qiao hadn't taken off the clothes rack, saying resentfully, "Because he's sick."
Cuiju didn't understand what the princess meant when she said the prince was ill, and since the princess was still angry, she didn't dare to ask again. After helping her get dressed, she went to relight the candlesticks in the room as she had instructed.
"Go and get me a pot of wine," Ming Chuqing instructed Cuiju.
Upon hearing this, Cuiju immediately left the bedroom and brought back a pot of Pear Blossom Spring wine. Ming Chuqing took the white porcelain wine pot, poured the wine into an exquisite plum blossom cup, picked up the cup, stood up, walked to the windowsill, and looked at the moon in the sky.
Wei Qiao was also gazing at the moon. He returned to Ming'an Hall, changed into a black outer robe, and then walked out of his bedroom to stand on the veranda, looking up at the moon.
As the moon approached its midpoint, it gradually became full. However, a dark cloud lingered around the moon, causing it to briefly reveal its entire silvery disc before being obscured by the cloud again.
It was early winter, and a rain shower had fallen in the evening. The night wind howled, and the chill seeped into one's bones from all directions. A-Gui, with his hands tucked in, stayed behind Wei Qiao. Seeing that he didn't seem inclined to go inside, he went into the bedroom to fetch a cloak for him, fearing he would catch a cold.
"Why does Your Highness dislike the Princess? In my humble opinion, the Princess is excellent. In the past month, she has handled all the affairs of the household perfectly, and she is kind and gentle to everyone. The servants all praise her. Even with the concubine, Your Highness went to pursue her on your wedding night, and then went to request her to be made a concubine not long after the wedding, and the Princess never said anything. Why is Your Highness unwilling to consummate the marriage with the Princess?" A-Gui asked softly.
Wei Qiao continued to look at the moon, which appeared and disappeared intermittently, just like his feelings, which were sometimes clear and sometimes obscure.
He couldn't explain his current feelings towards the princess. He felt he should love her; she was his legal wife, the only one in his mind who met his standards for a wife. But he had tried, and he couldn't do it. He wanted to leave the princess alone, treating her merely as a respectable decoration, but he felt that would be too cruel for her.
With a sigh, Wei Qiao turned to A Gui and asked, "A Gui, do you think I like concubines?"
"Of course," A-Gui replied without hesitation. The prince rescued his concubine from the palace and then brought her back after she left. Although the prince and concubine had their disagreements, the prince would still keep track of her news even when he was angry.
"Then do you think I like the Queen?" Wei Qiao asked again.
After pondering for a moment, recalling the various interactions between the Princess and the Prince, A-Gui said, "This servant feels that the Prince's respect for the Princess is more than affection. You could say he likes her, but it's not as much as he likes his concubine."
Wei Qiao chuckled softly, shook his head, and turned to go into the bedroom.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
