Chapter 24 Touching Little Hands in the Garden
"No, but can you be sure that Eunuch An really knows absolutely nothing about it?"
She didn't have the time or inclination to tell Anhe; it seemed that informing on her was of no use to her at the moment.
Li Ying fell silent.
He himself was certainly unsure, and many times he secretly speculated that things would turn out the worst.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Anhe had already received word of what had happened that morning, and while he was halfway through the interrogation, he came looking for Li Ying and the other person.
Upon his arrival, he saw the once lawless Li Ying sitting in the pavilion, her eyes filled with tears, talking to Zhao Liangxu.
When Li Ying saw An He coming over, she trembled and quickly wiped away her tears.
"Your Majesty, what's wrong?"
Anhe was truly baffled.
It's only been a short time since I last saw Zhao Liangxu, how come she's already hanging out with Li Ying again?
Li Ying still looked grief-stricken and distressed.
Anhe pulled Zhao Liangxu aside: "Zhao Liangxu, Zhao Liangxu!"
He really didn't know what to say.
Zhao Liangxu responded with "Yes, yes" twice, but didn't say much. She stood there obediently, waiting for An He to ask her questions.
"Don't you have anything to say?"
“If Eunuch An asks, of course I will answer; but if Eunuch An doesn’t ask, how will I know what to answer?”
Anhe felt an intense headache.
"Then tell me, how long has it been? What did you say to Li Ying? How did he become like this?!"
Zhao Liangxu recounted what had happened that morning.
"Eunuch An, you are wise. I do not know why the Empress Dowager is so angry, but His Majesty is clearly at a loss because of her anger, so I naturally have to comfort her."
Zhao Liangxu put her hands behind her back, tilted her head and smiled, "Kids will be kids, it's understandable that they cry."
That's utter nonsense.
An He knew what had happened that morning, but he absolutely could not believe what Zhao Liangxu said.
“He is His Majesty, the Son of Heaven; he can say that himself.”
"You can't, understand?"
Anhe tried to distance himself from the two, at least to prevent Li Ying from trusting Zhao Liangxu so easily again.
"But that's just how His Majesty is. I suppose His Majesty already considers me a good friend. He even wanted to get the key back for his friend yesterday, but unfortunately he didn't have time to say it."
Zhao Liangxu "accidentally" mentioned the key again.
This attitude left Anhe speechless for a moment.
"You'll definitely need your key!"
Unable to get anything out of Zhao Liangxu, he impatiently sent her back to the An residence.
"You'd better work hard in the capital these next few days, otherwise there won't be any progress. Even if I don't care about His Majesty, I'll still make you pay!"
Anhe made a harsh statement and prepared to ask Li Ying more questions about what had happened.
As for the reason behind it...
Zhou Mingxi caused trouble this morning, clearly having forgotten his warning.
He knew perfectly well why he was secretly angry, even though the one being punished was a lowly eunuch.
Anhe's eyes were filled with a chilling aura.
Zhao Liangxu finally returned to the An residence. As she alighted from the carriage, the autumn wind blew, and Zhao Liangxu noticed that the weather was a bit colder than a few days ago.
She didn't go straight back to the courtyard. Instead, she stopped a maid from the manor and asked her about the location of the crooked tree that Anhe had mentioned.
The location was also quite convenient.
It happened to be near the Epiphyllum Glory Garden that night.
It was too dark that night, and she hadn't noticed the strangely shaped trees around her. After asking about them, she immediately became interested.
That place must be quite a sight during the day.
Zhao Liangxu was in high spirits and went back to the courtyard to find the crooked tree with Zhu Mu.
"Princess, is this alright for us?"
Bamboo and wood are clearly still afraid of peace and harmony.
She felt that her "tyrannical" behavior in the An family would incur An He's displeasure.
"What's there to be afraid of? Eunuch An himself said I can do whatever I want with him, so I don't think he's that petty."
Zhao Liangxu comforted Zhu Mu.
With her decent memory, Zhao Liangxu led Zhu Mu smoothly to the crooked tree.
Upon closer inspection during the day, Zhao Liangxu realized that this place with its pond and epiphyllum flowers was a garden that hadn't been deliberately maintained.
Anhe was clearly used to good things, and he wasn't so upright as to refuse the flattery others offered him. So, he transplanted and placed things like flowers and plants here.
The epiphyllum I saw that night still has a few buds that haven't opened yet, so it's likely that it will be able to bloom again in the next few nights.
There are very few flower buds left now, and no matter how many bloom at night, they won't be as spectacular as the one Zhao Liangxu saw a few days ago.
The crooked-necked tree that Anhe mentioned was indeed quite old; one could tell just by looking at its branches.
The main trunk of the tree is curved into an arc, and among the branches that grow outwards, there is one that is particularly thick and extends towards the side closest to the wall.
Its curvature was just right for a person to lie on, making it perfect for Zhao Liangxu.
Zhao Liangxu rubbed her hands together, ready to climb up.
The bamboo and wood were carefully protected below. Although the tree was not very tall, Zhao Liangxu still needed to climb up a couple of times using the protruding parts.
Zhao Liangxu was quite agile and successfully climbed up to the top. She then lay down on it naturally, her feet braced against the intersection of the branches, which was perfectly safe.
She took the book from Zhu Mu's hand.
After confirming that Zhao Liangxu was steady enough, Zhu Mu went to look at the plants that interested her.
Fortunately, it's cooled down a bit, but not to an extreme degree.
Zhao Liangxu squinted slightly, feeling the gentle breeze.
As she lay there, she could see the exotic plants under the tree from the side, and look up to see the blue sky. Although the branches of the crooked tree were a bit rough, it didn't detract from the overall beauty.
Zhao Liangxu flipped through the unofficial histories of the previous dynasty that she had taken from Anhe's study, reading with great interest.
Now that she has read more and become more familiar with the wording and sentence structure of classical Chinese, she has finally finished reading this book after having it in her hands for so many days.
She held the book she had finished reading to her chest and stared blankly at the sky.
Zhu Mu would occasionally look up to check on Zhao Liangxu. Although Zhao Liangxu seemed quite secure in the tree, she was still slightly worried about her, considering that Zhao Liangxu's physical condition wasn't very robust.
Looking at the clear blue sky, Zhao Liangxu's heart gradually calmed down.
She also began to ponder her feelings for Anhe.
She felt that the eye contact they made that day was really nothing special.
All told, she had only been at the An residence for a little over a month, and she couldn't even see An He every day.
She didn't spend much time with Anhe.
Could she really be sure she liked Anhe just from that one eye contact?
Perhaps it's just a normal human reaction because we're too close.
Perhaps it wasn't the attraction caused by liking someone, but rather because I was startled.
A series of rational ideas swirled in Zhao Liangxu's mind.
She lowered her eyes and inadvertently glanced past the patch of night-blooming cereus.
The soft touch of that day inevitably came to mind.
Anhe, a person with such obsessive-compulsive disorder, inexplicably sat on the ground with her that day, which was really unlike his style.
Zhao Liangxu even recalled the time she almost strangled An T to death.
Anhe was surprisingly magnanimous and didn't blame her at all.
Zhao Liangxu was lost in thought.
Unaware that Anhe was already standing under the crooked tree.
When Anhe returned from the palace, he heard whispers among the people in the mansion. When he asked, he learned that Zhao Liangxu had something on her mind about the crooked tree in the mansion.
He then remembered something he had mentioned earlier.
Could it be that Zhao Liangxu really went to climb a tree?
An He went to check with some hesitation, and sure enough, he found Zhao Liangxu lying leisurely in the tree.
Her sleeves and skirt hung down under the tree, swaying gently in the wind.
Anhe did not speak directly.
Zhu Mu looked terrified when he saw An He, and An He threatened him to keep quiet.
An He stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at Zhao Liangxu, who was tilting her head to look at the sky, seemingly lost in thought.
She really treats the An family mansion like her own home.
An He hadn't expected Zhao Liangxu to be so bold, but he didn't feel any displeasure.
Zhao Liangxu propped herself up slightly with one hand, and the book she was holding to her chest accidentally fell off with her movement.
She was startled and reached out to catch it.
Looking down, I saw Anhe standing there, seemingly out of nowhere.
The book landed steadily in Anhe's hands.
It's really not good to secretly talk about others in your mind. That's why Anhe quietly appeared here.
Zhao Liangxu nimbly climbed down the tree, shook her clothes, and a few leaves fell from the tree.
"Eunuch An is back very early today."
Zhao Liangxu greeted him.
"You seem to have no worries on your mind at all, and you're quite carefree all day long."
Anhe pointed out a point to Zhao Liangxu.
Zhao Liangxu took a step forward and leaned closer, saying, "This is what Eunuch An told me before. I can do whatever I want with the crooked tree in the mansion. I just climbed up to rest for a while. How can I have any worries on my mind? I should take Eunuch An's words to heart."
She said it, but what she really meant was liking someone.
Do you really like him?
She needs to confirm this.
When Anhe saw Zhao Liangxu moving forward, she assumed she had no sense of boundaries, so she took a small step back herself.
"You really don't remember things you should."
As he spoke, he took a bronze-colored key out of his sleeve.
"The key you kept asking about in front of His Majesty, now that it's been given to you, can you rest easy?"
Anhe didn't want any contact with Zhao Liangxu. He originally thought he would just toss the key forward gently, at a distance that Zhao Liangxu would surely catch it.
Zhao Liangxu saw through An He's intention and grabbed An He's hand that was holding the key.
She felt Anhe's fingers tremble in fright.
The key that had been held between her fingers fell into Zhao Liangxu's palm.
Perhaps because he was a eunuch, Anhe's fingers were long and slender, and his skin felt exceptionally smooth.
Since the phrase "touching" was mentioned, Zhao Liangxu's fingers naturally brushed restlessly across Anhe's skin a couple of times.
She felt no discomfort whatsoever, and even had the leisure to observe Anhe's changing expressions.
Anhe struggled to pull her hand back, looking at her with shock in her eyes.
It was as if she had sexually assaulted Anhe.
Anhe took out what was now an unknown number of handkerchiefs and rubbed them with her hands.
"Zhao Liangxu, have you gone mad?"
His voice was tinged with anger; he felt that Zhao Liangxu was deliberately humiliating him.
She insulted him because he was a eunuch, but she couldn't do anything about it.
She didn't insult him because he wasn't a man, and she didn't need to worry that holding a woman's hand so tightly would ruin her reputation or break the so-called separation between men and women.
She has a lot of nerve.
A note from the author:
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I'm struggling to keep up with the pace! I've already written over twenty chapters and I've only just scratched the surface! There's still so much more I haven't written down!
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