Chapter 241 World 10 (12)
Chu Boyu's fingertips gently stroked Baoshan's cheek, which was as delicate as jade.
He exerted a little force on his wrist, allowing the delicate features of the treasure fan to be clearly seen in the moonlight.
After the banquet, Chu Boyu changed into casual clothes, shedding the reek of alcohol. He was now dressed in a dark red and crimson brocade robe. His features were naturally gentle, and he asked calmly, "Why are you crying?"
Baoshan looked at Chu Boyu and felt that he was not a noble emperor, but a good-natured young man from the neighborhood. Seeing the pitiful look of the young lady, he couldn't help but ask a few questions.
Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, casting a shadow on her jade-smooth skin. Baoshan pursed her soft lips, and after a long pause, she finally replied, "At the banquet... I almost forgot to thank Your Majesty."
After saying this, Baoshan lowered her eyelids, and her jade-like face was filled with gloom.
Chu Boyu then asked, "Did the people from the Jiaofang Bureau blame you for this?"
Bao Shan shook her head gently. "Le Niang has always treated me very well. At the banquet, it was Le Niang who noticed my panic and forgot to thank me. She rushed forward and resolved the situation. How could she blame me? It's me... who feels useless. I've heard the rules a thousand times, yet I still panic. I'm afraid... His Majesty will think I'm stupid and refuse to even see me in the future."
Chu Boyu was slightly stunned when he heard this. He slowly withdrew his palm with a helpless smile on the corner of his lips.
Chu Boyu didn't expect that what made Baoshan cry was such a small thing.
Just because Baoshan received the reward but did not express gratitude immediately, she felt resentful and grieved by the pond.
But when Chu Boyu looked at Baoshan's delicate profile, his heart suddenly softened.
He thought about it carefully, considering Baoshan's fragile nature, such a trivial matter.
In the eyes of Baoshan, a weak woman, isn't this a huge matter?
When Baoshan saw that Chu Boyu did not refute her, she thought that Chu Boyu was really annoyed with her because of the thank you issue.
The emperor had seen many smart and clever women, so he naturally disliked a woman like her who was so stupid and couldn't even remember the rules.
Bao Shan thought to himself, and his eyes felt extremely sore.
She blinked lightly, and crystal clear water droplets suddenly hung on her black eyelashes.
Seeing this, Chu Boyu said slowly, "I never thought you were stupid."
Baoshan raised her head to look at him: "Really?"
"nature."
The palace has many rules, and Baoshan is a dancer of low status, so she has to bow when she sees someone of a higher status.
With so many rules, it's normal to have a vague memory. Furthermore, Chu Boyu didn't see anything wrong with the "dumb" Bao Shan. He saw it as a fear that the emperor might dislike her. And the fearful Bao Shan was like the lop-eared rabbit Chu Boyu cared for when he first entered the palace—pitiful and adorable.
At that time, Chu Boyu had just entered the palace and was unfamiliar and afraid of everything around him.
He found a messy grass nest in the corner, and inside it was a lop-eared rabbit.
It was also very timid, usually curled up in its warm grass nest. Only Chu Boyu would come home from school, take the fruits and vegetables he had taken from the kitchen, and pass them to the lop-eared rabbit's lips.
It first sniffed it with its nose, then opened its mouth, took a bite, and chewed it slowly and carefully.
Chu Boyu was extremely afraid of Empress Dowager Zhong at the time, and was even more afraid that she would find out that he secretly raised a lop-eared rabbit.
Chu Boyu covered the lop-eared rabbit's nest with branches and fallen leaves.
But in the end, the lop-eared rabbit was gone. It was heard that several palace servants wanted to catch the rabbit to eat as a snack. The rabbit, which was already timid, was so scared that it ran away and accidentally fell into a deep well.
Chu Boyu dug into the deep well and looked down, but all he saw was pitch black, and he could no longer see those timid eyes.
When Chu Boyu passed the corner with fruits and vegetables, no lop-eared rabbit would timidly stick out its head and walk towards him.
The moonlight was just right, and a few stars occasionally dotted the dark sky. Chu Boyu said to the treasure fan, "I will take you back."
The precious fan responds softly.
The quiet path was silent, Bao Shan followed closely behind Chu Boyu, and her small shoes stepped on Chu Boyu's tall figure.
After Baoshan performed the dance, the veil was loosely wrapped around her slender wrists, and she forgot to untie it afterwards.
At this moment, the gauze loosened its last bit of restraint and floated towards Chu Boyu.
"His Majesty."
Chu Boyu turned around and saw that the pear blossom white gauze was covering the lapels of his clothes and entangled with the buttons.
Chu Boyu raised his hand, wanting to untie it, but the veil was tightly wrapped around him, and since Chu Boyu usually had palace servants waiting by his side, he didn't know how to loosen the entanglement between the button and the veil.
Baoshan walked up to Chu Boyu and said timidly, "Your Majesty, let me be your servant."
Chu Boyu sighed slowly, "It has no choice but to do so."
He opened his arms and let the treasure fan do its thing.
Baoshan's slender jade fingers gently unbuttoned Chu Boyu's collar.
Chu Boyu lowered his head and saw that the nails stained with peach pink were twirling his clothes.
When I looked upwards, I saw the beauty lowering her eyes, her expression was indescribably gentle and affectionate.
His heart twitched slightly. Perhaps the emperor's way that Empress Dowager Zhong had asked the great scholars to instill in Chu Boyu over the years was taking effect.
A bewitching voice sounded in Chu Boyu's heart: Since you are the emperor, you can have whatever you want.
Chu Boyu's outstretched arms suddenly closed, and he stroked the soft hand.
Under Baoshan's astonished gaze, Chu Boyu leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
The frosty moonlight bathed their clothes. The wind rustled the trees, and Chu Boyu continued to kiss the precious fan. He closed his eyes, and with a reverent gesture, he felt the warmth of the fan's skin with his thin lips.
Chu Boyu's eyelashes were long and black, and they were lightly touching Baoshan's cheek.
The tingling and numbness caused by this made Baoshan's body tremble.
Chu Boyu moved his thin lips away, still keeping his eyes closed, relying only on his own heart.
The depiction of Baoshan's face finally placed his lips on a soft place.
——It’s the crimson lips.
Chu Boyu opened his eyes and, as expected, saw Baoshan's eyelashes trembling and her cheeks flushed, looking timid.
Chu Boyu's palm stroked Baoshan's slender waist.
The soft and gentle touch almost made Chu Boyu indulge in it.
He exerted a little force and the weak body was in his arms.
With just a little bit of strength, Chu Boyu held the precious fan in his arms.
If others didn't know how fragile Baoshan was, they would definitely think that Baoshan was throwing herself into his arms.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty."
Chu Boyu asked, "Do you want to be my concubine?"
Although it was Chu Boyu who asked the question, he didn't know what answer he wanted to hear from Baoshan.
It's always unpleasant to be rejected by a woman you like.
But if Baoshan agreed immediately and softly, Chu Boyu would feel uninterested and would inevitably start to have wild thoughts: If Baoshan was like this, she would be no different from other concubines.
However, compared with other concubines, Baoshan was more pitiful, which attracted his attention.
Bao Shan did not answer immediately. She hesitated for a moment and said timidly, "This servant... should be willing."
Chu Boyu frowned: "Should?"
Bao Shan's voice was soft: "When I first entered the palace, the palace servants taught me that every acre of land and every river in the world belongs to Your Majesty, and naturally this also includes the women in the palace.
Ever since I entered the palace, my body has been marked by Your Majesty's name.
If Your Majesty wants me to be your concubine, I will still be your woman, just like I am now, so I will naturally agree."
After hearing this, Chu Boyu was silent for a long time. When he spoke again, he did not mention the matter of taking a concubine, but said, "Go back."
Baoshan returned to the Jiaofangsi, and only after Chu Boyu left did Baoshan get up and return to his residence.
She did not tell Chu Boyu that at this late hour, the Jiaofang Office had already locked its doors.
Baoshan did not explain to Chu Boyu that she should return to her bedroom, not the Jiaofangsi.
How could a dignified emperor send a dancer back to his bedroom? The ambiguous feelings between them are too obvious.
Chu Boyu might hesitate and choose to let other palace maids deliver the treasured fan.
Instead of being like now, Chu Boyu accompanied Bao Shan all the way back and performed those charming actions along the way.
The night was dark, but Baoshan did not want to sleep. She sat on the steps, wearing a light dress, gazing at the moon with a leisurely gaze.
Yinhua got up sleepily and saw Baoshan sitting there quietly, so she walked over in her embroidered shoes.
Yinhua sat down next to Baoshan. She covered her mouth and yawned, mumbling, "Why aren't you sleeping yet?"
Bao Shan replied softly, “I will go to sleep soon, I am just sitting here and thinking about something.
If you are so sleepy, go to bed first and don't wait for me."
Yinhua shook her head and said, "I'm not sleepy either."
But after a while, Yinhua's head swayed and fell on Baoshan's shoulder.
Baoshan turned around gently, pulled the robe that had slipped off Yinhua's body closer to her shoulders, then turned around and thought quietly towards the moon again.
Only a quiet environment can allow Baoshan to put aside distracting thoughts and carefully think about what happened today.
Baoshan thought that his answer to Chu Boyu's question today was quite standard.
It neither makes her appear eager to become a concubine nor reveals her own weakness.
But Baoshan was unsure of Chu Boyu's thoughts. If he really felt sorry for Baoshan and felt sorry for her, he would completely give up all thoughts about her.
All the plans of the treasure fan would be in vain.
But as Baoshan looked at the moon that was emitting clear light, the slight uneasiness in his heart soon turned into certainty.
If Chu Boyu could really let go, the kiss today would not have landed on her cheek.
Chu Boyu was a gentle and kind person, but he was not a man of excessive kindness. Even the most incompetent man would never do such a thing, let alone the current emperor, to give away a woman he had some ambiguous feelings for.
After figuring it all out, Baoshan gently called Yinhua.
Yinhua opened her hazy eyes and heard Baoshan say, "Let's go back to sleep."
Yinhua nodded like a chick pecking at rice: "Okay, go back, okay."
The bed has soft pillows and quilts, and a precious fan that is filled with a delicate fragrance. Compared to the cold steps, the bed is definitely a thousand times better.
Empress Dowager Zhong held a gold-engraved five-pronged phoenix hairpin holding a pearl in her hand. She heard that Doctor Deng's family was implicated because of the incident at Nanfeng Tower.
Deng was in great pain and had to ask someone to pass a message to Empress Dowager Zhong, claiming that she was willing to surrender to her and only asking her to solve Deng's bad reputation.
Empress Dowager Zhong threw the exquisitely crafted gold hairpin into the jewelry box.
She sneered softly, as if mocking Deng's stupidity.
As soon as Chu Boyu gave the order, she, the empress dowager, rushed to save Doctor Deng's reputation. Wasn't that a clear announcement to the world that the empress dowager and the emperor were not in harmony?
Zhong Xianghan would definitely not do such a stupid thing.
However, Empress Dowager Zhong was puzzled. Chu Boyu had always been generous and magnanimous, and was always humble towards those self-righteous and pedantic ministers. So why was he so angry this time?
Empress Dowager Zhong thought to herself that Doctor Deng's greatest love in life was to linger among flowers.
But after being treated like this by Chu Boyu, I'm afraid that no man or woman will be able to see her in the future.
Empress Dowager Zhong thought that if she came to punish Doctor Deng, she would whip or cane him, and would not come up with such a cruel method.
Empress Dowager Zhong frowned and questioned the palace maids who served in the hall on the day of the banquet.
After learning the whole story, Empress Dowager Zhong said in a deep voice: "The treasured fan... the dancer... is it because of this?"
She asked, "How is the dancer?"
Although Empress Dowager Zhong asked the question, she only felt in her heart that the woman must be good-looking, perhaps extremely beautiful.
It was because of this that Doctor Deng was seduced by the beauty and spoke obscene words in public, which led to his being thrown into Nanfeng Tower.
The palace attendant carefully answered, "She looks timid and has a delicate figure."
Empress Dowager Zhong chuckled softly and said, "In that case, I'd like to see what kind of woman could make a man like Boyu so angry and mad for her."
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