5 Chapter 5
It turns out that Prince Su only enjoys serving others, and dislikes being served.
Woyu cautiously began, "Miss, could it be that Prince Su wouldn't..."
"Won't."
Woyu noticed Xie Yutang's tightening tone, glanced at her mistress in surprise, then lowered her eyes and said no more.
It felt like an eternity had passed, yet also like a fleeting moment. The calm lake surface finally rippled, and the boy poked his head out of the water. His clear, dark eyes glanced around the pavilion before quickly turning back in this direction, the movement of his head sending up a thin ribbon of water droplets.
Ripples spread out in concentric circles, reaching all the way to the shore.
Xie Yutang stood silently on the shore, his gaze following a figure in the blue lake. Several times he almost touched the floating ice, but he pushed it aside one by one.
As the person drew closer, Xie Yutang shook his sleeves and suddenly realized that his palms were soaked with cold sweat. He wiped them away without making a sound before extending his hand.
With palms facing upwards, it is a gesture of receiving.
What he actually touched was not the expected feel of a boy's finger bones, but a cold, wooden, hard object with sharp teeth marks on its angular jaws.
Luban lock.
She stared blankly down, only managing to see the boy's fingertips, red from the cold, before he withdrew them in an extremely restrained and measured manner.
This is completely different from his crazy behavior of jumping into the lake without saying a word just now.
Seeing Xie Yutang lower her eyes and remain silent, Huaijin stepped forward and curtsied, saying, "Miss, shall I take Young Master Su to change his clothes first?"
It was freezing cold, and Su Lu had just come out of the lake. His clothes were soaked through and clung to his body so thin that you could even see the taut muscle lines of his bones.
Xie Yutang inappropriately recalled the romantic tales in those storybooks. No wonder authors always arranged for women to accidentally fall into the water. Such a sight was indeed extremely pitiful. Her eyes looked like chess pieces soaked in water, and her lips, earlobes, collarbones, fingertips—any exposed skin was always more pink and tender than usual.
In this scene, it's hard not to think of the charming image of a young lady with disheveled hair and a delicate, fragrant dress.
She turned her gaze away, took off her cloak, and bent down to drape it over him. The boy's breath caught in his throat for a moment, then he relaxed, letting her breath envelop him.
Su Lu's gaze trembled slightly, then gently settled on her face without disturbing her, like a soft breeze blowing through a bamboo forest after a snowfall, carrying a cool and gentle atmosphere.
Xie Yutang did not meet such gazes. She kept her eyes down, focusing on tying the rope in her hands. Only when she tied the knot securely did the tension in her heart finally ease. The thing that had been hanging in the air finally settled down. Just as she was about to get up, she suddenly felt a chill on her hand.
The chilling touch made her pause, and she saw a drop of water lying on her porcelain-white skin.
A drop of water falling from the boy's hair.
Xie Yutang frowned slightly.
Just a single drop is so icy cold.
Did he just jump directly into this lake?
Su Lu's fingers curled slightly, as if to wipe away the drop of water for her, but he hesitated for a moment as he raised his hand. Xie Yutang had already stood up and taken a half step back, pretending to be nonchalant as he shook off his sleeves, letting the wide sleeves hang down. He turned to Huai Jin and instructed, "Go and tell the servants to prepare hot water and send Prince Su to the Empress's Chamber."
Huai Jin was secretly startled. The Pepper Chamber was located in the southeast corner of the main hall. It was the young lady's private hot spring. The walls of the room were covered with crushed pepper paste, which was then dried and covered with tapestries. In winter, a fire was lit and a screen was erected, making it warm as spring. This place was granted by imperial pardon, and its scale and structure were comparable to that of the Empress. Apart from Xie Yutang, no one else had received such an honor.
Xie Yutang instructed Huaijin to boil ginger and brown sugar water before entering the inner palace of the Pepper Chamber.
Steam rose from the room, and a slender figure could be vaguely seen behind the screen. Su Lu was soaking in the hot spring when he heard footsteps behind him. He assumed it was a servant and did not turn around. He simply asked the servant to place his things on the edge of the pool.
Xie Yutang raised an eyebrow and exclaimed, "So it turns out that Prince Su really only likes to serve others and doesn't like to be served by others."
The figure in the pool froze. Su Lu turned around and saw Xie Yutang's ambiguous smile through the mist.
Having stripped naked, he couldn't just get out of the bath and put on his clothes in front of Xie Yutang. Caught between a rock and a hard place in the hot spring, he was unusually at a loss. After a long pause, he could only stammer out "Master".
It was rare to see him looking so embarrassed, and Xie Yutang found it somewhat amusing. However, the pent-up anger in her heart could not be easily dispelled in a short time, so she leaned down by the pool and waved to him.
Su Lu hesitated for a moment.
"What? It's not like you haven't seen it before, is Prince Su feeling embarrassed?"
Su Lu remained silent.
Xie Yutang was right. On the very first day she brought him back to the manor, didn't he take off his shirt in front of everyone and even have the master personally apply medicine to him...?
Perhaps it was the heat from the hot spring, but the boy's skin was no longer its usual pale white. The skin around his eyes and behind his ears was red, his eyelashes were adorned with water droplets, and his hair was wet and stuck to the back of his neck.
Everywhere Xie Yutang's fingertips touched, they left behind a series of delicate tremors.
Do you like this water?
She asked, her fingers gently tracing the skin of his neck, stroking the damp hair at the back of his neck.
Su Lu lowered her eyes, her eyelashes trembling slightly with her movements.
"I am naturally pleased with what my master has given me."
"Then soak it more."
Before he could finish speaking, Xie Yutang grabbed the boy by the back of his neck and forcefully pushed him into the pool.
Unexpectedly, her men did not offer her even the slightest resistance. They only paused for a moment before letting her push him underwater.
In order to dispel cold and dampness, in addition to angelica and safflower, some sulfur was also added to this medicinal bath. After inhaling it, there was a strong burning sensation in the lungs, like being pricked by needles or scraped by knives, which was extremely painful.
Su Lu's fingers gripped the edge of the pool tightly, his knuckles turning white, and the veins on his forearm were even visible. Xie Yutang knew that it was a struggle to suppress the instinctive urge to suffocate.
She gradually realized that if she didn't let go, this person would really suffocate her.
Xie Yutang exerted force with his wrist and pulled the person out of the water.
His wet hair flicked out a string of bright water droplets. The boy coughed violently and painfully, his handsome face already flushed red. He was panting heavily, but even so, he still obediently lowered his eyes, trying his best to control the range of his movements, so as not to spill a single drop of water on her.
Xie Yutang, expressionless, pushed him back into the water.
This happened several times, and Su Lu never struggled at all, always obediently accepting it as if it were honey on a knife's edge. He would accept everything she gave him.
The last breath was squeezed out, and Xie Yutang suddenly lifted the person up at the last moment before he was completely suffocated. The gold chains rustled as they clattered. The boy's neck was forced to lengthen due to the tilting of his head, and his fragile Adam's apple was fully exposed. It was then firmly locked by the thin gold chain, making it clear at a glance whose body this was.
A single thought can bring someone to life, or a single thought can bring them to death.
The thrill of having a powerful and capable life completely under one's control is addictive and seductive.
Xie Yutang's fingertips tightened deep within his hair as she whispered in his ear, as if branding his soul: "Remember, your life is mine. Even if you're going to die, I have to give my permission first."
When Woyu came in carrying ginger tea, she saw Su Lu kneeling in front of the screen.
He was still wearing his soaked clothes, the hem of which had been partially dried by the floor heating system.
It's clear that he knelt for quite some time.
This young master is, after all, the young master of the Muqing Prince's Mansion. Isn't it too cruel of Miss to treat him like this?
The man knelt obediently, showing no sign of anger on his face.
The thin shirt clings to the skin from the waist up, outlining alluring contours of scenery that is not usually seen. Although nothing is visible, it exudes a seductive and wanton charm from the very core of her being.
Especially the thin, barely visible gold chain around her neck.
Woyu didn't dare to look too much, and walked to the screen with her head down, carrying the food box.
Xie Yutang was dozing on the chaise lounge in the inner room. Wo Yu was carrying a food box, wanting to say a few words of advice, but not knowing how to start.
This ginger and brown sugar water was specially ordered by the young lady to be cooked.
They warmed Prince Su up, yet they punished him by making him kneel here. Was this out of pity or not? Did they care or not?
That's enough.
Woyu took out the hot ginger tea, placed it on the small table in front of the screen, and silently withdrew.
"Come in when you're done drinking."
Xie Yutang's voice came from behind the screen, but his emotions were unreadable.
Su Lu agreed, his slender fingers holding the teacup, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly as he tilted his head back.
It was a very simple action, but he performed it with an indescribable feeling. He was like a young master raised in a noble family, yet he had no effeminate airs; he was like a warrior trained on the frontier, yet he had no rough or roguish feel.
The room was warm, and my long hair, which was originally half-dry, dried almost completely after kneeling for a while.
Su Lu drank the ginger tea, placed the teacup on the small table, casually tied her hair up with a white jade hairpin, and let the rest hang loosely on her thin shoulder bones.
He tidied his appearance in front of the bronze mirror before stepping around to the back of the screen.
Xie Yutang did not open her eyes, perhaps she was asleep. Half of the thin blanket covering her had fallen off, revealing her fair and jade-like shoulders.
Su Lu stirred the silver charcoal beside him and added the incense sticks that were about to burn out in the calming incense. All his movements were so quiet that they made almost no sound. Then he walked to the chaise lounge and pulled up the blanket that was hanging halfway on the ground.
Although the action was somewhat ambiguous, he performed it with a devout and solemn air, as if he were tending to a precious treasure.
Just as he was about to pull away, his wrist was grabbed.
Xie Yutang slowly opened his eyes, his fingertips tracing the arm that was being held by the boy, hooking out the gold chain hidden around his neck.
To make it easier for Xie Yutang to reach him, Su Lu knelt down in front of the bed, yielding to her strength.
Xie Yutang's hand slowly moved up the chain to his neck, but she frowned.
A pulse was beating beneath the skin, but the temperature to the touch was still not very high.
"Why is it still cold?"
"My constitution is naturally prone to coldness, and it has nothing to do with what I did in the water just now." Su Lu choked on the pool water, his voice still a little hoarse, and he comforted her in a low and gentle tone, "Thanks to the hot spring bath you gave me, the coldness in my body has almost dissipated."
"Is that so?"
Seeing that he looked fine and had checked his pulse, Xie Yutang was relieved. He drank half a cup of tea with Su Lu's hand, then closed his eyes and continued to doze off on the chaise longue.
These past few days, she has been studying the books on the subject of the Imperial Lectures, often sketching until late at night. After school, she still has to practice riding and archery for two hours at Happy Valley. Her arms are already overworked, and after just a bit of playing in the pool, her wrists inevitably ache with just a light lift.
Su Lu naturally noticed it as well.
"Master, may I give you a massage?"
Xie Yutang was somewhat surprised: "You can do this too?"
"I've learned a thing or two."
He was far too modest.
The young man's skills were first-rate. After a few moves, Xie Yutang felt a soothing warm current flow along the meridians of his forearm to his fingertips, and his blood and qi were unblocked.
In the past, when she was in the deep palace, Huaijin often massaged her shoulders and legs, but none of it was as comfortable and smooth as this.
Xie Yutang raised her lips with a self-deprecating smile. She must have been blind in her previous life. How could she have remained indifferent to such a wonderful person for decades, to the point that she barely spoke a few words to her until her death?
The soreness in her arms had long since disappeared, and the faint scent of calming incense permeated the room. The crackling of the charcoal fire in the silver basin was so comforting that it almost made her fall asleep. Xie Yutang calculated the time in her mind, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the boy's drooping thick eyelashes and clear jawline.
She watched for a while: "Kneeling for so long, do you blame me?"
Su Lu was holding her other arm when he heard this and curled his lips: "I know you are doing this to remove the cold from my knees." He even started talking about her, "Master, please don't think of me as so ungrateful."
The room was heated by underfloor heating and fumigated with mugwort, so even in the snowy winter, one could walk barefoot without feeling cold, which had a very good effect on dispelling the cold. Su Lu had gone down into the cold pool, and the dampness and cold would surely accumulate in his knees. Xie Yutang was thinking of this, which was why he had made him kneel for so long.
Xie Yutang scoffed and pulled her arm away from his embrace: "You almost drowned me just now, do you even recognize this?"
"I understand." Su Lu did not hesitate. "I was already in big trouble for entering the lake without your permission, and I even caused my master to worry and go to great lengths for me. Yet you protected my dignity and did not punish me in public. How could I not understand this kindness?"
Xie Yutang was unable to refute for a moment.
Su Lu knelt between her legs, looking up at her tenderly: "You are still too soft-hearted. You should punish me by whipping or caning me in public as a warning to others."
Hearing him speak so casually about the cruel punishments inflicted upon him, Xie Yutang turned to look at him: "You jumped into the lake for my sake. If I were to punish you severely for this, wouldn't that chill people's hearts?"
"The most important thing for a subordinate is to obey orders. If a subordinate thinks he is doing what is right for his superior and acts on his own initiative, it will ruin everything."
Xie Yutang laughed out loud: "What important things could I possibly have? Every day in this mansion, the most important thing I do is drink and enjoy music."
“Master’s peace and happiness is of utmost importance.” Su Lu paused, took a deep breath, and continued, “But you are right, only punishing without rewarding will inevitably chill people’s hearts, so… I would like to ask you for a reward after the punishment is completed.”
Xie Yutang had already planned to reward him.
This young man had always been considerate and obedient, and this was the first time he had taken the initiative to make a request. She became a little interested, but her face remained unchanged. She simply raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you asking me for a reward?"
Su Lu did not deny it: "You said that the most important thing for a dog is loyalty. In front of you, I can speak my mind without hesitation."
Xie Yutang found it increasingly interesting: "What reward do you want? Tell me?"
"I beg you, Master, let me stay by your side forever."
Su Lu took off the jade pendant from his waist, placed it in Xie Yutang's hand, and slowly gripped it tightly.
"I am your knife. Use me however you like. Don't worry, don't hesitate. The tip of this knife will never point at you."
The biting wind outside had not yet subsided, and a light rain began to fall. Xie Yutang came out of the Jiaofang Chamber, tightened his cloak, and prepared to stroll back to his bedchamber while the warmth had not yet dissipated. He had only taken a few steps when Woyu chased after him from behind.
After delivering the ginger tea, she waited outside the door until Xie Yutang came out before going in to tidy up.
Wo Yu handed over the oil-paper umbrella, but Xie Yutang waved his hand, "It's just a few steps, no need to go to such trouble."
"It was specially asked by Prince Su to bring this. He said that the winter rain is cold, and since Miss has just come out of the warm room, she is most susceptible to dampness and cold penetrating to the bone. We must not be careless."
As Woyu spoke, she stuffed the umbrella into Xie Yutang's hand, and without saying a word, she lifted the cloak she was wearing and began to adjust the tassels around her waist.
Xie Yutang then noticed that several strands of tassels were intertwined with the jade pendant, which would be completely unnoticeable without close inspection.
Woyu smoothed out the tassels one by one, and said casually, "Miss, aren't you going to ask me how I found out?"
"How else could you have found out?" Xie Yutang tapped her forehead with his finger. "You've been with me for over ten years, do you think I don't know whether you have the eyesight or not?"
Huai Jin let out an exaggerated "Ouch!" and stuck out her tongue while covering her forehead.
Of course not.
Who else but Su Lu could be so perceptive?
Xie Yutang looked back and saw a light drizzle, the sky blue shrouding the black tiles of the Pepper House, like smoke and mist, gentle as a dream.
Although Xie Yutang did not make any promises to Su Lu in person, he appointed Su Lu as his personal bodyguard the next day, granting him the right to move freely within the mansion and command the guards.
Not only that, she also invited the renowned tailor Sun to her residence to have clothes made for Su Lu.
Sun the tailor was very quick; within a few days, he sent a letter to the princess's residence, saying that he had prepared the pattern and wanted to invite Prince Su to try on the clothes. Xie Yutang was reading in his study when he heard this, so he put down his pen and summoned someone in.
The maids who were supposed to be attending to the guests had already been dismissed from the study. Woyu led the person into the room, then lowered the curtain and personally stood guard in the outer room.
"This humble general greets Miss."
Sun the tailor knelt on one knee and gave Xie Yutang a standard military salute.
Sun the tailor, whose real name was Yan Jun, was General Xie's adjutant. He had narrowly escaped death years ago, so he disguised himself and used Sun's tailor shop as a cover to lead the remaining old troops to secretly investigate the murderer who colluded with foreign enemies and caused the destruction of the Xie family.
A few days ago, Xie Yutang summoned Yan Jun to his residence under the pretext of Su Lu making clothes, and ordered him to secretly investigate Wei Xianxi, the commander of the patrol battalion.
Wei Xianxi was a very well-hidden person. Xie Yutang only noticed him after the disappearance case at the armory in his previous life. He had already confirmed that he was related to the old Xie family case and it took a lot of effort to bring him down. Unfortunately, his death was too suspicious, and many clues ended with him.
"Thanks to your information, Miss, we have found that this person is indeed very suspicious after following him for the past few days."
After Xie Yutang finished reading the secret letter presented by Yan Jun, she raised an eyebrow, burned the letter on the candlestick, and was about to speak when Wo Yu knocked on the door and whispered through the curtain, "Miss, the steward of the Wei family has come again. He said he has something urgent to tell you and insists on seeing you. He has been waiting in the side hall for a quarter of an hour."
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