Chapter 36 The King is Ill In the room filled with a misty atmosphere, wisps of steam rose gently…
In the misty room, steam rose gently, and two figures were entwined tightly in the hazy light.
All that could be heard was the splashing sound of water breaking out of the bathtub and strange smacking sounds. The maids all retreated outside the door, shutting out the faint moans of the woman inside.
Zhao Linzhang's sudden kiss caught everyone off guard, like a storm.
The rich, sweet saliva caressed her intertwined tongues, and Shen Yunrong's mind went blank. She placed her hands on his chest, breathing slowly, and tilted her head back to receive the man's passionate kiss. His kiss was domineering and fierce, as if he wanted to knead her into his own bones and blood.
Shen Yunrong felt like she couldn't breathe, and Zhao Linzhang reluctantly let go of her.
In the warm water, her snow-white, jade-like body was faintly visible. The woman's long, silky hair clung wetly to her fair and smooth shoulders, with a few strands falling limply beside her flushed cheeks.
She looked even more beautiful and charming in the misty steam. Her eyes were like pools of autumn water, full of tenderness and allure as they shimmered. Zhao Linzhang couldn't help but swallow, and the desire in his eyes surged even more intensely. He poured hot water over her, and the water flowed down her smooth skin, some of it soaking through his sleeves.
His gaze was fixed on the woman, his burning eyes seeming to pierce her soul: "I'll help you wash!"
"No need, I'm done washing. You can go out first, I need to get dressed!" There were cotton towels in the bathtub, enough to cover up a bit of her skin. She wouldn't dare get out of the bathtub and put on her clothes in front of him, not even if she had a hundred lives.
"I haven't wiped your back yet!" Zhao Linzhang's voice was hoarse, as if the man who had just wanted to devour him was just a hallucination of Shen Yunrong. This time, he was serious and had no other thoughts, only wanting to wipe her back.
Without giving her a chance to refuse, Zhao Linzhang meticulously wiped her hair, even applying bath powder to her hair, as if he were washing a rare treasure.
"It should be ready by now!" Apart from her mother, no one had ever treated her like a child during a bath. Shen Yunrong was so embarrassed that she pressed her hands tightly against the bath tub.
"Alright!" Zhao Linzhang grabbed a large cotton towel from the side, lifted her out of the bathtub, and quickly wrapped the towel around her.
"I can do it myself. I'm not as small as Ruoyu!" Shen Yunrong's hands and feet were wrapped up, like a pure white silkworm cocoon.
Zhao Linzhang held her as he sat on the bed, patiently drying her hair inch by inch with a cotton towel.
"I'll do it myself!"
"Don't move! It'll be dry soon!" Zhao Linzhang didn't even look up, his eyes focused.
"Alright, that's enough!" Shen Yunrong was almost dozing off when Zhao Linzhang finally loosened her hair and pulled the cotton towel off her body.
"I've waited too long for this day!" Without further ado, Zhao Linzhang leaned in, and for a moment, the room was filled with an intimate atmosphere.
The sudden silence made Shen Yunrong secretly open her eyes to look at him.
The man who had just been holding him tightly was now stunned and motionless, as if someone had touched his acupoint.
"What's wrong with you?" Shen Yunrong asked him curiously.
"I, I, you, it's too late today, you should get some rest. Oh, right, I remembered Xiao Zheng said he had something important to discuss with me, you should go to sleep first!" He got up in a panic, his mind blank, and he didn't even know what he was saying.
Zhao Linzhang changed the bedding on the bed and covered her up completely, not revealing an inch of her skin.
Completely bewildered, Shen Yunrong saw that his face was pale, his brows were furrowed, and his hand was trembling slightly as he held his own, as if he had something on his mind.
"You should rest well!" After saying that, he rushed out as if a ghost was chasing him. Shen Yunrong didn't even have time to say a word to him.
A strange sense of unease spread through him. They had almost slept together, so why did Zhao Linzhang suddenly back down? Did he find him repulsive?
This thought tormented her so much that she couldn't sleep all night. It was just a matter of a few words. She never asked him to take responsibility for her, nor did she ever ask him to give her a title. If he didn't want to be with her, he should have just said so. She wouldn't stay in the palace for a moment longer.
Early in the morning, she got up to search for Linzhang.
Liu said he went to the front yard to meet guests.
With many questions in mind, Shen Yunrong had no choice but to go back first. Who would come looking for him so early?
But when night fell, Zhao Linzhang was nowhere to be seen. He was currently under house arrest and could not leave the palace. His absence all day meant that he was deliberately hiding from him.
As Zhao Linzhang emptied bottle after bottle of wine, Steward Tan said worriedly, "Your Highness, you've just recovered; it's not appropriate for you to drink so much!"
"Old Tan, you're a father-in-law, you don't understand!" Zhao Linzhang had never felt so defeated in all these years. He tilted his head back and drank the wine in his glass.
He had Liu Hu bring Imperial Physician Shen into the palace early in the morning, dismissed the servants, and stammered, "Lord Shen, soon we will be family. Family doesn't need to be so formal. I seem to be ill!"
"What? Is Your Highness feeling unwell somewhere?" Imperial Physician Shen was quite frightened by him last time. After Prince Zhuang left, his wife told him that Zhao Linzhang wanted to get married. The woman must be of low status, which is why she wanted to be registered under their name so that she could marry into the royal family without having to give her own daughter. Naturally, they agreed.
"I...I may be impotent!" Zhao Linzhang's face was ashen; he had never imagined he would suffer from such a disease.
"This, this, does Your Highness have any symptoms?" Cold sweat poured down the Imperial Physician Shen's forehead. Could he really be allowed to know such a secret?
“Yeah, hey, you’re a man too, you know how it is when you’re about to get through!” Zhao Linzhang recalled that moment, feeling frustrated, self-reproachful, and defeated, and rushed forward.
"Well, Your Highness, some of it is because they are too excited, Your Highness, please relax. And some is because they have never been exposed to it before, and they are just excited for a moment!" Imperial Physician Shen wiped the sweat from his brow and replied cautiously.
"Yes, I have not been in contact with him!" Zhao Linzhang was like a drowning man grasping at a straw. What Lord Shen said was true; it was precisely because he had not been in contact with him enough that he was in this state.
Imperial Physician Shen breathed a sigh of relief: "Your Highness, the relationship between men and women is like the balance of yin and yang; too much or too little will harm the body. Your Highness, spending more time with the Princess Consort will help you recover!"
"Yes, you're right!" Zhao Linzhang said sincerely, as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
He had lived like an ascetic for so many years, and he could count on one hand the number of times he had spoken to a woman on the other hand, let alone what kind of relationship he had with a woman. It wasn't until he met Shen Yunrong that he learned what it meant to be a man.
Physician Shen prescribed a few doses of medicine to clear heat and detoxify before leaving. Zhao Linzhang sat in the study in the front yard for a whole day, only returning to the back yard after finishing the medicine.
Under the hazy moonlight, a figure stood at the entrance of Qingfeng Courtyard, having been there for an unknown amount of time.
Zhao Linzhang recognized Shen Yunrong from afar, but his male pride made him want to turn around and leave.
"Wait a minute, I just need to say a few words!" Shen Yun suppressed her tears. Did he not want her anymore if he ran away as soon as he saw her?
"Hmm!" Zhao Linzhang was too embarrassed to face her, so he pretended to look at the weeping willows to the side.
"What are you doing? If you're tired of me, just say so. I'll go back to Wanglongshan Village tomorrow. If you don't like the child, I'll take him with me! I beg Your Highness to grant my request!"
Zhao Linzhang looked at her in surprise, realizing she had misunderstood.
"When have I ever gotten tired of you!" Zhao Linzhang exclaimed in surprise. He wished he could hold her in his mouth, how could he possibly be tired of her?
"Then you, you..." Shen Yunrong's nose tingled, and two lines of tears fell.
"Why are you crying?!" Zhao Linzhang exclaimed in surprise, hurriedly wiping away his tears.
"Are you disgusted with me?" Shen Yunrong bit her lip. If she was disgusted, so be it. She would pack her things and go back.
"When have I ever disliked you?" The tears seemed to fall on his own heart. Zhao Linzhang quickly hugged her, putting aside any notion of male pride.
"Then you..." Shen Yunrong was not an unmarried girl who knew nothing. They had clearly done a lot yesterday and were just one step away from taking the final step, but Zhao Linzhang withdrew.
Aside from disliking her, she couldn't understand why Zhao Linzhang would act this way!
"I...I'm not disgusted by you, it's just that I might have an illness!" Zhao Linzhang said helplessly under pressure.
"Is there an illness?" Shen Yunrong looked at him with teary eyes.
"That's right, that's right, I might be impotent!" Zhao Linzhang was going all out; he had never shown any disdain for her.
"What is impotence?" Shen Yunrong's eyes were red and swollen from crying for so long. What kind of illness was this? Did such a disease even exist in this world? Was this some kind of trick to deceive her?
Zhao Linzhang was frustrated and helpless. He looked around and whispered something in her ear.
After a while, Shen Yunrong's eyes were not only red and swollen, but her face was also covered with redness.
"Have you seen a doctor?" Judging from Zhao Linzhang's expression, this must be a serious illness.
"I've seen it!" Zhao Linzhang said in a muffled voice, "Lord Shen said it's due to excessive internal heat!"
"I'll help you!" After a long silence, Shen Yunrong finally spoke.
"I…"
Before Zhao Linzhang could speak again, Shen Yunrong followed his example, sat upright on his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gave him a passionate kiss.
The warmth touched her lips as the woman carefully moved her tongue around, savoring the delicacy as she gently licked it.
The string in Zhao Linzhang's mind was taut, and with a crisp sound, it snapped in two. He responded to her, his tongue entwining with hers, like two intertwined little snakes.
Remembering the hidden ailment he mentioned, Shen Yunrong kissed his lips, moving downwards. Zhao Linzhang's voice was hoarse beyond words: "My darling, you... ah!"
The person on his lap ignored him and insisted on going straight down.
Zhao Linzhang couldn't hide his gasp, biting his lip as he endured the storm of words that Shen Yunrong was unleashing.
"Where is Your Highness impotent?" Licking her tongue, Shen Yunrong looked up at him, her face as beautiful as a peach blossom in March.
The only response she received was the man's heavy breathing. Shen Yunrong washed her hands and nestled into his arms: "You must not hide anything from me in the future. You risked your life to save me, how could I laugh at or despise you for it!"
"This is a man's greatest pain! I wanted to keep you from worrying, so I secretly took the medicine!" Zhao Linzhang said contentedly, resting his head on the top of her head and gently stroking her back with one hand.
"If I were in your shoes, would you despise me? If I didn't tell you and secretly took the medicine, what would you think?" After tormenting her all night, she thought that Zhao Linzhang was a fickle and powerful man, or that he would despise her because of her lowly status, but she never thought that he would neglect her because of this.
"Alright, alright, I won't do it again. I'll definitely tell you first if anything happens!" Zhao Linzhang's hand on her back moved lower and lower, his breathing becoming rapid.
"It's late, shall we... shall we do it again?"
Shen Yunrong had only dared to be so bold out of a moment of bravado, but now that the truth had been revealed, she didn't have the guts to take the initiative again. She shook off his hand and said, "It's getting late, I need to go see Ruoyu!"
As soon as she got up, he pulled her back onto the bed and, without saying a word, sealed her lips with his again.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
