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The Meng You who had made his escape gave Yan Ke a great sense of security.
At the very least, he did not have to keep protecting his b.u.t.t the entire time he was sleeping.
It was morning when Yan Ke opened his tired eyes. It started to drizzle outside, and the temperature dropped sharply.
Touching his scalding forehead, Yan Ke sighed. Perhaps he had caught a cold last night.
Before Yan Ke could get up on his own, the maidservants who were sent by the Emperor to attend to the Crown Princess entered the chamber with a basin of water for washing up.
Across the screen1, the maidservants spoke softly. "Your Royal Highness, it"s time to get up."
Yan Ke grunted in acknowledgment.
Although he responded, he did not move.
The maidservant reminded him, "Your Royal Highness, you should enter the palace today with the Crown Prince to pay your respects to His Majesty."
Yan Ke opened his eyes and picked up his overgarment from the rack. "Okay."
His throat was hoa.r.s.e, he could barely lift his eyelids, and his head was buzzing.
Meng You was standing outside the room. He did not go in and instead let the maidservants wait on Yan Ke. After all, he still remembered how this man wanted to make him stay for the night and consummate their union inside this bridal chamber last night.
"Crown Princess!"
The startled cries of the maidservants rang out from within the room. Meng You narrowed his eyes, pushed the door to enter, and saw that Yan Ke had not even finished dressing when he had collapsed beside the rack. Meng You strode over and carried Yan Ke onto the bed.
In a low voice, he said to the maidservants behind him, "Go to the backyard and call the Imperial Physician over. Then send someone to the palace to inform His Majesty that we are unable to go today."
He and Yan Ke were the only ones left in the room when he was done giving orders.
Yan Ke, "I"m cold—"
Meng You covered Yan Ke with a quilt.
After a while, Yan Ke started kicking the quilt.
Yan Ke, "It"s so hot—"
Meng You stretched his hand out again to pull off the quilt that Yan Ke did not manage to kick off him.
Yan Ke, "Cold—"
Meng You, "……"
Yan Ke, "Hot—"
Meng You, "……"
Yan Ke, "Cold—"
Meng You was tortured by Yan Ke"s "cold" and "hot" for quite some time. Finally, he got annoyed and wrapped the quilt around Yan Ke like a coc.o.o.n.
Yan Ke was already uncomfortable, and yet he was still bundled up this way. He did his utmost but could not extract his hands out from the "coc.o.o.n". Eventually, he irritably gave two hard pedals with his feet.
Meng You, "……"
The Imperial Physician rushed here only to see the Crown Princess wrapped up like a dumpling by the Crown Prince. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and got the maid to undo it.
The Imperial Physician said, "Your Highness, why don"t you…… wait outside? The Crown Princess may not be able to withstand your torment."
Meng You"s eyebrows twitched, and he grunted, "I didn"t touch him!"
The Imperial Physician concurred: "Right, right, right. It was the Crown Princess who wrapped himself up like this."
Meng You, "……"
Not only was Meng You driven out, he was also shut out.
He even heard the Imperial Physician telling the maidservant to put the lock on.
After being rendered speechless for quite a while, Meng You bellowed, "I really didn"t touch him!"
Yan Ke had resisted all the way to the State of Yue, and because he was not accustomed to the climate and had kept vomiting his guts out in the carriage, his exhausted body had been made even weaker.
The weather in the State of Yue was volatile. Although it was summer, the difference in temperature between day and night was great. Yan Ke"s cold this time was like a fuse, igniting a host of other illnesses that had been long repressed within his body.
Yan Ke was in a coma for five days.
His fever had already burned for five days. In between, they managed to feed him medicine with some effort. By the end of five days, he had grown gaunt.
Meng You stayed beside him for five days, taking care of him diligently. Wave after wave of Imperial Physicians came and went under Meng You"s orders.
But, the man on the bed was still in a coma, and his fever had still not subsided.
Meng You smashed the medicine bowl. "Are you able to cure him? If you can"t, ditch your medicine case and retire!"
The Imperial Physician trembled with fright as he kneeled behind the screen. He dare not utter a sound as he listened to the Crown Prince"s rants.
This illness had come bearing down in full force. Although it was caused by a cold, Yan Ke"s body was so frail and vulnerable that even if they cured his cold, it would only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. He would still need to nourish himself in the future and strengthen his body"s weak const.i.tution.
In his daze, Yan Ke listened to the ruckus and frowned.
Meng You was going to continue his rants when his wrist was suddenly grabbed by Yan Ke"s slender fingers with its distinct knuckles.
He was prepared to shake Yan Ke"s hand off when he saw Yan Ke"s pale face and held back his urge. It would be unfortunate if he broke Yan Ke"s brittle bones with his usually brash manner of doing things.
Meng You relaxed his tone and asked, "What"s the matter?"
Yan Ke replied weakly, "Shut……shut up."
Meng You, "……"
Meng You swallowed his anger and pulled off Yan Ke"s fingers on his wrist one at a time before he walked away.
Looking askance at the people kneeling in front of him, he asked, "What…… did you just hear?"
The Imperial Physician and servants replied in unison, "Nothing, nothing, we heard nothing."
We didn"t hear the Crown Princess telling you to shut up even though you worked so hard to take care of him!
We really heard nothing.
Meng You retracted his gaze with satisfaction and went to the underground prison in the Crown Prince"s residence. There was someone in there he could lay his hands on.
The moment he saw Su Yu, Meng You hooked a finger towards him and said, "Let him out."
I can"t hit or scold your master, so I can only vent my anger on you.
Su Yu had been locked up here for several days. He had initially thought he would be honored as a guest here. In the end, Meng You had thrown him straight into the prison.
Su Yu said, "What"s the meaning of this?"
Meng You sneered and said, "I"ve already sent a letter to the State of Chu. I"m really curious to know if the Emperor of Chu had ordered you to mistreat the Crown Princess on the road."
"Where"s Yan Ke?"
"Yan Ke? You should call him Crown Princess." Meng You shook his wrists to loosen his muscles. He did not come to chat with Su Yu; he was already impatient after saying two sentences.
"Come on, if you can defeat me, I will let you and your soldiers return home."
Su Yu was imprisoned for five days. During these five days, he did not eat well or slept well. He had also never been so annoyed, especially when the word "Crown Princess" was mentioned. He rubbed his stiff neck and chuckled icily, "Then pardon me for the offense."
Meng You had learned martial arts from an early age. Although he was the Crown Prince, he had never dared to slack in his training. So it was simply too easy to deal with a pampered and spoiled soldier like Su Yu.
After a couple of blows, Meng You felt slightly better when he looked at Su Yu half-kneeling on the ground.
Meng You said, "You lose. Remain here."
"Let me see Yan Ke."
"Are you even worthy?"
Leaving behind those cruel words to vent his anger, Meng You left the prison. Su Yu was taken back to his jail, looking disgruntled and infuriated.
Coming out of the underground prison after flexing his muscles, Meng You saw a maidservant from his residence standing outside.
The maidservant saw Meng You approaching and breathed a sigh of relief. "Your Highness, the Crown Princess is awake."
Meng You said, "Oh, that"s good."
The maidservant informed him, "The Crown Princess is looking for you."
Meng You looked at the maidservant in incredulity, "Even at this time, he"s still thinking about consummation? When he"s nearly half-dead from sickness? How shameless and desperate! Tell him I"m not free!"
Maidservant, "……"
But from the Crown Princess"s expression, he did not seem to be thinking about that……
Meng You said, "Let me dash his hopes. Wait a minute. I"ll write a letter. You take it to him."
Meng You felt that the maidservant was unlikely to convey his intended message. So he stopped her from leaving, went into the study and wrote a letter. He then pa.s.sed it to the maidservant.
Meng You, "After he has read the letter, he will naturally settle down."
The maidservant mustered up the courage to say, "Your Highness, this slave feels that the intention of the Crown Princess is not about consummation."
Meng You glanced at the maid. What do you know?!
He threw himself at Meng You the first time they met.
Later on, he even tried to make Meng You stay for the night when Meng You went to check on him out of the kindness of his heart.
He had no shame at all!
Seeing that Meng You had already left, the maidservant hesitated for a while before she eventually entered the bridal chamber and anxiously handed the letter over to Yan Ke.
Yan Ke"s eyes shone.
Ahem— A misfortune was really a blessing in disguise! This Crown Prince had finally given up on him when he nearly died from illness, and now, he had given Yan Ke a writ of divorce!
Yan Ke opened the letter and looked at its content. His face sank at every word he read, and the color drained from his face.
Yan Ke was enraged. So this guy did not want a divorce; he wanted to be widowed!
The maidservant looked at Yan Ke, who was lying on the bed with a tortured expression. Her gaze turned to the letter that Yan Ke had thrown to the ground. She vaguely saw a few words.
: Keep your impetuous heart to yourself; it doesn"t work on me!
: Just focus on getting well. Don"t keep thinking of indecent ways to seduce me!
: I"ve been around, and I really don"t like people like you who can"t even flirt properly. Give it up!
The maidservant was dumbfounded.
◈ ◈ ◈ Bonus Scenario ◈ ◈ ◈
Yan Ke: G.o.d knows what I"ve been through.
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Footnotes屏风, a single screen or folding screen that typically serves as a part.i.tion, e.g. before the bed and so on.