Chapter 31 - 2#
Previously, on every fifth day of the month, although Jingzhe wouldn’t deliberately wait, he would always wander around outside.
Rong Jiu would always appear magically from different places, and without being noticed… Jingzhe had always been curious about how he did it.
Every time that day came, Jingzhe would always go out. So when he didn’t leave the Zhidian Si, and even stayed by Jiang Jinming’s side for half a day, it also meant a kind of tactful avoidance.
After he came back on New Year’s Eve, he sent a message through Zheng Hong.
Zheng Hong was stunned: “I don’t know how to contact that person. Every time, a big package just appears in my room out of nowhere. I know it’s for you as soon as I see it.”
Jingzhe lowered his eyebrows: “Then go ask the person who introduced you before.”
Zheng Hong frowned. After he went back, he didn’t know how he did it, but he sent a message back, saying that the message had been passed on.
Due to the need to go through several people, Jingzhe didn’t say it too clearly. He only said that he needed to calm down.
Jingzhe really needed to calm down.
After the events of New Year’s Eve, Jingzhe realized that his previous judgment of Rong Jiu was too shallow.
Mingyu was right. He didn’t know Rong Jiu’s family background, his youthful experiences, or what he had been through, so naturally he didn’t know Rong Jiu’s true character.
He didn’t care before because he thought he might know Rong Jiu well enough. But now he found that this understanding was not enough.
On this day, just as Jingzhe returned to his room, he heard Huiping seem to be talking to someone. As soon as he entered, he saw Mingyu sitting in the room with his back to him, talking.
Huiping was facing the door. When he saw Jingzhe come in, he smiled and said, “Your friend came to see you. I said you would be back soon, so I kept him here.”
Mingyu also stood up and smiled at him.
A sweet smell filled the room. Jingzhe looked over and found that Mingyu had brought a gift.
Jingzhe: “You just went to the imperial kitchen not long ago, you can bring things out?”
Mingyu: “Chief Steward Zhu is very nice. He lets us eat all the practice ingredients ourselves.”
Jingzhe said faintly: “No wonder you’ve gained two more sizes.”
Mingyu pretended to kick him.
Seeing Jingzhe’s rare relaxed expression, Huiping smiled and said, “You two sit. I have something to do, so I’ll be out for a while.”
He left the room to Jingzhe and Mingyu.
Mingyu pulled Jingzhe to sit down, opened the things he brought and pushed them in front of him: “Try my cooking.”
Jingzhe couldn’t help but mutter: “You didn’t poison it, did you?” It smelled very sweet, but the appearance was not very good.
“If I could poison, I would have poisoned your mouth shut first.” Mingyu cursed and gave Jingzhe a hard knock on the head.
Jingzhe rubbed his unlucky forehead and took a bite. His eyes lit up: “It’s actually quite delicious.”
Mingyu smiled proudly: “Chief Steward Zhu said my talent is not bad.”
“You call him so affectionately, did he teach you personally?”
“He didn’t teach me hand-in-hand, but occasionally when he sees me, he’ll call me over to help in the kitchen.” Mingyu said, “For young eunuchs like us who have just arrived, it’s impossible to start cooking right away. We all have to start with chopping firewood and cutting vegetables. But because Chief Steward Zhu calls me over, the old-timers are quite nice to me.”
He glanced at Jingzhe: “You and Chief Steward Zhu, do you have some connection?”
Jingzhe ate the dessert and raised his eyebrows: “Why do you ask?”
“That day you went to the imperial kitchen to find me, Chief Steward Zhu saw you. He specially called me over and asked about our relationship.” Mingyu frowned in recollection, “It was also after that that he treated me like this.”
Jingzhe: “I have no relationship with him, but do you remember Grandpa An?”
Mingyu reacted quickly: “The one when we first entered the palace?”
Jingzhe nodded: “Yes, Chief Steward Zhu should have a good relationship with Grandpa An.”
Mingyu suddenly understood. The matter of entering the palace was a distant memory for him, but he still remembered Chen An.
He knew that Jingzhe and Chen An had a fairly good relationship. He would visit him every year. Although it seemed indifferent, for Jingzhe, who had been hiding in the North Quarters and not going out, it was already very thoughtful.
After Jingzhe finished eating, Mingyu asked, “Was it delicious?”
“Delicious.”
“Sweet?”
“Sweet.”
Jingzhe nodded. Although he didn’t lack food and drink after entering the palace, the number of times he could eat sugar was still small. For palace servants like them, sugar was still an expensive ingredient.
Mingyu said slowly: “Then can you tell me why you’ve been so down lately?”
Jingzhe pushed the finished dessert aside: “I should have guessed when I saw you and Huiping talking so happily.” Although he had a good relationship with Mingyu, and it was normal to meet.
But Mingyu had just arrived at the imperial kitchen not long ago, and was still in the process of adapting. It was impossible for him to come looking for him for no reason.
Mingyu smiled: “After you came to the Zhidian Si, you made a group of good friends.”
Jingzhe lowered his eyebrows, friends… In the North Quarters before, the only one he was close to was Mingyu. Compared to his solitary life back then, he indeed had more people around him in the Zhidian Si.
Mingyu: “Actually, I wanted to say before, you are a person who is very good at making friends.”
Jingzhe tilted his head and looked at him.
“Did you know that Qitui and Baqi actually quite like you?” Mingyu said, “Even Wuyou.”
The only one who really disliked Jingzhe was Changshou.
Jingzhe: “This… doesn’t Qitui hate me?”
He remembered occasionally hearing him and Baqi being sarcastic.
Mingyu snorted: “The reason he hates you is the same as the reason Heyue, I mean the first one, hated you.”
Jingzhe looked at Mingyu with a blank expression.
Mingyu couldn’t help but rub Jingzhe’s little dog head. His wet black eyes were filled with confusion, like a lost puppy.
“Because at that time, you didn’t need friends.” Mingyu said, “You always had a feeling of… being very distant even when you were in a crowd. If we hadn’t entered the palace together and had a chance encounter, you probably would never have opened up to me.”
Jingzhe awkwardly rubbed his nose and couldn’t help but look down.
He didn’t remember being that… well… maybe a little avoidant and indifferent, but not as exaggerated as he said.
“Yes, you were.” Mingyu said decisively, “When we first went to the North Quarters, they showed you kindness, and you always refused with a very polite manner. After a few times, who would want to be snubbed!”
Jingzhe argued reasonably: “But, Wuyou and Sanshun didn’t feel that way.”
Mingyu: “That’s because Wuyou is big-hearted and Sanshun is simple-minded! They don’t care about that. You look very gentle to everyone, and you don’t fight for anything, but sometimes you are still quite indifferent.”
At least that was how he was to people other than Mingyu.
Jingzhe sat there sullenly. After a while, he said, “Oh,” “Then what about now?”
“Now?” Mingyu rubbed his smooth chin and scratched it again, “Now, you’re like a clam that’s been forced open. No matter how thick you hide, the shell is open, and people can see you coming and going, and poke you a few times. How can you still be indifferent?”
Jingzhe was inexplicably blushing from Mingyu’s words. He rushed over and covered his mouth: “What are you talking about!”
Dirty words!
Mingyu: “The dirty-minded see dirt. I didn’t think that.”
He pulled Jingzhe’s hand away and looked at him irritably.
“Alright, you don’t have to say it. I know it’s definitely because of Rong Jiu.”
Jingzhe looked nervously at the closed doors and windows, then turned back to look at Mingyu, his voice weak: “What’s wrong with you?”
This person is so strange!
Could it be that he has some special ability, like the system?
Otherwise, how can he see through everything every time!
Mingyu glanced at him sideways and snorted twice: “What are you talking about, I can’t see through you?”
Mingyu had seen Jingzhe’s changes.
If there was anyone else who could affect his emotions, besides family and friends, it would only be Rong Jiu.
Jingzhe sat there dejectedly.
If others asked, it would not be easy to pry open Jingzhe’s mouth. But when Mingyu asked, Jingzhe held it in and held it in, but still muttered everything.
He didn’t say everything, such as Rong Jiu’s poisoning, and their… overly intimate actions, only mentioning that he was affected by the medicine, and those words.
But just these were enough for Mingyu to jump up and rush out.
Jingzhe was so scared that he rushed over and hugged him: “What are you doing?”
Mingyu said calmly: “I’m going to Qianming Palace.”
Jingzhe: “Calm down, calm down. If you go to Qianming Palace now, you might not be able to find him.”
Mingyu showed a sinister smile: “I’ll go there and shout that Rong Jiu is a madman. He’ll come out to see me, right?”
Jingzhe was silent.
He would probably be dragged away and castrated.
Losing his composure in front of the hall, let alone Rong Jiu appearing, he would be taken down by the guards directly.
Jingzhe grabbed Mingyu’s arm and said earnestly: “Calm down, calm down, don’t be angry, I’m not even angry…”
“Then why aren’t you angry?”
Mingyu turned back to look at him angrily, shook off his arm, and poked his chest hard: “You should be angry, you have every right to be angry.”
Jingzhe was slightly stunned. After a while, he said softly, “Actually, I was very scared at first. I felt… he seemed to want to kill me.” The feeling of suffocation was too terrible, as if a tide was constantly covering his head, making it difficult to breathe.
He lowered his head and anxiously picked at his fingers, finding that the places where he had chilblains had recovered. The medicine Rong Jiu sent was very useful. As long as he remembered to apply it a few more times, it would always get better.
Jingzhe pursed his lips: “…But that feeling was like… he was holding onto a piece of driftwood with all his might.”
He didn’t know how to describe the feeling at that moment. Could it be a hallucination brought on by the suffocation?
Rong Jiu held him so tightly, as if he were a life-saving medicine.
Mingyu: “You’re not being sentimental, are you, thinking of playing the role of a savior?” His words were a bit harsh, but overly sharp, “Jingzhe, think about who we are, what his status is. If he’s just playing around, you’ll die.”
Mingyu was afraid now that Rong Jiu was some kind of person with a special fetish.
He had heard of this before entering the palace.
Mingyu was originally bought by a human trafficker for a few taels of silver. He was supposed to be sold to a large family with the surname Li. Later, a young girl who helped in the kitchen at the human trafficker’s house secretly told him that the Li family had already bought four or five children from the human trafficker, and all of them were dead.
Mingyu cried secretly a few times, then tried his best to behave well, and finally seized the opportunity to enter the palace.
Even if he became a eunuch in the palace, at least he could save his life.
Perhaps because of his childhood experience, Mingyu was particularly sensitive to this kind of thing. Hearing Jingzhe speak, he became a little angry.
Jingzhe laughed: “If you’re worried about this, then… you don’t have to.”
He paused and said softly, “We didn’t do that.”
Mingyu looked at him in surprise. Just now, hearing Jingzhe say that, he thought Rong Jiu had forced him.
Jingzhe was a little embarrassed by Mingyu’s stare. He covered his face and said, “Stop looking, we really didn’t.”
Mingyu’s anger subsided a little, but only a little. After all, this didn’t change Rong Jiu’s bad behavior at all.
“You… he, he can’t be impotent, can he?”
As if possessed, Mingyu was clearly about to curse Rong Jiu, but he asked this first.
You can’t blame Mingyu!
People like them had long lost that ability, how could they not be curious?
Jingzhe’s face turned red, then white, then green, like a palette. After holding it in for a long time, Jingzhe said resentfully, “I suspect he has a problem!”
A problem of not being able to release!
That mushroom was so hot it was killing him, but it just wouldn’t cry.
But Jingzhe was the one who was tortured to the point of not being able to cry!
He really never thought that one day, even shedding tears would be a luxury.
Because someone would very greedily lick the corners of his eyes, as if extremely thirsty, not allowing even a single drop to be lost.
Mingyu obviously misunderstood Jingzhe’s meaning and muttered: “He’s already impotent, why is he still so full of thoughts, what’s wrong with him…”
Jingzhe: “…”
It’s that kind of problem, not this kind of problem!
But seeing that Mingyu’s face was not so tense, Jingzhe opened his mouth, but still didn’t say it. If Mingyu acted on impulse and really rushed to Qianming Palace, Jingzhe would regret his mouth to death.
…Just let him think that Rong Jiu is impotent.
Anyway, Rong Jiu wouldn’t know.
Jingzhe blinked, feeling a little guilty.
Mingyu: “Then what do you plan to do?”
He glanced at Jingzhe sideways.
“Looking at you, you don’t plan to break up with him.”
Jingzhe touched his face, amazed that Mingyu was like a worm in his stomach.
“How did you see that?”
Mingyu: “If you could break up with him, would you be so conflicted?”
He had just said that Jingzhe was sometimes an indifferent person, and that was true.
If Jingzhe really planned to break up, he would be very decisive and would not hesitate at all. Only when he was still reluctant and looked around would he be so pent up.