WMSG Chapter 44
by VolareYe Yueshen nestled in Gong Xunwu’s arms, trembling for a long time. Besides feeling an abnormal chill, he also experienced a inexplicable sense of dread.
Gong Xunwu gently stroked his back. If Ye Yueshen hadn’t woken him up tonight, he wouldn’t have known that Ye Yueshen was struggling with such fear.
“Don’t be afraid,” Gong Xunwu softly asked him, “Did you have a nightmare?”
Ye Yueshen’s voice was trembling. Because of the panic, even the sound of him swallowing saliva was clearly audible. His voice carried a despair that suggested he had lost the will to struggle, “Will I be punished?”
According to Gong Xunwu’s experience in controlling others, he should have exaggerated the situation with alarming words, intensifying Ye Yueshen’s fear, and then offering assistance in his collapse, a very easy and practical technique to use.
He felt the trembling in his palm, thinking that he had been fighting his conscience for a long time, but in reality, only a moment had passed. He pulled the person closer, his firm tone radiating reassurance, “No, it’s not your fault.”
Ye Yueshen seemed to have received guidance from a faith, and nestled into his arms trustingly.
Although he had often struggled with basic necessities and even life and death in his previous life, that was his own battle. But that day in the palace was a true life-and-death struggle in the real sense.
He didn’t feel fortunate for winning, but rather had lingering fears. What frightened him more was a kind of extreme bewilderment he had never felt before. Du Ruxiang was dead, dying after failing to kill him.
A life flowed from his hands, a fear that could not be soothed and persuaded by right or wrong reasoning, but the weight of life itself made Ye Yueshen breathless.
Gong Xunwu said it wasn’t his fault, so he hid under Gong Xunwu’s shoulder for a moment, stealing a night of peace.
After the extreme emotions came an utter exhaustion, and he gradually fell asleep in Gong Xunwu’s steady patting.
The next day, Ye Yueshen woke up very early. Gong Xunwu was still maintaining the position of holding him and had not woken up. He lightened his movements and slowly detached himself from Gong Xunwu’s arms, got out of bed, put on his clothes, and pushed the door open to go out.
Gong Xunwu opened his eyes and heard Ye Yueshen’s voice coming from the door, “Shaou, can you take me to the kitchen?”
Gong Xunwu lightly sniffed the pillow Ye Yueshen had been lying on. There was a faint citrus scent. Qi Wang Manor didn’t use this kind of incense; it was the fragrance from Ye Yueshen’s hair.
Ye Yueshen looked at the breakfast prepared in the kitchen. Naturally, everything was exquisite and delicious, but it was all made by the chefs of Qi Wang Manor. Ye Yueshen planned to make something himself.
His idea was very simple. Although Gong Xunwu was often bullying, he soothed his emotions last night, so he planned to express his gratitude.
He walked back and forth in the kitchen. He knew how to make most of the ingredients, but he couldn’t compare with the chefs of Qi Wang Manor at all. So he took a piece of ginger and two eggs, and after thinking about it, he took two more.
He remembered seeing a tutorial for ginger milk curd before. It was simple, easy to learn, and had a high success rate.
He asked Shaou for some milk and, while waiting for the milk, he peeled and mashed the ginger to extract ginger juice.
Ye Yueshen chose a very beautiful glass bowl. Although it was his first time making it, the finished product was very successful.
He put the ginger milk curd aside and stir-fried a large bowl of egg fried rice.
Shaou secretly sent someone back to tell Gong Xunwu. Gong Xunwu didn’t think this was made for him at all. It was already considered good manners for Ye Yueshen not to throw the rice on his face, how could he possibly cook for him personally.
It wasn’t until Ye Yueshen placed the egg fried rice and ginger milk curd on the table in the small hall that Gong Xunwu passed by the entrance of the small hall with a bit of luck. Ye Yueshen called out to him, “Your Highness.”
Gong Xunwu almost breathed a sigh of relief. He dismissed all the servants and sat next to Ye Yueshen. Even he himself didn’t realize that his posture was a bit solemn.
The egg fried rice wasn’t very well made, because in the past, Ye Yueshen lived alone and couldn’t bear to use eggs or oil. One egg was used to fry a small pot of rice, which could be eaten three meals a day in a broken house without a refrigerator.
Because there was too little oil, the rice and eggs would stick to the bottom of the pot. He couldn’t bear to spend money on detergent, and it was very difficult to scrub purely with water and rags.
So this time, he used four eggs and also put a large piece of lard, making the egg fried rice look a little greasy.
He handed Gong Xunwu a small bowl, “I made the rice, so you can serve it.” His gratitude to Gong Xunwu only covered making it, not including serving it into bowls and feeding it into his mouth.
Of course, Gong Xunwu didn’t expect him to serve him either. He served the rice himself, and conveniently served a bowl for Ye Yueshen as well.
“I didn’t fry it very well,” Ye Yueshen said, “If you don’t like it, I can finish it myself.”
Gong Xunwu looked at the large bowl of egg fried rice and said he didn’t quite believe it. He had noticed that Ye Yueshen had been eating very little.
Moreover, he was already very surprised that a young master from a marquis family like Ye Yueshen could cook a bowl of rice, “It’s fried very well.”
Gong Xunwu took a bite. It wasn’t as greasy as it looked. To be honest, the taste was far inferior to that of the chefs at Qi Wang Manor, but it wasn’t unpalatable, and could even be said to be quite good.
The two of them ate all the egg fried rice. Since living in the Marquis’s mansion, Ye Yueshen had deliberately restrained his eating speed to prevent the Junzhu and the others from seeing any clues.
So now he ate very slowly and elegantly. As a member of the royal family, Gong Xunwu naturally had the same demeanor, but he ate this simple egg fried rice with a bit of a whirlwind-swept-the-clouds momentum, and even the rice grains at the bottom of the bowl were eaten one by one.
Ye Yueshen’s mood relaxed a lot, and he pushed the ginger milk curd to him, “You can try it, it doesn’t matter if you don’t eat it.”
Every sentence he said presupposed that the other party would refuse. Gong Xunwu sensed his sensitive thoughts and obediently ate the ginger milk curd.
Looking at the ginger milk curd, one couldn’t guess what was used. When the ginger flavor spread in his mouth, he suppressed his discomfort and swallowed it whole. Under Ye Yueshen’s gaze, he naturally said, “It’s made very well.”
In fact, Gong Xunwu hated the taste of ginger. He scooped up a spoonful and handed it to Ye Yueshen, “Do you want to try it?”
Ye Yueshen shook his head and refused him, “No need, I don’t like ginger.”
Gong Xunwu: “…”
Because he ate the breakfast prepared by Ye Yueshen himself, Gong Xunwu was in a good mood. When Ye Yueshen proposed to go home, although he was very reluctant, he still agreed. Since Ye Yueshen made him happy, then he also needed to give up a little of his own happiness.
After Ye Yueshen was sent home, he didn’t even enter the gate. He took Xuédōng and went to Yousu Ward.
Gong Xunwu took him to see Consort Shun and the Noble Consort. If he took him to see other imperial concubines, no matter how reasonable the reason, clever people would think it was unreasonable.
So he didn’t tell Gong Xunwu and planned to find a way to enter the palace again himself.
The assassin’s underwear had Miao characters on it. The birth mother of the fourth prince Gong Xuyin was a Miao person. But his birth mother had already passed away, and Consort Xian was his adoptive mother.
Consort Xian was also a consort, and she was also qualified to use the Tent Warming Incense.
Ye Yueshen remembered that it was written in the original book that Consort Xian was the imperial concubine who gave birth to the eldest imperial son. After the eldest imperial son died, she was heartbroken and lost her appetite.
And Gong Xuyin had been very smart since he was a child, desperately performing and finally won the opportunity to be adopted by Consort Xian. The prince without a mother and the imperial concubine who lost her son established a close mother-son relationship.
He came at the right time. Gong Xuyin happened to be in Yousu Ward. After Gong Xuyin finished what he had to do, he fished with Ye Yueshen for a day.
Gong Xuyin didn’t expect to catch fish, but he liked the waiting process, which he used to sort out his overly cluttered thoughts.
Seeing his eyes blank, Ye Yueshen said, “Actually, I don’t like eating fish, I just want an excuse to waste time.”
Gong Xuyin’s eyes lit up, as if he had found a confidant. The two whiled away the day chatting idly.
When it was time for Gong Xuyin to enter the palace, Ye Yueshen looked at him with feigned disappointment. Gong Xuyin was successfully bewitched by him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to go home.” Ye Yueshen showed a forced smile, without saying anything else.
Gong Xuyin made up a lot in his mind and, as expected, suggested to him, “Then how about you come into the palace with me? I’ll have someone send you out tomorrow morning.”
Ye Yueshen agreed without hesitation. Xuédōng, who was behind him, frowned with worry, “Third Master, you…” are going to enter the palace again?
Ye Yueshen looked at him with an undeniable gaze, “You go home and tell Mother, so she can rest assured. I’ll eat and live with the Fourth Prince, nothing will happen.”
Gong Xuyin looked natural, “Let Auntie rest assured.”
Xuédōng left with a sad face, turning back every few steps.
On the way into the palace, Ye Yueshen deliberately guided, “When I was a child, I especially liked my mother’s makeup box. I always wanted to sneak into my mother’s room to look at it, but Father didn’t like me being tainted with the air of rouge and powder, and didn’t allow me to touch those things. But the more he didn’t allow it, the more curious I became.”
Gong Xuyin smiled upon hearing this, “Children are all like this. I was adopted by my birth mother when I was eight years old, but my birth mother was still in pain from the loss of her son and didn’t want to see me very much. I really liked the Qiúniú painting in my birth mother’s room. The Matron told me not to approach it, but I thought Qiúniú was so majestic and wanted to take a closer look.”
Ye Yueshen suppressed his excitement and asked him, “Qiúniú doesn’t like to kill or fight. What kind of Qiúniú painting is so majestic?”
“Actually, it’s not that majestic,” Gong Xuyin smiled, “It’s just a child’s curiosity. Qiúniú is the eldest son of the dragon. What my birth mother didn’t let me approach wasn’t that Qiúniú painting, but her mother’s love for her son.”
These words touched Ye Yueshen’s emotions. He was stunned for a moment, and instead felt embarrassed to pester Gong Xuyin to take him to see Consort Xian.
When they arrived at the palace, Gong Xuyin talked to him while walking, realizing that this trip might not achieve his goal, Ye Yueshen was a little absent-minded.
He had only left the palace yesterday, and he still remembered some of the roads in the palace. It didn’t look like he was going to the area where the princes lived, but rather the back palace.
He was a little puzzled, “Are you and Consort Xian living in the same palace?”
“No, princes don’t live in the same palace with their birth mothers after the age of fifteen,” Gong Xuyin smiled at him with indulgence, “Taking you to see the Qiúniú painting.”
Ye Yueshen’s eyes lit up instantly. Gong Xuyin scratched the tip of his nose with a bent index finger when he saw this, “Zhé Róng, you’re like a child who hasn’t grown up.”
Consort Xian’s palace was very quiet, the servants had a low presence, and Consort Xian was sitting alone on the small heated kang, covered with a fur blanket, wearing very warm clothes in the not-yet-cool late summer temperature.
The first time Ye Yueshen saw her, he only thought of one word: emaciated.
Consort Xian nodded to Ye Yueshen, put down the needlework in her hand, and greeted Ye Yueshen weakly, “Yongning Junzhu can give birth, you look like you could be matched with a princess.”
Ye Yueshen was frightened by this statement and said awkwardly, “Yueshen dares not.”
Consort Xian smiled and didn’t say anything else.
Gong Xuyin walked around very freely, found some snacks for Ye Yueshen to eat, didn’t sit down and went out again.
Ye Yueshen felt a little pressured facing Consort Xian alone. He didn’t dare to look around randomly, and instead the topic became natural, “The incense in the Consort’s palace is very elegant,” just like an ordinary greeting.
Consort Xian said lightly, “Tent Warming Incense.”