WMSG Chapter 56
by VolareYe Yueshen spread out the letter in his hand for Gong Xunwu to see, and said weakly in a very uncertain tone, “If I said I didn’t understand most of it, would you believe me?”
Gong Xunwu thought he was acting spoiled, so he asked him in return, “Should I believe you?” There was no hint of sarcasm in his tone, but a genuine inquiry.
“I hope you do,” Ye Yueshen folded the letter twice, adding sincerely, “The handwriting is so messy, I really didn’t understand much.”
“The person who wrote this letter would probably be spitting blood if they knew you were evaluating it like this.” Gong Xunwu took the stack of letters from his hand, unfolded them and looked at them. The handwriting was indeed good, with a foundation that could be used for calligraphy practice.
Ye Yueshen asked, “Who wrote you the letter?” But he regretted it as soon as he asked. The letter clearly contained information gathered from various sources, so the writer was an informant. There was no reason to expose one’s own informant.
Gong Xunwu casually placed the letter on top of the pile of miscellaneous items on the desk. Ye Yueshen had seen it earlier; it was a pile of useless paper with no real content, like someone practicing calligraphy out of boredom, with disjointed sentences.
Ye Yueshen was a little embarrassed. So, he really wasn’t lying. The mechanism under the desk was just to protect against him, but he had broken the mechanism, so it didn’t protect anything.
“There’s a signature on it.” Gong Xunwu’s attitude was relaxed, at least he wasn’t angry that he had seen it. “It seems you were telling the truth, you really didn’t look too closely.”
Ye Yueshen didn’t remember there being a signature, but there was an ink dot at the end of each page, like a personal writing habit. Ye Yueshen remembered that a classmate of his used to put a dot at the end of their answers.
He didn’t really care whose name was on the signature, he just sized up Gong Xunwu for a while, and from his expression, he could tell that he couldn’t expect him to interpret all the information on the intelligence report word by word for him.
If Ye Yueshen discussed it with him, he would probably just get the response of not pushing his luck.
Ye Yueshen blinked, suddenly remembering that they weren’t on such harmonious terms. Even if he caught him blatantly peeking, Gong Xunwu would be annoyed, strip him naked, and throw him onto the bed, which wouldn’t be too surprising.
“Then I’ll go home first.” Ye Yueshen was about to leave when Gong Xunwu stretched out his arm, wrapped it around his waist, and pulled him back into his arms.
“What are you going to do to me?” Ye Yueshen looked very wary.
Gong Xunwu actually gave a short laugh, “What can I do to you?”
Ye Yueshen thought this was a trap, cleverly placing the impure thoughts on the judge’s bench. If Ye Yueshen accused him of being shameless, he could turn around and say that he didn’t think that way.
In short, it was a question of whoever got entangled would lose.
“This place of mine hasn’t healed yet.” Ye Yueshen poked his lower abdomen, and Gong Xunwu’s hand covered it, his palm completely covering his fist. “If it hasn’t healed, don’t run around.”
Ye Yueshen’s thought of struggling quickly disappeared. He didn’t want to be suppressed by Gong Xunwu with greater force. He raised his head and saw Gong Xunwu’s faint smile at him. He was still more used to the cold and aloof Qi Wang from when they were initially unfamiliar.
Gong Xunwu was confused by the look of disappointment in his eyes and asked with some suspicion, “Could it be that you wanted something to happen?”
“Of course not!” Ye Yueshen pushed him hard, but not only did he not push him away, he almost sprained his back. The place on his abdomen that had almost healed experienced a little friction, and Ye Yueshen vaguely felt a little pain there.
Gong Xunwu also remembered that he was injured, so he let go. Ye Yueshen lost his support, took a step back, and almost fell.
Gong Xunwu reached out and pulled him back again. Ye Yueshen suspected that he was doing it on purpose, glaring at him and saying, “Let go of me.”
“I have let go.” Gong Xunwu said very matter-of-factly, “But you would have fallen.”
Ye Yueshen couldn’t refute for a moment. He gently pressed against Gong Xunwu’s shoulder, “I’m standing still, very steady, let go.”
Gong Xunwu slowly let go, and when he lowered his head, there was a movement of covering his lips with all of his teeth. Ye Yueshen saw at a glance that he was smiling.
Ye Yueshen stayed for lunch because he remembered Xue Dong’s complaints, so Xue Dong also ate with them. Gong Xunwu sat next to them, without even moving his chopsticks, watching Ye Yueshen and the servant chatting while eating.
At this moment, Gong Xunwu finally had a sense of reality that the intelligence and reality matched. When he first became interested in Ye Yueshen, he secretly investigated him, but many of the descriptions were different from the Ye Yueshen he knew.
Only now, he was dining with a servant. Gong Xunwu remembered that Ye Yueshen had many Jianghu friends, and no matter how hopeless they were, he could call them brothers.
Gong Xunwu was not very happy, and after they finished lunch, he insisted that Ye Yueshen go change and take a nap. Ye Yueshen couldn’t resist, so he lay down on the bed for a short while.
Gong Xunwu came in later. Ye Yueshen had nothing to do, so he had braided the tassels outside the bed curtain into pigtails. At the same time, Gong Xunwu completed the martial arts test and bribing of Xue Dong.
When Ye Yueshen saw him, he lay down on the bed, pretending to be asleep. Gong Xunwu sat down by the bed, reached out and touched the “pigtails”, then turned halfway around, his arm propped up on Ye Yueshen’s side, and asked him, “You’ve been gone for so long, didn’t you think of me at all?”
Ye Yueshen almost sat up to ask him what kind of relationship they had that he should think of him.
But after being silent for a while, Ye Yueshen said, “I haven’t been gone for long.”
“It’s been a long time.” Gong Xunwu said, “The astrologer said it will snow in half a month. Before you left, you were still sitting there in the sun.”
Gong Xunwu pointed to the small kang in the main room. Ye Yueshen sat up and asked him very seriously, “Are you sure it’s an astrologer, not a meteorologist?”
“What are you talking about?” Gong Xunwu asked him.
Ye Yueshen didn’t say anything, and was about to lie back down, but his head stopped in mid-air. Gong Xunwu held the back of his head with his hand, leaned over, and kissed him.
For the first time, Ye Yueshen responded to his kiss, although he only slightly opened his lips, but this was already an unexpected progress for Gong Xunwu.
He accidentally lost control a little, and in the end, it was Ye Yueshen who groaned that he was injured, and Gong Xunwu let go. Ye Yueshen’s neck and head could finally fit on the pillow.
And just as he was about to release his chest and breathe deeply, Gong Xunwu, who was leaning over and lying on top of him, suppressed him so he couldn’t breathe. Gong Xunwu buried his face in his neck and gently kissed his neck skin with his lips and tongue.
Knowing that both of them had calmed down, Gong Xunwu whispered in his ear, “Do you want to stay?”
For a moment, Ye Yueshen wanted to impulsively agree, but the choice to stay seemed too solemn at the moment. They both knew that it wasn’t just a simple overnight stay.
Ye Yueshen thought for a while, he felt that he currently didn’t have the ability to think about and redefine a relationship.
Their beginning wasn’t easy or happy, but made Ye Yueshen extremely painful, a kind of pain he had never imagined.
And now their relationship wasn’t exactly happy either, but both sides were very peaceful.
A strong sense of self-loathing suddenly emerged in Ye Yueshen’s heart again. Why was this happening? He didn’t understand why he was so disgusted and repulsed at first, but now he was actually in a daze.
In the final analysis, he felt that he was too unloved, which was something he was ashamed to admit.
“Mother wants me to go home.” Ye Yueshen pushed Gong Xunwu away, and when he got out of bed, he found that his clothes were wrinkled. He patted his sleeves casually.
Gong Xunwu called out to him and found him a new set of clothes, a reddish-brown outer shirt with long-necked cranes embroidered with silver thread on the chest, and moon-white sleeves with a circle of auspicious cloud patterns embroidered on the cuffs.
Ye Yueshen looked clear and ethereal in this outfit, like a celestial official from the heavens.
Gong Xunwu also helped him tie up his hair, using a purple jade hairpin. After examining it for a while, he found a string of purple jade beads and put them around Ye Yueshen’s neck, before asking with satisfaction, “Are you really not staying?”
Ye Yueshen refused, “I’m not staying.”
Gong Xunwu looked at him up and down, over and over again, and suddenly asked him, “I remember there was a pair of spring-colored jade bracelets.”
Ye Yueshen was surprised by the coincidence. Gong Xunwu asked him, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Ye Yueshen blinked guiltily, “It should still be there, I haven’t looked closely at the things you gave me.”
When Ye Yueshen left, he was still thinking about whether there was any way to get those bracelets back from Liu Qingying, but naturally there was no such way.
So he just silently prayed that Gong Xunwu would never remember this matter in the future, and that he would completely forget about the pair of bracelets.
Gong Xunwu watched him leave at the door. Sha Ou asked, “Your Highness, does Yan Kui need to follow Gongzi Yue?”
“No, he doesn’t need to follow him once he returns to the Marquis’s Mansion.”
But Ye Yueshen didn’t return to the Marquis’s Mansion. Since he was already out, he might as well finish everything.
In his previous life, no one expected anything of him, and he had to rely on himself for everything, so Ye Yueshen wasn’t a procrastinator.
He went straight to Yuguang Pavilion from Qi Wang’s Manor. He believed all the letters in Gong Xunwu’s study. Since the letter said that the mastermind behind Yuguang Pavilion was the Crown Prince, then he had to go and take a look.
Compared to Gong Xuyin’s Yousu Workshop, Yuguang Pavilion was like a wealthy merchant’s ambition projection. From the steps in front of the door to the interior decoration, everything revealed wealth and colorfulness.
The first floor has layers of wind gauze curtains around a round platform. The platform is separated from the seating area by a low water channel. The water wheels rotate non-stop, making a musical rhythm of water droplets. The upper floors have tall gauze curtains and tassels hanging down.
Ye Yueshen walked on the stairs leading to the second floor, and his fingers brushed over the carved handrail. He unexpectedly found that a fingernail-sized agate was inlaid in the inside of the handrail every inch.
Ye Yueshen stood on the second floor’s distant viewing platform. He was recalling what happened at the Liu family this morning.
His first meeting with Gong Shengyin was at Heyun Palace. Gong Shengyin was wearing a middle garment with torn sleeves, looking like he had suffered a lot.
Ye Yueshen interpreted this as the protagonist’s low period before his explosion, so he was filled with sympathy and exchanged his middle garment for him to wear.
But now Gong Shengyin disdained using his “weakness” to arouse pity, and was more inclined to show his strength.
He was like a young man who had just emerged, eager to prove his maturity and ability.
Ye Yueshen suspected that he didn’t know anything about emotional matters, but was just imitating the most admired template he had ever seen.
Gong Xunwu’s figure appeared in Ye Yueshen’s mind. In fact, if he had a choice, he would also want to live like Gong Xunwu, with a noble status and military talent. Just the fact that he didn’t say anything would naturally make others fear him.
But he wasn’t Gong Xunwu, he was Ye Yueshen. He only hoped that there wouldn’t be another Gong Xunwu, he couldn’t handle it.
Fortunately, Gong Shengyin was an ambitious man who placed love after imperial power, and didn’t have the time to spend on him emotionally.
According to the original plot, this winter, the Third Prince, Gong Yiyin, would be abandoned by the emperor as the first cannon fodder stumbling block, followed by Gong Xuyin, and finally the Crown Prince.
But now, under Ye Yueshen’s influence, Gong Yiyin had already been placed under house arrest.
Ye Yueshen looked into the distance, and a sense of confusion and fear for the unknown arose in his heart.
“Third Young Master Ye?”
Ye Yueshen turned around at the sound, and three young men dressed in bright clothes stood behind him, each with a smile on his face.
Ye Yueshen thought they looked familiar, but couldn’t remember them for a moment, so he just smiled, “What a coincidence.”
The man standing at the front smiled very clearly, and he took the initiative to explain, “Gongzi Yue is surrounded by stars, we’ve met at banquets before but never spoken. Gongzi Yue still remembers my face, it’s really an honor. My surname is Du, my name is Rushuang, Du Rushuang.”
Ye Yueshen’s smile was a little stiff. He turned his head to look outside, and when he turned back, his expression had become natural. “Gongzi Du.”
“Gongzi Yue alone?” Du Rushuang asked him.
Ye Yueshen said very honestly, “Why don’t you bring me along.”
The other two young men had already started to eagerly and secretly poke Du Rushuang’s back. Du Rushuang’s face didn’t change. He had a very upright appearance, but the worldly sophistication in his temperament was a bit more, which didn’t make him seem too glib, but rather easy to get along with.
Du Rushuang made a gesture of invitation, and Ye Yueshen sat down with them in a private room.
He really wanted to make eye contact with Du Rushuang, because through those eyes, he always remembered Du Ruxiang’s eyes when he died.
Ye Yueshen didn’t focus his gaze on them too much, mostly paying attention to the flowers and furnishings in the room. Occasionally, he would politely look at them, and a brief glance would make people blush and feel their heart beat faster.
Du Rushuang was the most stable of the three. New acquaintances couldn’t talk about very deep topics, so they mostly revolved around restaurants, taverns, and actors…
Ye Yueshen appropriately showed a little disinterest, and while the other three were unsure of what to do and exchanged glances, Ye Yueshen spoke, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been out.”
Du Rushuang asked, “Oh? What business is Gongzi Yue busy with?”
“There’s no business. I wonder if you’ve heard that I offended the Fourth Prince in the palace before.” Ye Yueshen said very carelessly, “My mother almost tied me up at home.”
Du Rushuang was a little surprised. Just now, Ye Yueshen was standing on the viewing platform, isolated from the world. When he turned around to look at them, his expression was cold and distant, clearly a god without seven emotions and six desires.
Such a god should be taciturn, but he didn’t expect that he couldn’t keep things to himself.
“The elders are cautious and careful.” Du Rushuang smiled, “If I offended a prince in the palace, my father and mother would probably beat me to death. Yongning Junzhu has seen the world, you should listen to the empress’s words carefully.”
Ye Yueshen glanced at him, “Why are you also talking polite nonsense? Gongzi Du, I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person.”
Du Rushuang didn’t expect Ye Yueshen to be so direct. His words just now were foolproof, suitable for both familiar and unfamiliar people, and truly impeccable, but he didn’t expect to be picked on by Ye Yueshen for such a problem.
Du Rushuang was stunned for a moment, but Ye Yueshen didn’t think he was being impolite. He said, “My heart is bitter.”
Du Rushuang saw him pursing his lips tightly with boredom, propping his chin on the table with his hand, looking very simple and innocent. Although he was a little impolite, it was precisely the pampered personality that would be cultivated when surrounded by stars.
Ye Yueshen, following the same routine as dealing with Gong Xuyin, repeated his old trick, “If I had known that I would offend the Fourth Prince and cause so much trouble, I wouldn’t have gone to see the Spring Welcoming.”
Du Rushuang deliberately put on a big, grinning smile, and asked flatteringly, “What Spring Welcoming is it? That Gongzi Yue would defy a prince to see it?”
“Where did I see any Spring Welcoming?” Ye Yueshen sighed, “Yuan Bao said it.”
“Yuan Bao?” Among the three of them, only Du Rushuang had entered the palace. The family affairs of the other two young men hadn’t reached the level where they were qualified to enter the palace.
Ye Yueshen explained, “He’s the Third Prince’s attendant…” Ye Yueshen sighed, “Another troublesome matter.”
“How come I don’t remember the Third Prince having an attendant named Yuan Bao?” Du Rushuang thought for a moment. In his impression, the Third Prince’s close servant was indeed not called by this name. He asked with the intention of elevating himself, drawing closer to Ye Yueshen, and distancing himself from the other two, in order to isolate the other two with Ye Yueshen on a class level.
Ye Yueshen didn’t care about his tricks, and couldn’t wait for him to ask this question. “Actually, I don’t have much interaction with the princes either. I told you it was a troublesome matter…”
He was silent for a moment, as if he was really worried, and then said, “This Yuan Bao doesn’t seem to have been serving the Third Prince for very long. He told me at the time that the Spring Welcoming in the Imperial Garden was blooming well. I didn’t even know who he was. It was later at the Fourth Prince’s and Fifth Prince’s establishment banquets that I found out his name was Yuan Bao.”
Du Rushuang only grasped the key point of “establishment banquet” and said diligently, “I also attended the Fourth Prince’s establishment banquet.”
“I remember,” Ye Yueshen perfunctorily said, he was too nervous at the time, and didn’t remember anyone except the princes at the same table.
He sat for a while longer, pretending to be very interested and chatting with them about everything under the sun. Then Xue Dong knocked on the door and urged, “Third Master, it’s time to go home, be careful that the Marquis asks you about your homework.”
Ye Yueshen felt that Xue Dong had come at the right time, got up and said goodbye to them, but he still didn’t return to the Marquis’s Mansion, and pestered Xue Dong to accompany him to the Imperial Villa.
Just now, Du Rushuang, in order to show off how much he knew, revealed that the Third Prince Gong Yiyin was currently being imprisoned in the Imperial Villa in the near suburbs, which was three miles away from a temple.
Last time, he used the same trick to trick Gong Xuyin into revealing his flaws, but Gong Xunwu’s opinion was always unclear, but it was certain that he thought the statement that Gong Xuyin wanted to kill Ye Yueshen was far-fetched. Even Gong Shengyin felt that something was wrong.
So Ye Yueshen repeated his old trick. If Gong Xuyin had a reaction, then there was no reason that the real mastermind could remain calm.
He wasn’t saying those words for Du Rushuang and them to hear, but for the ears on the other side of the wall.
He had already decided that today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, he would squat outside the villa for three days. If he couldn’t squat for three days, then he would just hand it over to Gong Xunwu to arrange someone to squat.
He asked Xue Dong to park the carriage at the temple, and the two walked to the vicinity of the villa. They didn’t dare to get too close. Xue Dong knew Kung Fu and could climb high, and helped him find a stone pit that was not easy to spot from above or from a level perspective.
Ye Yueshen sat on a stone, half of his body blocked by the big stone. He only showed his head, watching the movements of the villa.