The Gilded Cage Chapter 62

The Emperor’s Will – She Was a Cunning Woman who Needed to be Taught a Lesson (1)

In the Ganlu Hall, the cold wind rushed in, but Xiao Kezhi did not let the door close. He just sat quietly on the couch, looking at the night sky.

He started to meditate in order to refresh his excited mind and think carefully about his true inner thoughts.

But as long as she was still in the hall, he couldn’t completely calm down and sort out his thoughts, so he had to read to get his mind off other distractions. Now that she left, and the huge Ganlu Hall returned to its previous emptiness and silence, he finally calmed down enough to sort out everything that had happened since he returned to Changan.

His difficult situation since childhood made him develop the habit of taking one step and watching ten steps forward. After returning to Changan, he had everything firmly in grasp.

Only his niece-in-law was an exception.

At first, it was her unforgettable beauty that caught his attention, and later, it was her initiative and ulterior motives that caught his attention little by little.

He seemed to be carried away by passions, but in fact, he was deliberately unrestrained.

Everything tonight was a matter of mutual affection between adult men and women. After trying this, he really felt the beauty of it. Even now that she had just left, he was already a little bit eager.

Eat the marrow and know the taste, that was about it.

Everything seemed to be in his grasp, but it also seemed that something was wrong.

He frowned and pondered, slowly recalling the complicated emotions that flashed in his heart just now when he saw her forcing her exhausted body to serve him.

He was stunned, in disagreement, and found it pitiful for some reason.

This kind of pity was different from the initial pity that was purely because she was the daughter of Chu Qianyu but became the Crown Princess, and was more of a heartache for her.

It was this that made him feel that something was wrong. Some emotion he had never experienced was gradually taking root in his heart, sending its roots out of the ground, and becoming clear little by little.

He thought that he probably had some vague feelings for her.

Suddenly remembering this possibility, he was a little surprised, but he felt it was reasonable.

He was a man of great patience and perseverance, which is probably a gift. It was this talent that made him go from a forgotten prince to the Emperor of Great Liang today.

When he was young, he was angry because he witnessed a civilian in the borderland being robbed by the Beirong people. This anger supported him to practice horsemanship and archery for more than ten years after that.

He also changed his plan to live and grow old in the borderlands because of a word of encouragement from others, and he made it his lifelong wish to return to Changan and ascend the coveted throne of the emperor. For this, he endured dormancy for many years, trying to find opportunities to get closer to the center of power undetectably.

…

For everything, the first cause was just a passing thought.

And for that woman, perhaps it was the first pity, but it had determined his everything now.

“Your Majesty, Her Royal Highness the Crown Prince’s Consort has arrived at the East Palace. It’s not early, there will be a court meeting tomorrow. Do you want to be accommodated?” Liu Kang looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and asked carefully.

The people who trailed the Crown Princess as she exited Wude Hall returned, saying that the Crown Princess had returned to the East Palace successfully, and there was nothing else to do now.

To this day, he was still secretly shocked by this incident in the Ganlu Hall – if the relationship between the Emperor and his niece was placed in front of the public, they would be spurned by people from ten miles and eight townships! But when it came to the royal palace, most of the people didn’t even blink their eyes.

Xiao Kezhi came back to his senses when he heard those words, slowly put down the nearly dry pen in his hand, and said softly, “It’s time to sleep.”

He got up from the couch and went back to the bedside, which had been remade and flattened in the inner room, and somehow felt empty.

He closed his eyes, and the woman’s pure, charming, weak, and bold gestures appeared in his mind one by one.

She approached him for no reason!

This fact was like cold water pouring down his head in winter, making him cold.

He didn’t care much about it at first, but now it felt like a stick in his throat, rekindling the anger and dissatisfaction he dissipated because of the temporary relief.

She was a cunning woman who needed to be taught a lesson, and he couldn’t be easily fooled and let her succeed!

…

In the East Palace, when Chu Ning returned to the bedroom in the dark, it was already the second half of the night.

She was really exhausted, and her body was so sore that she felt her legs were fighting a little when she stepped over the threshold. Fortunately, Cui He stayed by her side and hurriedly helped her to the bedside, then delivered the medicine.

The dark concoction had long lost its temperature, and it glowed with a cold luster in the dark night. She held it in her hand and frowned slightly, biting her teeth and raising her head to drink it.

“Ma’am, it’s really inconvenient to boil medicine in our house.” Cui He handed over the tea and lowered her voice to remind her.

In the past, the contraceptive soup was handed over to the back kitchen to cook in an open and honest manner, but now that Xiao Yu was gone, she had no reason to drink the contraceptive soup, so she had to let Cui He cook a bowl in the palace.

It was just that the smell of the medicine attracted attention. Once or twice, it could be said to others that it was a tonic used by Cui He. If people smelled it several times, however, it would inevitably attract attention.

The best way, of course, was to leave the matter to someone else to handle.

Chu Ning nodded. After drinking the tea and rinsing her mouth, she said, “Next time, I will ask His Majesty to prepare the soup.”

If there was a next time.

She put down the tea cup, lay back on the bed, covered with a quilt, and instructed Cui He to hurry up and rest.

But for some reason, her sleepiness came in waves. At this moment, she was lying on the bed and closed her eyes, but she couldn’t fall asleep. Instead, she couldn’t help but think of what happened in the Ganlu Hall just now.

Her surprise emotion came out with hindsight.

She never expected that Xiao Kezhi, who was already twenty-five years old, would actually have his first time doing something between a man and a woman this time. It was very different from what she had thought before.

She couldn’t help but guess what kind of life he lived in Ganzhou for so many years, so that not only did he not have a wife or concubines, but he hadn’t even touched a woman.