Hua Yang remembered what Chen Jingzong said in her ear the day she fell into the water.
He said: “If you really care about me, you won’t jump into ice holes in the middle of winter.”
At that time, Hua Yang only thought that he was blaming her for being reckless, but now she realized that he had actually seen through her a long time ago.
Her plan seemed flawless, but in fact there were flaws. As Chen Jingzong said, she was not a person who would take risks just for fun.
She had been interested in playing. When she was in Lingzhou, Chen Jingzong took the children to swim in the stream behind the old house, and Hua Yang also went there.
But that’s because there was no danger in the stream, unlike the ice.
This flaw was not obvious to her father emperor and mother empress, because the two elders always regarded her as a child, and her temporary playfulness was completely justified.
Chen Jingzong was the person who share a bed with her, the prince consort who had stayed with her for hundreds of nights. Counting it all, even her busy father emperor and mother empress had never stayed with her for so long.
His questioning face was too cold and his eyes were sharp.
Hua Yang subconsciously avoided it, only showing a disapproving face: “You think too much, why should I pretend to be sick for no reason.”
Chen Jingzong sneered: “Of course you have a reason. You can live in the palace just by pretending to be sick, and you don’t need to see me for more than two months.”
Hua Yang frowned.
Chen Jingzong stood up and looked at her condescendingly, his face became even more indifferent: “Actually, you don’t have to resort to this. As long as you say it, I will live in the guard station forever. No matter how lustful I am, I loathe forcing others to do something they don’t want to. There’s no need for you to use this kind of method of tormenting yourself to avoid me.”
Hua Yang’s heart tightened. She really didn’t expect Chen Jingzong to misunderstand her like this!
Seeing that Chen Jingzong was about to step out of the babu bed, Hua Yang said angrily: “Stop!”
Chen Jingzong stopped but still turning his back to her.
Hua Yang glared at him and said, “You’re simply being unreasonable. If I really hate you so much, how could I have indulged you again and again before?”
He said those words without any conscience. Not to mention the past, just during the time he took annual vacation, how many times did they have passionate moments at night? He himself admitted to enjoying it thoroughly. How could he still think of her like that?
Chen Jingzong turned around, looked at her and asked, “But do you dare to say that you didn’t deliberately fall into the water that night, didn’t deliberately stay in the palace?”
Just when Hua Yang was about to deny it, Chen Jingzong smiled: “You can swear on the old man’s life, or on my life. As long as you dare to say it, I will believe whatever you say next.”
Hua Yang:……
She lowered her eyes.
Chen Jingzong: “If you can’t give me a convincing explanation, I can only assume that you want to avoid me. Then you don’t need to worry, I will leave and I will not take the initiative to appear in front of you again.”
Hua Yang looked at the peony embroidery on the Shu brocade bedsheet in silence.
She didn’t want Chen Jingzong to leave, and she didn’t want to hear him say farewell words like this again.
She had already heard it once in her previous life. Back then she didn’t respond to anything, and then he really never came back.
A few steps away, Chen Jingzong’s eyes were filled with reflections of her figure.
The princess who was once as full as the moon was now so thin that there was no flesh on her face.
She pursed her lips stubbornly, but her eye circles slowly turned red.
It was obvious that she was torturing him, but she still looked like she was the one being bullied by him.
Chen Jingzong was so angry that he laughed: “You’re not even afraid of death, but to tell the truth, you are afraid?”
Hua Yang turned her back and said coldly: “I’m not afraid of death.”
Chen Jingzong: “If you were afraid of death, would you jump into that ice hole? You don’t know what kind of body you have, and you dare to take such a fatal risk?”
He almost yelled this sentence.
Hua Yang calmed down instead, because she finally understood that it was not Chen Jingzong didn’t care about her illness. He knew that she was pretending and deliberately torturing herself, that’s why he was so angry.
Hua Yang smiled, rubbed the familiar peony embroidery with her fingertips, and said calmly: “I didn’t take any risks. I waited for you to come before jumping.”
Chen Jingzong:…
The rage that was about to explode in his body suddenly calmed down by these light words.
He came over, sat down on the edge of the bed, took off his shoes, moved inside, and hugged her from behind.
“Why did you do that?”
Hua Yang was silent.
Chen Jingzong didn’t push her and waited for her to speak on her own.
It was impossible for Hua Yang to tell anyone what happened in her previous life.
Of course, there was no need to mention her brother. If she mentioned it to her mother empress, Hua Yang was afraid that her mother would discipline her brother more strictly, which would be counterproductive.
She couldn’t say anything to the Chen family even more, fearing her father-in-law’s heart would get chill and loss the intention to make a strong country and enrich the people, fearing Chen Jingzong would be resentful.
In order to make Chen Jingzong believe that Qi shi was corrupt, Hua Yang made about the old lady’s dream as a warning. However, the old lady of the Chen family could only “take care” of the Chen family and could not be use on her father emperor. She also couldn’t make up another story using her grandfather emperor’s dream. Chen Jingzong was not a fool. He might still believe about the old lady from the Chen family. But her grandfather emperor too, who was she joking with?
“For Father Emperor.”
After a moment, Hua Yang smiled bitterly and gave him a convincing reason: “I heard from Mother Empress that Father Emperor want to organize a palace draft after the new year.”
“Mother Empress is kind-hearted and doesn’t mind this kind of things since long ago. I’m also not afraid that those beautiful girls will compete with Mother Empress for favor. But Father Emperor’s body is too weak. I’m afraid he will not be able to control himself and hurt his body. After all he is old and not as young as before.
“But I couldn’t persuade him openly, so I had to use this bitter trick. Fortunately, it worked. Father Emperor probably won’t set up a palace draft this year.”
She was pleased, but Chen Jingzong thought she was stupid: “He won’t set one this year, but he can set one next year and the year after that. Are you going to lose half your life every year?”
Hua Yang: “Next year’s trouble let’s think again next year, at least there won’t be any new people in the harem this year.”
Chen Jingzong frowned: “You’re just treating the symptoms but not the root cause.”
Hua Yang turned around, looked at him and asked, “Do you have a way to cure the root cause?”
Chen Jingzong:…
If the old man dared to raise a bunch of beauties and indulge in debauchery that hurt his body and mother’s heart, he could beat the old man, and his eldest brother and third brother would also use their sharp tongues to beat around the bush and scold the old man until he was embarrassed to even show his face.
For Emperor Jingshun, the ministers’ tactful dissuasion would not work. Handing in memorials might lead to being scolded harshly, which would cause them to either losing their position or even losing their life.
If proactive persuasion was not possible…
Chen Jingzong really thought of something and exchanged glances with Hua Yang. He said with a guilty conscience: “I am doing this for His Majesty’s good. Please don’t expose me in front of His Majesty.”
Hua Yang: “Just say it.”
Chen Jingzong coughed and said into her ear: “It is said that His Majesty likes to take medicine, so let’s get a pill that can make men unable to raise up, completely ensuring His Majesty’s thoughts are put to rest, and he will live longer and longer.”
Hua Yang directly nudged him with her elbow: “It’s easy to say, where can I get this kind of medicine, and how can I give it to Father Emperor? Who dares to take this job? If Father Emperor takes this medicine, it will be discovered sooner or later. If it’s really investigated, how many people in the palace are going to lose their heads, and when it reached us, I might be able to survive, but your whole family will have to go see the old lady.”
Chen Jingzong also thought before he spoke out that the method was a good way to eliminate permanent troubles, but it was too difficult and risky to implement.
Hua Yang was not disappointed, because she had already thought about various possibilities, and none of them was a perfect solution.
Rather than risking the lives of dozens or even hundreds of people at every turn, suffering the cold was the lightest price to pay.
“Let’s talk about it again next year. At least for the next half year, I don’t have to worry too much about Father Emperor.” Hua Yang said in a relaxed tone.
Chen Jingzong looked at her two arms hanging in front of her body.
He held one wrist.
He always liked to hold her two wrists at night, and he liked her soft and charming posture like a peony flower that could only stay in place, letting the wind destroy it and the rain beat it.
But now, her wrists were almost skin and bones.
“I will work with you to figure this out, but no matter what your final plan is, you can’t do this to yourself again.”
Hua Yang looked at his slender and strong forearms, recalling his indifference and ruthlessness in the carriage, and said deliberately: “Why, do you think my current appearance is not beautiful enough and is an eyesore to you?”
Chen Jingzong suddenly tightened his grip on her wrist, but pulled back in time before it hurt her. He gritted his teeth and said, “Your conscience has been eaten by a dog.”
Hua Yang: “Back at you. I’m sick like this, and the whole family feels sorry for me. You’re the only one who put a face in front of me.”
Chen Jingzong: “Would you believe it if I told them you were just faking it, they would treat you like a stupid princess too?”
Hua Yang glared at him.
Chen Jingzong suddenly held her face and kissed her fiercely.
Hua Yang’s body had become thinner and weaker, and soon collapsed in his arms.
And wherever Chen Jingzong’s hands fell on her body, it was all skinny and bony.
After withdrawing his kiss, he asked her how she had been for more than two months.
Hua Yang was actually very aggrieved. She had suffered so much, but she couldn’t even talk to her closest father emperor and mother empress.
Chen Jingzong was the only one who knows the truth, and she could only share her bitterness with him.
“Sometimes I’m so hungry that I can’t sleep, so there’s no need to pretend to have nightmares or insomnia. Wu Run may have noticed that I was hungry and asked the kitchen to prepare a lot of delicious food. But I have to lose weight, so I can only lie sick and pretend to have no appetite.
“There were a few nights when I was so sleepy that I could almost fall asleep standing up. But I was afraid that I would get enough sleep and feel refreshed the next day, so I had to hold on to prevent myself from falling asleep.”
Chen Jingzong listened silently, and when she had said enough, he only spit out three words: “You deserve it!”
Hua Yang hit him, her weak little hands hitting the man’s strong and broad chest, which was almost like tickling.
Just as Chen Jingzong was about to speak, her stomach growled.
Hua Yang was a little embarrassed.
Chen Jingzong: “I’ll asked the kitchen to prepare the food. What do you want to eat?”
Hua Yang wanted to eat so much but she forced herself to be a sick beauty for more than two months. In fact, she had a good appetite to eat a cow every day.
Chen Jingzong thought of his old man.
That time when the old man was diagnosed and treated by Imperial Doctor Li, he couldn’t eat properly for about a month. It looked like he had lost more than ten pounds. Later, he resumed his normal diet and regained his weight in ten days, because this thin was all due to pure hunger, no like Gao Dazhuang’s illness.
Eunuch Feng was in charge of the kitchen. Knowing that the princess was hungry, he sent a plate of small wonton that had been wrapped in advance first. Each small wonton didn’t have much meat filling, but it was remarkably delicious. The thin wonton skins gently floated in the fragrant broth, which was Hua Yang’s favorite taste and aroma.
Chen Jingzong sat at the dinner table and watched her eating with relish.
After finishing the small wontons, other dishes were served one after another.
This princess usually was so dignified and elegant, although she didn’t gobble it up now, the way she ate was a bit less elegant.
Chen Jingzong had to advise: “If you have been hungry for so long, eat until you are seven part full, so as not to make you sick again.”
Hua Yang glanced at him, pointed at his untouched chopsticks and said, “You can eat too. Mother Empress is distressed that you have become thinner.”
Chen Jingzong: “Niangniang is distressed, does the Princess feels distress?”
Hua Yang’s eyelashes fluttered but didn’t answer. She picked up a sweet and sour meatball the size of a cherry and put it into her mouth with a look of enjoyment on her face.
Chen Jingzong snorted, reached out and moved the plate of hot and sour meatballs to his side, and didn’t give any to her.
Hua Yang remembered what Chen Jingzong said in her ear the day she fell into the water.
He said: “If you really care about me, you won’t jump into ice holes in the middle of winter.”
At that time, Hua Yang only thought that he was blaming her for being reckless, but now she realized that he had actually seen through her a long time ago.
Her plan seemed flawless, but in fact there were flaws. As Chen Jingzong said, she was not a person who would take risks just for fun.
She had been interested in playing. When she was in Lingzhou, Chen Jingzong took the children to swim in the stream behind the old house, and Hua Yang also went there.
But that’s because there was no danger in the stream, unlike the ice.
This flaw was not obvious to her father emperor and mother empress, because the two elders always regarded her as a child, and her temporary playfulness was completely justified.
Chen Jingzong was the person who share a bed with her, the prince consort who had stayed with her for hundreds of nights. Counting it all, even her busy father emperor and mother empress had never stayed with her for so long.
His questioning face was too cold and his eyes were sharp.
Hua Yang subconsciously avoided it, only showing a disapproving face: “You think too much, why should I pretend to be sick for no reason.”
Chen Jingzong sneered: “Of course you have a reason. You can live in the palace just by pretending to be sick, and you don’t need to see me for more than two months.”
Hua Yang frowned.
Chen Jingzong stood up and looked at her condescendingly, his face became even more indifferent: “Actually, you don’t have to resort to this. As long as you say it, I will live in the guard station forever. No matter how lustful I am, I loathe forcing others to do something they don’t want to. There’s no need for you to use this kind of method of tormenting yourself to avoid me.”
Hua Yang’s heart tightened. She really didn’t expect Chen Jingzong to misunderstand her like this!
Seeing that Chen Jingzong was about to step out of the babu bed, Hua Yang said angrily: “Stop!”
Chen Jingzong stopped but still turning his back to her.
Hua Yang glared at him and said, “You’re simply being unreasonable. If I really hate you so much, how could I have indulged you again and again before?”
He said those words without any conscience. Not to mention the past, just during the time he took annual vacation, how many times did they have passionate moments at night? He himself admitted to enjoying it thoroughly. How could he still think of her like that?
Chen Jingzong turned around, looked at her and asked, “But do you dare to say that you didn’t deliberately fall into the water that night, didn’t deliberately stay in the palace?”
Just when Hua Yang was about to deny it, Chen Jingzong smiled: “You can swear on the old man’s life, or on my life. As long as you dare to say it, I will believe whatever you say next.”
Hua Yang:……
She lowered her eyes.
Chen Jingzong: “If you can’t give me a convincing explanation, I can only assume that you want to avoid me. Then you don’t need to worry, I will leave and I will not take the initiative to appear in front of you again.”
Hua Yang looked at the peony embroidery on the Shu brocade bedsheet in silence.
She didn’t want Chen Jingzong to leave, and she didn’t want to hear him say farewell words like this again.
She had already heard it once in her previous life. Back then she didn’t respond to anything, and then he really never came back.
A few steps away, Chen Jingzong’s eyes were filled with reflections of her figure.
The princess who was once as full as the moon was now so thin that there was no flesh on her face.
She pursed her lips stubbornly, but her eye circles slowly turned red.
It was obvious that she was torturing him, but she still looked like she was the one being bullied by him.
Chen Jingzong was so angry that he laughed: “You’re not even afraid of death, but to tell the truth, you are afraid?”
Hua Yang turned her back and said coldly: “I’m not afraid of death.”
Chen Jingzong: “If you were afraid of death, would you jump into that ice hole? You don’t know what kind of body you have, and you dare to take such a fatal risk?”
He almost yelled this sentence.
Hua Yang calmed down instead, because she finally understood that it was not Chen Jingzong didn’t care about her illness. He knew that she was pretending and deliberately torturing herself, that’s why he was so angry.
Hua Yang smiled, rubbed the familiar peony embroidery with her fingertips, and said calmly: “I didn’t take any risks. I waited for you to come before jumping.”
Chen Jingzong:…
The rage that was about to explode in his body suddenly calmed down by these light words.
He came over, sat down on the edge of the bed, took off his shoes, moved inside, and hugged her from behind.
“Why did you do that?”
Hua Yang was silent.
Chen Jingzong didn’t push her and waited for her to speak on her own.
It was impossible for Hua Yang to tell anyone what happened in her previous life.
Of course, there was no need to mention her brother. If she mentioned it to her mother empress, Hua Yang was afraid that her mother would discipline her brother more strictly, which would be counterproductive.
She couldn’t say anything to the Chen family even more, fearing her father-in-law’s heart would get chill and loss the intention to make a strong country and enrich the people, fearing Chen Jingzong would be resentful.
In order to make Chen Jingzong believe that Qi shi was corrupt, Hua Yang made about the old lady’s dream as a warning. However, the old lady of the Chen family could only “take care” of the Chen family and could not be use on her father emperor. She also couldn’t make up another story using her grandfather emperor’s dream. Chen Jingzong was not a fool. He might still believe about the old lady from the Chen family. But her grandfather emperor too, who was she joking with?
“For Father Emperor.”
After a moment, Hua Yang smiled bitterly and gave him a convincing reason: “I heard from Mother Empress that Father Emperor want to organize a palace draft after the new year.”
“Mother Empress is kind-hearted and doesn’t mind this kind of things since long ago. I’m also not afraid that those beautiful girls will compete with Mother Empress for favor. But Father Emperor’s body is too weak. I’m afraid he will not be able to control himself and hurt his body. After all he is old and not as young as before.
“But I couldn’t persuade him openly, so I had to use this bitter trick. Fortunately, it worked. Father Emperor probably won’t set up a palace draft this year.”
She was pleased, but Chen Jingzong thought she was stupid: “He won’t set one this year, but he can set one next year and the year after that. Are you going to lose half your life every year?”
Hua Yang: “Next year’s trouble let’s think again next year, at least there won’t be any new people in the harem this year.”
Chen Jingzong frowned: “You’re just treating the symptoms but not the root cause.”
Hua Yang turned around, looked at him and asked, “Do you have a way to cure the root cause?”
Chen Jingzong:…
If the old man dared to raise a bunch of beauties and indulge in debauchery that hurt his body and mother’s heart, he could beat the old man, and his eldest brother and third brother would also use their sharp tongues to beat around the bush and scold the old man until he was embarrassed to even show his face.
For Emperor Jingshun, the ministers’ tactful dissuasion would not work. Handing in memorials might lead to being scolded harshly, which would cause them to either losing their position or even losing their life.
If proactive persuasion was not possible…
Chen Jingzong really thought of something and exchanged glances with Hua Yang. He said with a guilty conscience: “I am doing this for His Majesty’s good. Please don’t expose me in front of His Majesty.”
Hua Yang: “Just say it.”
Chen Jingzong coughed and said into her ear: “It is said that His Majesty likes to take medicine, so let’s get a pill that can make men unable to raise up, completely ensuring His Majesty’s thoughts are put to rest, and he will live longer and longer.”
Hua Yang directly nudged him with her elbow: “It’s easy to say, where can I get this kind of medicine, and how can I give it to Father Emperor? Who dares to take this job? If Father Emperor takes this medicine, it will be discovered sooner or later. If it’s really investigated, how many people in the palace are going to lose their heads, and when it reached us, I might be able to survive, but your whole family will have to go see the old lady.”
Chen Jingzong also thought before he spoke out that the method was a good way to eliminate permanent troubles, but it was too difficult and risky to implement.
Hua Yang was not disappointed, because she had already thought about various possibilities, and none of them was a perfect solution.
Rather than risking the lives of dozens or even hundreds of people at every turn, suffering the cold was the lightest price to pay.
“Let’s talk about it again next year. At least for the next half year, I don’t have to worry too much about Father Emperor.” Hua Yang said in a relaxed tone.
Chen Jingzong looked at her two arms hanging in front of her body.
He held one wrist.
He always liked to hold her two wrists at night, and he liked her soft and charming posture like a peony flower that could only stay in place, letting the wind destroy it and the rain beat it.
But now, her wrists were almost skin and bones.
“I will work with you to figure this out, but no matter what your final plan is, you can’t do this to yourself again.”
Hua Yang looked at his slender and strong forearms, recalling his indifference and ruthlessness in the carriage, and said deliberately: “Why, do you think my current appearance is not beautiful enough and is an eyesore to you?”
Chen Jingzong suddenly tightened his grip on her wrist, but pulled back in time before it hurt her. He gritted his teeth and said, “Your conscience has been eaten by a dog.”
Hua Yang: “Back at you. I’m sick like this, and the whole family feels sorry for me. You’re the only one who put a face in front of me.”
Chen Jingzong: “Would you believe it if I told them you were just faking it, they would treat you like a stupid princess too?”
Hua Yang glared at him.
Chen Jingzong suddenly held her face and kissed her fiercely.
Hua Yang’s body had become thinner and weaker, and soon collapsed in his arms.
And wherever Chen Jingzong’s hands fell on her body, it was all skinny and bony.
After withdrawing his kiss, he asked her how she had been for more than two months.
Hua Yang was actually very aggrieved. She had suffered so much, but she couldn’t even talk to her closest father emperor and mother empress.
Chen Jingzong was the only one who knows the truth, and she could only share her bitterness with him.
“Sometimes I’m so hungry that I can’t sleep, so there’s no need to pretend to have nightmares or insomnia. Wu Run may have noticed that I was hungry and asked the kitchen to prepare a lot of delicious food. But I have to lose weight, so I can only lie sick and pretend to have no appetite.
“There were a few nights when I was so sleepy that I could almost fall asleep standing up. But I was afraid that I would get enough sleep and feel refreshed the next day, so I had to hold on to prevent myself from falling asleep.”
Chen Jingzong listened silently, and when she had said enough, he only spit out three words: “You deserve it!”
Hua Yang hit him, her weak little hands hitting the man’s strong and broad chest, which was almost like tickling.
Just as Chen Jingzong was about to speak, her stomach growled.
Hua Yang was a little embarrassed.
Chen Jingzong: “I’ll asked the kitchen to prepare the food. What do you want to eat?”
Hua Yang wanted to eat so much but she forced herself to be a sick beauty for more than two months. In fact, she had a good appetite to eat a cow every day.
Chen Jingzong thought of his old man.
That time when the old man was diagnosed and treated by Imperial Doctor Li, he couldn’t eat properly for about a month. It looked like he had lost more than ten pounds. Later, he resumed his normal diet and regained his weight in ten days, because this thin was all due to pure hunger, no like Gao Dazhuang’s illness.
Eunuch Feng was in charge of the kitchen. Knowing that the princess was hungry, he sent a plate of small wonton that had been wrapped in advance first. Each small wonton didn’t have much meat filling, but it was remarkably delicious. The thin wonton skins gently floated in the fragrant broth, which was Hua Yang’s favorite taste and aroma.
Chen Jingzong sat at the dinner table and watched her eating with relish.
After finishing the small wontons, other dishes were served one after another.
This princess usually was so dignified and elegant, although she didn’t gobble it up now, the way she ate was a bit less elegant.
Chen Jingzong had to advise: “If you have been hungry for so long, eat until you are seven part full, so as not to make you sick again.”
Hua Yang glanced at him, pointed at his untouched chopsticks and said, “You can eat too. Mother Empress is distressed that you have become thinner.”
Chen Jingzong: “Niangniang is distressed, does the Princess feels distress?”
Hua Yang’s eyelashes fluttered but didn’t answer. She picked up a sweet and sour meatball the size of a cherry and put it into her mouth with a look of enjoyment on her face.
Chen Jingzong snorted, reached out and moved the plate of hot and sour meatballs to his side, and didn’t give any to her.
