Chapter 374: You Must Be Responsible, Pearl in the Palm
Startled awake, Ji Qingwu cracked open her bleary eyes and tilted her head slightly to ask.
"Have you been too tired lately? So weak and drained that you can’t sleep well?"
As she spoke, she raised her right hand to take his wrist.
After she had left Zhaoyang Hall, Ji Qingwu hadn’t taken his pulse again, so she didn’t know what condition his body was in now.
Zhao Mingyan let her hand settle on his wrist to check his pulse.
He stared into her eyes and sighed softly, "Ah Wu, it seems you’ve read all those books for nothing."
The moment Ji Qingwu began taking his pulse, she became fully alert, her expression focused on the task.
After a moment, she said, "It’s nothing serious. You just have some excess internal heat, making you anxious and irritable."
Zhao Mingyan raised an eyebrow. "Just ’some’?"
He pulled her hand downward. Ji Qingwu froze for a second, then snatched her fingers back as if burned.
’Men and women are built differently,’ she thought. ’No wonder the pulse I felt showed the ’heat’ sinking downward.’
Zhao Mingyan said, "I had this reaction because I read your book. You have to take responsibility for it."
That was far too much responsibility for Ji Qingwu to bear. "Your Majesty," she said, "why not hold the person who wrote the book responsible?"
"Even without the book, I feel this same fire the moment I see you."
Zhao Mingyan nibbled her earlobe. "You little heartless thing. You’re the one who has to be responsible."
Noticing the change in the color of his eyes, Ji Qingwu hadn’t even managed to scoot away before he was pulling open the frog closures on her inner tunic. Several small, jade-colored buttons nearly popped off and hit her in the face.
She pulled the blanket over her chest, covering an upper body clad only in a light chemise, and reminded him, "You said you had to go back soon."
"One hour is enough to do many things."
Zhao Mingyan looked at her, so like a peeled lychee, and his eyes seemed to burn with fire.
*
Ji Qingwu wasn’t sure when Emperor Wu Su had left.
When she woke up in the morning, she found her clothes had been changed. Her chemise was balled up in a corner of the bed, wrinkled and damp.
’That hadn’t been enough time to go all the way.’
’But it had been enough to try many intimate things she had never experienced before—just like in the book.’
’One moment she was floating in the clouds, the next she was deep beneath the sea.’
She gently patted her cheeks, telling herself that it was broad daylight now; she couldn’t keep thinking about it.
Her face flushing crimson, Ji Qingwu picked up a corner of the chemise. She could smell two scents mingling together. Holding her breath, she found a cloth bag, stuffed the garment inside, and resolved to find a secret place to burn it herself.
The cover of that blue-bound book also seemed to have a few small, damp spots.
The tips of her ears burning, Ji Qingwu stuffed it into the bag as well, but after a moment’s thought, she took it out again.
’Since she felt no intense discomfort after getting up, just a slight soreness, the book must have been somewhat useful after all.’
’The two of them learning together... it wasn’t so difficult to accept, really...’
She spent the entire morning on this one task, feeling like a thief and having to dodge Lan Zhi the whole time.
In the afternoon, she received some good news.
Lan Zhi’s face was wreathed in smiles. "Fifth Missy, Mr. Ji has lifted your confinement! You can come and go as you please now!"
Ji Qingwu, who had been reclining on the daybed, sat up at the news and asked in delighted surprise, "Did he say why he lifted the confinement?"
’Mr. Ji had only been angry for two or three days. He’d said he was going to discipline her, but he never even showed up.’
’And now, after making such a big deal of it, he was just letting it go?’
Lan Zhi said, "Does there need to be a reason? Mr. Ji dotes on you too much to stay angry for long, Fifth Missy."
Ji Qingwu lowered her gaze to the floor. "How would you know what Mr. Ji is thinking? Just a few days ago in Shou’an Hall, he was saying I needed to learn my place. For all I know, now that my confinement is over, I’ll have to present myself to him every day for lessons in etiquette."
Lan Zhi said, "I heard from Sister Chunhua that Mr. Ji and Mrs. Qiao are coming to Wutong Garden soon. Missy, you should hurry and get ready."
Ji Qingwu slowly lay back down. "There’s nothing to prepare. Just let me know when they’re about to arrive."
By the time Ji Bo Lian and Mrs. Qiao stepped through the doors of the main house at Wutong Garden,
they found Ji Qingwu dressed even more plainly than on the day she had returned home. She wore no hairpins or accessories of any kind, and her pale, blue-green robes were devoid of any pattern.
With a face completely bare of makeup, she and the two carefully adorned adults stared at each other.
Mrs. Qiao was as elegant as ever, impeccably so.
Ji Bo Lian had taken special care with his appearance before coming, even hurrying Mrs. Qiao to pick out a brand-new robe for him. His beard had been meticulously groomed, all in an attempt to make a better impression on his youngest daughter.
Ji Qingwu stood there, and watching Mr. Ji walk in looking so full of vigor only made her feel worse.
When her bright, limpid eyes fell on him, Ji Bo Lian’s beard twitched, and he forcibly suppressed the smile that had been forming on his lips.
Mrs. Qiao shot him a sideways glance before stepping forward to take Ji Qingwu’s hand.
"Xiao Wu, how did you sleep last night?"
Ji Qingwu felt a pang of guilt at the question and failed to notice that Mrs. Qiao was being overly affectionate, as if putting on a show for someone.
She replied, "I slept well. And you, Mother?"
Feeling invisible, Ji Bo Lian found a seat and sat down, keeping his expression stern.
Mrs. Qiao pulled her down to sit. "This child. She’s so grown up, but still so clingy. Just a couple of days ago, she wanted me to stay and sleep with her."
’It was a good thing she didn’t stay,’ Ji Qingwu thought. ’Otherwise, if she’d run into Emperor Wu Su... the scene was unimaginable.’
"What brings you here today, Mother?"
Mrs. Qiao said, "It was your father who said—"
Ji Bo Lian cleared his throat.
Mrs. Qiao changed her tune. "I asked you last time, and you said Jiu Jiu was staying with a friend. I haven’t seen the little girl in so long. When can you bring her home?"
Ji Qingwu replied, "Mother, I’ll have to ask Jiu Jiu what she wants. She’s having a wonderful time at their home, and she’s with other children her own age. I asked her last time, and she didn’t want to come back yet."
’Jiu Jiu even had a Hidden Guard deliver her "artwork" to me every day. The style was abstract, but it wasn’t hard to see that her little life in the palace was quite comfortable.’
’Ji Qingwu was also happy to see Jiu Jiu spending more time with Yuan Heng. She saw it as a way for them to develop a sibling-like bond. Besides, children have their own ways of getting along, and she didn’t want to interfere.’
Mrs. Qiao nodded. "I see... Well, that’s good, too."
Ji Bo Lian coughed again, several times.
Mrs. Qiao shot him an impatient glare.
"His Lordship’s cough is acting up again. Why don’t you go back and rest? I’ll have Chunhua call for a physician to prescribe you some medicine."
Quietly, Ji Qingwu picked up the teapot, poured a cup of tea, and pushed it toward Ji Bo Lian.
Ji Bo Lian stared at the celadon cup before him. His stern expression crumbled for a moment, his eyes filled with emotion, before he painstakingly composed himself again.
He said in a hoarse voice, "What’s so good about it? That’s someone else’s home. No matter how nice it is, can it ever be as good as her own?"
Mrs. Qiao opened her mouth to speak, then stopped.
’That "someone else’s home" was, in fact, countless times better than the Ji family estate.’
’In the palace, Jiu Jiu had a whole team of people taking care of her in shifts. Any one of them was better than this stubborn, stuffy old grandfather of hers.’
Ji Bo Lian didn’t dare look at Ji Qingwu. Though he was talking about his granddaughter, his mind was completely filled with thoughts of Xiao Wu.
’If his youngest daughter had never been lost, their Xiao Wu would never have had to suffer so much.’
’If only he had come home sooner. He would have fought to his last breath to stop that scoundrel Wei Ting from marrying his daughter. She was the pearl in the palm of his hand, so precious he feared she might melt if he held her too tight.’