Chapter 73: Facing the Heart
Chu Yi felt as if Sheng Qianheng was about to eat him, not giving him a chance to breathe.
The hand wrapped around Sheng Qianheng’s neck struggled to pull his hair in protest.
Only then did Sheng Qianheng release Chu Yi, pressing his forehead against his. “A-Yi, do you know how much I want to strip off these clothes of yours?”
Chu Yi gasped for air, withdrawing his hands to cover his belly. His current body had no aesthetic appeal whatsoever, with a large belly and clumsy movements.
He really couldn’t understand why Sheng Qianheng was so obsessed with his body…
“Don’t fool around. Get me down.”
Sheng Qianheng wrapped his arms around Chu Yi’s waist and lifted him off the desk, then asked, “Jiang Xinrui has escaped this time. I don’t know what he’s planning. The moment I received the news, I was afraid something would happen to you…”
Chu Yi straightened his slightly messy clothes, then looked at Sheng Qianheng. “Tell me, are there any signs of a break-in in the dungeon?”
Sheng Qianheng recounted the information he had gotten from Chu Rui one by one, then pinched his palm, his face full of worry.
Chu Yi felt Shun’er seem to be turning over, so he took Sheng Qianheng’s hand and let him feel it.
He looked at Sheng Qianheng’s gradually relaxing brows and comforted his overly tense emotions these past few days with a smile. “If it’s really as you say, then someone must have helped Jiang Xinrui. Since there’s no trace of them in Qianlin for now, they’ve probably already left the city. Don’t be so worried. You’re only twenty-three. Why do you look so much older than me?”
Ever since Chu Yi had been eight months pregnant, Sheng Qianheng had been worried every day that he might give birth prematurely. He couldn’t sleep well every night and would always wake up with a start to check on Chu Yi’s condition.
Now that Jiang Xinrui had escaped the dungeon, given his obsessive love for Chu Yi, he had to worry that Jiang Xinrui would make a comeback and do something detrimental to Chu Yi again.
He lowered his head and rested it on Chu Yi’s abdomen, whispering, “I only wish for you and Shun’er to be safe!”
Chu Yi rubbed Sheng Qianheng’s head, slowly releasing his xìnxiāng, thinking that it should be able to soothe his emotions.
“Aren’t Shun’er and I always fine? I’ve thought of a few names these past few days. Take a look and see if you like them. You can’t just not give any opinion on Shun’er’s name.”
Sheng Qianheng sat up and reached out to pinch Chu Yi’s earlobe. Just as he was about to reply, he was interrupted by Suifeng, who had been guarding on the roof.
Suifeng had received a carrier pigeon from the Da Mo imperial palace.
He immediately took out the note, and after reading it, he couldn’t care less that the two masters in the room were still in an intimate moment. He stood at the door and said, “Your Majesty, this subject has an urgent matter to report.”
Sheng Qianheng looked back at the door and asked, “What is it?”
Suifeng thought for a moment and said, “Your Majesty, a word in private.”
Chu Yi gently squeezed Sheng Qianheng’s hand, his gaze slightly raised, signaling him to go quickly. He parted his red lips, his usually cool voice sounding even deeper in the silence. “I was originally planning to take a leave of absence from the school these few days. A few days earlier is no big deal. You should go and handle your state affairs quickly. I will be safe in the royal palace. You can rest assured.”
Sheng Qianheng lightly kissed Chu Yi’s lips again, pressed his forehead against his, and said, “A-Yi, you can decide on Shun’er’s formal name. As long as you and Shun’er are always by my side.”
Chu Yi nodded. “Go on.”
Sheng Qianheng pushed the door open and left. After the two of them had reached Sheng Qianheng’s hall, Suifeng finally spoke, “Your Majesty, someone from the imperial palace has reported that Lu Wenhan is not dead. The person who was originally close to Lu Wenhan seems to have the intention of rebelling with him and is currently recruiting troops.”
Sheng Qianheng clasped his hands behind his back. He had felt that something was strange when Lu Wenhan had died on his way back to the capital. It turned out that it was a fake death, for the purpose of rebelling at this moment.
Jiang Xinrui’s escape and Lu Wenhan’s rebellion happened at the same time. Could they be related?
He fiddled with the string of beads in his hand, recalling the situation in the dungeon today. All the guards had no signs of injury and seemed to have been drugged.
The Qianlin physician had said that he had never seen this drug before. Could it be his Da Mo’s sleeping powder? If Lu Wenhan had risked his life to rescue Jiang Xinrui and then escaped the city together to return to Qianlin and seize the throne, it was also possible.
He turned to look at Suifeng and ordered, “Suifeng, you return to Qianlin immediately and evacuate everyone in the palace. They are not allowed to defy Zhen’s decision again. If any hidden guards in the palace find any trace of Lu Wenhan and Jiang Xinrui, there is no need to leave them alive.”
Suifeng accepted the order. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
After Suifeng had left, Sheng Qianheng stood up and went to the dungeon again to check, wanting to find some clues to confirm if it was as he had guessed.
He stood in the dungeon where Jiang Xinrui had been imprisoned, looking at the bloodstains and iron chains on the ground. He always felt that Jiang Xinrui would not have left so easily.
He had gone through so much trouble to find Chu Yi. He had left just like that? To return to Qianlin with Lu Wenhan and seize his throne?
Wasn’t what Jiang Xinrui wanted Chu Yi?
He inadvertently caught a glimpse of a piece of cloth hanging on the iron chain. He squatted down, picked up the cloth, and held it to his nose to sniff.
This smell seemed familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had smelled it for a moment.
After receiving the news of Jiang Xinrui’s escape, Chu Rui immediately ordered the city gates to be sealed.
He sent out many soldiers but could not find any trace of Jiang Xinrui. He was clearly an injured person and should not have been able to leave the city so quickly.
He wanted to discuss this matter with Sheng Qianheng. Just as he was standing before the gate of Sheng Qianheng’s hall, he saw that Suifeng seemed to have been instructed by Sheng Qianheng.
He asked Suifeng, “What are you going to do?”
Suifeng bowed slightly and replied, “King, this subject has an important matter to attend to and will take my leave first.”
Chu Rui only felt the veins in his forehead throb, and a faint bad premonition arose. His right hand behind his back unconsciously clenched into a fist. “Going back to Da Mo to handle matters? Will you be back?”
“King, this is Suifeng’s private matter. There is no need to report to the King.” Suifeng was in a hurry to carry out his mission and couldn’t be bothered to deal with Chu Rui.
With that, he immediately flew over the eaves and out of the Qianlin royal palace.
He looked at Suifeng’s figure and couldn’t look away for a long time.
Sheng Qianheng looked at Chu Rui’s appearance and only felt that it was like the situation when he had found out that Chu Yi had left him. He teased, “Why, you can’t bear to part with Zhen’s hidden guard?”
Chu Rui feigned a few coughs and asked Sheng Qianheng, “How do you plan to handle the matter of Jiang Xinrui today? He has an almost obsessive love for Yi’er!”
Sheng Qianheng said with cold eyes, “Zhen has already ordered the hidden guards to hunt down Jiang Xinrui. He shouldn’t cause any more trouble. As long as your royal palace can protect A-Yi, that will be enough.”
He bit his back teeth hard. He should have killed that Jiang Xinrui immediately instead of imprisoning him for several months.
Chu Rui’s thoughts had long since drifted away at some point. He said faintly, “You sent Suifeng to kill Jiang Xinrui?”
“Why, have you really taken a liking to Suifeng?” Sheng Qianheng pinched the thumb ring on his hand and asked, “Isn’t your Qianlin a one-husband-one-wife system? How long has your queen been dead?”
Only then did Chu Rui come back to his senses. Why was he always letting his imagination run wild?
He reined in his thoughts and said, “Instead of asking Gu these things, you should go and accompany Yi’er. If it weren’t for you, how could Yi’er have suffered all this?”
The two of them parted on bad terms.
Chu Yi had thought that after Sheng Qianheng had finished his business, he would come to find him again.
However, five days passed in a flash, and there was no sign of him. In these five days, Sheng Qianheng had asked someone to pass on a sachet to him, and then there was no news.
Chu Yi sat alone in the palace, watching the palace lanterns flicker outside the window, and a sense of unease gradually grew in his heart.
He had no choice but to keep himself busy so that he wouldn’t think of Sheng Qianheng.
Chu Mingzhao brought little An’er into Chu Yi’s palace.
Little An’er was learning to walk with a maid, while Chu Mingzhao sat beside Chu Yi and chatted with him.
Chu Yi was absent-minded from time to time, and his replies to Chu Mingzhao were always irrelevant.
Seeing that something was wrong with her Royal Uncle, Chu Mingzhao asked, “Royal Uncle, are you thinking of Royal Aunt?”
Chu Yi took a sip of tea and shook his head slightly.
A few days ago, when Chu Mingzhao was flying a kite, she had seen her Royal Aunt rush out of the palace. Could it be that her Royal Aunt and Royal Uncle had had a fight? Royal Uncle was about to give birth now. How could Royal Aunt still make him angry?
“Royal Uncle, did you two have a fight? I saw Royal Aunt leave the palace a few days ago!”
Chu Yi immediately caught the words “leave the palace.”
He thought, could Sheng Qianheng have gone back to Da Mo? Had his persuasion these few months worked? Had Sheng Qianheng really let him go and gone back to Da Mo?
If that were the case, it should be a good thing. Why couldn’t he be happy?
Ten days after Sheng Qianheng had left, Chu Yi could no longer hold back his anxiety and decided to go out of the palace to find him. However, Chu Rui flatly rejected his idea and kept him in the palace.
He gently caressed his already high and swollen belly and said to himself in a low voice, his voice full of confusion and unease, “Shun’er, where do you think your father is now? Was it the right decision for me to leave him back then?”
His voice was as low as a murmur, as if he were talking to the child in his belly, and also as if he were confronting the struggle in his own heart.
He had resolutely left Sheng Qianheng back then in order to get rid of the suffocating identity that bound him, not wanting to be the “Chu Yi” in others’ eyes, but to be his true self. Now he was living freely, doing what he wanted, no longer influenced by others’ opinions. He was just Chu Yi, not anyone else.
Sheng Qianheng’s company these few months, he had never mentioned his departure back then, as if it had never happened. Chu Yi didn’t dare to ask, afraid of hearing an answer that would break his heart. Was it really not important to Sheng Qianheng whether he was the “Chu Yi” he knew? Did he just fall in love with that name, not the real him?
However, the one he loved was the complete Sheng Qianheng. No matter who this love originally belonged to, he, Chu Yi, was already deeply in it and could not extricate himself.
Sheng Qianheng had only been gone for a few short days, but he was thinking of him all day, his mind full of his shadow.
No, perhaps from the moment he had left Sheng Qianheng, he had never truly let go of his concern for him.
He, Chu Yi, had clearly always been telling himself not to sink in, but in the end, he had still watched himself fall hopelessly in love with Sheng Qianheng!
Seeing that Chu Yi had finally gained some weight, but had lost it in just a few short days, Lianfang couldn’t help but worry.
She said, “Your Highness, you should eat more.”
Chu Yi couldn’t help but laugh and said to Lianfang, “Am I very useless? Why do I love Sheng Qianheng so much? How can I not be trapped by love?”
Sheng Qianheng had been working day and night for these ten days, dealing with many urgent matters, so busy that he didn’t even have time to change his clothes.
By the time he rushed back to the Qianlin royal palace, the dust from his journey had not yet dissipated. He heard the voice coming from Chu Yi’s hall and was stunned for a moment at the door.
