Xueya was frightened by Yin Qingxuan’s actions and decided to behave properly for the next fifteen days. As the wedding day approached, Cui Lingjing’s temper became increasingly unpredictable, resulting in many palace servants being punished. Several were even unable to get out of bed.
Initially, the palace servants competed to serve Cui Lingjing, but now they avoided him. Without any connections in the palace, Xueya was often pushed forward to serve.
Seeing so many palace servants punished in recent days made Xueya nervous, causing his hands to tremble as he served tea.
The teacup clinked against the lid, drawing Cui Lingjing’s attention.
Xueya immediately placed the tea on the left side of Cui Lingjing and was about to withdraw with his head lowered and eyes cast down, but was called to stop before he could leave.
“Stop. I didn’t tell you to leave. Where are you going?” Cui Lingjing, somewhat irritated, threw down the memorial.
Xueya paused in his tracks.
Cui Lingjing rubbed his forehead and said, “Come over and give me a massage.”
Xueya complied and moved behind Cui Lingjing to begin the massage. After about fifteen minutes, Cui Lingjing suddenly stood up and said, “Prepare the carriage for Ningfu Palace.”
After saying this, Cui Lingjing glanced back at Xueya and added, “You come with me.”
It had been a month since Xueya overheard He Xulan talking to someone under the table. When he heard they were going to He Xulan’s place, his brow twitched involuntarily. However, he had no choice but to follow Cui Lingjing, bracing himself for the visit.
In winter, it gets dark early. When Cui Lingjing and his entourage left Fengrui Palace, the sky was still bright, but by the time they reached Ningfu Palace, the last trace of light had been swallowed by darkness, and there wasn’t a single star in the sky.
As Xueya walked over, his feet were somewhat numb from the cold. While waiting outside the palace, he couldn’t help but shift his weight from one foot to the other to keep warm.
Inside the palace, the earth dragon was burning, making it as warm as spring even though the palace door was wide open. Xueya stood outside, peeking in and momentarily daydreaming, wishing she could be the one inside.
“Xueya, His Majesty wants you to come in,” a small eunuch next to him pushed him gently.
Xueya pulled himself together and stepped inside. He heard Cui Lingjing instruct, “Pour the alcohol.”
Xueya followed the order, first pouring alcohol for Cui Lingjing. He glanced at He Xulan’s empty cup, hesitated for a moment, then went over to pour a glass for him as well.
After filling He Xulan’s cup, Xueya quickly returned to stand behind Cui Lingjing.
“Godfather, tonight you must drink with me,” Cui Lingjing seemed to have come specifically to drink with He Xulan. He downed his glass in one go, and Xueya had to immediately refill it.
Cui Lingjing drank quickly, and He Xulan kept up with him. The back-and-forth made Xueya quite exhausted. He considered calling another palace servant to help with the alcohol, but neither of the men made such a request.
After the alcohol pot was emptied and replaced with a new one, and that one was also emptied, Cui Lingjing finally became drunk. He slumped over the table, mumbling, “In five days, in five days, I will marry that shrew.”
He Xulan, hearing this, said calmly, “Your Majesty, please be careful with your words.”
“She’s already a shrew. Am I not allowed to say anything about her? Throughout the capital, hasn’t everyone heard the gossip about that shrew? The other day she wore men’s clothes to hunt, and another day she fought in the street. If people didn’t know better, they’d think General Lei had a son,” Cui Lingjing seemed very dissatisfied with the future empress, filled with complaints.
However, He Xulan seemed uninterested in Cui Lingjing’s grievances and called for palace servants. “The Emperor is drunk. Take him back.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Several palace servants scrambled to help Cui Lingjing, and Xueya seized the opportunity to lead the way. But Cui Lingjing waved his hand, saying, “I’m not drunk. All of you leave. Close the door.” He then grabbed Xueya’s arm. “Come, continue pouring the alcohol.”
Since Cui Lingjing refused to leave, the servants had no choice but to withdraw and close the palace door, leaving Xueya to continue pouring alcohol. This time, Cui Lingjing didn’t drink much before collapsing onto the table.
He Xulan called out a few times but got no response. His gaze turned to Xueya, who, meeting He Xulan’s eyes, flinched and immediately called out, “Someone come, the Emperor is drunk.”
His action was clearly out of line. The Emperor was drunk, but the Empress Dowager was still sober, and it was not for a mere palace servant like Xueya to call for help. However, Xueya, afraid of He Xulan and recalling the threat from the other day, called for help in a panic.
The palace servants responded quickly and entered the room. He Xulan, having withdrawn his gaze from Xueya, left the main hall first. Xueya sighed in relief, thinking he needed to win Cui Lingjing’s favor soon.
Yin Qingxuan had forbidden him from taking any action before the wedding, but had not said anything about after the wedding.
He had just overheard that this future Empress Lei seemed to be an extraordinary woman.
In the blink of an eye, five days passed, and it was the day of Cui Lingjing’s grand wedding. Xueya woke up particularly early that day, busy all day without stopping, hardly eating a meal.
In the evening, Xu Pingnan suddenly came to call him, “His Majesty summons you.”
Xueya didn’t quite understand why he was being summoned on the night of Cui Lingjing’s wedding. When he arrived at the Empress’s sleeping chamber, he learned that he was required to stand outside the new emperor and empress’s bed curtain tonight, recording how many times Cui Lingjing and Empress Lei were intimate and in what positions.
Although Xueya grew up in the red-light district, as a male attendant, he had never witnessed such scenes, especially between a man and a woman.
Knowing what he had to do, Xueya’s face alternated between pale and red, never normal.
He heard voices inside the curtains, sounding like Cui Lingjing’s, with hardly a female voice audible.
Xueya was engrossed in his own internal struggle when suddenly he heard a loud noise. He looked up to find that Cui Lingjing had actually fallen off the bed.
The curtain was immediately pulled open, revealing a face more noble than delicate. “I’m exhausted today. Your Majesty should go play elsewhere.”
Cui Lingjing was furious, “You!”
Empress Lei smiled, her gaze shifting towards Xueya, her eyes brightening. “Such a pretty little sister. What’s your name?”
“He’s a man,” Cui Lingjing propped himself up with his hands on the ground, eyes filled with anger. “You’re too lazy to pretend. You’ve saved me the effort, Xueya, record one time, with the man on top, female on the bottom.”
“It turns out Your Majesty had plans early on. I worried too much. If you can handle what comes next, I’ll rest first.”
As soon as Empress Lei finished speaking, she closed the bed curtain and laid down.
From the conversation between the new emperor and empress, Xueya realized it wasn’t that Cui Lingjing fell off the bed himself; he was kicked off by Empress Lei.
On the night of the wedding, being kicked off the bed by the new bride, most ordinary men couldn’t bear it, let alone an emperor.
Cui Lingjing’s face was very bad, he shook his sleeve and left, and naturally Xueya couldn’t stay alone in the empress’s sleeping chamber, quickly following.
“Your Majesty,” he called out to Cui Lingjing, who did not respond. The palace servants who saw Cui Lingjing come out at this hour were all shocked.
“Back to the palace!” Cui Lingjing’s tone was filled with anger.
The palace servants immediately helped Cui Lingjing onto the imperial carriage.
It was already late winter, and today was particularly cold, with snow falling earlier, and now it was snowing lightly again.
Following the imperial carriage, Xueya didn’t wear thick-soled soft velvet boots like other eunuchs. He was still wearing embroidered silk shoes. Walking this way, his feet were freezing.
But he must not get frostbite.
Xueya thought to himself, he hated getting frostbite, itchy and painful, not to mention unsightly.
When he returned to Fengrui Palace, Xueya wanted to quickly change his shoes and preferably soak his feet, but as soon as he reached the door, Xu Pingnan appeared again.
“His Majesty summons you,” Xu Pingnan said.
Xueya looked down at his shoes wet from the snow, “Let me change shoes first…”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted.
“Do you want His Majesty to wait for you?” Xu Pingnan said, glancing around suddenly. Seeing no one around, he lowered his voice, “His Majesty is in a bad mood tonight. If you can make His Majesty happy… you should understand.”
Xu Pingnan entered the palace late and had been a normal man for over ten years, so he knew a little about what men wanted.
Tonight, Cui Lingjing was so angry, most likely because of Empress Lei, and the anger caused by matters between men and women could only be resolved by that kind of thing.
If one kind of anger was triggered, another kind of gentle embrace could soften that anger.
If Xueya could extinguish this latter fire, wouldn’t riches and honor be easily within reach?
Xu Pingnan thought he had made himself clear enough, but little did he know that Xueya, who usually stuck to Cui Lingjing, was acting foolishly today, endlessly repeating.
“Xu Gonggong, let me change my shoes first, and then go.”
How could Xu Pingnan wait?
If he waited, the riches and honor might fly away. He had bet on Xueya. As for the other concubines about to enter the palace, all were from prominent families and had great assets, how could they regard him, a lowly eunuch?
“What shoes to change? Change again, and His Majesty might chop off your head. Go quickly.” Xu Pingnan led the person into the emperor’s sleeping palace.
Pushed inside, Xueya looked down at his wet, embroidered shoes, feeling unhappy.
But since he was already inside, he could only bow to Cui Lingjing.
“I bow to His Majesty.” Xueya entered the inner hall and found the inner hall burning very strongly, Cui Lingjing had taken off his outer robe and was soaking his feet. A face of gentle water, eyes burning with anger.
“Get up and answer, how did you record it?” Cui Lingjing asked.
Xueya got up, shaking his head, “I haven’t recorded it yet.”
Cui Lingjing narrowed his eyes, “Then tell me, what did you see tonight?”
Xueya suddenly understood why Cui Lingjing had called him over. Cui Lingjing was afraid that he would reveal his ugly side. “I didn’t see anything, Your Majesty.”
When these words were spoken, Cui Lingjing remained silent for a moment, while Xueya felt that his toes were almost frozen stiff and couldn’t help but move them.
This slight movement caught Cui Lingjing’s eye immediately.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Xueya bit his lip, lifted his skirt, revealing his heavily soaked embroidered shoes. “My shoes are wet, Your Majesty.”
So Cui Lingjing should hurry up and let him go back to change his shoes.
Cui Lingjing stared at the delicate embroidered shoes, suddenly remembering that Xueya had walked all the way back. He glanced down at his foot-soaking water, which was almost ready.
“Come here,” he said.
Xueya heard Cui Lingjing’s words, hesitated for a moment, but obediently walked over.
Cui Lingjing continued, “Take off your shoes and socks. I allow you to soak your feet in this bucket of water.”
Xueya considered that if he went back now to ask the kitchen for hot water, they might not pay him any attention. Although this bucket of water had been used by Cui Lingjing, at least it was warm water, better than getting frostbite.
So he said, “Thank you, Your Majesty,” and sat down beside the couch, quickly removing his shoes and socks, and swiftly placing his frozen feet into the hot water.
He moved so quickly that Cui Lingjing couldn’t withdraw his feet in time.
Cui Lingjing looked at the feet pressed against his, initially raising an eyebrow dangerously, but suddenly his attention was captivated by Xueya’s feet.
These feet were truly small; normal men wouldn’t have such small feet, right?
On the arch, what was that?
A mole?
The mole floated with the water’s movements. Xueya’s mind was filled with one thought: don’t get frostbite. So as he moved his feet in the water, it was also like he was stepping on Cui Lingjing’s feet.
He struggled to move his own feet and suddenly his foot was being stepped on in return.
Xueya tried to pull his foot away but couldn’t, so he looked at Cui Lingjing.
Cui Lingjing glared at him. “You have quite the nerve to step on my foot.”
Meeting those eyes, Xueya realized he had offended Cui Lingjing, but since the offense was already made, “Then Your Majesty step on this servant’s foot.”
“Do you think stepping back will settle it?” Cui Lingjing chuckled, grabbing Xueya’s cheek.
Xueya winced in pain and tried to dodge, but Cui Lingjing wouldn’t let him, and before long, the two were tangled up somehow.
Xueya was pinned underneath, panting heavily. He felt he might be getting sick, lacking strength and with a muddled mind.
It must be because he’d caught cold on the way back to Fengrui Palace. Could his feet be getting frostbite?
Xueya wanted to check his feet but was held down by Cui Lingjing and couldn’t sit up, so he could only lift his leg.
Lifting his leg caused his skirt to rise.
Cui Lingjing glanced over, his eyes darkening. He ran his hand up Xueya’s knee and muttered, “You seductive little rabbit.”
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Did you cry today?
Xueya: No~
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