Yin Wuzhi is really a foolish person.
Jiang Wu thought, is this really the legendary emperor? Is the historical record true? Why is it so different from what he imagined?
After waiting for a long time without a response, Yin Wuzhi turned his face to look at him.
Jiang Wu leaned quietly against the chair, appearing to have fallen asleep.
“……” His tentative emotions were all blocked back again.
Yin Wuzhi wiped his body dry with a serious face, changed into clean clothes, and directly walked outside.
“Stop.”
Yin Wuzhi halted.
“I don’t like that.”
“…… You don’t like how Imperial Physician Gu is treating you?”
“Mmm.”
The pent-up frustration inside him dissipated, and Yin Wuzhi walked back with a stern face. “Then why didn’t you refuse?”
Why didn’t he refuse?
At first, he heard he didn’t need to walk, so he wanted to give it a try, and he actually liked being carried, as if he was floating.
Later, when he was forced to lift his arms and felt tired, he said a few things that didn’t help and then didn’t bother to pursue it.
Jiang Wu began to think if he had been too lazy, leading everyone below to think he could be molded however they pleased.
He couldn’t go on like this; he had to impose a punishment.
“They say that idea was yours and that you were the one who ordered the chairs in the palace to be moved out.”
“……” So the reason for not refusing was that he already knew the idea was his?
Because it was his idea, Jiang Wu also understood that he meant well, so even if he didn’t like Gu Yan, he still allowed him to take the lead and try it out.
“In that case, let’s drop it.” Yin Wuzhi didn’t want to pursue it further, as that would seem overly calculating. He looked down at Jiang Wu from his elevated position and began to change the topic. “Your Majesty, did you come here to bathe?”
“……” That was indeed the case; Jiang Wu replied, “I want to impose a punishment.”
“Alright.” Hearing that he wanted to punish himself for his sake, Yin Wuzhi softened his expression and demeanor, reaching out to unfasten his clothes. “I won’t hold it against you; let’s leave it at that.”
“……??”
Jiang Wu struggled to wrap his head around what he was saying.
Let’s sort this out.
Yin Wuzhi first asked him why he didn’t refuse, and Jiang Wu thought it wasn’t that he didn’t refuse, but that everyone felt it was for his own good, ignoring his wishes.
Jiang Wu was smoothly lifted out of his clothes.
Still deep in thought—
He was preparing to impose a punishment; the culprit was Yin Wuzhi, so naturally, he had to question him about his offenses first.
Jiang Wu was placed in the water, the warm water enveloping his body, and he continued to think. Then Yin Wuzhi said, “In that case, let’s drop it.”
……
In that case, let’s drop it.
Revisiting it, it started with Yin Wuzhi asking him why he didn’t refuse…
…… and then Yin Wuzhi said, “In that case, let’s drop it.”
Where did things go wrong?
His tangled thoughts gradually knotted into a mess.
Jiang Wu’s expression was vacant.
What happened?
Why did Yin Wuzhi say, “In that case, let’s drop it”? And he even claimed he wouldn’t pursue it; why should he still pursue it?
Yin Wuzhi sat at the edge of the pool, pushing Jiang Wu’s long hair from the front to behind his head. Jiang Wu’s hair was fluffy and soft, easily grasped in one hand. With his hair lifted high, his straight neck and slender shoulders were revealed.
Though he didn’t move much now, due to previous training, his posture was excellent; even just sitting here casually, he appeared graceful and at ease.
He leaned over from behind to look at Jiang Wu’s face and softly said, “Just now, I shouldn’t have lost my temper with Your Majesty.”
“?”
Before he could disentangle himself from the previous confusion, another one arose.
Did Yin Wuzhi lose his temper with him?
Jiang Wu fell back into contemplation.
Yin Wuzhi had argued with Imperial Physician Gu and insisted on making him walk. When he refused, Yin Wuzhi claimed he had the final say.
Hmm, it should be here that he got angry.
“I want to punish you.”
Forget about how things were before; he would take this incident as grounds for punishment, since it was all directed at Yin Wuzhi anyway.
“…… Another punishment.” Yin Wuzhi draped a towel over his shoulders while pouring water over him and asked, “Punishment by whip or punishment by kneeling?”
Jiang Wu wanted to press his head underwater for a good cleansing; what kind of ridiculous ideas was he thinking about every day?
But he was too lazy to move.
“Head.”
Yin Wuzhi: “?”
“Put it in the water.”
“……” Yin Wuzhi looked at the majority of Jiang Wu’s body submerged in the water and said, “What are you doing?”
Jiang Wu closed his eyes. “Don’t make me say it a second time.”
He originally intended to force Yin Wuzhi to kill him, but it seemed he was still too kind to him, allowing him to feel that he could do as he pleased while being by his side.
…… Where did it all go wrong?
Clearly, he had hit him, punished him, and even humiliated him, yet none of it had dulled his sharpness.
“Is this, is this alright?”
Jiang Wu’s gaze dropped; half of his head was already submerged.
…… It wasn’t that his sharpness hadn’t been dulled at all.
“Put it all the way in; don’t make a sound.”
Forget it; it was all his own ridiculous idea, and he hadn’t kept an eye on him, which led to him being bound by Imperial Physician Gu.
From Jiang Wu’s perspective, the person he liked not only didn’t like him back but also deliberately devised plans to force him to be close to someone he didn’t like… it was only natural that he would feel angry.
As Yin Wuzhi submerged his entire head, he couldn’t help but feel guilty, thinking more and more that he was utterly unforgivable.
He opened his eyes underwater; seeing people underwater wasn’t very clear; he could only make out vague color blocks, with large swathes of white and only faint pink.
He closed his eyes again, silently reciting the rules of propriety.
“Do not speak of what is improper; do not see what is improper; do not hear what is improper.”
He didn’t know how long it had passed when Jiang Wu finally spoke, “Alright.”
Yin Wuzhi didn’t move.
Jiang Wu: “.”
He didn’t want to pull him out.
Maybe it was fate that Yin Wuzhi was to drown; if he died, Jiang Wu would just be left with sadness.
“Splash.”
Another loud sound of water emerged, and Yin Wuzhi took a deep breath; luckily, he had good internal energy training; otherwise, he might have truly lost his life after such a long time.
He wiped the water from his face; his submerged face was red from holding his breath and the hot water, the color distinctly different from his neck.
“Do you want to wash yourself?”
“Mmm.”
Yin Wuzhi didn’t dwell on the fact that he had forced him to cleanse his mind; he turned around to fetch a soft cloth brush and returned to serve him.
Jiang Wu remained very composed throughout, allowing him to brush every corner. Yin Wuzhi continued to silently recite the rules of propriety, and when he placed him back into the water, he felt a rush of heat rising from below and then bursting out at the top of his head.
After they had washed sufficiently, Jiang Wu floated for a while, at which point Yin Wuzhi took care of himself, drying his wet hair first.
Once everything was in order, Yin Wuzhi dressed him and carried him back.
Jiang Wu, feeling a bit dizzy from soaking, nestled in his arms and yawned, “I don’t want to see things like today again.”
Yin Wuzhi took the opportunity to explain, “I didn’t let him take you to do activities.”
He hadn’t entrusted him to another man.
Jiang Wu was even more confused. “Wasn’t it your idea?”
“Yes, it was my idea, but he took the initiative to take you away without my permission,” Yin Wuzhi said, then assured him, “It won’t happen again.”
He wouldn’t hand him over to others to take care of, causing him unhappiness.
Hearing him say it wouldn’t happen again, Jiang Wu felt relieved.
He couldn’t move at all; any movement made him feel tired, as if he wouldn’t recover for another two or three days.
When Yin Wuzhi carried him back to the chamber, he had already fallen back asleep.
For a moment, Yin Wuzhi suddenly wondered if living like this was truly meaningful. Every day was nothing but eating and sleeping, showing no interest in anything, as if he was indifferent to the world.
Wealth, power, beauty, and even the simple desires that almost everyone has.
It all seemed unimportant.
He sat beside the dragon couch, carefully drying Jiang Wu’s long hair.
Not that it was all unimportant; he still cared about Yin Wuzhi. Even though he wished Yin Wuzhi would despise and dislike him, at least there were still things in this world that mattered to him.
There was still hope.
While drying his hair, he suddenly remembered something, got up, and left. When he returned, he was holding a box of osmanthus-scented cream.
He had initially intended to throw it away, but upon letting it go, he suddenly recalled that Jiang Wu seemed to really like it, so he quietly kept it.
Later, Jiang Wu indeed punished him over this matter. Yin Wuzhi thought he would soon have another box made, but he didn’t expect that Jiang Wu, who had clearly liked it, seemed to completely forget about it afterward and never mentioned it again.
Even something he liked didn’t hold much significance for him; whether he could have it or not didn’t matter.
Yin Wuzhi took the cream, rubbed it in his palms, and carefully applied it evenly to Jiang Wu’s hair.
In fact, the osmanthus cream was not the first thing to be treated this way.
The same went for the egg custard; he clearly liked it, but being forced to eat something else was fine too. Other people he didn’t like, things he didn’t like, being forced to do them was also okay. Even if he protested, once he found it ineffective, he would just give in.
No meaningless struggles.
“Your Highness,” a voice came from beside him; it was Qi Hanmiao. “This should be left to the maid to do.”
He was talking about Jiang Wu’s hair.
With such thick long hair, it would take at least an hour or two to dry properly, so it should be left to the servants. He was worried that Yin Wuzhi would have to do this and that, which might tire him out.
“I have nothing to do today,” Yin Wuzhi replied. “I’ll give it a try; if I get tired, I’ll call a maid over.”
Qi Hanmiao sighed, “You’re working hard, Your Highness.”
So Yin Wuzhi genuinely sat in front of the dragon couch, patiently drying the damp hair until it was fresh and dry.
He ran his fingers through the roots of Jiang Wu’s hair, feeling the smooth and cool strands slipping swiftly through his fingers, making their way to the tips effortlessly.
It really grew well.
Yin Wuzhi reached out and tapped his white nose.
Fortunately, Yin Wuzhi wasn’t like the cream or the egg custard; he was something he genuinely cared about.
What exactly did Empress Dowager Yao do to you, or what did she say…
Yin Wuzhi squatted down beside the dragon couch, pulled Jiang Wu’s long hair under his chin, and inhaled the faint sweet fragrance. One day, he would untie Jiang Wu’s emotional knots and help him realize that there were still many things in this world worth caring about.
He left the couch and called Qi Hanmiao over.
“Where is the waist tube that Imperial Physician Gu used today?”
“Replying to Your Highness, it has already been put away.”
“Throw it away.”
Qi Hanmiao was momentarily taken aback, instinctively saying, “It seems His Majesty actually quite liked it.”
“Make another one,” Yin Wuzhi said. “I want a new one.”
“……Understood.”
When undisturbed, Jiang Wu always slept particularly well. This sweet, deep sleep often felt like it could replace several days of superficial slumber. When he woke up, not only did he feel refreshed, but even his bones and skin seemed different from usual.
Unfortunately…
He had to attend court that day.
After returning from court, Jiang Wu was once again listless.
Yin Wuzhi could hardly wait to tell him, “I found someone to make a new waist tube.”
Jiang Wu had already figured out what the waist tube was and showed little interest as he searched for chairs around the palace.
However, Yin Wuzhi carried him all the way to the porch. “You should still move around; it’ll be quick.”
Jiang Wu looked at him weakly, his eyes full of “no, no, no.”
“……Then, how about swinging on a swing?”
He still wanted to swing, but Yin Wuzhi had ruined all his enjoyment; he didn’t want to experience it again.
“Still no?” Yin Wuzhi looked around and noticed that all the chairs had been moved out, leaving no place for him to sit, so he could only continue carrying him.
“Then… how about I take Your Majesty out of the palace to have some fun?”
Jiang Wu buried his face in his embrace.
“I know, Your Majesty wants to sleep again, right?”
Jiang Wu’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as he half-opened his eyes.
Yin Wuzhi was certain: “You just want to sleep.”
Jiang Wu continued to look at him, but his brows were beginning to relax.
He guessed right.
Yin Wuzhi was still thinking about how to bundle himself together with Jiang Wu, saying, “You can sleep for a while, but after waking up, we still have to exercise.”
Jiang Wu relaxed and closed his eyes.
So good, Yin Wuzhi could now guess his thoughts; if this continued, he wouldn’t even need to speak in the future.
Wonderful.
