"Rong Mu, you have crossed the line," Shang Cizhou said coldly.
Rong Mu sighed: "Your Majesty is still so petty. Can't I even ask?"
Shang Cizhou no longer looked at that face of his, tossing Rong Mu onto the soft couch.
"Do not speak to me in that tone."
Rong Mu was puzzled: "Why?"
Because it always made him have the illusion that they were close.
But Shang Cizhou had long forgotten how to speak the truth from his heart, only saying indifferently: "I am the Emperor."
Rong Mu was silent for a few breaths. "Your Majesty is truly a cold, hard stone, just like the floor tiles of this Ziyuan Hall. No matter how you warm them, they won't heat up."
Shang Cizhou glanced at him and called toward outside the hall: "Lang Xi."
In the next instant, Lang Xi carefully entered carrying a bowl of thick black medicinal soup.
Rong Mu's eyes instantly widened: "What are you trying to do!"
Eunuch Lang said with a bitter face: "The consort was drunk during the day. This is the sobering soup His Majesty specially prepared for the consort. It must be drunk while hot to be effective."
Rong Mu turned his head to look at Shang Cizhou in disbelief: "Can't Your Majesty's sobering soup not look like poison?!" This was revenge!
Shang Cizhou was ruthlessly cold: "I specifically instructed that it must teach Consort Rong a lesson, to show the depth of imperial favor."
Rong Mu took a deep breath: "This servant helped Your Majesty get rid of a whole bundle of romantic entanglements today. Your Majesty won't be pressured to marry for a long time to come!"
Lang Xi urged repeatedly from the side: "Consort, don't be angry with His Majesty. These are all good ingredients inside. Drinking it won't do any harm."
Shang Cizhou sat by the couch, as if planning to watch him drink it down.
Rong Mu repeatedly refused to no avail. He reluctantly took one sip, and his face instantly changed color. He pushed Lang Xi away, leaned over the edge of the couch, and spat out the medicine, dry heaving several times.
Lang Xi hadn't expected such a severe reaction from Rong Mu. For a moment, he stood frozen in place, too frightened to move.
"Take it away. Bring sweet soup instead," Shang Cizhou suddenly said.
Only then did Lang Xi feel as if granted amnesty, turning to leave quickly.
Rong Mu's black hair hung loose, his face buried at the edge of the couch so his expression couldn't be seen clearly. After a long while, he raised a pale face.
He was a man, he shouldn't have reacted so strongly. Rong Mu's gaze drifted toward the Bijiangxue outside the window, speechlessly closing his eyes.
This tyrant forcing medicine on him was no different than pouring concentrated Chinese medicine directly into a lotus pond. Lotus flowers prefer clear water, and plant roots are fragile. Even the best tonic medicine cannot withstand such concentration, it would only corrode the original body.
Rong Mu silently lay back on the couch. His reddened eyes from choking turned once, landing on the Emperor.
Shang Cizhou was looking at him in silence, his face as aloof and unapproachable as ever, only his deep eyes making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
"This servant originally thought that even if Your Majesty handles matters extremely, looking at the details, you could at least be considered a good person."
Shang Cizhou's hand, which had been turning his thumb ring, paused.
Rong Mu had gone out and drunk wine for this tyrant, and upon returning was forced to drink medicine. His voice was several degrees weaker than usual, and a nameless fire also smoldered in his heart.
He said: "Now it seems it is truly as this servant heard. Your Majesty is ruthless and merciless, never listening to others' words, too lazy to open your heart to us subjects. Preferring to stay high above, Your Majesty is such a loner. Aren't you worried that one day there will no longer be a single person in this world who loves you?"
Shang Cizhou suddenly clenched his fingers tight, dangerous turbulence in the depths of his eyes.
Rong Mu met his gaze. From beginning to end, he had hidden within him an unyielding spirit that refused to lose to the Emperor. As the two confronted each other in silence, it was as if the same sharp shadow appeared in both of them.
Watching from outside the hall, Lang Xi broke out in a cold sweat. Previously, he had dared to persuade Rong Mu, thinking his mind was somewhat lacking. But now, looking at Rong Mu like this, he somehow felt that his aura was no less than his own master's.
These two, one was the dignified Son of Heaven, the other a forced favored consort... Lang Xi patted his head, thinking to himself that he had truly been too busy and muddled lately.
After a while, Shang Cizhou slowly answered the unasked question: "Since you cannot drink bitter medicine, why didn't you inform Lang Xi earlier?"
His tone was light and provocative: "Oh... I forgot. The consort drinks dew every morning at sunrise, sunbathes punctually at noon, and in the evening still swats mosquitoes and moves flowers. His day is busier than mine, the Emperor. I'm afraid you didn't know you would react so strongly to bitter medicine, did you?"
Rong Mu's heart tightened, his eyes imperceptibly drifting toward the Bijiangxue outside the window.
"Those who know would say the attendant has a leisurely lifestyle. Those who don't know might think the consort has some unspeakable secret illness... Tell me, is it or isn't it?"
Rong Mu knew that with the Emperor's dog temper, he would definitely find a way to snap back at him. But he hadn't expected the other to have already thought to this layer.
He was a lotus flower, born to belong in the lotus-loving Nandai, yet by some twist of fate was sent into the Great Shang Imperial Palace where lotus flowers couldn't survive. This was already an extremely dangerous matter.
If the Emperor were to know that a lotus flower, which Great Shang rejected, had actually transformed into a lotus spirit, what awaited him would likely be a fierce fire..
Rong Mu took a deep breath, turned over, and decided to unilaterally end this confrontation.
After a while, that gaze from behind, which seemed about to bore a hole through him, finally withdrew. Immediately after came the sound of the hall door being pushed open with force.
Rong Mu opened his eyes, an inexplicable grievance rising in his heart.
What are you angry about? So what if you're the Emperor? There are three countries with emperors. He was currently the only male demon spirit in this world!
Rong Mu felt he needed to stick close to his original body. His big flower pot was honest and dependable to hold, nothing like this cunning, treacherous Emperor.
Thinking this, Rong Mu called out: "Eunuch Lang.."
Lang Xi carefully poked his head in from outside: "What does the consort command?"
Rong Mu said sullenly: "Bring Bijiangxue in for me. I want to appreciate the flowers."
Eunuch Lang made an affirmative sound: "This servant will go move it now."
After Lang Xi moved Bijiangxue inside, Rong Mu also sat up cross-legged on the couch. He propped his cheek on one hand, the flesh at the side of his face bunching up slightly. Ming Chun had also returned by now and was outside the hall brewing new sobering soup for him.
Lang Xi stood to the side with a worried expression, hinting: "Consort, His Majesty went to the front hall again just now."
Rong Mu also responded with a cold "oh." "What did he go to do?"
Lang Xi glanced at Rong Mu, sighed and said: "I'm afraid he will be processing state affairs for another whole day. His Majesty has never liked attendants following him. This servant can only worry quietly."
Rong Mu inhaled the cute, round Bijiangxue, his ears quietly listening to Lang Xi's words.
"What the consort doesn't know is that since His Majesty ascended the throne, he has never missed a single morning court session. He is extremely rigorous when discussing matters with officials. If there are major disasters affecting the people, His Majesty will occasionally rush to the location overnight, conducting inspections in disguise until the disaster subsides. Through summers and winters, from age sixteen to now without a moment's rest, only then did Great Shang's emerging prosperous atmosphere come to be."
Rong Mu slowly turned his gaze to Lang Xi, watching this old eunuch continue: "Actually, back in the previous Emperor's reign, the impoverished and weak Great Shang fought a war with Nandai. The Nandai royal family was extremely skilled in archery, and this influenced their soldiers, including some Nandai generals who could take lives from beyond a hundred meters. At that time, if not for His Majesty, who was then Crown Prince, leading the charge personally, Nandai would have crossed the Hankou River."
This was all history Rong Mu wanted to know but had nowhere to investigate. He unconsciously straightened his back, and the nameless fire in his heart slowly subsided.
Lang Xi: "His Majesty turned the tide and snatched victory from defeat, curbing Nandai's offensive. The previous Emperor was overjoyed, but he didn't like His Majesty. When distributing rewards, other princes who hadn't contributed much received gold, silver, jewels, carriages, and beautiful concubines. Only His Majesty received a single pot of flowers sent by Nandai when they sued for peace."
Rong Mu was dumbstruck.
The prince with the greatest merit only received a pot of flowers? If this had been the current mad Emperor, the person who sent the flowers would probably have been torn apart by five horses.
Rong Mu slowly opened his mouth: "I understand what Eunuch Lang means. Nothing more than that Your Majesty had no fatherly love in his youth and had a very miserable life, isn't that right?"
Lang Xi lowered his head and sighed: "If only it were just that."
"His Majesty had no birth mother from childhood, yet was precisely the legitimate prince of the noble Central Palace, thus developing a proud and unyielding temperament. In earlier years, General Li was still His Majesty's study companion. At that time, although His Majesty was also difficult to get along with, he at least had some liveliness about him. Now..."
Lang Xi dared not say what he was like now, but Rong Mu could guess.
Now, where was there any liveliness? A mad, gloomy Emperor had made the entire imperial palace walk on thin ice.
The sun couldn't warm the palace's glazed emerald tiles, and no one could warm the monarch's cold heart.
"This servant is not like General Li and others who grew up with His Majesty, so I don't know what else His Majesty experienced in his early years. But this servant knows it must have been something extremely sorrowful and heartbreaking. More unforgettable than lacking the love of father and mother... Since ancient times, only great sorrow and great pain can lead to great awakening. It's just that His Majesty's great awakening is even more concerning..."
Lang Xi spoke with sighs and a pained expression. "Consort, don't say that no one loves His Majesty. Perhaps there once was someone who loved His Majesty."
"It's just that now, for some unknown reason, the person who loved His Majesty is no longer here."
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