Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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She switched the interface to take a look, and saw—
At the side gate, several imperial guards were stopping a somewhat disheveled old lady. The old lady banged her silver cane on the ground, her face full of anger: “Lu Huan, you are ungrateful! I was the one who sent you to court to become an official. You are clearly the grandson of my Ning Wang’s family, how did you become a prince?”
The people of the Ning Wang’s Mansion were already in a state of panic when they heard the news from the Golden Palace today. He was clearly an illegitimate son of the Ning Wang’s Mansion, so why did the Emperor say that he had been raised in Changchun Temple since childhood? Why did he suddenly become the Ninth Prince?
When Princess Ning and the Lu brothers recalled how they had failed to deal with Lu Huan, they not only failed but also suffered repeated setbacks. It was as if someone was protecting him from behind, and they couldn’t help but tremble, feeling as if the sky had fallen.
If they had really offended the Ninth Prince, then they were finished! Now that they thought about it, could it be that the downfall of the Shangguan family was also related to Lu Huan?!
Princess Ning and the others were filled with hatred and anxiety, but they were already in a precarious situation, barely able to save themselves, and had no ability to deal with Lu Huan, who had now become the Ninth Prince.
Among them, the old lady felt even more dizzy and her vision went black.
From the moment Lu Huan entered the court as an official, she had always hoped that this illegitimate son of the Ning Wang’s mansion could rise above others and bring glory to the Ning Wang’s mansion once again. But she never expected that in the end, Lu Huan did indeed become a person of noble status, but he turned into the Ninth Prince, a noble prince, while the pawn she had been counting on to bring benefits to the Ning Wang’s mansion vanished in an instant.
She was so angry that she fainted. When she woke up, she wanted to take advantage of her age to confront Lu Huan and demand an explanation.
But Lu Huan was no longer the same as before; he now had the Imperial Guards by his side, and she couldn’t even see him. So she got so angry that she started cursing, which finally got Lu Huan to come out and see her.
The steward of the Ninth Prince’s residence was personally appointed by the Emperor. He stared at the old lady who was making a scene and said angrily, “Princess Consort Ning, do you know that publicly insulting a prince is a capital offense? Your grandson has already died in battle, and the Emperor will treat the Ning Wang’s residence well. But if you continue to cry and make a scene, your whole family will be executed.”
The old lady choked on a mouthful of blood, staring intently at Lu Huan, even contemplating dying with him. She desperately tried to squeeze through, almost getting thrown out of the door by the Imperial Guards.
Lu Huan raised his hand, signalling the Imperial Guards to stop.
The old lady then pushed her way forward, grabbed his clothes, and pinched him hard, her eyes blazing with fury: “It was I who sent you to court to become an official that brought you to where you are today!”
When Su Xi saw the old lady pinch the cub, where the cub clearly frowned, obviously because it hurt.
She was somewhat angry. For the first fourteen or fifteen years her son spent in the Ning Wang’s mansion, the old lady had never inquired about him. Even after his death, the old lady wouldn’t have cared. Her son had won first place at Qiuyan Mountain and entered officialdom on his own merits— all of which he had earned himself. What did the old lady have to do with it?!
All the old lady ever gave the boy was that woodyard, but that was something the boy had risked his life to save the old lady from the icy stream!
And now she’s accusing the kid of being ungrateful? What kindness had she ever shown the kid?!
If it weren’t for the deeply ingrained traditional virtues of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, Su Xi would have already pulled the old lady away from the child.
“You have neither given me life nor raised me, so how can you say I’m ungrateful? If you stop causing trouble and stop being greedy and delusional, the Ning Wang’s mansion will be fine. But if you come again, don’t blame me for being impolite.”
Lu Huan looked at the old lady indifferently, slowly pulled her hand off his robe, and instructed his subordinates beside him, “Send her back to live out her remaining years in peace.”
The old lady seemed to have lost all hope, and her hair had turned white. Why? Her other two grandsons were both good-for-nothings, and she had finally thought that she could rely on Lu Huan to revive the glory of the Ning Wang’s Mansion, but Lu Huan was not even a bloodline of the Ning Wang’s Mansion!
It was all because of that bitch who gave birth to Lu Huan back then!
The old lady had lost her temper and was about to launch into another tirade when the Imperial Guards covered her mouth and dragged her out through a side door. The servants from the Ning Wang’s residence who had brought the old lady in her sedan chair trembled at the sight and abandoned the chair, fleeing in terror.
….
The front gate of the Ninth Prince’s residence was bustling with activity, while the side gate was a scene of utter chaos. Lu Huan glanced down at his robes, which had been torn by the old lady, frowned, and turned to go back to change. The steward then hurriedly ordered the Imperial Guards to guard the entire residence and forbid anyone from causing any more trouble.
Lu Huan entered the room and first rolled up his sleeves to take a look. Su Xi noticed that his arms were all bruised from being pinched by the old lady. He was used to such minor injuries and didn’t feel anything, but Su Xi felt a little sorry for him.
The old lady, who was not related to him by blood, treated him kindly initially, but only to use him. The emperor, who was related to him by blood, treated him kindly, but that was still a facade of scheming and manipulation.
Seeing that he had difficulty using one hand, Su Xi rolled up his sleeve and said, “I’m here.”
Lu Huan’s furrowed brows suddenly smoothed out as if seeing the sun, and he smiled as he opened the curtain: “You’ve come.”
When Su Xi saw him looking over, the image of his intense gaze from that night in the Imperial Garden flashed through her mind, and she immediately felt a little uneasy again.
She didn’t speak, and he didn’t speak either; they just looked at each other.
“…”
The two of them were suddenly plunged into an eerie atmosphere again.
Su Xi, who had managed to suppress her blushing and racing heart, suddenly felt her face burning again. She coughed and asked, “Does it hurt? Why didn’t you move away just now?”
“It hurts.” Lu Huan sighed softly. He sat down on the bed, raised his head, and said to Su Xi, “There seems to be another bruise on the back of my shoulder. It hurts terribly, but I can’t get rid of it by rubbing it myself.”
Su Xi’s eyelids twitched. What? What did that mean? Did he mean he wanted her to rub it for him?
Lu Huan stood up, untied his outer robe, under which he wore a snow-white inner garment that resembled a snow pine. He rolled up the right sleeve of the inner garment to his shoulder, revealing his slender arm with clean and sharp lines, and the skin on his shoulder looked as if it had been coated with a layer of white glaze.
Su Xi: …!
Su Xi almost thought he was going to take off his clothes, but luckily he only rolled up his right sleeve.
He looked at Su Xi, showed her the bruises on the back of his shoulder, and repeated, “It hurts.”
Su Xi looked at his clean and strong arms, her face flushed and her heart pounded. She stammered, “If you can’t rub them yourself, shouldn’t there be maids or servants in the manor? You know I can’t rub them properly through the phone.”
Lu Huan stared at her intently, sighed softly, and sat down again, his arms hanging limply: “You weren’t like this before. Before, when I was sick and couldn’t catch a cold, you…”
He seemed to be thinking about the past, and felt a little melancholy. He sighed heavily again.
Su Xi: …?
No, before you were a fair-skinned little dumpling, so it didn’t matter if I saw you completely naked… But now, just looking at your long, strong arms makes my heart skip a beat.
“The other night you asked me about the Emperor, and I said that the Emperor is heartless and fickle.” Lu Huan raised his dark eyelashes and said quietly, “Xiao Xi, your behavior now is no different from that of the Emperor.”
Su Xi’s head was buzzing from his nagging. When he raised his head, about to continue with some more outrageous remarks, Su Xi’s scalp tingled. She hurriedly said, “Stop, stop! I’ll rub it for you, okay?”
Lu Huan raised his arm, his ears turning slightly red.
Su Xi resignedly poked his arm, then got some blood-activating and stasis-removing medicine from the mall and applied it.
For some reason, when this person was still a kid, doing these things felt perfectly natural, but now, just looking at his exposed fair shoulders makes Su Xi feel a little feverish.
“Sigh…” Lu Huan sighed again when he saw her hesitate.
Su Xi gritted her teeth and said, “Screw you, keep rubbing! If you ask me to rub again, I’m logging off!”
Lu Huan looked away, and although he tried his best to hold back, a hint of light still shone in his eyes.
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