He then glanced at the basin at his feet and said in an unreadable tone, "Someone, help Young Master Lu wash up and change his clothes."
Lu Pianpian bent down to pick up the basin, saying, "I can do it myself."
Huan Changming frowned slightly, a detail noticed by Xiao Shu, who immediately said, "Pianpian! Try going along with him, don't go against him!"
Lu Pianpian paused in picking up the basin, and Xiao Shu continued to persuade her, "Just listen to me and give it a try!"
The little book reacted strongly, and after thinking for a moment, Lu Pianpian did as it said.
He straightened up, looked at Huan Changming, and said in a completely emotionless voice, "You come."
Huan Changming was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this, then snorted, "I am the emperor, how dare you order me around?"
Lu Pianpian said to Xiao Shu without any surprise, "Take a look."
Xiao Shu: "This shouldn't be..."
The next moment, Huan Changming bent down and picked up the basin. The palace servants quickly took it and fetched hot water. Just as they were about to help Lu Pianpian wash up, Huan Changming snatched the handkerchief away and said, "All of you, get out."
"yes……"
Lu Pianpian stood behind the screen, watching Huan Changming walk towards her with a handkerchief wrung out with hot water, feeling extremely surprised.
"Are your eyes on my body?"
Huan Changming folded the handkerchief and wiped Lu Pianpian's face.
Upon hearing this, Lu Pianpian immediately looked away from him and refused to look at him again. He then said, "I didn't say you couldn't look."
Lu Pianpian tried to grab the handkerchief, but said, "I'll do it myself."
"Lu Pianpian, I've condescended to wipe your face, and you're not even happy to accept it? Are you still not satisfied?"
"no……"
"If not, then stay quiet and don't move."
Huan Changming turned the handkerchief over and used it to wipe Lu Pianpian's eyebrows and eyes, so Lu Pianpian had no choice but to close her eyes.
Huan Changming looked down at Lu Pianpian, who was obediently letting him wipe her eyes with her eyes closed. This reminded him of his junior brother who had protected him several times, and a thought stirred in his heart.
He covered Lu Pianpian's eyes with a handkerchief, then lowered his head and gently kissed her between her eyebrows and eyes through the handkerchief.
What are you doing?
Huan Changming took off the handkerchief expressionlessly. "Finished wiping."
A note from the author:
Little Book: You might not know this, but my nickname is "The Love Bible".
Chapter 46
Huan Changming turned around, threw the handkerchief into the basin, took a dry handkerchief to wipe his hands, and then went around to the outside of the screen to pick up Lu Pianpian's clothes hanging to the side. "What are you still standing there like an idiot for?"
Lu Pianpian remained motionless, filled with suspicion.
Huan Changming's voice was tinged with displeasure again, "Come here."
Lu Pianpian walked slowly over, and when he was almost in front of Huan Changming, Huan Changming seemed to find him too slow. He stretched out his long arm and pulled him in front of him, then shook his outer robe in the wind and draped it over Lu Pianpian's shoulders, helping him put it on.
Only one night had passed, and Huan Changming seemed like a completely different person. Lu Pianpian was surprised and felt a chill run down her spine. "I'll do it myself."
He had experienced Huan Changming's fickle and cunning nature before, and had no idea what evil scheme Huan Changming was plotting against him now.
"What are you doing?" Huan Changming forcefully tied his belt. "You're like a porcelain doll, you'd break at the slightest bump or knock."
His words were nothing more than a veiled criticism of Lu Pianpian for being pretentious, but he didn't even consider the cause of Lu Pianpian's injury.
Lu Pianpian got angry, "Not as precious as you."
After saying that, he snatched the outer garment that was draped over Huan Changming's arm and put it on himself.
Huan Changming glanced up at him, unusually refraining from retorting. He withdrew his hand, turned to the direction outside the hall, and said, "Come in."
The old imperial physician hurriedly rushed in with his medicine chest, first bowing, and then inviting Lu Pianpian to sit down on a chair. "Young Master Lu, this old minister has come to take your pulse on His Majesty's orders."
"No need." Lu Pianpian was about to get up. "I'm fine."
Huan Changming pressed him back down, saying, "Coughing up blood every day, you're telling me this is good?"
“This is my own business, it’s none of your concern.” Lu Pianpian glanced at Huan Changming’s hand on her shoulder. “Let go.”
Huan Changming's anger surged up, but fortunately he remembered the advice of those quack doctors and tolerated Lu Pianpian this time. "Take his pulse."
The old imperial physician had never seen His Majesty suffer such a setback before. Fearing that he might inadvertently incur His Majesty's wrath, he tremblingly reached out to take Lu Pianpian's pulse.
Lu Pianpian was held down by Huan Changming and could not move, so she had no choice but to let the imperial physician take her pulse, but her expression revealed obvious dissatisfaction.
The old imperial physician quickly took Lu Pianpian's pulse, prescribed medicine, ordered the palace servants to prepare it, and then fled to take his leave.
"The person's already gone, why are you still holding me down?"
Lu Pianpian moved her shoulders, signaling Huan Changming to let go.
Huan Changming let go of her, but then felt embarrassed for letting her go so easily just because of Lu Pianpian's words. "Lu Pianpian, I'm warning you, you'd better behave yourself, or else..."
"Or what?" Lu Pianpian stood up from her chair, tilted her head back, and offered her neck to him. "Strangle me? Or slit my throat?"
When the topic of life and death came up, Lu Pianpian seemed completely unconcerned, as if he would have no fear even if Huan Changming were to slit his throat the next moment.
Huan Changming pointed at Lu Pianpian's index finger and tapped it in the air a few times, seemingly both angry and helpless. Finally, he put his hand behind his back and said, "I'm too lazy to argue with you!"
Upon hearing this, he flicked his sleeve, strode over to the other desk, sat down, and buried himself in reading the memorials.
“Pianpian, I knew I was right, didn’t I? Huan Changming really likes you!” Xiao Shu’s eyes were sharp.
Lu Pianpian didn't believe it at all. "He just can't find a new way to humiliate me right now."
"Oh dear, you really are... Look, he's holding the memorial upside down! He's feeling guilty!"
Lu Pianpian glanced in Huan Changming's direction and noticed that Huan Changming was indeed holding the memorial upside down, as if he was trying to read something from it.
Huan Changming slammed the memorial shut, looked in his direction, and met his gaze. "Lu Pianpian, why are you looking at me again?"
Lu Pianpian pursed her lips, about to speak, when the palace servants brought out breakfast.
Huan Changming then asked, "Why isn't the medicine ready yet?"
"Your Majesty, it will take a little longer to endure..."
"Okay, you can go now."
Huan Changming got up and walked to the table to sit down. Seeing that Lu Pianpian was still standing there without moving, he asked, "Does Immortal Lord Lu only drink dew and not even eat mortal food?"
Lu Pianpian couldn't stand his sarcastic remarks and immediately lost her appetite. Unexpectedly, Huan Changming went even further, saying, "It seems that Immortal Lord Lu has already achieved perfect cultivation and will soon ascend to immortality. I wonder which auspicious day Immortal Lord Lu has chosen to ascend to the upper realm? Tell me, and I will make sure that the people of Li Kingdom come to pay homage and respectfully send off Immortal Lord Lu!"
"Oh my god, Huan Changming, you're so infuriating!" Xiao Shu was angry for Lu Pianpian. "Pianpian, let's ignore him and go eat. Don't starve yourself!"
Lu Pianpian took a deep breath, sat down opposite Huan Changming, and buried her head in her food without saying a word.
"Yes! That's right, Pianpian! Eat more, let's eat him out of house and home!"
Huan Changming took a couple of bites and then put down his chopsticks. His eyes kept glancing at Lu Pianpian, but he didn't say anything more. He ate his breakfast in a fairly peaceful manner.
The palace servants brought the prepared medicine to Lu Pianpian, who picked up a spoon and stirred it in the bowl again and again, but still didn't drink it.
Huan Changming couldn't help but say, "The medicine is for you to drink."
Lu Pianpian said in a completely irrelevant tone, "When I was sick before, my senior sister always took care of me."
Huan Changming keenly sensed Lu Pianpian's intention, but did not point it out. "What do you want to say?"
"I want to see my senior sister." Lu Pianpian put down her spoon. "Only she can cure my illness."
Although he learned from the palace servants that Huan Changming had revoked the marriage between Qu Surou and Jing Yi, he didn't know if Qu Surou was alright these past few days, and he needed to see her to put his mind at ease.
"Lu Pianpian, why do you think I would let Qu Surou into the palace to see you? Do I look stupid? Letting Qu Surou into the palace to see you, and then you two, brother and sister, run away together?"
Huan Changming's tone was intense, but Lu Pianpian's reaction was more ordinary than he had expected: "Fine, then don't see me."
After Lu Pianpian finished speaking, she stood up from her seat and walked towards the inner hall.
"Come back!" Huan Changming picked up the medicine from the table and strode after Lu Pianpian. "Lu Pianpian, if you want to die, don't act like you're half-dead in front of me! It annoys me!"
Lu Pianpian turned to Huan Changming and said, "Fine, then let me go! I'll just find a place to kill myself, I promise I won't get in your way!"
He coughed violently after he finished speaking, and Huan Changming handed him the bowl of medicine. "Drink it!"
Lu Pianpian turned her face away, "I won't drink it! These medicines are useless. My senior sister will treat me!"
Huan Changming cursed the quack doctors in the palace under his breath. The medicine they prescribed had not improved Lu Pianpian's condition at all. He smashed the medicine bowl on the ground, and it shattered into pieces.
"Guards! Cut off the heads of all those quack doctors!"
Lu Pianpian grabbed Huan Changming's sleeve, "What did they do wrong?"
"Their mistake was that they couldn't cure your illness!"
"I've already told you, only Senior Sister can cure me! I'm a cultivator, not an ordinary mortal. You want those imperial physicians to treat me? Isn't that asking the impossible?"
“I don’t care if you’re an ordinary person or a cultivator. If they can’t cure you, then they are mediocre and incompetent, and it’s only right that they behead you.”
Lu Pianpian's hand, clutching Huan Changming's sleeve, trembled slightly. He had only made up an excuse to see his senior sister; he had never intended to endanger an innocent person's life. "Huan Changming, you can't be so unreasonable and domineering..."
The palace servants were still waiting for the Emperor's signal. "Your Majesty, shall we issue the decree?"
Lu Pianpian stared intently at Huan Changming, fearing that if he nodded, the imperial physician who had treated her would lose his life.
Huan Changming glanced down at Lu Pianpian's hand gripping his sleeve; her knuckles were white, and her fingertips were trembling slightly.
After a moment, he said, "I'm not playing anymore."
"yes."
Lu Pianpian's tense expression visibly relaxed. He was about to loosen his grip on Huan Changming's sleeve when Huan Changming pulled him into a hug. "What are you doing now?"
He struggled but couldn't break free. Huan Changming rested his head on his shoulder, and from a distance, they looked like a pair of lovers whispering sweet nothings to each other.
"Lu Pianpian, do you know that I have withdrawn the imperial decree to bestow marriage upon Jingyi and Qu Surou today?"
Lu Pianpian paused for a moment, then said, "Now I know."
He didn't want to reveal that he learned it from the idle chatter of the palace servants, lest Huan Changming go mad and cause these palace servants to suffer again.