/
Chapter 25: Unknowingly Stirring Up Emotion
After the procession arrived at Luoxian Palace, Luo Yu ordered a palace attendant to fetch the tea set. Saying that the tea had been brewed already and asking the Empress to come to have a taste had been an excuse hurriedly spouted during the moment. The Empress knew, the palace attendants knew, and Luo Yu did not mention anything. With a nonchalant expression, he rinsed the tea set with hot water, and then poured the freshly-brewed tea…
Tea ceremonies and the art of brewing tea was a very particular and detailed process. Qianhe Liyou naturally did not understand this, but looking at the elegant and skillful movements of the man in front of him, she felt that the tea exuded an alluring taste.
After waiting for the time it took half of the incense stick to burn down, Luo Yu finally presented a cup of tea. The elegant and delicate fragrance steaming out assailed Qianhe Liyou’s nose. She quite liked the fragrance and savored the tea carefully. For a time, two people tasted and savored their tea, and the fragrance of tea in the room lingered, swirling around in the air. No one broke the misty atmosphere.
“Huang’er, you have been paying attention to your harem recently.” After half a cup of tea, Luo Yu said softly, his placid eyes softened when he looked at Qianhe Liyou.
“Just trying to understand it.” In response to Luo Yu’s question, replied in a similarly indifferent tone.
“Then what has Huang’er come to understand?” Luo Yu’s eyes contained a bit of mirth. The Empress’ ‘understanding’ would cause people to panic. Other than Qin Ning who had attempted to take his life, he heard that the King Consort had fallen ill. Murong Xuanhe was also in a trance all day long and Situ Hongyu had been banished to the Cold Palace. Half of the consorts and concubines in the harem had been messed up by the Empress’ little words of ‘understanding’, who could not find this matter laughable?
Luo Yu was innately an unfeeling and heartless person. He would not care about people who had nothing to do with him. Now, besides himself, he only cared for the person in front of him. His daughter, a person who once disappointed him to the point of despair. But now, this person had rekindled his hope.
For the current Luo Yu, his eyes were full of the person in front of him. As long as this person was happy, he would feel satisfied.
“Incomparable to the person in front.“ Qianhe Liyou’s eyes fell on Luo Yu’s face and she replied with a soft sigh.
Luo Yu was inwardly surprised, his eyebrows raising slightly, his inquiring eyes meeting the deep black of Qianhe Liyou’s gaze. After thinking for a brief moment, he reacted, a smile appearing on his cold face, “Empress, if you used such sweet, honeyed words to those consorts and concubines, I’d estimate that they would never make trouble again.”
If the person who said had not been his own daughter, he would of thought it was Dengtu Zi* teasing him himself. But Huang’er’s words made him feel sweet. It turns out that in Huang’er’s heart, those young and beautiful consorts in their prime was not as good as himself.
*Dengtu Zi is a fictional character in the book 《 Fu on Master Dengtu, the LEcher》 written by Song Yu of the Chu Kingdom during the Warring States Period. It is unknown whether it is based on a real person. The work contains a paragraph in which a man politely presents poetry to a young lady to express his love. Either way, this story is related to love or the relationship between a man and women, indicating that flirtation is not unusual in Chinese literary tradition. For this novel, it basically implies a lecher or more accurately a flirtatious casanova.
“Royal Father is old, how can I be compared with those juniors. Huang’er, treat them better and spoil them more. This Royal Father hopes to see an Imperial grandson soon. As for the Enchanting guifei, Royal Father doesn’t like him very much. His character is not suitable to be in the harem, but his belly does contain your flesh and blood after all. When the child is born, take care of the matter. You have already grown up and you should understand what to do.”
Guifei: Imperial Consort of the highest rank and is below the Empress (King Consort)
Luo Yu was the most like a father at this time. His expression was soft, and there was not a trace of coldness, only caring. Qianhe Liyou could feel Luo Yu’s tenderness, her mood becoming increasingly calm. However, the words Luo Yu said after made her feel a little uncomfortable, but she didn’t know the reason for her discomfort.
“Do you like children?” If Luo Yu liked them, she could always ask for more. Additionally, the child born by the Enchanting guifei could also be given to Luo Yu to personally raise.
“…This, your child, Royal Father, of course, would like it.” Luo Yu said hesitantly. He knew his personality very well. Of course, he would not like other people’s children, but if it was the Empress’ child, he should like it.
Qianhe Liyou observed Luoyo’s moment of hesitation and smiled in her heart. How could such a cold and an unfeeling person like it? He could only regard it as not annoying. She didn’t know why, but Qianhe Liyou understood the matter better than Luo Yu himself. Coldness was actually a kind of selfishness—a type of indifference. Luo Yu was such a person, but he was also candid and as a result, everyone knew that he was such a person. He did not hide or disguise his true personality, which Qianhe Liyou liked.
Zombies did not love, at least not before. She had never felt it before, but for Luo Yu, a person who was unforgettable from the first time they met, her emotions were stirred up. It was just that she was not sure of her own thoughts at the moment. She just knew that she wanted to quietly spend time with this person and feel this person’s cold fragrance.
“If you like it, I can leave the child for you to raise.” Although she knew the other party would not accept it, Qianhe Liyou wanted to tease Luo Yu, her expression serious.
“Ah, leave it to me? No, no, no, no need. I am not suitable to raise children…” Luo Yu hurriedly refused and followed after Qianhe Liyou in calling himself ‘I’ instead of using the proper decorum. He had a slightly embarrassed expression, but inadvertently saw the faint smile on Qianhe Liyou’s face. Instantly realizing that he had been teased, his face flushed.
“Huang’er, you’re actually teasing Father!”
“How is this teasing? If you really like it, I will decree this matter down.” As long as it was what he wanted, she was willing to do it. Even if it were to witness this embarrassed and bashful expression again, it would be worth it.
“No, I just want you to be happy. What would I want children for? Although this palace is cold and lonely, it is a suitable existence for me. I don’t need extra people to accompany me. As long as you have time, come and visit me more often, okay?” There was a touch of sadness in his shy expression, not because of loneliness, but because of his unchangeable destiny.
He never struggled for anything, precisely because there was nothing he cared about. As such, as the only person living in this big residence, he did not feel any deep sorrow.
“You can visit me whenever you want to see me.” Although she knew that this man was past the age of experiencing the glory and riches of being young and he was considered past his prime, she still felt that this man was still a child. She felt the urge to touch his head and comfort him, and she did as such.
Qianhe Liyou hugged Luo Yu in her arms, and lightly set her head on top of Luo Yu’s hair. She silently comforted Luo Yu who had become slightly depressed.
“Huang’er, the current you, it’s so nice.” Feeling a cool body temperature hugging him, his heart felt unusually warm. Luo Yu couldn’t help but express his true feelings at the moment.
Luo Yu, who was being held in Qianhe Liyou’s embrace at the time did not see Qinhe Liyou’s expression after hearing his words, but the palace attendants around all witnessed it. That kind of warm smile was something they had never seen grace the Empress’ face before. The beautiful face was still cold, but it now possessed an irresistible warmth. This contradiction made people feel incomparably harmonious, yet also dangerous, making people feel the urge to indulge in it, unable to extricate themselves from this spider-web of light and dark.
“From now, can you call me by my name? I want to hear you call my name.” She had always been taboo about upholding their parent-child relationship. She did not want to call him ‘Royal Father’ and naturally did not want to listen to him call her Huang’er.
“Name? Liyou?” Although Luo Yu felt something was slightly strange about Qianhe Liyou’s request, he didn’t think anything was wrong.
“Say it again.”
“Liyou…”