The Regent’s Little Emperor (29)
Xie Yunting looked at her, eyes flashing with a trace of embarrassment, but there were more annoyance and a deep-seated struggle.
He’d just seen her wearing women’s clothes.
He thought she was from his dreams.
The little emperor had been a crown prince, for so many years, how could she be a woman.
In the palace environment, there was no way to conceal a woman dressed as a man.
Bai Weiwei saw his lifeless face and felt she shouldn’t go too far.
She rose from the bed and stuffed the buns back.
Xie Yunting saw her actions, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
Bai Weiwei didn’t mind him and headed out. She saw the firewood-cutting sage had already boiled the medicine. After thanking him, she took the medication and walked back inside.
Xie Yunting leaned on the edge of the bed and looked at her with a deep gaze. Bai Weiwei sat by the bed, stirred the medicine with a spoon, and began to feed him.
While she fed him the medicine, she said quietly, “Nowadays my uncle is using all his strength to cut us down and smoothly take the throne,”
Xie Yunting listened to her words, but his mind had long since departed.
He saw her in a tweed dress, wearing a woman’s hairpin, her white and delicate fingers holding a spoon, so pretty his heart trembled.
Bai Weiwei delivered the medicine into his mouth. “So get better soon, or we’ll die together when the soldiers arrive.”
Yunting didn’t swallow the medicine but instead looked at her, his gaze scrutinizing.
Bai Weiwei maintained her posture and just looked at him blankly.
After a moment of silence, Bai Weiwei suddenly reversed her hand and fed herself a spoonful of medicine.
She frowned bitterly, “It’s fine, it’s not poison, drink quickly,”
Xie Yunting, this goods1, was so narrow-minded, and paranoid, needing to test his medicine for poison.
Xie Yunting’s lips were pressed tightly together. He hesitated for a moment before asking, “Why did you save me,”
Bai Weiwei still tasted the bitterness on her lips. She impatiently replied, “You think I wanted to? Zhao Wang is no better than my useless imperial father. He is cruel and violent. If Zhao Wang succeeds the throne, then the citizens will be worn down by his revolt.”
Xie Yunting couldn’t help but say: “I’m also a rebel.”
Bai Weiwei coldly snorted. “How are you the same? When you revolted, you didn’t touch the common people. If Zhao Wang rebels, he’ll massacre everyone on his way to the palace.”
The little emperor’s opinion of him had always been so high.
Bai Weiwei gently sighed, she looked at him, her eyes focused and serious.
“Xie Yunting, between Zhao Wang and you, I would choose you to be emperor.”
He hesitatingly asked, “What about yourself?”
Bai Weiwei looked at him like he was a fool, “Myself? Although I keep saying I this and that, I’ve spent too long pretending to be incompetent2. For over a decade, I haven’t had any people left to work under me, not to mention even less military power. The moment you broke into the palace, I’d already failed.”
No soldiers and no power, what did she have to fight against Xie Yunting thinking of this, Bai Weiwei somewhat roughly shoved the bowl of medicine against his mouth, “Hurry and drink medicine, if it weren’t for the fact that you keep the people in your heart, and that you can be a good emperor, it wouldn’t be worth it to save you.”
Xie Yunting heard these words. Clearly, they were words he loved to hear.
But his mood soured.
She saved him only because he could oppose Zhao Wang.
Only because he was a better emperor than Zhao Wang,
He knew his attitude was starting to become abnormal, yet the little emperor had still maintained her free and unrestrained manner3, not affected by him at all.
He clenched his fist, feeling depressed.
The woodcutter went to fetch firewood, and they were the only ones left in the thatched cottage.
Bai Weiwei looked out the window, bored.
The sun began to shift, shining a layer of radiance on her clean white face.
Xie Yunting squinted at her, his mood complicated, but not showing the slightest trace on his face.
He suddenly said coldly: “I have always returned hatred with revenge, and kindness with favor. You saved me this time, so I will spare your life.”
1: 这货: a mildly insulting term often used between friends. Not really a curse word, but definitely not a compliment.↩
2: 韬光养晦了: cover light and nurture in the dark; to conceal your strength and bide your time.↩
3: 闲云野鹤: drifting clouds and wild cranes.↩