Chapter 43: His Impatience, His Recklessness
Who’s willing to sit on the floor? Bai Xiangxiu hesitated for a moment before finally placing her hand in the male lead’s palm. His body was hot to the touch. Didn’t most novels describe men’s hands as slightly cool? Why was his hand this warm?
She immediately flicked her hand away as if it’d been burned the moment it touched his palm. However, seeing that his hand hadn’t moved at all, it seemed like there was no danger. She slowly placed her hand in his palm.
She looked just like a little cat that was testing its food. Long Heng’s heart almost stopped beating, and he almost gave in to the urge to pull her into his embrace and stroke her lightly. However, just like a little animal that had just relaxed its guard, if he made a move now, it would only scare her away. Thus, Long Heng restrained himself. After pulling her upright, he didn’t make any more moves and said, “Let’s continue!”
“Okay!” Practicing her calligraphy was really painful, especially with the male lead sitting right next to her. That scent so unique to a man filled the air, so she couldn’t calm down even though she wanted to!
However, the other was serenely teaching her how to write, stroke by stroke. Sometimes, he would even hold her hand to teach her the proper way to write. In her heart, she was complaining without pause: Male lead, what’s up with you? What are you doing here when you should be looking for the female lead! How could she know that Long Heng was feeling equally bad about their current situation?
He had never been this close to a woman since he was a young boy. Most importantly, he had to be extremely careful, like she was something extremely fragile. However, he was a man with a great temper. He was impatient and impulsive. However, just like facing a little animal that could startle in fright at any time, he could only stifle his impulses. Even as he sat there for this short period, he had already downed three cups of tea.
Each of them had their own thoughts, so there wasn’t much progress in this round of calligraphy practice. After a decent amount of time had passed by, the cactus Huo’er spoke up, “La lala lala ~, Mistress, those two bad women are back. The woman with a piece of me inside her said that she’s going to give it to you good this time. She said she’s not going to let you use the prince’s favor to do as you like. She says you’re shameless for trying to help Old Madame with the management of the household. How shameless of you! You’re still just a concubine even if they paste gold paper to you. The other bad woman told her to calm down and gain the prince’s heart first before moving.”
Eh…
They were going to start some marital politics and schemes?
But, the prince was here right now. They were even ambiguously writing words with their hands clasped together. If the women barged into this situation, it would be terribly awkward. But soon after that first thought, just as she was about to wrestle herself out of his hold, a second thought lit up her mind.
She was also the prince’s concubine. Being physically intimate with him was something that was completely reasonable, so what if other people saw this? Furthermore, they wouldn’t barge in all of a sudden, surely a servant would announce their arrivals. Furthermore, no matter what motives they had in mind today, they would have to scram with their tails between their legs once they saw the prince here. She didn’t need to be afraid of anything.
Her thoughts gradually steadying itself, she calmed down and let the male lead grasp her hand as they wrote calligraphy.
However, what she didn’t realize was that there were very few servants in Winter Garden to begin with. After the old servants had taught her what needed to be taught, they had gone back to their original posts. Who would stay here and be an eyesore in the prince’s eyes? As for Xiao Shi, the tea in the room had been gulped down, so she had gone to boil water and brew more tea. She hadn’t even come back yet.
Thus, under this curious set of circumstances, the two mistresses from the Spring and Summer Gardens managed to barge into her rooms with utter impunity.
The first concubine was even smiling as she walked in, “Aiyo, our little sister’s courtyard is rather quiet, there isn’t even a servant to announce… announce… “ Her next words were swallowed as she bent down in greeting, her teeth grinding tightly, “This concubine greets His Highness.”
It was broad daylight, yet they were sticking so closely to each other. She was indeed a fox demoness who specialized in seducing people, The second concubine also saw the situation and hurriedly bent down in a greeting.
Within an instant, the two pairs of masters and servants were all kneeling. They were concubines, so even at home, they had to make a formal greeting to the master. That’s right, though the prince was their husband, he was also their master. Long Heng was equally speechless. His good mood had been ruined like a snap of a finger, just like that.
His personality had always been rather explosive, and he had never held much tenderness towards woman. The temper he had been repressing burst out at this moment, and he tossed the brush down with a smack.
However, since he was a man, he didn’t put them in their position. He simply said coldly, “Don’t walk around randomly if you don’t have any business. All of you, go back!”
The senior concubine was smart and hurriedly agreed. However, the second concubine was the prettiest one of the four, second to only Bai Xiangxiu. How would she give up on this supposedly golden chance?
They already had limited chances to personally encounter the prince in the rear court. Since he had returned to the estate, they had merely met two or three times.
She put on an extremely pitiful appearance and said, “Your Highness, it’s not that we were barging in randomly. If Little Sister’s courtyard had enough servants, we wouldn’t have just barged in like this. In broad daylight, this concubine didn’t expect Your Highness would be in Little Sister’s room, so we happened to impinge upon you.”
The senior concubine inwardly cursed her as an idiot as soon as her words left her mouth. It’s fine if you scolded only Miss Bai, but the Prince is right here too! Aren’t you secretly saying that he’s acting too depraved in broad daylight?
As expected, Long Heng’s expression went from bad to thunderous. He’d set aside considerations of his face in flirting with Bai Xiangxiu shamelessly, but the second concubine had practically slapped him across the face by speaking of it in this manner. She really was completely tearing down his dignity as a man.
He was the male lead of the novel and a cold-blooded general at that, or he wouldn’t have been conferred the title of Prince Li. He had been carefully stifling his temper to avoid startling the little coward, Bai Xiangxiu, but now all his shame and frustration came bursting out like a newly released dam.
“Is that so? Since you know that you’ve impinged on this prince, what are you still kneeling there for? Servants! Bring the second concubine and the senior concubine to be punished according to the household rules!” The person he called was the secret bodyguard he kept by his side. Normally, they would just remain hidden, but the prince’s orders were absolute to them.
Hearing Long Heng’s order, they went to call the old servants and servant girls. The first concubine knelt and pled for mercy with an ashen face, “Prince, please have mercy on this concubine. This concubine will return and won’t ever come to Little Sister’s place again.”
“Shut up!” Long Heng shouted angrily. His killer aura had completely suppressed everyone present. Unfortunately, Xiao Shi chose that moment to walk in with tea and was hit by the blast of aura. She was so frightened, she accidentally knocked over the teapot.
Bai Xiangxiu trembled a little even as she wondered if Xiao Shi had burned her hand. Actually, she hadn’t been frightened by the prince, but was completely frightened by Xiao Shi’s next action, because that girl had just knelt on the spilled tea.
However, Long Heng didn’t think so. He knew what he was like when his temper flared up. Not a single person in the entire army could remain unafraid. Looking at the two women kneeling before him, they had already been scared stiff, hadn’t they?
This Miss Bai was already timid from the start; had she been scared witless by him just now? He secretly peeked at her face and saw its pale complexion. Her wide and spirited eyes held tears that didn’t dare trace their way down her cheek. Her gaze was unfocused, but aimed at the door, and her hands constantly wrung a handkerchief between them. It was obvious. She had clearly been scared by him.
“Take them away. Just take them away! Don’t let them speak any more nonsense.” He waved his hands and the old servants who had just entered quickly pulled the two concubines away. However, Long Heng said, “Take them to their own courtyards for punishment. Make sure they remember not to run about randomly if they don’t have any business.”
“Understood.” The old servants left after pulling away the two concubines. The entire room had been cleared in the blink of an eye.
Bai Xiangxiu glanced at Xiao Shi and spoke in a quiet voice, “Quickly get up and brew some tea for the prince to calm down.” When she stood up, she saw that Xiao Shi hadn’t shown any signs of pain in her expression. Upon realizing that Xiao Shi most likely hadn’t suffered an injury, Bai Xiangxiu relaxed.
