Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Aura of Danger, Speaking of the Past
Ji Qingwu’s tone was light and gentle.
"However, for Your Majesty, I can make an exception." Her words echoed what he had said earlier.
Emperor Wu Su tilted his head to look at her earlobe, his eyes deep. He asked in a low voice, "And how will Ah Wu make an exception?"
She smiled and whispered in his ear, "I have nothing with which to repay you, so I can only offer my body... for an ’embrace’."
As she spoke, the arms around his neck tightened, and her supple waist pressed against his firm chest for a moment.
Ji Qingwu’s aqua-blue dress was thin and light. Her skin was cool to the touch, a pleasant sensation on a summer night that had yet to lose its heat.
Not to mention, when she pressed against him like that, it was like holding a piece of white jade that had been soaked in spring water.
But this blessing was one Emperor Wu Su only enjoyed for a moment.
Ji Qingwu’s "repayment" turned out to be just that brief, shallow hug, after which she shyly pulled away.
Unintentionally luring someone in and then quickly fleeing is a dangerous game.
Taking advantage of his momentary stupor, Ji Qingwu, thinking she had been quick enough, retreated to the window. She propped her head on her hand and watched his reaction.
Emperor Wu Su smiled silently, looking exceptionally gentle.
But Ji Qingwu immediately sensed an air of danger.
Before she could make another move, the man spun around and pinned her by her slender shoulders.
He was not only fast but also strong. Her back slammed against the window frame. She raised her arms to block him, only for Emperor Wu Su to easily restrain them with a single arm.
She could only watch as he leaned in, pressing down on her.
Emperor Wu Su leaned further and further down, his pine-straight back bending over the delicate, begonia-like flower.
The mullions of the window frame dug into Ji Qingwu’s back, causing a dull pain. She pushed against him fiercely a few times, but it was useless. He simply grabbed her hands.
His voice was deeper than the night outside, but the light in his eyes was brighter than the moon in the sky.
"Why run? Have you still not grasped your situation?"
Her cheeks were squeezed by his hand, and she hastily mumbled, "I have, I have..." But it was too late for words.
’How can someone’s tongue and lips be skilled in martial arts, too...?’ she thought, right before the last wisp of her consciousness faded.
On the battlefield, Emperor Wu Su was brilliant and masterful, his strategies infallible.
In a battle of lips and teeth, he was just as unstoppable, conquering all before him and achieving a total victory.
Ji Qingwu was merely an armchair general, all talk and no substance. She had no power to resist and was quickly defeated.
She could only cling limply to his shoulders, pleading with him to sound the retreat and end the battle soon.
Only when pale pink had been crushed into deep crimson did Emperor Wu Su finally let her go.
Ji Qingwu nearly passed out. She gasped for breath for quite a while.
Emperor Wu Su’s arm held her waist tightly, refusing to let go. He looked down, his dark gaze sweeping over her eyebrows, eyes, nose, and lips.
After a sigh, he asked, "When will you be willing to show me your true face?"
Poor Ji Qingwu’s senses had been swept away. She remained dazed for a long moment, her watery eyes wide, her lips slightly parted as she took small, gasping breaths.
Emperor Wu Su’s brow twitched. With a strange expression, he reached out and covered her eyes.
"Don’t look at me like that," he said, his tone impatient.
His palm covered most of her face. Ji Qingwu, not understanding why, blinked in discomfort. Her eyelashes brushed against his palm several times.
Her lips pouted with a hint of displeasure.
As her lashes fluttered, the sensation caused Emperor Wu Su to suck in a sharp breath. He pulled his hand away and leaned down to press against her again.
Ji Qingwu’s poor back slammed against the frame again, and she trembled in pain.
"My back hurts..."
Emperor Wu Su had no choice but to stop. He scooped her up and carried her to the spacious bed in the inner room.
His gaze swept over the pale cyan bed curtains. This time, the little girl wasn’t on the bed, nor were her small pillow and bedding.
Ji Qingwu explained, "Jiu Jiu is staying at Anju Garden."
Mrs. Qiao said that once Jiu Jiu begins her formal education, she’ll be a big girl. According to custom, children of aristocratic families should live on their own after their first birthday. In families with stricter rules, infants are raised by wet nurses from birth.
But since Jiu Jiu had just arrived in Lin’an City, Ji Qingwu worried the little girl wouldn’t adjust, so she had refused Mrs. Qiao’s suggestion and kept her by her side.
A few days ago, because Ji Qingwu was confined, Jiu Jiu was looked after by Nanny Li at Anju Garden. She was already able to sleep by herself. Seeing that she was adapting well, Mrs. Qiao had specifically discussed it with her, suggesting it was best not to keep moving her back and forth.
Emperor Wu Su nodded. "It should have been this way sooner," he said faintly.
Then, without pausing, he turned Ji Qingwu over.
Ji Qingwu’s face was pressed into the soft pillow. She tried to push herself up but was held down. "Don’t move," he said. "Let me see if you’re hurt."
The aqua-blue long dress was removed, revealing her snow-white inner clothes. The lapel was embroidered with a pattern of intertwined lotus vines, and the skin near her collar glowed with a faint, pearly luster.
Ji Qingwu felt her inner clothes being lifted, exposing most of her back and the tempting curve of her slender waist.
Although the summer night wasn’t cold, being in just her undergarments without her inner robes felt as if she had lost a layer of security.
On the woman’s smooth, jade-like back, between her two scapulae—her "butterfly bones"—two deep red marks had indeed appeared.
Against the expanse of white, they were shocking to the eye.
In truth, it wasn’t as serious as it looked. Ji Qingwu’s skin was delicate, and even a little force would leave a mark, but it would also fade quickly.
She clutched her inner clothes and said softly, "It’s fine. They’ll be gone by tomorrow."
Emperor Wu Su frowned. "Do you have any pain-relieving ointment?" he asked.
Ji Qingwu lifted her head slightly from the soft pillow and said, "It only hurts if you touch it. There’s no need for ointment. When I fell from a horse and injured myself before, it was much worse than this..."
Her words came to an abrupt halt.
Emperor Wu Su’s voice grew noticeably cold and heavy. "What happened when you fell from a horse before?"
That fall had happened when she was with the Northern Border Army, trying to find an Exotic Thousand-year-old Orchid for Wei Ting to make him happy.
There had been a hollow hidden beneath the shifting sands. After she fell from the horse, her entire back ached as if it were broken. Later, the kitchen maid who applied the medicine told her that her back had looked horrifying, covered in black and blue bruises from the fall.
Compared to that, the marks from the window frame were nothing.
But this wasn’t the right time to bring it up. Ji Qingwu rubbed her neck awkwardly and buried her face in the pillow.
The room fell silent.
No one spoke for a long time. When Ji Qingwu quietly looked up, she discovered that the tall, imposing figure was long gone.
’Coming and going like a ghost, without even a word of goodbye. The emperor’s mind is truly hard to fathom.’
Ji Qingwu rolled over. A slight twinge of pain pulled at her back, but compared to the agony of falling from the horse, it was completely negligible.
She gazed at the cyan bed curtains, thinking about her plans for the next day, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
*
The next day, the carriage from Duke Zhongyong’s Mansion was parked at the entrance of the Ji Mansion.
As Ji Qingwu was about to leave, she ran into a problem.
A clingy pendant had attached itself to her leg.
Jiu Jiu hadn’t had any cuddles with her mama for several days. Pouting aggrievedly, she absolutely refused to let her go.
"Mama, why are you running out so early in the morning? Is it because you found a child outside who’s cuter, more obedient, and smarter than Jiu Jiu?"
The little girl covered her eyes with her small hands, pretending to cry while peeking at her mother’s expression through her fingers.
