CH 4

Ch 4 “Okay, I won’t run, I promise not to run.”

Xie Chaoling was stopped by Xie Chaoyuan’s question, “What do you think?”

Although Xie Chaoyuan was laughing, the plundering desire in his eyes was undisguised. This was a wolf cub with a dark mind and a bloody body and he may pounce on him at any time and bite him hard.

Xie Chaoling felt that this was a bit difficult, he had to coax the person first.

“…Which year was Your Highness born?”

Xie Chaoyuan looked at him: “Linlang wants to know?”

“I’m curious.”

Xie Chaoyuan laughed even lower: “This king was born on the twenty-fourth of June in the year of Xinmao.”

Xie Chaoling did the math, he was only sixteen; he really was a little wolf cub who had not yet finished growing, but he couldn’t look down on this person because of that. Xie Chaoling said: “I should be older than His Highness.”

“No matter how big or small, from now on, you are only this king’s Linlang alone.”

Xie Chaoyuan repeated it again, his tone dangerously heavy on the word “alone”.

The crown prince was gentle, kind, courteous, and respectful. He always had a warm smile on his face and treated everyone the same. He was everyone’s crown prince, but now he was only his Linlang.

Only his.

This topic could not be continued. Xie Chaoling decided to play stupid and stop talking, his eyes fell back to the book in his hand.

The incense in the house had been replaced with sweet and greasy floral scents as Xie Chaoling requested, which smelt much better indeed.

The sunlight passed through the carved window lattice, and reflected on half of his face, leaving mottled marks and further down, there was a section of white neck exposed. Because Xie Chaoling was focused on reading, he formed a slightly curved, graceful arc. Xie Chaoyuan’s eyes wandered down, and he picked up the half-eaten snack that Xie Chaoling had just eaten in the bowl on the table, threw it into his mouth, and chewed on it.

In the afternoon, Xie Chaoyuan went to the Empress Dowager’s palace to visit her.

Emperor Qianming was also there, saying that the Empress Dowager suddenly suffered from heart palpitations. The emperor was anxious and called over a group of imperial physicians for consultation.

The Empress Dowager was from the Zhao family. She was the aunt of Zhao Guogong and Imperial Consort Zhao. Emperor Qianming was not the Empress Dowager’s biological son, but was raised by her. The two had always had a good relationship between mother and son but in terms of filial piety, Emperor Qianming never dared to make any mistakes. It’s just that the Empress Dowager’s old disease was too timely, and it will inevitably cause people to murmur.

There were too many people in her resting room, so Xie Chaoyuan went in and stood for a while before exiting, and then met Xie Chaohui, the third-eldest king who was entering the door.

Xie Chaoyuan cupped his hands as a greeting, and Xie Chaohui nodded coldly.

Xie Chaoyuan was not surprised. His Royal Highness had always been taciturn and was not close to anyone, but he was much more capable than that idiot Xie Chaorong. He went to the northwest frontier to lead troops at the age of sixteen until he was injured and had to return to the capital half a year ago to recuperate. This person’s biological mother was a palace maid in Empress Yuan’s Palace. When she gave birth to him, she had a difficult childbirth and passed away. Thus, he was raised under the Empress’s knees since he was a child and had a deep relationship with the previous crown prince. When the previous crown prince had his incident, he was in the northwest frontier and as a result, he was not notified of the rebellion case.

“His Royal Highness King Xing and His Royal Highness King Huai are not close.”

On the way back to Ting Song Zhai, Wang Rang who was following behind suddenly whispered.

Xie Chaoyuan said indifferently, “You can see that too?”

Wang Rang lowered his voice even lower: “His Royal Highness King Huai came half a quarter of an hour earlier than His Royal Highness King Xing. They live close together, so they must have met when they went out, but they did not come together.”

King Huai was the fourth son, Xie Chaoqi, the second biological son of Empress Yuan.

Xie Chaoyuan smiled contemptuously: “It’s not only just not close.”

Before Xie Chaorong’s birthday, he invited their brothers to go to his private estate for a drink. Xie Chaohui had just returned to the capital at that time and Xie Chaoqi wanted to get close to Xie Chaohui. Yet, Xie Chaohui didn’t give him any face and all the brothers saw this.

They were both raised by the Empress Yuan, yet not only were they not close, they also had hatred against each other.

In Ting Song Zhai, Xie Chaoling was playing with the bird in the birdcage by the window.

This bird was originally raised by Xie Chaoyuan at the front, but at noon, someone was sent to bring it to Xie Chaoling to relieve his boredom.

The bird was covered in tender yellow feathers, very beautiful, and chirped timidly. Xie Chaoling thought it was fun, and he held the birdie stick and had a great time.

Wang Jin lowered his head silently.

He was Wang Rang’s apprentice. In the past, he occasionally had the opportunity to serve King Ke with Wang Rang. He had also seen the crown prince of the East Palace from a distance. The crown prince was restrained, calm, unperturbed, and every single word and action of his couldn’t be given fault. He was completely different from this little lord who was leaning forward and teasing the bird with a smirk.

The bird was probably annoyed by Xie Chaoling, jumping on the shelf anxiously. Xie Chaoling opened the cage door and the bird flapped its wings, quickly got out of the cage, flew around Xie Chaoling’s finger, and flew out the window.

Xie Chaoling was taken aback.

He was going to let the bird out and fly around the room, but the little guy actually flew out.

The bird flew up to the branch outside the window. It was still a chick, so when it went up, it didn’t dare to come down again. It kept chirping non-stop on the branch.

Xie Chaoling instructed, “Go get a ladder to go up and catch it.”

When the servants were catching the bird, Xie Chaoling also went out and watched for a while. When the bird was caught and put back in the birdcage, the person at the bottom was about to move the ladder away when Xie Chaoling suddenly said, “Wait a minute, move the ladder to the wall over there.”

Wang Jin asked, “Lord, do you want to…?”

Xie Chaoling motioned, “Just move the ladder over there.”

Wang Jin was reluctant. The words came to his lips, but when he raised his eyes, he saw Xie Chaoling’s eyes narrowed slightly, looking up at the front. This expression made his heart tremble inexplicably, and he dared not say anything.

Xie Chaoling climbed up to the top of the wall, and Wang Jin waited under the wall to persuade him to come down, but Xie Chaoling turned a deaf ear to him.

Standing here, he could finally see a little further.

There were flying eaves and blue tiles, and the palaces and pavilions were hidden in the beautiful mountains and rivers.

Xie Chaoling had a thought and a vague sense of familiarity lingering in his mind, but his thoughts were completely fragmented, and he couldn’t grasp anything.

Xie Chaoling tried to take a step forward. The top of the wall was very narrow, and they were reluctant to allow him to stand alone. All the people under the wall were frightened: “Come down, if His Highness comes back and sees this, he will blame the slaves…”

Xie Chaoling ignored the people until Xie Chaoyuan’s voice appeared under the wall.

“What are you doing?”

Xie Chaoling looked down. Xie Chaoyuan was standing below, looking up at him, his expression tense, and there was no smile in his eyes.

“Come down,” he said.

Looking at each other for a moment, Xie Chaoling jumped off the wall.

Xie Chaoyuan opened his hands to catch the person.

Although this little Highness was young, he was firm and strong. Being firmly held by Xie Chaoyuan, Xie Chaoling wanted to laugh when he touched the undulating muscles on his arm, but Xie Chaoyuan held him tightly in his arms, which made him slightly uncomfortable.

“I’m down, please let me go, Your Highness.”

Xie Chaoyuan didn’t move, and asked in his ear, “What were you doing just now?”

“Noth……”

“You want to escape over the wall? This king has said that if you dare, this king will break your legs.” Xie Chaoyuan’s voice was extremely low, and the cruelty in it was not concealed.

Xie Chaoling turned his head with difficulty in his arms, and met Xie Chaoyuan staring into his eyes.

In those black eyes, there was an impending storm, an almost uncontrollable anger.

If it was someone else, they might have been frightened by Xie Chaoyuan’s eyes, but Xie Chaoling just frowned: “I didn’t want to go over the wall, I don’t even know the way out of here, so where could I go? I went up the wall wanting to take a look outside. Can’t I look at the scenery?”

Xie Chaoyuan’s eyes darkened, he obviously didn’t believe it.

Xie Chaoling was very helpless. After thinking for a while, he raised his hand and touched his face: “Your Royal Highness, what I said is true, I’m really just looking at the scenery, why are you angry?”

Xie Chaoyuan grabbed his wrist fiercely.

Without waiting for Xie Chaoling to react, with a quick whirlwind, he was directly carried on his shoulders by Xie Chaoyuan.

The servants who were serving Xie Chaoling were still kneeling on the ground when Xie Chaoyuan coldly dropped the sentence, “Withdraw and receive twenty sticks”, then he carried Xie Chaoling back to the house with big strides.

Xie Chaoling was thrown on the bed with Xie Chaoyuan pressing him down, pinching his lower jaw with one hand, and biting his lip fiercely.

Xie Chaoling was caught off guard. His lips were bitten and he tasted the blood in his mouth. When Xie Chaoyuan’s tongue came in, he quickly bit down.

Xie Chaoyuan finally let go of the person, his eyes scarlet, and him panting.

He looked at Xie Chaoling’s bitten red lips, rubbed it with the belly of his thumb, and slowly wiped the blood on his lips. Xie Chaoling didn’t get angry. He grabbed his finger and bit down hard.

Xie Chaoyuan narrowed his eyes slightly, and the expression in his eyes became darker.

Later, Xie Chaoling felt that his teeth were sore and tired, so he finally let go. Xie Chaoyuan’s right thumb had been bitten by him to have a circle of crimson teeth marks, and blood was still oozing. Xie Chaoyuan stared at him the entire time. He put his hand to his mouth, and licked the blood off.

Xie Chaoling turned his eyes away, took the tea cup at hand and rinsed his mouth, calmed down, and said, “What do you think, Your Highness?”

“Be my person.” Xie Chaoyuan said.

“Your Highness wants me to serve you with my body?” Xie Chaoling frowned.

“This king’s patience is limited,” Xie Chaoyuan reminded him in a deep voice, “you’d better not be arrogant.”

Xie Chaoling looked at him and asked abruptly, “What if I don’t obey you?”

“It’s not up to you.”

This little highness was really not pleasant at all.

Xie Chaoling raised his hand to touch his face again, trying to appease him: “Don’t be so angry, let me think about it.”

He was not someone who can’t adapt to the circumstances. This person was a high-ranking prince. He was just a plaything sent by someone to be treated as a pet and he can’t even remember who he is. Instead of asking for trouble, why not submit to this person’s requests to encounter less misfortune.

Of course, he won’t sell himself easily, and he will drag it out for a while.

Xie Chaoyuan clasped his wrist tightly, clenched and loosened and clenched again, staring at the person in front of him.

After a stalemate for a moment, Xie Chaoling lightly embraced Xie Chaoyuan’s shoulders and whispered softly, close to his ear: “Your Highness, don’t be angry.”

Xie Chaoyuan reminded him viciously: “Don’t let this king see you try to escape again.”

Xie Chaoling was convinced that this person was not only crazy but also paranoid. He said that he had no intention of running, yet this person would not believe it at all.

He could only coax: “Okay, I won’t run, I promise not to run.”