Chapter 22: I Can’t Hit You

In her previous life, Lan Wu had also been struck by Chu Mingheng. However, Chu Mingheng knew that her skin had been exquisitely cared for after becoming an imperial concubine. What was called “hitting” was actually just a form of bedroom play. At first, Lan Wu was so frightened that she ended up crying, and Chu Mingheng would simply wipe her tears and stop.

Unlike now, when he still intended to use the Ruler.

Chu Mingheng saw the look in Lan Wu’s eyes—the fear and sorrow, as if he had committed some unforgivable sin.

He frowned slightly, the cold Ruler moving slightly away from Lan Wu’s leg.

“Speak.”

Lan Wu trembled and quickly nodded. “Your Majesty asks, and this servant will answer properly… This servant won’t lie. Please don’t break this servant’s leg…”

Chu Mingheng looked at her trembling leg and asked the first question: “How long did you prepare for that dance at the Longevity Festival?”

“…T-two months.” Lan Wu answered honestly, yet uneasily, unsure why Chu Mingheng was asking this.

Two months…

Chu Mingheng’s gaze drifted thoughtfully as he continued, “Consort Li sent someone to find you. What did they say?”

Lan Wu felt this wasn’t something she couldn’t say, but if she had to say it, she naturally had to embellish it.

So she shrank forward, already kneeling before Chu Mingheng, now almost throwing herself into his arms. Her voice was timid as she whispered, “Lady Lifei said she had previously sent a palace maid named Yuzhu to summon this servant to Jinghua Palace, but this servant never saw that maid. Later… later, this servant heard that someone had died in the Koi Pond—it was that very Yuzhu.”

“Lady Lifei suspects this servant pushed her maid into the pond. This servant is so timid—how would this servant dare to kill anyone—”

“Your Majesty, this servant is afraid…”

After hearing her lengthy speech, Chu Mingheng hadn’t caught much of importance. He looked down at her dark hair, a pink peony pinned at her temple, vibrant and delicate.

Thwack! A crisp sound.

The Ruler in Chu Mingheng’s hand struck Lan Wu’s buttocks with moderate force. The person in his arms immediately fled like a startled cat, scrambling away from him.

“Behave.” He pointed to the spot in front of him, signaling for Lan Wu to kneel properly. “What else did Consort Li say?”

Lan Wu hadn’t expected him to actually hit her. Though it didn’t hurt, it was clearly a warning.

She lowered her head and mumbled, “Lady Lifei also said this servant is beautiful and wanted to offer this servant to Your Majesty.”

“This servant said this servant wanted to leave the palace, but Lady Lifei didn’t believe it.”

That was also the day she returned from Jinghua Palace and was taken by Luo Yun to Yilan Hall to dance for Chu Mingheng.

“How did you plan to leave the palace?” Chu Mingheng placed the Ruler right in front of Lan Wu, leaning slightly forward to look at her as he asked, “Tell me.”

Lan Wu shrank back, not daring to look at him, her eyes darting as she stammered that she hadn’t.

“This servant hadn’t thought it through yet. Before this servant could, Your Majesty came to help.”

Hadn’t thought it through?

Chu Mingheng glanced at her ankle and retorted, “Hadn’t you already thought it through? Injure your foot, then find a way into Wanshu Pavilion, stay until the twenty-third, and leave the palace.”

“That day, when I protected you in front of others, it seems I was wrong. I should have watched you dance until your foot broke.”

“Wasn’t I?”

His voice was calm, but Lan Wu knew he was a little angry.

Lan Wu quickly shook her head.

“Lie down.”

Seeing Lan Wu’s tense little face as she tried to utter more pleas for mercy, Chu Mingheng pinched her cheek. “I told you to lie down properly.”

This punishment was unavoidable no matter what.

Lan Wu was released, her arms weakly propping herself up on the bed before she stiffly turned over. She stretched her hands forward, feeling for the brocade quilt to grasp lightly, even wanting to cover her head with it.

Before she could fully prepare, a sharp strike of the ruler landed fiercely on the area where her thighs met her buttocks.

Lan Wu cried out in pain, tears immediately welling up in her eyes.

Chu Mingheng had hit her—he had actually used the ruler on her, and with such force, such cruelty.

He was no longer the emperor who had doted on her in her previous life.

Lan Wu’s back trembled, and in her pain, she realized this truth she had deliberately ignored. Because in this life, Chu Mingheng had protected and saved her, she had grown complacent and forgotten herself. Now, she was abruptly awakened.

But awakening was one thing; feeling wronged was only natural.

Chu Mingheng had only struck once, using a third of his strength. Coupled with the ruler’s inherent purpose for discipline, it naturally caused Lan Wu pain.

Watching Lan Wu tremble as she lay on the bed, he hooked an arm around her waist and turned her over.

“Does it hurt already?” Chu Mingheng moved her arm away from her face and scolded sternly, “If your leg had been broken, it would have hurt a hundred times more. If I hadn’t intervened, which Imperial Physician from the Imperial Medical Academy would have treated you? If your leg injury had left you unable to walk steadily, how could you have gone to Wanshu Pavilion? Being sent to the Cold Palace to live out your days in obscurity would have been a mercy.”

“With such a small mind, you don’t even think things through properly. Tell me, don’t you deserve this punishment?”

Lan Wu’s sobs gradually escaped her throat, her crying so intense that her hair became disheveled. Hearing Chu Mingheng still scolding her, tears continued to stream down her face. She reached out her arms to wrap around his neck, burying her head against him.

After a long while, Chu Mingheng heard Lan Wu’s low, tearful whimper, as if in accusation, her grievances threatening to overwhelm her.

“You hit me… You really hit me…”

What kind of talk was this?

“Am I not allowed to hit you?” Chu Mingheng raised an eyebrow, lifting her face to examine it closely, then inexplicably whispered, “Listening to you, it sounds as if I couldn’t bear to hit you. Do I know you from before? Did I dote on you especially?”

Lan Wu’s sobbing paused for a moment before she pretended to continue, as if she hadn’t heard Chu Mingheng’s words.

Chu Mingheng lowered his gaze, already discerning much from her reaction.

He pinched Lan Wu’s cheek and handed her the ruler. “Keep this as a lesson. If you come up with foolish ideas again in the future, this ruler will still come in handy.”

Lan Wu’s fingers feebly grasped the cold handle of the ruler, but in the blink of an eye, she threw it to the ground.

“…This servant didn’t mean to… sob… didn’t mean to sob…”

Lan Wu had thrown something bestowed by the emperor right in front of Chu Mingheng.

Chu Mingheng said nothing, wrapping Lan Wu’s body in the quilt and removing her hairpin, along with the peony flower. “Rest now.”

He had no intention of taking Lan Wu today, but she insisted on it.

Seeing Chu Mingheng about to leave, she scrambled up, her tears stopping as she reached out to grab his hand, pitifully unable to form a coherent sentence. “Your Majesty… don’t go. What did this servant do wrong again… Why… why are you still leaving…?”

She had danced, she had been punished—yet Chu Mingheng was still leaving!

Chu Mingheng was entangled by her, his hand being pulled to press against the thin fabric of her clothing. Just as he was about to speak, his lips were sealed by hers.

Having reached this point, Chu Mingheng was so angry he almost laughed, and he no longer held back. He gently pushed Lan Wu onto the bed.

“If it hurts later, you brought it upon yourself,” he said as he undid his robe.