Chapter 83: A Beautiful Dream
Worried that Chu Mingheng’s illness might not improve, Lan Wu considered sending him some heat-clearing and fire-reducing soup. However, remembering that the matters of the court were still unresolved, she thought it inappropriate to visit him at this time. So she restrained herself, only instructing the servants to prepare the soup for the evening meal.
She waited for Chu Mingheng to come that night.
As dusk fell, Chu Mingheng finally arrived.
Lan Wu examined his complexion and found nothing amiss, letting out a sigh of relief.
“The Imperial Physician said Your Majesty would recover after taking one dose of medicine, but this concubine was still worried. It turns out the Imperial Physician was right!” She reached out to touch Chu Mingheng’s forehead, finding it no different from usual, and smiled.
Chu Mingheng gently pushed her hand away and instead pressed his forehead against hers, chuckling softly. “You were worried about me, yet you didn’t come to find me. Ah Wu, your heart is truly hard.”
Lan Wu refused to let him speak of her so carelessly. She let out a light hum and pointed to the embroidery cloth beside the soft couch, speaking slowly. “Your Majesty, look—isn’t this concubine embroidering a pouch for you? If this concubine truly had a hard heart, she wouldn’t bother with Your Majesty at all.”
Chu Mingheng held her and looked at the pile of embroidery cloth. However, no pattern had been completed yet, and the materials appeared somewhat messy.
“With so much fabric, are you only embroidering one pouch for me?”
His words sounded as if he were accusing her of being stingy. Lan Wu felt a little embarrassed and said, “This concubine isn’t skilled at embroidery. She needs fabric to practice with.”
Chu Mingheng smiled at her and lifted the top piece of fabric, revealing the slightly rough embroidery stitches underneath. His gaze darkened slightly as he asked Lan Wu, “What do you do with the pieces you’ve ruined?”
Lan Wu hurriedly flipped the fabric back to cover it and nudged Chu Mingheng away. “I keep them, of course. They’re just ruined pieces.”
Chu Mingheng fell silent, glancing back once more and staring at the embroidery cloth, lost in thought.
Lan Wu didn’t know what he was planning, but since Chu Mingheng had mentioned dreaming the previous night, she didn’t dare to fool around with him today. After they finished their meal, Chu Mingheng taught her to play chess for a while before Lan Wu declared she wanted to sleep.
The hour was quite early compared to their usual bedtime, but seeing Lan Wu standing before him with a serious expression, Chu Mingheng merely smiled softly and agreed, taking her to bed.
The hall was still somewhat dim, but Lan Wu nestled in his arms, making it impossible to feel uneasy.
Perhaps because they had stayed up late the previous night and woke early today, even though they retired early, they had expected to struggle to fall asleep. Yet, before long, they both sank into a deep slumber.
In truth, Lan Wu hadn’t dreamed in a long time, and whenever she did, they were nightmares. But today, she had a beautiful dream.
In the dream, it was the dead of winter, the day after New Year’s Eve, and Chu Mingheng took her out of the palace.
Though it was winter, there was a rare sunny day with warm sunlight.
Early in the morning, Chu Mingheng pulled her out of bed, had her dressed and made up, and bundled her in winter clothes and a cloak before taking a carriage out of the palace.
The streets were bustling with activity.
Awake yet somewhat fearful, Lan Wu fidgeted restlessly in the carriage, glancing at Chu Mingheng from time to time, too afraid to ask where he was taking her.
Chu Mingheng found it amusing. He glanced at her, pinched her little face, and asked, “Didn’t you say last night that you wanted to see the lively streets? Why aren’t you happy now?”
“You even talked about it in your sleep. How could I not grant your wish?”
Lan Wu’s fair face flushed half-red, her watery eyes meeting his profound gaze. She curved her eyes into crescents, then murmured shyly, “It must be because this concubine was too overjoyed last night, that I spoke nonsense in my dreams.”
“This concubine was just babbling nonsense, why did Your Majesty have to respond to me…”
Muttering these words, Lan Wu happily nestled into Chu Mingheng’s embrace, avoiding his gaze.
From morning till night, Chu Mingheng took her outside the palace to play for an entire day, only calling for the carriage to return to the palace when they were tired from playing late into the night.
He said if she liked it, he would often take her outside the palace whenever he had free time in the future.
When Lan Wu woke from sleep, she felt tightly bound by something. Opening her eyes, still not fully awake, she struggled slightly with her hands and only then realized Chu Mingheng was holding her too tightly.
“Your Majesty… loosen up a bit.” She moved her arm backward slightly.
After speaking, a moment passed without any response from Chu Mingheng.
With difficulty, she turned around and, using the faint light from outside the window, looked at Chu Mingheng, calling him again.
“Your Majesty, you’re going to squeeze—squeeze this concubine to pieces.”
Only then did Chu Mingheng relax his grip slightly.
Lan Wu looked at him curiously: “Did Your Majesty have another dream?”
A slightly hoarse, deep voice sounded by her ear: “No dream. I woke up because I heard you calling me.”
She was calling him?
Belatedly realizing, Lan Wu smiled and whispered to him, “Oh, this concubine dreamed of Your Majesty.”
“What did you dream about me?”
“You took this concubine out of the palace to play. I liked a hairpin, but I had no money, and Your Majesty didn’t have any either…”
Before she could finish, Chu Mingheng interrupted her: “When I take you out of the palace, I always bring palace attendants. They have money.”
Lan Wu couldn’t help but laugh even more heartily: “Yes, Aunt Luo Yun and Eunuch Chen were both following. But Your Majesty said they were following too closely and made them retreat several zhang away.”
Neither of them had any money. They just looked at each other, while even the hairpin vendor eyed them suspiciously—dressed splendidly yet unable to produce any silver.
“Fortunately, Aunt Luo Yun later spotted us standing there for a long time and hurried over to pay.”
The hairpin was silver with jade camellia pendants. It didn’t quite match the dress she wore that day. She had said she didn’t want it, but once Chu Mingheng got it in his hands, he found a spot to pin it in her hair. She wore it all day, and only when she returned to the palace and looked in the bronze mirror did she realize he had pinned it quite awkwardly.
As she laughed, Chu Mingheng also curved his lips slightly into a smile. He reached out to brush aside a few stray strands of Lan Wu’s hair and asked her, “Why did you dream of this? Do you want to go out of the palace to play?”
Lan Wu couldn’t very well tell him it was something from her past life. She gently shook her head.
“Dreams are baseless things. Didn’t Your Majesty dream just yesterday that this concubine had disappeared, and you were searching everywhere for me?”
“Your Majesty must be especially afraid of not being able to find this concubine?”
As Lan Wu spoke, she felt somewhat shy inside. It was originally just a casual question, but then she heard Chu Mingheng answer with a yes.
Chu Mingheng’s voice sounded very serious.
“Ah Wu, don’t make me unable to find you.”
“I don’t like that.”
For a moment, Lan Wu couldn’t quite describe the feeling in her heart. Here Chu Mingheng was saying he didn’t like it, yet in her previous life, she had begged him to take her to Changyong Mountain and he had refused.
Although Changyong Mountain was quite far, she wasn’t afraid of such things.
Chu Mingheng always thought he knew what was best for her, but in reality, the outcome was the worst.
This emperor has always been arrogant, believing he can grasp everything in his hands. He probably won’t understand until the very end why just a few days of separation would lead to her passing away.
Would Chu Mingheng grieve for her death?
At first, Lan Wu stubbornly refused to believe that Chu Mingheng would mourn for her, but now… she thinks perhaps he would. Maybe Chu Mingheng couldn’t bear to see her die.