Raising the Nine-Thousand-Year Lord - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“This subject is a eunuch.”

“I know.”

“Since Your Highness knows, why dress like this to humiliate me?”

“The Nine-Thousand-Year Lord holds the power of life and death in his hands. Surely you don’t take me for a three-year-old fool, helpless to be carved up by others?”

“Is Your Highness trying to trade yourself for it?”

“Ha. That depends on whether the Nine-Thousand-Year Lord is willing.”

I slipped off the last layer of my underclothes and looked at the man before me without expression. Then, all at once, I smiled.

In the wavering candlelight, his low voice spilled out, deep and pleasing to the ear.

His peach-blossom eyes were touched with drunkenness, all silken threads and lingering charm.

But if one looked closely, the depths of his dark pupils were filled with a wild sharpness, keen as a blade. “Your Highness, this subject is a eunuch.”

He repeated it once. His barely noticeable Adam’s apple bobbed, and then he opened his mouth and bit down hard on my neck.

…

I woke with a start and instinctively raised a hand to my neck.

In my last life, that bite of his had broken the skin and left a scab. Before it healed, Lu Zhi loved to rub it over and over, as if he couldn’t bear to let it go.

But now, the skin there was still smooth.

Perhaps because I had dreamed of Lu Zhi, that tender patch of flesh itched for no reason.

It was now the summer of the twenty-fourth year of Yongchang. By my reckoning, this was also the time Lu Zhi was sold into the palace and, in utter confusion, became a eunuch.

I rubbed my temples, sighed, and summoned my maid, Chun Tao.

With a headache, I said, “Send people out to find someone for me. As quickly as possible.”

Chun Tao came over carrying a cup of tea and propped up my pillow so I could lean against it. “Yes, this servant will go at once. Your Highness, have some water first. Did you have a nightmare?”

I took the tea and drained it in one gulp. Then I suddenly asked, “Chun Tao, what do you think of the Crown Prince?”

“The Crown Prince?” Chun Tao froze, then quickly recovered. “Your Highness and the Crown Prince have always been deeply devoted as siblings. It is just that Your Highness…”

Chun Tao hesitated, wanting to speak but not daring to.

On ordinary days, I called Sheng Yuan A’Bai. I had never referred to him so coldly as the Crown Prince.

“Speak freely. I will not blame you.”

Chun Tao said, “Your Highness dotes on the Crown Prince a little too much. The Empress passed away early, so it is only right that Your Highness looked after your younger brother. But the Crown Prince had his hair bound last year. In some ways, he should be someone our princess can rely on by now.”

I gave a soft laugh. “Is that so?”

Chun Tao kowtowed and did not dare say another word.

I set the teacup on the small table beside the couch and personally reached out to help her up.

Overwhelmed by the favor, Chun Tao backed away again and again. “Your Highness, you mustn’t.”

I did not make things difficult for her and withdrew my hand.

“Starting tomorrow, you will take over Tan Xiang’s duties.”

I yawned. “I am tired. You may go.”

Chun Tao’s eyes widened, both shocked and delighted. “Yes. This servant takes her leave.”

Chun Tao straightened the bed curtains for me, closed the door again, and only then withdrew quietly.

I lay on the couch with my eyes closed, but the memories of the past still haunted me like vengeful ghosts.

You could guard against a thousand dangers, ten thousand dangers, but not the thief within your own house.

Lu Zhi had become a eunuch in a muddle. But hadn’t I lived through an entire lifetime in just as much of a muddle?