Chapter 12
Lin Si hurriedly shook his head . “You spent so much time and energy these past few years to finally, after much difficulty, remove yourself from the controversies in the capital . Why would you suddenly jump in again?”
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Lin Si’s gaze was conflicted as he looked at Zhong Wan . He appeared quite panicked . He hurriedly lifted an arm to point in the direction of the main room . With his palm down, he drew a circle, then lowered it before quickly pointing at Zhong Wan . He held his palm out and shook it before pointing at Zhong Wan again . Thereafter, he pointed at his own temple and rapidly drew two circles .
“They . Have already grown up . You . Should . Start making plans . For yourself . ”
Zhong Wan was dazed . A moment later, he laughed at himself . “Making plans for myself? I’ve long since forgotten how to make plans for myself…”
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Lin Si agitatedly signed, “No matter what happens to him in the future, that has nothing to do with us!”
Zhong Wan had no response . It was true . He wasn’t related to Yu She in any way .
“He…” Zhong Wan randomly said . “We’ve at least been together for so many years in name…”
Lin Si looked at Zhong Wan, speechless . He signed, “Does Young Prince Yu acknowledge the fact that you’ve been together for so many years?”
Of course not .
Zhong Wan didn’t want to argue about this with Lin Si . He said, “Either way, we’ll decide on this for now . Don’t keep looking into it . His background is one of his forbidden lamellas . These days, Yu She’s temperament frequently changes . Don’t piss him off again . ”
Lin Si’s expression was reluctant .
Zhong Wan knew that Lin Si was acting on Xuan Jing’s orders . He asked, “But you can’t give up your life for these things, right?”
Lin Si had no other choice . He could only nod . After pondering a bit, he gestured again, “But Master, are you sure Young Prince Yu wants you to stay? Forgive my honesty… if he wanted to keep you around back then, you wouldn’t have been able to leave . ”
Zhong Wan was unbothered . “He can’t control me . ”
Lin Si nodded . “Young Prince Yu can’t control you, but as long as he doesn’t let you get close, you won’t be able to get inside information . You still won’t be able to help in any way . ”
Lin Si lifted his head to look at Zhong Wan . He almost couldn’t bear to, but still signed, “Since returning to the capital, Master has already seen Young Prince Yu twice . Has Young Prince Yu acted as close to you as he was back in the day?”
Zhong Wan stared at the flickering flames in the brazier . He didn’t speak .
Close his ass . These days, Yu She had a strange temperament . One couldn’t understand him at all . He was sometimes harsh to Zhong Wan, but sometimes kind . Zhong Wan even suspected that the few instances of “kindness” were only figments of his imagination .
Even without Zhong Wan saying anything, Lin Si could guess . He gestured, “If you cannot join his closest ranks, how can you be of help? Perhaps Young Prince Yu might even think that you have other intentions . If he can’t tell, you might end up in deep trouble . ”
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Zhong Wan sighed . “I haven’t said what I plan to do yet . I just want to stay and observe . ”
Lin Si stubbornly persuaded, “As long as Young Prince Yu doesn’t want you to come close to him, you have no other choice . ”
Zhong Wan narrowed his eyes . “You underestimate me… if I want to bother him, he won’t be able to avoid me . ”
Zhong Wan gave up on caring . “I don’t want face anyways! Haven’t you seen someone hounding someone else without regard? I have plenty of experience trying to stick to him…”
Lin Si thought about it and very smoothly signed, “Master, the Young Prince Yu now… do you still dare to hound him?”
Zhong Wan remembered the incident when he had been pressed against the shelf by Yu She in the library . He stiffly replied, “Why not! What have I ever been scared of?”
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Seven years ago, Heir Yu arrived at the side courtyard . Because of this, the number of servants in the side courtyard doubled . A squadron of family soldiers was also transferred over from the Prince’s estate . The lines of defense both inside and outside the courtyard were very strong . Though they were here to protect Yu She, they also “protected” Zhong Wan, this poor fish that got caught in the crossfire .
Before Yu She’s appearance, Zhong Wan was still capable of dealing with Steward Feng while coming up with plans to escape . Now, he needed to give up on these ideas .
“The skies are blue . The sun is out . It’s the middle of the day . Why would there be so many assassins?” Zhong Wan stood by the window and gazed out at the heavily guarded side courtyard with worry . “What are you guys being so careful for? Your heir has so many enemies?”
Ever since Yu She had arrived at the side courtyard, he was in charge of keeping an eye on Zhong Wan in the day . Steward Feng only needed to be on guard at night . Thus, he had much more energy . Seeing Zhong Wan so worked up, he felt quite pleased and hummed, “These people were sent over by the princess royal . Better to be safe than sorry . ”
Zhong Wan sprawled onto his bed . He heaved a long sigh .
Steward Feng felt a little bad as he observed Zhong Wan’s pitiful state . He stopped mocking him and persuaded with difficulty, “These days, the heir and I take turns during night and day to watch over you . You won’t be able to make us sleepy enough to give you an opportunity for escape, so you can give up on your ideas . Get some rest! Look at you… A normal youth, but you have dark circles under your eyes! What is this!”
Zhong Wan glanced at steward Feng who didn’t understand his difficulties and lowly said, “I have to take care of both the master and the servant every day and night . How could I not be tired? Day after day…”
Steward Feng felt like something was off about his words, but he couldn’t exactly put his finger on what was wrong .
“Either way, I’ve already gotten enough sleep today, so won’t be napping again tonight . You won’t find the opportunity . ” Steward Feng confidently sat in his chair . “Time to rest . Sleep!”
Zhong Wan was filled with annoyance and worry . He flipped over and started thinking of other plans .
Right now, he wouldn’t be able to outlast this master and servant duo, and there were so many people on guard outside the estate . It would be practically impossible to escape, unless…
Yu She moved out .
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As long as that squadron of family soldiers left with him, he had a chance .
Yu She was the owner of this side estate . If he didn’t want to leave, Zhong Wan naturally couldn’t force him to . But Zhong Wan could disgust him .
The second day, as soon as day broke, Zhong Wan started seeking death .
“Yu She, since you’re with me every day, can you really control yourself?”
Recently, Young Yu She was working on annotating a set of old texts from the previous dynasty . Upon hearing this, he calmly multitasked and responded, “That day you fell into such a deep slumber . Did I do anything to you?”
Since that day he had knocked Zhong Wan out with incense and forced him to get a good night’s sleep, young Yu She thought himself completely free from suspicion .
He was still a noble, well-educated, and virtuous good person .
Zhong Wan hummed coldly, “Those days I looked unwell . It would be normal for you not to have any interest . ”
Yu She paused, but ignored him .
Zhong Wan was silent for a moment before asking again, “Yu She… do you know? A man’s best years are actually these years now . ”
Steward Feng, over half a century old, standing off to the side waiting to serve: “…”
Yu She lifted his head . He even thought that he had heard wrong . “What… did you say?”
“I was talking about myself,” Zhong Wan very generously revealed . “Time is like a white horse crossing a rift . If you don’t treasure me now, I won’t be able to promise what I’ll look like in two years . ”
Yu She forced the rage in his heart down and lowered his head, continuing to annotate . He ignored the other .
Zhong Wan became quiet for a short bit, then whispered once more, “Yu She, did you know? Nothing will wait for you in place . ”
Yu She: “…”
Very good . They were discussing deeper and deeper topics .
Yu She took a deep breath and continued pretending like he hadn’t heard anything . He dipped his brush in the ink .
Zhong Wan started sowing discord . He pointed at Steward Feng . “You don’t like me, but others might not be the same . ”
Steward Feng was furious . “What are you saying?! I- I…”
Steward Feng felt like he couldn’t give a satisfactory explanation . He hurriedly tried to prove his loyalty to Yu She . “In the three months that I’ve watched over Young Master Zhong, I haven’t taken an extra glance at him! The Heavens and Earth are my witnesses! Besides, besides… this slave is already fifty four years old! Even if I had those intentions, could I act upon them?!”
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“Ey!” Zhong Wan persuaded steward Feng, “I refuse to let you talk about yourself in this manner!”
Steward Feng immediately became so angry he couldn’t speak anymore . Yu She put down his brush in exasperation and called another servant over to help Steward Feng out of the room .
After getting Steward Feng to leave, Yu She stared calmly at Zhong Wan . “What do you actually want? Aren’t you scared I’ll do something to you? Then why do you always try to stay so close to me?”
Zhong Wan thought to himself, I want to disgust you!
After a few days of interaction, Zhong Wan could finally tell . Yu She was a true gentleman . He honestly didn’t have any of those perverse thoughts regarding Zhong Wan and was even very mannerly . He didn’t look at or say anything out of line; he had frighteningly good self control . Since this was the case, Zhong Wan decided to change his attitude . He purposefully stuck to Yu She, trying a different method to cause this self-righteous little gentleman to be unable to stand him anymore . This way, he could escape .
The troublesome steward Feng had already left . Finally, only Yu She and Zhong Wan remained in the room .
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Zhong Wan slowly made his way behind Yu She . He asked, “What… are you reading?”
Yu She didn’t even look up . “Memoirs of Yuzhang . ”
“What’s it about?” Zhong Wan scooted closer . He placed a hand on the page . “I’ve never even heard of it . ”
Yu She lowly responded, “A leftover book from the previous dynasty . It’s about what a wandering old man witnessed upon passing through Yuzhang County . ”
“Oh,” Zhong Wan answered dryly . “Can I see it?”
Yu She didn’t say anything . He stood up and grabbed the first few scrolls to hand to Zhong Wan . Then, he sat down once more .
Zhong Wan put the books on the table and walked over to the side to carry a chair over . He set it beside Yu She and sat down too .
Yu She: “…”
Yu She wanted to ask why are you so close to me? but was scared that he was simply overthinking things . If he asked, Zhong Wan might take the opportunity to bite back . He wouldn’t be able to explain, then, so could only pretend he didn’t notice anything .
Zhong Wan sat down and quietly read for half an hour before suddenly pointing at a line and asking, “What does this mean? I can’t understand . ”
Yu She thought to himself, there are things you can’t understand? But he still turned his head over to scan the text and briefly explain .
Zhong Wan nodded and praised, “How come you understand everything?! Heir, you’re amazing!”
Yu She ignored him . He lowered his head to continue reading on his own .
Zhong Wan flipped two pages . He had a question every other minute . Yu She forced himself to remain patient and replied to each .
While asking a question, Zhong Wan would scoot closer to Yu She . After thirty minutes, his arm was almost touching Yu She’s .
But Yu She didn’t even look over . He didn’t move at all .
Zhong Wan bit the bullet and purposefully brushed Yu She with his leg . Immediately after, he observed Yu She’s expression on high alert .
Yu She’s expression only temporarily froze . Then, he stood up with the scroll he was reading and walked over to the window .
Zhong Wan ground his teeth .
The two of them had spent the entire morning reading books, completely separated . When it was time for lunch, Steward Feng led the servants in to set the table . Zhong Wan glanced at the food on the table, and to appear attentive, asked very knowledgeably, “Heir… do I need to serve you as you eat?”
Yu She forced himself to remain calm . “No… no thanks . You can eat with me . ”
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Zhong Wan nodded, satisfied, and sat down .
One shouldn’t speak while eating or sleeping .
Yu She ate silently . The dozen servants in the room were also quiet .
Zhong Wan swallowed a mouthful of food and scanned everyone in the room . He thought of the morning he had wasted and decided to be harder on himself . “Yu She… I want to eat the braised venison . Feed me . ”
The dozen or so people in the room instantly froze .
Steward Feng’s expression was filled with shock . He didn’t dare to think about what had happened between the two of them this morning that would lead to them feeding each other now!
Yu She stared at the braised venison in front of himself . “…”
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Yu She lifted his head to look at Zhong Wan in disbelief . The message in his eyes was clear: Have you gone crazy?!
Zhong Wan forced himself to open his mouth . “Ah…”
A dozen servants stared at each other in terror .
Yu She’s hand holding the silver chopsticks slightly trembled .
If he really fed him this bite, then the hundreds of years of good familial teaching of Prince Yu’s estate, the years he had dedicated to reading the classics, the clean reputation he had worked so hard to keep these past few days… would be completely ruined!