The Doctress with Healing Hands: Your Highness, Please Behave Yourself-Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Empress of the Sacred Emperor
He thoughtfully wiped away the tears around her eyes with his fingers, saying gently, “Rui is unlucky to have lost his mom at a young age and his blind dad couldn’t take care of him . If only…”
Zhao Yuchen’s gaze suddenly became deep, “If only Rui’s mom was still alive, his dad wouldn’t have lost eyesight out of sadness . Rui wouldn’t have been forced to take the throne and shoulder responsibilities that were not his . ”
For a moment, Bai Qingqing almost confessed that although Su Ruoqing had died, her soul was still here .
The words were on the tip of her tongue, but then were swallowed hard back to her belly .
She shouldn’t confess yet because she was not ready to accept Zhao Yuchen again .
In the last life, Su Ruoqing lost her life due to her love for him .
She wasn’t sure that in this life, as Bai Qingqing, the same tragedy would never happen again .
Thinking of this, she subconsciously pushed away the fingers gently touching on her face and stood up to leave . Unexpectedly, the moment she rose to her feet, she got dizzy for a second uncontrollably .
It was then that she realized that after arriving at the Imperial Palace, living a series of surprises, she got so excited that she skipped dinner without realizing it .
No wonder her body was so weak now . Her legs could barely support her .
Zhao Yuchen could tell that she wasn’t well at one glance . He hurriedly held her into his arms and asked with concern, “Qingqing, what happened to you?”
“I’m fine . . . ”
She intended to push him away, but he arbitrarily scooped her up to his chest .
“You . . . What are you doing?”
“Look at your pale face . You can barely stand up straight . Obviously, you’re not well . Do you remember you’re a doctor? How could you take care of others as you supposed to when you can’t take good care of yourself? You’d better not tell me that you didn’t have dinner . ”
Bai Qingqing, who was held in the arms by Zhao Yuchen, was taken out of the Palace of Harmony . She struggled desperately buried in his chest, “If you have anything to say, let go of me first . ”
There were palace maids and eunuchs waiting on both sides of the Palace of Harmony . She was just a doctor, not one of his harem women . Even if he took no account of gossips, she did . He shouldn’t hold her in such an intimate posture in the presence of so many people .
“Stay still if you don’t want to fall . ”
Zhao Yuchen gently patted on her delicate buttocks yet his tone was full of threat and warning .
Bai Qingqing did stop moving but her round eyes were aflame with anger, “If I remember correctly, didn’t your concubines go to the Palace of Sunrise to rekindle old flame with you? Why are you messing up with me in the Palace of Harmony instead of accompanying your concubines in the Palace of Sunrise?”
Her tone which was touched with a twinge of jealousy really amused Zhao Yuchen .
“Bai Qingqing, do you know how jealous your tone is?”
Bai Qingqing then discovered this damn man’s teasing face and mocking smile on his lips .
Out of anger, she lifted up her little fist and punched hard onto his chest .
Although it didn’t hurt, Zhao Yuchen couldn’t help bantering her, “I remembered many years ago when Ruoqing was at odds with me, she also liked to use her cute little fist to hit me . ”
Bai Qingqing’s face changed at once . She wanted to explain, but on a second thought, she found whatever she said would render herself sink into a deeper hole .
What’s more, although she was a little jealous knowing Zhao Yuchen and Liu Xiangyi stayed alone, she was very aware that soon after Su Ruoli passed away, he had moved out of imperial palace and gave up all those concubines in it . Based on this, she knew that she was the only one in his heart from beginning to the end .
To argue that she wasn’t touched would be hypocritic . Only that she was too shy to be comfortable with saying sweet words, so she had made up those words to get back at him .
Zhao Yuchen was an expert in when to stop . He hurriedly changed topic, “It’s okay if you want to curse me or beat me up, but wait until you have a feast . And, I won’t allow you to drink tonight . ”
His mentioning on that made Bai Qingqing blush ruddily . As if being afraid of his bantering, she subconsciously buried her little face into Zhao Yuchen’s chest, in order to get away from the embarrassment arose from last time’s drunk incident .
She had no idea of what an encouragement this trivial gesture was for Zhao Yuchen .
Although he had confirmed that Bai Qingqing was Su Ruoqing, she had taken a resisting and rejecting stance against him ever since they met each other .
Now she was willing to let the guard down and show affection to him . How could he not be happy?
In this way, all the maids and flunkeys served in the Palace of Harmony and the Palace of Sunrise were lucky enough to witness that their heartless ruthless Sacred Emperor should value a country girl to such an extent .
Was Sacred Emperor’s love life about to bud and blossom again?
“What? You said that Sacred Emperor really did that to Bai Qingqing?”
In the Palace of Inlaid Harp, came suddenly a squeaky bellow . The angry person was no other than Liu Xiangyi, Imperial Concubine Yi of Emperor Emeritus, who had been rudely treated by Zhao Yuchen the day before at the Palace of Sunrise .
Early in the morning, Qiulian, the maid that had served her for many years, told her what had happened the day before at the Palace of Harmony .
Obviously, the purpose of Sacred Emperor acting that intimate to Bai Qingqing in front of so many maids and eunuchs was to announce in a high profile that the country girl who looked no different from any other village girls occupied Sacred Emperor’s heart, holding a position that superior to that of the Imperial Concubine of Emperor Emeritus in charge of the imperial harem .
This act of the Sacred Emperor was equivalent to a heavy slap in the face of Liu Xiangyi .
The thing was since Empress Xiaolie and Imperial Concubine Rong passed away one after the other, no one was qualified to take over the title of Empress of the Sacred Emperor except for Liu Xiangyi .
The Sacred Emperor didn’t set foot in the Imperial Palace for long, making her who had stayed alone in her palace already dissatisfied with him .
Now, he finally came back . She had thought that she finally got through the hard days to embrace a bright future . To her surprise, he simply ignored this legal wife and brought back a village girl in a high profile to display their affection right under her nose .
Out of infuriation, Liu Xiangyi really wanted to break into the Palace of Sunrise to question the Sacred Emperor, what position on earth she held in his heart .
However, after the impulse, Liu Xiangyi quickly resumed calmness .
That was no good idea . Before she figured out what kind of emotion the Sacred Emperor held towards Bai Qingqing, she shouldn’t act recklessly, in case it backfired and ruined her impression to the Sacred Emperor .
At that time, across the country, from folks to high officials, all knew that the Sacred Emperor was deeply in love with Su Ruoqing, the legal daughter of Cabinet Scholar Su . He had even planned to desert the whole imperial harem just for her .
But for the late emperor’s threat with his own life, in the big palace of imperial harem, there would have been no position for Liu Xiangyi .
She had waited and waited, and finally that annoying woman Su Ruoqing died . Unexpectedly, the Sacred Emperor lost his eyesight due to sadness, and not long after that, he even gave up the crown and retreated to live in Ink Garden .
For the past six years, the Sacred Emperor had been keeping his distance from any women, living alone like a monk .
Obviously, he was making a statement to the world that since his wife’s death, he would spend the rest of his life mourning and missing his deceased wife .
To her surprise, six years later, the monk-like Sacred Emperor suddenly took interest in a village girl . What hidden behind it was really intriguing .
It would be alright if the Sacred Emperor was just fooling around with Bai Qingqing, but once he really fell into love with that girl, she had no other option but to probe into Bai Qingqing .
“Qiulian, have you any clue on Bai Qingqing’s background from our sources?”
Qiulian was a maid that Liu Xiangyi brought with her from her maternal family . She had been nurturing Qiulian at a very young age as her henchperson, so naturally Qiulian was loyal to no one but her lady .
“Yes, Your Highness . According to the info I got, Bai Qingqing was introduced to the Sacred Emperor by Prime Minister Qin in person . At the beginning, the Sacred Emperor wasn’t impressed by her, but ever since she helped the Sacred Emperor regain his eyesight, his attitude towards her changed entirely .
A few days ago, Bai Qingqing planned to leave the capital and went back to Lin’an, but the Sacred Emperor employed imperial guard squads to stop her and hand her over to Ink Garden in the name of hunting wanted criminal . ”
Liu Xiangyi couldn’t help frowning harder on hearing this .
She didn’t expect that the Sacred Emperor valued Bai Qingqing as such .
Qiulian continued, “In addition, I heard from the Palace of Harmony that Bai Qingqing not only has won favors from the Sacred Emperor, but also she gained reliance from the indifferent Emperor . ”
The words made Liu Xiangyi hit the ceiling .
Towards the damn kid Zhao Rui, she had loads of resentment .
At first, in order to attract the Sacred Emperor’s attention, she had tried so hard to please the Emperor, leaving no stone unturned .
But that bastard was so heartless that he simply gave her cold shoulders in spite of all her apple-polishing strategies .
