Ye Mu was utterly speechless. The young teenager in front of her was very different compared to the first time they’ve met. He had become taller, strong, more handsome, and dangerous. She was the only one who continued to treat him like a child. She believed that his confession was merely a joke, and nothing more.
In the end, Ye Mu returned to her residence in a daze. Her face burned like she had a fever when she recalled that she had just been kissed by Mo Linyuan.
She was taken advantage of by a brat!
Well…she couldn’t call him a child anymore. The possessive and overbearing attitude he had shown towards her exceeded her expectations. Do all children in this era mature this quickly? He was only fifteen, yet he already knew how to kiss a girl! The feudal society was a really bad influence on the children!
Although thousands of thoughts race through her mind, one of those thoughts particularly stood out. She did not feel disgusted by his kiss. The scent that Mo Linyuan exuded smelled good. It was not an ambergris scent, rather it smelled more like an orchid.
After Ye Mu left, Mo Linyuan took out the protection amulet she had placed inside his fragrance sachet. Ye Mu still remembered him even though she went out to play with another man today. This knowledge made all the anger and unhappiness he was feeling earlier this morning vanish like smoke in thin air. He carefully wore the amulet around his neck and tucked under her clothes. When he recalled Ye Mu’s flushed expression when she pushed him away and fled, he couldn’t help but chuckle.
It’s fine, he will give her a little more time.
After the Silent Master returned to the temple, he didn’t return the cloth wrapped around his head. Instead, he secretly hid the cloth away.
Today was the first time he stole something, but he believed that he probably won’t steal anything else in the future. He also received his first gift today. He liked the gift a lot.
He put the glazed lantern and the blue cloth together. Under the flame from candlelight, his eyes became more and more gentle and he was even smiling.
But the smile on his face suddenly faded when he recalled something. He put the two items that were in front of him into a box. It seemed like he wanted to lock and seal up the memory he made today.
He didn’t deserve to possess such beautiful things. What he experienced and received today, was a gift from Buddha.
The following day, Mo Linyuan started the royal court early. When he was recuperating after being poisoned, he left most of the affairs related to the royal court to Prime Minister Wen. People could smell that something fishy was going on. When he returned to court, many people thought that he would take back his powers from Prime Minister Wen, but surprisingly, Mo Linyuan did not do that. On the contrary, he repeatedly praised the Prime Minister for doing the job so well.
The three great families originally made a pact to trust each other, so that the emperor will not be able to break up their relationships with each other. However, some of the members from the three great families were a little dissatisfied when they saw how the emperor had continuously praised Wen. Wen didn’t try to explain himself at all either.
The emperor had severely suppressed the three great families’ powers. Many of the policies and laws he passed were directed at influential families by preventing them from continuing to monopolize certain businesses and prevent them from gaining more influence. Recently, these policies weren’t enforced as harshly as it usually was because of Prime Minister Wen. Many people suspected that Wen had poisoned the emperor in hopes that he could control the emperor as his puppet.
The Empress Dowager was also very unhappy when she saw this. She believed that it was the Wen Family who had poisoned the emperor because the young emperor usually didn’t allow a speck of sand to dirty his eyes. It was suspicious how the young emperor treated the Wen Family so kindly. Therefore, when the royal court ended, the Empress Dowager blocked Wen from leaving!
“Wen, what tricks are you trying to play? How could I don’t understand what’s going on?”
Although Wen looked much thinner than he was before, there was still a glint of shrewdness in his eyes as he said, “What is the Empress Dowager talking about? Did this official do something that displeased you?”
“Bah!” The Empress Dowager saw that there was no one else in the Royal Garden, so she immediately wrapped her arms around one of his arms, “How long has it been since you’ve last visited me? Tell me, who is the woman that has snared your soul and heart?”
Wen Ze looked at her deeply for a moment before he finally pried away her hand.
“Empress Dowager, please have some respect for yourself.”
“Have some self-respect?” A glint of hostility flashed by Zhao Yunqing’s eyes, “Don’t tell me you’re going to throw me away after you finished using me? The young emperor follows your orders blinding while all the other influential families all obey your commands. It seems like it won’t be long before I will fall under your control and follow your orders too!”
“That’s not true.” Wen Ze said sternly.
Zhao Yunqing immediately noticed that his reaction was strange, so she dragged him toward her palace, “I don’t care. I will not let you go today unless you explain everything to me!”
With that said, she forced Wen Ze to leave the royal court.
After the two of them left, Mo Linyuan walked out from the shadows along with Ye Mu.
“I’m surprised that the Empress Dowager has such a wide network of information. Even Prime Minister Wen served as an adviser to her.”
Mo Linyuan said, “If a woman wants to survive in the imperial harem, then she will need to depend on a man. But if she wants to stand above everyone else, then she will need to depend on many men.”
Ye Mu was slightly confused by his explanation, “Are you implying that Zhao Yunqing has more than one man backing her?”
Mo Linyuan looked at her with a mysterious smile on his face.
“What do you think?”
Ye Mu didn’t dare to ask any more questions. She recently noticed that Mo Linyuan was acting very strange. He kept looking at her like she was a tiny lamb waiting to be slaughtered. He may appear gentle, but his smile made her blood run cold; it made her want to run away from him. Ye Mu shrank her neck and realized that her peaceful days were soon going to end.
Mo Linyuan said, “You said before that the Empress Dowager will probably back out of this scheme because of guilt. But I believed that she won’t stop scheming unless we catch her red-handed, otherwise, she wouldn’t be acting so unbridled in broad daylight.”
Ye Mu said, “Even if we catch her, she won’t necessarily admit to the crimes. She is a cruel woman, so if her schemes were exposed to the public, she will probably push all the crime onto one of the men backing her.”
Mo Linyuan glanced at her approvingly after listening to her deductions.
“There is only one man that can possibly make her willingly admit to all her crimes.”
He smiled and squeezed Ye Mu’s face, “She wants to protect that adulterer. If their crimes are exposed, she will probably willingly bear all the crimes.”
Ye Mu forgot about her cheeks that were being squeezed and widened her eyes in surprise, “Is it possible for her to willingly bear all the crimes for that man?”
“Who knows?”
Mo Linyuan led Ye Mu away. They still had a long time ahead of them, so he didn’t mind if things played out slowly.
Time gradually passed by and another year had passed.
On this day, Ye Mu was hiding in her palace, refusing to head out.
“Miss? Miss?” The maidservant finally managed to drag Ye Mu from under her bed, “As His Majesty’s study companion, you should accompany His Majesty when he’s attending class!”
Ye Mu just wanted to cry. She had taught him everything she could teach, and she didn’t want to see him! She wanted to hide!
Ye Mu was curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, refusing to come out. The maidservant smiled when she saw that and said, “His Majesty sent someone to ask you to head over. If he doesn’t see you in a quarter of an hour, he said he will personally come here in person. His Majesty is someone who keeps his words.”
Ye Mu’s cheeks were streaming with tears. He was so hateful! She couldn’t even try to feign illness to avoid this!
She crawled out from under the bed with grief and indignation. The young girl had grown a little once again; she looked extraordinarily beautiful. There was still some baby fat on her face right now, but her large and charming eyes looked very quick-witted. But the expression on her face looked very sullen.
The maidservants clothed and freshened up Ye Mu. Then, she pushed Ye Mu out the door.
“His Majesty cares a lot about you, so you must not let him down! Fighting!” Ye Mu was the one who taught them how to use the word fighting.
Ye Mu couldn’t say anything before she was kicked out of the room. She was feeling very sullen because her life was very difficult since Mo Linyuan ruled over the entire imperial palace.
The emperor’s imperial study.
“Oh? You’re finally willing to come here?”
Mo Linyuan’s tall and slender body blocked Ye Mu from entering the study. She didn’t know what he had eaten, and even though he was merely four years older than Ye Mu, Mo Linyuan was much taller than her. Ye Mu had to admit that she didn’t have good genetics. Generally, most twelve-year-old maidservants in the imperial palace were taller than her too.
Mo Linyuan smiled when he noticed that she was daydreaming again. He leaned towards her and kissed her ear.
Ye Mu immediately snapped out of her trance, covered her ears, and jumped backward!
“What are you doing?!”
Mo Linyuan stepped back and smiled gently when he saw how vigilant she looked when she jumped backward. “Come in, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
The surrounding servants pretended not to have seen them blatantly flirting with one another. When Ye Mu arrived at the study room, the servants had all stepped out and closed the door. Ye Mu was like a delicious plate of roasted lamb as she was pushed into the guest’s table to be eaten clean.
Today, Mo Linyuan wore a white dragon robe. He didn’t like the gold color, so he usually wore light-colored clothes unless he had to attend court or a major ceremony. He also didn’t like to tie his hair. Once court ended, his hair was loosely tied in the back. Looking from the back, he looked like an immortal fairy.
But when he turned around, he gave off a different aura. He looked more devilishly charming from the front when he smiled. Originally, he should have drafted for women to be selected as his concubines last year, but he refused. Many women in the capital were heartbroken when they heard the news. Some young ladies even refused to marry because they wanted to wait for the emperor to draft young women into the imperial palace.
Mo Linyuan always appeared gentle and aloof to the outside world, but he acted like a big bad wolf in front of Ye Mu. He would take small advantages of her from time to time. Ye Mu was frightened all day and night because of this; she couldn’t sleep well anymore!
By now, Ye Mu was no longer Mo Linyuan’s opponent. Because she couldn’t use her inner strength and could only rely on her martial arts skills, she was helpless in front of Mo Linyuan. She wanted to beat herself up for teaching Mo Linyuan everything she knew. If she hadn’t done that; then she wouldn’t be in such a passive position now. The apprentice had now surpassed the master.
“Come here.”
Mo Linyuan waved at Ye Mu, beckoning her to come over.
Although Ye Mu was unwilling, she had no choice, but she slowly moved towards Mo Linyuan. Mo Linyuan asked her to sit down and then pulled her onto his lap. Seeing how effortlessly he had done that, it was obvious that this had happened many times.
“I didn’t sleep well last night, so my head hurts a lot today. A bunch of the officials quarreled with one another during court today, and I barely had any reaction because of this headache.
Ye Mu was curious, so she couldn’t help but ask, “Why are they arguing?”
Due to Mo Linyuan’s brilliant methods when it came to dealing with people, few people dared to act so disrespectfully in front of him. It seemed like something big was going to happen.
Mo Linyuan stretched his hand and squeezed her nose gently.
“You should be asking me why I didn’t sleep well last night.”
Ye Mu burst into tears in her heart while she maintained an unwavering smile on her face. She quickly cheered herself up and fawned over him.
“Why didn’t you sleep well last night?”
Mo Linyuan narrowed his phoenix eyes and suddenly smiled coldly, “Shouldn’t you worry about me right now since I’m having a headache?”
Ye Mu really wanted to strangle this bad guy. Between laughter and tears, she said, “Let me give you a head massage, I have some experience in this.”
Mo Linyuan was pleased with her suggestion. He found a comfortable position on her lap, closed his eyes, and allowed her to massage him rhythmically.
The two of them didn’t say anything for a while.
A moment later, Mo Linyuan called out, “Little Mu’er.”
“Hm?”
“Is your period still not here yet?”
After realizing he was asking about her period, Ye Mu almost pushed him off her legs!
Despite coming from the postmodern world, she still couldn’t control her blush as she felt unbearably embarrassed! Should he really be asking these things?!
Sensing Ye Mu’s rigid body and strange expression, Mo Linyuan opened his phoenix-like eyes. He slightly turned his pair of gorgeous and deep eyes at her, taking in her crazed expression.
“Why did you become bashful now?”
Could she not be shy?!
It took Ye Mu a while before she swallowed her resentment. She said moodily, “How can you ask me this?!”
She pouted, seemingly unhappy, “Don’t ask me that ever again.”
“Why not?” Mo Linyuan chuckled lightly; his voice particularly magnetic. However, it sounded like torture to her ears at this moment.
“If I don’t ask now, what if you don’t tell me in the future?”
Ye Mu widened her eyes. , “Well, why would I even tell you about this? ”
Mo Linyuan looked at her disapprovingly, “Yesterday, I read from a book that once a woman has her period, she is mature enough to give birth to a child. If you don’t want to tell me about these things, who do you want to tell instead?”
Ye Mu felt that she could no longer communicate with Mo Linyuan; when did it become this difficult to understand a sixteen-year-old boy? What did her period and her ability to give birth to a child or not have anything to do with him?
“You are such a pervert!”
Ye Mu angrily reached over to pinch him but Mo Linyuan caught her hand halfway, pulling it under his lips and kissing it.
“Okay, don’t be shy now. I’ll stop talking about it, alright?”
Ye Mu flushed deeply. She tactfully jumped over this topic and asked seriously, “Then tell me why you guys were fighting about in court today.”
Mo Linyuan’s expression turned cold. “Nothing serious. Zhou Family’s heir died. As a result, they were making a commotion in court, claiming that he died of murder and demanded that I thoroughly investigate it.”
“And you say this is nothing serious?!” Ye Mu glared at him.
Mo Linyuan put away his smile and said solemnly, “Compared to why I couldn’t fall asleep yesterday, this is really nothing serious.”
Ye Mu hastily asked him, “Why couldn’t you sleep last night?”
Mo Linyuan glanced at Ye Mu…Then, he suddenly pounced and pressed her down on the imperial bed.
He said in a low voice, “Because I… was thinking about you.”
“Uhh…”
“Little Mu’er, why don’t you move to my imperial palace starting today? ”
He was asking seriously, but when Ye Mu heard that, she quickly pushed him away!
“In your dreams!”
She is still a child, yet he had been thinking about her daily. If they really slept in the same room, she would definitely be eaten up within minutes!
Mo Linyuan knelt down next to the imperial bed, glanced at her as though he was in a difficult position, and sighed.
“Little Mu’er, you are always so disobedient.”
He said sternly, “I have always given you whatever you want…so you can’t reject my requests either.”
His words made Ye Mu recall all the suffering she went through this year!
One time, she didn’t want to wear any skirts, so she ran around wearing simple trousers all day long. Mo Linyuan didn’t say anything on the surface, but he ordered someone to take away all her pants and trousers, leaving her with only skirts to wear.