The White-Haired Imperial Concubine - Chapter 21

A Woman is Like a Mirror

Man Yao was stunned, he already guessed it so quickly? She swiveled her head and casually spoke an off-topic sentence, “Today’s weather is really nice!”

Zongzheng Wuyou narrowed his phoenix eyes and slowly stood up, opening the windows all the way, causing the room to immediately become bright. The bright rays fell on his body, giving him a yellow halo, but was unable to cover up the ice-cold aura that was emanating deep within his bones. This woman’s guard was extremely strong! He changed the topic, “Why did you send someone to find benwang? What made you so sure that benwang would go save you?”

For someone like him, he was only used to controlling others, not the other way around. Man Yao came to a realization and gave a small smile. Getting down from the bed, she put on an outer robe, walking towards the window to stand by his side, “I wasn’t sure if Your Highness would come, but I was very clear that the only person who could take me away from the prison was you, Your Highness.”

“Why?” Zongzheng Wuyou didn’t turn his head, his voice still solemn and cold.

Outside the window were clusters of flowers, trees full of leaves, and water as blue as the sky. Man Yao turned her head, taking in his perfect side-profile as she lightly laughed, “Because you knew that I was not the culprit, and also because you have…an extreme infatuation towards chess.” He would save her wasn’t just so that he could also cause his opponents to sweat, but also because she carried a secret that he wanted to know.

Zongzheng Wuyou looked at her from the side of his eye, his gaze heavy and complicated, “Wmen are too stupid and prone to making others tired of them. But, those that are too smart…are also not good, they’ll make one feel tired. You can suitably…become a little dumber!” They were both cautious people. Each sentence was uttered after careful consideration of the other.

The two pairs of ink black eyes gazed at each other. One pair was bright and full of intelligence; one pair had the sun’s warmth shining on it, yet was still as cold as winter. Her gaze seemed to penetrate his, looking all the way to the bottom of his heart. His gaze seemed to penetrate her body to look at her soul. There was only silence in the air.

As the wind picked up, a leaf blew over from somewhere, drifting between their gazes. Man Yao raised her hand that was as fair as jade to catch the green leef in her palm. Her movements were so beautiful, it made one want to hold that slender and pretty hand in their own.

Zongzheng Wuyou retrieved his gaze, turning back to continue watching the scenery outside the window. His gaze wandered around, never focusing in on any one area.

Man Yao slightly raised her eyes, looking at the passing clouds floating throughout the endless sky. People will get tired of interacting with her? If it was possible, she wanted to live a simple life. But, in this world, in order to interact with those from the imperial family, if one wasn’t careful enough then they could lose their life at any moment. She gave a dry smile as she mocked herself, “Before…someone said that I was like a mirror!” How the people outside the mirror treated her, the her that was inside the mirror would return that same treatment. Because she was someone with extreme self-preservation instincts! Even if she were to be hurt, she would not hold a grudge and would instead choose to completely forget about it. The reason is because, to hate a person also requires you to pour feelings into them, making it tiresome.

Mirro?! Zongzheng Wuyou was stunned, his eyebrows jumping, “Are you saying that it’s benwang‘s fault?”

Man Yao gave a shallow smile, “I wouldn’t dare! It’s just that Your Highness is constantly suspicious, so I’m not sure…how I should be honest as well?”

Zongzheng Wuyou’s eyes roamed over her face. This time, although her gaze seemed to be open, behind that openness was shifting moods. He looked at her for a long time before suddenly laughing. Man Yao looked at him suspiciously and furrowed her eyebrows, confused at why he was laughing at her.

Zongzheng Wuyou held her hand, causing Man Yao to freeze. Like that, she was pulled along by him as he walked back while speaking, “Your body only just recovered, you still need to rest some more.”

She really couldn’t keep up with his ever-changing logic. His eyes looked so gentle but didn’t carry a hint of warmth, ice-cold like his hands. She suddenly wondered, what type of temperature would make this hand return back to a normal temperature?

Zongzheng Wuyou helped her back to the bed. Seeing her continue to stare at his hand as if she was in deep thought, he asked, “What’s wrong, are you not used to it?”

It’s that she wasn’t used to it, it’s that she was extremely unused to it! She could try to adjust to his temper, but she had no idea what to do about his sudden bouts of gentleness. She tried to find an excuse, “Your Highness…”

“In the future when there’s no one around, you can call me by my name!” A firm tone that left no room for arguments sounded out. This time, he was serious. Softening his voice a little, he spoke again, “You’ll get used to it eventually. Ah Man you…should rest first, I’ll come see you again in the afternoon.” Finishing, he let go of her hand, giving her an elegant smile, not waiting for her to respond before turning around and leaving. Lifting the edges of his lips, he thought that to become accustomed to a woman didn’t seem to be as difficult as he imagined, he just followed his instincts.

Man Yao leaned against the bed rail, the iciness of his touch still lingering on her fingertips as she gazed at his shrinking back and fell into a daze. She recalled all the times they met each other and how he showed her a different side of him each time. The first was in the palace’s great hall, when even though he acted as if no one could enter his eyes, he was actually secretly arguing with the Emperor. Exactly what kind of enmity would lead a person to use such extreme measures to avoid seeing their own father? The second time, he was cold and sullen, his actions swift and cruel. Although he viewed women as mere ants, he actually showed mercy in consideration for his ninth brother who was born from the same mother. The third time, Moonlight Tea Garden, he took one look and knew the trick behind her design of the dark tunnel. With the sentence, “Eyes like colored glass, a person as beautiful as the moon,” he praised her without any reservations. The sentence, “This woman fits it,” exposed her disguise as a man. When he tasted the fruit tea, there were flickers of light in his eyes that were covered up by longing and pain. Why? In the half month that he spent in the garden, his solemn and lonely figure occasionally raised his eyes to meet hers, his gaze probing and full of expectations. On the last day, he said that as a woman, she should be at home waiting to be married and birth children. But when she brought up the views from her modern world that completely contradicted with the views in this world, he did not seem to be surprised at all and smiled as he asked her to play chess. Thinking more deeply, perhaps each of these incidents was him trying to test her. But why would he expend so much effort to find a modern person?