Xue Yunyi personally escorted Yuan Xiubai out of the hall. The man stood under the eaves and bowed to her, unable to hide the admiration in his eyes.
“Your Highness has considered the people of Lang Province most thoroughly. This official cannot compare.”
Xue Yunyi smiled. “Mr. Yuan, you are too modest. Without your guidance, This Palace would not have realized that those few volumes of local records were so poorly verified, full of errors.”
Yuan Xiubai shook his head. He was not being modest. As a civil official, he was accustomed to poetry and prose, utterly clueless about building dikes or diverting water. The only help he could offer the Eldest Princess was this pair of eyes that had seen the lands of Lang Province.
That water diversion map was already quite complete. It was just that in recent years, Lang Province had opened many new kilns and mines, so some locations could not be touched and needed adjustments. After that, it could be submitted to the Ministry of Works, awaiting only His Majesty’s approval before construction could begin.
The two exchanged a few more polite words, and then Yuan Xiubai took his leave.
Xue Yunyi was about to return to her room when she suddenly glimpsed a young man kneeling quietly by the small window nearby, facing the wall. The night breeze brushed over his thin back, and he huddled, clutching his sleeves tightly. He had clearly heard her voice but did not dare turn around.
She frowned and called out, “Ah Lang.”
Hearing his name, the youth cautiously looked toward her and rasped a response. “Slave is here.”
“Who told you to kneel there?” Xue Yunyi vaguely guessed he must be overthinking things again. She sighed involuntarily. “Come inside with This Palace.”
“Yes.”
The youth answered softly and rose to follow her in.
Mo Ying wheeled Xue Yunyi to the desk and then tactfully withdrew. Before Xue Yunyi could speak, the youth lowered his head and began apologizing in a small voice. “Slave knows his mistake now. Mistress may punish slave however she wishes, just please do not drive slave away.”
While facing the wall in reflection earlier, Xue Yunyi’s words “go out” had echoed in his mind countless times. He was so afraid, afraid that the Eldest Princess might drive him away in a fit of anger or forbid him from ever approaching the bedchamber again.
“Slave’s status is lowly. He should not have appeared before Your Highness’s guest without permission. It was slave’s presumption that offended…”
The more Wu Lang thought, the more frightened he became. He listed his faults in near panic, apologizing over and over. He was so desperate for Xue Yunyi’s forgiveness that he even forgot his etiquette. “This base slave will remember. He will never offend again. Please…”
Xue Yunyi rubbed her temple, that deep sense of helplessness rising in her heart once more. After all these days, she had finally gotten him to drop that self-deprecating term that made her so uncomfortable. She had finally made him bolder, daring to get close to her. But now, it seemed all her efforts had been for nothing.
She darkened her expression and asked coldly, “Have you forgotten This Palace’s rules again?”
Wu Lang froze for a moment, then realized he had made another grave error. Panic gripped him even more tightly. “Sorry…”
He was truly a useless waste, only good at angering the Eldest Princess, nothing else.
The youth closed his eyes in despair, his voice trembling. “Please punish this disobedient mouth of slave’s.”
“It does deserve a good punishment.”
Xue Yunyi’s knuckles rapped heavily on the desk. Without needing her to say more, the youth quickly approached and presented his newly healed face to her hand.
From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the sandalwood ruler pressed atop the drawing paper. Wu Lang pressed his lips together, forcing his fear deep into his heart.
He was no stranger to punishment of the mouth. Back in Ninghua Palace, just because he had unwittingly said the wrong thing, Xue Qingzhi had struck his mouth with a ruler until it was bruised, torn, and purple. For a full seven days, he could not open his mouth to speak or eat, only barely sustaining himself by being force-fed thin rice porridge.
Would the Eldest Princess… be gentler with him?
He wondered in a daze, only to see that Xue Yunyi did not pick up the ruler. Instead, she grabbed a handful of what looked like pills and held them out to him, commanding, “Put them in your mouth.”
Was it some torturous medicine?
Would it rot his lips and tongue, steal his voice, slowly suffocate him, and teach him a lesson in the depths of dying despair and pain…
Wu Lang swallowed hard.
If that was what the Eldest Princess liked… he was willing to be treated that way by her, willing to please her with his suffering.
As long as she did not discard him—
He would do anything.
Wu Lang reverently extended his palm. He did not dare touch the Eldest Princess’s hand and only lowered his eyes, waiting for her to pour the pills into it.
He murmured softly, “Thank you, Mistress, for the punishment.” Then, without the slightest hesitation, he obeyed her command.
To his surprise, the imagined agony did not come.
He only tasted a mouth full of sourness, so tart it made his saliva flow, numbed his cheeks, and brought tears to his eyes. Instinctively, he wanted to spit it out. No one stopped him from doing so, but he merely clenched his fists tightly and gazed at the Eldest Princess in her wheelchair with eyes brimming with tears, utterly docile.
The Eldest Princess’s gaze fell on his trembling lips.
His eyes flickered, and he immediately sealed his mouth even tighter, not daring to let a single bit escape.
“Is it sour?” she asked.
He nodded vigorously, vaguely hearing what seemed like a sigh from the Eldest Princess.
“Then remember this for This Palace. This Palace does not like hearing those two words.” She stared at him, enunciating each one. “Today, you committed no wrong. Even if This Palace brought Mr. Yuan back, so what? You are no shameful forbidden plaything to be hidden from This Palace’s side. You should have stood up and greeted Mr. Yuan properly.”
Wu Lang stared blankly.
Stand up… and greet? He, a lowly slave like this, was qualified to stand before the Eldest Princess’s guest?
“In that situation, This Palace did not know how to explain to Mr. Yuan and had to send you out for the moment. This Palace never said to drive you away.”
Xue Yunyi paused, her tone softening a touch. “Mr. Yuan is This Palace’s teacher now. This Palace invited him today to discuss the drought in Lang Province.”
Wu Lang remained dazed for a long while before realizing that the Eldest Princess was patiently explaining to him.
As for the “poison” in his mouth—
It was merely some tooth-searing sour plum candies.
Their only purpose was to make him shut up obediently, sparing him from saying more words she did not wish to hear.
He felt something disobedient trickle from the corner of his eye, unsure if it was from the candy’s tartness or something else.
The Eldest Princess sighed softly and leaned down to stroke his head.
“Do your knees hurt from kneeling?”
“Was it cold outside? Summer is approaching, but the nights are still chilly.”
“Do not do this without permission again.”
The youth nodded vigorously with a whimper, desperately nuzzling into her palm. His cheeks were still puffed out; she had not permitted him to swallow, so he foolishly kept them in his mouth.
Xue Yunyi said gently, “Swallow them.”
Only then did the youth obediently gulp down the sour mouthful. His eyes brimmed with tears from the acidity, leaving him speechless. Xue Yunyi casually took a piece of clear, sweet pear candy, peeled it, and placed it in his mouth.
The punishment was over.
A well-behaved little dog who listened to his scolding deserved comfort and reward.
Her fingertips gently pried open the youth’s tightly clenched white teeth. She felt the warmth of his breath but did not hurry to give. Instead, she teased and stirred, drawing out sticky silver threads, moistening his pitiable lips.
Mist and daze clouded the youth’s eyes as he gazed at her, lost like a broken doll.
Finally, she leaned down. The youth’s breath quickly grew scorching. He suckled at the sweetness in her mouth with near obsession. The pear’s fragrant sweetness soon filled him, rich and moistening. The sour plum’s tartness was drowned in wet warmth. So sweet. He loved his Mistress so much.
The candy clinked softly against his teeth. The faint sound traveled along his bones, like rain dripping from the eaves in the quiet night—sporadic yet so clear.
His face flushed as he clumsily wrapped his arms around the Eldest Princess’s neck as she had taught him, his slender arms like two supple willow branches, trembling lightly.
In the end, he was left a total mess, his lips a wreck, his cheeks smeared with glistening trails.
Yet the Eldest Princess remained impeccably dressed and composed.
The youth bit his lip in shame. After a long moment, he murmured hoarsely.
“Mistress.”
“May slave… wait for you in the bedchamber tomorrow?”