The Gilded Cage

Chapter 29: The lotus lantern is elegant and not demonic, but you are very coquettish. ……

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The door was silent, except for a few palace lanterns on both sides, no one was seen.

Xiao Kezhi went in alone with a sullen face. After turning around and closing the door, he crossed a hall in the vestibule and entered the courtyard with a chiseled soup pond.

It was still a cold winter night outside, but the inside was warm as spring because of the underground pipes leading to the soup spring.

The courtyard is still empty, but there are more palace lanterns around, hanging under the eaves promenade, hidden among the mountains, rocks and trees, illuminating the square space in half-light and half-darkness. Under the pavilion in the southeast corner, the steam in the soup pool filled with water curls up a little bit, and the surrounding is like a fairyland.

The soup springs here are all living water. Standing in the middle of the courtyard, listening to the ding-dong sound of the flowing spring water coming from between the rocks, Xiao Kezhi couldn't help raising his eyebrows, everything here is obviously already arranged, just waiting for him to come in. .

But no one in the yard came out to greet him.

He paused for a moment, then took two steps in, and then he saw clearly that behind the rockery, in the mist of water, a long imperial concubine's couch was placed beside the soup pool, and a beauty was lying on the couch.

The beauty was wearing a tulle with her long hair down, lying with her back to him, the dim light shining on her body, reflecting the pearl-like luster on the tulle, and also sketching out a graceful soft and undulating curve.

It's the woman.

With little thought, he recognized it intuitively, and even recalled in his mind the fascinating dimples on her buttocks.

There seems to be a faint aroma in the air, which makes people feel relaxed and happy.

He stood there, stroking her back carefully with his eyes, then quietly approached, stopped by the couch, put his hands on her sides, and leaned slightly to observe her.

She still didn't move, as if she couldn't wake up, but he didn't believe that she was really asleep, and just patiently waited for her next move.

The moist mist lingered silently on her skin as white as jade. The original soft luster faded a little and turned into a moist beauty. Even the thick eyelashes were stained with a few drops of extremely fine water. beads.

The thin gauze was soaked by the moisture in the air, and it was carefully traced to her shoulders, chest, and waist, until her slightly bent legs overlapped.

Xiao Kezhi looked at the beautiful woman in the cramped space surrounded by his arms, his eyes darkened little by little.

It was almost time to think that the woman who had been lying still had her eyelashes trembling. She slowly opened her eyes and turned her head slightly, just in time to meet his dark and deep eyes.

"Your Majesty..."

Her eyes were moist, glittering and moving under the candlelight, and the naturally rising crimson on her cheeks was even more charming and charming when she woke up from a sound sleep. Seeing that he couldn't help it, he lowered his head to hold her plump lips tightly. , the palms on both sides also moved up slowly along her slender arms, and finally pressed her wrists to make her unable to move.

She turned her body into a supine position with extraordinary obedience, and let him kiss her hard, until her already moist eyes became more and more hazy, he slowly backed away, and casually picked up a strand of her and hung it on the couch The hair to the nose lightly sniffed.

"What do you want to do with me today?"

He didn't mention at all why he let her tick so easily, so he followed the boat and pushed everything on her.

Chu Ning blinked, and a sly smile appeared on his lips: "Your Majesty ordered your niece to share your worries for you."

She was talking about the words he said when he set off in the daytime, but in a different scene, the meaning became ambiguous.

"Well, how are you going to share my worries for me?" His hand rubbed her white and slender neck, pinching it from time to time, as if he was very satisfied with the touch that was just grasped.

"The soup spring is full, An Ning serves His Majesty to change clothes and soak in the soup."

As she spoke, she stretched out her hand to push him away, knelt down on the couch, and walked her knees behind him, her two slender arms hugged from behind him, slowly understanding his belt.

He was tall and strong, and she had to put her entire upper body against his back, her head on his shoulders, and gently exhale towards his collar and neck with the movements of her hands.

The hot and wet feeling spread down his neck and gradually turned into a crisp, so he couldn't help turning his head and wanted to kiss her.

But she didn't let him wish, and when his lips came close, she stepped back and took off his untied robe smoothly.

"Please enter the soup pool, Your Majesty."

She put the clogs prepared for him on the edge of the couch, but she stood barefoot on the warm stone steps, leading him little by little into the pool.

Across the layers of water mist, he leaned against the soup pool and quietly watched her sitting on the stone steps at the other end, lighting up a lotus lantern.

The warm candlelight lit up in the lotus lamp, illuminating her from the bottom up, and it was clear that the water droplets accumulated in her neck slipped into the front of her clothes.

Xiao Kezhi's sharp eyes stared at the drops of water that silently slipped down, and his Adam's apple rolled up and down unconsciously.

The lotus lantern was put into the water, and slowly floated to him along the flow of the water waves. It spun gently and was lifelike, as if it was really a lotus flower that was born in a hot spring, but it was still pure and clean, and it was like a fiercely burning flame. , the already very hot hot springs are a little hot.

"Do you like lotus?"

He looked at the lotus lamp, and immediately remembered her silk handkerchief, and even the torn robe had lotus patterns embroidered on it.

"This flower is elegant and not bewitching, but you are very bewitching."

For some reason, when he said this, he inexplicably gnashed his teeth.

Chu Ning sat on the edge of the pool farther away from him, and slowly immersed a pair of jade feet in the soup and stirred slowly, leaving two bare slender legs swaying lightly on the water from time to time.

"Your Majesty wants to say that Aning is not worthy of such an elegant flower?" She lifted her eyelids and glanced at him, and the mockery that flashed across her lips was not for him or herself.

Xiao Kezhi felt as if someone was pinching his heart, and it was slightly sour, but he didn't explain it, and only focused his eyes on her naked and slender calf.

Chu Ning pursed his lips, taking his silence as his default.

She lowered her head and put one hand into the pool, feeling the warm spring water flowing through her fingertips, and suddenly whispered, "This is my mother's favorite flower." She is more worthy than me Such a noble thing.

The slightly sour feeling in Xiao Kezhi's heart seemed to be a little more astringent.

He remembered that Chu Qianyu's wife had passed away many years ago. She should have been young at that time, so it seems that she may not have much memory of her mother.

She is an orphan who has lost the protection of her parents.

He was feeling a little pity, but the next moment, he saw her holding up the jug on the tray by her hand, and she signaled to him with a coquettish smile: "Your Majesty, would you like to drink?"

As he said that, without waiting for him to answer, he directly held the jug and raised his head to drink.

The wine poured directly into her mouth, and a little overflowed from the corners of her lips, flowing down her chin and neck to her collarbone, and finally fell into her chest, finally thoroughly moistening the layer of tulle covering her chest.

"Witch."

He felt a slamming sound in his head, as if something shattered, and the air around him became thinner. He couldn't help but hoarse a low voice, pushed away the water in front of him, walked to her side, and grasped her A jade foot that keeps moving in the pool water.

The jade feet were small and delicate, and he just happened to be playing with them in his palm. When he was done playing, he pulled her hard and pulled her whole body into the pool.

She couldn't help but let out a soft snort, trying to hold the jug in her hand. The splash of water when she fell in wet the floating lotus lantern and almost extinguished the flame.

"lamp-"

She wanted to protect the little flame, but he didn't give her an extra chance, he just pulled away the wet tulle and pressed her to the edge of the pool.

The jug was raised by him, and the cold wine poured out of the spout and poured into her hair.

She raised her head and closed her eyes, allowing more wine to flow on her face, neck, and shoulders. The long black hair was wet into strands, sticking to the skin, as beautiful as a water demon.

Seeing his heart tremble, he threw away the jug, lowered his head to kiss her, and swallowed all the remaining liquid with the aroma of wine.

Under the heavy water mist, the water waves in the huge soup pond surging, and from time to time they are stirred up by rushing or slow waves.

The wet lotus lantern is like a lonely boat with no support. adrift.

In the court hall on the west side of Jinyang Gate, Qi Mu listened to the officials of Zhongshu Province reporting on the candidates for the vacant positions that the emperor had just appointed, his face was very gloomy.

Due to the approaching New Year's Day, he did not set off with the holy car today, but stayed in the office first, brought the envoys from the Ministry of Rites, Honglu Temple and various neighbors to greet them one by one, and invited him to go to Tangquan in half a month. The palace attended the New Year's Eve banquet, and only after meeting the new emperor did he set off for Mount Li.

It was already evening when he arrived here, and he didn't intend to come to the court. He came here because he heard that the sage ordered to fill the vacant official position today.

This made him furious.

Those official positions were originally vacated in the previous two months when the sage dealt with the prince's faction. Although they were not third-rank or higher, they were all solid positions in the ministries.

He had already spotted a few of them before, and when he asked the Ministry of Personnel to make up the list of vacancies, he specially arranged a few of his cronies to be among them. Several people.

Who knows, when he heard it just now, none of the people he pushed were used, and the people who went up to fill the gaps were all unpopular officials!

This is almost naked | losing face in the courtroom!

"Grand Chancellor, the sage has demoted Wang Sizheng of Dali Temple and He Shijun of Shangzhou last time, and this time he is going his own way on filling in the blanks. I am afraid he intends to rectify it." A Zhongshu Provincial official beside him said worriedly. .

Qi Mu snorted coldly, remembering that when the new monarch dealt with several courtiers of the prince's party, he hadn't thought about it. Today, it seems that it is too deceiving.

"I see." He pondered for a moment in the temple, and nodded to a few people. "The saint is young, and he has only recently ascended the throne. It is inevitable that he will be a little anxious. I will go to the Feishhuang Temple and ask the saint to make a new decision."

After all, regardless of the fact that it was already night, he went directly from Jinyang Gate to the Emperor's Bedroom.

In the soup pool, Xiao Kezhi was leaning against the boulder, holding the paralyzed Chu Ning with one hand, and stroking her back.

The lotus lantern was not extinguished by the violently fluctuating soup spring, but at this moment it has also burned to the end and quietly extinguished.

The water wave brought the lamp closer, and Chu Ning reached out to hold the half-wet lamp and put it on the edge of the pool with a little regret.

"Like this lamp?" Xiao Kezhi raised his eyelids and glanced at her, then lowered his head and took a light bite on her chin.

Chu Ning ducked back, turned around to face him, wrapped his arms around his waist, and pressed his side face to his chest.

"A Ning thought it was His Majesty's favor."

As soon as the coquettish voice came out, the two of them almost simultaneously remembered the situation in the pool just now.

He pushed the lotus lantern to a place near the edge of the pool, made her turn around, put both hands on the edge of the pond, just circled the lotus lantern in the small space in front of him, and ordered her to endure not to put the candle The fire is blown out.

She couldn't, she had to try her best to slump her waist, straighten her back, and raised her head to keep her breath away from the candlelight, so she could barely endure everything.

Thinking back at this time, Xiao Kezhi stroked the palm of her back again, and even his voice became hoarse.

"I just like to see the light shining on you."

Chu Ning rubbed his cheeks and said softly, "Shangyuan Festival is coming soon."

Xiao Kezhi's hand paused, and when he mentioned Shangyuan, he almost immediately thought of the upcoming Chinese New Year - the prince should be back.

He asked with a sullen face: "Why, are you looking forward to seeing the prince soon?"

Chu Ning was a little surprised, she only mentioned Shangyuan because of this lamp, but he directly thought of Xiao Yu.

"Who An Ning wants to see, does Your Majesty still not know?" She raised her head to meet his eyes, but something suddenly flashed in her mind, and she could not help but tentatively whisper, "Your Majesty, An Ning heard that the Crown Prince went to slip State, seems to want to see a few generals nearby."

She remembered what Zhao Yanzhou said, since she didn't want Xiao Yu to succeed, the best way was to tell Xiao Kezhi directly.

Xiao Kezhi didn't speak, just stared at her with a pair of bottomless eyes, as if trying to see something from her expression.

"Why tell me about this?" He stretched out his hand to squeeze her chin, and doubts flashed in his eyes, "Afraid that something happened to the prince will affect you?"

He didn't ask who Xiao Yu wanted to see, but directly asked her why she said it, and she should have known about it already.

Seeing this, Chu Ning felt relieved, shook his head and said, "A Ning just wants to help His Majesty."

Xiao Kezhi sneered and slowly let go of the hand holding her chin, apparently not believing her words at all.

No matter how stupid he is, he understands that this woman is using him, but she still pretends to help him.

Anger flashed through his eyes, he picked her up from the water with a cold face, put her on the couch of the imperial concubine beside him, and after throwing a clean bath towel on her, he turned around and wiped it for himself. stand up.

"You don't have to always detour with me. More often, I will always wonder if you are Chu Qianyu's daughter."

Chu Qianyu is upright and upright, and she is not fake, but her daughter is as cunning as a fox.

Chu Ning's eyes froze, and she immediately remembered that when he was in the Taiji Palace, he also mentioned his father's name. He seemed to know his father very well, but she never knew that his father had friendship with him.

"Your Majesty recognizes Aning's father?"

She asked carefully, with a hint of imperceptible anticipation. If he also had a good relationship with his father, wouldn't it be logical for her to ask him to vindicate his father

Xiao Kezhi glanced at her, but did not answer directly, but said ambiguously: "Who doesn't recognize the great Duke of Chu back then?"

Chu Ning was stunned for a while, and he was waiting to ask again, but a nervous reminder came from the door of the front hall: "Everyone, Duke Qi has come to the Feishhuang Palace."