CH 102

Ming Zhu stood aside, being angry in silence. During dinner, she didn’t want to speak even one word. Until the evening meal was removed, she still kept her mouth close.

Zhao Zhi thought that it was better when she was angry than not, at least the expression on her face was vivid, for a moment it made him forget about her negociating for a compromise.

Zhao Zhi stroked her head, “Go write.”

Ming Zhu slapped his hand away and went to the desk while puffing up. She spread out the high-quality fine paper and continued to copy the section.A section had at least 500 characters. It was really difficult for her to write beautifully.

Zhao Zhi took out the sections she had copied during the day, read it and commented, “There’s no improvement at all.”

Ming Zhu took it away by force, “Not everyone is a talent.”

“I’m just stupid, can’t I?”

Zhao Zhi didn’t disdain her for being stupid. He said, “Your handwriting hasn’t reached its complete form, why not imitate my handwriting first?”

Ming Zhu had seen Zhao Zhi’s handwriting, it was indeed beautiful. It was vigorous and powerful, and its style was sharp and majestic.

“Alright.”

When Ming Zhu lowered her head, the hair on both sides of her cheeks slowly fell down. Reaching out her hand, she put her hair back behind her ear. Her face appeared white and pure, her expression was serious.

After Ming Zhu was done copying one section, there were several characters she didn’t recognize, thus when Zhao Zhi asked her how to pronounce them, her cheeks turned red and her ears pink as she said she didn’t know.

Fortunately, Zhao Zhi did not laugh at her on this matter, he corrected her pronunciation and then told her the litterary citations associated with each character.

In the end, Ming Zhu managed to remember the characters’ pronunciation.

When she was reaching the last part, she really couldn’t copy anymore.

Ming Zhu negociated with him, “Your Highness, I’ll make up for it tomorrow, is that okay?”

When he was a child, Zhao Zhi studied and practiced his writing much harder than she did now. In his opinion, this was already a very light and relaxed amount of studying.

“Okay, but there won’t be a next time.”

“Alright.”

Ming Zhu was finally able to get a good night’s sleep after a tiring day and she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

Late at night, she was woken up by Zhao Zhi, her sash was messy and loose while her wrists were pressed on the pillow, making her unable to move.

She didn’t even have a chance to speak before her mouth was blocked.

Gushes of spring tide, bringing rain, came one after the other. Delicate low moans coming from behind the curtains spread outside of the room.

Ming Zhu’s consciousness was muddled. Her earlobe was bitten. The slight tingle pulled back her to a difficult awareness. It felt like she heard the man ask in a low voice, “Why isn’t there any movement in your belly yet?”

It had been a while since she had stopped taking the medicine.

Ming Zhu thought she had misheard.

The next day, it was precisely Zhao Xin’s birthday banquet. Ming Zhu had to go to the palace with Zhao Zhi, so she couldn’t stay in bed even though her limbs were lacking in strength.

Ming Zhu was sitting in front of the mirror, doing her own makeup.

Zhao Zhi was standing behind her, neatly dressed, as his thumbs, undisciplined, played with two strands of her hair. He suddenly said, “I will ask the doctor to come and check your pulse in a few days.”

Ming Zhu was in a daze, “Your Highness, my body is in good health.”

Zhao Zhi frowned, deep in thought, without making a sound for a while. He wanted a child, so he could bind half of her heart to him. If the child was a girl, it would be even better.

Ming Zhu didn’t want to let the doctor check her pulse, otherwise the fact that she took medecine in secret would be revealed.

Zhao Zhi’s gaze sharply caught sight of the medicine bottle in the trousseau box, his eyebrows slighly lifted up, “What is this?”

Ming Zhu, without panicking, closed the lid with her sweaty and cold hand as she said, “It’s medicine to replenish the blood and nourish the qi.”

(37.1)

Zhao Zhi did not look closely at the medicine bottle and did not discover anything wrong with it.

He was still thinking about the matter of having a child. Letting a concubine give birth to the first child wasn’t in accordance with the rules and it also sounded a bit absurd. But that wasn’t the only absurd thing he did that concerned her.

In the past few months, Ming Zhu’s health had been improving, her complexion was rosy and she had more flesh on her cheeks, at long last she wasn’t so fragile and prone to falling ill anymore.

Ming Zhu’s gaze, through the copper mirror, looked at the man behind her, seeing that his expression did not change, her heart that was hanging in mid-air barely settled down.

“Since it’s a medicine to replenish the blood and nourish the qi, it must be stored carefully.”

Ming Zhu felt that Zhao Zhi was similar to her former teacher, he especially liked to use a very serious tone, saying words that served as a lesson.

Ming Zhu finally knew why she wasn’t liked by the female master when she was a child, because she was not obedient enough.

“I got it.”

Ming Zhu was now really bold, she was tossed and turned so many times last night, and now was worrying, right under Zhao Zhi’s eyes, about finding an opportunity to take the medicine. She kept her hands from trembling, took the medicine bottle out of the drawer, took out one pill, put it into her mouth and swallowed it with warm water.

After taking the medicine, her back was almost completely wet with cold sweat. She turned sideways and raised her face to look at him, calmly saying, “The doctor said to take it often.”