Si Junlin still strode out quickly. Su Wan'er was extremely worried about what else he might do next, but she had to leave. Besides, why did Si Junlin want to keep her?
The weather was sweltering. It seemed that it was going to rain. Su Wan'er inexplicably felt a bit tired. Qingcao urged her that it was time to rest. Just as she was thinking that she hadn't taken a bath yet, she suddenly found that she had been soaking in the mutton soup for a long time.
Humph, Su Wan'er sneered for no reason. This man was really something. When she first entered the palace, she was so sincere to him, but he just kept causing trouble for her with those women and made her feel cold. Now, he didn't know what crazy idea he had and came up with these things.
She always felt cold when sleeping at night. Su Wan'er called out for Qingcao, but thought that this girl was always too busy to get a good night's sleep. In a few days, she would be the only one she could take with her. It would be better to let her have a good rest.
It turned out that it was raining. No wonder the cold air was hitting her body directly. Su Wan'er got up to close the window. There were always a few long - burning lamps left outside the window, but the eunuchs on night watch were naturally dozing off.
As soon as Su Wan'er looked out of the window, under the warm, yellow and hazy light... Was that?
"Si, Your Majesty?" His hair was all wet. What was he doing standing there?
"Why are you awake?" Si Junlin didn't seem to think his behavior was abnormal at all. Instead, he asked this question very naturally.
"I'm a bit cold. Why are you here? Come in quickly." Su Wan'er hurriedly went to open the door for him.
"Achoo!" Si Junlin sneezed before entering the door, but still shook the water off his sleeves before coming in.
"Quickly change into this."
Naturally, the servants were more surprised than Su Wan'er. After a flurry of activity, they quickly dried him off.
"Your Majesty should explain, shouldn't you? Standing outside my window in the rain at this hour?"
"I, I was just bored and enjoying the rain." Si Junlin cooperated and let her scold him.
But even Su Wan'er herself didn't realize that she was actually getting angry.
"Enjoying the rain?! You're likely to catch a cold like this. Don't you know that you've never learned any martial arts? How could you just stand in the rain like that?" Su Wan'er became even more angry. She had never seen anyone who joked about their own body like this.
"Then I won't dare to do it again. I promise I won't do it next time. Will you supervise me, Wan'er?" Si Junlin took her hand and obediently lowered his head to admit his mistake.
Only then did Su Wan'er realize what she was doing. Si Junlin was the emperor. There were servants in the whole palace to serve him, and there were so many imperial doctors. Why was she worrying for no reason?
"Your, Your Majesty, since you're okay, please go back. Xiaotao, bring an umbrella."
"Are you so eager to drive me away?" Si Junlin didn't take the umbrella that was handed to him for a long time.
"..." Su Wan'er was silent.
The two of them were silent for a while. Su Wan'er remembered their wedding night. It seemed to be a rainy day too, but the situation was completely different from now. She had been looking forward to his coming early that day. After he lifted the wedding veil, her face was as red as rouge from shyness, and she didn't even dare to look at Si Junlin.
"I suddenly feel dizzy. It hurts so much. Wan'er... I'm afraid I can't go out and get exposed to the wind again. I can only stay here with you tonight." Si Junlin seemed quite proud of coming up with this trick. He walked boldly towards Su Wan'er's couch.
"Then, I'll go to the west hall. Qingcao, take out the quilt."
"Queen, what do you mean? I'm summoning you to attend to me tonight!" Si Junlin looked at her angrily. He really thought he was the most pitiful emperor in the world. His own queen actually minded sharing a bed with him!
"Your Majesty forgot? I didn't take the medicine today. How can I attend to you?" Su Wan'er retorted very neatly.
She would never forget that night. She had been arranged to take the medicine bestowed by the Empress Dowager early on, because her grandmother had told her at home that the daughters of the Su family couldn't get pregnant casually. She didn't even say no. But in the end, Si Junlin still left this room on the pretext of being busy with government affairs.
It was only after suffering the cold ridicule from those women in the palace for a month that she knew what it meant to be alone on the wedding night. It wasn't because he was busy with government affairs at all. It was just a warning.
"Wan'er, I've explained it to you. About the medicine, I've already made it clear to mother. You can be exempted from taking it." Si Junlin showed a bit of apology. He never thought that he would fall in love with this casually - married queen so much later. Even if he had to give up the whole Jin Kingdom, he wouldn't exchange her.
"Si Junlin, you and I both know that the imperial edict of deposing the queen from the Empress Dowager will come down soon. Our ridiculous marriage will end soon. Why do you bother with these useless efforts?" Su Wan'er felt that she didn't want to play guessing games with him anymore. She always liked to speak straightforwardly.
"Ridiculous? You think our marriage is ridiculous?" Si Junlin loudly questioned her, regardless of whether there were servants outside the hall listening.
"Isn't it?" Su Wan'er felt that her momentum was weakening, but there was nothing to argue about. This was the truth.
"You don't love me anymore, do you?"
The information brought by the secret agents clearly said that she had admired him since she saw him when she was about to get married, and she didn't even refuse when this marriage was proposed. Over the years, she clearly loved him and would be unhappy because he doted on other women. When she first entered the palace, she always inquired about the things of his favoring others. Didn't all these count? Su Wan'er actually used the word "ridiculous" to summarize their marriage? Was that all there was?
"Your Majesty must be misunderstanding something. You know better than anyone else why I suddenly changed from a general with a title bestowed by the late emperor to a queen who didn't even need to participate in the draft and directly married into the middle palace." In such a political game, it was originally just her own confusion. She was so stupid to think that she was going to be a wife... Now talking about love with her, wasn't it ridiculous?
"I'll go back. You should rest early."
"See Your Majesty off." Su Wan'er didn't pay attention to his staggering steps. After respectfully saluting, she added a quilt for herself and continued to sleep. But she didn't know if it was the thunder or the rain, she just couldn't fall asleep and stayed awake all night.
Early the next morning, sure enough, the emperor returned from the court more than an hour later than usual.
Su Wan'er deliberately put on the most formal palace dress and sat upright in the main hall waiting. She naturally guessed what had happened in the court. This time, those old officials would probably not only label her as a "vixen who brings disaster to the country" and a "sinner who brings misfortune to the country", but there would probably be many people coming out to remonstrate with their lives on the line. After all, an old official had rammed his head against a pillar in the court because of a mere piece of land the only time she went to the court. With such a big event today, if someone didn't sacrifice themselves, they simply didn't deserve to be called loyal.
"Your Ladyship, the Empress Dowager is coming in person!" The little girl outside came back to report.