Volume Seven: The Years I Was a General
Coax Me1
Wen Nuan knew Xiao Chuyu resented her, so she deliberately ignored her, deliberately gave her a cold look2, and deliberately made her ride a horse instead of sharing the imperial carriage with her.
Sometimes, Xiao Chuyu would directly treat Wen Nuan as if she were invisible, as if the person Gu Wen Nuan had never been in the procession returning to the Capital.
Overall, Xiao Chuyu’s resentment towards her was already soaring to the heavens.
Ye Mingxiu looked at Wen Nuan riding a horse to the side, her face dejected, and kindly comforted her, saying, “It is unavoidable that Her Majesty is angry with you.”
He had now come to terms with it; compared to Gu Wen Nuan, the things he had done for Xiao Chuyu could not measure up to even one ten-thousandth of what Gu Wen Nuan had done for Xiao Chuyu.
Gu Wen Nuan was a ruthless person willing to hand over her own future and life to Xiao Chuyu; based on this point alone, he would never be able to compete with her in this lifetime.
And, the most important point.
Ye Mingxiu glanced at the imperial carriage behind them; Xiao Chuyu’s movement of letting down the curtain was a little flustered, and he saw it in a single glance.
Now, the love between these two was stronger than gold3; it was feared that not even the heavens collapsing and the earth splitting could separate them, so why should he ask for trouble4? Moreover, from beginning to end, Xiao Chuyu had never had a trace of good feelings for him, he was very clear about that. Now that he was letting go, he should be a bit more chic and composed.
Hearing Ye Mingxiu’s comfort, Wen Nuan sighed: “I know Her Majesty is angry with me. Right now, I can only think of a way to let Her Majesty calm down, to prevent her anger from harming her body.”
She looked back at the imperial carriage and asked Ye Mingxiu, “Has Her Majesty taken her medicine today?”
“She has already taken the morning dose,” Ye Mingxiu said, calculating the time. “At the noon hour, she will have to take her medicine after she finishes her lunch.”
“Good, you will serve Her Majesty her medicine at that time.”
Ye Mingxiu paused for a moment: “Are you not going?”
Wen Nuan shook her head and said: “If I go, she won’t be able to drink it.”
The last few times Wen Nuan had tried to coax her by feeding her medicine, the result was that the medicine was not drunk, and she was even met with a round of sarcasm from Xiao Chuyu that carried a spear and brandished a stick5, angering her so much she nearly vomited blood. This scared Wen Nuan so much that she no longer dared to approach Xiao Chuyu.
“….” Ye Mingxiu was at a loss for words, “Alright.”
The current situation was indeed very awkward.
“Her Majesty’s birth mother… why is Consort Yun not returning to the palace with us?”
When they set out today, he did not see Consort Yun returning to the Capital with them; instead, she remained at the Qinglong Temple to continue her spiritual cultivation.
Wen Nuan said with relief: “Her Majesty and Consort Yun had a long talk all through the night yesterday. Now that Consort Yun is unwilling to return to the Capital with us, she must have her own thoughts. Her Majesty will not force Consort Yun. Besides, the Qinglong Temple is not far from the Capital city. If Her Majesty misses her, she can come to visit Consort Yun at any time.”
The Qinglong Temple and the Capital were only a day’s journey apart. If one were to rush at top speed6, they could get from the Capital to the Qinglong Temple in half a day; it was very convenient.
Ye Mingxiu understood, “Good.”
When the noon hour arrived, the procession traveled to Yaodong Dam7 on the outskirts of the Capital and stopped to reorganize and rest for one shichen.
After Xiao Chuyu finished her lunch, she saw Ye Mingxiu walking towards her carrying a medicinal soup.
She frowned: “Why is it you?”
“….”
The disdain was too obvious; Ye Mingxiu couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to.
Ye Mingxiu said helplessly: “Gu Wen Nuan is not coming because she is afraid that you, Your Majesty, will not be able to drink the medicine upon seeing her.”
Xiao Chuyu: “…..”
She glanced at Wen Nuan, who was sitting by the river skipping stones, “Zhen does not want to drink.”
Ye Mingxiu immediately understood Xiao Chuyu’s meaning, “Then this humble servant shall go and call Gu Wen Nuan over, then?”
Xiao Chuyu did not speak, tacitly approving Ye Mingxiu’s action.
Wen Nuan felt someone approaching from behind. She turned her head and saw Ye Mingxiu looking at her with a silent expression.
The two looked at each other for a moment. Wen Nuan glanced at the medicine bowl in his hand and was the first to ask, “Her Majesty won’t drink?”
“What do you think?”
Seeing the way Ye Mingxiu was just short of shoving the medicine bowl in her face, Wen Nuan gave an awkward smile: “You should try to persuade Her Majesty more. Good medicine is bitter to the mouth but beneficial for the illness8.”
“This lowly one is untalented, and my position is humble and my words carry little weight; I cannot persuade Her Majesty,” Ye Mingxiu said coldly, handing the medicine bowl to Wen Nuan. “It is better that you do it, Little General Gu.”
Wen Nuan: “….”
【He even used ‘nín’9; look how aggrieved our male lead is.】the System said sympathetically.
Wen Nuan: “….”
“Alright, then I’ll do it.” She took the medicine bowl from Ye Mingxiu’s hands and walked towards the imperial carriage, admitting defeat.
It was quiet around the imperial carriage; the Imperial Guards and Yuan Qi were all keeping their distance, as if deliberately isolating her and Xiao Chuyu.
Wen Nuan touched the medicine bowl; it was still warm. She called out softly, “Your Majesty, it is time to drink your medicine. This guilty subject has brought it for you.”
After a moment of silence, Wen Nuan finally heard a voice from inside the carriage: “Come in.”
Wen Nuan walked into the imperial carriage carrying the medicine bowl and saw Xiao Chuyu inside, reading a book, looking very absorbed.
“Your Majesty, it is time to drink your medicine.” Wen Nuan placed the medicine on the small table.
Xiao Chuyu did not even raise her head and said coldly: “Zhen does not want to drink.”
Very well, here we are again at the little interlude of every medicine-feeding session.
Wen Nuan gave a dry laugh: “Then what will it take for Your Majesty to drink the medicine? Is there anything this guilty subject needs to do?”
At this time, she had to actively cue the process10 herself.
Slender fingers turned a page of the book. The subtle sound of the page turning seemed particularly abrupt at this moment, stirring the minds of the two people in the carriage into gradual confusion.
Wen Nuan touched the medicine bowl, its heat had slightly subsided, “Your Majesty, shall we drink the medicine first, alright? As long as you drink this medicine, this guilty subject will do anything you ask, alright?”
Xiao Chuyu stopped her hand that was turning the pages and looked up at Wen Nuan, “Why didn’t you come over directly just now?”
Wen Nuan paused for a moment: “This guilty subject thought… Your Majesty did not want to see this guilty subject.”
“Why would Zhen not want to see you?”
Wen Nuan pressed her lips together: “This guilty subject has done many wrong things and made Your Majesty angry. This guilty subject has no face to see Your Majesty.”
“But in the past two days, Zhen saw that you were very proactive in delivering the medicine.”
Wen Nuan pouted: “It is precisely because of delivering medicine to Your Majesty that this guilty subject knows Your Majesty is very angry.”
Watching Wen Nuan, whose head was bowing lower and lower in front of her, Xiao Chuyu’s originally dry eyes became a little moist. She blinked, and as if complaining, she questioned: “Gu Wen Nuan, do you not know how to coax people?”
Wen Nuan nodded, then suddenly reacted to what Xiao Chuyu had just asked her and looked up at her, “…Huh?”
The corners of Xiao Chuyu’s eyes were red, and her voice trembled slightly, “Gu Wen Nuan, do you not know how to coax people?”
“I am so angry, won’t you coax me?”
She tried her best to endure the impulse to throw herself into Wen Nuan’s arms and cry her heart out.
Wen Nuan looked at Xiao Chuyu. The young girl had forced her eyes to turn red, and that stubborn little appearance of refusing to admit defeat was heart-wrenching to see.
She really didn’t know how to coax people. In the past, when she was with “her,” “she” would basically run back to her side obediently before she even had a chance to coax “her.”
So obedient it made one’s heart unable to bear it.
The current “her” was originally someone with a stubborn temper who wouldn’t yield, yet she had been forced by her to say such heart-wrenching words to question her.
“…I’m sorry,” Wen Nuan bit her lip, “I don’t know how to coax people.”
Her eyes reddened, “I’m too stupid, I don’t even know how to coax you.”
I thought that as long as I said sorry to you, as long as I asked for your forgiveness, as long as I did some things that were good for you, I thought that you would then live a happy and fulfilling life just as I wished.
But now, everything had gone contrary to her wishes.
Xiao Chuyu still held back her tears, just as she couldn’t hold back the bitterness in her heart, “Gu Wen Nuan, I’m actually… very easy to coax.”
“I like to eat sweet things. You only need to feed me one candied date, and the tip of my heart will turn sweet.”
“I like to see you smile. If you smile at me more, my heart will be full of joy.”
“I like to be close to you. Every time you draw near me, I secretly rejoice.”
“I like it when you call me Chuchu; every time I hear you call me that, I am joyful and jump for glee.”
“I like it when you stand up for me. Every time I see your back shielding me, I feel an incomparable warmth.”
“I like your morning vitality; you are a ray of the morning sun in the hearts of the common people of the Ming’an Kingdom, and you are also the light that I cannot be without….”
Xiao Chuyu looked at Wen Nuan with teary eyes, her voice low and hoarse: “I am angry at you, I resent that you hide everything from me. You’ve clearly done so much for me, yet your mouth is so stubborn that you won’t offer me a single word of explanation.”
“I know you do it for my own good, but this ‘goodness’ of yours is something I cannot bear.”
“It is too heavy, it is too powerful. I am not even worthy of receiving this ‘goodness’.”
“From beginning to end, I have never hated you, not even when you rejected me at first, not even when you revealed my true identity, not even when you inflicted punishment upon me in the Imperial Prison, and not even when I once thought you had killed my closest kin; I have never truly hated you to the bone…”
At that time, she was only hating herself, hating why she was so lowly, so cowardly, so cheap. Gu Wen Nuan was clearly so heartless and cold to her, yet she still held lingering feelings and reluctance for Gu Wen Nuan.
Wen Nuan’s feathered lashes trembled lightly as she looked at her with pity.
“So…” Xiao Chuyu looked at her, her eyes filled with hope and grievance. “Gu Wen Nuan, I like you so much, can’t you just coax me?”
Endless bitterness and heartache churned in the bottom of her heart. Wen Nuan raised her hand to wipe away Xiao Chuyu’s tears and took the medicine bowl, “Be good, Chuchu, drink the medicine first, and then I will coax you properly, okay?”
The tip of Xiao Chuyu’s nose was red. She drank all the medicine from Wen Nuan’s hand. She endured the bitterness, as if the person who had been aggrieved and begging for comfort just now was never her.
Wen Nuan wiped the dregs of medicine from the corner of her mouth and looked at her glistening, watery eyes. Her tear-filled eyes were like pebbles in a pool of water, clear and moving.
She leaned over, lips pressing against lips.
Wen Nuan gently rubbed against Xiao Chuyu. Even though she had already opened her mouth, she did not probe any deeper.
“Chuchu, I don’t know how to coax people, but I can learn. I want to coax you, I want you to be happy forever.”
Xiao Chuyu raised her eyes, only to fall into Wen Nuan’s limpid eyes, unable to pull herself out. Tenderness and pity dragged her into Wen Nuan’s scorching heart.
Seeing her lost in a daze, her eyes hazy, Wen Nuan said, “Chuchu, I love you.”
In this world, it seemed she had not yet said “I love you” to her.
Xiao Chuyu’s pupils widened slightly. She looked at Wen Nuan in disbelief and said with a trembling voice: “Wh… what?”
“I said I love you,” Wen Nuan repeated again, “Gu Wen Nuan loves Xiao Chuyu, the kind of deep love for which she would give her life.”
“Can… can you say it again!?” Xiao Chuyu’s body tensed in an instant; she was too excited.
Wen Nuan smiled: “As long as you want to hear it, I will say I love you at any time.”
“Xiao Chuyu, I love you.”
The sweetness that rose from the tip of her heart completely washed away the bitterness in her mouth. Xiao Chuyu wept with extreme joy, wanting to hug Wen Nuan tightly to confirm that she was not dreaming, but her chin was lifted by Wen Nuan, and her whole body went limp in Wen Nuan’s embrace, enduring her scorching and fierce kissing embrace.
The tongue tip, carrying a heart-refreshing sweetness, powerfully probed inside. A small candied fruit gradually melted in their mouths, and they did not have time to wipe away the saliva flowing from the corners of their mouths.
Xiao Chuyu could not close her mouth, and could only let it overflow as it pleased. She could clearly feel its flowing trajectory, but it was intercepted halfway at the pit of her stomach and vanished like smoke and clouds11.
Her little general was as brave and powerful as ever; wherever she went, everything melted like ice and scattered like clouds12.
Ye Mingxiu, who was standing bored by the river, turned his head and saw the imperial carriage suddenly begin to shake violently, his face instantly filled with confusion.
The author has something to say:
Ye Mingxiu was puzzled: They’ve started doing it?
Wen Nuan smiled faintly: We have started doing it!
✨ Unlock Early Access to Chapters! ✨
Choose your perfect membership at bamboopandatl.net:
📚 Full Access ($4.99)
• Advanced chapters of ALL ongoing novels
• Access to complete finished novels
• Ad-free reading experience
📖 Single Novel Access ($1.49)
• Advanced chapters of ONE specific novel
• Ad-free reading for chosen novel
PayPal is the only current payment option!