The Sickly Seedling Dresses Up As An Unfortunate And Muddled Monarch - Chapter 13

Ice and snow everywhere, all white as far as the eye can see.

At some point, the snow had fallen even heavier, the wind whistling across the cheeks, bringing a faint stinging sensation.

Qiu Junyao held Yin Yuan’s hand, feeling the slight trembling of his fingertips due to the friction generating warmth that flowed into his limbs, causing him to turn his head and look at Yin Yuan.

“Are you so scared?” Qiu Junyao asked.

“… This servant is not afraid.” No matter what, Yin Yuan was still a man and had some face in certain respects, which was infuriating.

“This servant just feels that it’s too quiet here.”

Yes, quiet.

The cold palace, where countless concubines were imprisoned, should have been filled with the sounds of despair. But at this moment, all that could be heard was the sound of the wind, making it unsettling.

Qiu Junyao frowned, sensing something slightly unusual.

He looked around, still seeing the desolate surroundings, but the gloomy sky and the eerie screams of the wind blowing through the bare branches made it even more eerie, sending shivers down his spine involuntarily.

Faced with this situation, if it were someone else, they would have fled long ago, but Qiu Junyao was different.

He cherished his life, but he would never succumb to fear.

Qiu Junyao lowered his head, gently tidying up the stray hair on Yin Yuan’s forehead, and asked softly:

“Do you want to go back first?”

He gave Yin Yuan a way out: “It’s too cold here, your body can’t take it. It’s better to go back sooner.”

Qiu Junyao was very clear in his own heart. When Yin Yuan was with him, it was more about pretending than sincerity. If he took the initiative to let Yin Yuan leave, he might not even bother with pleasantries and would have left long ago.

Qiu Junyao was so sure of this that the next moment, Yin Yuan’s words made him slightly surprised:

“This servant will follow Your Majesty.”

Yin Yuan raised his face, his small face slightly pale from the cold, but his eyes still bright: “This servant promised you to keep you safe.”

“…,” Qiu Junyao looked at Yin Yuan’s expression with concealed scrutiny, and after a moment, he couldn’t help but smile:

“Really?”

He teased, “If you don’t go back now, if you encounter any danger later, I might just push you out, you know?”

Yin Yuan’s expression indeed grew even paler at his words.

But a few seconds later, he still firmly held Qiu Junyao’s hand, his words torn apart by the wind and snow, but every word fell into Qiu Junyao’s ears:

“This servant will protect Your Majesty.”

Yin Yuan was hot-tempered, but he had been influenced by the etiquette and teachings of a noble family, understanding the principle of a gentleman’s word being as weighty as a thousand pieces of gold. Since he had promised Qiu Junyao, he would absolutely not go back on his word. But if Qiu Junyao broke his promise first, he would not be soft-hearted or courteous to Qiu Junyao either.

Thinking of this, Yin Yuan gently raised his head, wanting to see Qiu Junyao’s reaction, but he found that Qiu Junyao had already looked away, no longer looking at his face, with an inexplicable expression.

He wasn’t smiling, but when Yin Yuan looked up, he could see Qiu Junyao’s Adam’s apple rolling a few times, as if suppressing something.

Yin Yuan: “???”

Yin Yuan was about to ask if Qiu Junyao was thirsty, but Qiu Junyao didn’t say a word, just left him behind and walked ahead.

His steps were somewhat urgent, nothing like those of a patient who had been lying down for a long time.

Yin Yuan was a bit confused until the icy feeling of snow melting on his face brought him back to his senses, and he hurriedly caught up with Qiu Junyao’s footsteps.

The inner hall of the cold palace was as desolate as the outside, with hardly any tables, chairs, beds, or beddings, broken porcelain bowls and spoiled food everywhere, scattered eyebrow pencils and silk fabrics on the ground, and the few blankets and clothes torn to pieces by who knew what, swirling in the wind, resembling white-clad ghosts standing still and dancing in place.

And the charcoal braziers and candles were even rarer, making the cold even more chilling than an ice cellar.

Everywhere was pitch black, and Qiu Junyao and Yin Yuan tightened their cloaks and walked inside. Yin Yuan had poor eyesight from studying hard in the past, and he couldn’t see clearly in the darkness. He had tripped over something unknown just now.

It was hard and felt like a rock.

Yin Yuan was so scared that he almost screamed, but Qiu Junyao reassuringly held his hand and then shone the jade pendant with inlaid night pearls on the hard object—

A white eyeball protruding from a purple-black face, looking like a resurrected ghost, stiffly and unmistakably appeared in Qiu Junyao’s and Yin Yuan’s eyes.

Half of the dead person’s face had been gnawed off, revealing the flesh and blood tissue and frozen half of the maggots.

Qiu Junyao: “…”

Yin Yuan: “……….”

With a thud, Yin Yuan was about to sit down on the ground in the next moment, but Qiu Junyao quickly half-dragged him up and pulled him out of the side hall.

Yin Yuan almost fell down as soon as he left the side hall, but luckily Qiu Junyao caught him, preventing him from falling.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here.” Seeing Yin Yuan’s face turning blue from physiological nausea, holding his neck and trying not to vomit, Qiu Junyao regretted bringing him here:

“Feeling uncomfortable? Do you want to vomit?”

Yin Yuan had never seen such a disgusting dead person before, and the image of the half-maggot kept flashing in his mind, making him feel nauseous involuntarily. So he nodded, enduring the nausea and frowned:

“That dead person… was it a concubine or a palace maid?”

Even though he was terrified, Yin Yuan noticed the traces of ear piercings on the dead person’s ears, obviously a woman:

“Why is half of her face missing?”

“I don’t know.” Qiu Junyao shook his head:

“Let’s investigate further when we get back.”

When they came, it was Yin Yuan supporting Qiu Junyao, and when they went back, it was Qiu Junyao supporting Yin Yuan. Just as they were about to return home, they didn’t expect that the snow would get heavier on the way back, even becoming blinding.

They say snow falls silently, but at this moment, Qiu Junyao could clearly hear the rustling sound when snowflakes fell on the side of Yin Yuan’s hair.

No, this wasn’t the sound of snow!

Qiu Junyao suddenly sensed something unusual. When he looked up, he saw two clusters of sparkling green at the boundary between light and darkness not far away. Then, a black object rushed towards Yin Yuan from behind like a remnant shadow!

Despite the wind and snow, Qiu Junyao could even hear the growling of the creature, and the sparkling green turned into clear beast pupils, cold as poisonous snakes, locking onto Yin Yuan’s fair and clean neck!

Cold sweat broke out on Qiu Junyao’s back, and he didn’t even have time to think. He directly pulled the unknowing Yin Yuan behind him, then swiftly and decisively opened the folding fan in his hand, blocking the attacking creature.

Qiu Junyao hadn’t relaxed yet when the fragile paper fan couldn’t withstand the sharp claws of the creature and shattered.

A sharp stinging pain came from his hand, as if his nerves had been cut open by a knife. Qiu Junyao’s face turned pale with pain, but he still didn’t cry out.

At this moment, Qiu Junyao finally saw what kind of thing was biting his wrist—it wasn’t a monster, but a nearly mature wolf cub!

The foul smell of rotting flesh from the wolf’s mouth lingered in his nose, constantly stimulating adrenaline. Qiu Junyao listened to the growling in his ears, almost unable to react. The next moment, an arrow shot from an unknown direction pierced the wolf’s chest and abdomen, directly shooting the wolf cub to the ground.

“Bang—”

The sharp wolf fangs lost their force, and the fierce wolf cub, which had just been fierce, seemed to have its soul drained in an instant, weakly falling to the ground.

Drops of blood flowed down Qiu Junyao’s fingertips, staining the snow.

“Your Majesty, forgive this servant for arriving late to the rescue!” The guards who had been lurking in the dark for a long time floated down, kneeling in front of Qiu Junyao, not daring to make a sound.

If it weren’t for the heavy snow just now, blinding his eyes, he wouldn’t have reacted so slowly, letting Qiu Junyao get hurt.

Qiu Junyao was about to let him get up and speak, but unexpectedly, Yin Yuan beside him reacted even more dramatically. He looked at Qiu Junyao’s bleeding arm, his face pale without a trace of color:

“Your Majesty, your hand!”

“It’s okay, it’s just a bite.” Qiu Junyao was in pain too, but he had to comfort Yin Yuan: “Don’t cry. If your tears freeze on your face, won’t it hurt when they’re blown by the wind later?”

“Your Majesty…” Seeing the two bruises on Qiu Junyao’s wrist, Yin Yuan was really scared and cried.

He had noticed that Qiu Junyao had changed positions with him just now. If Qiu Junyao had reacted a little slower just now, instead of having two identical wounds on his body, it would have been reasonable to have his neck bitten off.

Thinking of this, Yin Yuan, who was already scared out of his wits by the dead person, held Qiu Junyao’s hand, and with a little gratitude for surviving the ordeal, he couldn’t help but cry bitterly at the wound.

“It’s okay, it’s okay… don’t cry…” Qiu Junyao could only hold him gently in his arms and pat his back gently:

“If your face gets hurt from crying later, how can that be good?”

“Your Majesty, let this servant call the imperial physician.” Yin Yuan looked up at Qiu Junyao, tears streaming down his face:

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty painful.” Qiu Junyao wasn’t made of iron, so naturally, being bitten hurt.

But right now, he was more concerned about something else:

“Eleven, how could there be wolves in the cold palace?!”

“Your Majesty, not far from this cold palace is the Hundred Beasts Garden, where a group of exotic and rare beasts are kept as tribute. If the palace personnel are not careful, it’s possible for these beasts to accidentally escape.”

The guard said.

“That’s impossible.” Qiu Junyao frowned: “This wolf has rough and yellowed fur, and the wounds on its face are still festering. It’s obviously malnourished. It couldn’t have accidentally escaped. It’s clearly someone who has been kept in the cold palace for a long time that could have caused this situation.”

Qiu Junyao threw the blood-stained cloth on the ground and said coldly: “Investigate it for me.”

“Find out who’s keeping wolves in the cold palace, and who the corpse inside is. Find it all out for me!”

“Yes!”

As if afraid that Qiu Junyao would demand his head if he didn’t find out, the guard hurriedly left after receiving the order.

“Your Majesty, could it be an assassin?” Yin Yuan protected Qiu Junyao tightly, afraid that something else would come out and hurt him:

“In this cold palace, does someone want Your Majesty’s life?”

“Who knows?” Qiu Junyao smiled.

“Could it be haunted?” Yin Yuan began to guess anxiously: “Should I go back and ask the national teacher for help, or pray to the gods for protection?”

“Why do you need to pray to the gods?” Qiu Junyao chuckled: “Praying to me is better than praying to the gods.”

“Why?” Yin Yuan asked.

Qiu Junyao said, “Because… the gods won’t comfort you when you cry.”