Quick Transmigration: What to Do When the Male Supporting Character You Saved Becomes Obsessed with

Chapter 171 The Ruthless and Disabled Crown Prince (75)

"Never mind." Lu Liruan sighed, put the picture frame that she had wiped over and over again to the side, and rested her chin on her hand.

"Your Highness won't blame you, will he?" Lu Liruan shook her head. Based on her understanding of Ji Shumin, Ji Shumin didn't harbor jealousy or resentment towards Ji Shuqin. Even if he did, he shouldn't have such emotions as to blame him.

Beneath his seemingly meticulous exterior lies an unexpected magnanimity.

Resenting someone who knows nothing will only make you angry and won't serve any other purpose.

Instead of wasting time, you might as well do something else.

"What exactly happened to Min'er?" Ji Shuqin was not a stupid person. Judging from the behavior of Ji Shumin and Lu Liruan, there must be some hidden story that he did not know.

"Why does Your Highness bother to ask me? I have only been with His Highness for a short time, not even through a single winter or summer. What right do I have to comment?"

"Tell me anything you know..."

"His Highness hasn't told you, so I won't presume to do it for you. If my elder brother really wants to know, he will find out eventually."

Lu Liruan wondered if, one day, he really learned the whole truth, would his beliefs and aspirations completely collapse?

But that was not within her consideration.

She doesn't have that much kindness.

Like Ji Shumin, she preferred to be a selfish and narrow-minded person, protecting those she cared about from harm.

Ji Shuqin left, and Ji Shumin still hadn't woken up by almost dusk.

He frowned deeply, and finally solemnly said, "If Min'er wakes up, please send someone to let me know."

Lu Liruan knew he was worried, so she still agreed.

After Ji Shuqin left, Xiao Xizi came over: "Mother, Your Majesty..."

"Your Highness woke up a long time ago?" Lu Liruan glanced at him. When Ji Shuqin was still there, Lu Liruan noticed that Xiao Xizi was peeking out from the back window.

"Yes, Your Majesty, you are incredibly insightful." Xiao Xizi stammered, trying to flatter her, which earned him a cold laugh from Lu Liruan.

Xiao Xizi shrank his neck; the Empress and the Prince were becoming more and more alike.

Before I arrived, His Highness had sneered in the same way when he heard that the First Prince was still alive…

This isn't the first time Xiao Xizi has tried to inch his way to the back window in the last two hours.

The first time I snuck over, all I heard was Lu Liruan inside, speaking with great force, using classical Chinese phrases mixed with sarcastic remarks, relentlessly bombarding me without giving me a chance to breathe.

After listening, Xiao Xizi crouched down and returned to the Third Prince's bedside.

Those who served Ji Shumin, even if they seemed ordinary, actually all had extraordinary abilities.

Xiao Xizi has a stutter, but she has an amazing memory.

Ji Shumin usually found his rambling and annoying talk to be a nuisance, so he would always pull out his tongue and cut it up.

Today, however, Xiao Xizi became even more stammering because he talked too much, while His Highness the Third Prince lay on the bed, frowning as he drank his bitter medicine in small sips, listening attentively without complaint.

"Is that all?" He placed the empty bowl on the bedside table and asked in a hoarse voice.

"Yes, Her Majesty just said this, these..." Little Xizi was sweating profusely as he imitated her.

"Your singing is awful, it's just a lousy voice!" Ji Shumin scolded lightly, but his expression showed no anger whatsoever.

“They say I’m isolated, helpless, sickly, and wasting my life; they say my life is worthless, like a weed…” Ji Shumin sighed softly, his eyes lowered: “They really know me.”

When Lu Liruan returned to the bedroom, Ji Shumin had already recovered. He was wearing a warm white undergarment, leaning against the soft pillows on the bed, reading a book idly.

Hearing footsteps, he leaned forward and pulled Lu Liruan to the bedside the instant she reached it.

Lu Liruan was unprepared and was pulled by him to half-sit and half-kneel on the bed, losing her balance and holding onto Ji Shumin.

She pressed down on his half-open collar, touching his chest skin directly. At first glance, it looked as if Lu Liruan was pulling down his clothes.

Before Ji Shumin could even speak, Lu Liruan, without any panic, used the momentum to push him into the blankets.

Lu Liruan looked down at him, tapping his shoulder with her finger: "What? Full of energy again?"

Ji Shumin lay down relaxed, letting Lu Liruan scrutinize him with a cool gaze and frown, even spreading his hands to indicate that Lu Liruan could touch or look at him as she pleased.

Lu Liruan was too lazy to argue with him. She touched his forehead, which was at a normal temperature, and then grabbed his hand, which was also warm.

The candlelight flickered, stretching and swaying the shadows cast by the two people on the wall.

Ji Shumin stroked Lu Liruan's hair that was hanging down and said, "I'm fine."

"After listening to Li Ruan's defense of me, I was deeply moved and warmed..." He lowered his head at the end of his sentence, as if merging into a sigh.

He put his arm around Lu Liruan's waist, buried his head in the side of her neck, and slowly, tenderly, embraced her into his not-so-broad chest.

"You had a whole set of lies to tell me." Lu Liruan clasped her hands behind his back.

People love this kind of tender embrace, intimate and inseparable, as if they could bind the other person's life to their own.

“I dare not tell a single lie these days, I’m afraid of biting my tongue if I say anything wrong.” Ji Shumin chuckled softly, “Don’t wrong me.”

"If you don't believe me, why don't you touch my heart and see if it's still beating warmly..."

He whispered in Lu Liruan's ear while pulling her hand towards his heart.

The already loose collar of his inner garment sagged even more from the friction, and Lu Liruan's palms pressed against his warm, jade-like chest as she looked at his disheveled clothes as if he had been violated.

Lu Liruan curled her fingers, trying to pull them back, but Ji Shumin's slender fingers separated them, their fingers interlocked, and she was led down by him.

This sudden transgression startled Lu Liruan. Her blood rushed to her head, and she didn't know what to do. She instinctively struggled.

"What...what are you doing?" Lu Liruan didn't understand. Why did she seem to be the one being passive now?

"I don't know how to repay Li Ruan's thoughtfulness..."

"So?" Lu Liruan was enveloped in the familiar scent of incense emanating from him, feeling dizzy.

"Why don't I offer myself to Li Ruan? Please, don't think I'm shameless for taking advantage of you..." His cheeks flushed red from the ordeal.

With his jet-black hair and snow-white skin, he was truly stunning. He spoke words of pleading, but the aggressiveness in his eyes was undeniable and almost overflowing, making him both striking and captivating.

A player who knows how to show weakness, a controller who knows how to fawn and flatter, is like a highly deceptive snake; once entangled, one is completely unable to escape.

"What is this called? Offering oneself in return..." His gaze lingered from Lu Liruan's eyebrows and eyes to her slightly parted lips.

He leaned closer, his eyes lowered, gazing at her tenderly, until their lips met. As his tongue brushed against Lu Liruan's soft lips, he thought almost obsessively: How did he manage to utter those words of worry, reproach, joy, and indignation on her behalf...?

Why did it suit his heart so well? The prayer beads slid down his slender wrist, pressing against Ji Shumin's palm, causing him a slight pain and drawing his attention.

Perhaps it was through countless lifetimes of spiritual practice that we were able to cross the sea of ​​suffering and meet again.

"Stop fooling around..." Lu Liruan pressed her forehead against his, their noses touching, their breaths mingling.

"What, it doesn't hurt anymore?" Lu Liruan knew that every time he had an attack, it was accompanied by pain from the inside out.

Ji Shumin shook his head, touching Lu Liruan's brow, as if gently stroking the invisible crimson spot: "Little Bodhisattva, seeing you makes me feel no pain..."

The next day, after Lu Liruan had sorted out her thoughts, she finally understood why Ji Shumin had been so angry the day before.

As Lu Liruan anxiously watched him take his medicine, Ji Shumin sighed and then said seriously that he hadn't actually fainted from anger yesterday.

Lu Liruan reached out and stuffed a piece of candied fruit into his mouth, frowning in confusion.

"It's just to let my eldest brother see that I'm about to die."

Ji Shumin picked up a carving knife and said calmly, "If he saw it, then the Empress Dowager saw it too."

"What does Empress Guan want?" Lu Liruan was unwilling to address Ji Shumin as "Mother," feeling that she was unworthy of being a mother.

"Why do you think my eldest brother was able to return to the palace?" Ji Shumin smirked, his tone mocking. "Do you really think his few tattered scrolls of scriptures could sway Father?"

He mocked Ji Shuqin's naiveté, but Lu Liruan knew that he had never truly dispelled Ji Shuqin's naiveté.

He never spoke a word about anything concerning the Empress, whether it was during his youth or now, during any of his meetings with Ji Shuqin.

He has been swallowing all the grievances and unpleasantness alone for many years.

"Why? Is it related to the Emperor's health?" Lu Liruan felt that she had grasped a clue.

It was no secret in the court and the palace that the Emperor was unwell. However, the reason why his condition fluctuated so much, sometimes he was so good that he couldn't even attend court, and other times he looked radiant and healthy.

Lu Liruan knew the reason why the Emperor fell ill, and from this, she made a slight deduction.

"Does Your Highness have a way to temporarily restore His Majesty's health?"

"Li Ruan is so smart..." Ji Shumin casually praised her affectionately, making Lu Li Ruan feel like he was coaxing some kind of little pet.

“How could he be healthy?” He shook his head.

"I mean……"

"It's the same old method, using herbs to fumigate it." Ji Shumin raised an eyebrow: "The stronger the fumigate, the more energetic Father Emperor will be. We've also added some stimulants, but it's very taxing on his vital energy." He said it casually.

"But how could my eldest brother agree?" Lu Liruan hesitated for a moment.

"He would naturally not agree, but who needs his agreement? He is a puppet without realizing it, or rather, he is a puppet placed on the stage and manipulated."

Lu Liruan understood immediately.

"You negotiated with the Empress?"

"Ah."

"But what's the benefit? I've never seen you do something that loses money."

"Hmph—you trust me that much?" Ji Shumin was amused by Lu Liruan's confident tone.

"Who can take advantage of you?" Lu Liruan said this sincerely.

"I'll let Li Ruan take whatever advantage she wants. Didn't Li Ruan get enough last night?" Ji Shumin turned the tables.

Lu Liruan was no longer so flustered at this point. She paused for a moment and snorted coldly, "You didn't gain anything. You just touched me a couple of times and Your Highness got all tired. I'm really worried that it might hurt Your Highness's health."

Ji Shumin: ...

“It really…it was my fault.” Ji Shumin murmured, tapping the corner of the table to signal Lu Liruan to come over. Lu Liruan sat on the soft couch without moving: “Your Highness, please say so.”

Ji Shumin wasn't annoyed by Lu Liruan's taunts; there was plenty of time in the future anyway.

"Actually, they were bullied." Ji Shumin changed the subject.

"She offered to give me the real antidote in exchange for my brother's return to the palace and his favor with the Emperor." Upon hearing Ji Shumin's words, Lu Liruan's eyes lit up.

He had no memory of any information about this so-called antidote, which showed that there was no antidote in the process of Ji Shumin's death. If there really was one, would his death have been averted?

"You believe it?" Ji Shumin teased her.

"If it's not true, how come the eldest prince has already returned?" Lu Liruan reasoned backward.

“She stopped my medication because I didn’t immediately agree to her decision, so yesterday, I had a relapse.” Ji Shumin twirled a painting brush between his fingers, seemingly unconcerned.

Lu Liruan became nervous: "You really have no medicine left?"

Ji Shumin couldn't bear to see her worry: "There's no need for so much. Now, I need to eat less..."

Lu Liruan opened her eyes wide, pursed her lips, and wanted to say something but didn't say anything.

Ji Shumin rested his chin on his hand, as if making an extremely casual decision: "That thing will shorten my lifespan after all. I'll find a way to stop using it in the future. I have to stay with Li Ruan and live to be a hundred years old."

Lu Liruan felt her eyes suddenly well up with tears, and she quickly tilted her head back and turned to the side.

"You're willing to come now?"

Ji Shumin beckoned to Lu Liruan, and when she came over, he hooked her finger: "You're really hard to coax... I have to use a promise of living to a hundred years old to trick you into being close to me."

"What's wrong? Are you having trouble?" Lu Liruan squatted down next to his wheelchair, placing her hand on his leg.

“I used to think that living to be a hundred years old was so boring. The most carefree and unrestrained thing is to let go of what you want and not hold on to it.” Ji Shumin sighed.

"From now on, we'll get through this together, and neither of us is allowed to back out." His tone was light but carried a fierce edge.

A thought suddenly flashed through Lu Liruan's mind: Would the Empress really give it to him?

But Lu Liruan didn't ask. She preferred to believe Ji Shumin; he wouldn't lie to her again, and he would definitely find a way to detoxify her.

A few days later, Ji Shuqin came to apologize sincerely, just as he had said.

Lu Liruan no longer felt so frustrated when she saw him. He was oblivious, but Ji Shumin was also using him as a bargaining chip in the game.

Ignorance is the greatest form of self-consistency.

When Ji Shumin saw him again, he was calm and no longer had the excitement he had shown that day, but Ji Shuqin felt increasingly uncomfortable.

Today he was also temporarily saying goodbye to Ji Shumin. He had returned to the palace to pay his respects to his father, the Emperor, but now he should also go back to see the Empress.

At the same time, he also had countless questions in his mind. Ji Shuqin was not a fool, and he naturally noticed many strange things.

"Mother, why did you leave Min'er in the palace back then?" Ji Shuqin asked solemnly with a serious expression when faced with the Empress's concern.