Untouchable Lovers

Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Plants and Trees Are Naturally Heartless

Chu Yu slammed the door with force, still feeling a bit of residual anger. After bolting it, she gave the door another kick before turning around. As she did, her gaze fell into a pair of pitch-black, lucid eyes.

Tian Rujing was standing just a foot behind her, with a countenance as elegant as jade, his expression neither joyful nor angry, neither worried nor fearful. The edges of his pure black eyes seemed to shimmer with a faint gleam, and his round pupils looked as if they reflected the pure, untainted innocence of a baby.

For the first time being so close, Chu Yu felt as if the skin on her cheeks could sense the air beside Tian Rujing was unusually refreshing. She suddenly snapped back to reality, scolding herself for being misled by the words of the priest’s worshippers, even developing the misguided impression that “immortals emanate an aura of immortality.”

To hell with the aura of immortality!

Chu Yu flung her hands and walked into the room, pulling up a chair to sit down. After the numbness in her legs from kneeling at her first party, Chu Yu quickly ordered a few chairs to be made. She initially wanted to introduce them throughout the Princess Mansion, but seeing the lukewarm enthusiasm of others, she only popularized them in her own room. Besides hers, Rong Zhi also requested two chairs for himself.

Chu Yu settled against the wall in the outer room, looking at Tian Rujing standing in the center of the room, her mind still somewhat cluttered. Before she could clear her thoughts, she blurted out, “Name?”

“Tian Rujing.”

“How old are you this year?”

“Nineteen.”

Five years younger than her.

After a couple of questions and answers, Chu Yu stopped herself, feeling as though she was taking a census. She stared at Tian Rujing, but he showed no discomfort under her gaze, as if everything in the world was unrelated to him.

This detached indifference, as if stepping out of the mortal world, seemed like a natural aloofness akin to grass and rocks, the wandering wind and the waning moon.

Grass and trees are heartless, the wind and moon care not for affection.

In the eyes of others, this becomes the quality of an immortal who has transcended the mundane world.

Although there were other things that needed to be done, what Chu Yu wanted most now was to investigate whether Tian Rujing was really as transcendent as his appearance suggested.

Suppressing this strange thought, Chu Yu became serious and said, “I’ve heard people say you’re the reincarnation of an immortal, and that you know many spells?”@@novelbin@@

Tian Rujing listened quietly, but did not respond.

Chu Yu asked warmly, “What spells do you know? Can you call the wind and summon the rain?”

Tian Rujing shook his head: “No.”

“Can you move mountains and fill seas?”

“No.”

Chu Yu rested her cheek in her hand, her elbow propped on the armrest of the chair: “Then what spells can you perform?”

Tian Rujing fell silent again.

Chu Yu silently pondered the recent exchange between the two, discovering that whenever Tian Rujing was asked whether he could perform spells or what kind of spells he could perform, he would timely maintain his silence. Yet, when specifically asked about whether he could perform a certain spell, he would honestly reply that he could not.

He did not claim he could not perform spells, nor did he assert that he could; such responses only further solidified Chu Yu’s initial suspicion that this priest was merely engaging in deceitful trickery, possessing no true skills when it came to verifiable abilities.

With a cold laugh in her heart yet an even softer expression on her face, Chu Yu asked, “So… what about exorcism?”

This time, Tian Rujing did not keep silent. He looked directly at Chu Yu, with eyes that held no evasiveness, only honesty. Chu Yu could hardly imagine how someone deceiving others with tricks could appear so sincere, “There are no ghosts.”

He calmly stated, “There are no ghosts here.”

Chu Yu smiled faintly, “Of course there would be no ghosts in my room, but what about in your heart?” She deliberately slowed down her speech, “I’ve heard that you often exorcise for the concubines in the palace, do you not?”

She felt somewhat curious inside. Why would Tian Rujing be so honest? If he lied, couldn’t he at least buy some time? Was he confident that even if his charade was exposed, he would not be punished? Or was there some other reason?

Chu Yu was about to press on with her questions when Huan Yuan’s voice came from beyond the door, “Is the Princess available for a meeting? Huan Yuan has urgent matters to report.”

Chu Yu knew Huan Yuan’s character; if there weren’t truly urgent matters, he would not have sought her out. Yesterday’s warning seemed somewhat effective; that Huan Yuan was able to reach the threshold of her chambers likely meant that the guards had let him pass along the way.

“Come in,” Chu Yu walked over to unbar and open the door.

The door leaves slowly parted, and the white brilliance of the sunlight rushed in, illuminating the dim corners of the outer room, making Huan Yuan’s handsome face glow as if lit by the light, his expression tinged with anxiety. Upon opening the door and seeing Tian Rujing behind Chu Yu, he paused for a moment but quickly suppressed any surprise.

Seeing his troubled and hesitant demeanor, Chu Yu understood and smiled as she turned her head, gesturing for him to whisper in her ear, and she soon heard Huan Yuan’s voice lowered, “The Empress Dowager is gravely ill.”

The Empress Dowager Wang was Emperor Liu Ziyue’s mother and also the mother of Shan Yin’s Princess, the identity Chu Yu currently occupied.

Only then did Chu Yu remember that since arriving in this world, she had yet to visit the mother of this body she inhabited. It was not so much forgetting as it was reluctance. Even visiting the little emperor, Liu Ziyue, had been delayed until she could put it off no longer and was summoned to the palace.

Although to the present Chu Yu, the Empress Dowager was a stranger, she was nonetheless blood-related to this body. Now that she was critically ill, as a dutiful daughter, she ought to go and play the part. Chu Yu quickly decided to immediately enter the palace.

Huan Yuan’s lips parted as if he had more to say. Chu Yu leaned in to listen, and upon hearing the unexpected news, her face darkened, “He’s afraid of ghosts?”

That’s just perfect, very powerful.

Chu Yu’s gaze then turned to Tian Rujing standing beside her. She walked over and grabbed his wrist, feeling the warm and slightly cool touch, as if grasping the finest jade. Without dwelling on it, she pulled Tian Rujing along with her as she moved outside, “Lord Heavenly Master, your services are needed once more. Please accompany me to the palace.”

Sitting in the swiftly moving carriage, Chu Yu’s expression remained clouded, as Huan Yuan had informed her that Empress Dowager Wang, on her deathbed, wished to see her son one last time. A messenger was sent, but Emperor Liu Ziyue refused to go, claiming there were ghosts in the sickroom.

Although Chu Yu had never regarded Empress Dowager Wang as her own mother, she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness for her at this moment. Bearing a child for ten months only to be rewarded with such an unfilial progeny, and to receive such a response—how intense must the woman’s anguish be?

At the same time, Chu Yu also wondered, could she really reform such a vile and cold-hearted young Emperor Liu Ziyue?

Chu Yu genuinely felt the prospects were bleak.

Riding in the carriage with Chu Yu and Tian Rujing was Rong Zhi, dressed in clothes as white as snow, leaning back into a corner with impenetrable deep black eyes. He seemed amused, attentively observing Chu Yu’s current expressions.