青春期撞上更年期第1部

Chapter 377 Search Someone Strangely at Night

Chu Liuchen finally stopped laughing when Qin Wanru looked unbearably ashamed and looked at Qin Wanru with interest. His handsome face showed a teenager’s tiredness and less usual elegance and calmness. He looked very real, as if coming out from an ink and wash painting.

“Since you’re hungry, why don’t you eat some?” He looked up and smiled at Qin Wanru.

Since Qin Wanru had lost her face, she felt that she didn’t need to pretend to be elegant. She picked up a piece of pastry with chopsticks indignantly and ate without raising her head.

The pastry was very savory and glutinous, and just melted in her mouth. She found the flavor a little familiar, and it was her favorite.

Looking at the pastry in front of her in astonishment, she could be sure that she had never eaten it. However, both its appearance and flavor seemed to be familiar, as if there was such flavor at the bottom of her memory.

She took another bite and savored it with a hint of hesitation across her watery eyes. Had she eaten it in the last life? In the last life, she had visited the palace, but why couldn’t she remember it?

“What’s wrong? It tastes bad?” Chu Liuchen raised his eyebrows and said. He held back his laughter, looking as gentle as jade under the light.

“It tastes… pretty good!” Qin Wanru said and raised her bright eyes to look at Chu Liuchen’s face with hesitation. Her long black eyelashes fluttered above her watery eyes, making her look like an ignorant fawn.

“It should taste good. I specially ordered the imperial kitchen to make them!” Chu Liuchen said lazily.

“Your Highness, you also like this flavor?” Qin Wanru raised her eyes curiously and asked.

“I don’t like this sweet and greasy flavor!” Chu Liuchen sneered and said with displeasure.

“Thanks a lot, Your Highness!” Qin Wanru expressed her gratitude consciously.

“Since you like this flavor, just eat more. It is not easy for me to bring these pastries out of the palace. But what’s going on with your Qin’s Mansion? They didn’t offer you a fine dinner on the eve of the Spring Festival?” Chu Liuchen looked at Qin Wanru with disdain and said, while stretching out his hand leisurely and picking up a piece of the pastries Qin Wanru had just eaten. He frowned and said after tasting it, “It’s too sweet!”

Since he disliked it so much, why did he eat it? Qin Wanru speechlessly watched Chu Liuchen elegantly eat the pastry mouthful by mouthful and then take another piece.

“Your Highness, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it!” Glancing at the plate where there were only a few pieces of pastries left, Qin Wanru decided to be honest. She hadn’t finished one piece yet, while he had finished his pastry.

“I’m hungry!” Chu Liuchen took it for granted, reached out to point at the plate in front of Qin Wanru and said, “I want to eat this!”

Only the two of them were upstairs. Xiao Xuanzi was not around. Chu Liuchen looked straight at Qin Wanru with his pretty eyes, waiting for her to pick up the pastry for him.

Glancing at the plate of pastries in front of her, Qin Wanru stood up helplessly, picked up the pastries in front of her and placed them in front of Chu Liuchen.

Chu Liuchen looked really hungry, even hungrier than Qin Wanru, whose stomach had growled a moment ago. She thought that it was actually very pleasing to watch a teenager, who was as pretty as a painting, eat, especially when seeing him behave so elegantly.

“Your Highness, didn’t you have enough?” Even so, Qin Wanru asked in amazement.

“I didn’t!” Chu Liuchen nodded and said.

“The dishes on the palace banquet are not delicious?” Qin Wanru asked in puzzlement. Would the dishes made by the imperial kitchen be not delicious? The answer was certainly no. She had tasted it, and found that it was much more delicious than those made by the old maid who had just begun to work in her mansion.

“I don’t like to have dinner with them!” Chu Liuchen casually said, put down the chopsticks in his hand leisurely, and knocked on the table a few times with his long and angular fingers.

“Your Highness, you don’t like to have dinner in the palace?” Qin Wanru became increasingly curious.

“It’s boring!” Chu Liuchen answered her unexpectedly. He seemed to be in a good mood, raised his narrow and long eyes and looked at Qin Wanru, “You thought it very comfortable for me to have dinner in the palace?”

He was a deposed crown prince in poor health. Although the Empress Dowager favored him and the emperor seemingly treated him equally, could he really live well?

There were numerous and various people in the palace. As a sick and weak child without parents, he must have been disdained a lot and heard lots of gossip up to now!

How could he really treat his relatives in the palace as his family members? He, who had no parents like her, must feel as helpless as her, or even more uncomfortable than her.

The worst situation for her was being treated coldly in the General’s Mansion. Moreover, Qin Huaiyong had no other child except for Qin Yuru. But the emperor was different. The emperor had robbed him of the throne, and pretended to be kind to Chu Liuchen!

No one knew what the emperor thought in private!

The imperial power had always been alluring, and those, who failed to win the throne, mostly lost their lives. Chu Liuchen had survived, but it was probably related to his poor health.

If he was really healthy, he might not be able to survive.

It was so easy to kill a baby in his infancy, even with the protection of the Empress Dowager!

His illness was the cause as well as the effect!

Qin Wanru inexplicably felt a trace of pity in her heart. Chu Liuchen seemingly lived a sumptuous life, but in fact he must have always been cautious like walking on thin ice!

Such a pretty teenager, who looked like walking out of a painting, was actually unhappy, or even felt unsafe like her who also had no parents.

She reached out to push the dishes in front of her towards Chu Liuchen. She had seen clearly that Chu Liuchen liked these dishes.

Nevertheless, he had just picked up them twice.

“What’s wrong? You want to have dinner with me?” Chu Liuchen lazily watched Qin Wanru push the dishes with an increasingly casual smile.

“Your Highness, if you are hungry, you should have more of them!” Qin Wanru sighed helplessly.

“Since you want to have dinner with me so much, I can allow you to have dinner with me from the next Spring Festival!” Chu Liuchen raised his eyebrows and smiled.

Qin Wanru decided to drop the idea. He was not a pitiful deposed crown prince, but was going to be an emperor holding the dynasty’s fate in his hands in the future. She should feel pity for herself rather than for him.

“Your Highness, when are you returning to the palace?”

“I’m going to stay up late!” Chu Liuchen said coldly with his face darkening. He seemed to be displeased again?

“Your Highness, shouldn’t you return to the palace and stay up late with the Empress Dowager?” Qin Wanru asked cautiously for fear that annoying the Prince again.

“Are you unwilling to stay up late with me?” Chu Liuchen squinted at her and asked.

“I don’t dare. But I’ve been out for a long time, fearing that my grandma and mother might be worried!” Qin Wanru said in an increasingly cautious way.

Qin Yuru would inevitably look for her when finding that she had got lost. If she continued staying outside, it would be terrible.

“What are you afraid of? I will send you back!” Chu Liuchen casually said, stood up and walked to the window. The gauze curtain in front of the window fell down, but they could see the scene outside the window.

The fine gauze enabled them to see the outside at a glance, especially when it was brilliantly lighted outside.

“Come here!” Chu Liuchen said to Qin Wanru.

Qin Wanru stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the night scene outside. Under the clear light of night, people were passing to and fro, looking very lively. Despite the distance, they could still feel the liveliness in the street.

“Look, over there!” Chu Liuchen reached out to pull Qin Wanru towards him, pointed at somewhere and said.

Qin Wanru staggered and bumped into Chu Liuchen. As soon as she stood still, she was attracted by the scene below. With her long eyelashes fluttering, she asked suddenly, “What are they looking for?”

In the middle of the street, there were several people, who looked different from those around them, seemingly looking for something. Despite their different clothes, all of them were young men. Some of them stood in the porch of a store, some were in the crowd, and some went with the crowd.

If it weren’t for Qin Wanru’s clear view due to her standing on a high place at the moment, she could never distinguish them.

The last one of these people stood in front of the bookstore where Qin Wanru had walked out before. There seemed to be several people standing in the darkness there. When a Miss passed by with a maid, a person came out of the bookstore, stepped forward to stop them, and then stepped aside.

After a while, another Miss and her maid were stopped.

On the night of the eve of the Spring Festival, many young Misses hung out with their maids. Although Qin Wanru couldn’t recognize them from the back, she still felt keenly that all the Misses and their maids, who were stopped, were not high and still looked young.

“Looking for you! Zhuozhuo, what did you do to piss them off?” Chu Liuchen casually said.

Qin Wanru was so shocked that she didn’t even notice that Chu Liuchen had put his hand on her shoulder and called her by her childhood name only used by her grandma.

“Looking for me… Why?” Qin Wanru said in horror with sudden sweat on her head. If she kept hiding at the entrance of that alley, she might have been found by them.

Although she had expected that the shopkeeper would send someone to find her, she did not expect that he would send so many people to do that. What was the meaning behind the calligraphy?

“What did you do?” Chu Liuchen asked leisurely, touching her black hair with his slender fingers after patting on her skinny shoulder. He felt that she and his fat cat were so alike, and it was so comfortable to touch her hair!

He slightly closed his pretty eyes, feeling at ease.

“I saw a sheet of excellent calligraphy on the stage over there, so I wanted to inquire about it. I also told the shopkeeper that I had a sheet of calligraphy and wanted to sell it. The shopkeeper was very interested, and said that it was their boss’ favorite. After that, he didn’t say anything, and I left. I didn’t expect that he would look for me!” Qin Wanru said with tremor.

“Do you think that your life is too calm in the capital and want to see what the imperial family can do?” Chu Liuchen squinted at her playfully and patted her head. His voice was lazy and gentle, but concealed frightening dignity and gloom!

“What do you mean?” Qin Wanru suddenly felt a beat in her heart, withdrew her gaze, clenched her fists hard at the bottom of her sleeves and looked up at Chu Liuchen, wondering if she understood what he meant…