I hate you

Chapter 35

A/N: Slight NSFW warning.

Liu Wenhe headed for the imperial study contemplating if he should directly ask Jian Li Rong if his men had been following him for the past few days or not.

Before he could decide if he wanted to keep his head or not he had arrived and was let in by the head eunuch who was as polite as always.

He is inside waiting for you noble consort

Liu Wenhe barely managed to stop a cringe from decorating his face, instead he just nodded and walked past the doors.

Thank you head eunuch Huang Chen Perhaps he was surprised about something because his eyes widened a little but Liu Whenhe was too busy worrying about the problem ahead of him as he entered the study.

The said problem was sitting by a desk with a focused look on his face seemingly too engrossed to look up. He wondered if it would be rude to disturb an emperor from his work. Probably.

"Long live the emperor" He did a polite little bow.

Jian Li Rong finally looked up his steely blue eyes strangely softening a little.

"Its been a long time...Did I make you angry?"

A bit surprised by the question he shook his head slightly "No your majesty, not unless you did something to make me angry..?"

Jian Li Rong rose from his seat chuckling slightly and walked around the desk to him.

"Was that a question I heard?"

Liu Wenhe didn't speak and only smiled stiffly and decided to change the subject.

"Why did your majesty call me? Did you need something?"

Jian Li Rong casually lifted a silken black lock of his hair and tucked it behind his ear.

"Ah yes. You see I have been dealing with stately affairs and it has become quite dull. You will accompany me"

Liu Wenhe frowned. Don't you have droves of concubines and attendants to accompany you?

Instead for the sake of his little life he smiled and softened his approach on the ridiculous subject at hand.

"I'm sure the attendants or even the concubines would be more entertaining than this boring-"

Before he could finish, he was lifted and put on a chair and the culprit, Jian Li Rong was already seated next to him who leisurely proceeded to pick up the brush and started writing.

Liu Wenhe dumbly sat there for a minute wondering how he even got there. Slowly he started grinding the ink not knowing what else to do.

They did not speak as they did their own thing. The room was silent apart from the clear grinding noise. Liu Wenhe expected it to be awkward but strangely, the atmosphere was peaceful.

Apparently Jian Li Rong had a lot of work so he was stuck grinding the ink. The job was dull and soon his mind wandered off.

By the time it was evening he thought his hands would fall off from all the grinding but he just gritted his teeth and powered through the exhaustion even as his body started complaining.

"What is it?"

Liu Wenhe faltered. Did he have eyes the side of his head?

He bowed his head and continued grinding. "Nothing your majesty"

There was a pause before a pale hand fell on his hands momentarily stopping him for grinding. Surprised he looked up to see Jian Li Rong glancing at him before looking away and continuing to write.