“Tea.” Lin Bozhou suddenly spoke up.

“……”

Meng Huan hastily picked up the tea, blew it cool, and delivered it to his hand, sweetly saying, “Husband, please drink it.”

The inner drama was too much. Lin Bozhou looked at him and asked Shan Xing again: “Is there any urgent official document from the cabinet?”

“There is the military pay of the Liaodong capital division, the food and pay to be allocated for the flooding in Huanghuai, and the armies to be allocated to the rebellion of the southwestern Tusi*…”

*Tusi: a government-appointed hereditary tribal headman.

Lin Bozhou put down his chopsticks. “Send the transcripts of the memorials to the study.”

He was going to work overtime tonight.

One couldn’t just be lazy all the time and instead had to choose when to be lazy.

Shan Xing replied when someone outside the door said, “Your Highness, the imperial physician has arrived.”

“Invite him in.”

The imperial physician was a middle-aged older man with a flowing beard and an exhausted, thin appearance, giving quite the feeling of an immortal. He came in carrying a medicine box and asked, “When Your Highness followed the prescription recently, did he use his eyes excessively and was troubled with something on his mind?”

The imperial physician’s words were the greatest in heaven and earth. Shan Xing hurriedly said, “No. His Highness has followed the imperial physician’s advice and wandered around recently, not being busy with political affairs.”

Imperial Physician Zhou was satisfied and took out the needles. “Your Highness, please take a seat.”

He began to give Lin Bozhou acupuncture.

The fine needles were inserted into Lin Bozhou’s acupuncture points, rotating deeper. Watching it made Meng Huan’s scalp feel phantom pain.

Lin Bozhou’s eye disease was caused by his early childhood.

It should be said that his later lust for power and authority also had something to do with his early childhood experience. His father, Lin Luan, was the abolished crown prince and later went to a remote place in the northern frontier as a monarch.

Lin Bozhou was born in and grew up where water and grass were abundant. The local people were good at riding and shooting, liked to eat meat and milk, and had the swarthy and wild habits of nomads.

They would gallop in the ice field every snowy day, hunting for prey.

On that day, his imperial father also took eight-year-old Lin Bozhou. However, his imperial mother insisted on stopping him, thinking her son was too young and delicate to participate in such a dangerous activity.

The late king said, “A man should have a brave spirit that can kill the enemy, defend the country, and keep it peaceful. What’s the use of raising him as a darling? Take him out to see the world.”

Eight-year-old Lin Bozhou was carried by his father on a tall horse, passing through a frozen lake. The smooth ice surface made the horse’s hooves slip, and Lin Bozhou fell off the horse. A block of broken ice pierced straight into his left eye, which dripped with blood.

Fortunately, he was not blinded, but it would recur at intervals, resulting in blurred vision, inability to see bright light, and even temporary blindness in severe cases.

Having suffered from eye disease at eight and now twenty-six, it was almost twenty years; the heart not turning perverted was impossible.

The treatment was over.

Imperial Physician Zhou took out the silver needles and said, “Your Highness, don’t exert yourself in these few days. It’s good if you keep resting.”

Lin Bozhou said, “Thank you, imperial physician.”

Hearing these words, Meng Huan subconsciously interjected, “Didn’t the prince just say that he had to deal with official documents?”

Lin Bozhou: “…………”

Shan Xing: “…………”

Imperial Physician Zhou: “…………”

Imperial Physician Zhou immediately dropped the needles and had a serious expression. “Your Highness.”

He was also a divine imperial physician with a temper.

Whenever he encountered this kind of person who did not listen to medical advice, he wanted to zap the other party to death with a needle.

If not for the high medical fees paid by the prince regent, he would rot in the Imperial Medical Office and not come.

Lin Bozhou glanced lightly at Meng Huan.

Meng Huan felt a little guilty. “This concubine simply thinks what the imperial physician said—”

Glancing at him again.

Meng Huan’s voice grew softer. “—has a point.”

“……”

Shan Xing hurriedly said, “Hahahaha, don’t worry, imperial physician. Since the imperial physician won’t let the prince use his eyes, we, the subordinates, will help persuade him and won’t let the prince overwork. Hahahaha.”

Imperial Physician Zhou was indignant and still wanted to say something else.

“Please! Please, Imperial Physician Zhou!” Shan Xing directly raised his hand to send the guest away.

Damn it!

Carrying the medicine box, Imperial Physician Zhou left in anger.

Shan Xing followed behind him and sent him off, leaving only Lin Bozhou and Meng Huan sitting in a row.

Lin Bozhou looked at Meng Huan again.

Meng Huan felt the need to explain himself. “This concubine is also worried about the prince’s body……”

In fact, it was just a momentary slip of the tongue. He used a heartfelt look to hide his guilty heart.

Lin Bozhou seemed silent, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Meng Huan honestly lowered his head, looking like he was beaten and scolded.

A few moments later, his forehead was knocked. It should be done by a finger, and the force was very light.

He raised his head and looked at Lin Bozhou in a daze.

Lin Bozhou finally spoke. “Stupid.”

Meng Huan: “………………”

Outside the door, Shan Xing returned with a head of lousy luck.

Imperial Physician Zhou had just reprimanded him. “If the prince doesn’t want to cure his eye disease, don’t come looking for this old man, all right? I told him not to strain himself, but he didn’t listen, causing the eye disease to relapse repeatedly. Others will think that this old man is not good at medicine and can’t cure him no matter what. You high and powerful lords, do you think your lives are strong and won’t listen to advice? Blah blah blah blah blah……”

Shan Xing accompanied him with a smile. “No, no, no, Imperial Physician Zhou.”

But he didn’t dare to persuade Lin Bozhou, either. Thus, he suffered from both ends.

Lin Bozhou got up. “Not eating anymore.”

Meng Huan also followed to stand up and heard him say, “Pingzhi, go and put the transcripts in the study.”

Pingzhi was Shan Xing’s courtesy name*.

*Courtesy name: traditionally given to Chinese men at age twenty, marking their coming of age.

Meng Huan’s expression was complicated. After all of this, do you still want to work?

Fine. You do your work, and I will sleep. Meng Huan had already prepared to climb into his large bed.

A voice came from behind his ear. “You.”

Who is it? It can’t be me. Meng Huan pretended not to hear.

“Beloved concubine.”

Meng Huan: “…………”

“Come here too. Serve this prince in bed.”

Meng Huan coughed, his voice drifting. “What did Your Highness say……”

“Did this prince not say it clearly enough?”

Lin Bozhou’s dark eyes looked down at him. He lifted a finger and beckoned to Meng Huan. “You, come and serve me in bed.”

“………………”

——————–

The author has something to say.

Lin Bozhou: Come, we’ll suffer together

Precious Huan: QAQ