CH 16.1

The young man said this with his head down as if distracted and throwing a tantrum; his little white face was a bit at a loss.

Lin Bozhou lowered his gaze and looked him in the eyes: “Do you blame me for not visiting you?”

The tone was low with a bit of teasing itchiness.

It was like a whispered inquiry.

This sentence made Meng Huan stiffen and look up, somewhat at a loss for words. He said it casually but did not expect Lin Bozhou to associate it this way and make it ambiguous, so he didn’t know what to say.

“No—” Meng Huan was about to shake his head, but Lin Bozhou was already sitting down.

“Then, this prince will stay with you tonight.”

“…………”

Meng Huan swallowed the second half of the sentence back into his mouth.

The more he explained, the more it would prove that he was throwing a tantrum and in love with him in his eyes…… It’s still better to behave as an obedient concubine, Meng Huan said in his heart.

“Your handwriting is not beautiful. Sit down.” Lin Bozhou picked up the brush on the table. “First, I’ll teach you how to use the brush.”

Although he was right, Meng Huan still blushed and mumbled as he sat beside him. Lin Bozhou took his hand and saw that his fingers were dirty with ink stains. Lin Bozhou gently raised his eyelids. “Why are you acting like a three-year-old child?”

“……” Meng Huan did not speak, watching him take out a handkerchief from his sleeve and wipe it roughly for him.

“You used to be famous for your talent in the capital and said to be the most gifted scholar among the young candidates. Now you can’t even write and read?” Lin Bozhou seemed to be laughing.

Meng Huan said sheepishly, “Since I hit the pillar last time, I forgot many things. Maybe my brain was damaged.”

“Maybe.” Lin Bozhou gently pried his fingers apart, set the brush, and pressed it back into a standard posture, saying, “This is the right way to write. Otherwise, your wrist will get tired after writing more.”

Meng Huan gave a “Hmm.”

Lin Bozhou’s hand was cold, but the back of his hand was inexplicably hot when he touched it, and his knuckles were itchy and tingly, extremely weird. This body’s “high-compatibility” system would make him blush as soon as he was touched.

“This prince will teach you how to write these dozens of words once. You will follow the order of the strokes and write one word at a time.” Lin Bozhou took out another piece of paper and picked up a brush again. “Did you hear me?”

“I heard you.” Meng Huan nodded.

The courtyard was quiet; only the sound of turning pages could be heard. Lin Bozhou’s writing was indeed beautiful to the extreme. Beautiful handwriting was a stepping stone in this era where only letters were available. It was written in the book that Lin Bozhou had worked hard on his writing and cultivated his skill to be acknowledged by Confucian scholars. Writing in the cold winter months in the country’s north, his hands had frostbite, and blood flowed on the pages. It took day after day of hard work to get this good handwriting.

Meng Huan couldn’t help but look at his hand.

“What are you looking at?” Lin Bozhou noticed.

Meng Huan was not able to say, so he muddled through.

He wanted to find the wound on the back of his hand. Sure enough, he saw some dark brown pigmentation, which should be the scar from the wound scabbing off.

—If the treacherous minister was so perfect, how could ordinary people live?

No wonder all the good guys in this book were hung up by Lin Bozhou.

While randomly thinking, the maid approached and asked in a low voice, “Madam, shall we have our meal?”

Hearing about meals, Meng Huan’s eyes lit up and he said charmingly, “Where is Your Highness going to eat?”

He hoped Lin Bozhou would understand that this was a statement to turn visitors out.

“Right here.” Lin Bozhou’s attention was on writing, and his voice was flat.

“Here?”

Lin Bozhou: “Don’t want to?”

“……”

Meng Huan silently looked at Fengzhi. “Make dinner.”

However, Fengzhi’s expression was a bit constrained.

Meng Huan realized what she wanted to say, got up, and walked with her to the kitchen. “What’s wrong?”

Fengzhi said, “This servant doesn’t know why, but the prince’s residence has suddenly become strict in the past few days, so Xiao-Shun, who helped us buy vegetables and meat, can’t leave the residence. Therefore, there’s nothing in the kitchen now, and we can’t start the fire.”

“Then how can we eat? We can’t let His Highness starve.” Meng Huan thought for a moment. “Let the main kitchen prepare dinner?”

Fengzhi nodded. “This servant will go now.”

But…… remembering the leftovers from the previous two days, they wouldn’t be so bold as to dare to do anything, even though Lin Bozhou is still here, right?

Meng Huan did not worry anymore and returned to the courtyard. Lin Bozhou had already written words on the rightmost side of the draft paper as examples and, subsequently, let Meng Huan write as he did.

Lin Bozhou couldn’t stand his chicken scratch that looked like worms crawling across the paper. “Come over and practice.”

“……” Feeling the oppression of a strict teacher, Meng Huan picked up the brush before resigning himself to writing the strokes down. His control of the brush was steady, but the technique was not, so he wrote crookedly. The words looked even uglier, especially in front of Lin Bozhou’s elegant and beautiful regular script.

The more he wrote, the less confident Meng Huan became, not to mention that Lin Bozhou was staring at him. His ears were red, and his head was buried down heavily.

After writing the last word in the first row, he whispered, “So ugly.”

“You also know it’s ugly.”

Meng Huan bowed his head like a schoolboy being lectured.

“Your Highness is right.”

But he rolled his eyes and looked unhappy.