CH 35

Time To Sleep, Your Majesty

“The pitiful, lost butterflies… Why do they not understand that, no matter how much they struggle, such an inferior species will never end up with happiness?”

・

Elizabeth Annexe, Royal Palace, Country A.

The rose gold palace is built luxuriously, with a full view of the white roses of the royal garden right in front of it from inside the large French windows of the princess’ bedroom.

On a quiet, serene afternoon, Her Highness Elizabeth is sitting in front of said French windows.

She is wearing a warm, layered lacy dress, with her golden long hair glittering under the sun. She extends her index finger, and as if possessed, licks it, then puts her wet finger to the glass, drawing a stain.

It reflects honestly the faces of shock on her servants behind.

・

Maid A – What in the world is the princess murmuring about this time?

Maid B – Shh! You must be new here. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil! Her Highness in her Kenja Time is terrifying!

Doctor Shang, who has been attending to Her Highness for over a dozen years now, is having cold sweat all over.

Her Highness’ pupils are dilating again. And her temperature and the rate of her heartbeat are probably decreasing straight——My Lord, this half-dead Princess truly is a miracle of modern biology!

“Ah,”

A snap, and Her Highness Elizabeth suddenly stops her actions. She picks up the broken nail on the floor that snapped off when she applied too much force, and rigidly turns her head around to give her servants a smile——

“Turn the television on. It seems the experiment is progressing.”

“Country A’s biggest entertainment television channel——Lemon TV, since midnight tonight, has been playing these pictures on loop for the fifteenth hour;

There are three of these pictures. Your Highness, this…”

Her Highness Elizabeth has been sitting blankly in front of the television with an unfocused vision for a while now. Her skin is now cold as a zombie. After viewing repeatedly Murong Jihua and his ‘girlfriend’s photo with their hands in rings, fingers crossing the other, she suddenly chuckles to say,

“So that is, Mu-dage’s perfect beloved?”

Her gaze begins to refocus and her pupils revert to normal. The doctor on standby breathes a sigh of relief.

“I do want to see ‘her,’ ah… To make Mu-dage admire her so, how excellent she must be even when compared to me?”

Her Highness Elizabeth’s face is warming back up, until she ends up no different from any girl you could see on the street.

——Though her brows have furrowed and, after a long period of thought, finally asks the question on her mind,

“Why is the ring on Mu-dage and his beloved… Mm, this should be… The popular children’s cartoon… Peppa the Pig? (TL: Oh, it wasn’t Doraemon? Earlier TL’s note withdrawn)

Mm… Mu-dage must have his reasons for doing so. As expected of the most excellent man in this world. What… is he trying to achieve with it…”

Let’s turn the time back to the early wee hours of the day.

Countless boys and girls on Earth have had to realise a bloody truth by themselves in their lives,

That is, when someone is completely exhausted during the day, the result of them touching the bed is, unquestionably,

A deep, unwakeable sleep.

Murong Jihua was just going to lie down for a little bit after recording his footage and taking the photos——Waiting for He Jünle to find himself back from alcohol land, but in the end, He Jünle even woke up earlier than him.

Xüeru’s outrageous shopping trip and the comfiness of this bed must be to blame.

At 5:30 in the morning, Murong Jihua was woken up by He Jünle.

“…!”

He Jünle, looming over Murong Jihua, has his face really close to Murong Jihua’s. He looks all sober now. His face is as chiselled and prominent as usual. His two thin lips are moving slightly, looking like he wants to say something——

Oh shoot, he’s too close.

So thinks Murong Jihua, recalling how this mouth was still biting onto his own lower lips, where his teeth mark can still be seen.

・(TL: He Jünle is speaking in a heightened archaic form here, which is hard to replicate and I’m not well-versed in ye olde English enough)

He Jünle was the first to break the silence, saying, “to-day, is when? How many years After Christ?”

“…?”

He Jünle suddenly clamps down on Murong Jihua’s neck, his gaze then drifting to the nearby scenery——The person says,

“Who, am I? Who, art thou!”

“…”

Oh, he just woke up and, is still drunk? … Did he think…

He transmigrated?

Hahahahahaha.

This is really too——Cute? Or perhaps dum-dum.

Murong Jihua is laughing like mad inside but isn’t saying anything, because his face is already purple. While praising the mad love hotel for its nigh-authentic scenery, while thinking how sad it would be not to tease using the opportunity.

Therefore, with a look like he’s about to end up strangled by He Jünle, he makes a higher-pitched voice and pats on He Jünle’s hand,

“Your… Your Majesty, this servant deserves death, but you must treasure your Imperial corporeal form.”

He Jünle’s hand suddenly goes stiff,

“You——Thou, speak what?”

My dear student He, did your maths teacher teach you your ancient Chinese? (TL: He Jünle’s faux-heightened archaic form is utterly childish, like what a child might come up with)

Murong Jihua decides to go with the flow and, after nimbly freeing himself from He Jünle’s grasp, prostrates on the ground and coughs, continuing his performance with his fake tone,

“This servant really is lowly and despicable; to even enjoy a night with Your Majesty must be three lives’ worth of fortune for me. Even if Your Majesty would rather keep this secret by silencing this servant for good, I will humbly accept!”

To prevent his lips that are madly trying to turn into a smile from being seen, his head is cast extremely low. Out of the corner of his eye, he can spy He Jünle suddenly trembling a little, taking half a step back.

Right now, He Jünle, who is thinking about ‘how are ancient people understanding modern Mandarin from 9102?’: ???

——He falls into thought looking at his messed up clothes.

Murong Jihua decides to add one more sentence,

“——Your Majesty, is your waist still tired, overnight?”

・

Oho, oopsies.

With one side of his face receiving a roundhouse kick from He Jünle, Murong Jihua now has a profound realisation of the double standards of Gary Stu –

Only he can sleep people. No one can sleep him.

——Hey, at least he won for once. Nice!

Murong Jihua is no longer able to stop himself from smiling——At best he is making his smile less wild for his character archetype of a cold CEO. As He Jünle is stabilising his form, he rushes forward and presses the young man back onto the bed.

He Jünle, freshly sober, is still pretty powerless, of course. His head is already on the bed now, and he narrows his eyes, saying, “you——”

“Your Majesty? Yeah, of course not.”

Murong Jihua raises his brow and lifts up He Jünle’s ringed right hand, touching it with his own ring finger, saying,

“He Jünle, let’s make a deal.”