Lu Jingxing frowned. "What are you crying for? You were hugging another man right in front of me, and you still have the nerve to cry?"
Tears welled in Mu Wan Yun's eyes. She looked up at Lu Jingxing, feeling wronged. "Husband, if I finish all these chicken drumsticks, can you please stop being angry with me about the divorce letter?"
"We'll talk after you finish eating," Lu Jingxing said.
After forcing down ten drumsticks in a row, Mu Wan Yun began to feel nauseous. With every breath, she felt the food rising in her throat. Leaning against a nearby pillar, she threw up.
Lu Jingxing frowned at the sight.
Weak and exhausted, Mu Wan Yun clung to the pillar. Once she had finished vomiting, she picked up another drumstick, but she started dry-heaving the moment she brought it to her lips...
Lu Jingxing called out, "Qiu Chi, fetch the Imperial Physician."
After her fit of dry heaves, Mu Wan Yun tried to eat the drumstick again, but Lu Jingxing grabbed her hand. "Stop eating."
Mu Wan Yun lowered her head. "Then can you forgive me for the matter of the divorce letter?"
"No."
Trembling, she moved to take a bite, but Lu Jingxing snatched the drumstick away and hurled it to the ground.
When Mu Wan Yun saw the drumstick on the ground and moved to pick it up, Lu Jingxing stomped on it.
Her eyes brimming with tears, Mu Wan Yun cried, "How could you be so wasteful? In the village, we only got to eat chicken during the New Year or other festivals, and we certainly never got the drumsticks..."
Lu Jingxing said, "Do you know why the common people can't eat drumsticks? It's because your treacherous father holds power, controlling the Jiangnan officialdom and selling posts and titles. Thanks to him, even in Jiangnan, a region famed as a land of plenty, the common folk can't afford to eat drumsticks."
Mu Wan Yun was deeply aggrieved. "What does what my father does have to do with me?"
Qiu Chi led the Imperial Physician inside. The physician bowed. "This humble servant greets Your Majesty. Is Your Majesty's sacred health unwell?"
"Examine her," Lu Jingxing said.
The Imperial Physician saw that Mu Wan Yun was only in her inner robes and dared not look for long. After focusing on taking her pulse, he reported, "Your Majesty, Miss Mu's digestion is weak, likely due to prolonged malnourishment. Consuming so much greasy food all at once has caused great harm. Her system will need to be carefully conditioned going forward."
"Write a prescription for her," Lu Jingxing said.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
After the Imperial Physician left, Lu Jingxing saw the tears still lingering in Mu Wan Yun's eyes. "What are you still crying about? I'm not going to punish you."
Mu Wan Yun watched Qiu Chi direct a palace maid to come in and clean up the drumstick on the floor, which only made her tears fall faster.
"You're still crying?" Lu Jingxing said. "If you keep crying, I'll really have you thrown back in the dungeon!"
Mu Wan Yun sniffled and said through her sobs, "I don't know who is making the common people unable to eat drumsticks. All I know is that the first time I ever ate a drumstick was when I was twelve. When Sister Xiao Fang got married, she specially saved one for me... You shouldn't have wasted it..."
Lu Jingxing said coolly, "Then I just won't be wasteful in the future."
Mu Wan Yun wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. Lu Jingxing frowned and offered her a handkerchief. "How many times have I told you not to wipe your face with your hands? They're dirty. Remember to use a handkerchief from now on."
Mu Wan Yun didn't take the handkerchief. Instead, she threw herself into Lu Jingxing's arms and wiped her tears on his robes.
"Husband, I'm not materialistic. It was wrong of me to seek a divorce, but I never did it for the Mu Family's wealth and power.
I sought a divorce because I wanted to go home. Ever since I was abandoned at three years old, I've thought of nothing else... My brother told me the only way I could go home was to divorce you. I just wanted a family so, so badly.
I was wrong about the divorce. I can accept it if you're not willing to forgive me so easily, but please don't just insult me. Don't misunderstand me, okay?"
Mu Wan Yun stood on her tiptoes and kissed Lu Jingxing's lips. "Okay?"
Lu Jingxing looked down at Mu Wan Yun's tear-streaked face. "We were married at the time. Was our home not a home? You wanted a family—was that something I couldn't give you? Besides, you just threw up. Don't touch me."
"It's not the same," Mu Wan Yun said. "I wanted my mother and my father. I was truly wrong. Please forgive me, okay?"
Then, ignoring his revulsion, she once again stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips.
Lu Jingxing knit his brows and pushed Mu Wan Yun away. He had already taken two cold baths in the lingering spring chill; he really didn't want to take a third.
But Mu Wan Yun was clearly stronger than before. He couldn't push her away... and he didn't want to.
Mu Wan Yun was wearing only a thin inner robe. Lu Jingxing's gaze darkened. He swept her up into his arms and carried her to the Dragon Couch.
As the bed curtains slowly fell...
Mu Wan Yun pushed weakly at Lu Jingxing. "My husband hasn't forgiven me yet. We're divorced now. Since we aren't husband and wife, we shouldn't be doing this... Won't you forgive me?"
Lu Jingxing sat up. "Oh? If my forgiveness is the condition, then... let's just forget it."
Mu Wan Yun: "???"
Zhang Qiuchi's voice came from outside. Lu Jingxing allowed him to enter. Zhang Qiuchi carried in a bowl of medicine and said, "Your Majesty, the medicine has been brewed."
Lu Jingxing handed the bowl to Mu Wan Yun. "Drink it yourself."
Mu Wan Yun downed the medicine in one go, a bitter taste filling her mouth. "It's so bitter, Husband."
Lu Jingxing said to Qiu Chi, "Go fetch a palace maid's uniform."
"Yes," Zhang Qiuchi answered.
Lu Jingxing said to Mu Wan Yun, "Change your clothes and leave Ganlu Palace immediately. I'll be going now."
Mu Wan Yun grabbed Lu Jingxing's sleeve and struggled to ask, "Husband, are you... Do you have... an ailment?"
'In the past, whenever Lu Jingxing returned after several days away, he wouldn't let me off the hook even if I pretended to faint.'
'But today, he just said to forget it and left it at that?'
'There are no other Concubines in the rear palaces now. Could my husband really have a... physical problem?'
Hearing this, the anger Lu Jingxing had just managed to suppress flared up again. "Mu Wan Yun, you just wait!"
Zhang Qiuchi returned with a female official's attire from the Palace Bureau. He was about to enter when a palace maid at the side stopped him. Hearing the noises from inside, Zhang Qiuchi blushed.
He ordered the palace maid to go and prepare water.
As the sky outside began to darken, Mu Wan Yun was learning firsthand the meaning of the saying "disaster issues from the mouth."
Utterly spent, Mu Wan Yun lay in Lu Jingxing's arms and asked weakly, "Husband, you've forgiven me, right?"
Lu Jingxing pushed her away, got right out of bed, and said coldly, "No."
"You!" Mu Wan Yun wanted to curse Lu Jingxing for taking what he wanted and then refusing to acknowledge it, but she was the one who had made the mistake, so she had no right to complain.
All she could do was say plaintively, "Husband, there's a saying: 'one who takes is hesitant to act; one who eats is hesitant to speak.' You've already... partaken, and yet..."
Lu Jingxing dressed and said, "I have memorials to attend to. You should rest."
Mu Wan Yun sighed as she watched him leave.
As one of the Emperor's personal attendants came to help Mu Wan Yun wash, she asked the Chief Palace Maid next to her, "Aunt Ye, shall I go and prepare the contraceptive soup?"
"That won't be necessary," Ye Yu said.
Hearing this, Mu Wan Yun gently touched her abdomen. 'If I could have a child, maybe my husband would forgive me for the child's sake?'
After washing up, Mu Wan Yun returned to the Clothing Bureau. She had intended to go rest in her small courtyard, but she was summoned to the embroidery workshop the moment she reached the entrance.
The embroidery workshop was filled with kneeling palace maids. Lin Siming's face was pale with fury when she saw Mu Wan Yun. "Mu Wan Yun, where have you been this late? Are you not aware that wandering the palace grounds is forbidden?"
Mu Wan Yun said quietly, "The feather robe this servant made received praise from Miss Wei, so I went to Princess Consort Xian's residence to offer my thanks. Please forgive me for returning late, Chief of Clothing."
Lin Siming threw a bloodstained piece of Kesi cloth on the ground in front of Mu Wan Yun. "Explain this! This cloth was a special gift from His Majesty to Princess Huayang. It is the only one of its kind, yet you have soiled it with your filthy menstrual blood!"
Mu Wan Yun looked at the Kesi cloth. "Lin Siming, I have never seen this piece of Kesi cloth before."