Chapter 18 Rejection

That day, Zhu Gaoxu came out of the Prince of Yan's Mansion and went straight back to his own Prince of Jun's Mansion. He had no intention of meeting his subordinates and went into the house to sleep first.

Returning from the capital to Peking, Zhu Gaoxu walked more than 2,000 miles, sleeping in the open air, eating poorly and sleeping poorly; he fled from the Zhuozhou Inn last night and didn't sleep a wink until he got home. At this time, Zhu Gaoxu understood a truth: the greatest need of human beings is not to eat, but to sleep.

When he woke up, the whole room was bright, as if it was daytime. He had no idea what day or time it was.

He sat up and looked around. This should be a bedroom because there was a bed inside. But he didn't sleep on the bed, but on a bare bamboo couch with a quilt draped over him.

Looking down at himself again, Zhu Gaoxu was still wearing dirty clothes and his hands were covered in mud. He thought about it and realized that he had gone to bed as soon as he got home yesterday without changing clothes or washing.

Why didn't he sleep on the bed? Because he didn't take a shower and was too dirty, and subconsciously didn't want to dirty the bed, which would be troublesome to clean up... Only then did he come to his senses, a dignified prince, was he afraid of dirtying a bed?

Zhu Gaoxu still shook his head and smiled bitterly. A loser will always be a loser. His mentality cannot be completely changed in a short period of time.

At this moment, a servant saw Zhu Gaoxu at the door and said, "Your Highness has woken up! I will prepare to bathe and change clothes for you immediately."

"Okay." Zhu Gaoxu responded, and looked at the servant, his expression changed slightly: Why is she so old? !

How about the imagined good thing of having a group of beautiful girls serving you in bathing?

He thought about it and realized that Zhu Gaoxu had not yet married. Princess Xu had chosen someone and they were supposed to get married last year, but Taizu passed away last year.

Zhu Gaoxu was sixteen years old this year. In the past two or three years, he had hardly ever been home. He was either in the military camp teaching soldiers and deploying troops, or on a military journey with the Prince of Yan.

As a result, he hardly took care of the household affairs, which were almost a mess. He had no idea who hired these maids.

After a while, the middle-aged maid with freckles on her face came again. She looked at Zhu Gaoxu shyly and said, "I'll ask someone to prepare the meal. Let me help you bathe and change clothes first."

Zhu Gaoxu said, "Bring in the bathing supplies, I will wash myself!"

He took a shower and changed his clothes first, because the servant brought him a blue round-necked, narrow-sleeved robe, so he just put it on... Anyway, in later generations, he hated wearing brightly colored clothes the most, probably because there was nothing worth showing off and he didn't like to attract attention.

The servant only took a net towel, and Zhu Gaoxu dried his hair and then used the scarf to tie his hair casually.

Then he ate again, feeling refreshed. After sleeping well and eating well, he suddenly felt like he was fully revived.

When he looked at the middle-aged maid standing next to him, she didn't look too bad. At this time, he thought of how this woman had arranged everything in an orderly and efficient manner when he woke up just now, and he immediately felt that she was doing a good job.

Zhu Gaoxu stretched and said casually, "Did it rain before? I felt a little cold when I fell asleep."

The woman was surprised and said, "It's not raining! I was afraid that Your Majesty would catch a cold while sleeping, so I covered you with a quilt."

What Zhu Gaoxu wanted was the second half of the sentence, to prove that the quilt was used by this woman.

He immediately asked, "What's your name?"

The woman said , "My surname is Wang, I don't have a name, everyone in the mansion calls me Aunt Wang."

Zhu Gaoxu asked, "I forgot, what did I call you before?"

The woman said, "The prince has never called me a slave, but he has said a few times, 'Hey, come here!'"

Zhu Gaoxu, "..."

He stood up and asked casually, "Your last name is Wang, what is your relationship with Wang Gui?"

Aunt Wang said, "I have nothing to do with Eunuch Wang. We both work in the mansion and we just know each other. Eunuch Wang came back last night. The first thing he did this morning was to unlock the storeroom and check the things inside. After checking, he went back to sleep. Although the prince is not in the mansion, no one dares to touch the storeroom."

Zhu Gaoxu hurriedly asked, "A girl came back with Wang Gui?"

"Oh!" Aunt Wang said, "In the front hall, arranged by Eunuch Wang."

After Zhu Gaoxu finished asking the questions, he waved his hand and let Aunt Wang go.

He walked around his own mansion and compared it with his memory. The Prince's Mansion was not at the same level as the Prince's Mansion. It was not spacious at all, and it could not be expanded at will because there were etiquette rules. Only about 40 rooms could be built... This room refers to the width of the house. Some large houses are more than one room wide.

Zhu Gaoxu's Prince's Mansion was no exception, with two gatehouses in the front and middle, dividing the mansion into two parts. However, the former Prince Gaoyang always liked to break the law, so he played a trick and expanded a garden behind the mansion. There were lakes and rockery in the garden, but only pavilions were built, not houses, so it is difficult to calculate the size of the house.

There were not many people living in the mansion, so Zhu Gaoxu walked around casually and soon finished touring the garden and the back hall. He walked into the middle gatehouse and prepared to take a look at the front hall.

The light in the gatehouse is actually very dark during the day, because there is no need to turn on the lights during the day, but the lighting is not good. At this time, Zhu Gaoxu saw Du Qianrui in the yard, with her back to the middle gatehouse, leaning over to stir the wooden handle to draw water from the well. From the back, because she was bending forward, the back of her skirt was tight, her hips were propped up, and the lines were very round...

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly didn't want to go out of the gatehouse anymore, and his feet couldn't move, so he stood in the dimly lit gatehouse and looked at her.

Du Qianrui had changed her clothes, wearing a white six-panel waist-length skirt, a light blue narrow-sleeved cross-collared top, and no jewelry. At this time, Du Qianrui's dress looked very plain, completely different from when she was in Nanjing Fuleyuan. But it was precisely because of the plainness that she looked even fairer.

She was doing chores there, drawing water, bringing it to the side of the ditch, pouring it into the steaming wooden basin, and stirring it with her fingers. Zhu Gaoxu guessed that she wanted to wash her hair.

Zhu Gaoxu had known Du Qianrui for a while, but he had never observed her so carefully. Moreover, every time they met in Nanjing, she was heavily made up, with her face covered with powder, and her true face was rarely seen.

Du Qianrui had a delicate mind and a delicate figure. She was not tall, but her figure was well-proportioned, full front and back, and even more rare was that she didn't look fat at all... Zhu Gaoxu observed her for a long time before he realized that she didn't look fat because she had slender bones.

She squatted on the eaves facing the gatehouse. Zhu Gaoxu saw her bare face, her skin was fair and she looked like pottery from a distance; her face was relatively small, so her eyes looked big, and her slightly thick lips looked fuller...so such an oval face did not look thin at all.

Du Qianrui raised her head and looked around, and Zhu Gaoxu's heart suddenly tightened a little. Fortunately, there was a big difference in light inside and outside the gate tower, so she didn't seem to notice that she was standing there stupidly.

Then she gently pulled up her shirt, revealing her round bare shoulders with a scratch on them. She rubbed her delicate skin with her hands, twisted her shoulders slightly, and flexibly let the shirt slide up to cover her shoulders.

Maybe she was going to wash her hair, she was not wearing any underwear under her outer clothes, and seemed to be wearing only a tube top.

She leaned forward, lowered her head, reached out to touch the wooden ladle in the basin, and scooped water on her head. In this posture, her clothes fell down, and the cross collar was large. Zhu Gaoxu immediately saw the plump white area below her collarbone. The light red bra was heavy, and Zhu Gaoxu also felt it was heavy for her.

Zhu Gaoxu immediately held his breath and widened his eyes.

"Hua hua ..." The water in the wooden ladle wet her black hair and splashed onto her neck. Zhu Gaoxu stared at her intently, so much so that he could see the water drops on her snow-white skin clearly.

At this moment, Zhu Gaoxu forgot that he was in the Prince's Mansion, but seemed to be beside a spring in a quiet valley. It had just rained, leaving the mountains and forests spotless. Pearl-like raindrops still remained on the tender green leaves of spring.

I really didn't expect that Du Qianrui, who came from a place of decadence and extravagance, had such a side to her.

He watched with great interest, but unfortunately, he finished washing his hair very quickly. Zhu Gaoxu thought that Du Qianrui was exhausted from the long journey, so she could have washed her hair more carefully and for a longer time. Why was she in such a hurry?

He took the opportunity when Du Qianrui was drying her hair to turn around and walk back to the back hall without making a sound. He strolled around for a while before walking out of the gatehouse again as if nothing had happened.

Zhu Gaoxu walked to the door of the wing room. Du Qianrui inside turned around and hurriedly put down the wooden basin. With her wet long hair, she knelt down and said, "This servant greets the prince... I just washed my hair and haven't had time to tidy it up. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

Zhu Gaoxu looked very calm and casual. He waved his hand and said casually, "Miss Du is dressed very plainly today."

Du Qianrui smiled and said, "I don't like to wear gaudy makeup, but I have no choice in Fuleyuan. If I dress too plainly, will the prince dare to flirt with me when he comes to listen to the music?"

"Why not?" Zhu Gaoxu was slightly puzzled.

Du Qianrui said, "Being plain makes you look noble, and you're afraid I'll reject you... Besides, it doesn't fit in in a place like that."

"It seems to make sense." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, paused, and suddenly an idea came to his mind. He immediately said, "Then Miss Du came to the mansion and dressed so plainly. Is she rejecting me?"

Du Qianrui's face flushed with two blushes, and she glanced at him quietly with her bright eyes, "That's not what I meant."

Zhu Gaoxu was not a real sixteen-year-old boy. He had thickened his skin in his previous life. He continued with a smile, "What does that mean?"

Du Qianrui said, "This is a different time. The prince's mansion is a place of honor and etiquette. How can vulgarity fit in? In the past, I had to please many people, but now I only need to serve one person."

At this time, Zhu Gaoxu actually heard sadness in her words, and his smile gradually faded. He said, "It doesn't have to be gaudy, but it doesn't have to be too plain. I'll go to the warehouse later to see if there's anything good..."