HMIME Chapter 9: I am allergic to the empress

The rumor of the young master at Wangyue Tower sitting beside the dragon throne cracking melon seeds quickly spread throughout the entire palace. No one knew how this newly arrived musician in the palace suddenly received such favor.

Beside the dragon throne was a place reserved only for the empress. Even the most prestigious concubines in the harem could not touch it.

This position, which had been elevated to the status of a altar by the palace women, was unexpectedly taken by a man who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and to top it off, he was sitting there cracking melon seeds?! It was simply incomprehensible!

But there were also busybodies speculating that perhaps His Majesty intended to establish a male empress. Ever since two years ago, His Majesty had stopped favoring the beauties of the harem, and at that time, people had some subtle speculations.

But now this young master Lin always stayed at the Qingya Palace at night, and it seemed he had even been favored—this was confirmed by the maids of the Qingya Palace. They said that one morning, young master Lin had woken up with a neck full of kiss marks.

For a moment, the way others looked at Bai Lu became mysterious and unpredictable, as if they were secretly pondering some ambiguous matter.

Bai Lu was so irritated that he couldn’t help but grab Chu Ya’s collar when there was no one else in the room, fiercely questioning him, “Are you doing this on purpose?! You know that only the empress can sit in that position, yet you led me into the Qingya Palace, made me sit there, are you insane?!”

Chu Ya looked at him sincerely, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that position belonged to the empress.”

“Don’t give me that! You’ve been here for two years, and you didn’t know? I don’t believe it! Do you know what rumors are spreading in the palace now? They say you want to make me a concubine. Do you know how insulting that is to a manly man?!”

Chu Ya calmly waited for him to finish venting, then suddenly asked, “Is that not good?”

Bai Lu was stunned, obviously not expecting Chu Ya to ask like this. He furrowed his brow, “Do you even know what you’re saying?”

This was tantamount to saying you stabbed me, and then asked with a smile, is this not good? You’re going to heaven to enjoy blessings, right?

Bai Lu couldn’t help but reach out and touch Chu Ya’s face, “Are you running a fever? Why are you talking nonsense? We’ve already broken up, understand? Who wants to have rumors with their ex-boyfriend?”

Chu Ya looked at him calmly and composedly, then asked in a nonchalant manner, “You said we were even before, Chu Shen caused the death of your mother, and you caused him to end up in the ICU, you lied to me for three years, and I also…”

Chu Ya paused for a moment, his face showing some strangeness, “I also shot you, since we’re even, why can’t we start over?”

Bai Lu was shocked, he racked his brains, but couldn’t figure out how Chu Ya could make this pile of nonsensical gibberish sound reasonable. If Bai Lu’s brain was a little dumber, he might have actually believed it.

“…” Bai Lu couldn’t organize his words for a while, so he raised his hand to signal Chu Ya to be quiet first. He touched his throbbing forehead, feeling a bit confused and a bit frustrated, as if he couldn’t reason with Chu Ya.

“I think your brain is broken, are you a pervert?!”

Clearly, the concept of being ‘even’ had different meanings for the two of them.

Bai Lu thought that they were even and owed nothing to each other, so they should never see each other again. As a qualified ex, he should disappear without a trace, just like a dead person, and never deceive again.

But Chu Ya didn’t think the same way. After they were even, he believed that all the hatred and grievances were eliminated, so why couldn’t they happily start dating again.

“In any case, either you’re crazy or I’m crazy, but it’s more likely that you’re crazy!”

As Bai Lu said, Chu Ya’s brain was probably really different from a normal person’s, bordering on the verge of being abnormal.

And Chu Ya was the kind of person who was so indifferent that he could easily dissolve hatred. Bai Lu had sent Chu Shen to the intensive care unit, but Chu Ya didn’t care about that.

In the end, the Chu family was a family that prioritized interests, and the relationship between father and son was very indifferent. Combined with Chu Shen’s behavior and attitude, it was really unspeakable, and Chu Ya had no real feelings of affection. To make an inappropriate comparison, the Chu family was no different from the most heartless royal families, and Chu Ya could easily adapt to palace life, which was closely related to his upbringing.

Chu Ya hated the fact that Bai Lu had used and deceived him, but now he thought that as long as Bai Lu stayed by his side, those things didn’t matter. Fake? Even if it’s fake, you have to stay with me!

—Yes, Chu Ya’s thoughts were indeed abnormal.

Bai Lu took a deep breath, barely suppressing the violent emotions in his heart, and pointed at him with a finger, “Anyway, hurry up and take care of those rumors, don’t let them talk nonsense.”

Chu Ya seemed helpless, shrugging his shoulders, “The women in the harem have boring lives, so they like to gossip after meals. I can’t control it.”

“The harem?” Bai Lu widened his eyes slightly, “Do you really have a harem? Damn! Envy… no, despicable!”

Chu Ya pretended not to hear Bai Lu’s true feelings, smiled faintly, “When I arrived, there were already several concubines in the harem. I originally wanted to disperse them, but the old officials in the court said that the tradition of the Chu Dynasty was to disband the harem only after the empress was established. In short, the harem must have someone.”

“…”

Bai Lu was now allergic to the words ’empress’, feeling a chill down his spine. He rubbed his arms, impatiently saying, “I want to move out, anyway, I can’t live in the same room as you. Otherwise, people will gossip.”

Once this was said, Chu Ya’s eyes flashed with a hint of displeasure, but he quickly lowered his gaze, hiding his emotions.

“Alright, you can sleep in the next door tonight.”

Bai Lu didn’t expect him to agree so readily. Although he had originally planned to move out of the Qingya Palace, escaping was more advantageous.

But being able to move to the next room was also not bad. After being with Chu Ya for three years, he was familiar with his gaze. He knew that Chu Ya was already unhappy. For the sake of his safety, it was best not to push his luck.

That night, the maids indeed cleaned out the adjacent bedroom, as Chu Ya was probably busy with state affairs and didn’t come to disturb him.

In the middle of the night, Bai Lu couldn’t sleep. He rummaged through the room trying to find where the poisoned sachet was kept, the dangerous ‘time bomb’, which was best to take with him and bury in a random pit in the wilderness.

From now on, no matter what assassins or Chu Ya came his way, all troubles would be pushed aside, and after living a hard life in his past life, in this life, he wanted to live freely and happily.

However, after searching for a while, Bai Lu couldn’t find the sachet. It was probably put away by the maids along with the clothes. If he were to ask for it now, it would likely lead to complications and suspicion. Bai Lu decided to let it go and run away first.

He deliberately changed into black clothes, tied the loose sleeves with a ribbon, and then wrote a farewell note on a tea cup:

“The sea is wide, relying on the lord to wander, the sky is high, let me fly. I’m leaving, don’t look for me, if you look for me, I’ll curse you.”

A blindly altered line from an ancient poem had used up his not-so-rich cultural reserves.

Bai Lu used the tea cup to press down the note, then went to the door and, after peeking through the crack, saw the eunuchs and guards outside. He closed the door gently, walked to the bed, and used the blanket and pillow to feign the appearance of someone sleeping on the bed.

The jade belt hook on the canopy bed, shaped like a peach blossom and about the size of a finger, seemed quite valuable. Bai Lu casually took it off, stuffed it into his pocket, and then lowered the sheer canopy, partially concealing the bed.

After all this, Bai Lu let out a sigh of relief, ran his fingers through his bangs, his gaze becoming firm, and then he turned and jumped out of the window.