After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 113 Pen and ink froze, tears exhausted, lamp dimmed.

The next day, at night.

"Miss, the eunuchs say the emperor is still reviewing memorials in the front hall."

Xueyan walked in and spoke to Lin Daiyu, who was reading a book in the side room.

Upon hearing this, Zijuan also advised, "Miss, you should go to sleep first. We won't be able to wait for the Emperor tonight. He is busy with official business, and it will be too late to look for him again when he comes back at midnight."

The Linjing Hall was a central palace with the main hall in front and the inner chambers behind. Logically, it would have been very convenient for Lin Daiyu to go see Chu Yan. However, throughout the day, she hesitated several times and did not want to send someone to ask the eunuch to see the emperor, so she did not have a chance to see him all day.

Daiyu hesitated for a moment, because she was thinking about something. Zijuan then said, "Tomorrow afternoon I will have a palace maid tell the eunuchs in the front hall that you should go and request an audience with the emperor while he is having his meal."

"In that case, I'll see him again tomorrow."

Daiyu had no choice but to give up, and was told to go see him again after midnight, but she really didn't want to.

Another day has passed in the blink of an eye.

These past two days, Daiyu's life in the palace has been very monotonous. Apart from Yuan Chun and Consort Qin coming to her once a day, she doesn't go out all day, neither leaving the Linjing Hall nor her room, but just quietly reading two books.

In the afternoon, Zijuan went to tell the palace maids outside that Miss Lin was requesting an audience with the Emperor.

But even by evening, no news had come back from the front hall.

After nightfall, around 7 PM, a eunuch came to deliver a message: "Is Miss Lin asleep? His Majesty has decreed that if Miss Lin is not asleep, she should be summoned to the inner palace."

Daiyu's heart tightened, and she stood up to reply, "Please inform His Majesty that I will be there shortly."

After the eunuch left, Daiyu went back to her room to change her clothes. She put on a bamboo-leaf printed jacket with a front opening, and underneath she wore an inner garment that covered her neck. The collar was buttoned up, so she was completely covered up.

Only then did they set off for the rear hall.

Zijuan and Xueyan, along with several palace maids, followed behind her. Zijuan could see the deeper meaning behind the girl's makeup, but when she looked at the girl from behind, she was as graceful as a willow swaying in the wind when she walked, and as beautiful as a flower reflected in water when she was quiet. No matter how much she tried to hide it, there were few people in the world who could compare to the girl's appearance and figure.

Upon entering the inner hall, Zijuan lifted the curtain for the young lady, watching her walk into the east side room with her head down.

The emperor is inside!

Zijuan glanced at the emperor sitting on the soft couch. The girl often compared him to a tiger. Now, looking at him, the emperor was tall and mighty, while the girl was slender and delicate. Comparing him to a tiger was extremely apt.

"No need for formalities, please take a seat," the emperor said casually.

Seeing this, Zijuan finally felt relieved and lowered the curtain. No matter what, at least the emperor still favored the young lady and allowed her to sit down and talk.

In the side room to the east, Daiyu did not sit down immediately. She lowered her head and gave a curtsy: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for issuing the decree yesterday to find my father."

If it were an ordinary concubine or minister expressing gratitude, the ceremony would be more solemn and the words more humble, but Lin Daiyu and Shi Xiangyun spoke more casually.

Chu Yan said, "I always keep my promises. I heard that Sister Lin also came to see me yesterday? Is there something else you want to ask? If it's just to express your gratitude, there's no need to go to such lengths."

Daiyu looked up at him and said, "There is indeed something."

"Please sit down first." Chu Yan smiled. "Lin Daiyu looks so delicate and frail. I'm afraid that if you stand for a while, you'll feel unwell again, and when we return to Rongguo Mansion, your maternal grandmother will blame me again."

Daiyu frowned slightly. In ordinary conversations, he didn't have the slightest air of an emperor and would even joke with people.

But when he gets domineering, he doesn't care what others think and forcibly pulls her into his arms.

Furthermore, he calls himself Lin Daiyu, seemingly determined to be some unknown brother to her. Is he trying to take advantage of her again?
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the seat."

Daiyu lowered her head and sat down on the soft couch next to him before she came to her senses. He hadn't forced a hug on her tonight.

A palace maid served her tea.

Chu Yan asked, "What is it?"

He looked at Daiyu and saw her holding a teacup and sipping tea. Her cherry lips were not rouged, but even without rouged, Lin Daiyu's lips were still rosy and glossy, small and delicious.

In addition, her ten fingers holding the teacup were slender, white, and lustrous like jade. They were long and graceful, and her fingernails were not dyed but were their natural flesh color. They were not as long as many beauties, but rather of a normal length, which was just right.

These hands truly deserve to be called the delicate hands of a beautiful woman.

When drinking tea, she slightly raises her ring finger and gently covers her cherry lips with the cup lid. She doesn't deliberately follow etiquette, but her demeanor is extremely pleasing to the eye.

Chu Yan was fond of beautiful women.

The more I look at Lin Daiyu, the more I feel that she is different from others. Could she really be the reincarnation of the Crimson Pearl Fairy?
After taking a sip of tea, Daiyu put down her teacup, glanced at him, then lowered her eyes again: "Does what Your Majesty said the night before last still stand?"

Chu Yan laughed and said, "We talked about too many things the day before yesterday. What are you referring to? The betting game?"

"I'm not willing to gamble with my life!"

Daiyu reiterated, her voice now tinged with embarrassment and annoyance. After a long pause, she lowered her head and said, "I... made a bet with Baoyu."

"Oh?"

Chu Yan became more interested. "How do you want to bet?"

"This is a matter between Baoyu and me, why should Your Majesty interfere?"

"If I don't get involved, none of you will be able to gamble."

Chu Yan saw through her thoughts and said calmly, "Although our bet hasn't started yet, you know that Jia Baoyu is bound to lose. He doesn't trust you. He thinks you'll choose to enter the palace to enjoy wealth and luxury, so you came to me, trying to explain things to him and even tell him about what we talked about the night before last."

Daiyu lowered her head and said, "I humbly request Your Majesty's permission to write a letter to Baoyu."

Chu Yan said, "I did not participate in your betting game."

The implication is that we don't need to help you deliver messages.

Daiyu raised her eyes, her dewy gaze meeting his, her eyes filled with shame and indignation, and her cheeks slowly flushed red.

Chu Yan said, "In my world, everything comes at a price."

In the afternoon, I summoned a general to discuss with him the matter of sending 5,000 soldiers to meet the loyalist army the next day. The 5,000 men would be dispatched to fight in a place less than 200 miles away, and more than 10,000 logistics troops would be needed.

Now you've asked me to deliver a message for you. It seems like a small matter, but it involves going through eunuchs, palace gates, guards, and then into the military camp to find someone. It will cost at least several taels of silver.

Daiyu understood the meaning behind his words.

While the emperor's decree could mobilize thousands of troops, the manpower and resources it consumed were countless. The more powerful the emperor was, the more cautious he was.

Even for something as trivial as sending a message, he refused to issue an imperial decree lightly, insisting that she pay the price!
Chu Yan laughed and said, "So, you should know what to do to get me to issue an imperial decree."

Daiyu sneered, "So this is what you really wanted!"

Chu Yan laughed heartily.

Daiyu's face showed a struggle; she was unwilling, yet had no choice but to beg him, but she was also unwilling to be humiliated by him.

Chu Yan saw through her thoughts. "I still have to do it? Fine, I'll take the initiative again."

As he spoke, he stood up and walked to Lin Daiyu. He looked down at her, and Lin Daiyu had her eyes tightly closed. Her slender body trembled slightly, as if she was ready to be held in his arms and humiliated again.

Chu Yan reached out and stroked her smooth face. Daiyu suddenly opened her eyes, raised her hand to slap his hand away, bit her lip, and glared at him without saying a word.

Chu Yan understood, sat down, and pulled her into his arms, holding her slender waist.

"I only hold Lin Daiyu in my arms and do nothing else," Chu Yan said with a smile.

Lin Daiyu did not refuse again. Her face was flushed with embarrassment, even her fair ears turned red. Her delicate eyebrows furrowed. Chu Yan reached out and stroked her waist. She trembled and quickly pressed his hand down with her slender fingers. "You are not allowed to touch me again!"

Chu Yan laughed and said, "What was the bet between you and Baoyu? Did you write him a letter and tell him not to overthink things?"

Daiyu did not answer, her eyes tightly closed, as if she wanted to end this unbearable scene as soon as possible.

Chu Yan instructed the palace maids outside: "Bring me pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and write a letter to Miss Lin."

Daiyu opened her eyes in surprise and looked at him.

The palace maid quickly brought paper and brush, laid the paper on the soft couch and low table, weighed it down with a paperweight, and prepared the ink, waiting for Lin Daiyu to pick up her brush and write. "Please, Miss Lin, take up your brush," Chu Yan said solemnly, embracing Lin Daiyu's slender waist from behind.

Daiyu's delicate body trembled, and tears streamed down her face. She knew that he would watch her write the letter and would then humiliate her by embracing her before delivering the letter to Baoyu.

She didn't want to explain further, forcing back her tears, and picked up a brush with her delicate hands, beginning to write on the paper:
"A letter from Miss Linzidong to Baoyu:"

When Chu Yan saw that she called herself "Miss Linzidong", he was puzzled at first, but after thinking for a moment, he understood the reason and couldn't help but laugh.

Lin Daiyu was afraid that Jia Baoyu wouldn't believe her, so she wrote down something that only the two of them knew, telling him to pay close attention to what she said after he received the letter.

Chu Yan didn't hold her for long. He let go of her and leaned against the blue satin backrest, watching her write the letter stroke by stroke.

The Lin family had produced five generations of marquises, and Lin Daiyu was a typical young lady from a family of officials. She was well-versed in poetry and literature from a young age, and her first teacher was Jia Yucun, a scholar who had passed the imperial examination.

Therefore, even though she was being humiliated by Chu Yan when she picked up her pen to write, she still maintained the proper demeanor of a young lady from a family of scholars and officials, sitting upright with her waist straight.

However, behind her was Chu Yan, and Daiyu was sitting on his lap, writing letters for Jia Baoyu. All the unbearable things made every stroke of her pen feel like a thousand pounds, and she wrote with trembling hands.

It can truly be said that every word is written in blood and every sentence is filled with tears.

In the end, she couldn't help but write down the words, "My pen froze, my tears fell, and the lamp went out."

She never explicitly described her experiences in the palace, but she subtly mentioned her conversation with Chu Yan in the letter, asking Jia Baoyu to believe that although she had entered the palace, she had never betrayed her past friendship with him.

"..."

After finishing writing, Daiyu still hadn't fully vented her grief and indignation. Holding the pen, she stared intently at the letter, lost in thought. A single sheet of paper couldn't contain all the words in her heart.

After a long while, not hearing any movement from him, Daiyu put down her pen and turned to look at him, only to see Chu Yan leaning against the pillow, reading a book. He was neither watching her write the letter nor constantly embracing and abusing her.

"Finished writing?"

Chu Yan said calmly, glancing at the letter she wrote in tiny characters, "Tomorrow morning, give the letter to a palace maid and tell her to give it to Xia Shouzhong so that it can be sent out of the palace to Jia Baoyu."

“…Thank you, Your Majesty,” Daiyu said, bowing her head.

"Well, now that you've written the letter, there's no need to cry anymore. Go back and get some sleep."

Chu Yan said.

Pick it up heavily, then put it down lightly.

Daiyu carefully put away the letter, her buttocks moved away from his thighs, and she got off the soft couch with great embarrassment. She hurriedly bowed to him and then fled the place.

Watching her stumble away, Chu Yan suddenly wondered, if Jia Baoyu knew that his Lin Daiyu had written this letter to him while sitting on his lap, would he be so grief-stricken that he would vomit blood? Or would he renounce the world and become a monk?

……

Daiyu returned to her room and cried again, feeling that she was covered in his scent, and that her waist and buttocks were dirty...

Zijuan advised her, "If you would like to write some more, you can bring another sheet of paper and send it out of the palace tomorrow!"

Daiyu shook her head, crying: "He is capricious, both domineering and unreasonable, yet he will smile and talk to you, making you mistakenly believe that he is very good. You must never believe his feigned kindness!"

Zijuan and Xueyan exchanged a glance and agreed.

Daiyu carefully put the letter away and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, I got up and handed the letter to a palace maid to send out of the palace, and only then did I feel a little more at ease.

In the afternoon, the eunuch returned from outside the palace and told her that the letter had been delivered.

"Why hasn't Baoyu replied?!" Daiyu asked anxiously.

The eunuch laughed and said, "His Majesty only instructed us to deliver the letter to the young lady, not to bring it from outside the palace. After I delivered the letter, I rode back on horseback without waiting for him to write anything."

Daiyu was stunned.

After sending the letter, she was humiliated by Chu Yan.

If she wanted Baoyu to send a message, she would be humiliated again...

"How could there be such hateful people in the world?!"

Daiyu trembled with anger, and tears welled up in her eyes again—this time, it was pure anger!

Wiping away her tears with her delicate hands, she sat in the chair, trying to think of a solution. She thought for a long time, but to no avail. She could only wait until tonight, or some other day, to beg him again and be humiliated by him once more, in exchange for Baoyu sending the letter to her in the palace.

A day later, an unexpected person came to Linjing Hall.

"Is Sister Lin here? I've come to see you!"

Shi Xiangyun entered the room with a happy expression. Upon seeing Lin Daiyu, she quickly went over, took her hand, and said with a smile, "Sister Lin, how are you doing in the palace? The old lady asked me to visit you and bring you some things~"

"Sister Yun".

Upon seeing her, Daiyu was quite pleased and pulled her to sit down, asking about her family.

Xiangyun smiled and said, "Everything is fine in the manor. The old lady was worried that you were not used to living in the palace, so she asked me to bring some of your clothes in, as well as your usual writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone."

This was to reassure her that she could live in the palace without worry.

Daiyu felt a pang of sadness and couldn't help but cry again.

Xiangyun hurriedly asked her, "Sister Lin, why are you crying? Did the emperor bully you? Don't cry, I'll go with you tonight to see him and argue with him so he'll treat you better in the future!"

Her words still carried a touch of girlish naiveté; she hardly seemed like a concubine entering the palace.

No one else suffered the same humiliation as her.

Daiyu nudged her, "You're treating the Emperor like your second brother!"

Xiangyun smiled shyly, glanced at her, and seemed to be hesitating about something.

Daiyu was extremely clever; seeing her like this, she knew something was wrong. "Is it Baoyu?"

"Ah."

Xiangyun still spoke up, "Yesterday, my eldest uncle sent someone back to tell us that he wanted the household to give them some more money so that someone could take it to them."

Daiyu frowned at her and asked curiously, "Just a few days ago, I gave Lian Erge three hundred taels of silver to take out, and also gave him a lot of things. How come they've all been used up in less than ten days?"

Xiangyun said, "Second brother redeemed someone in the military camp."

"Whose ransom was redeemed?"

"Do you still remember when my second brother was beaten last year? At Prince Zhongshun's residence, there was a man named Qi Guan."

"It's him……"

How could Daiyu not remember?

She had advised Jia Baoyu after he was severely beaten by Jia Zheng that he should change his ways and not anger his father again.

But now, Baoyu is getting mixed up with Qi Guan in the military camp!
Xiangyun nodded: "Second Brother used all the money to redeem him. Five hundred taels disappeared in the blink of an eye. Originally, he could live in a separate tent, but later, without money, he had to share with others. The messenger said that Second Brother Lian was afraid you would vomit blood again, so he dared not come back to ask for money. After Second Brother received your letter..."

Daiyu had no heart to listen anymore; her heart was filled with coldness.

She was humiliated by the emperor in the palace and only received a small amount of silver in return, which was almost equivalent to selling herself and losing all face.

But Baoyu, while in the army camp, used this silver to redeem Qi Guan…

It wouldn't have mattered if it were anyone else, but it just so happens that they are opera singers from the Prince Zhongshun's mansion.

How could Daiyu not know why wealthy families kept opera singers? Baoyu was clearly with him in the military camp…

In an instant, she felt disheartened. She had been hoping for his reply, but now she no longer wanted it.

(End of this chapter)