Ink Blade

Too Rigid (part 1)

In the morning of the next day, when just a glimmer of morning light appeared on the dark horizon, Chu Yan opened his eyes. Hearing the deliberately suppressed shallow breathing beside him, he knew that Mo Ren had also woken up.

Chu Yan bent his lips, and suddenly remembered that when he first met Mo Ren, this little secret guard was kneeling down and dared to peek at him blatantly. 

The Palace Master suddenly turned over half of his body and bumped at Mo Ren, "Why don't you sleep for a while?"

The young man beside the pillow abruptly opened his eyes, and immediately wanted to sit up on his knees with an expression of committing a huge sin, "This subordinate dare not! Please allow this subordinates to serve the Master and get up..."

Chu Yan's face immediately went dark…..

"No need." With a twitch in his forehead, thinking about Mo Ren's injury, he resisted the urge to just slap the man back to the bed, "It's still early, you should sleep for a while."

Chu Yan had always been strict with his subordinates, the more he would be around him, the more he must obey the rules. Even a long time ago, when he and Mo Ren were getting along very well, the guard had always been very sensible. Letting the Master say the same advice twice in a good voice like this, it stood to reason that it’s time for him to act sensible.

But this time, Mo Ren only went silent for a moment, "Is the Master going to do something?"

Chu Yan didn't speak, thinking that this person was as perceptive as ever.

The Master's refusal to answer was obviously a tacit consent. Mo Ren gritted his teeth, knelt on the bed, and said in a cold voice, "Please…..Please allow this subordinate to accompany the Master." He could barely maintain the pretend calm on his face, and his voice was already trembling.

Chu Yan frowned in displeasure, his expression uncertain.

As the air pressure around the Palace Master of the Jiuzhong Palace got lower and lower in the stalemate, he suddenly stretched out his hand without warning.

——And placed it on the guard's cheek.

Mo Ren slightly opened his eyes.

Just now he thought the Master was going to slap him…..

The morning sun shone brightly, it outlined the wrinkled bedding on the bed, as well as sitting and kneeling master and servant.

Chu Yan pulled Mo Ren's face, looked at him steadily, and suddenly said word by word, "Why are you so disobedient?"

The tone was not harsh, but rather sounded a little helpless, "Look at your temperament, if you learn to be soft, learn to say a few nice words, and learn to take note of the current situation…..you don't know how much less you will suffer….how much less punishment you’ll suffer!"

Mo Ren was stunned and subconsciously said, "This subordinate knows his mistake."

He didn't expect the Master to say such words to himself, and he had never seen the Master speak to anyone else in such a tone.

Chu Yan patted the guard's cheek softly, and sighed with a complicated expression, "You know that this Master is not a good person, and his temper is also bad, why don't you know how to hide away..."

He knew that in the previous life, many people eventually walked away.

At that time, he was blinded and couldn't see people clearly, he spoiled Bai Hua to an overly high position, and made many foolish decisions. Especially the treatment of Mo Ren that even chilled some people, and finally even some of the loyal shadow guardians defected from the Jiuzhong Palace.

As for those who defected, Chu Yan never chased and killed them, and he was too lazy to take care of them. Whoever wanted to go could go, he simply wanted to keep his beloved Bai Hua, and everything else didn’t matter.

But only Mo Ren did not leave, nor did he give up on him. If there’s some doubtful points in Bai Hua’s origin and life experience, he would insist on investigating it to the bottom; when Chu Yan disallowed it, he went against his words; or just simply handled it himself and tried assassinated Bai Hua……..until everything eventually came to this point.

Those who were too strong were easy to break, this sentence was most appropriate for Mo Ren. This man was like a sword, cold and sharp to the identified enemy. The blade, once out of the sheath, would not return. There was absolutely no room for mercy—whether it was to the enemy or to himself.

"This subordinate dare not." Mo Ren lowered his head, and the shadows casted by his broken hair perfectly covered the dimmed pupils. He quietly grabbed the corner of the quilt with his fingers, "...Mo Ren is the Master's person, as long as the Master does not abandon him for a day, then this subordinate will not dare to leave."

Chu Yan nodded, pondered a little, then suddenly stretched out his arms and pulled Mo Ren over to hug him, and rubbed his chin against the top of his hair, "This Master knows you are the best, be good, this Master will cherish you dearly even in the future.”

As this kind of action was too intimate, the guard froze as if struck by lightning again, "Master...!?"

Chu Yan was simply waiting for this opportunity, and with sharp eyes and agile hands, he quickly tapped to Mo Ren's sleeping acupoint. The latter merely groaned weakly in his throat, closed his eyes, and fell limply.

Chu Yan helped him, and laid him back down on the bed with his arms around him.

He tapped the sleeping acupoint of Mo Ren not only to let this guy who always refused to treat himself well recuperate, but more importantly, yesterday Bai Hua invited him out of the palace to enjoy the flowers. He knew that there were too many abnormalities in the past few days, in order to appease Bai Hua, it was impossible not to go.

And Mo Ren, as the personal bodyguard of the Palace Master, would definitely request that he should follow. The mess of rebirth couldn't be explained to Ah Ren for a while. He also didn't want this person to be angry with Bai Hua again. It's better to let him sleep peacefully all morning, and to save a lot of trouble.

Mo Ren's body was still weak, and now he fell asleep again, without the cold aura he had been holding on to, his brows and eyes appeared relaxed, and his face became paler and thinner, he even looked haggard when observed carefully.

Chu Yan looked at him in a daze for a moment, and when he regained his senses, he lowered his eyes and forced a smile, his heart ached terribly.

Only he knew the pile of bad debts in his previous life, and only he knew that what he owed this person would not be paid off in this life.

Then a frightening thought came to his mind: What if Ah Ren has the memory of his previous life, then presumably…...

No, he didn't even dare to think about it.

Even just thinking about it made the blood all over his body frozen cold.

But in this world of the mortals, Ah Ren was still willing to call him Master.

Chu Yan had already walked to the door. After hesitating for a moment, he turned back and wrapped the quilt tightly on Mo Ren.

He went out of the door of his sleeping chamber, and Qiu Quan was waiting outside holding a cloak. Chu Yan let the maid put the cloak on his shoulders, and instructed the other maidservants who were bowing at the door, "Bring a stove inside later.”

Qiu Quan's fingers trembled, and then continued to move as if nothing had happened. 

Chu Yan saw it but pretended not to know.