Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

71. The Jealous Prince

Translator: Flying Lines

Su Jie’s mood lifted quite a bit compared to before after having such a long conversation about Da Hua. He was good at hiding his emotions. Even if his heart felt unrest due to the bamboo strip’s content, he could fake a calm expression like he always did. But because the strip involved himself, he was unwilling to infect Zhou Zaiyue with his unhappiness.

Since Su Jie was still on the ground, Da Hua approached him with his head affectionately.

“There’s a moment when I think he’s fallen in love with me.” Su Jie let out a laugh as he made a harmless joke. He discovered that this tiger really liked him stroking and touching him and so, Su Jie reached out his hand to stroke Da Hua’s fur.

Zhou Zaiyue smiled and watched the affectionate display between Su Jie and Da Hua. He didn’t have Su Jie get up from the ground the moment he fell because he knew that, once Su Jie returned to State Yanling, he was afraid that there wouldn’t be such a pure and untroubled moment again.

These days, Zhou Zaiyue had spent his time repairing and adding to ‘History of Yanling’. He would also record down Su Jie’s deeds and write them into the book and today’s scene of Da Hua and Su Jie interacting would also be recorded. The entry would add a vivid and mysterious aura to His Highness, the crown prince, who had yet to return to State Yanling.

“Da Hua is so considerate, we should find him a tigress sometime in the future so they can have some clever cubs together.” Su Jie smiled as he rested his hand on Da Hua’s body, tilting his head upwards to face Zhou Zaiyue as he spoke.

“Yes. Let’s find him a tigress in the future and have her give birth to his cubs.” Zhou Zaiyue nodded, already thinking about what kind of language he should use to describe the scene he was witnessing.

Seeing as Su Jie had no intention of getting up anytime soon, Da Hua simply lied down, half his body resting on Su Jie’s legs and the other half on the ground.

Su Jie was a bit speechless. It was a shame that his clean, white robes were now thoroughly dirtied.

“I will leave tomorrow.” Zhou Zaiyue picked up the fragments of the bamboo strip that were lying on the ground and put them within a package, which he placed back inside his room. As he took a step out of his room after that, he realized that Xiao Shengnian had returned.

Xiao Shengnian stood soundlessly at the courtyard’s entrance, directing a chilly gaze at Da Hua. Even though Su Jie did not hear the footsteps, he did feel that there was something wrong with the atmosphere.

When he looked back… he saw a pair of black boots.

The owner of the boots wore a long gown as white as the crescent moon and a jade crown adorning his hair. His handsome appearance resembled a piece of art that a sculptor had carved out carefully by hand. There was a look of gentle elegance on his features. He really was a modest young master, and his aura was like that of jade.

If this gentle, handsome man’s gaze was not so chilly, then he could probably appear more charming.

Su Jie’s eyelids couldn’t stop twitching. Was Prince Rui angry?

That was not surprising. His posture was certainly improper and damaged his reputation. Prince Rui probably couldn’t bear to see people of his residence like this.

Su Jie looked embarrassed. He smiled at Xiao Shengnian and greeted awkwardly, “Your Highness…”

“Wen, Nian, Xuan!” Xiao Shengnian’s voice was calm and the smile upon his lips was cold. His eyes narrowed in a smile of their own and he said, “Can’t you stand up? Can you not always be so close to the beast? Hm?”

Da Hua turned his head and eyed Xiao Shengnian. He had no intention of getting up.

Su Jie reached out a hand to push Da Hua off him and Da Hua moved away very unwillingly, allowing Su Jie to stand up.

But his white robes were dirty.

Xiao Shengnian yanked at Su Jie so that he stood beside him as he stared unfriendlily at Da Hua. Then, he raised his head and said to Zhou Zaiyue, “Teacher, can’t this beast be put inside a cage? I don’t want it out in the House of Auspice.”

This sentence sounded like a question but any passer-by could sense his determination to put Da Hua in a cage.

Zhou Zaiyue couldn’t hold his laughter in and let out a chuckle.

So… he became jealous because of a tiger?

It turned out that, even a dignified prince could be serious with a tiger.

“There’s nothing I can do about Da Hua liking Nianxuan so much. He doesn’t even listen to his owner’s orders anymore…” Zhou Zaiyue shook his head as he returned to his room. He was not going to interfere in the affairs between these young people.

Xiao Shengnian turned his head and settled his intense gaze on Su Jie.

“I won’t sit on the floor anymore.” Su Jie immediately promised. Perhaps it was because he had been a man of sacrifice for too long that his romance awareness was a little… underdeveloped. But after he finished his sentence and saw Prince Rui’s grumpy face, Su Jie suddenly became enlightened. “Your Highness, Da Hua is only a tiger, there’s no need to…” No need to be jealous of a tiger…

However, Su Jie had obviously underestimated a prince’s possessiveness. Xiao Shengnian was not willing to admit that he was unhappy because Su Jie was intimate with the tiger. The tone he spoke with was cool, not unlike a stone soaked in water.

He said mildly, “I simply don’t want you to play around the beast and then sleep beside me in the same bed. I don’t like it at all.”

“I can sleep on the floor.” Su Jie raised an eyebrow. He could clearly sense the uncomfortable tone in Xiao Shengnian’s speech and couldn’t help but find it amusing. Prince Rui’s possessiveness was so overbearing that he wanted to pretend he was not aware of such a thing, wanting to see how Xiao Shengnian would respond.

Hearing this, Xiao Shengnian’s gaze turned frigid. With slanting eyebrows and a faint smile, “Little slave, I don’t like you being close to the tiger. If you really do decide to sleep on the floor because of this, I will have the tiger chopped up into pieces and fed to the dogs.”

“…”

‘Your Highness, if you treat Da Hua like that, wouldn’t Elder Zhou go ballistic if he knows?’