Dingbei Hou's doctor brother

Chapter 174 Revealing feelings

When Chen Jing heard this greeting, a hint of sadness flashed in his eyes, "Happy New Year."

"Your Highness, please enjoy the fun." Lu Ziqing said politely, then asked, "Your Highness is not in the palace on New Year's Eve. Why are you here?"

"There's a family dinner tonight, so I left early." Chen Jing looked at Lu Ziqing with tender eyes, "I wanted to come and keep you company."

Lu Ziqing awkwardly turned his gaze away and looked at the people playing and fighting in the yard. Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see Chen Jing staring at him intently.

He felt a little uncomfortable and changed the subject with a light cough.

"I have been away for the past two days. Is the emperor okay?"

Chen Jing said, "My father's old illness has obviously worsened this time. He just said a simple greeting and left the family dinner that evening, leaving my mother to preside over the dinner alone."

"Your Majesty, you've become ill from worrying about your country and your people. You're truly a wise ruler," Lu Ziqing sighed.

Chen Jing was silent for a moment, then asked tentatively, "Tomorrow, on the first day of the lunar month, all nations will come to pay homage. My father is not feeling well and cannot personally handle the matter, so he has handed the matter over to me. Could you... stay with me?"

Lu Ziqing was stunned at first, then said, "I will be on duty. Your Highness is wise and talented, and will definitely be able to preside over this court meeting properly."

Chen Jing smiled relievedly. The people in the yard had stopped fighting. Chen Ji ran over with a smile and called Chen Jing.

"Brother, when did you come?"

Chen Jing was surprised for a moment, "Wow, you're really new, finally calling me brother?"

In the past, Chen Ji never addressed his brothers by name, or simply called them "Hey" instead. But his brothers knew his situation and didn't mind.

Chen Ji smiled at Lu Ziqing, then turned to Chen Jing, "Without learning etiquette, one cannot stand. Brother Shenxian said that we should know etiquette and respect our elders. I was ignorant of etiquette before, so please don't blame me, Brother Crown Prince."

Chen Jing was relieved. "When I came here just now, I saw that you had learned some martial arts skills. I never thought that you would change so much in just over a month."

He looked at Lu Ziqing again and said, "Master taught me well."

Lu Ziqing said, "Prince Su has a cheerful nature, is diligent and eager to learn, and will understand with a little guidance."

Chen Ji chuckled, "I like it when Brother Shenxian teaches me. Let's go have a snowball fight."

Just as Lu Ziqing was about to refuse, Chen Ji grabbed his wrist and led him into the snow, where he was met by Su Chengyi and Wu Ji.

The two of them were instantly startled. Chen Ji looked at Su Chengyi and Wu Ji and laughed, and he said while holding the snow.

"Brother Shenxian, let's go and take care of them."

The fireworks were brilliant and the snow was falling all over the sky. Lu Ziqing was wearing a simple white robe that fluttered in the snow, as if he had become one with the snow.

The snowflakes fell on his shoulders and hair, making him look even more fresh and refined, with an ethereal and lively look. His every frown and smile was breathtaking.

Even the dark night cannot hide that dazzling light.

Chen Jing stood in the corridor and watched quietly, unknowingly falling into that dazzling tenderness.

The group of people played wildly for most of the day, and when Chen Ji and the others took a break, it was just midnight.

Lu Ziqing walked to the corridor and shook off the snow. He asked Chen Jing, "It's late at night and it's freezing cold. Your Highness, please go back and get some rest."

"It's important to stay up all night during the Chinese New Year, and I want to accompany you," said Chen Jing.

Lu Ziqing couldn't refuse either. The cold wind blew and made him shiver involuntarily.

"It's cold outside, let's go back to the house." Chen Jing spoke at the right time.

In the room, Lu Ziqing felt much warmer. Although it was not the first time that Chen Jing entered Xiao Yan's room, he couldn't help but ask this time.

"Have you always lived here?"

"No." Lu Ziqing went to sit down beside the chessboard. "Prince Su is here. It just so happens that the Marquis is not at home. He knows I am afraid of the cold, so he is staying here temporarily."

Chen Jing understood the significance of these words. He went over and sat down, then took a chess piece and placed it on the chessboard.

"He knows you very well. I feel like you've known each other for years."

Lu Ziqing dropped the white piece and said, "Up to now, I have only known the Marquis for ten months, which is not long. It's just that I live in the Marquis's mansion for a long time, so I am a little more familiar with him than others."

Chen Jing pondered the chessboard and suddenly said, "I think he is luckier than me."

Lu Ziqing didn't hear clearly for a moment, and looked at him, "What?"

"He knew you before me, and he's still with you every day." After making his move, Chen Jing met that gaze directly, smiling earnestly. "I said I envy him. Do you believe me?"

Lu Ziqing was not used to it and was afraid that Chen Jing would talk about this kind of topic. His brain suddenly became speechless as if it had short-circuited, and he didn't know how to answer.

In the past, when there was fighting and killing, it never seemed so complicated.

The room fell into a brief silence for a moment. Lu Ziqing stared at the chessboard while holding the chess piece, his heart seemed to be in a tangled mess that he couldn't untie.

At this moment, he just wanted time to pass faster and faster so that he could break away from the awkward atmosphere and take a breath.

The two of them just stared at the chessboard in silence. Even the air around them seemed heavy, making people feel suffocated.

a long time……

Lu Ziqing couldn't help but speak first, "Your Highness...is there some misunderstanding? I don't know how to understand what you mean."

After he said that, he tilted his head and sneezed, then took out a handkerchief to cover his cold nose and rubbed it.

Chen Jing looked at it and knew at once that it was not Lu Ziqing's handkerchief. It seemed as if it had been pricked by something for unknown reason.

His throat churned, and after a moment's thought, he whispered, "I envy him, even jealous of him. You're smart enough to understand what I mean."

Lu Ziqing slowly put down the hand holding the handkerchief, his fingertips clenched tightly.

"Your Highness came here drunk at the family dinner."

"Yes." Chen Jing looked at his half-closed eyes and answered directly.

"I am drunk. From the day I saw you, I may have been slightly unconscious, but I didn't know it myself. In the past few months of being with you, I have gradually seen myself more clearly. You said I was drunk, so I am drunk, but I don't want to wake up from this drunken state of thinking about you day and night."

Lu Ziqing did not answer immediately. He calmed down for a moment and said, "I am just a man. I am afraid that your Highness's feelings are misplaced."

Chen Jing's eyebrows twisted slightly, and there was a hint of loss in his eyes, as if he already knew the outcome.

He pursed his lips slightly, trying to calm himself down. After a while, his voice became a little hoarse.

"I don't care whether you are a man or a woman, I only care about you, Lu Ziqing."

Lu Ziqing took a deep breath and sighed, responding to him in a low voice.

"Your Highness knows that this is impossible. If I am needed in official business, I will fight to the death. Your Highness and I are from two different worlds. I do not belong here. From now on..."

He paused, then continued, "I am grateful for Your Highness's recognition of my humble duties. Beyond that, I cannot reciprocate Your Highness's affection. This kind of thing...it doesn't belong to me."

Chen Jing felt suffocated and uncomfortable listening to every word, as if he was almost suffocated by a thousand-pound stone.

He tried his best to suppress the bitterness and pain in his heart, took a deep breath, and then exhaled secretly, but the more he tried to restrain himself, the more anxious he became.

Chen Jing once didn't know what charm Lu Ziqing had. There was always an invisible force pulling him there, and gradually a seed was born.

Perhaps it was the accumulation of time that caused the budding seed hidden in a corner of his heart to quietly sprout and take root, entangling him so tightly that he couldn't extricate himself.

Lu Ziqing is so close yet so distant, like a gust of wind that comes and goes freely.

Chen Jing felt that his status and position seemed supreme, but he just had a sense of difference that Lu Ziqing was different from anyone else in the court.

That cannot be easily bound or retained. No matter how high the official position and generous salary are, he seems to be disdainful of it, like clouds and smoke, or like a hermit standing in the clouds overlooking the world.