Chapter: 150.2 out of 171
Zhao Jie's eyes met Wei Luo’s line of sight and he suddenly thought of how she had almost been sold by Du-shi when she was six years old. He stopped smiling and went over to her side to bring her into his arms. With his chin on her head, he said, “Ah Luo, do you know what decision I’m happiest about in this life?”
Wei Luo leaned against his chest and blinked her limpid eyes. “What?”
Zhao Jie said, “I’m happy that I didn’t let you off for biting me when you were six years old.”
Wei Luo recalled that scene and curved her lips.
Zhao Jie held her small hand and fiddled with her soft fingers. “At that time, I thought you were such a pretty, little girl. But, you were also too crafty and unruly and needed to be properly disciplined.” He paused, lowered his head, and bit Wei Luo’s cheek. “You bit me and then said that I didn’t taste good. You’re the first person that dared to do something like that.”
Wei Luo couldn’t resist smiling. She turned her around to look at him. “Then, how come you didn’t discipline me later on?”
Later, he had found out about her plight and felt that this little girl’s life wasn’t easy, so he had a moment of compassion. And after that, every time he saw her, she always made him feel very interested.
Both of Zhao Jie’s hands were around Wei Luo's waist as he smiled and said, “Aren’t I disciplining you every night?”
Wei Luo didn’t know why he went back to saying nonsense. She glared at him for a moment, pushed him away, and said, “I’m going to the prow of the boat to walk around.”
She was like a child that slipped away after finishing a meal.
The riverside was windy and the prow of the boat was slightly cold. Wei Luo wrapped her arms around herself. Then, she suddenly felt something on her shoulders. When she turned her head to look, she saw Zhao Jie standing behind her. He had taken off his black fur cloak to give to her. Instead of politely declining, she tightly wrapped the cloak around herself. Looking at the far away glimmering riverside, she suddenly saw something bright. She pointed in that direction and said, “Big brother, look. What’s that?”
She saw numerous sky lanterns gradually being released and floating up into the sky on the riverbank. It looked like a vast sky full of radiant stars. Wei Luo counted. There were at least a hundred and ten lanterns. Along with the sky lanterns, there were also countless river lanterns being released. Carried by the river current, various types of river lanterns floated by their boat. It seemed as if Huai An River had changed into a starry sky that stretched from far away to here. It felt as if a thousand stars were slowly being sent in front of Wei Luo.
(T/N: Below is a picture of the sky lanterns.) Ch 150 - sky lanterns.png
The nearby pleasure boats seemed to have disappeared and only their boat was left on the river. Wei Luo’s large eyes open wider and she looked around. A countless number of river lanterns surrounded their pleasure boat. There were lotus flower lanterns, turtle lanterns, Chinese unicorn lanterns, carp lanterns, and so on. Wei Luo’s eyes felt blurry from this dazzling sight. She crouched down to pick up a lotus flower and looked at it for a long time in a daze.
She heard Zhao Jie’s voice from above her head, “Ah Luo, do you like it?”
Wei Luo stood up and raised her head to look at him, “Did you do this?”
Zhao Jie nodded.
“Were these lanterns also made by you?” She lifted the lotus flower lantern in her hand.
Zhao Jie said, “Everything was made by me.”
Wei Luo, “So that’s why they’re not as good-looking as the ones being sold on the streets.
Zhao Jie just looked at her.
She suddenly rushed forward, stood on her tiptoes, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She rubbed against his chest and said, “But I really like them.”
Zhao Jie chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist. “It’s good as long as you like them. It was worth this prince secretly making these lanterns this month.”
Wei Luo just remembered that Zhao Jie had frequently been going to his study during the past period without asking her to go with him to keep him company. Although she was curious, she was happy to spend her time freely so she didn’t think too much about it. Unexpectedly, he had been in the study making river lanterns. She raised her small face and asked, “How come I didn’t know that you knew how to make river lanterns?”
Zhao Jie said, “I naturally learned how to make them for the princess consort.”
Wei Luo’s smile was splendid. Leaning against him, she firmly kissed him. “I want to bring these lanterns back home and store them in a separate room so that I can look at them every day when I think about them.”
Zhao Jie smiled, “Okay, I’ll have Zhu Geng and Yang Hao scoop them out of the water later.”
The people on Huai An’s riverbank looked at the lanterns in the river and only knew that someone had reserved this entire river. But they didn’t the identity of the person until someone shouted, “It’s Prince Jing’s boat!”
As it turns out, Prince Jing had prepared this to make Princess Consort Jing happy.
There wasn’t any lack of girls on the riverbank looking at this scene. They were so envious that their eyes turned red. At this moment, they were all thinking, so what if Prince Jing was a brutal person that wreaked havoc as long as he treated the girl that he loved well? Besides, when a rigid piece of iron softened around a single person, wasn’t that even more admirable? Unfortunately, they couldn’t be this fortunate. Prince Jing’s entire heart belonged to Princess Consort Jing.
When the pleasure boat was about to reach the riverbank, Wei Luo was holding the carved railings on the prow of the boat and leaning back against Zhao Jie’s chest. As they were talking, a black figure appeared in the water, jumped onto the boat, and a sword stabbed towards them!
While Wei Luo was feeling startled, Zhao Jie had quickly moved her closer into his arms, turned around, grabbed the other person’s wrist, and kicked the person back into the river.
Zhu Geng and Yang Hao appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of Zhao Jie and Wei Luo, “Your Highness, please go into the boat’s cabinet with the princess consort.”
Assassins emerged from the water one after another as if they had long prepared for this moment. Their skills were all out of the ordinary. Fortunately, Zhu Geng and Yang Hao weren’t passive guards. In addition, Zhao Jie’s other guards had also rushed over here. They were able to easily defeat the opposing group.
Zhao Jie and Wei Luo entered the cabinet, but unexpectedly there was a black-robed figure hidden in the room. He had probably come into this room in advance. Hearing the sounds from outside, he knew that the other assassins had been defeated. Since the situation had already worsen to this point, he wanted to kidnap Wei Luo as a hostage. However, just as he stretched his hand out, Zhao Jie broke his arm. The black-robed man yelled out in pain. As he was about to swallow the poison in his mouth, Zhao Jie grabbed his chin, forced him to spit out the poison, and forcefully threw him onto the floor. The black-robed man tried to escape, but Zhao Jie picked up the sword on the ground and threw it towards his back. The sword pierced through his shoulder and nailed his body to the ground.
The black-robed man trembled in pain on the ground.
Outside, it seemed as if only a moment had passed before calmness returned.
The people on the riverbank couldn’t clearly see what was happening on the boat. They only saw several black figures that swayed for a moment before they stopped moving. Prince Jing’s pleasure boat stably stopped at the riverbank by a willow tree.
The lighting was dim in this spot and there weren’t many people on this part of the shore.
Zhao Jie said to Zhu Geng, “Bring the prisoner back to interrogate.”
Zhu Geng acknowledged the order and brought the struggling black-robed figure with him as he withdrew.
Zhao Jie turned his head to look at Wei Luo. The young girl was standing in the same place as before. The top of her shoes had been splashed with blood. She raised her head and she looked at him with her tearful eyes.