Chapter 159
159 No longer his enemy?
Zhai Tianyu felt a pinprick of dread as if he had lost something important, he turned to look at the window that was open on his left and then looked at Ji Yu who was pouring a generous amount of soup into his bowl. Maybe she noticed his gaze because she raised her head and smiled at him with a delicate curl of her lips. ” Is something the matter, your majesty?”
“No, it’s nothing,” Zhai Tianyu was in a hurry to finish eating, he knew that Liu Hui Ying was not a patient woman. If he was to delay then she was going to charge in the case on her own, he was worried that the woman would end up getting in trouble which was why he was in a hurry waiting for Ji Yu to finish with the breakfast but she was taking her own sweet time.
” Your majesty, are you upset with me?” Seeing that Zhai Tianyu was not even looking at her and kept looking out of the window, Ji Yu bit her lips as she tilted her head to the side and then looked at the man who was no longer as attentive towards her as he used to be, what changed?
” Of course not,” Zhai Tianyu snapped out of his daze as he turned his head to look at Ji Yu who was looking at him with a concerned expression on her face. He knew that his actions were hurting Ji Yu, after all, the two of them have been good friends ever since they were young but now that because of the circumstances, he could not pay as much attention as he used to pay her before.
” Then why are you in a hurry?” Ji Yu asked, it was not that she couldn’t see that Zhai Tianyu was in a hurry but she was trying to not be impertinent which was why she did not question him but now that she was seeing that the man wasn’t even paying attention to her, Ji Yu could not help but ask the question that was bubbling inside her. ” Is it because of the Queen?”
Zhai Tianyu frowned, he was indeed in a hurry to see the queen but it was not in the manner Ji Yu was thinking and since when did Ji Yu become insecure of the Queen? It wasn’t that he has shown any kind of affection to the Queen nor had he spent any alone time with the Queen, even now Zhai Heng and Yu Lingyun were with him.
He forgot that when Zhai Heng and Yu Lingyun came, he was annoyed by their presence.
” You are thinking too much Concubine Ji,” Zhai Tianyu calmly responded as he picked up the bowl that Ji Yu has placed in front of him and took a sip. ” The Queen and I have nothing to do with each other and even if I am meeting with her,” he paused as he carefully thought about what he was going to say and after clearing it up in his head, he added, ” It will be because of something important, to me the Queen is like an acquaintance and nothing more.”
” Acquaintance?” Ji Yu mused her lips curling in a mocking smile as she looked at Zhai Tianyu, she was willing to trust him but he wasn’t being honest with her even now. The Queen has been meeting Zhai Tianyu for just a few months and yet she already became his ‘acquaintance’ from the enemy, what about the next month? She will become his lover? Then his bedmate and then the mother of his child in the next?
.....
On what basis?
” I thought that she was your enemy,” Ji Yu remarked while looking at Zhai Tianyu with a sharp glint in her eyes. ” How come you have forgotten that she is the daughter of your enemies, your majesty?”
Zhai Tianyu was no fool, he knew that Ji Yu was mocking him. He placed the bowl in his hands on the table in front of him and then said, ” Concubine Ji, you are crossing the line.” His voice went slightly cold as he looked at Ji Yu with a warning glint in his eyes.
Liu Hui Ying was helping him in finding the culprit who has killed his aunt, if she wanted that woman could have kept this matter to herself and left his aunt to rot in this world if she considered him as her enemy but she did not do that, instead, she told him and now she was even helping him to find the culprit who was behind the killing of his aunt.
He was a man who respected those who helped him and now that Liu Hui Ying was standing by his side, he will not find trouble with her unless she touches his bottom line. And as a man who was grateful to Liu Hui Ying, he will not allow anyone to say anything offensive towards Liu Hui Ying.
But Ji Yu who was already feeling insecure because of his closeness with the queen took it the wrong way when she thought that the Emperor was protecting Liu Hui Ying.
” So this is how it is,” she muttered in a soft voice. ” The Queen seemed to have taken a spot in your heart.”
” Concubine Ji!” Zhai Tianyu smacked his palm on the table in front of him, his anger getting the better of him. ” You are forgetting that even if you are my Concubine, there are some things that you cannot ask Zhen!”
” Is that so? I thought that we were partners, thank you for showing me my place!” Concubine Ji shouted back, her eyes turning red as she looked at the man who was looking like a stranger to her.
” That will be enough,” Zhai Tianyu pushed himself off the chair and then closed his eyes as he tried to calm himself down but even then he couldn’t feel but angered at Ji Yu’s question. He did not understand why he was feeling angry but subconsciously he knew that the reason he was this upset was that Ji Yu’s question seemed to have prickled him in the heart, not wanting to see her heartbroken expression, he turned around and walked out of the room.