The Untouchable Prince | A Norenmin FanFiction

一百一十二

One Hundred Twelve
Updated: July 8, 2024

Stepping out of the Hall of Eternal Blessings was hard. Renjun had wanted to stay longer, to continue to finish his work and get the day's matters cleared as well as some unfinished from the past, but Yinxi had insisted that he leave.

Having been by Renjun's side during so many of these meetings, Yinxi had learned to read his emperor's body, knowing exactly when and how he reacted from each minuscule glance from a minister or from a sudden sound in the room. He caught onto every reaction Renjun had, and slowly, overtime, the eunuch came to realize when Renjun's body was at its limit and could promptly tell his emperor to leave for a break. But, Renjun, being that stubborn emperor that he was, refused until Yinxi would be borderline begging the emperor to leave for his health.

But, the insistent motions of his eunuch wasn't the part that was difficult when leaving the hall, rather it was someone else, two people at that. The two pairs of gazes that lingered on his body as he walked out of the hall.

No, it wasn't that they were looking at him.

It was who those eyes belonged to.

Leaving such important matters regarding Huang to the two foreigners gave Renjun a burning feeling at the bottom of his stomach. For so long, those two have helped him and worked endlessly in his court without a single complaint, despite their foreign origins, and he felt reluctant to leave them to continue such work, especially when it was supposed to be his job. But, then again, maybe it wasn't that because they were foreigners that he felt bad, maybe it was a different reason...

"Kun-ge."

The guard greeted him outside of the hall. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"How long was I in there for?"

"Two hours this time."

"Your Majesty." It was Yangyang who spoke. "That's already thirty minutes longer than yesterday's!"

Kun scolded Yangyang playfully, "if you're going to speak to him formally, at least do it correctly!"

Renjun frowned. "It's not long enough."

"Renjun..." Guanheng started when no other guards or servants were close enough to hear. "Thirty minutes is a big improvement in one day. It should be a good thing."

"I don't want them... to be there by themselves."

Dejun looked at him. "Who?"

Yangyang piped in, "the Crown Princes, right?"

As Renjun started walking back to his residence, his four personal guards walked a few paces behind Xiao Yue, maintaining a far enough distance.

"I feel guilty for giving them all that work," he said with a sigh.

"I think it's a good thing that they are working hard. They are still living on our land for free."

Kun scolded him again, this time seriously. "Are you trying to badmouth them? They are still our Imperial Guests!"

Yangyang pouted.

"..." Renjun didn't say anything else on the way back to his palace, letting the four guards continue to talk, even if it was slightly inappropriate for their low status as guards especially in the presence of an emperor.

"Oh, Renjun!" Kun added as they approached the Palace of Longlife Purity. "There is someone waiting for you at the palace."

"Who?" But, before there was a response, an answer came as Renjun stepped through the gates and into his residence.