After Disguising As A Woman To Marry The Foolish Prince, I Became Pregnant - Chapter 5

Du Pingniang was stunned; it was her first time hearing He Tianyun say such a thing.

Zhu Man explained what had just happened with some embarrassment.

Du Pingniang understood and smiled, saying, “What the Prince said is likely exactly what it sounds like, literally.”

It would have been better if she hadn’t explained; her words only made Zhu Man more embarrassed. After all, He Tianyun didn’t understand and his words only made him seem silly and speechless, but Du Pingniang was different—she understood perfectly.

“Oh, oh,” Zhu Man mumbled in response. “Then… should I stay?”

“Stay,” Du Pingniang said. “The Prince likes the Princess Consort so much; why doesn’t the Princess Consort accompany him a bit longer?”

Zhu Man had no choice but to sit back down. Since he didn’t have to go to the palace anyway, he had plenty of time to accompany He Tianyun.

However, He Tianyun was not satisfied with just this. He pulled Zhu Man’s arm and led him toward the bed, insisting they sleep together.

It was early morning, and Zhu Man had no desire to sleep at all, but he couldn’t win against He Tianyun. He had no choice but to lie down, staring blankly at the bed canopy while thinking about his sister and his future.

He Tianyun wasn’t peaceful even while lying down. He tossed and turned a dozen times in half a quarter of an hour, acting as if his body were covered in thorns. He made it impossible for Zhu Man to continue his thoughts, forcing Zhu Man to sit up and press him down. “Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?”

“Don’t want to sleep,” He Tianyun said, hugging his pillow with a look of reluctance.

Zhu Man was almost moved to laughter by his frustration. “Then why did you drag me here?”

He Tianyun said, “Princess Consort must sleep together.” As he spoke, he grabbed Zhu Man’s hand and pressed him back onto the bed, only satisfied once he confirmed Zhu Man was lying down again.

He stubbornly followed his own logic, turning the whole affair into something quite silly.

But Zhu Man wasn’t angry, because lying like this allowed him to see He Tianyun’s handsome face from a close distance.

He reached out to poke He Tianyun’s good-looking face and smiled. “Then do you know what else a wife can do?”

He Tianyun stared at him with wide, curious eyes. Seeing this, the playfulness Zhu Man had intended faded away. He cleared his throat and said, “A wife can also talk to you and play with you.”

He Tianyun’s eyes instantly lit up. He sat up from the bed and started rummaging through the small drawer at the head of the bed.

Seeing this, Zhu Man wanted to sit up as well, but as soon as He Tianyun noticed the movement, he reached out and pressed him back down. He then continued to rummage through the drawer, eventually pulling out a set of golden Nine Linked Rings and stuffing them into Zhu Man’s hands.

Zhu Man blinked, looking at him in confusion. “You want me to help you solve it?”

But He Tianyun didn’t answer. Instead, he continued to dig through the drawer, pulling out more miscellaneous trinkets: a jade whistle, a rattling ball, a pellet drum, a tumbler toy, and a broken slingshot.

Zhu Man realized belatedly that He Tianyun was sharing his toys and wanted to play with him. He suddenly smiled.

“You’re actually quite cute,” Zhu Man whispered to himself, looking down at the rings in his hand. “If we had met in the past, maybe we really could have played together.”

He Tianyun’s gaze was also fixed on the rings, unmoving.

Zhu Man had played with these before and solved them quickly. He placed the rings back into He Tianyun’s hands and smiled. “Do you like these?”

He Tianyun nodded, then lowered his head to fiddle with the rings, making a clinking sound.

Seeing that his attention had shifted, Zhu Man propped himself up to leave, but He Tianyun was quick and pressed him back down again.

Zhu Man had no choice but to lie back down obediently. He turned on his side, resting his chin on his hand as he watched He Tianyun play with the pile of toys.

He watched for the entire morning.

Finally, Nanny Du arrived with lunch to rescue him. After eating, He Tianyun needed an afternoon nap, which finally gave Zhu Man the chance to escape.

The backyard of the Prince Zhao Manor was divided into East and West Courts. The East Court was where He Tianyun lived, while the female family members lived in the West Court, separated by a garden and various buildings.

Hua Jian saw Zhu Man heading toward the West Court and assumed he was returning to his own courtyard. She followed behind and asked, “Miss, do you know the way?”

Zhu Man nodded, walking slowly toward the garden. He didn’t encounter many people along the way. For such a large manor, it was as quiet as a ghost house.

Once in the garden, Zhu Man went straight to a specific tree. It was the right height with thick branches, looking very easy to climb.

Hua Jian knew exactly what he was thinking and hesitated. “Will this method work?”

After all, the walls of the Zhu Estate were hard to scale, let alone the Prince’s manor.

“The security here is much looser than at the Zhu Estate,” Zhu Man whispered. “Didn’t you see just now? Aside from a few guards at their posts, there aren’t even any patrols.”

Hua Jian said, “But the Zhu Estate doesn’t have patrols during the day either, only at night.”

“But the Zhu Estate has many people during the day,” Zhu Man said. “Aside from my courtyard, where can you go without running into someone?”

Hua Jian thought about it and realized it was true.

Even if it wasn’t a case of seeing someone every few steps, there was at least movement. If you stood in one place for a while, you’d encounter several people. But this manor had so few people that, once you left the East Court, it felt like an empty house.

Zhu Man said, “The Zhu Estate is smaller than the Prince’s manor, but it has many more people, so it’s naturally more crowded. If I could sneak out of there, I can certainly sneak out of this drafty manor.”

Hua Jian nodded. “Then tomorrow we will tell the Young Miss and have Jingxin come to meet us.”

However, Zhu Man shook his head. “We’ll go check the West Court in a bit. If there aren’t many guards, we’ll leave tonight.”

Hua Jian became even more hesitant. “Tomorrow is the return visit to your parents’ home. People from the estate will definitely come looking for you. If they can’t find you, won’t we be exposed?”

“I’ll leave a letter saying I went back on my own and didn’t want anyone to accompany me. If they don’t look for me, fine. If they do, they’ll go to the Zhu Estate,” Zhu Man said. “By the time they figure things out, we’ll have already left the capital.”

Hua Jian was still hesitant.

Zhu Man explained helplessly, “My father submitted the name list himself. Now that the person has run away, the Noble Consort will definitely look for him. What can he do? Can he say that Manman didn’t want to marry a fool and that it’s the Noble Consort’s bad luck that she ran? He can only insist that the person was lost at the Prince’s manor, pushing the blame onto the Noble Consort. The Noble Consort can’t exactly send people to search the Zhu Estate.”

“But Master won’t be able to do anything to the Noble Consort either; it will still be discovered eventually,” Hua Jian said. “I see that the people in this manor don’t care about much. Why don’t we wait until after the return visit? No one will be watching then, and we can run away secretly.”

“How secretly? Do I not need to eat? No matter how unimportant this Princess Consort is, they won’t let me starve. When the person delivering food arrives, we’ll be exposed,” Zhu Man said helplessly. “Since we’ll be exposed no matter when we run, the most important thing is to stall for time. As long as we leave the capital, we’ve succeeded halfway.”

Hua Jian still felt the method wasn’t great, but she couldn’t think of a better one, so she gave a reluctant “Oh.”

Zhu Man understood her worries, but what he could do was limited. If they failed, this plan could at least be explained away.

Most importantly, he was quite experienced at this.

Having confirmed the location, Zhu Man took Hua Jian to the West Court.

As he expected, there were indeed no guards at the West Court. Even the courtyard where he lived seemed to have been cleaned up only recently.

Back in the room, Zhu Man carefully checked the doors and windows. After confirming no one was watching, he closed the door, sat on the bed, and stopped pinching his voice. He complained, “I’m exhausted.”

Hua Jian poured him some water to soothe his throat and said, “You should rest for a bit.”

Zhu Man took the water, drank it, and nodded. “You go rest too, or you won’t have the energy tonight.”

Hua Jian was still a bit reluctant, but hearing Zhu Man say this, she agreed and left.

Zhu Man was truly tired. Yesterday had been a long ordeal, and he had woken up early today thinking he had to go to the palace. With things to do tonight, he had to catch up on sleep, so he pulled over the quilt and fell asleep.

Not long after he fell asleep, He Tianyun came strolling over, followed by a helpless Du Pingniang.

He Tianyun had woken up shortly after lying down earlier, looking very unhappy. He wouldn’t say a word when asked what was wrong; he just grabbed his pillow and walked out.

Du Pingniang had no choice but to follow, trying to persuade him to go back.

But He Tianyun didn’t listen. He just held his pillow and wandered around the manor like a headless fly.

At first, Du Pingniang didn’t understand what he was doing. After following him back and forth a few times and seeing him peering around as if searching for something, she thought of the morning’s events. She tentatively asked, “Is the Prince looking for the Princess Consort?”

He Tianyun lowered his eyes and replied slowly, “Imperial Mother said… we must sleep together.”

Du Pingniang laughed upon hearing this. “The Prince should probably stop saying such things in the future.”

He Tianyun looked at her in confusion. “Why?”

Du Pingniang explained, “The Princess Consort is thin-skinned; saying it too much will make her embarrassed.”

He Tianyun pouted reluctantly but didn’t speak.

“Alright, alright, the Prince can say whatever he likes,” Du Pingniang said helplessly. “Shall I take the Prince to find the Princess Consort?”

He Tianyun finally nodded, clutching his pillow as he walked beside her toward the West Court.

He Tianyun had no concubines, so the West Court had been vacant. The Lilan Courtyard where the Princess Consort lived had only been prepared recently; it lacked flowers and plants, looking somewhat plain.

He Tianyun did not like such plainness. After entering the courtyard gate, he didn’t even look to the side and ran inside excitedly.

Du Pingniang quickly pulled him back, whispering gently, “Prince, the Princess Consort should be resting. Let’s not disturb her.”

As she spoke, she made a shushing gesture. He Tianyun understood immediately, nodded with a grin, and continued inside with his pillow.

He made quite a bit of noise, which Hua Jian heard. she quickly ran out and bowed.

Du Pingniang asked softly, “Is the Princess Consort resting?”

Hua Jian nodded and replied, “Miss woke up early today, she should be… Prince! Prince!”

Before she could finish, she saw He Tianyun pushing the door open to go inside. She rushed to stop him, but He Tianyun was faster; by the time she reached him, he was already at the bedside.

He peeked at Zhu Man, saw him sleeping, placed his pillow on the bed, and lay down beside him.

Seeing this, Du Pingniang pulled Hua Jian outside and smiled. “It’s fine. The Prince just wants to sleep in a different place.”

But Hua Jian was still worried. She stood at the door, peering inside. After watching for a long time and seeing that the Prince really wasn’t making any other moves, she reached out to pull the door shut and sat on a stool to keep watch.

He Tianyun only opened his eyes when he heard the sound of the door closing. He happened to see Zhu Man frowning, as if having a nightmare. He reached out and very lightly pressed his finger against the space between Zhu Man’s brows—so lightly that Zhu Man didn’t notice at all.

He Tianyun then used the back of his fingers to stroke Zhu Man’s face.

He still had the bandages Xu Yian had applied on his hand. The rough texture brushed against the face, and perhaps it tickled, because Zhu Man finally had a reaction. However, he only raised a hand to wipe his face, as if brushing away a bothersome mosquito, muttered a few words, and continued sleeping.

He Tianyun suddenly smiled and said in a very soft voice, “Want to run?”

After speaking, he poked Zhu Man’s cheek again until Zhu Man, unable to bear the disturbance, rolled over. Only then did He Tianyun lie back down obediently to sleep.

Zhu Man had intended to take just a short nap and then walk around the manor, but he ended up sleeping until evening. When he woke up, the sky was starting to darken.

Zhu Man stared at the bed canopy in a daze for a few seconds, wondering why Hua Jian hadn’t woken him. When he turned his head, he was met with a large, grinning face. He was so startled his heart nearly stopped.

“He Tianyun?” Zhu Man looked at the person in front of him in a daze. “When did you get here?”