Chapter 12

"Don't like it?"

Rong Jiu said gently.

However, no matter how gentle Rong Jiu was, he couldn't suppress the chilling coldness. Jingzhe was already familiar with it, holding this expensive ink jade, troubled.

"This thing is too precious."

Jingzhe used to live on his monthly salary, accumulating little by little, and he did have some savings.

But these savings, compared to the ink jade, were truly a drop in the ocean.

He had just received a green thumb ring, and then he got an ink jade.

Was he having good financial luck recently?

If he was really lucky, wouldn't it be better to let him finish his task early?

"It's okay," Rong Jiu was very understanding, "If you don't like it, I'll give you something else."

Jingzhe was touched, but after being touched, he couldn't help but politely refuse.

"You don't need to give me anything else. The previous matters are over. This ink jade is so precious, you should keep it for yourself."

"Previous matters?" Rong Jiu's cold face looked bewildered for a moment before he realized what Jingzhe was talking about. "Aren't we friends?"

When Rong Jiu spoke to Jingzhe with that beautiful face, it was hard for Jingzhe not to nod.

They were indeed... friends, right?

"Since we are friends, it's normal to exchange gifts," Rong Jiu said calmly. "Do you like eyeballs?"

He persistently recommended eyeballs.

Jingzhe was also bewildered. Eyeballs... didn't he have his own? Was Rong Jiu talking about ink jade that looked like eyeballs?

He quickly shook his head. One large one was already a headache, and a few small ones would be even more of a headache.

But if he didn't want eyeballs, he had to accept the ink jade.

Rong Jiu, what a person who forces a sale.

Jingzhe didn't want to hold the ink jade and talk outside. He looked at the lonely corridor outside the small door and said to Rong Jiu, "There's no one in the North Room now. Why don't you come in and sit?"

As for Rong Jiu's duties...

In Jingzhe's opinion, Rong Jiu's identity was probably not simple.

As a guard, he could decide to let an eunuch rest in the guard's room, and when he was on duty, he was somewhat careless, implementing not loving his job and not being dedicated. He must have a good background.

With a family background as a backing, he could live so freely.

Rong Jiu nodded indifferently and followed Jingzhe into the North Room. This was his first time in this place, which was not called the Cold Palace, but was better than the Cold Palace.

There was no Cold Palace in the imperial palace.

But the North Room was a veritable Cold Palace.

Those who lived here were all concubines of the late emperor, all old. The most energetic one was Concubine Yao, who had just died not long ago. The others were all very honest and stayed behind closed doors.

Jingzhe couldn't take Rong Jiu to his living quarters, after all, their living quarters were not good, and everything was exposed.

However, in the outermost row of houses, there were stone tables and chairs. Jingzhe invited Rong Jiu to sit there and poured him hot water.

Rong Jiu sat on the stone stool, not looking at the cup of water, but staring at Jingzhe going in and out.

Jingzhe busied himself for a while, locked up the ink jade, but then took out another item.

It was the green thumb ring.

When he was a child, his family had enough to eat and drink, but they were not rich.

He couldn't understand jade or jewelry like this.

Jingzhe took out the green thumb ring, hoping Rong Jiu could see something.

The translucent green thumb ring hung on Rong Jiu's cold white finger. After just a few glances, Rong Jiu said indifferently, "Fake."

Jingzhe blinked, "How can you tell?"

He humbly asked for advice.

Rong Jiu pointed out to him: "Jade is a natural object. No matter how pure and translucent it is, there are always various natural textures. This object is too transparent, which is wrong."

Of course, it wasn't impossible.

But those were either royal tributes or in the hands of the powerful. Ordinary people could not possess them.

Then, he turned it over and let Jingzhe look at the inner side. "Thumb rings are often used for archery, so their shape is different from ordinary rings, with grooves at the bottom. But this thumb ring doesn't have them. Instead, there are tiny protrusions on the inner ring..."

He rubbed it and raised an eyebrow.

"This might be a key."

Rong Jiu handed the thumb ring to Jingzhe, pointing at the inner side with his finger.

Jingzhe had already noticed those teeth marks and had tried wearing it, but because the teeth marks were small, the tactile sensation on his thumb was not obvious and did not affect wearing it, so he almost thought it was a flaw.

If the teeth marks were considered the bumps and grooves on a key, this was indeed a possibility.

But if the key was here... then, where was the lock?

"Jingzhe, you've always been in the North Room. Don't you want to go to other places?" Rong Jiu asked casually. He knew that Qiu Yi from Chenghuan Palace had invited him before, but Jingzhe fled in a hurry after hearing it.

As if it were a flood or a beast.

Unprovoked affection was. So was the transfer of positions.

Jingzhe: "Don't you think the North Room is very peaceful?"

He remembered the hatred of the Cen family. And he remembered his parents' instructions.

He was able to live smoothly until now because of his parents' painstaking efforts. He only had one life. If he was too reckless, he might not go to the underworld, but his father would flick his head.

He liked his father, but he didn't like head flicks.

Rong Jiu looked at Jingzhe, and Jingzhe looked back.

Jingzhe was very clear.

These years, he had always been clean in the North Room.

Jingzhe also intended to do so.

The imperial palace was a huge whirlpool. Once you entered, no matter what, you would be drawn into it. You could only try your best not to be in the center of the whirlpool, not to see those obscure things, and you would not be dragged into hell by this decaying palace city.

Rong Jiu said with a hint of playfulness: "But if you don't look for trouble, will trouble not come looking for you?"

Jingzhe thought about Qian Qin, about Nanny Ming, about the system, and about Concubine Yao. Under Rong Jiu's gaze, he softened and turned into a puddle of water, motionless.

This puddle of Jingzhe water also murmured, "So difficult, hateful..."

Muttering, muttering.

He rarely acted like this in front of others, except for Ming Yu.

Ming Yu, well, he was his most talkative friend.

As for Rong Jiu...

Jingzhe looked at his beautiful face and came back to life. Looking at Rong Jiu's beauty a few more times, he felt a little hope again.

He regrouped and chatted with Rong Jiu with a smile.

Actually, it wasn't easy to chat with Rong Jiu. As Ming Yu warned, Rong Jiu looked like someone with a bad temper and a strong aura. If you said ten sentences, he might not respond to one. It was really boring.

But Jingzhe didn't care.

If he said ten sentences and Rong Jiu replied to one, he could continue to say ten more sentences. Of course, Jingzhe wasn't originally a very talkative person, but Rong Jiu was quiet, and they were friends. To get along, one person had to be proactive.

Rong Jiu was always very proactive in giving gifts, so what if he was proactive in chatting?

This was called reciprocity.

However, taking things from others meant being indebted. The things Rong Jiu gave were gradually becoming exaggerated. Jingzhe didn't want to be indebted any longer, so he seriously considered what to give Rong Jiu in return.

But Rong Jiu looked like a young master from a wealthy family, as if he lacked nothing.

After much thought, Jingzhe still asked Rong Jiu directly before he left.

"You want to return a gift, but you don't know what to give, so you just ask me directly?" Rong Jiu raised an eyebrow outside the door. "Isn't giving gifts about surprise?"

...What surprise?

Like today, just bringing a big ink jade?

That would be a shock!

Jingzhe: "Something that suits the heart is more important than a surprise."

He smiled.

"Asking directly is also better than guessing."

Rong Jiu nodded slightly, acknowledging Jingzhe's twisted logic.

"It's cold recently, and I need a pair of gloves."

Jingzhe guessed that Rong Jiu's family was wealthy, so how could he really lack a pair of gloves? But since Rong Jiu specifically asked for it, he naturally had to get it.

...Actually, he could do some needlework.

There was no other way. People in the North Room had to be self-reliant, otherwise, if their clothes were torn, no one would mend them for them.

"Do you have a preferred color?"

"Any is fine." Rong Jiu curled his lips, forming a chilling arc. "But I don't really like red."

The blood gushed from the woman's mouth, dripping onto the bed, like a winding snake, spitting out soul-hooking malice. She slumped on the bed, her beautiful eyes staring at him with hatred, struggling to open her mouth.

—Why don't you die?

"Rong Jiu, Rong Jiu?"

Jingzhe saw Rong Jiu lost in thought and called out a few times, but he didn't respond. He subconsciously grabbed his hand.

It was icy cold to the touch.

The man's skin was cold white, and his temperature was as cold as jade, making Jingzhe shiver.

Jingzhe might have been worried, so he couldn't help but stand on tiptoe and reach out to touch his eyes, but before he could touch them, Rong Jiu had already come back to his senses.

Jingzhe looked at him, his eyes bright, like a young bird peeking out from its nest, clear and clean.

Rong Jiu, however, remembered that night.

That soft body, trembling and shivering in his arms.

Her posture clearly exuded wantonness, but her eyes were veiled with a misty rain.

Both ignorant and pitiful.

Fragile, clean things are easy to pity.

But they also easily attract disaster and breed destructive evil desires.

Innocence...

Sometimes, innocence is the greatest sin.