"Have you finished eating already? You barely touched anything." Yu Jingchen asked, then placed another piece of fish into Nan Zhiyun's bowl.
"Eat a little more. You've hardly eaten anything," Yu Jingchen said. It wasn't that he wanted to force Nan Zhiyun to eat, but she had only picked at the dishes with a few sparse bites.
Nan Zhiyun naturally did not dare to refuse repeatedly, so she took a couple of glances and slowly ate it. The fish was very tender, and the skin was crisp while the meat inside had absorbed a lot of the broth, making it quite flavorful.
"If there's anything you like, just tell someone to prepare it for you," Yu Jingchen said, seeing that Nan Zhiyun truly seemed to have no appetite for the spread before her.
"This concubine has no particular favorites, so there's no need to trouble the imperial kitchen," Nan Zhiyun replied.
"Nothing you like? I remember you used to like fish," Yu Jingchen asked her.
Nan Zhiyun paused slightly, her expression unreadable. She looked at Yu Jingchen and asked, "When did Your Majesty think this concubine liked fish?"
"When we ate together before, I noticed you picked out fish more often," Yu Jingchen replied.
"The 'before' that Your Majesty speaks of, it seems to be when Your Majesty wasn't yet the Emperor..." Nan Zhiyun realized she had spoken out of turn.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me!" Nan Zhiyun lowered her head.
"It's alright, continue what you were saying," Yu Jingchen said, his expression unchanged.
"Your Majesty... aren't you angry? This concubine merely misspoke, I had no other intentions. This concubine..." Nan Zhiyun was still uneasy.
Because it was a past Yu Jingchen didn't want to recall, especially when she brought up their past, Yu Jingchen would always get angry.
"I know, no need to explain," Yu Jingchen said with a hint of helplessness.
Nan Zhiyun remained silent, but whether it was because she was reminded of past events, her eyes began to well up again, though no tears fell.
Yu Jingchen put down his chopsticks and took the handkerchief placed beside him to wipe his hands before looking at Nan Zhiyun.
"Nan Zhiyun, look up," Yu Jingchen said softly.
Upon hearing him, Nan Zhiyun slowly raised her head.
In a daze, Nan Zhiyun seemed to hear Yu Jingchen sigh.
"Can you not stop crying? Why do you cry at all times?" Yu Jingchen took Nan Zhiyun's handkerchief and placed it in her hand. "Wipe them yourself, I'm too tired to do it for you now."
The tears that had gathered in Nan Zhiyun's eyes fell. She actually did as Yu Jingchen said and began to wipe her own tears.
"I never saw you like this before. Now, every time I come these past few days, I see you crying. Do you have an entire river in your eyes? No matter how much you cry, these tears never seem to run dry," Yu Jingchen said.
However, what he said wasn't untrue. Before, even when Yu Jingchen treated Nan Zhiyun in certain ways, she hadn't cried as frequently. At most, in the early days, she would feel wronged, but afterward, she would always endure it herself and not let herself cry. Yet, recently, it seemed she had regressed to how she was at the very beginning.
But Yu Jingchen could do nothing about her now, other than to say, "Cry less. Crying too much won't do you any good."
Nan Zhiyun didn't want to cry either, but lately, she seemed to have become much more sentimental.