“Your Highness the Third Prince, forgive this humble official’s incompetence, but I truly cannot detect any illness. This young master’s pulse is steady and normal. If anything must be said, he may merely be suffering from a little excess internal heat. Some cooling foods or medicine should be sufficient.”
The Third Prince trusted Imperial Physician Li’s judgment. If Mu Xueshi truly had no illness, then all his strange behavior could only be an act. Perhaps the torment of the past half month had finally taught this pampered young master, who had never endured hardship, how to bow his head and surrender.
While the Third Prince was still lost in thought, Imperial Physician Li bowed and withdrew. He lowered his head to look at Mu Xueshi, only to discover that the latter had already sprawled across the desk and fallen sound asleep. His long eyelashes resembled a dense fan of black feathers resting against his snow-white cheeks. His rosy lips were slightly parted, occasionally smacking softly before he puffed out his cheeks and turned his head to the other side.
Even his sleeping habits had changed. It seemed Mu Xueshi’s drastic transformation in temperament was not an act after all. Had these past few days truly frightened him into submission? The Third Prince narrowed his eyes slightly, contempt filling his gaze. So Mu Xueshi was nowhere near as resilient as he had imagined. He had bent his knees and surrendered after only a few days. If that was truly the case, what pleasure was there left in this?
The moment Mu Xueshi fell asleep, the Third Prince’s room became extraordinarily quiet, with only Mu Xueshi’s breathing audible. This was the Third Prince’s sleeping quarters, Qingyun Palace. Qingyun Palace stood within the private courtyard specially granted to the Third Prince by the Emperor, known as Qinyi Courtyard.
Within the courtyard stood two small pavilions facing each other. Between them lay a vast flower garden shaped like a compass, filled entirely with rare flowers and plants of countless varieties, some of which could not be found anywhere else. The delicate fragrances released by the many plants mingled together to create a distinctive aroma. It was said that prolonged exposure to this scent could strengthen the body and even cure certain ailments.
Whenever a gentle breeze arose, the fragrance from the courtyard would drift beyond the palace walls. Many senior court officials, imperial consorts, and princes had smelled it and requested permission to visit, but the Third Prince had refused them all entry. Apart from the Third Prince’s trusted confidants and the servants who had attended him since childhood, only the Emperor had ever entered this secluded place.
Now Mu Xueshi had also been added to the courtyard’s inhabitants. The Third Prince had originally intended to return him to Linhan Palace, where he had first been imprisoned, as soon as he awoke. But given Mu Xueshi’s present condition, he could only allow him to remain here for several days and wait until he returned to normal before holding him accountable.
Linhan Palace had originally been the secluded retreat of the Third Prince’s mother, Consort Mu. Recently, however, strange incidents had occurred there one after another. According to Consort Mu’s servants, whenever midnight arrived, the sound of a woman weeping would echo through the palace. The cries were miserable and mournful, resembling those of a vengeful ghost burdened by injustice. Consort Mu had only recently begun observing a life of vegetarianism and Buddhist devotion, and with her weak constitution and deficient vitality, she returned to her own residence, Muyan Residence, after only a few days. She was still confined to bed there, recuperating.
At this thought, the Third Prince suddenly realized that he had not visited his mother consort for several days. Now that Consort Mu was bedridden with illness, even someone as cold and indifferent as the Third Prince still understood the most basic rules of filial etiquette.
The Third Prince walked to Consort Mu’s residence accompanied by Eunuch Tai’an and Su Ruhan. The moment Eunuch Tai’an reached the entrance to the covered corridor of Muyan Residence, the eunuch stationed outside Consort Mu’s door loudly announced their arrival. Although Consort Mu was unwell, the instant she heard that the Third Prince had come to visit, she ordered the maid beside her to help her stand and began moving toward the doorway one small step at a time.
Futile Devices Scans 
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