“Your Highness, forgive this humble official’s incompetence, but I truly cannot find any illness. This young master’s pulse is steady and normal. If I had to name anything at all, perhaps he has a little excess internal heat. Some cooling food or medicine should be enough.”
The Third Prince trusted Imperial Physician Li’s judgment. If Mu Xueshi truly had no illness, then all this strange behavior must be an act. Perhaps half a month of torment had finally taught this pampered young master, who had never known hardship, how to bend and surrender.
While the Third Prince was still thinking, Imperial Physician Li bowed and withdrew. The Third Prince lowered his gaze toward Mu Xueshi, only to discover that he had already fallen asleep sprawled across the table. His long lashes lay against his snow-white cheeks like a thick black fan. His rosy lips were slightly parted; every so often he smacked them softly, puffed out his cheeks, and turned his face to the other side.
Even the way he slept had changed. It seemed Mu Xueshi’s drastic change in temperament truly was not an act. Had these past few days frightened him into submission? The Third Prince narrowed his eyes, contempt filling his gaze. So Mu Xueshi was nowhere near as resilient as he had imagined. If a few days were enough to make him surrender, where was the fun in that?
Once Mu Xueshi fell asleep, the room became completely still, with only the sound of his breathing remaining. This was the Third Prince’s bedchamber, Qingyun Palace, located within the private compound the Emperor had personally granted him: Qinyi Courtyard.
Two small pavilions stood facing each other inside the courtyard. Between them lay a huge flower garden shaped like a compass, filled with rare plants and flowers of every kind, including some that could not be found anywhere else. Their mingled fragrances formed a scent unique to the courtyard, and it was said that breathing it over time could strengthen the body and even ease certain ailments.
Whenever a breeze stirred, the fragrance from Qinyi Courtyard drifted beyond the palace walls. Senior court officials, imperial consorts, and princes had all asked to visit after catching the scent, but the Third Prince refused them entry. Apart from his trusted confidants and the servants who had attended him since childhood, only the Emperor had ever entered this secluded place.
Now there was one more person inside: Mu Xueshi. The Third Prince had originally planned to send him back to Linhan Palace, where he had first been confined, as soon as he woke. But in his current state, Mu Xueshi would have to remain here for several days. The Third Prince could question and punish him once he returned to normal.
Linhan Palace had originally been a secluded retreat used by the Third Prince’s mother, Consort Mu. Recently, however, one strange incident after another had occurred there. According to her servants, every midnight the sound of a woman weeping echoed through the palace, miserable and resentful, like the cries of a wronged ghost. Consort Mu had only recently begun devoting herself to vegetarian meals and Buddhist practice, and her weak constitution could not withstand the place for long. After a few days, she returned to her own quarters, Muyan Residence, where she was still bedridden and recuperating.
At that thought, the Third Prince suddenly realized that he had not visited his mother consort for several days. Now that she was ill in bed, even someone as cold as he was understood the basic duties of a son.
The Third Prince walked to Muyan Residence accompanied by Eunuch Tai’an and Su Ruhan. The moment Eunuch Tai’an reached the entrance to the covered corridor, the eunuch stationed outside Consort Mu’s door loudly announced their arrival. Although Consort Mu was unwell, as soon as she heard that the Third Prince had come, she ordered the maid beside her to help her stand and began moving toward the doorway one small step at a time.