By the time the Third Prince returned to his bedchamber, morning had fully broken. The gauze curtains normally tied back on either side of his bed were hanging down. He walked lightly to the bedside and lifted one, only to find the bed empty. His gaze immediately sharpened. Then his vision suddenly went dark, and the softness covering his eyes made him pause.
“Guess who I am?” Mu Xueshi deliberately rasped in the voice of an old man.
The Third Prince had never played such a game before, but Mu Xueshi’s scent gave him away at once. What he could not understand was why Mu Xueshi had suddenly become so familiar with him. Covering his eyes like this was already an obvious offense, and the Third Prince could not fathom what he meant by making him guess who he was.
Mu Xueshi’s goal was actually very simple: distract him. He had meant to sneak back before the Third Prince returned, only to run straight into him. When he saw the Third Prince lifting the gauze curtain, his first impulse had been to jump out from the side with a yell and see what the perpetually stern man looked like scared witless. Unfortunately, he lacked the courage. After thinking frantically, he settled for this childish trick instead and could only hope the Third Prince was not too clever when it came to games like this.
The Third Prince slowly raised a hand. It had barely reached halfway before Mu Xueshi whipped his hands away. Another few seconds and he was genuinely afraid the Third Prince might snap his fingers off.
The Third Prince turned around. Mu Xueshi’s face had changed again. It was no longer breathtakingly beautiful, but nothing could disguise the brilliance of those lively eyes.
“Where did you go?” the Third Prince asked.
The tips of Mu Xueshi’s ears immediately turned red. He looked painfully guilty but forced himself to act casual, waving a hand as he said, “Nowhere. I’ve been behind you this whole time, waiting for you to come back so I could scare you.”
He even pulled down his eyelids, stuck out his tongue, and made an outrageous face at him.
To Mu Xueshi’s surprise, the Third Prince did not question him any further. He simply turned away as though he had lost interest and headed for the study.
Mu Xueshi should have been relieved, yet the Third Prince seemed vaguely unhappy. Before he knew it, he had followed after him, wanting to know what was wrong. As far as Mu Xueshi was concerned, aside from being rather ruthless when handling people, the Third Prince was actually not bad. He seemed worth befriending. Once Mu Xueshi found the silver coin, maybe he could even come back occasionally and visit him.
The Third Prince had not expected Mu Xueshi to follow. He had gone to the study solely to find a scroll for him, one containing a set of punishments the Third Prince had personally written down.
The Third Prince stopped in the middle of the room. Mu Xueshi, following several steps behind, stopped too. The Third Prince took another two steps; Mu Xueshi followed two steps. When the Third Prince stopped again, Mu Xueshi unconsciously did the same.
Mu Xueshi stared hard at the Third Prince’s feet. Yet after a single blink, the man was suddenly standing right in front of him, and Mu Xueshi had not even seen him move.
His eyes went round with amazement. Even if he eventually managed to return home, he absolutely had to learn some martial arts from the Third Prince first. Imagine showing off a few moves at school every now and then. How cool would that be?
“Why are you following me?” the Third Prince asked.
Mu Xueshi pulled himself out of his fantasy and looked at him cautiously. “This commoner thought Your Highness seemed unhappy and wondered whether my going outside might have caused you trouble. After all, if people found out you were keeping a convicted criminal in your own bedchamber, feeding him well and letting him live comfortably… it wouldn’t exactly sound good…”
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