Mu Xueshi woke after an entire day unconscious and discovered three new people standing beside his bed—all three of them beautiful young women.
He blinked, then sprang upright in one motion and circled them several times. Finally, he reached out and patted one woman on the shoulder. “Where are you from?”
The woman wore a mild, pleasant smile, but no matter how many questions Mu Xueshi asked, she did not answer a single one. He could not understand why three women had suddenly appeared in the room and even began wondering whether they were incredibly realistic statues. Their expressions hardly changed at all.
He was still puzzling over it when the door opened. The Third Prince stepped into view, and Mu Xueshi nearly jumped out of his skin.
Only then did everything that had happened before he fainted come rushing back. His eyes widened, and he shot behind the folding screen like a whirlwind, straight toward the bronze mirror. When he saw that the face in the reflection was basically intact—and most importantly, that his mouth had not been blown into the gruesome mess he had imagined—he slapped his chest repeatedly in relief.
Still, he did not seem quite as handsome as before. Mu Xueshi had the distinct feeling that his face changed every time he looked at it, and by now he had no idea what he was actually supposed to look like. He could worry about that later. What mattered was that he had been right: the Third Prince had only been trying to scare him.
Mu Xueshi emerged from behind the screen radiating gratitude, walked straight to the Third Prince, and dropped to his knees with a thud. “This commoner behaved terribly before, yet Your Highness was generous enough to forgive me despite everything. This commoner… this commoner… is truly overwhelmed with gratitude!”
“From now on, you are no longer a commoner,” the Third Prince said.
Mu Xueshi scratched the loose strands of hair over his forehead with his slender fingers. “Then what am I? A member of the public?”
The Third Prince chuckled and leaned close to his ear. “During the Eight Homage Festival, you are Mu Xueshi. After the Eight Homage Festival, you are Mu Xueshi.”
Mu Xueshi’s mouth twitched. He looked at the Third Prince uneasily. “Your Highness… what exactly is the difference?”
“You will find out later.”
The Third Prince still wore his usual aloof expression, but Mu Xueshi could clearly sense that something in his attitude had changed. Maybe everything Mu Xueshi had blurted out before fainting had actually moved him, and now the Third Prince had decided to look after him a little. It made sense. His sentence would not be carried out until the month was over anyway, so there was no reason for the Third Prince to spend the meantime constantly glaring at him.
Mu Xueshi secretly giggled. His clear eyes curved into lovely crescents, like a bright moon hanging in the night sky, and even the three maids felt their hearts flutter at the sight. Then Mu Xueshi leaned close to the Third Prince’s ear and whispered with another giggle, “If you want to be nice to me, you don’t have to be so secretive about it. I know you’re worried people will gossip. Relax. I definitely won’t tell anyone.”
The Third Prince nearly laughed at the smug confidence on Mu Xueshi’s face.
Then Mu Xueshi looked at him very seriously. “You really are a good person.”
The Third Prince went still. There was no flattery in Mu Xueshi’s expression, no attempt to curry favor. He meant it.
When Mu Xueshi saw the faintest lift at the corner of his mouth, he immediately took advantage. Grabbing the Third Prince by both cheeks, he tugged them outward into a smile and grinned foolishly. “You’re way too serious. You need to smile sometimes. Even a tiny smile works more than two hundred muscles. See? I’m helping get the blood flowing in your face.”
Such casual intimacy momentarily left the Third Prince dazed. He shot Mu Xueshi a cold warning look. Mu Xueshi ignored it completely.
Seeing that the Third Prince appeared to be in a good mood, Mu Xueshi gave a couple of ingratiating chuckles of his own, his cheeks turning pink and making him look unbearably cute. Then he rubbed his hands together nervously, glanced around, and sidled closer. “So… Your Highness, can you introduce me to those three women now?”