Mu Xueshi kept watch alone in the grass without a single complaint. In the past, even when Mother Chen merely ordered him around, he would become impatient. But now, doing something for the Third Prince, he felt no reluctance at all. He would actually have preferred the prince to be asleep inside while he handled everything by himself.
The moon was unusually bright tonight, and Mu Xueshi was unusually alert. He thought it would be wonderful if the Third Prince came out to admire the moon with him. Even with his true face hidden, Mu Xueshi was breathtaking beneath the moonlight. When the silver glow fell across his cheeks, his bright eyes looked like two glittering jewels, enough to leave anyone nearby distracted.
At first those two large eyes were full of light, but as the night deepened, their brilliance gradually faded. Mu Xueshi did not feel sleepy. He was only afraid the Yinglan flower would fail to bloom tonight.
On earlier nights, when he failed to see it bloom, Mu Xueshi had been able to comfort himself by blaming his own laziness for not watching until the end. Tonight, however, he stared at the ground without looking away and still could not even tell where the Yinglan flower was.
For once, Mu Xueshi found himself resenting how quietly the Third Prince handled everything. One person’s strength was limited. If the prince had ordered all his subordinates to watch together tonight, then if the Yinglan flower truly bloomed, the chance of missing it would be much smaller.
Mu Xueshi considered calling several servants to wait with him, but then abandoned the idea. He did not believe they would truly care about the Third Prince’s condition; they would only be completing an assignment. If they missed the flower and simply reported that it had never bloomed, nothing would have been gained.
Mu Xueshi steadied himself and forced his attention back to the ground. Sitting in the grass for so long left his waist and back aching, so he stood for a while instead, yet his eyes continued scanning the surroundings without relaxing for an instant. Whenever his eyes grew tired, he remembered the agony he had once suffered when the Gu poison attacked, and the thought immediately woke him again.
Shichen after shichen passed. The moon rose, crossed the sky, and began to sink, yet the Yinglan flower showed no sign of opening. Mu Xueshi’s hands and feet grew cold, and his heart colder still. If he waited all night for nothing, he knew he would collapse.
Sun Ye remained outside the entire night and never went inside to rest. The Third Prince had ordered him to watch Mu Xueshi and report anything unusual. The prince himself was awake in the inner chamber, using the time to work on tasks assigned by the emperor and occasionally looking outside. Each time he saw Mu Xueshi still standing energetically in the courtyard, he lowered his head and returned to the documents. He was waiting for Mu Xueshi to become sleepy; the moment that happened, he intended to carry him back inside. If he called him in now, Mu Xueshi would refuse a hundred times over.
They kept watch until dawn was almost upon them. When the Third Prince saw Mu Xueshi still standing alone in the courtyard, a thin solitary figure, he finally rose and walked outside.
Suddenly Mu Xueshi bent down, then shot toward him like an arrow released from the string, his face blazing with excitement. He was panting and clutching a freshly opened Yinglan flower. Dew still clung to the petals, and as it dripped onto Mu Xueshi’s long pale fingers, his hands looked even more translucent.
Mu Xueshi was so happy he did not know what to do with himself. He circled the Third Prince like a little fool, waving his arms and excitedly embellishing just how difficult it had been for the flower to bloom.
But while he was laughing, the smile slowly disappeared from his face. He stared at the tiny milky-white flower in his hand, then looked at the Third Prince. The prince’s expression remained calm and unchanged, yet Mu Xueshi’s tears suddenly poured out like floodwater breaking through a dam.
Only then did Mu Xueshi remember that Gu Master Mo Ru had said the Third Prince’s Gu poison could be completely cured only by taking the pollen from the Yinglan flower and applying it to both backs of his hands. The flower had contained very little pollen to begin with, and during Mu Xueshi’s excited run across the courtyard it had all been shaken away. Whatever had fallen to the ground had already vanished in the wind.
“The pollen is gone…” Mu Xueshi choked out to the Third Prince.
The despair on Mu Xueshi’s face struck the Third Prince painfully. For several nights Mu Xueshi had kept watch, only to end up sleeping in the weeds until the prince carried him back to the bedchamber, and every morning Mu Xueshi regretted it. Only the Third Prince truly understood how much effort he had put in. The prince had felt no discomfort at all and therefore did not care about the missed treatment, but he had never expected this mistake to hurt Mu Xueshi so deeply.
The Third Prince said nothing. He simply pulled Mu Xueshi into his arms and comforted him carefully. No matter how gentle the prince’s expression became, Mu Xueshi could not feel better. Because of his own carelessness, he believed he had condemned the Third Prince to another month of pain. The thought made him sob helplessly against the prince’s chest.