Mu Xueshi slept until sunset before slowly waking. His long, thick lashes trembled, and his eyes gradually opened.
It felt as though he had slept for a century. When he woke, the light itself seemed unbearable. He closed his eyes, then opened them again, repeating the process several times before he could properly see his surroundings.
Where am I? Mu Xueshi wondered. Had he fallen unconscious? His last clear memory was still the journey into exile at the frontier. Why was he now lying in such a comfortable bed, surrounded by such quiet and harmony?
Although questions rose in his mind, Mu Xueshi did not look around or show any change in expression. Once his thoughts settled, he dismissed the matter as another one of the Third Prince’s schemes. There was no point caring how he had ended up here.
“Young Master Xue, you’re awake. There is ginseng soup here. His Highness instructed this servant to wait until you woke and make sure you drank it.”
Mu Xueshi lay rigidly on the bed, face cold, without reacting to Qing Ya at all.
Qing Ya’s expression changed. She set the soup down on the table, slowly knelt, and began crying.
“Young Master Xue, please drink a little. This servant knows I said things earlier that upset you, but you must not damage your own health because of a lowly servant like me. If you are angry, punish me however you wish. Please don’t make yourself suffer.”
“Yes… Young Master Xue, this servant knows she was wrong too.” Qing Zhu knelt beside her.
The Third Prince entered and found both palace maids weeping. The person on the bed showed no expression at all, while the steaming bowl of ginseng soup sat untouched on the table. He immediately understood what had happened.
“Leave.”
The cold command made both maids flinch. Qing Ya and Qing Zhu hurried to their feet, bowed, and left with anxious expressions.
The severity in the Third Prince’s face softened at once. He picked up the warm soup and quietly approached Mu Xueshi.
Mu Xueshi kept his eyes closed. His breathing and posture made it obvious he was not asleep, only resting, yet the Third Prince’s arrival produced no visible reaction.
“Xueshi, who are you sulking with now? Whatever the problem is, drink the soup first.”
To Mu Xueshi, the Third Prince’s words carried an order that could not be disobeyed, yet also a trace of indulgence and concern. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the Third Prince sitting beside him, holding the bowl and blowing gently across its surface.
The Third Prince reached to help Mu Xueshi sit up. Mu Xueshi looked at him coldly, clear resistance in his eyes.
The Third Prince’s hand stopped in midair. The softness in his gaze gradually gave way to confusion and suspicion. He stared at Mu Xueshi in silence. The expression seemed inexplicably strange, yet also painfully familiar, stirring something long buried inside him and making his heart race.
A moment later, the Third Prince changed his expression again. Touching Mu Xueshi’s forehead, he asked in a gentle tone edged with danger, “Are you being naughty?”
Naughty? Mu Xueshi mocked inwardly. So quickly, he had already become the Third Prince’s pet.
Mu Xueshi still did not answer. The eyes he had just opened slowly closed again.
Remembering Mu Xueshi’s strange condition during the previous two days, the Third Prince wondered whether he was about to fall unconscious again. But the instant his hand approached Mu Xueshi’s face, Mu Xueshi opened his eyes with extraordinary alertness. Ice filled them. The Third Prince suddenly realized that even if Mu Xueshi were joking, he would never normally remain this controlled. Usually, the moment the prince’s expression darkened, Mu Xueshi would laugh, make a face, or try to coax him.
Unease tightening his chest, the Third Prince ordered calmly, “Sit up and drink the ginseng soup.”
Mu Xueshi did not move. His gaze drifted indifferently around the room as though the Third Prince did not exist.
The Third Prince’s voice turned colder. “Get up.”
Not even Mu Xueshi’s fingers moved.
The Third Prince strode forward, seized Mu Xueshi by the collar, and hauled him upright. A violent light entered his eyes.
“If this joke does not end now, you know what the consequences will be.”
Mu Xueshi allowed himself to be held like a cloth doll, showing no expression and no reaction.
The Third Prince’s hand closed around Mu Xueshi’s throat. He raised the bowl and forced the soup into Mu Xueshi’s mouth. Liquid spilled over Mu Xueshi’s chin and collar. He choked badly before the Third Prince finally let go, leaving him coughing for breath.
Seeing the discomfort on Mu Xueshi’s face brought the Third Prince back to himself. He immediately patted Mu Xueshi’s back with careful, gentle movements.
The pained look vanished from Mu Xueshi’s face almost immediately. It could hardly even be called an expression, only the body’s reflexive response to distress.
When the Third Prince noticed this, his hand slowed and stopped. With his free hand he stroked Mu Xueshi’s face, then suddenly tore away the thin disguise.
The peerlessly beautiful face beneath was exposed completely. The person was still Mu Xueshi, the face was still the same, the warmth of his body remained familiar, and the Third Prince knew every sensation beneath his hands. Yet overnight, an unfamiliar coldness seemed to have settled across those features.
The Third Prince’s heart contracted. He knew this was Mu Xueshi. In a courtyard guarded this tightly, no one could simply steal a person away. Was he truly going to endure another complete change in personality? The Third Prince laughed coldly. He had no intention of playing through that cycle again.
“What is my name?” the Third Prince asked.
Mu Xueshi said nothing. He did not even seem willing to breathe loudly enough to be heard.
The Third Prince leaned closer until their noses almost touched.
“What do you call me?” he asked quietly.
After a moment, the Third Prince repeated the question.
“What is my name?”
…
A tremendous crash suddenly shook the room. The bird perched near the bed flapped away in fright. Outside, every servant turned pale and stopped breathing.
Apart from the little toys Mu Xueshi usually played with, every antique and piece of jade in the room shattered at once. Bloodthirsty fury filled the Third Prince’s eyes as he stared at Mu Xueshi like a predator fixed on prey.
“Smile for me.” The Third Prince gripped Mu Xueshi’s chin.
There was indeed something like a smile in Mu Xueshi’s eyes, but not the one the Third Prince wanted. It was distant, almost mocking, the expression of someone standing outside the situation entirely.
The Third Prince’s grip tightened. Pain showed clearly in Mu Xueshi’s body, and sweat formed on his forehead.
“Smile. Then call my name.”
Mu Xueshi’s refusal finally burned away the last of the Third Prince’s restraint. A cruel smile appeared on his lips. He tore away Mu Xueshi’s clothing, exposing the beautiful body beneath, still marked by traces of the tenderness they had shared the day before.
Beg me. Beg me for mercy. Cry and tell me you were wrong. Tell me this is only a joke. Mu Xueshi, I warned you that if you ever betrayed me, I would make you wish you were dead.
The Third Prince then forced himself on Mu Xueshi without preparation. Mu Xueshi gave one involuntary sound of pain, then clenched his teeth shut and refused to give him anything more.
Blood stained the bedding. The Third Prince looked almost feral, coldness pouring from his eyes. Beneath the rage and desire lay something even deeper: fear and grief. He could not bear to imagine what this change meant, whether it was someone else’s scheme or some confusion inside Mu Xueshi himself. Seeing him become a stranger so suddenly made the Third Prince feel hollowed out.
Mu Xueshi’s body suddenly went limp. The Third Prince’s chest seized, and he collapsed over him.
Mu Xueshi had lost consciousness again. The Third Prince seemed to wake from a fever. He called for the imperial physician, then gathered Mu Xueshi into his arms. Unconscious, Mu Xueshi no longer carried the cold defiance from moments earlier.
The Third Prince’s breathing slowly steadied, and the violence of his earlier impulse turned into guilt. Perhaps Mu Xueshi had simply slept too deeply and could not immediately understand what was happening. Or perhaps the prince’s harsh attitude had wounded his pride and made him stubbornly refuse to yield.
The Third Prince refused to think about Mu Xueshi’s eyes, and still less about the fact that for more than ten years Mu Xueshi had always been proud and withdrawn. Only during the previous two months, after losing his memory, had his personality changed so drastically.
Nothing was wrong with Mu Xueshi now. The abnormal Mu Xueshi had been the one from the past two months. Perhaps he had simply returned to normal… The thought made the Third Prince’s fingertips turn cold. The chill spread slowly up his arms, through his body, into his mind and heart.
Even when Imperial Physician Li announced himself loudly from outside, the Third Prince only shouted, “Get out!”
Suddenly the Third Prince remembered something. He opened Mu Xueshi’s palm and found it empty. Then he searched carefully around the bed and every place Mu Xueshi might have touched. There was no trace of the silver coin.
The Third Prince did not understand why the coin mattered to him so much now. Something unseen seemed to pull at his thoughts, leaving him with the powerful sense that something was missing.
After applying medicine to Mu Xueshi and replacing the facial disguise, the Third Prince mounted a horse and left the courtyard.
He rode at full speed. His tall figure cut through broken shadows beneath the trees, carrying a bleakness that seemed to stain the road. At last he reached the Twin Tree. No one was beneath it. Only the lantern still hung from a branch, lonely as an abandoned child.
There was nothing else. Beneath the tree lay only dry leaves and tangled grass. The Third Prince looked up at the lantern and suddenly saw that the writing on it had blurred. The paper itself was perfectly dry. Only the name looked as though water had washed across it.
The Third Prince’s heart contracted violently. For an instant he seemed to see an illusion: Mu Xueshi sitting beneath the tree, clutching the lantern and crying until his eyes were red. The moment the Third Prince stepped forward, the vision disappeared, leaving only a burned-out lantern bearing a blurred name.