Princess Wenyang did not even change clothes before she was carried into a sedan chair bound for the courtyard. Along the way she imagined countless possibilities: the Third Prince personally applying medicine for her, helping her bathe… bathing… Wenyang murmured the word to herself.
“Aiya! How can I be so shameless?” She patted her cheeks, blushing like a flower in full bloom. Biting her lip, she hesitated for a long time before secretly lifting the curtain.
She looked left and right, blinking again and again. There was no sign of the Third Prince anywhere.
Wenyang’s mood fell immediately. She hurried to the small window on the other side and looked again. Still no Third Prince.
He couldn’t have gone ahead by himself already… Wenyang became annoyed. Then she looked outside again and realized they were not far from the Third Prince’s courtyard. Perhaps he had returned first to make arrangements for her. That thought restored her delight.
The Third Prince saw Sun Ye standing normally outside and finally let go of the worry in his chest. Without expression, he opened the door and found Mu Xueshi lying quietly inside.
The closer he walked, the more wrong the atmosphere felt. The instant he reached the bed, his heart tightened. Mu Xueshi looked very different from the past two days. He still lacked his former liveliness, but now vulnerability showed clearly. His face was bloodless, his lips trembled faintly, and a tear still clung to the corner of one eye.
The Third Prince released Mu Xueshi’s acupoints. Mu Xueshi suddenly sat up, threw his arms around him, and choked out, “Save me… save me…”
Even the Third Prince’s hardened heart softened under that embrace. His warm palm stroked Mu Xueshi’s cheek. “What happened, Xueshi?”
“Make me wake up… make me wake up… I don’t want to… think anymore…” Mu Xueshi began striking his own forehead in distress, teeth biting through his lip while his eyes stayed tightly shut.
The Third Prince felt two days of buried misery pour out of him. The medicine had to be working. Mu Xueshi would never react like this otherwise. He wrapped his arms around Mu Xueshi and soothed his back carefully.
“It’s all right. It will pass soon… it will pass soon…”
The dark faces in Mu Xueshi’s mind slowly blurred. His struggle stopped. His entire body seemed drained of strength, sinking into the Third Prince’s arms and remaining there without moving.
“His pulse is weak. Young Master Xue’s body needs proper rest and nourishment,” Imperial Physician Li said hoarsely.
The Third Prince nodded and dismissed him. Then he ordered Qing Ya to prepare medicine and feed it to Mu Xueshi one mouthful at a time.
It was nearly noon by the time the Third Prince returned from Taihe Hall. He did not eat lunch. He simply leaned against the bed holding Mu Xueshi, watching every movement and caring for him carefully. From bright midday to sunset, the Third Prince did not change position once. Meals were brought in and carried away untouched. His eyes held only the unconscious Mu Xueshi.
Princess Wenyang had already bathed and changed. A jeweled hairpin glittered above her round, delicate face. She had been placed in a separate pavilion, roughly equivalent to a side residence within the Third Prince’s courtyard, though compared with other palace quarters it was still elegant and refined.
Wenyang waited and waited for the Third Prince to visit her. Apart from an imperial physician who came to treat her injuries, only the lifeless servants in the room appeared.
“This is so boring!” Wenyang complained with a frown.
Several times she wanted to go outside. Then she remembered that if she could suddenly walk normally, the entire fall would have been wasted. So she could only remain there and wait for the Third Prince to visit her voluntarily.
By sunset, Wenyang had fallen asleep leaning against a long chair. Her head swayed from side to side until it struck the edge. The pain made her jerk awake.
“Damn it!” Wenyang cursed.
The servants beside her did not even blink, as though they had seen nothing. Wenyang remembered the maids who had served her for more than ten years, then looked at these two and felt her temper flare.
“Are you two blind? Didn’t you see me hit my head?” Wenyang shouted.
The two maids stepped toward the center from either side. They looked calmly at Wenyang, bowed first, and then the maid on the left asked, “What does the princess require?”
Wenyang had expected them to fall to their knees trembling. Instead they looked entirely relaxed. After spending several shichen here, she had realized that these servants were almost like carved stone, emotionless and lifeless. Unless she gave a direct order, they would not step forward to serve her.
She swept her gaze around the room and returned it to the two maids. First she gave a small laugh, then said arrogantly, “You probably don’t know what my future status will be. That’s all right. You’re servants, after all. Servants are naturally stupid. So I’ll tell you: I will be the second master of this place. Whenever the Third Prince is absent, everything here will follow my arrangements.”
The two maids finally showed some expression, but it was confusion rather than understanding. The Third Prince had ordered someone to send this self-proclaimed princess here without any special instructions. And if her position were truly that important, why would she be placed in an ordinary side pavilion?
As they were thinking, Wenyang raised her brows and snapped, “Do you even know what place this is?”
Seeing no useful reaction, Wenyang sighed. “I suppose you can’t be blamed. I heard the Third Prince never allows outsiders into his courtyard. I’m an exception. From now on, you’d better learn to read the situation. If you fail to serve me properly, the Third Prince won’t spare you…”
“Yes…” The two maids exchanged glances, both still looking baffled.
Wenyang ordered them to fan her, then sing for her, and when she became bored again she made the two maids fight each other in the room. She giggled endlessly while watching.
Another shichen passed. Wenyang finally lost patience and told one maid, “Go to the Third Prince’s bedchamber and report that I am gravely ill and barely alive.”
“Yes.” The maid had barely turned away before secretly rolling her eyes. She had never met anyone so unreasonable.
Wenyang shouted toward a servant at the door, “Are you blind? I need to lie down. Come help me!”
The servant was short and responsible mainly for washing and grooming his master. Hearing Wenyang call, he hurried over and supported her into the bed.
Wenyang closed her eyes, then opened them almost immediately and told the other maid, “Put a wet cloth on my forehead. It’ll look more convincing.”
The maid swallowed, looking embarrassed, but still obeyed.
When Mu Xueshi woke, night was already deep. His eyes opened through a haze and landed on the Third Prince’s long-fingered hand resting around his waist.
The instant the Third Prince saw him wake, his expression changed. He turned Mu Xueshi so they faced one another and studied him carefully.
Apart from slight exhaustion, the Third Prince saw no other change. Mu Xueshi’s sudden embrace earlier had been like a flower blooming for a single instant, raising every hope only to destroy it again.
“Did you remember anything?” The Third Prince gripped Mu Xueshi’s chin, the last trace of hope buried in his gaze.
Mu Xueshi gave a tired smile, beautiful and poisonous. At last he understood why he kept having nightmares and why he had been forced through such brutal memories. It had all been arranged by the Third Prince. Only someone this ruthless could make Mu Xueshi experience genuine hatred for the first time.
“Heh… I remembered.”
Unease stirred inside the Third Prince, but he still refused to abandon hope.
“What did you remember?”
“I remembered… a past too painful to revisit.” Mu Xueshi looked directly at him and whispered, “Satisfied?”
The Third Prince felt as though his blood began flowing backward. His fingers tightened around Mu Xueshi’s chin almost hard enough to crush it.
“Our past is something painful for you to remember?”
Meeting the Third Prince’s reddened eyes, Mu Xueshi answered coldly, “You were never part of my past.”
The simple sentence struck the Third Prince like countless blades. So Mu Xueshi had embraced him at noon only because the nightmare had stripped away his reason and made him desperate for comfort.
The Third Prince laughed coldly and abruptly closed one hand around Mu Xueshi’s throat. The tenderness from moments earlier disappeared beneath cruelty.
As the pressure increased, Mu Xueshi’s expression became almost peaceful. It was obvious what he was communicating: he wanted to die. He would rather die than remain beside the Third Prince.
“Xi… we’re so close…”
“If I threw you from my hands, I would never bear it…”
“Master, I only survived these days because you were here… but I still keep thinking about the Third Prince…”
“…”
The Third Prince’s hand tightened while remembered words tore through his heart one after another. Why do I remember these scenes over and over, while you refuse to remember them even once?
Mu Xueshi’s face darkened and his lips began turning purple. Then the Third Prince seemed to wake suddenly. He released him, stared blankly for a moment, then pulled Mu Xueshi into his arms.
“I should not have rushed you. I said I would wait…” The Third Prince touched Mu Xueshi’s face, his fingers trembling slightly.
Only after color slowly returned to Mu Xueshi’s face did the Third Prince breathe again.
“Eunuch Tai’an…” the Third Prince called toward the door.
Tai’an entered with his head lowered, waiting for instructions.
“Prepare another dose of the medicine from noon. Double the medicinal catalyst.”