Mu Guanchun’s three thousand strands of hair cascaded completely over her shoulders, the ends reaching her waist with a slight, lazy curl.
The corners of her peach-blossom eyes still held a hint of flush from just waking up.
With such stunning beauty right before her, Lou Yunli felt her heart itch.
She felt a touch of regret, she shouldn’t have merely stolen a kiss on Mu Guanchun’s cheek while she was asleep.
Instead, she should have… tasted the flavor of those lips.
Suddenly, her heart hammered like a beating drum.
She was afraid of being caught by Mu Guanchun in her overstepping, yet even more afraid… that Mu Guanchun hadn’t noticed at all.
Every now and then during her childhood, when playing hide-and-seek with the maidservants and hiding in Mu Guanchun’s bedchamber, she had accidentally stumbled upon Mu Guanchun’s true female identity.
Yet this person possessed a countenance as brilliant as brocade and a beauty as picturesque; how could she not develop different feelings while gazing upon her day after day?
After her heart first stirred with romance, she spent every night uncontrollably yearning for Mu Guanchun in her daydreams.
Pretending nothing was amiss, Lou Yunli picked up the medicine bowl from the small side table: It’s time to take your medicine, Your Highness. I brewed it personally in the kitchen after I finished bathing.
Mu Guanchun first cast a low glance at the thin blanket draped over her; Lou Yunli must have put it on her.
She didn’t know when Lou Yunli had arrived, nor how long the girl had sat by the edge of the daybed watching her sleep.
This Prince will do it.
Mu Guanchun reached to take the medicinal bowl, but Lou Yunli evaded her hand, scooped up a spoonful, and brought it right to her lips.
I will feed Your Highness.
Mu Guanchun turned her face away, evasively saying, It’s hot. Leave it there for now.
Lou Yunli bit the edge of the spoon with her lips, her full pout submerged in the black medicinal soup, and asserted, It’s not hot.
Then she offered the spoon back to Mu Guanchun’s lips.
With nowhere left to hide, Mu Guanchun raised a hand to brush back her hair and propped herself up completely.
A thin layer of redness crept into Lou Yunli’s eyes, and her small lips pressed together as if she had suffered some great grievance.
Out of nowhere, you… what is this… Mu Guanchun was caught off guard.
Your Highness hesitates and stalls not because you’re afraid of the burn, but simply because you don’t want to drink your medicine. I brewed this medicine myself, so please, for the sake of Lier’s filial piety, drink it.
The temples at Mu Guanchun’s forehead throbbed: You’re practically going to filial-piety me to death.
Silence fell around them.
The two sides seemed locked in a soundless contest of wills.
Mu Guanchun could command authority in the imperial court, but with this girl, it felt like hitting a soft cotton ball with a fist.
In the end, she capitulated, surrendering and taking a spoonful of the medicinal soup into her teeth and lips.
Your Highness is such a good girl~
Mu Guanchun: Cough.
Just listen to those unfilial words.
She snatched the bowl away with a swift motion, earning a cry of pain from Lou Yunli.
Lou Yunli clutched her right wrist, her delicate brows twitching as her face contorted in pain.
What is it? Mu Guanchun asked with concern.
Your Highness hurt me.
Mu Guanchun blinked. Although she was seven years older than Lou Yunli, she wasn’t so old and senile that she didn’t clearly remember never touching her.
With no time to quibble over details, her thoughts focused entirely on Lou Yunli’s wrist: Let this Prince see.
I won’t let you see. Lou Yunli first tucked her right hand behind her waist.
Then, with supreme casualness, she raised it to touch her hairpin, let her sleeve slip with supreme casualness, and with supreme casualness revealed her wrist bone.
A clear bruise marred the jade-white skin.
When did you do this? Mu Guanchun leaned forward.
None of your business.
Let me look. Mu Guanchun grabbed her arm, examining it earnestly.
I’m clumsy, Lou Yunli said with grievance in her voice, I scalded myself while brewing the medicine.
There are plenty of physicians in the manor, why did you have to do it yourself?
If I don’t brew your medicine myself, how can I be at ease? Burned is burned, anyway you don’t care about me.
Nonsense, Mu Guanchun scolded with a touch of sternness, This Prince cares about you the most.
The ring of thin red still lingered around Lou Yunli’s eyes, exuding a pitiful charm that never failed to move Mu Guanchun, no matter how many millions of times she had seen it.
If Your Highness cares about me, then drink your medicine properly.
This time, true to her word, Mu Guanchun took the bowl and drank it down in one heroic gulp.
Once it was completely empty, Lou Yunli popped a preserved plum candy into her mouth.
The sugar coating slowly melted on her tongue, carrying even a faint, lingering honey-like fragrance into her nasal passages.
Does it taste good? Lou Yunli asked.
With her mind wholly occupied by Lou Yunli’s injury, Mu Guanchun was just about to open her mouth to call a maid for ointment when she was cut off by Lou Yunli: Your Highness needs to blow on it for me so it won’t hurt.
Mu Guanchun ground the plum meat with the tip of her tongue, hesitating slightly.
When I was little, no matter where I got hurt, Your Highness would always hold me in your arms and blow on the wound.
This Prince… doesn’t remember.
Then you must blow on it even more; perhaps you’ll remember then. Before Lou Yunli’s voice finished trailing off, her fair wrist was already extended forward.
Mu Guanchun found herself caught between advancing and retreating.
Blow on it, won’t you~ Lou Yunli’s voice was steeped in a trace of crying.
Swallowing the plum meat and seemingly resigning herself to her fate, Mu Guanchun cupped the girl’s small hand, lowered her head, and began slowly blowing onto the injured spot.
Her breath was soft, carrying a trace of coolness as it touched the skin, dispelling much of the stuffy heat.
Your Highness.
Hmm? Mu Guanchun looked up.
I can’t find my journal. Did you happen to pick it up?
No.
Your Highness, Li Gu’er has returned, Xiaoxiangzi’s voice sounded outside the door with distinct urgency. He is waiting in the front hall.
Mu Guanchun’s eyes narrowed; it seemed things had gone awry with the mission.
She neatly smoothed down Lou Yunli’s sleeve to conceal the bruise: When you return to Qingliang Courtyard, remember to apply the ointment properly.
Having failed to probe Mu Guanchun’s true feelings, Lou Yunli felt a wave of frustration, inwardly cursing Xiaoxiangzi for having such poor timing.
Later today, can Your Highness come keep me company for dinner?
This Prince… will accompany you another day.
Surprised, Lou Yunli pushed the matter no further. With sorrow clinging to the corners of her brows and eyes, she picked up the empty medicine bowl and walked away, turning her head back every few steps.
It left Mu Guanchun’s heart uneasy.
After she left, Mu Guanchun instinctively touched her cheek where she had been kissed, looked down, and saw a trace of peach-colored rouge on her fingertips.
Her mind inevitably drifted into a trance…
Your Highness, Your Highness.
A quarter of an hour later, Xiaoxiangzi called out softly beneath the covered walkway.
After calling out several times, Mu Guanchun finally managed to pull back her thoughts, halted her steps, and turned her gaze sideways with a distracted air: What is it?
Xiaoxiangzi pointed in the opposite direction and said cautiously, You’re walking the wrong way; the front hall is that way.
Mu Guanchun:
The front hall was brightly lit, and the silver-thread charcoal inside the warming brazier burned a glowing red, crackling softly.
No matter how cold it was outside, the interior was warm. Yet, the few figures kneeling in the center of the hall looked exceptionally desolate.
As soon as Mu Guanchun stepped into the hall, her eyes were assaulted by their stunning styling.
Their hair was scorched and disheveled, their faces pitch-black, and their robes utterly tattered.
Gone was any inclination to sit on the Prince’s throne; Mu Guanchun circled around them, her gaze sweeping past Li Gu’er and finally settling on the Commander of the Lantern Guard, Gongyang Tan.
What kind of look is this? Did you all join the Beggar Sect?
This question seemed to strike a sore spot; tears instantly welled up in all of their eyes.
Li Gu’er cupped his fists and said, Your Highness, we underestimated the enemy.
Gongyang Tan was also consumed by shame: We know not what sort of demon Yu Qingxiao is; the moment we made a move against her, a bolt of divine lightning struck down from the heavens, blasting all the brothers we brought with us. Only the two of us survived.
Frowning, Mu Guanchun formed three deep creases between her brows: Such a thing actually happened?
Your subordinate would not dare deceive Your Highness, said Gongyang Tan, a tall and formidable tough guy who buried his head as if too ashamed to face anyone. We failed in our duty, and we await Your Highness’s punishment.
At first glance, it sounded utterly absurd.
With her hands clasped behind her back, Mu Guanchun paced back and forth before the throne.
She wondered if Yu Qingxiao, acting as the female protagonist of a storybook, possessed some inherent plot-armor survival skill?
Fixating on Gongyang Tan’s scorched and frizzy sideburns, Mu Guanchun ordered him to recount the assassination process from beginning to end.
Gongyang Tan had a decent eloquence and kept it brief,
Killing people was their profession. Initially, they hadn’t taken Yu Qingxiao seriously and decided to strike in the open.
Learning that Yu Qingxiao had just arrived in Huanjing and was temporarily staying at Mangmang Tower, they planned an ambush along her expected return route. Once she appeared, they would descend dashingly and heroically from the skies and finish her off with a single stroke.
Simple, crude, and very efficient.
At the time, Yu Qingxiao was accompanied by an old servant who had martial arts training. He was the first to detect the murderous intent and exchanged a few moves with their gang.
Ultimately, vastly outnumbered, the old servant was beaten to the ground.
Working together in unity, they raised their blades simultaneously, deciding to hack the troublesome old servant to death first. At that critical juncture, Yu Qingxiao threw herself forward to shield him.
Without hesitating, they decided to send two off together under a flurry of blades for maximum convenience.
It was precisely at that moment that a bolt of divine lightning descended from above their heads, blasting them all to the ground where they spasmed wildly.
Taking advantage of the opening, Yu Qingxiao fled in a battered state with the old servant.
Regaining their confidence, they pursued her relentlessly, setting ambushes, deploying deadly poisons, digging traps, splashing fire-oil… yet every single attempt failed solely because whenever Yu Qingxiao was about to fall victim, heaven would invariably send down thunder to strike them furiously.
The two of them managed to flee back to Mangmang Tower.
He concluded with a summary: Who knows what kind of astrological birth chart this person has to be this hard to kill.
Mu Guanchun arrived at a new conclusion: the female lead cannot be killed.
However, she had some recollection of that old servant. In the storybook, his name was Yuan Dahuang. Originally an escort guard, he later became a retainer for the Yu family and remained utterly loyal to them.
On the day the Yu family was raided and arrested six years ago, Yuan Dahuang had been entrusted by the Yu couple to protect Yu Qingxiao as she escaped through the side gate.
Later, adopting her under the guise of an adoptive father, he hid their identities, became a butcher, and raised Yu Qingxiao by slaughtering and selling pork, providing for her education before finally escorting her all the way to Huanjing.
In the original ending, after she, the dignified Princess Fu, was cast into the pauper’s grave, Yuan Dahuang would creep in under cover of darkness to use a whistle that lured a pack of wild dogs to tear her apart and devour her corpse.
Mu Guanchun reined in her expression.
Back then, Yu Qingxiao’s father had ostensibly been trafficking imperial examination questions, causing scholars from the three prefectures of Jiangnan to strike and riot.
The entire nation was shaken.
Even though she had wished to spare the female members of the Yu family and commute their sentence to exile, the Imperial Cabinet, the Empress Dowager, and even the Grand Empress Dowager were consumed by wrath. To safeguard the stability of the state, they insisted on making an example of them.
Even with her towering authority, Mu Guanchun could not sway the outcome and had no choice but to dispatch the Lantern Guard to the Yu residence to execute the arrests and confiscate the property.
Precisely because the Lantern Guard had personally handled the case, the whole world assumed the order had come from Prince Fu’s Manor, causing Yu Qingxiao to project all that hatred onto her.
Alas, to whom could she go to voice her grievance?
Mu Guanchun pinched the bridge of her nose: This Prince knows you did your utmost; there is no need to blame yourselves.
Upon hearing this, Gongyang Tan and Li Gu’er felt their shoulders shed a thousand-jin burden, recovering a sliver of spirit.
Mu Guanchun continued, As for… the Lantern Guard, for all fallen members, the food, clothing, and livelihood of their parents and children shall be fully provided for by Prince Fu’s Manor.
Thank you, Your Highness.
Supporting each other, the charred pair rose and limped out of the front hall.
Only after they had gradually walked far away did Mu Guanchun take her seat upon the throne, letting her gaze go blank as she stared into space.
This Yu Qingxiao was far more difficult to deal with than she had imagined.
It truly lived up to the saying that misfortunes never come singly.
First came the female lead seeking revenge, followed by the Empress Dowager suspecting her of harboring wild ambitions for the throne, then the Grand Empress Dowager forcing her to marry, and further still…
And further still…
Mu Guanchun twisted her fingertips; the peach-colored rouge on them seemed imbued with a certain magic, constantly radiating a faint heat and warmth.