“Where was it me—” Sui Sui hurried to rise, but the sash of her skirt was caught under Li Chongjun’s hand. Before she could steady herself, she was pulled back onto him. He let out a muffled groan, low and short.
Half-hidden behind the bed curtains, the sound carried out—ambiguous, suggestive.
Sui Sui panicked, wishing she could cover his mouth, whispering: “You—Your Highness, what exactly are you trying to do!”
Li Chongjun ground his teeth: “Get up. You’re pressing on my wound.”
She scrambled off him, flustered and burning with embarrassment. “Then… then just now, just now…”
Li Chongjun calmly smoothed the wrinkles from his sleeve, speaking with perfect justification: “Otherwise, how else would I suppress the bitterness of the medicine?”
Sui Sui pressed her lips together, realizing there was still a trace of candied sweetness lingering. So that was why—he wanted that bit of sweetness. She fumed inwardly. Why was she blushing at all?
By rights, Sui Sui had endured Li Chongjun’s lewd words countless times. Night after night beneath the gauzy canopy, he pressed down on her, and even through thin underclothes she could feel the heat of him—so stifling she wondered how Miss Yang would ever endure it. Yet such a fleeting, dragonfly-light kiss as just now—she had never experienced before.
Still dazed, she saw Li Chongjun turn his face aside, then casually ask: “Does it hurt?”
“…Hm?” She was confused.
His gaze flicked toward her left arm, and only then did she realize he was asking about the wound from that day’s attack.
Thinking back, she decided that although she had taken a blade, it could count as a “failed rescue”—something she might use as leverage. So she quickly furrowed her brows, covered the arm, and muttered in complaint: “It hurts terribly! That villain was reckless, struck so viciously. Even lifting it now is hard—if Your Highness doesn’t believe me, look—”
She hadn’t finished her performance when Madam Xia could bear it no longer. Not daring to criticize Li Chongjun, nor to enter, she turned all her fire on Sui Sui, loudly proclaiming her seduction from the doorway: “Everyone has a face, every tree has bark—how is it that she alone knows no shame! The man has already been cut down by blades, yet this little vixen still climbs into his bed to seduce him, ruining him—what good does it do you!”
In the past, Sui Sui would have ignored such words. But today her skin felt especially thin, and she had no way to argue back. She could only turn to Li Chongjun for support: “Your Highness, won’t you say something in my defense? Madam Xia keeps shouting—what kind of scene is this…”
Li Chongjun actually listened to her.
But when he spoke, Sui Sui nearly fainted from exasperation.
“Enough. All of you leave. When this matter is settled, I’ll let her go.”
“…”
Had Li Chongjun knocked his head and gone mad? Sui Sui was on the verge of tears: “That’s worse than saying nothing! ‘Settled’? What matter is there to settle—”
He cut her off coolly: “Speak. What did you come here for?”
Sui Sui was startled, then quickly said: “Of course, to serve Your Highness with your medicine.”
But Li Chongjun said nothing, only looked at her, clearly knowing it was an excuse. Sui Sui drew a breath, gathered her courage, and decided to bring up the real issue—she wanted to bid him farewell.
Before she could speak, a servant outside carefully reported: “Gao Cheng has returned and requests an audience with Your Highness. He sent me to announce it.”
Gao Cheng was the son of steward Gao Lang, and Li Chongjun’s close attendant. Before Li Chongjun married that Miss Yang, Gao Cheng had been the one by his side the longest. And so once again, Sui Sui had no chance to speak before being dismissed from the room. Though frustrated, she was meticulous—on her way out, she made sure to close the window she had opened.
Winter sunlight was pale; the shadows on the ground shortened with the closing of the shutters and disappeared. Beneath the window, a brass brazier shaped like elephant feet burned, its blue smoke curling and drifting in the dimness.
Where Sui Sui could not see, Li Chongjun’s lips curved into the faintest trace of a smile.