The man’s voice was clear and cool.
Like a jar of wine on a winter night, its mellow fragrance mingled with a cool, soothing quality that made her ears tingle.
Kan’er was used to the sound of his voice.
It didn’t affect her much.
But her body was young and inexperienced now!
The moment the Crown Prince’s voice reached her ears, Kan’er’s earlobes began to itch, and her body tensed along with them.
She could only force herself to suppress these instinctive reactions, bend her knees in acknowledgment, then hurry toward the Crown Prince as if nothing were amiss.
When she reached him, she bowed gracefully.
“This servant greets Your Highness. May Your Highness enjoy a thousand years of peace.”
Kan’er’s voice was soft, touched with a girl’s distinctive sweetness and tenderness, and a hint of something hard to describe.
Hai Shun shivered.
He immediately tried to look away.
Then he noticed something strange about the lowered profile of the little palace maid.
“Your Highness, look…”
The Crown Prince was Luo Xun.
Following Hai Shun’s gaze, Luo Xun looked over.
From where he stood, however, he could see only the top of the little maid’s head.
His handsome brows drew together almost imperceptibly.
“Raise your head.”
After a pause, he added, “Look at Me.”
His tone was cool. Even those few simple words carried an oppressive force.
“Yes.”
Kan’er didn’t dare delay.
As her gaze rose, it passed over his jade-colored robe embroidered with dragons surging across the seas, his lean waist and abdomen, and his broad chest. It paused at his prominent Adam’s apple before finally reaching his handsome face.
He really was handsome.
His temples were as sharply cut as a blade, his brows like ink paintings.
His fair face was like the finest white jade, his features beautifully defined, and his long, narrow phoenix eyes were deep-set.
His black eyes were like ink that would never dissolve.
Cool as frost, deep as a secluded pool.
Their eyes met, and Kan’er heard her own heartbeat.
Thump. Thump.
In her previous life, she had been so intimidated by his imposing presence that she had hardly ever dared to look at him this closely.
By the time she finally dared, the Crown Prince had already become Emperor Qingzhao, and she had gone from being his Liangdi to his Consort Shu.
At this moment, looking at the man’s youthful face, Kan’er felt a sudden, indescribable pang of disorientation and bitterness.
Luo Xun had no idea what the little palace maid before him was thinking. He only saw that her beautiful eyes were veiled with moisture.
Her eyes were rimmed with red, and her small cherry lips trembled.
He was taken aback.
She really was timid.
And yet, for the past three nights, she had been so brazen in his dreams, tempting him with every sort of thing and saying all kinds of outrageous things to him. Because of her, for three mornings in a row, he had…
Noticing the finger marks on Kan’er’s right cheek, Luo Xun narrowed his dark eyes slightly and glanced at Hai Shun.
Hai Shun understood at once and hurried out.
Kan’er knew what Hai Shun had gone to do.
She had slapped herself a few times partly to spite Zheng, and partly to signal her allegiance to the Crown Prince discreetly.
That would make it easier to deal with what came next.
But Kan’er couldn’t spare much thought for that now.
Because—
Only she and the Crown Prince remained in the room.
Perhaps it was the influence of this body, or perhaps the silence in the room only amplified the Crown Prince’s already intimidating authority.
Either way, Kan’er found herself genuinely nervous.
So Luo Xun saw the tears welling in the little palace maid’s misty eyes, sparkling like dewdrops. They made her honey-colored irises look like gemstones submerged in spring water.
The corners of her eyes were long and tilted upward, their seductive charm entirely natural.
She was just like a little spirit who had only just taken human form.
Innocent and unworldly, bewitching without knowing it.
The harsh words at Luo Xun’s lips abruptly died away.
He remembered how daring she had been in his dreams, how she had tried every sort of trick on him and said all kinds of nonsense to him.
Now she looked as though she were afraid he might devour her.
“Get up.”
Kan’er had just been trying to calm herself when the man’s cold voice reached her. A large hand appeared before her eyes.
She looked up in surprise.
In her previous life, the Crown Prince hadn’t offered her a hand then. Before telling her to rise, he had asked her something else. Why was this life different…?
Kan’er wondered, but didn’t let it delay her.
She gently placed her hand in his. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
The man’s hand was large, and his palm was warm.
The instant their skin touched,
Kan’er’s fingertips seemed to be singed. At the same time, a familiar tingling sensation raced outward from them.
Her heart gave a little jump.
The legs that had been supporting her for so long suddenly went weak.
The next moment, she was sitting in the Crown Prince’s lap.
Luo Xun caught a rush of fragrance.
A soft, fragrant body had landed in his arms. Her weight pressed against his left thigh, and his muscles tensed involuntarily.
“Your Highness!”
Kan’er let out a startled cry. Her face flushed with embarrassment as she tried to get up.
But her leg really had gone numb!
The moment she moved, pain and pins and needles shot through it.
Kan’er drew in a sharp breath. Her body tilted again, and her head struck the man’s broad, solid shoulder.
That only made her settle more firmly into his lap.
It was mid-April, the beginning of summer.
They wore few layers, and the fabric was thin.
Kan’er had landed squarely in his lap.
The thin cloth could do nothing to shield them from each other’s body heat or the feel of their bodies.
One was hard and solid.
The other, soft and rounded.
“Please don’t be angry, Your Highness. This servant, this servant…”
Kan’er’s face was scarlet, and she was truly flustered.
She was only a little palace maid who had not yet been granted the Crown Prince’s favor, and he valued propriety above all. He would not tolerate anyone acting out of line.
In their previous life, though he had been greedy for that sort of thing when they were together, once they left the bed he would return to his usual cold indifference.
The Crown Prince’s dignity and authority were not to be challenged.
If he thought she had made these movements on purpose to seduce him, that would be disastrous!
The thought made Kan’er all the more desperate to get up at once.
But numbness didn’t go away in an instant.
The more she tried to stand, the stronger the waves of pain in her leg became. Three times she tried, and each time she failed to get up—instead, she pressed herself even closer to the Crown Prince.
A vein at Luo Xun’s temple twitched.
The soft body pressed tighter and tighter against him, while the weight on his left thigh ground against him. His body stiffened again and again, and a surge of unfamiliar yet familiar restlessness rose within him.
He tried to hold back.
He couldn’t.
He seized the little hand braced against his chest and clamped his other hand around her slender waist.
“Sit still!”
Hai Shun happened to come in just as he heard that.
Seeing the little palace maid sitting in the Crown Prince’s arms, he instinctively assumed she had behaved improperly and angered His Highness.
His heart tightened, and he started forward to scold her.
But the moment he took a step, the Crown Prince’s icy gaze fell on him.
“Get out!”
At once!
Hai Shun didn’t even pause.
Kan’er’s face was red as blood. She didn’t dare move at all.
“Your Highness…”
Luo Xun’s gaze roamed over her flushed face. It paused at the two marks streaked with blood, then settled on her vivid, timid eyes.
“Afraid of Me?” he asked coldly.