I woke up in the Embracing Moon Palace.
The moment I opened my eyes and saw the familiar ceiling, I froze. Instantly, my body reacted with an unfamiliar, dull ache in my lower back as I unconsciously tried to sit up.
My pupils suddenly constricted, and the memories of last night came flooding back in a relentless wave.
I sat in silence for a few seconds before letting out a piercing shriek.
For a straight man who had still possessed his first kiss just half a day prior, those memories were a bit too stimulating.
Merely recalling them felt like watching an adult film.
Rubbing my aching lower back, I struggled to stand up and managed to put on my clothes, only to realize a truly terrifying fact.
Yin Xiao had actually helped clean me up.
My damned imagination successfully forced out a second piercing shriek for the day.
It took me twice as long as usual to get dressed.
The body reflected in the bronze mirror was truly a tragic sight, entirely too painful to look at.
I wrapped myself up layer upon layer, making sure no one would ever catch a glimpse of the mottled marks Yin Xiao had left behind.
After turning myself into a walking rice dumpling, I finally stepped out of the bedchamber doors.
Golden sunlight spilled across the courtyard, and the begonia flowers were in full, brilliant bloom. A few fallen leaves lay scattered on the ground, accompanied by the occasional distant sound of a broom sweeping.
Right at the palace entrance, Yin Xiao was standing beneath a begonia tree.
Gentle sunlight filtered through the gaps in the branches, softly casting a warm glow over his sharp, slender facial features.
The moment Yin Xiao caught sight of me, his expression shifted abruptly, unexpectedly revealing a hint of youthful bashfulness.
The anxious agitation in my heart eased somewhat, but the very next second, I tightened up again.
“How is the Emperor doing? Has any decision been made?”
Hearing my rapid-fire questions, the smile on Yin Xiao’s face froze.
He reined in his expression and told me in a flat tone, “Imperial Father spent yesterday in the chambers of a consort, and for some reason, he had a sudden flare-up of a heart ailment. He needs to rest and recuperate for a while.”
I blinked. “Then, what about the matter of appointing the crown prince?”
Yin Xiao stared at me, remaining silent for a few seconds for reasons unknown.
Averting his gaze, he replied indifferently, “Put on hold for now.”
I pressed a hand to my forehead and sighed.
Just thinking about how much trouble and how many affairs would pile up because the succession was being delayed further made my head spin.
Lost in my worries, I completely failed to notice the gaze Yin Xiao fixed upon me becoming increasingly profound.
He asked casually, “In Teacher’s eyes, is this prince’s position as crown prince really that important?”
“Of course it’s important.”
If Yin Xiao failed to ascend the throne, he would die under house arrest, and I would die without a whole corpse. None of us would meet a good end.
Yet Yin Xiao didn’t seem to grasp the deep consideration behind my intentions.
He merely muttered a cold “Is that so?” with the detachment of someone completely unconcerned.
Whether it was my imagination or not, Yin Xiao seemed to be avoiding me.
For half a month, I barely saw him at all.
He didn’t even return to the Embracing Moon Palace anymore.
Every night, he mingled with those officials, squeezing me out of the circle. I had no idea what they talked about or where they went.
Consequently, the questions I wanted to ask remained unasked.
Has the person who drugged you that night been found? If found, what were the interrogation results?
Yet, when I actually faced Yin Xiao, I grew somewhat timid.
I believed Yin Xiao was fully capable of handling things on his own; even without my interference, he would wrap everything up brilliantly.
And so, those questions were shelved again and again.
However.
One day, I overheard palace servants whispering outside the bedchamber.
“Have you heard? That headless corpse dragged out of the palace tonight was the one who offended the Second Prince during his birthday banquet.”
“Offended the Second Prince? I heard it was the First Prince who got offended. Are we even listening to the same version?”
I listened for a long time, blinking thoughtfully.
So the culprit behind the drugging that night had already been interrogated.
And even executed.
Even the sweeping servants in the Embracing Moon Palace knew about this, yet I didn’t?
Suddenly, I felt a bit depressed.
Sitting in the bedchamber, I couldn’t even turn a single page of the book in my hands.
Just how long was Yin Xiao planning to avoid me?
Nearly a month had passed since the accident that night.
Initially, I thought that when Yin Xiao and I were alone together, he might shamelessly say some embarrassing things.
Given his personality, that would have been normal.
Yet the reality was that ever since that day, neither Yin Xiao nor I had ever brought up that night again.
Even when we were alone, our conversations were strictly limited to official business, with zero communication outside of that.
Even the officials close to Yin Xiao, as well as a few who were somewhat familiar with me, sensed that something felt off between the two of us.
Some of them dared to probe Yin Xiao’s stance a few times on my behalf, but to no avail.
No one knew what Yin Xiao was thinking.
Just like before.
Seeing me lose Yin Xiao’s favor, my colleagues reacted in various ways.
Some thought I was doomed, scurrying away from a distance whenever they saw me, terrified of having any association with me.
Naturally, these were only a minority.
Most people watched from across the river, either mocking or sighing, perhaps even putting on a hypocritical show of coming over to offer a few words of comfort.
I didn’t care much about their attitudes.
While a low-ranking ninth-grade official was chatting me up and boasting about his precious daughter, I suddenly thought of Li Shi.
Back in the day, Li Shi had also tried to set me up on a blind date.
He had claimed back then that he had an unmarried younger sister at home, yet he never mentioned her again afterward.
He only ever said that his grandmother was his sole remaining family member, making me feel sympathy for his plight.
Li Shi had made a very clean escape.
When Yin Xiao heavily relied on him back then, he was relatively merciful, yet after Li Shi betrayed him, Yin Xiao pursued him relentlessly, still sending people to track his whereabouts to this day.
Yin Xiao was simply that kind of person, vengeful, preferring to kill the innocent rather than let a single guilty person slip through.
Remembering my current predicament, I couldn’t help but worry.
If Yin Xiao ever grew completely dissatisfied with me and no longer cared about our teacher-student bond, Li Shi’s present would be my future.
In May, the weather gradually grew warmer.
A refreshing evening breeze gently brushed through every leaf, bringing a cool and comfortable sensation.
I was sitting in the courtyard, vividly recounting a short story from a vernacular novel to a few young palace servants.
Daisy and Cuiping sat nearby; the two young maids were growing up and stitching clothes while listening to the story.
The moon in the sky was full and flawless, casting a golden light.
A group of people gathered together lively, relaxed, and cozy.
At that moment, an excited voice suddenly rang out from the direction of the palace gates: “The Second Prince!”
I was right at the climax of the story and froze upon hearing the shout.
None of us expected Yin Xiao to actually return to the palace today. The young servants didn’t dare dawdle, hastily grabbing their brooms and tools to scurry back to their posts.
I unhurriedly sat up, brushing off the fallen flowers and leaves from my body.
The atmosphere between us right now was too awkward.
I had no desire to offer a warm face only to receive a cold shoulder and humiliate myself.
After much deliberation, I decided to leave the Embracing Moon Palace and take a walk nearby.
Once the lamps went out, I would slip back and quietly go to sleep.
My calculations were sound.
However, plans never kept up with changes.
A moment later, I was grabbed by Yin Xiao and dragged back into the bedchamber, hauled inside with zero room for refusal.
Instinctively, I felt something was wrong.
I tried to shake off Yin Xiao’s grip, but before I could pull away, I was suddenly tossed onto the bed.
That small bed of mine, located outside the moon-shadow gauze curtains.
My height hadn’t grown much over the past few years, so this small bed was just barely enough for me to sleep on.
Yet Yin Xiao, with his rapidly shooting height, pressed down on top of me, squeezing onto the bed.
The space on this small bed instantly became extremely cramped.
Yin Xiao nuzzled and rubbed against my neck while simultaneously grinding his body against mine.
If this were before, I might have thought we were just innocently wrestling.
But I had learned to be smart now.
Hesitating for a few seconds, I decided to start struggling.
Amidst the pushing and shoving, I accidentally tripped over something, and the next second, a rapid clatter of bells chimed out.
This was the anti-bed-climbing mechanism I had set up for Yin Xiao.
Who could have imagined that after setting up this trap, no one ever dared to climb into Yin Xiao’s bed again?
And yet, here was Yin Xiao climbing into my bed!
Damn it!
Yin Xiao pressed me back onto the bed and kissed me without a word of explanation.
Slap.
I bit my lower lip and dealt Yin Xiao a resounding slap across the face.
Yin Xiao was clearly stunned, taking several seconds to recover before touching his cheek with a cold smirk.
He stared at me in disbelief, his expression verging on madness.
With a dark, angry voice, he spat out, “Ji Zijin.”
The unfilial dog Yin Xiao actually dared to call me by my full name.
Still boiling with anger, I shot him a sarcastic, mocking look. “Second Prince, what’s wrong with you today? Did someone drug you again?”
“I’m not a woman, you should go find someone else. Even if you want to find a man to take care of it, with the Second Prince’s conditions, you should be able to find plenty of partners.”
I blurted out a bunch of provocative angry words.
Yin Xiao was simply going too far.
One second he was cold-warring and quarreling with me, and the next he was kissing me without a word.
Anyone would be driven crazy by him.
Unexpectedly, Yin Xiao’s temper wasn’t small either. Veins bulged on his forehead as he pinched my cheeks and squeezed them. “You think this prince can’t live without you?”
I kicked him. “Then hurry up and get lost.”
Yin Xiao pressed down on me like a mountain, his entire body weight pinning me firmly so that I couldn’t move at all.
After struggling for half a day, I finally grew exhausted, lying in his arms and panting heavily.
Gradually, I heard what sounded like a double echo in my ears.
As my chaotic brain slowly began to function, I suddenly opened my eyes and looked at Yin Xiao.
It wasn’t a double echo after all.
It was Yin Xiao’s voice.
His hand, which had been roughly pinching my cheek, slid downward bit by bit to stroke my Adam’s apple.
“It is not medicine,” he suddenly whispered.
My brain was starved for oxygen as I panted and asked, “What do you mean?”
Yin Xiao leaned down and restrainedly kissed the corner of my mouth. “It is not medicine. It is a love gu.”
Too busy trying not to suffocate to stop his kisses, I blurted, “Could it really have been arranged by the Emperor?”
Yin Xiao took the opportunity to bury his face in the crook of my neck. “After contracting the love gu, I can never leave the first person I have coupled with. Every month, during the full moon, I will be plagued by the gu poison. Imperial Father wanted me to fall in love with that woman and completely sever ties with the Eldest Prince.”
I sighed. “What time is this.”
Staring dissatisfiedly at my deadpan expression, Yin Xiao viciously pinched my waist.
My serious tone instantly pitched an octave higher in surprise.
Infuriated, I pinched the thigh he was using to pin me down right back.
Instead of feeling any pain, Yin Xiao stiffened his body and let out a raspy, low laugh.
I: “…”
Oh no, it seemed I had just made him enjoy it.
Yin Xiao was true to his word; he wasn’t utterly dependent on me.
On the contrary, I didn’t think he even liked me.
Although he trusted me more than anyone else, that trust wasn’t one hundred percent either.
He held a leash tied around my neck, yet he still worried I might run away in the middle of the night.
Therefore, the longer I stayed by his side, the more restrictions I faced instead of fewer.
Such an insecure person was now forced to be bound to me forever because of something like a love gu.
He must have hated the person who planted the gu on him to the core, and by association, he probably hated me too.
Wasn’t this the exact reason Yin Xiao had been giving me the cold shoulder lately?
I didn’t have time to ponder that for long.
Yin Xiao dragged me onto the bed inch by inch, pressed close to my lips, and kissed me fiercely.
He wasn’t very skilled at these things either, acting purely on instinct to devour my breath like a wild beast.
As the kiss deepened, even my stiff, rigid body slowly softened down.
Dizzy and lightheaded, that familiar feeling of suffocation washed over me once more.
Could this love gu really be resolved just by kissing without doing that?
Fake.
Mere kissing couldn’t solve a single problem.
When Yin Xiao pulled out a box of snowflake ointment, alarm bells shrieked in my head.
We were still going to do it after all!
If we were going to do it anyway, why the hell did we spend so much time kissing just now?
I genuinely wanted to refuse.
So what if he had a love gu?
If I died, could Yin Xiao really just suffocate to death?
Yet Yin Xiao’s technique was slightly better than the first time.
Perhaps it was because he came prepared and brought some ointment for lubrication.
This time, it wasn’t quite as agonizing.
Yin Xiao even helped me out near the end.
Just as I buried my face in the pillow, on the verge of falling asleep, Yin Xiao’s weapon, which was more terrifying than a horror film, plunged in for a second round.
I screamed.
Afterwards, I didn’t even have the strength to kick him off the bed.
With my eyelids too heavy to open, I lay sprawled across Yin Xiao, my face buried firmly against his solid chest.
Weakly and breathlessly, I muttered, “Can’t you really find someone else for this?”
“No.”
Yin Xiao’s brow twitched as he stared down at me with mild dissatisfaction. “What? Is Teacher really that reluctant?”
Well, duh? Was I supposed to raise both hands in favor?
Too lazy to lecture him, I randomly tossed out impractical suggestions: “How about next time, you call a few more people over, and we can all figure it out together. Of course, they can do most of the suffering while I do less.”
Hearing me talk nonsense, Yin Xiao couldn’t help laughing. “Teacher saying things like that, do you want other people to see us doing this? This prince never knew you had such a fetish.”
I: “…”
Yin Xiao held me close, saying we would sleep like this tonight.
I wasn’t sure if we had made up or if things would go right back to how they were tomorrow.
Hesitating for a long time, I asked him, “So, why were you avoiding me lately? Was it because of this?”
It wasn’t like I desperately needed an answer.
I was just asking.
Yin Xiao, who had already been preparing for sleep, suddenly opened his eyes upon hearing my words.
Glancing at me, for some reason, his expression and tone grew a couple degrees colder. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
He got up, left my side, and returned to his own bed to rest.
Good riddance, sharing that small bed was cramped and miserable anyway.
I didn’t mind in the least.
Although Yin Xiao and I couldn’t be said to have fully made up, our relationship had at least returned to normal.
He normally returned to the Embracing Moon Palace to handle official business, rest, and converse with me like an ordinary person, just like before.
Aside from the new arrangement of sleeping with me once a month, there was zero difference compared to the past.
In the eyes of outsiders, I had regained Yin Xiao’s favor.
Those colleagues who had been waiting to watch me make a fool of themselves and hoping for my downfall could only sullenly pack away their expectations.
As for those who used to curry favor with me, they grew somewhat excited.
Adding flowers to embroidery is easy, but offering charcoal in the snow is what truly proves precious.
They believed I would certainly remember this camaraderie and secure an even closer relationship with me in the future.
Take Guo Fu, that low-ranking ninth-grade official who had tried to introduce a marriage match to me, for example.
To celebrate the reconciliation of my relationship with Yin Xiao, Guo Fu zealously set up a banquet and cordially invited me to attend.
It wasn’t until I stepped into the private room on the day of the banquet that I discovered a graceful, veiled, shy young maiden sitting inside as well.
Guo Fu had actually brought his daughter along too!