Su Xi-er repressed her emotions and raised her head after her expression returned to normal. “Prince Hao, this servant doesn’t understand what you are talking about. What Yun? What male or female?”
“When you were unconscious, you kept shouting ‘Yun’. If you weren’t referring to a person, are you telling me that it is the white clouds[*] floating in the sky?”
Su Xi-er suddenly smiled. “You got it right. The ‘Yun’ I was referring to is none other than the white clouds floating in the sky. Before this servant entered the palace, I had a younger brother[**] who liked to eat cotton candy in the neighbouring household. The ball of white cotton candy closely resembled clouds.”
“So the ‘Yun’ you mentioned is referring to your younger brother in the neighbouring household. You care about him enough to think about him when you fell asleep?”
Su Xi-er sensed that there was something amiss with Pei Qianhao’s expression and immediately added, “Prince Hao, you are thinking too much. What this servant was reminiscing about was the time before I entered the palace. ‘Yun’ refers to those carefree days.”
Pei Qianhao raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Every word is the truth. Why would this servant want to deceive you, Prince Hao?”
There was an unfathomable smile hanging at the corners of Pei Qianhao’s mouth. “Indeed, why would you dare to deceive this prince? After all, you even dared to admit that you played a prank on this prince.” Why would she have such a pained expression if she was really recalling carefree days? Would the physician say that she has too many things on her mind if she was speaking the truth? This woman is lying.
But I simply won’t expose her. I want her lie to collapse by itself.
“Prince Hao, this servant will be going to the side chamber to sleep.” Su Xi-er then used her hands to support herself on the bed board and began to get up.
Before she could get very far however, she was pressed down by a large hand. “Just sleep here. Do you think this prince will still use this bed after it has been polluted by your smell?”
Su Xi-er raised her head to look at him. After pondering for a moment, she softly replied, “This servant obeys the order.”
“Do you know what you said about this prince before you lost consciousness?”
Su Xi-er’s heart skipped a beat. Did I say something bad again?
“You said that you are scared of this prince. Scared that the aura surrounding this prince will freeze you to death. Su Xi-er, since you happen to be running a fever right now, why don’t you lean closer to this prince and reduce your temperature?”
Su Xi-er looked at him in confusion. I said something like that? Although his chilly aura does make people feel like they’ve fallen into an ice pit, I must have been muddle-headed to say something like that.
“Prince Hao, you shouldn’t take words that this servant say so seriously. You should worry about getting some proper rest instead. It’s already late, and we will be continuing our journey tomorrow.”
“We indeed have to hurry on with our journey, but how can this prince sleep? Are you going to serve this prince to sleep?”
Titillating words spilt out of his lips, but his expression remained callous, making Su Xi-er unable to fathom his true intentions.
Since he didn’t allow her to leave the bed, she simply laid back down. “Prince Hao, if you won’t be resting, this servant will.”
I am currently sick. He won’t randomly pull off my clothes.
Clothes…Su Xi-er had just shut her eyes when she abruptly opened them and lowered her head to check the clothes on her body.
They’re his! He helped me to change into them!
“You have finally discovered the clothes on you. Your reaction is slower than usual.”
“Prince Hao!” My body has been completely seen by him…
Su Xi-er pursed her lips. Now that things have come to this, there’s no use even if I say more.
“Many thanks, Prince Hao.” She then laid down, shut her eyes, and turned her body over, no longer looking at him.
Pei Qianhao didn’t speak, choosing to sit on the wooden chair until the sky turned bright.
~~~
Prince Hao was alerted the next day by some knocking on the room’s door. It was Wu Ling, who had taken a fine steed that could travel extremely quickly in order to make the round-trip to the capital and back to the County Government Office overnight.
Outside the room, Wu ling bowed and whispered, “Su Xi-er was sold off by her parents when she was young, then made to carry out odd jobs in a tavern following that. As a budding beauty in her youth, there were many who looked into her at that time.”
The temperature seemed to drop drastically as Pei Qianhao replied, an air of danger now in his voice. “Continue your report.”
“She suffered quite a lot of hardships in the tavern. Some men wanted to bring her back to raise her as a child bride, while others wanted to play her even as a child…” At this point, Wu Ling could no longer continue elaborating. It’s too tragic.
Pei Qianhao coldly snorted, his aura frigid enough to seep into people’s bones. “Continue.”
“Your Highness, Su Xi-er is too pitiful. When she was young, someone touched her face and she almost… Fortunately, the manager of the teahouse was someone with a conscience and rescued Su Xi-er. However, not only did the manager lose his life over this matter, even the teahouse was implicated since he had offended a noble. In such circumstances, the teahouse couldn’t even continue to do business.”
Pei Qianhao finally understood why she revealed such a pained expression. I didn’t expect that her childhood experience was so…
It appears that I have crossed the line with my actions.
“Your Highness, this subordinate has already investigated properly. The person who caused Su Xi-er to almost lose her life that year was the Pei Residence’s collateral branch. It was the Empress Dowager’s eldest paternal cousin, Pei Yong.”
“This prince has understood it clearly. Withdraw and prepare a few good-looking female dresses and send them here. Additionally, bring some white fungus lotus seed soup as well.
Wu Ling was dumbstruck. What! Female dresses and white fungus lotus seed soup? What does Prince Hao want to do?
“Quickly go.” Pei Qianhao swept a cold glance at him.
Wu Ling still hadn’t recovered from his astonishment. However, he didn’t dare to disobey Prince Hao’s instructions.
Hence, Wu Ling immediately accepted the order and left. Once again, I am doing things related to women. Sigh, these days, anything I do can only be associated with Su Xi-er.
Pei Qianhao turned around to look at the room, thinking about the woman lying inside it. Carefree times. I reckon it was before she was sold off by her parents right?
Neighbouring younger brother. Cotton candy. Yun. All of these are the most wonderful memories in her heart. Everything after that was only filled with pain.
That was why she would shout ‘yun’ with a face filled with despair. She will never be able to return to her carefree life, doomed to be haunted by those agonising memories.
However, Pei Qianhao didn’t know that this experience wasn’t Su Xi-er’s at all. In fact, the other soul that was now in Su Xi-er’s body had an even more wretched experience than this.
The pain that eroded her bones was like a nightmare that was hard to obliterate from her mind.
When Pei Qianhao returned to the room, Su Xi-er had gotten up. Due to the lack of suitable clothes however, she had remained in bed all this time.
“Don’t worry, this prince won’t let you go out while wearing this.”
“This servant’s clothes…”
“You might as well stop keeping that coarse attire. This isn’t Beimin’s imperial palace. Why don’t you wear what women should wear?”
Su Xi-er was just about to refuse when Pei Qianhao continued, “Didn’t you say that this prince loves beauties the most? Aren’t you afraid that this prince will fly into a temper and throw you to the wolves if you don’t wear some good looking clothes while by my side?
He is the most powerful here. I can’t disobey. If I insist on wearing the coarse attire, I wouldn’t put it past him to take it off and discard it
“This servant obeys Prince Hao’s instructions.”
Right after she spoke, there was another knock on the door, and Wu Ling’s voice could be heard. “Your Highness, the white fungus lotus seed soup is here. The dresses need to be bought at the silk mill.”
Pei Qianhao walked to the door to open it. He took the white fungus lotus seed soup and shut the door without uttering a single word.
(* The ‘yun’ mentioned here means clouds, but it can also be a surname.)
(** Just an affectionate term referring to a boy younger than her.)
