Chapter 21

A dead mouse feels no cold. As he had prepared himself for the worst, Zixiu was utterly fearless at the moment. Lifting his head up high stubbornly, he stood in the water with his hands on his hips until Nangong Du’s voice suddenly rang coldly, “Clean yourself up, or you are not gonna sleep in bed tonight!”

“Why should I do that myself ?” Zixiu was still a little bit irritated, so he immediately shot back without a second thought. No sooner had he said this than he began to regret it, wishing he had bitten his tongue off! Who else did he want to bath him except for himself?

“Seems like my tolerance towards you has gone the wrong way!” Nangong Du wasn’t easy to mess with and it was already a miracle that he didn’t lash out just now. Clearly, he wouldn’t put up with the haughtiness of this audacious rebel from nowhere anymore.

“Get your arse over here!” Nangong Du said grumpily. Seeing the coldness flashing in his slightly narrowed eyes, Zixiu couldn’t help shivering. Now that his courage to put up a desperate fight with this pervert had nearly gone, he was overwhelmed by panic again and kind of wanted to flee.

After a moment of deadlock, Nangong Du suddenly raised his voice to the point of roaring. “Come over!”

“I’m not deaf!” Zixiu dared not confront Nangong Du in his face for fear that he would kill him in a fit of rage, so he had to compromise for the time being. However, he remained haughty for the sake of his poor dignity. He complained wrathfully while moving towards Nangong Du slowly, feigning his composure, “Don’t you see I’m walking over? What are you yelling for? You…”

“Zip it!” Before he could finish his words, Nangong Du suddenly cut in on him.

“Humph!” Resentful as he was, Zixiu stopped talking obediently. Swearing at Nangong Du inwardly, he failed to notice that the latter had reached out his leg in the water covered with rose petals!

After lurching a few steps forward, Zixiu suddenly tripped over something, which made him lose his balance and fall into the arms of Nangong. “Pa!” The next second, he felt a pat on his ass.

“Ah!” Letting out a scream out of fear, Zixiu struggled desperately, trying to break free from Nangong Du’s grip, but his efforts were in vain.

“Honey, it seems you’re reluctant to bath yourself, so let me do it for you!” Nangong Du said, running his fingers down Zixiu’s waist.

“Your… Your Highness, don’t bother! I… I’ll get it done myself. Don’t bother…” Could there have been anyone in the world more hapless than him? Zixiu wished he were dead. “Your… Your Highness, please let go of me…”

“Don’t think I can do that now!” Nangong Du said with a snort.

An hour later, as it was completely dark outside, candles were lit up in the princess’s bedroom decorated with red silky ribbons. Xingyi, who had just been sent here to serve the ‘princess’ in the morning, was dressing the ‘princess’ up after ‘her’ bath.

The ‘princess’ had already changed to a bright pink silk skirt and now ‘she’ was sitting still on the chair with ‘her’ gaze fixed on the bronze mirror in front of ‘her’.

At the same time, the prince was resting on the soft couch with his eyes closed while the maidservants carefully waited on him, massaging his legs, cooling down the air and repelling the mosquitoes for him.

“Your Highness, you’re such a born beauty with gorgeous temperament! I’m so lucky to have the chance to serve you!” After inserting the last gold hairpin into Zixiu’s hair, Xingyi looked at him with a smug expression, as if admiring her own masterpiece. People who didn’t know her well would think she was flattering the new princess to show her loyalty!

Nangong Du was clear this girl was not only showing off her amazing makeup techniques but was humiliating Liu Zixiu as well. However, Zixiu didn’t respond to any of her words.

As he had been drugged by that witch the day before, Zixiu hadn’t seen himself cross-dressed by now. What was more, having been tortured by Nangong Du for a whole day, he was not in the mood to admire his own reflection. And the only reason he had himself firmly settled in that chair was that he had been stupefied by the indescribable pretty face in the mirror!

The silky hair, the delicate brows, the rosy cheeks with a glow, the tempting red lips, the even white teeth… “Heavens! Is this beauty in the mirror really me?” Zixiu still could hardly believe what he saw.

“Something tells me you don’t like the way you’re dressed up, darling.” After a while, Nangong Du motioned the maidservants to leave before he came up behind Zixiu.

“Darling?” Zixiu couldn’t help frowning at the thought of this ambiguous address. Associating it with the way he was dressed up, he instantly got goosebumps all over.

“Darling, I remember you telling me you were hungry, but it looks like you’ve filled yourself by merely appreciating your own reflection and don’t need dinner.” Seeing Zixiu in a daze in front of the mirror, Nangong Du couldn’t help making fun of him again.

“Dinner?” Zixiu paused for a moment before he suddenly realized he was starving to death. “I do! I need dinner!” he answered in haste, as if afraid that there would be no food for him. “My beauty won’t feed me! Bah! I’m not a woman! Why on earth would I mention ‘beauty’ and myself in the same breath?” he immediately corrected himself.