Chapter 62

In the darkness, only the candlelight in the pavilions on the lake gleamed into the cave of the rockery. Lingxiao and Zixiu had been waiting here for a long time, but Lianshan hadn’t come yet.

From time to time there was a commotion across the lake. Though they couldn’t see those people clearly, they saw rows of lanterns moving. It seemed that news of Prince Mu’s awakening would soon reach the imperial palace.

Lingxiao leaped onto the tree again, looking in the direction of the bedroom of Prince Mu. He had asked Lianshan to get all the needles out of Nangong Du and meet them at twelve o’clock. Half an hour had passed, but Lianshan hadn’t shown up yet. If people of the imperial palace learned Prince Mu was awake, Zixiu’s chances of getting out of the mansion would be slim.

“How is it going?” As soon as Lingxiao jumped down from the tree, Zixiao asked anxiously. He couldn’t help but grow tension when he heard that Nangong Du had woken up, worrying that once he was caught, he might be… “No! That‘s not going to happen!”

“I’m going to take you out of here first!” Lingxiao was aware that they couldn’t wait here anymore.

“But Lianshan hasn’t come to meet us yet!”

“Lianshan is good at combat and those ordinary guards can’t do anything to him. Let’s go!” With that, Lingxiao wrapped Zixiu’s waist with his arm and was about to bounce up. However, before he could use his Qing Kung, he suddenly held his breath.

As he heard the sound of clothes flapping in the wind, he felt a familiar aura approaching.

Sure enough, his senior brother, Luo Huali, appeared in front of him the next second.

“Yan Lingxiao, what are you doing?” Luo Huali said grumpily.

“Hey, Senior Brother!” Breathing a sigh of relief, Lingxiao casually greeted him with a smile, as if he had just come across Luo Huali in the street. However, he didn’t withdraw his hand from Zixiu’s waist, and it was obvious that he was declaring to his senior brother that Xiuxiu was his!

As it was so dark, Zixiu didn’t see clearly the person who was talking to Lingxiao. When he heard Lingxiao address that person as Senior Brother, he felt his heart skip a beat. Looking at him carefully, he found it was none other than the mysterious guard who had given him a box of ointment days ago. “Senior Brother…” Zixiu muttered with his eyes widened.

“Are you going to take Zixiu out of the mansion?” Without looking at Zixiu, Huali still fixed his gaze on Lingxiao, but from the corner of his eyes, he saw Lingxiao’s hand resting on Zixiu’s waist, which made him burn with jealousy. “Seems I’ve missed the opportunity to confess my love to Zixiu. I have only myself to blame for being so dumb!”

Watching the melancholy look on Huali’s face, Lingxiao knew his purpose had been achieved. He then put away his uninhibited smile and said seriously, “Senior Brother, time is running out. Can we talk about it outside?”

Hearing that, Huali came back to his senses in an instant, but he couldn’t remember what he was about to say until he saw Lingxiao leaving with Zixiu in his arms. “You can’t leave like this!” he stopped them in a gruff voice.

Lingxiao and Zixiu turned around synchronously, astonished.

“Why?” Lingxiao asked impatiently. “Hasn’t Senior Brother realized that Zixiu didn’t marry Prince Mu of his own will?” he wondered.

“Zixiu is the princess now, so if you take him away, the consequence could be serious!” Huali said with a solemn expression. On his way back to Luanzhou, he had heard that Prince Mu was poisoned and Princess Liuxu narrowly escaped assassination. It had never occurred to him that so many terrible things would have happened just a few days after he had left the mansion. He really regretted having left so hastily!

“Zixiu is not the princess. He’s my fiancée!” The very mention of the word ‘princess’ made Lingxiao fly into a rage in an instant.

With a calm look, Huali continued, “It’s up to Nangong Du whether Zixiu is the princess or not! If you take Zixiu out on a whim, ten thousand of wanted notices for the kidnapper of Princess Liuxu will be posted all over the country tomorrow!”

“After leaving Luanzhou, Zixiu and I will get as far away as we can and Princess Liuxu will have nothing to do with us anymore!”

“Really? Then what about Lianshan?”

“I’m going to pick him up after I find Zixiu a safe place!”

“Your plan is perfect, but you still underestimated Nangong Du. Lianshan is in his hand now!”

Following the route they took as they came out, the three of them crossed the lake and made their way quietly through the window to the princess’s bedroom, like ghosts.

The house was dead silent and the maidservant, Ruoqin, who had passed on messages, wasn’t there.

Unable to hold back his anger anymore, Lingxiao picked up a teacup from the table and crushed it into pieces with his hand, as if it were Nangong Du.

Seeing that, Zixiu, who was standing next to him, was frightened out of his skin. He was aware that the two must be martial artists in legend. However, after having been with them for so long, he hadn’t told his senior brothers that he had lost his memory three years ago, and the name Luo Huali and Yan Lingxiao didn’t ring any bells for him!

Though he was clear that the truth would come to light sooner or later, he was worried that if he came clean and the two found out that they had mistaken him for someone else, they might refrain from the idea of helping him out and leave in an instant.

After wrestling with himself for a while, Zixiu turned to Lingxiao again. However, when he saw this martial artist crumbed another white fine teacup, he swallowed hard in a panic and finally forced back all his words.

Luo Huali had been silent since he entered the room, without daring look at Zixiu.

At this point, the sounds of footsteps suddenly rang outside. Holding their breath, Huali and Lingxiao immediately ducked behind the curtain quietly.

“Your Highness, Prince Mu is awake. He wants to see you!” It was Ruoqin who was speaking. As Nangong Du once gave orders that ordinary maidservants were not allowed into princess Liuxu’s bedroom, although the ‘princess’ didn’t respond to her when she called her half an hour ago, Ruoqin didn’t dare enter the inner room. Therefore, she didn’t know that the ‘princess’ had been out at all!

Zixiu knew nothing about this, and as he had just learned from Luo Huali that Lianshan was detained, he thought it would be dangerous to go to Nangong Du’s place for the moment. Having no idea what to do, he looked back at Lingxiao and Huali, who were hiding behind the curtain.

Unfortunately, both of his two senior brothers were staring at the maidservant with a grim look, so they didn’t notice Zixiu was looking at them for help. Zixiu had to decide for himself. “Really? I’ll be right there!” he said as if he were very excited at this piece of news.

Along the way to the bedroom of Prince Mu, at regular intervals, there was a huge luxuriously decorated lantern, which lit the surroundings as brightly as day. The further Zixiu went, the brighter it became. However, in Zixiu’s eyes, these lanterns were more like the eerie devil-fire which would lead him to hell!

Since he “married” into the Prince Mu’s Mansion, Nangong Du hadn’t assigned him any attendants except for Xingyi as his personal maidservant. Therefore, even Lingxiao and Huali wanted to escort him by changing their appearances into his footmen or maidservants’, they wouldn’t have a chance. Seemingly Zixiu had to go alone. Only then did he understand the meaning of the old saying ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’! “But why was neither of the two willing to change his appearance into mine to meet their rival in love?” Zixiu wondered.

“Your Highness, here comes Princess Liuxu!”

When Zixiu walked into the room, he found in surprise that it was Xingyi who was speaking. Zixiu blinked as if he had figured out something.

Though Nangong Du only waved his hand slightly in bed, except for Zixiu, everyone walked out quietly with their heads lowered. Standing in the middle of the room, Zixiu was so scared that his legs couldn’t help trembling. Biting his lip for a long time, he finally spat out two words, “Your Highness!”

He heard himself speaking in a shaking voice.

After a while, the room remained quiet. Nangong Du neither spoke nor moved.

“Has he fainted again?” Standing there with butterflies in his stomach, Zixiu began to make wild guesses.

When he was indulged in himself, Nangong Du suddenly turned around, his face as pale as that of the bedridden!

“Come over!” Though he seemed very weak, he spoke in his usual commanding tone.

“Even if he were a wolf, he should be less powerful than usual.” After hesitating for a while, Zixiu plucked up his courage and moved to the bed slowly.

To his surprise, as soon as he sat down, Nangong Du suddenly reached out and covered his hands. Sensing his fingers as cold as ice, Zixiu couldn’t help but shiver. He withdrew his hands instinctively and folded them in front of his own chest.

Instead of yelling at him or trying to attack him as usual, the patient in bed fell into a long silence, staring at him with his slightly puffy eyes without blinking, as if a person who died with his eyes open with everlasting regret.

Unable to stand Nangong Du gazing at him this way, Zixiu offered to put his trembling hands into the latter’s. Zixiu wondered if it was merely an illusion, but he seemed to have seen that the pervert was smiling at him!

Holding his hands, Nangong Du looked at him for so long that Zixiu almost fell asleep. “Water…” Nangong Du spat out the word feebly through his pale lips.

Coming back to his senses, Zixiu rose to his feet and was about to fetch water, but Nangong Du showed no intent to loosen his grip. No matter how hard he tried, Zixiu couldn’t withdraw his hands.

“How strange! This jerk’s voice is as faint as the drone of a mosquito, but how come his hands are still so powerful? Is he faking it?”

However, even if that was the case, Zixiu could do nothing to him. “Maidservant!” He had to sit by the bed and ask someone in to help.

A moment later, a maidservant came in. It wasn’t Xingyi, but Tinglan. “Your Highness!” she said while bowing to the ‘princess’ respectfully.

“Go fetch some water for His Highness! Hurry up!” Zixiu ordered in haste as if he cared about the prince very much.

“Yes!” Tinglan answered obediently and brought a cup of warm water in the blink of an eye.

As Nangong Du still held his hands tight, Zixiu couldn’t take the teacup, so he asked Tinglan to feed the prince, but Tinglan didn’t dare to do so. Having no choice, Zixiu had to scoop up a spoonful of water and sent it to Nangong Du’s lips.

Watching the pervert wrapping the spoon with his mouth, Zixiu suddenly recalled the moment when he was fed with soup. With his heart trembling, he got goosebumps all over in an instant. “What am I doing?”