Shen Shijiu blinked twice, “Ah?”

His Lordship wanted him to get into bed with him? Shen Shijiu had only climbed onto the bed earlier in order to take off his clothes. Now that His Lordship was awake, the two of them shouldn’t be in the same bed, right?

Pei Zheng was still staring at Shen Shijiu, watching as his soft, fair face slowly flushed red- two rays of scarlet light floating over a patch of beautiful skin.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he didn’t have the strength to do so, Pei Zheng would have already grabbed him and pulled him into bed.

Shen Shijiu seemed to be mustering his courage, before he slowly stood up, and carefully climbed onto bed, mumbling to himself.

“His Lordship is injured, he needs someone to take care of him. I’m just taking care of him, I don’t… have any other intentions…”

He propped himself up, leaned over Pei Zheng, and prepared to roll onto the bed.

But the hem of his robe was in the way; Shen Shijiu’s legs accidentally tangled with it, and he fell forward.

He was afraid of falling onto Pei Zheng, so he hurriedly flopped toward the inside of the bed, and dove down, burying his head into the soft quilt.

There was a faint sandalwood fragrance on the quilt; it was the same scent that wafted from Pei Zheng’s body.

Shen Shijiu lifted his head from the blanket, and clambered into a sitting position.

“My Lord, did I fall onto any of your wounds?”

Pei Zheng thought for a bit. He didn’t speak, and merely frowned slightly.

That was a terrible thing to do, because it scared Shen Shijiu into thinking that Pei Zheng was actually in pain. He wanted to examine Pei Zheng, but was too scared to touch him.

“My Lord, I touched one of your wounds, didn’t I? Are you in a lot of pain?” Shen Shijiu looked like he was about to cry out of anxiety, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose…”

Pei Zheng clasped Shen Shijiu’s hand, and tapped his own chin.

Shen Shijiu looked at Pei Zheng with teary eyes, confused about the meaning of his gesture.

Pei Zheng tapped his chin again, and Shen Shijiu leaned a little closer.

“My Lord, is there something you want to say?”

Pei Zheng whispered something in Shen Shijiu’s ear, and Shen Shijiu immediately jerked away, his ears flushed bright red.

“W-what… That’s not… appropriate, is it…” Shen Shijiu stuttered, “Shifu never taught me that…”

Pei Zheng’s brows knitted again, and, as if that weren’t enough, he took a labored breath. Shen Shijiu heard it, and thought that His Lordship was in even more pain because of him.

He gasped several hurried breaths before he leaned down, and planted a soft kiss on the gauze over Pei Zheng’s shoulder blade.

It was a kiss as light as a feather, careful and tender.

“My Lord, does it feel better now?”

Shen Shijiu lifted his head to look at Pei Zheng, and saw that Pei Zheng’s creased brows had unknitted themselves, the corners of his lips were slightly raised, and a bit of life had returned to his paper-white complexion.

“My Lord smiled! You’re smiling, so that means it doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”

Shen Shijiu’s eyes also curved into crescents, and the brilliant smile that Pei Zheng hadn’t seen in a long while finally bloomed on his face.

That smile was like a warm current flowing through a frozen winter. It tore through the endless chaos and darkness, wrapping tightly around Pei Zheng’s frozen heart once more, allowing it to beat again.

How long had it been since he had seen this smile? How long had it been since he had seen the little prince that had been haunting his heart?

People who say that they hold nothing but bitterness inside only need a touch of sweetness to fill their hearts.

Pei Zheng was one of those people. His empty heart had been dark and damp, a place where sunlight couldn’t reach. Then, that small man gave him a touch of sweetness.

No, it was a lot of sweetness. It had filled his heart to the brim.

Pei Zheng suddenly felt that he had regained a bit of strength, and slowly supported himself to sit up.

Shen Shijiu had been leaning toward Pei Zheng. Now that Pei Zheng had leaned forward as well, they were face to face, and their mouths were almost touching.

Shen Shijiu’s little heart was beating wildly, and his speech was incoherent.

“My Lord, y-your wound, you can’t move, lie down and, don’t move, so it can heal properly… otherwise it’ll tear… that wouldn’t be good…”

Shen Shijiu hadn’t finished speaking, before he felt Pei Zheng closing in on him. He slowly backed away, continuing to shift backward, until his body was pressed up against the hard bedframe.

He could feel Pei Zheng’s soft, faint breaths, but they were so scorching hot that Shen Shijiu’s brain was about to be fried by them.

After moving around so much, the unbearable pain in the bloody hole on Pei Zheng’s shoulder blade had returned; perhaps the wound had actually torn.

But Shen Huan was right about him; he didn’t care about his body at all. If he was in pain, then so be it. If his wound was torn, then so be it.

He lowered his head slightly, gazing at those soft, moist, scarlet lips. They were like charming flowers that could tempt people without meaning to. Shen Shijiu, pinned under Pei Zheng’s eyes, even licked his lips in nervousness.

Pei Zheng quickly leaned down and pressed his lips against Shen Shijiu’s own red ones, their mouths gently rubbing together.

Shen Shijiu wanted to push Pei Zheng away, but he was too scared to move, fearing that he would disturb Pei Zheng’s wounds, and could only endure the kiss through sobs.

After a long while, a thin layer of cold sweat coated Pei Zheng’s back. All the strength left his body and he slowly collapsed back onto the bed.

Shen Shijiu hurriedly checked his pulse; something wasn’t right, why was it so fast?

“My Lord, my Lord, are you uncomfortable? I’ll get shifu to come and take a look at you, okay?”

As he spoke, Shen Shijiu was about to turn over and get off the bed to look for Shen Huan, but Pei Zheng caught his sleeve.

“No need.”

“But your pulse is beating very quickly.”

Pei Zheng tapped his sternum, “That’s because this place is beating very quickly.”

Shen Shijiu bent over and leaned toward Pei Zheng’s chest, and strained his ears to listen. Indeed, the heart within it was beating a little faster than usual.

Shen Shijiu touched his own chest. His little heart was thumping even faster than Pei Zheng’s.

“My Lord, you should just rest. I really shouldn’t disturb you anymore. You have to sleep well in order for your wounds to heal quickly.”

Shen Shijiu tried to get off the bed again.

Pei Zheng didn’t speak, and instead lifted his leg, hooking that soft little body and scooping it back onto the bed.

In order to prevent him from trying to get out of bed again, Pei Zheng pressed his legs over Shen Shijiu’s, before he waved his hand, and the candles in the room were instantly extinguished.

Everything was pitch-black, and Shen Shijiu’s legs were now squished under Pei Zheng’s. The truth was, if Shen Shijiu used enough strength, Pei Zheng wouldn’t be able to restrain him in his current condition.

“My Lord… I…”

“I’m tired. Time to sleep.”

Then, Pei Zheng really did fall silent; it seemed that he had actually gone to sleep.

Shen Shijiu could only carefully try to extract his legs out from under Pei Zheng’s.

His shifu had told him before that people couldn’t share a bed unless they were married. Otherwise, it would be wildly improper.

But Shen Shijiu had only just freed part of his leg, before an arm shot over from the side and restrained his upper body.

Then, he heard Pei Zheng whisper sleepily.

“It hurts…”

Shen Shijiu immediately froze and didn’t dare to move again.

What the hell was he supposed to do? His Lordship seemed to have fallen asleep already, and Shen Shijiu couldn’t just shove him away, lest he cause Pei Zheng more pain by touching another one of his numerous wounds.

Then what can I do? How can I get up without disturbing His Lordship?

Shen Shijiu pondered his predicament for a bit, and slowly lost his ability to think. It was late at night, and he was also extremely sleepy. After a little while, his breathing gradually evened out.

He slept until the afternoon of the next day. The sun was high in the sky when Shen Shijiu finally groaned and slowly awakened.

As he opened his eyes, he saw the unfamiliar bed curtain above his head. Shen Shijiu blinked for a long while, still not realizing where he was, before he sat up with a blank stare.

He glanced left and right, and finally remembered that he was in His Lordship’s room, on His Lordship’s bed, and had “accidentally” fallen asleep on it.

Suddenly, Shen Shijiu’s eyes widened. The person standing in the center of the room, staring at him, was none other than his beloved shifu, Shen Huan.

“Shifu…” Shen Shijiu didn’t know why, but he felt a bit guilty. What was he feeling guilty about?

Also, where did His Lordship go?

“My good disciple, who are you looking for?” Shen Huan was all smiles, but Shen Shijiu knew that his shifu was angry.

“I wasn’t looking for anyone, shifu.”

“Hmph! You better not be!” The smile on Shen Huan’s face was wiped away. She walked to the side of the bed and poked Shen Shijiu’s little head.

“I spent so much effort to save him, and I’ve raised and treasured my little disciple for the past three years, yet he wants to steal him away! Hmph! He wishes! He can keep dreaming!”

Shen Huan became more and more animated as she spoke, “The Prime Minister’s Manor is amazing, it’s amazing, they can just have anyone they want, utterly lawless! Hmph! My little disciple is so pretty, how could I let them see him? I knew that exposing his face would lead to problems!”

Shen Huan grabbed Shen Shijiu’s little chin, and scanned his face.

“Telling me to make him an uglier mask, I don’t need you to tell me what to do! I’m not listening to you! I’d like to see how you’ll deal with me then! Hmph!”

Shen Huan continued to talk to herself, but it also seemed like these words were directed toward someone.

Shen Shijiu was still hazy with sleepiness, and allowed Shen Huan to fiddle with his face.

“Disciple, come with me!”

Shen Huan led Shen Shijiu to the pharmaceutical room. In truth, she had almost finished making the mask. It was a little different from the previous one, but no one could tell.

Shen Shijiu put on the mask; it really did look a bit different. Before, his appearance had always been bland and unassuming, but now, his face seemed a bit more attractive; after looking at him for a while, perhaps one would find him to be rather pretty.

But of course, this mask couldn’t compare to the face beneath it.

Shen Huan looked at her masterpiece and nodded. Very good, people would sense that something had changed, but they wouldn’t be able to put their finger on it. They would only be able to tell that he had become prettier.

All this, just to enrage Pei Zheng.

***

When Pei Zheng walked out of the manor’s secret dungeon, there was still blood dripping down his fair cheeks. Cheng Feng passed him a handkerchief to wipe it away.

After resting for a night, and taking the various pills that Shen Huan had given him, Pei Zheng already felt much better, and felt that he had recovered a bit of strength. Although he still couldn’t circulate his internal energy, he could walk normally now.

As he neared the pharmaceutical room, he saw Shen Huan and Shen Shiijiu, who had just exited the room.

The small man was wearing a mask again. Why was it the same one? Didn’t he tell Shen Huan to make it a bit uglier?

And why did his face look even more delicate and adorable?

Pei Zheng shook his head. Perhaps it was because he could no longer look at the small man with unbiased eyes; even if his face was disfigured, he would always be that bright, beautiful existence in Pei Zheng’s heart.

When Shen Shijiu saw Pei Zheng, his eyes unconsciously lit up.

“My Lord, you can already walk, you’re amazing!”

The corners of Shen Huan’s mouth twitched. Pei Zheng’s amazing? Shouldn’t you be praising me for my amazing clinical skills?

Pei Zheng was mature enough to say to Shen Huan, “I must thank Master Shen for your help.”

Shen Huan pretended to stroke her beard, and said, “It was nothing.”

Pei Zheng nodded, before he reached out and grabbed Shen Shijiu.

“Then I’ll be borrowing your disciple for a little longer.”

Notes

I’m on break now, so chapters will probably be out a bit faster YAYYYYYYYYYYY

Thanks for reading~