Chapter 59

For some reason, Qingwu found herself unconsciously nestling into Pei Muchis embrace.

Being held by his long arms gave her a strange sense of security, as though all her lingering temper had suddenly melted away, leaving no room for venting.

"Lord, the people from the prefecture office are urging us, asking what time we can cross over," An Qi asked this time, having learned his lesson, as he leaned against the window frame and spoke inward.

Pei Muchis walked out of the carriage and helped Qingwu down the steps.

"Let them wait."

Until he received the news he was waiting for, he had no intention of dipping a toe into those muddy waters anytime soon.

The inn had been booked out long in advance, and the ordinary errand boys were not permitted up to the second floor. The innkeeper came up personally to ask what the two guests might require.

"Send up a tub of clean hot water."

Upon hearing this, Qingwu immediately tried to leap down from his lap.

In truth, her limbs had already grown weak and boneless inside the carriage, and the desperate strength she used to break away felt now more like a reluctant refusal that invited further pursuit.

Pei Muchis effortlessly caught her slender waist and pressed her back against his chest. "Wet clothes are uncomfortable. Wash up and then you can sleep."

Though murmured in an alluring, low tone, the words set Qingwu's temper ablaze.

The contraceptive decoctions Du Jin had given her—which she had fed to him—were originally meant for her own bodily health and pleasure, but she never expected they would now serve as this scoundrel's unbridled backing, emboldening him to devise new and humiliating tricks time and again.

"Then why did you bother dressing me up like this?"

Clearly having no intention of taking her along to the prefecture office, he had still wasted time in the carriage combing her hair and winding it into a bun, all for naught.

Qingwu began to pull apart the elaborate chignon on her head, casually tossing the plucked hairpins onto the table without a shred of care.

"The prefecture banquet is terribly dull. At first, I did want Her Highness to accompany me." Seeing her tugging with increasing impatience, her silky hair tangling hopelessly under her rough handling, Pei Muchis gently stopped her hands and personally unpinned her hair ornaments.

When her full cascade of hair spilled down freely, he coated the ends with coconut oil before continuing, "However, the moment I recalled the way the Prefect of Quanzhou looked at you this morning, I decided I didn't want you to go after all."

A government banquet inevitably featured singing and dancing girls to accompany the male guests. While he could easily dismiss them, he feared it would displease Qingwu.

"Fickle and unpredictable." Qingwu snatched her hair back from his hands and spat out the words.

Pei Muchis laughed in exasperation. Just as he pinched the nape of her neck, a knock sounded at the door.

"Speak from right outside," Pei Muchis said, his hand resting on Qingwu's thigh, unwilling to let anyone catch even a glimpse of her current appearance.

The voice outside belonged to someone Qingwu had never heard before—a hoarse rasp reminiscent of a withered, decaying old man half-buried in the earth, clearly altered through some special technique to disguise the speaker's true timbre.

"Lord, the person has already been released, but a mishap occurred midway, and we lost the trail."

Pei Muchis's expression remained unchanged as his fingers gently tapped the outer curve of Qingwu's thigh. "Has the news of my presence in Quanzhou been spread?"

"Strategist Gu has already arranged it. That person will undoubtedly make their way to Quanzhou in the end."

Xizhi and Xixing labored together to carry in the wooden tub. The voice outside belonged to someone lurking in the dim shadows of the door frame like a blurred silhouette of ink. "This subordinate has watched for days without any other anomalies, but since this happened so suddenly, I await the Lord's decision."

"The plan remains unchanged," Pei Muchis said evenly.

Immobilized by his hold, Qingwu reached down to brush away the lingering tickle on her thigh.

Though he seemed to exert little force, there was subtle leverage in his palm that made escape impossible, forcing her to lift her chin and try to read his expression.

Calm and gentle, yet deep within his eyes lay an unfathomable, oppressive majesty.

He was different from before, after all.

Or perhaps, this was his true nature all along, and his former demeanor had merely been a temporary, perfunctory disguise.

Qingwu began to untie the sash of her outer robe. Pei Muchis glanced down and instructed the person outside, "Withdraw. Return in half an hour."

Hooking his fingers into the waistband at her back, he moved with effortless grace. The complex ribbons slipped easily from his fingertips, and moments later her inner garment dropped to the floor, revealing a vast expanse of snow-white, luminous skin.

Qingwu quickly stepped into the wooden tub, hoping to sit along the rim and escape his scrutiny.

As the hot water rose past her lower abdomen, she frowned slightly.

"Sore back?" Pei Muchis followed closely behind, his palm, slightly roughened with calluses, pressing against the small of her back and kneading slowly. "It won't happen next time."

It was unclear whether his words meant it wouldn't happen in a jolting carriage, or that he wouldn't use that particular posture again.

She couldn't be bothered to guess.

Qingwu closed her eyes and ignored him, choosing out of sight, out of mind.

After a long while, sensing no movement beside her, she turned her head. "Why are you still standing guard here?"

He had mysteriously vanished for several hours that afternoon, and now his subordinates reported some unexpected mishap; logically, he should have rushed out to handle it. Why was he still lingering here like a bath attendant? It wasn't as if she could vanish into thin air a second time.

Seeing her ungrateful expression, Pei Muchis felt a momentary knot in his chest.

"I can't rest easy leaving you behind."

Though it was true he had been unwilling to take Qingwu to the prefecture office, he still worried she wouldn't be safe alone at the inn.

After all, his weak spot was far too obvious; anyone with eyes knew how to manipulate him.

Pei Muchis picked up a bath towel, wrapped her in it, lifted her onto the bed, and gently dried her damp hair, the tenderness in his eyes overflowing. "Wait right here. I'm leaving Xixing to guard you. Do not easily trust anyone, and do not go out on your own."

"Understood, hurry off." The distance between them was far too close, and fearing he might conceive some other absurd notion, Qingwu urged him away.

A flicker crossed the depths of Pei Muchis's eyes. "You're so eager for me to leave?"

He gathered the long locks in his palm, looped them around her neck to rest against her chest, and pressed his palm flat against the space between her shoulder blades, tracing the protruding bone of her spine.

"You!"

Just as Qingwu turned her head to block his next move, she felt a surge of hidden internal force transmitted through his palm.

The point of contact felt as scorching as if seared by fire. A gentle stream of internal energy coursed through her fatigued meridians and flowed into her elixir field, much like a spring of clear water pouring into a parched field.

Pei Muchis's carriage and demeanor remained elegant, but his complexion slowly turned pale, tinged with the faint aura of an unhealed illness.

"Your Highness is well-versed in combat forms, but a girl's strength is naturally limited. If you encounter a man with brute force, you might lack the power to strike back," he said, his tone steeped in a mist of heartfelt earnestness. "I will share half of my internal energy with you so you can feel more secure when traveling outside."

He pressed several acupoints on her body, and the soreness left by the carriage ride slowly dissipated, bringing a flush of rosy color to Qingwu's cheeks.

The moonlight was crystalline and bright, its pure glow flowing like water as it quietly slipped into the room, draping everything in a tranquil atmosphere.

With his eyes half-closed, his cold, pale face devoid of expression, Pei Muchis's body trembled slightly, as though enduring immense agony.

He could not wait for Qingwu to slowly resolve those conflicting forces on her own, so he had directly compressed his own internal energy into a current of air she could absorb, condensing it before channeling it into her.

This was a gravely harmful practice; no one who practiced martial arts would ever transfer inner force in such a manner.

His fingertips gradually grew cold, as though frozen by biting snow. The ethereal and handsome refinement of his features drained of blood, casting a poignant, shattered beauty around him.

Once he withdrew his power, his tall, slender figure swayed slightly.

Because Qingwu had long harbored resentment toward him for destroying all her martial arts, she did not push him away when she realized his intent. Only after steadily settling the pure inner force he had transferred did she slowly open her eyes.

Pei Muchis half-propped up his upper body, leaning lazily and leisurely against the bedpost, gazing steadily and affectionately at Qingwu as though nothing were amiss.

Dewdrops clung to her eyelashes, and the incomprehension and confusion in her eyes were plainly exposed now that she had opened them. At the same time, a warm current in her chest beat against her shores like relentless waves.

Though she recited countless thoughts in her mind, she quietly reined them in, smoothing away her complicated emotions.

Even though Pei Muchis had explicitly stated why he was doing this, she still stared blankly into his deep, slightly fatigued eyes, trying to verify something.

Did he truly feel... that way toward her?

Yet in the very beginning, she had clearly only been doing it to satisfy her own desire for conquest.

"Are you—all right?"

Although this gesture would not dispel her desire to eventually distance herself from the imperial court, Pei Muchis had done nothing to harm her along this journey, and in many instances had even depleted his own strength to help her.

Qingwu was not a cold-blooded or heartless person; a certain part of her heart was undeniably moved.

"Is Her Highness moved?" Pei Muchis let out a muffled chuckle.

Qingwu folded her palms together, sensing the manageable internal energy stirring within her elixir field, and finally offered him a slightly more favorable expression.

She hadn't expected him to push his luck.

"Does Your Highness want me to return quickly?"

Rolling her eyes slightly, Qingwu retorted with a trace of annoyance, "Are you going or not?"

Just then, a voice drifted in from outside: "Lord, the time has come, and everything has been arranged."

Though the timbre was new, Qingwu felt certain it belonged to the same person who had come earlier.

It must be someone quite extraordinary to constantly disguise their vocal cords and speak in entirely different voices.

Ignoring her wandering thoughts, Pei Muchis asked her once more, "I'll quickly settle things outside and come back to keep you company. All right?"

His eyes locked onto her cherry lips, filled with anticipation and laden with a deeper meaning.

He looked as though he would refuse to leave unless he heard the answer he wanted.

Fearing he would stir up some unbearable commotion once more, Qingwu gritted her teeth and said, "All right."

"All right what? Do you want me to return?" Mindful of the person outside the door, Pei Muchis deliberately lowered his voice, causing the distance between them to close even further.

Qingwu shrank back.

Most of his subordinates knew her true identity, and she had no wish to lose her composure or cause bizarre scenes in front of this group of people.

Pei Muchis smiled, brushing his fingers across her delicate neck as his breath grazed her lips.

His intentionally subdued breathing closely wrapped around her earlobe, feeling like a soft ball of cotton rubbing gently against her skin—soft and comfortable, yet carrying a flustering, tantalizing itch.

Watching his Adam's apple bob, Qingwu gave a sudden start and blurted out, "I want you back, okay?"

Expecting him to torment her a little longer for such a perfunctory answer, she was surprised when the dark, ink-like depths of his gaze dissolved, and he let her off the hook.

"Wait for me."

Dressed in attire different from his usual daily wear—the dark, mysterious robes embroidered with soaring black dragons entirely transforming his gentle temperament, while his half-loosened black hair combined gentleness and fierce resolve without a hint of dissonance—he looked breathtaking.

As he lowered his gaze through half-closed eyes, his thin lips pressed tightly together, radiating an entirely unfamiliar, profound, and unfathomable aura.

Watching his disguise with complete indifference, and connecting it to his sudden change of heart and the inexplicable transfer of inner force, a suspicion arose in her mind: did he already know what was going to happen, and was he deliberately giving her the means to protect herself?

"Is there a place for me in your plan?"

Pei Muchis's hands trembled slightly as he folded his wide, magnificent sleeves, speaking only to soothe her.

"I will handle everything."

Beneath his serene countenance, his raven-feathered eyelashes cast long, feather-like shadows, acting like a barrier that concealed all emotion in the depths of his eyes.

Adjusting her collar, Qingwu pushed open half of the window lattice and watched Pei Muchis's carriage vanish from sight.

Just as she intended to close the window and rest, a hand suddenly clamped over her mouth and nose.

Xixing broke through the door, only to catch sight of fluttering robes leaping out from the wide-open window, skirts dancing wildly in the wind like a fully bloomed flower.