"I won't drink it," Chu Huaixu said. "The ice will melt by then, and the taste will change."
"You're so delicate," Xiao Wu couldn't help but complain. "Only we adults can afford to take care of you, so you should just stay by our side."
He boldly exclaimed, "The master likes you so much that if you wanted the moon in the sky, he would find a way to get it for you."
Chu Huaixu kicked him in the waist: "What nonsense are you spouting? Be careful or I'll rip your tongue out. If he had the ability to pluck the moon from the sky, he wouldn't be Commander Song, he'd be Immortal Song! Besides, what would I do with that damn moon!"
Xiao Wu was initially quite intimidated by him, but after a while, she realized that this person was actually just like her family's adults—tough on the outside but soft on the inside—so she wasn't afraid of him anymore and ran away laughing and joking.
As soon as he turned around, he was met with his master's gloomy gaze. Under the scorching sunlight, Xiao Wu was so frightened that he trembled and stammered, "M-Master."
Song Ting stared at him intently: "What are you talking about?"
They're saying you didn't seem like a living person a few years ago.
Of course, he dared not say this in front of Song Ting. Xiao Wu looked up and down, his eyes darting around: "It's nothing, it's just... Young Master Huaiyue was worried that you were hot, so he ordered me to bring you some sweet soup."
After a bowl of chilled sweet soup, Commander Song felt much better: "Go ahead, keep an eye on the people."
"How about I switch with you, sir? I'll serve the porridge, and you can keep an eye on it yourself. I'm afraid if Young Master Huaiyue gets a hair on his head from the heat, you'll have to hold me accountable later."
Song Ting: "..."
Song Ting really wanted to whip the person away, but he had to admit that he was very tempted by the proposal.
The situation at Baima Temple was turbulent and unpredictable. He could hardly foresee what awaited him and Huaixu tomorrow. At this moment, time seemed to have been stolen, and there was a rare sense of peace.
Song Ting handed the soup ladle forward and instructed, "Don't let anything go wrong."
Xiao Wu grinned and assured him, "Don't worry about me, let's go, let's go!"
...
He didn't feel much heat on the mountain, but once he came down, he felt sticky and uncomfortable. Chu Huaixu rolled up his sleeves and leaned lazily against a tree trunk, with a group of cicadas chirping incessantly overhead.
He casually swatted a mosquito that had landed on his arm, his lips twitching unhappily as he scratched at the spot.
Suddenly, a pair of hands reached out and rolled up his sleeves again: "Be careful not to get sunburned."
Chu Huaixu lifted his eyelids, meeting Song Ting's dark and deep gaze, a barely perceptible smile curving his lips as he sneered at him:
"Whether they're worried about me getting sunburned or they're unhappy about others looking at me, the adults know the answer."
Song Ting did not deny it. Her gaze paused when she saw the red mark on Huai Xu's arm. Then she took out a small medicine bottle from her pocket, applied some medicine to her fingertip, and carefully applied it to the red mark.
The ointment doesn't smell unpleasant; on the contrary, it has a light, pleasant fragrance. It feels cool and comfortable on the skin, and it immediately stops the unbearable itching.
"You get upset just because I said something to you?" Chu Huaixu asked with great interest.
Song Ting lowered her eyes, her face expressionless: "No."
"Then who are you trying to impress with that long face?"
"I just feel sorry for him."
"What's bothering you?" Chu Huaixu raised his arm. "It's not because you got bitten by a mosquito, is it?"
Song Ting pursed her lips, tacitly agreeing.
Chu Huaixu pulled his arm back, kicked Song Ting in the stomach with his toe, and laughed with his head tilted back:
"Why bother with such pretense, sir? When you severed my tendons, you didn't even blink."
"My lord, do you know the feeling of a sharp knife cutting into your bones? It hurts far more than a mosquito bite, it's unbearable..."
He pointed his finger at Song Ting's chest, his gaze turning icy. "It makes life worse than death."
What happened back then is still a thorn in Song Ting's heart, and the slightest movement causes it to bleed profusely.
With red-rimmed eyes, he grasped the man's wrist, gently stroking it with his fingertips. Several times he wanted to speak but then pursed his lips and clenched his teeth tightly.
Chu Huaixu didn't struggle, but lowered his eyes and stared, waiting to see how this person would try to explain himself with flowery words.
But then he realized that the place where his fingertips had passed was exactly where the cloud-patterned dagger had slashed him years ago.
Chu Huaixu subconsciously clenched his fists, the areas that had been touched involuntarily tensing up, and he bit down hard with his teeth.
Just a moment ago I felt unbearably hot, but now I feel a bone-chilling cold, as if I had been thrown into an icy lake in the dead of winter.
Memories pierced his heart like sharp blades. Chu Huaixu saw himself five years ago, a mangled and helpless figure, in so much pain.
But all the pain is nothing compared to even one ten-thousandth of the pain of being betrayed.
So he still remembered everything, Chu Huaixu thought. It was this man in front of him who had pointed the dagger he had given him at him.
They destroyed all his internal energy, severed his tendons in his hands and feet, making his body even weaker than an ordinary person, turning him into a complete waste and sickly person.
His father and brothers once wanted to take him to the battlefield to fight the enemy, but now he finds it very difficult to even hold a sword. His old wounds flare up and he suffers unbearable pain whenever it is cloudy or rainy.
In excruciating pain, he seemed to return to the past countless times, to that night filled with flames, to the day his tendons in the dungeon were severed...
The soul and body suffer day after day of torment.
And all of this is thanks to the person in front of me.
He was blind to the truth, and his sincere feelings were misplaced on a dog that could never be tamed.
Not only did he bring himself to such a wretched state, but he also ruined the entire royal palace.
A surge of emotion seemed to well up in Chu Huaixu's eyes, yet it slowly subsided into silence.
The cicadas overhead chirped more intensely. He hugged the man's neck and, through the cool silver mask, nuzzled the man's face.
"Commander Song, if the Empress Dowager wants my life, then you'll have to pay with your life for the Great Yan Empire, won't you?"
Song Ting stared into the dark eyes before her, her Adam's apple bobbing. She couldn't resist the urge to kiss him, but was interrupted by a childish voice:
"Handsome older brother, and older brother in black, what are you doing?"
The two were suddenly separated, and only then did they realize that it was the little girl who had praised Huaixu's looks based on her voice.
Chu Huaixu liked the girl very much. He beckoned to her, and when she came closer, he picked her up and put her on his lap, asking, "What are you doing here? Where's your father?"
“My home is right here, and my dad is working.” The little girl pointed ahead. “Look, it’s right there.”
The little girl's father runs a tea shop at the intersection. The weather is hot, and the people waiting in line for porridge are getting hot, so they all ask for a bowl of cool tea. The business is booming right now.
Chu Huaixu looked up and glanced at the sign: Chen's Tea Shop.
"So your surname is Chen."
"Yes, my name is Chen Xiaobao," the little girl said.
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