Walking up the back corridor, you can see Chu Huaixu wrapped in a fur coat leaning against a chaise lounge in the octagonal pavilion in front, his eyes lowered, idly stroking the fat baby sleeping beside him.
The Gu poison has been flaring up more and more frequently lately, tormenting him almost day and night, making him appear increasingly pale and emaciated.
However, even with such profound signs of illness, he did not become unattractive; on the contrary, it added a touch of sickly beauty to him.
Coupled with that snow-white fur coat, he looked like a celestial being.
As if he heard Song Ting's footsteps, he looked up and smiled slightly at Song Ting, teasingly calling him, "Lord Song."
Song Ting's heart suddenly softened.
Perhaps feeling that his days were numbered, or perhaps the conversation that day helped him resolve his inner conflict, Chu Huaixu stopped dwelling on the issues of hatred and resentment, and became very obedient and easy to coax.
He even started to become a bit clingy. Sometimes when Song Ting came home late from official business, this person would refuse to eat and would insist on waiting for him to come along.
"Why are your hands so cold when you're out here?"
Chu Huaixu's body was so cold that no amount of fox fur cloak could keep him warm. Song Ting pulled him into her arms and then put those hands, which were as cold as ice, into her own chest.
"Where are Xiao An and A Bao? Did they run off again?"
"I suddenly had a craving for Chen's pastries, so I sent the two of them to buy some." Chu Huaixu chuckled softly, his ear buried in his chest.
"Your fever hasn't even completely gone down, and you're already acting like this. Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're sick. I'm remembering everything. Once you're better, I'll—"
Chu Huaixu peeked half his face out from his embrace, quickly pecked a kiss on his chin, and interrupted him: "Your Excellency's official demeanor has become increasingly imposing lately, and you're quite fierce, even fiercer than in bed."
"..." Song was stunned, her face turned bright red, and she suddenly became mute, unable to say a word.
But it's not his fault. Huai Xu was too unruly, and he wouldn't listen to him unless he was a bit stern.
He then bit Huaixu's lip and complained, "Who's being mean here?"
"Yes, it's me." Huai Xu held a strand of his hair, gently twirling it around his fingertip, and said with his eyes lowered, "I won't do it again. I can't be fierce anymore."
A thin layer of snow clung to his jet-black hair; it had started snowing lightly again sometime earlier.
"I'm sorry, Qingxiang."
The voice was low and indistinct, but Song heard it all. Not a single word was missed.
He thought of all the people he had killed and all the sins he had committed, and now they were coming back to haunt him, wanting to tear out his heart.
"Don't say that, I like it when you're mean to me."
He lowered his head and kissed the slightly cool hair of the person in his arms, his tone gentler than he himself had ever noticed.
"Dr. Yan will be able to develop an antidote soon. You can't escape it. Since you feel indebted to me, then stay and make it up to me."
“I didn’t say you could leave, that you can’t go anywhere and have to stay by my side.”
He even used the guilt in a man's heart to threaten him.
"I want you to scold me, yell at me, the harsher the better... Mingyu, please, don't abandon me..."
Chu Huaixu hooked his arm around his neck, unable to suppress his laughter: "My lord, you should have some shame. If your secret guards heard these words, they might rebel."
"Then let's build them, anyway, I can beat them."
"That's really impressive, Little Song..."
The fierce-looking commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard wanted to personally cook fish for Chu Huaixu.
"Fine, I'll do it. At worst, I'll blow up the kitchen," was what Chef Wang thought at the time. But this master actually wanted him to kill the fish himself.
When Chef Wang heard these words, he almost shed two lines of tears, wishing he could faint on the spot and end it all.
Song Ting thought it through simply: he had killed more people than he had opened a melon jar, so how could he not handle a few fish?
Besides, it's not like we haven't grilled fish before when we were on missions.
But as it turns out, fish are not so easy to handle. Their scales are slippery, and as soon as you grab them, before you can even hold them firmly, they slip out of your palm and bounce around on the ground.
Even if you manage to hold on with all your might, the fish can easily break free with a flick of its tail or a shake of its head.
Song Ting was absolutely furious with those two fish. She grabbed a knife and started hacking at them.
But the commander, who was so accurate in killing people, suffered another defeat.
These two fish were like spirits, as if they knew when the knife would strike and where it would cut. As soon as the blade fell, they could perfectly dodge it without missing a single scale, so that Song Ting couldn't even touch one of them.
It was only then that he realized that when he was on a mission, he ate just to fill his stomach. He would swallow anything edible and wouldn't bother with cleaning up fish scales; he would just gnaw on it.
"My lord, perhaps you should let this servant do it?"
Chef Wang stood trembling to the side, feeling as if the knife was about to strike his heart. He feared that if his master continued to cut him, he would die of fright before the fish even died.
Song Ting didn't even raise her head, coldly scolding, "Get lost, don't block my way from killing the fish."
That's as if he could have killed the two fish if Chef Wang hadn't been in the way.
*Smack!* Another vicious slash.
This time, the knife finally pierced the belly of a fish, but the fish was still alive. Its tail thrashed violently, splashing countless water droplets. Song Ting curled her lip, somewhat disgusted.
Huai Xu is very clean; if you smell a fishy odor on him, you might not want to get close to him.
Chu Huaixu stood far away by a pillar in the corridor, watching the fish, half-gutted, slip away from Song Ting's hands once again, twitching wildly on the ground.
With each "dragon's tail swing," fish blood splattered everywhere in the yard, making it look like a crime scene.
Finally, Song Ting stomped on the fish's head. He didn't control his strength well and crushed the fish's head, killing it completely.
Song Ting looked up and saw Chu Huaixu standing under the corridor. His tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.
Chu Huaixu took two steps toward him, then stopped, clutching his chest.
His health was deteriorating. Regardless of whether the poison was acting up or not, he was in pain all over his body. The only difference was whether the pain was mild or severe.
He thought more about death. Death would end everything; there would be no pain, no hatred, no resentment.
But most of the time, he just wanted to live.
A person who was never interested in life or death now wants to live even more.
It would be absurd and laughable to tell anyone.
Chu Huaixu felt torn apart by these two conflicting thoughts, unable to live or die willingly.
From the moment he learned the truth, he had already become a joke.
Song Ting dropped the knife and fish in her hand and rushed over. She wanted to hug Huai Xu, but when she saw her hands covered in fish blood, she looked somewhat at a loss.
His appearance successfully amused Chu Huaixu, who took the man's hands and said gently, "I want to eat sour fish soup."
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