Those beautiful peach blossom eyes were like the finest amber, clearly reflecting Song Ting's image—both passionate and fickle.
Song Ting swallowed hard, unconsciously captivated by the vibrant and enchanting scene before her.
He grasped Chu Huaixu's hand and pressed it to his heart: "As long as you have the jade thumb ring, the entire Embroidered Uniform Guard and all the secret guards will obey your orders. If you want to find me, just send someone to deliver a message to me."
Chu Huaixu curled his lips in a mocking smile.
Song Ting lifted him out of the bathtub, dried him off, and carried him back to bed, carefully putting on his undergarments. "Go to sleep."
Although both of them had their own rooms, Song Ting was shameless and refused to leave Chu Huaixu's room after staying overnight there.
However, he didn't rush to go to sleep today. Instead, he sat on the edge of the bed, holding Chu Huaixu's hand and looking at him.
The commander's gaze was so intense that it was impossible to ignore. Chu Huaixu felt his scalp tingle from being stared at, and he opened his eyes to glare at him: "Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? What's wrong with you?"
“I’ll watch you sleep,” Song heard.
The candles in the room had gone out, and his voice in the darkness seemed to be tinged with the deep black of the night, sounding rather low and hoarse.
Chu Huaixu rolled his eyes at him, turned away, and stopped him from looking.
Exhausted and having suffered considerable stress tonight, Chu Huaixu fell asleep shortly after lying down. Song Ting stared at his back for a long time before leaning down to kiss his hair: "Sweet dreams."
He then quietly got up, pushed open the door, went out of the room, and went to the study.
A secret report lay on the table. The Turks were stirring, already stockpiling provisions and troops, ready to attack Dayan at any moment.
Five years ago, the battle caused the Dayan army to suffer heavy losses and its strength was greatly weakened. Now there are no generals available, and in recent years, urgent reports from the border have been sent to Song Ting first.
Song Tingqu raised his fingers and gently tapped the table with the back of his fingers. Huai Xu might be reluctant to harm the people of Dayan, but he was different. He didn't care about the lives of others. As long as it made Huai Xu happy and helped him avenge himself, he didn't care what price he would pay, and he didn't care about dealing with a tiger for its skin.
But Huaixu would certainly not be happy with him doing this.
"My lord." Thirteen appeared outside the door.
Song Ting rubbed her aching temples and said coldly, "Come in."
After returning from Luoyang, Thirteen was sent by Song Ting to investigate Huai Xu's time at Zuichunlou. Although he had burned Zuichunlou down, the place still saw so many people coming and going every day that there was no doubt that information could be gathered.
Not to mention that little brat Xiao An. Thirteen came back to report.
"You found out everything?"
"Found it."
After falling off the cliff that day, Chu Huaixu thought he was going to die, but unexpectedly he was saved by a woodcutter who was chopping wood on the mountain and his life was spared.
The woodcutter meant well and took great care of Huaixu.
But as time went on, the man developed evil intentions—the woodcutter was over fifty years old and, because of his poverty, had not yet married. Chu Huaixu was so handsome that the woodcutter, who was with her day and night, wanted to take her for himself.
Chu Huaixu naturally refused, but at that time he had lost all his martial arts skills and had just recovered from a serious illness, while the woodcutter relied on his strength to make a living, and he almost could not escape.
The woodcutter underestimated him, which is why he was hit on the head with a stone and died.
After escaping from the woodcutter's house, Chu Huaixu didn't get very far before encountering several human traffickers.
Seeing his handsome appearance, the human traffickers naturally wouldn't let him go. They simply put a sack over him and sold him to the Drunken Spring Pavilion.
What happened next was almost exactly the same as what Xiao An had described before; it was all the torment that Huai Xu had suffered at Zuichunlou.
Little Nobleman's proud nature was worn down and smoothed out by the daily torment, transforming him into the person he is today who always greets everyone with a smile.
Song Ting listened quietly, his face revealing little emotion, but in reality, every word Thirteen uttered felt like a sharp arrow piercing his very core.
His gaze unconsciously sharpened, becoming sharp as a knife, radiating a chilling intensity, and gradually revealing a deep, undisguised killing intent.
Thirteen's gaze inadvertently met his, and when their eyes met, he was horrified to find that his master's eyes were filled with hatred and madness, which made him feel a chill in his heart.
This expression reminded Thirteen of a wolf trapped in its cave, in dire straits, ready to tear anything that tried to approach it to shreds.
He seemed to have reached his breaking point, his pain was unbearable, and he could collapse at any moment. He was not far from going mad.
Thirteen had never seen such an adult before, and his words involuntarily stopped. Song noticed that he was lost in thought and lifted his eyelids to look at him.
Thirteen then came to his senses and bowed, saying, "Besides that, I have also discovered something else."
Song Ting gritted her teeth, her voice icy cold: "Speak."
"My subordinates have discovered that four years ago in March, when there was a flood in Jiangnan, Lin Wusheng was appointed by the emperor as an imperial envoy to go to Jiangnan to manage the flood. Six months later, he went south again to inspect the river embankment project."
"During this period, he stayed in Yingtian for several days and was invited to attend the birthday banquet of Zhang Lu, the then prefect of Yingtian. On the same day, Young Master Huaiyue was also invited to Zhang Lu's residence by Zhang Lu's only son."
Song Ting continued to tap her fingers on the table. The hatred in her eyes had been suppressed, and her eyes, illuminated by the candlelight, became calm and still. However, her heart was still churning with emotions.
At a prefect's birthday banquet, those who come to offer their congratulations must be either rich or noble. However, Zhang Lu allowed his son to invite a male prostitute from a brothel to his home under the pretext of celebrating his father's birthday. This was simply outrageous.
Although Zhang Lu had always doted on his good-for-nothing son who did nothing but eat, drink and have fun all day, it was a birthday banquet after all, and Lin Wusheng was also there from Chang'an. Zhang Lu wouldn't do something so foolish.
Moreover, Zhang Lu clearly looked down on Huaiyue. Before this, Zhang Jingshu had mentioned many times that he wanted to redeem Huaiyue from her servitude, but Zhang Lu was adamant and would never allow his son to do such an absurd thing.
But isn't it even more absurd to invite male prostitutes to play the piano at one's own birthday banquet?
On the surface, this was nothing more than an outrageous act committed by an absurd prefect and his incompetent son, but upon closer examination, it was utterly illogical.
After the birthday banquet, although Zhang Lu still frequently visited Huai Xu, he never mentioned again that he wanted to redeem Huai Xu from his servitude, nor did he force him to do so.
Even if Song Ting was unwilling to admit it, it was difficult for someone like Huai Xu to remain a virgin. If he didn't have anyone protecting him, he could evade Lawyer Zhang but not Lawyer Li or Lawyer Wang. There would always be someone who would break the rules because they coveted his good looks.
At that time, Huai Xu was like a drifting duckweed, with absolutely no right to say no. Just as he repeatedly tried to escape, only to be caught again and again. There would be people who wanted to break his pride, torment him, and humiliate him.
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