Chapter Fifty-Three: Feelings of Guilt
Li Bao'er realized that he had rushed over because he sensed her vomiting blood. At this moment, she put aside all her mission and misunderstandings, and her eyes suddenly welled up with tears. She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck as if possessed, burying her face in his shoulder, which was cool with the night dew.
Mu Cenlin was genuinely worried about her.
"Insolence!" Mu Cenlin froze, about to rebuke this audacious woman, but suddenly stopped.
A warm, damp sensation came from the side of my neck.
"Thank you." A muffled sob came from my arms, as light as a snowflake falling on my heart.
The words of rebuke stuck in his throat and were swallowed back down. Looking at the small and fragile figure in his arms, Mu Cenlin tightened his arms around her.
Her tone carried an unconscious softness; "Crybaby, with me backing you up, how could you possibly get hurt?"
Li Bao'er lifted her head from his shoulder, her eyelashes still glistening with tiny tears, and said softly, "I wasn't bullied. I just... suddenly felt unwell." She lowered her eyes, hiding the truth beneath her trembling eyelashes.
Mu Cenlin's breathing became slightly labored.
The girl's breath, like a spring breeze in April, brushed against his neck, carrying a faint medicinal fragrance. He looked down and saw that her eyes and nose were flushed red, like a rabbit that had been drenched in rain. Her wet eyes were silently melting the coldness in his eyes.
He carried her to the soft couch in a few quick steps and gently put her down. "Knowing you're weak, how dare you walk barefoot?" His cloak brushed against her cold toes, causing Li Bao'er to flinch. "Li Bao'er, remember, your life belongs to me now."
He suddenly raised his hand, his calloused thumb brushing against the corner of her lips. Only then did Li Bao'er realize that there was still a trace of blood left there. In the moonlight, he stared at the dark red mark on his fingertip, his eyes as deep as ink: "Are you still in pain?" His voice was so gentle that he himself did not realize it.
The night breeze lifted the gauze curtains, intertwining the silhouettes of the two figures on the screen.
Looking at the handsome face so close to hers, Li Bao'er suddenly noticed a faint redness at the corners of his eyes. What should she do? She couldn't control her heartbeat.
"Is Your Highness... concerned about me?" she deliberately dragged out the last syllable.
Her chin was suddenly grabbed, the force causing her to groan in pain. Mu Cenlin loosened his grip the moment he heard her gasp, then leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Until I find a way to remove this curse," his warm breath making her earlobes tremble, "you'd better take better care of yourself."
To his surprise, that silly girl Li Bao'er gave him a bright smile, her eyes shining like stars... making his heart tremble.
Mu Cenlin abruptly turned his head, preparing to leave, but his wrist was grabbed by a soft little hand.
"I promised Your Highness. Could Your Highness also promise me that you will take care of yourself?"
Mu Cenlin stiffened; in the twilight, no one could see the reddened tips of Prince Jing's ears.
The figure in dark robes hurriedly departed, leaving behind only the words: "Mind your own business."
*
Three figures swept across the roof like ghosts until they reached the most secluded corner of the palace.
The Cold Palace, the cage that imprisoned his birth mother for her entire life, stood quietly in a corner where the moonlight could not reach. The night wind swept across the palace walls, carrying a biting chill, but it could not soothe the restless emotions in his heart.
Mu Cenlin's dark robes fluttered in the wind as his gaze fell heavily on the mottled palace gate.
He could walk along this path leading to the Cold Palace with his eyes closed when he was four years old. Now, eighteen years later, the wild grass that sprouted from the cracks in the bluestone slabs has withered and flourished for many years.
Now that the scenes from his memory have reappeared, his emotions are no longer as turbulent as they were in his childhood.
"Your Highness, shall we go in?" Yuan Ting asked in a low voice, keenly sensing the sudden drop in pressure around his master. He clearly remembered that half an hour ago, when he climbed out of the Prime Minister's residence through the window, the prince's lips still had an uncontrollable smile, an expression he had never seen in the more than ten years he had served the prince.
Mu Cenlin looked towards the palace in the west, instantly tearing open a long-sealed memory: there was a woman who always wore the simplest clothes, who would always tell him in the courtyard that if he ever escaped the palace, he must pursue his own freedom.
But... he failed her expectations... he could never be truly free and unrestrained in his life...
“No need to go in.” Mu Cenlin abruptly regained his composure, his voice colder than the night wind. “I’m only here to confirm the ambush positions around here.”
He wanted to know when Crown Prince Mu Chen would finally give up his obsession. He had been tolerating his curiosity about Yueqi Palace out of consideration for their childhood friendship, but if he crossed that line, he would no longer indulge him.
Hearing the sudden cracking sound of a dry branch breaking from inside the palace walls, Mu Cenlin's eyes sharpened, the tenderness he had felt moments before instantly transforming into a fierce killing intent: "Who?"
Yuan Ting and another guard instantly went on alert, subtly shifting their bodies to silently protect Mu Cenlin in a safer position, their sharp eyes scanning the shadows at the source of the sound.
However, what slowly emerged from the deepest darkness beneath the cold palace corridor was not the imagined danger.
The moonlight, like water, flowed quietly, gradually illuminating the figure of the person who came.
She was a woman with a still slender figure, dressed in a simple yet clearly fine brocade moon-white palace dress. Although it had no elaborate patterns, it exuded an elegance. Her long, black hair was loosely tied up with a simple white jade hairpin, with a few strands falling to the side of her neck.
However, her face was too pale, a cold white like jade, as if it had never seen the sun. Years of seclusion had not completely robbed her of her beauty; the contours of her eyebrows and eyes were deep, and one could still vaguely see the shadow of her former lively and refined self. Apart from the coldness of the environment and the lingering melancholy between her brows, she looked more like a noblewoman who was meditating here than a criminal.
The woman was staring intently at Mu Cenlin, her eyes filled with extreme shock, disbelief, disorientation, and a longing that seemed to burst from her eyes, a longing that had been weighing heavily on her heart for so long.
Zhang Yinqing stood there, not too far from the palace gate, her lips moved, her voice extremely soft yet hoarse: "Lin...er...?"
Those two words seemed to have used all her strength, shattering Mu Cenlin's long-frozen defenses.
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