Her voice was almost weak, with a dead air of exhaustion.
But the next second, the words that man said really pierced her heart like a sharp knife.
"You know how you look now? It reminds me of a hunter who feeds his dog. He feeds it some leftovers on weekdays, but when it matters most, the dog will risk its life for him. Isn't that what Xiao Zhun does to you? How could I not come across such a good deal?"
Xiao Nanhui was so angry that his entire body was shaking, and even his words were struggling to form. "Your Majesty, if you want my arm, just take it. Why are you...humiliating me like this?"
Her hands were clenched tightly in her sleeves. If the person in front of her was not Jiuwu, she might have made him bleed to death on the spot.
"Is it Gu who crippled your arm?" Su Wei narrowed his narrow eyes, revealing undisguised sarcasm. "No, it was Xiao Zhun. The moment he put you on the brink of death and didn't choose you first, he had already given up on you. Xiao Nanhui, you're just a target he planted to block Bai Yun's knife at the critical moment!"
The embarrassment that had been pent up in her chest for a long time burst out like a flood. Xiao Nanhui felt a surge of anger rushing to her forehead. She suddenly pushed away the person in front of her, grabbed the military cap on her head, and pulled it down fiercely.
The fourth-rank official's hat with feathers was thrown hard to the ground, and the red cherry beads originally tied around the neck scattered and bounced and rolled under the feet of the two men.
When she spoke again, she realized how hoarse her voice was: "Your Majesty, it is difficult to be a subject. Xiao Nanhui requests to retire from the army and return to the countryside."
Su Wei stared at Xiao Nanhui, as if she was going to destroy her in the most cruel way in the next second.
For a moment, the only sounds in the air were the heavy breathing of two people.
In just a moment, the anger on his face suddenly disappeared.
He regained his unshakeable, thousand-year-old face, even a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, but that smile didn't reach his eyes, sending a chill down one's spine. "What? Are you going to get angry with me?"
Xiao Nanhui clenched his teeth and said nothing.
She had never felt this way in her life. The opponent was clearly no match for her physically, yet she had nowhere to escape and even felt fear.
"When it comes to fighting, no one has ever won."
The emperor's cold hand touched her palm, and Xiao Nanhui trembled with excitement.
The next second, a cold, hard object was stuffed into her hand, and the other party's low, hoarse voice sounded above her head.
"If you're resentful about this, I'll return it to you."
Before Xiao Nanhui could react, the force of her hand suddenly tightened. A silver light flashed before her eyes, and something warm splashed on her face.
Her eyes moved downwards stiffly, and she saw a dagger with an exquisite cloud pattern, piercing straight through the emperor's hand and nailed to the small table beside him, while her own hand was holding the dagger.
He grabbed her hand and slashed it to the side fiercely. There was a creaking sound of breaking bones and tendons, and the thin and sharp blade quickly tore a big hole in the slender white hand.
Xiao Nan came back to his senses, shook off Su Wei's hand like crazy, and pulled out the dagger.
Blood gushed out, his face turned pale, cold sweat oozed from his forehead, but he gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound.
"Xiao Nanhui, we are even now."
Xiao Nanhui's mind exploded with a buzzing sound, and then everything went blank and empty, with only a few absurd words flashing by.
It vaguely seemed like the words that the child from Bijiang was reciting in front of her, or like the fragments she read by lamplight in Yao Yi's backyard.
Before he was five, he could recite; at seven, he could compose poetry; at nine, his zither playing had the melody of a hollow valley, unmatched by any zither player in the palace. Today, I saw him play the piece "Ailiao Bridge Jinli" at the Shangsi Banquet. The sound was so clear, the realm so lofty, so otherworldly, so unique. Hearing this, I felt ashamed to be crowned the zither master. So, I cut off my finger and left the table, saying, "From this point on, let's not talk about the zither and the qin..."
Her vision was wandering, and the hands that could play ancient music were now bloody in front of her. The splashing red liquid fell on the other person's moon-white clothes, like a flower of sin blooming on it.
In a trance, she seemed to hear Shan Jiangfei rushing in and running towards the emperor with a cry of surprise.
Someone put a knife to her neck and shouted at her, then pushed her away roughly after a moment, blocking her outside the palace gate.
She walked out of the side hall like a lost soul, and followed the palace guard on duty out of the palace in a daze.
At dawn, guards began to take turns inside and outside the palace, and the emperor was about to leave.
At the beginning of the morning hour, the palace maid brought the last basin of blood out of the side hall. Shan Jiangfei dismissed everyone and cleaned up the last trace on the ground by himself.
The plain silk wiped away the last trace of blood, and the entire side hall seemed as if nothing had happened.
Shan Jiangfei brought out a set of dark casual clothes for the emperor to wear. His eyes fell on the man's left hand. Layers of gauze and medicine could not cover the flesh and blood underneath. He sighed almost unconsciously.
"Your Majesty, why are you doing this? From now on, not only will you be unable to play the zither, but you might even have trouble holding a pen."
The emperor adjusted the newly replaced belt hook with one hand, still elegant and confident: "My left hand can also do it."
The main person looked calm and composed, as if the person who had just been angry and self-harmed was someone else.
Shan Jiangfei couldn't help but scowl. "The Black Feather Battalion still relies on the music to obey Your Majesty's orders. Will Your Majesty have to use one hand when the time comes?"
"If I don't play from now on, I still have you."
Shan Jiangfei was stunned: "My skills are crude, how can I compare with your majesty..."
"When I asked someone to teach you to play the qin, I didn't intend to hide this skill from you. You've been a cautious person since childhood, and your qin music level is a little lower, but your technique is perfect. Commanding the Black Feather Battalion's melodies shouldn't be difficult for you."
A flash of panic crossed the young eunuch's face, and he immediately knelt down: "Your Majesty..."
"Why are you so surprised? I'm just stating the facts."
The palace door was wide open, facing east, and palace maids on both sides were waiting respectfully in two rows outside the palace.
The emperor turned to face the pale morning light.
"It's just a pair of hands playing the zither. If it can make her feel moved, then it would be perfect."
He raised his hand slightly, and his wide sleeves fell, revealing his slender fingers with distinct joints. A wound deep enough to see the bone shattered this beauty, leaving a sudden pity.
"She bears the marks I left behind, and I bear the marks she left behind. Even if our paths cross in this life, we must make sure they remain inseparable."
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