Chapter 87
At this point, Mu Yulu had been starving for three whole days.
The door was pushed open from the outside, letting in the light. She squinted instinctively, her body swaying slightly from weakness. She barely managed to brace herself against the cold ground with her elbows to avoid falling completely.
Weakly turning her head, she saw Mu Qinhan's tall and upright figure appear against the light at the entrance of the ancestral hall, blocking most of the light and casting a long shadow on the ground.
She looked quite disheveled, but Mu Qinhan didn't seem to be in much better shape either.
He was dressed in dark-colored casual clothes, his face still pale from recovering from a serious illness, and there were dark circles under his eyes. It was clear that he had been personally guarding Liu Wenshuang's bedside for the past few days, probably without closing his eyes for several days and nights. He looked extremely exhausted.
She had never seen him look so tired and vulnerable.
He stood at the doorway, not coming in immediately, but silently watching her curled up on the cold blue bricks.
After exchanging a glance, he finally stepped inside.
Footsteps echoed in the silent ancestral hall, his figure drawing ever closer until he completely enveloped her. She looked up from the shadows and noticed that Mu Qinhan was carrying a food box.
Her chapped lips moved slightly, and a barely perceptible smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.
Mu Qinhan didn't say anything. He simply placed the food box in front of her, opened the lid, and personally served her the congee and side dishes inside.
Mu Yulu stared at him without moving, her arm supporting her on the ground trembling slightly uncontrollably. She looked extremely weak, as if she would faint at any moment.
When Mu Qinhan handed her the chopsticks, she finally spoke: "You can punish me however you want, I only have one request..."
Her voice trembled with weakness. After speaking a sentence in fits and starts, she paused to catch her breath before continuing, "After I die, I beg you to bury me on the mountain, in a place with some open space. I have been imprisoned all my life, and perhaps only after death can I be free."
After she finished speaking, she took a deep breath, as if the word "freedom" had drained all her strength, and her body fell forward without warning, like a puppet with its strings cut.
She didn't fall onto the cold ground, but instead tumbled into Mu Qinhan's arms.
The instant he saw her faint, he almost instinctively reached out his arm and caught her as she fell.
At this moment, her head rested limply against his clothes, her cold forehead touching his warm chest. Her body was so weak that she had no strength left, and even her breathing was very faint.
Mu Qinhan's expression remained unchanged, but Mu Yulu could clearly feel his body stiffen the moment he hugged her, and his heart suddenly race.
He looked down at her intently, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty, and his arms around her tightened involuntarily.
He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, perhaps a reproach, perhaps a reprimand, but in the end all the words got stuck in his throat, turning into only a sigh that fell heavily on the top of her head.
At that moment, Mu Yulu suddenly raised her hand and hugged him.
She seemed to be crying, but didn't want him to see her tears, so she buried her head in his chest and unconsciously rubbed against him gently.
Mu Qinhan trembled slightly, then picked her up horizontally.
Her body suddenly left the cold ground and landed suspended in a firm embrace. The sudden feeling of weightlessness and warmth made Mu Yulu's already numb body instinctively shrink back. Then she buried her face deeper into his chest and let out a soft sob.
Mu Qinhan paused in his embrace, as if struck by her sob. He glanced down at her, then turned and strode out of the ancestral hall.
After leaving the ancestral hall, he took her back to his courtyard and tenderly placed her on the bed.
The servants who witnessed this scene all lowered their heads, keeping their eyes down and not daring to breathe.
They didn't know what Mu Yulu said to the prince in the ancestral hall, but in any case, the prince suddenly changed his mind and forgave her easily.
Soon, the servants in the Prince's mansion all knew that the Prince and Princess had not only reconciled, but their relationship was even stronger than before.
In the past, when Mu Qinhan returned home late at night, only Liu Wenshuang would wait for him at the door. But now, Mu Yulu would actually light a lamp in the house and wait for him to return. Moreover, she didn't just sit and wait for him; she would go to the kitchen to personally make him some late-night snacks so that when he returned, he could have hot tea and refreshments.
Even more outrageous, one day she noticed a tear in his court robe and volunteered to mend it for him. However, she accidentally made the tear bigger and bigger, so she excitedly ran to the street to find suitable fabric, determined to mend his clothes to their original condition.
The head steward of the Prince's mansion originally wanted to tell her that the Prince's clothes didn't need mending, and that she could just throw them away and get new ones, but Mu Qinhan stopped him.
He seemed to really enjoy watching Mu Yulu busy herself for him, even though sometimes she made a mess of things, he still found it amusing.
Another half month passed, and seeing that the prince hadn't said much and was clearly spoiling her, the people in the prince's mansion stopped talking and went along with Mu Yulu in everything.
With Mu Qinhan's indulgence, she became even more interested in "taking care" of him, and she went out of the palace almost every day, either to restaurants to research new dishes to cook for him or to clothing stores to personally help him research clothing patterns.
Mu Qinhan didn't restrict her at all. Sometimes she would complain to him that the guards were following her too closely and she couldn't move around freely. He would then order the guards to keep their distance from her. Later on, he even took the initiative to dismiss some of the people who accompanied her when she went out.
Life at the Prince's residence gradually became more harmonious and joyful.
When the New Year arrived, Mu Qinhan had a family dinner with Mu Yulu and Liu Wenshuang. The two got along quite well during the meal, as if the incident of Mu Yulu pushing Liu Wenshuang into the water had never happened.
After the Spring Festival and before the Lantern Festival, Mu Qinhan married Liu Wenshuang as he had said before.
The wedding banquet was as lively and smooth as ever, with no unexpected incidents.
At least no one suddenly appeared and tried to steal the bride.
On the night of Mu Qinhan and Liu Wenshuang's wedding, Mu Yulu stood alone in front of the abandoned courtyard in the garden all night, freezing herself until she caught a cold. The next day, she was so weak that she lay in bed and couldn't even get out of bed.
She hadn't eaten for several days after falling into the lake, and her body was already weak. It had taken her a lot of effort to recover to this state, but she collapsed again in the blink of an eye.
Mu Qinhan was extremely anxious. After the wedding, he only spent one day with Liu Wenshuang and spent the rest of his time taking care of Mu Yulu.
Another heavy snow fell that day, and the bad weather was also very unfavorable for Mu Yulu's recovery. Mu Qinhan rushed back to her courtyard as soon as he finished the morning court session and personally fed her medicine.
Mu Yulu shivered under the covers. Her cold had clearly subsided, but her fever wouldn't go down. Even wrapped in two blankets, she still felt cold, so she ordered someone to light two stoves in the corner of the room.
Mu Qinhan glanced at the two stoves and said to her while feeding her the medicine, "Do you remember when I took care of you at the Mu residence, I also had two of these stoves lit in the corner of the room."
Mu Yulu coughed as she looked up at him. Now, her gaze had returned to the tenderness of that day, filled with adoration: "When I fell into the lake in the garden of the Prince's mansion that day, I suddenly thought of this too."
"So later I realized that you've been taking care of me all along, and I wanted to take good care of you this time too." She nestled against Mu Qinhan's arm, pressing the soup spoon back into his hand as she spoke, "It's too bitter, I don't want to drink it."
Mu Qinhan chuckled: "You're such a grown-up, and you're still afraid of the bitterness and refuse to drink your medicine?"
Mu Yulu turned her head to the side, her voice muffled and slightly nasal: "But this medicine is really too bitter, more bitter than all the medicine I've ever taken before combined."
Mu Qinhan coaxed her, "How can you get better if you don't take your medicine? Look, you still have a fever. Be a good girl and take your medicine. After you take it, I'll have someone go and buy you candied hawthorns, okay?"
Mu Yulu still refused to drink it, stubbornly burying her head in the quilt, only revealing half of her burning face: "No, it's too bitter, I really can't drink it. Even if you buy me all the candied hawthorns in the capital, I still can't drink it."
Despite her unreasonable behavior, Mu Qinhan didn't get angry. Instead, he patiently continued to coax her: "How about this? If you obediently drink your medicine, you can make one request of me, and I will fulfill whatever it is."
Mu Yulu blinked with interest after hearing this, secretly lifting her eyelashes to peek at him through the gap in the blanket, "Really? You can fulfill any request I make?"
Mu Qinhan tilted her head and looked at her, mimicking her posture: "There's nothing I can't do in the Vermilion Bird Kingdom. Just ask me."
The opportunity has arrived!
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Mu Yulu jumped out of bed at once: "I want to participate in the Lantern Festival in the capital!"
She grabbed Mu Qinhan's arm, shook it ingratiatingly, and said pitifully, "I was punished by being grounded at the temple fair last year, so I didn't have a chance to participate. I don't want to miss this year's lantern festival."
Mu Qinhan gazed at her with a smile in his eyes, and Mu Yulu suddenly felt a little dazed the moment their eyes met.
At this moment, his eyes were brighter than candlelight, and his gaze was gentler than the snow outside the window. She had seen such eyes in Sanzhou Jinse's eyes before.
She thought that such a gaze was already considered affectionate, but how could someone look at her with such affection while still having room in their heart for another person?
Can a person really fall in love with two people at the same time?
She didn't understand.
Mu Qinhan naturally noticed her momentary daze and assumed she was staring at him in a daze. He reached out and affectionately pinched her nose, saying, "You're making such a simple request? Don't waste this opportunity."
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