On the verge of death
Those hands were delicate and smooth, white as jade, but the fingers and knuckles were reddish.
The nail polish is a deep crimson, delicate and small, making the skin appear even whiter and smoother.
Only his palm was burned, and blisters formed on the swollen area. His perfectly good skin was burned like this, all because of his sword.
"How do you want me to make it up to you?"
Shangguan Zhi pondered for a moment and realized that this minor injury would heal in a few days.
But if it could help me stay by his side, that wouldn't be a bad thing.
"My poor hands, I'm afraid they're beyond repair." Her willow-leaf eyebrows arched as she looked down at her own hands, her words filled with unconcealed sorrow.
"I will search the land for the most renowned doctors to treat your hand, as long as they can heal it," the emperor said solemnly, sitting on the edge of the couch.
Shangguan Zhi glanced at him and shook her head to herself, "It's no use. My injury is thanks to you. Ordinary medicine can't cure it at all."
"......"
An awkward silence fell over the hall. In the emperor's mind, there was nothing he couldn't do, and even if he couldn't do it, someone else would do it for him.
"Forget it, it can't be cured anyway, so I might as well leave it."
"What's the point of keeping it?" the emperor asked, puzzled.
"This scar serves as a daily reminder to me not to meddle in other people's business, lest my good intentions be ruined."
"You..." The emperor stopped speaking, about to lash out, but seeing her pitiful appearance, he suppressed his emotions.
"Since you were injured because of me, I can compensate you, except for matters of the bedchamber."
That scoundrel of a man is actually quite principled; he knows what it means to be steadfast and chaste.
"Fine, since you refuse, I can't force you. I'll just stay here; I have nowhere else to go anyway."
After saying that, she began to look around the room, touching and fiddling with the furnishings, and playing with a strand of hair hanging down in front of her.
"This room is nice, I like it, you can move out."
She sat on the dragon bed with such grandeur, enjoying the comfort of the bed.
He spread his hands, lay down on the bed, and the emperor got up, resigned to his fate.
Shangguan Zhi, a fox demon, rashly stayed in the palace.
While he was reviewing memorials in his study, she would sneak up close and let a breeze blow over his books, or she would sabotage them in secret.
The vermilion annotations were written in elegant and graceful handwriting, with hooks at the tips of the strokes.
Suddenly, the pen became immobile, controlled by an invisible force, and forcefully wrote the three characters "Shangguan Zhi".
"My name," the invisible fox spirit said to him, "I need to know yours."
A moment of indifference, a flick of the chopsticks—
Li Zhuo.
She remembered the name.
After watching him review memorials all day, Shangguan Zhi was incredibly bored, so she secretly approached a junior eunuch.
The young eunuch was handsome with delicate features, red lips and white teeth. He kept his eyes straight ahead, and Shangguan Zhi stood in front of him without him noticing.
She suddenly reached out and flicked the little eunuch, who felt a headache coming on and was completely bewildered.
Seeing the young eunuch's bewildered state, she flicked his official hat away.
The hat fell to the ground, and the little eunuch frantically tried to pick it up, stammering that something was wrong.
The imperial eunuch kicked him, then exchanged glances with those around him, and pulled the young eunuch away.
"I'm thirsty, go and boil a pot of tea," Li Zhuo ordered, and the eunuch obeyed and left quickly.
People were sparsely dispersed from the hall. Li Zhuo looked up at a spot in the air and said, "Stop fooling around."
Her tone was gentle, a tenderness he hadn't even noticed.
“Everyone wants to be emperor, but I don’t think being emperor is very interesting. Apart from being surrounded by people, it’s not as carefree as being a demon.” She appeared, snatched the pen from his hand, forcefully closed the memorial, and pulled him by the hand to walk out.
"How dare you!" Li Zhuo rebuked lightly.
Then he said something that could get him killed: "Your words are useless against us demons."
"What kind of behavior is this?!" Li Zhuo tried to pry open her hand, and when he touched the scar on her palm, he lost all strength and let her pull him out the door.
"Don't worry, no one can see me." She patted his hand to reassure him.
Fox spirits naturally love caves and grassy areas, and Li Zhuo's imperial garden is filled with all kinds of famous flowers and natural greenery.
She simply pulled him along and rolled around in the flower bushes. Li Zhuo, as the ruler of a country, was clearly a little reserved. Only after hearing that Shangguan Zhi had cast a spell to prevent palace servants from entering did he feel at ease enough to sit down.
Shangguan Zhi picked some flowers and grass and tucked them into his temples, making him look like a young lady.
"presumptuous."
Shangguan Zhi didn't care about anything else. After teasing Li Zhuo, she was next, so she took off running.
Li Zhuo went to catch her, but she ran fast and sometimes slowed down so that Li Zhuo could hook the hem of her clothes.
It's precisely because you can see it but not touch it that you feel the most itchy and unbearable desire.
Before he knew it, he was exhausted from running and covered in sweat. Li Zhuo simply gave up, collapsed on the ground, and forgot all about his imperial majesty.
Seeing that he was not moving, Shangguan Zhi picked some foxtail grass to check on him, but Li Zhuo did not move and seemed to be asleep.
She leaned closer, her large hands encircling her lower back, and hugged her.
In a moment of surprise, it transformed into a little fox, affectionately nuzzling his neck.
The human and the demon fell into the flower bushes and laughed for a long time.
Hearing the laughter, knowing it was His Majesty, the imperial eunuch casually asked the palace maid on duty, "Who is accompanying His Majesty inside?"
"This servant does not know, I only saw His Majesty."
Rumors circulated in the palace that a monstrous creature had been born. This creature was not only hideous, but its laughter was also like the cawing of a crow, and it loved to devour people's hearts and lungs.
Rumors spread like wildfire, creating a chaotic and corrupt atmosphere in the palace.
Upon hearing such a comment in the memorial, Shangguan Zhi was so angry that she wanted to burn the memorial.
Even the imperial eunuchs advised Li Zhuo to invite a highly skilled Taoist priest to perform a ritual, but Li Zhuo ignored them.
"I am as beautiful as a flower, how could I be described so badly?" She threw the memorial on the ground, and Li Zhuo got up, walked to her side, and picked it up.
“If one person spreads a rumor, ten thousand people will believe it. These words are not necessarily true.” Li Zhuo wanted to comfort her, but he hesitated to place his hand three inches away from her shoulder.
"Look at this memorial, it describes things so vividly, do I really look like that?" Shangguan Zhi retorted angrily, "Am I not good-looking?"
Li Zhuo paused, looked away from her, and walked to the desk to sit down.
"Tell me quickly, am I pretty or not?" Shangguan Zhi leaned her upper body against the table, getting very close to him.
These days, he lingered among the flowers and could even smell the fragrance of hibiscus on his body, so he said, "Hibiscus in the distant mountains."
"What do you mean?" They, as demons, like to be straightforward and don't have as many ulterior motives as mortals.
It means "good-looking".
Shangguan Zhi was surprised, and just as she was about to speak, a eunuch came to report.
The Crown Prince and Princess were waiting outside the door, and Shangguan Zhi immediately concealed herself.
A boy and a girl, both around fifteen or sixteen years old, entered the hall and stood side by side in front of it, saying in unison, "Your subjects pay their respects to Your Majesty."
"Why did you all come together today?" Li Zhuo stopped what he was doing.
Crown Prince Li Mu was timid and fearful of his father since childhood. He simply lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, my sister and I are worried about your health and wanted to come and see you."
The princess was well-behaved, cute, and lively, and was his favorite.
"My brother told me there are demons in the palace, so I wanted to come and keep Father company." The little princess was a bit silly, but her words were endearing. Li Zhuo hugged her tightly.
"Aren't you afraid to come and keep Father company?" Li Zhuo asked her with a smile.
"With Father Emperor here, I have nothing to fear."
Shangguan Zhi couldn't help but roll her eyes. Suddenly, she smelled a faint, ethereal demonic aura emanating from the little princess.
This demonic aura is too weak to be easily detected.
She sniffed it carefully, but it quickly disappeared, and Shangguan Zhi thought it was her imagination.
The father and daughter talked for a long time, leaving the crown prince alone below.
"Your Majesty, I hunted a rabbit in the hunting grounds and have kept it in the palace," the princess said with great interest.
"Is that so? Father will visit your palace tomorrow."
"My brother is better than me; he caught a deer."
When the Crown Prince was mentioned, Li Zhuo's kind and compassionate expression vanished. He gave the two siblings some instructions on their studies and then dismissed them.
"The child is so young, haven't you ever thought about taking a concubine as a foster mother?"
Having become a widower at a young age, he never thought of marrying a concubine or anything like that, which made Shangguan Zhi very curious.
"State affairs are busy." He paused, looking at her with clear eyes, "Furthermore, the concubines' vying for favor is destabilizing the country."
So all these years, Li Zhuo has lived a life of simplicity and abstinence.
"You are a good person." She could see it now. A virtuous gentleman, loving his people like his own children, and diligent in his duties, he was indeed a good emperor.
Such an emperor was indeed someone she should not have touched.
She was about to leave when Li Zhuo said to her, "The preparations for the ancestral worship at the imperial mausoleum are almost complete. I want you to accompany me."
Is this considered a plea? Shangguan Zhi stopped. Since it's a request, why not? "Alright."
The ancestral worship ceremony is next month. This month, Li Zhuo hasn't had a good night's sleep. The head of the Maritime Trade Office of Ba County submitted a memorial stating that the exported silk was caught in a rainstorm at the border and encountered river pirates.
Civil cases erupted in Henan, and Li Zhuo had to handle them one by one.
Several people died in the princess's residence, supposedly due to a monster.
The deceased was a strong and healthy guard, and Shangguan Zhi was by his side every day, so Li Zhuo believed that she was not the one who did it.
As for who it is? That remains to be seen.
Li Zhuo stayed by his daughter's side day and night, but his illness struck suddenly, and he was bedridden for several days.
Shangguan Zhi stayed by his bedside and personally fed him his medicine. "Look at you, don't you know how to rest? You have to make yourself sick."
In the eyes of their demon race, mortal life is fragile, and even a minor illness can be fatal.
Shangguan Zhiyi didn't take off her clothes and took meticulous care of him. "I think we don't need to go to the ancestral worship ceremony."
"I must go." He drank the bitter medicine she fed him, forcing himself to stay awake.
"You'll die." She angrily put down the soup bowl, annoyed that he couldn't understand kind words.
"I am the ruler of the country, and the ancestral worship is a matter of national importance. I must go."
"What does this have to do with me?" She turned her head away from him. "You are the emperor, and I am a fox demon. Humans and demons are different, and we should not be involved together."
"Ah Zhi, please help me."
This time, he changed his form of address, addressing her as "I" instead of "朕" (the imperial "I").
"It's no use begging me."
"Ah Zhi, you're not a bad person at heart, you'll help me, right?"
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