"What did you just say?"
Min Feiyan looked up at him, her eyes already brimming with tears. She had been troubled by heart disease for years, so she was extremely thin. At this moment, looking at Mu Shengze with teary eyes, she looked like a fragile beauty.
Mu Shengze was used to seeing Min Feiyan like this and was already impatient.
He had felt a bit guilty towards her before, but seeing her like this, he suddenly got annoyed.
"Since you already know, I won't hide it from you anymore."
He leaned back on the cushion again, looking nonchalant.
Min Feiyan turned to look outside the curtain. After adjusting herself, she turned back to Mu Shengze. "Your Highness, I know your ambitions and longings, but have you ever thought that what you're doing is ruining your future?"
Mu Shengze had just been scolded in the palace. Now hearing Min Feiyan lecturing him, he immediately flared up.
He raised his finger at her. "Stop lecturing me. I know what I'm doing. I don't need your nonsense here."
Min Feiyan endured her tears and still tried to persuade him earnestly. "Your Highness, she is the emperor's concubine. Once your affair is discovered, do you know what your end will be?"
Hearing her shouting, Mu Shengze got so angry that he raised his hand and slapped her. She was in poor health, and this slap sent her flying towards the side of the sedan chair.
The coachman outside heard a thud from inside, followed by Min Feiyan's cries. He shook his head helplessly and slowed down the carriage.
Min Feiyan covered half of her face, her eyes full of disappointment. She sat up straight and tidied her hair.
She ignored Mu Shengze.
……
The Regent's Mansion
After throwing away the clothes of the same color as Mu Shengze's, Mo Qinghuan finally felt much better.
She changed into a bright red waist-length cross-collared ruqun and lay on the reclining chair under the corridor to soak up the sun.
Suddenly, her sunlight disappeared.
She lazily opened her eyes a slit.
Seeing Mu Yanming, she smiled. "You're blocking my sun."
Mu Yanming stepped aside and half-sat on the corridor, looking at Mo Qinghuan lying comfortably on the reclining chair.
Mo Qinghuan closed her eyes again contentedly.
After a long while, Mu Yanming asked, "Was the date cake from last time delicious?"
She opened her eyes and blinked at him.
Her long eyelashes seemed to sweep across Mu Yanming's heart, tickling him.
"Your Highness, someone from the Cold Moon Villa has come to invite the princess. They said their villa master is dying," the gatekeeper came over and reported, standing at the bottom of the steps.
Mo Qinghuan had been leisurely rocking on the reclining chair. Hearing this, she suddenly sat up.
"What did you say? Dying!" She looked at the gatekeeper with suspicion in her eyes.
The last time she saw Leng Hanyue, he had almost strangled her to death. How could he be dying after just a few days?
Just as she was thinking, her hand was suddenly held by Mu Yanming.
"Let's go. I'll go with you to see him."
She nodded and turned to signal Dan'er to get the medicine box.
"Wait. Bring a cloak."
She still remembered the feeling of shivering from the cold last time, so she must keep warm this time.
Mu Yanming tightened his grip on her hand, as if silently telling her not to be afraid, that he was there.
After going out, Mo Qinghuan saw the same thin young servant as last time. He was still wearing the same gray robe as before.
It seemed that he deliberately dressed like this, for fear that Mo Qinghuan wouldn't recognize him.
"Greetings to Your Highness and the princess."
Mu Yanming stood in front of him. "What's wrong with your villa master?"
The young servant heaved a long sigh.
"Your Highness, ever since the princess bluntly said that my mistress had passed away last time, our villa master has been in a state of collapse. He neither eats nor drinks and guards his wife's side every day. The food sent in by the servants is always brought out untouched. He was fine last night, and there was no sign of anything abnormal. But this morning, when the servant went in to deliver something, they found that our villa master had fallen into a coma and his pulse was very weak. So, I've come here..."
After listening to what the young servant said, Mo Qinghuan also sighed. "It's a pity that your villa master is so infatuated, but God is so cruel as to deprive him of the right to be with his wife."
Mu Yanming coughed lightly and helped Mo Qinghuan into the carriage.
After getting into the carriage, Mu Yanming saw Mo Qinghuan slightly frowning and asked a bit unhappily, "What's wrong?"
"I remember the young servant told me last time that Leng Hanyue's wife had been gone for four years. Do you know how his wife died?"
She stared into Mu Yanming's eyes and saw him slightly frown when he heard her question.
Her intuition told her that Mu Yanming must know the reason.
However, Mu Yanming remained silent...
He chose not to say.
After the carriage had been traveling for about an hour, she lifted the curtain and found that the carriage had stopped at the entrance of the Cold Moon Villa.
She couldn't help but be amazed. She had been sitting in the carriage and hadn't felt that they were going uphill at all, but unexpectedly, they had already reached the top of the mountain.
The last time she came here, she was very nervous, so she hadn't carefully examined this so-called "the peak of the Li State" - the Cold Moon Villa.
This time, the young servant led the way from the entrance. They crossed the lake on the trestle bridge and reached the other side.
Then they climbed up a dozen steps, passed through the main hall, and then went down the steps to reach the backyard.
After walking through the corridor, they turned into another courtyard.
Only then did they reach the door of the Cold Moon Pavilion.
Mo Qinghuan had been following behind Mu Yanming. She couldn't help but whisper, "I didn't expect the Cold Moon Villa to be so big!"
Mu Yanming looked down at her. "Do you like it?"
"Ah?"
"If you like it, I'll build a mansion as big as this for you, okay?"
Mo Qinghuan burst out laughing. The young servant looked back at her. She covered her mouth in embarrassment and whispered to Mu Yanming, "I don't like such a big place."
Mu Yanming frowned slightly, showing that he didn't understand.
"Why?"
Mo Qinghuan thought seriously for a while and then raised her little head and said to Mu Yanming, "Think about it. If we lived in such a big mansion, when you were discussing matters with others in the main hall, I might be bullied and tormented by your concubines in the backyard, and you wouldn't even hear about it."
Mu Yanming frowned even deeper, but then he smiled again. "You're the mistress of the mansion. Who would dare to bully and torment you?"
Mo Qinghuan shook her head. "No, no. It's not like that. You should know that a woman's greatest confidence comes from her husband's love. Without her husband's love, even if she has the power to manage the family, her life won't be very good."
Mu Yanming tightened his grip on her hand and looked at her seriously. "I'll make sure you have this confidence."
— This dog man is so good at it...
"Really? Then you must remember what you said today."
Mu Yanming nodded seriously.
The two looked at each other and smiled. Just as they were about to go inside, they suddenly saw a disheveled woman rushing out of the Cold Moon Pavilion.