Du Gu Luanyue paused in her steps, turned around to look at him, and blinked her jade-like eyes. "What's up?"
Huo Wei's chiseled handsome face was tense, his eyebrows cold and clear. "My arm is out of action. Come and help me get dressed."
In the deep palace on this dark night, the stars were high up in the sky, twinkling obscurely. They were not very bright, yet they never stopped twinkling. They had always been there and never disappeared.
The spring breeze made the curtains flutter slightly, and Du Gu Luanyue's long eyelashes quivered a bit. "Okay."
She took steps forward, picked up Huo Wei's clothes on the bed. First, it was the plain inner shirt. She carefully helped him put it on.
"If it hurts, remember to tell me."
Huo Wei sneered. "Your Majesty the Queen is so good at serving people. You must have served His Majesty like this quite often, right? You seem quite skilled when dressing a man."
Du Gu Luanyue's throat tightened and grew more and more sour, but she held it back.
She just hoped that God would open his eyes and cleanse Huo Wei's mouth.
Seeing her silence, Huo Wei looked up at her. He saw the look of forbearance on her delicate face, and her jade-like nose was slightly red.
Then he changed the subject. "Why were you crying that day?"
Du Gu Luanyue didn't answer until she had helped him put on his outer robe. "It's none of your business."
Huo Wei frowned and glared at her.
"The conversation you had with your old maid in the woods was pre - arranged, wasn't it? Don't even think about deceiving me again!"
Du Gu Luanyue felt a chill in her heart. It seemed that Huo Wei really didn't believe anything. She took a step back, and her voice grew a bit lower.
"Just think it is so."
Seeing that she didn't defend herself, and that her jade - like eyes were red as she turned to leave, Huo Wei couldn't help but grab her.
"So what if you've deceived me? Since you've come to me on your own, I won't refuse."
Du Gu Luanyue struggled out of his arm, with tears in her eyes.
"I'm also a princess of South Chu and the queen of North Yan. Why are you so rude when you talk?
I'm a human being too. I'll be sad and heart - broken when you keep humiliating me!"
Her emotions suddenly flared up, and she couldn't help but pour them out.
Huo Wei retracted his hand as if it had been burned. He was stunned for a moment.
"It's not like a knife is cutting your body. Why are you so angry?"
Du Gu Luanyue turned around and left the General Headquarters of the Imperial Guards without any hesitation.
Meng Tan walked in right away. "My lord, what's wrong with Her Majesty the Queen? Why did she leave in tears?"
Huo Wei sat back on the edge of the bed. "I don't know."
Meng Tan took a few steps forward and lowered his voice.
"Just got the news. His Majesty won't depose you from your position as the Commander of the Imperial Guards. He also won't pursue the matter of the censure from the Censorate today. He told you to act properly."
Huo Wei nodded, then got up and left from the side - room of the General Headquarters of the Imperial Guards.
Somehow, he felt even more vexed.
When he got back to Yuzhang Prince's Mansion, he took his anger out on Shen Guilan's medicinal herb field and uprooted all the herbs.
Shen Guilan rushed over quickly and shouted in disbelief.
"Are you crazy, Huo Wei! My herbs! These are all my hard work!"
Huo Wei squinted his eyes slightly and asked. "If a woman sees you being intimate with another woman and then her eyes turn red, what does it mean?"
Shen Guilan said. "Red - eye disease?"
Huo Wei put his hands behind his back, glanced at Shen Guilan, and then said to the herb field.
"Uproot them all!"
He stepped towards the stable. No one in the prince's mansion knew where the Prince of Yuzhang had ridden his horse off to in the middle of the night.
Shen Guilan just kept shaking his head behind and sighed to the steward.
"My junior brother has been like this since he was a child. Stubborn, extremely stubborn, stubborn without distinguishing between truth and falsehood, right and wrong."
He knew that Huo Wei had fallen in love with Du Gu Luanyue. Even though he knew he was being used, he still couldn't help but get closer.
The reason he was so conflicted was that he knew it was a dead - end road, a wrong road.
He had reason, but there were also times when he went crazy.
Shen Guilan didn't know what to do for a moment. The news from the palace was that the emperor had no plan to attack South Chu recently and had been delaying. He couldn't persuade the emperor to order the conscription either. He could only keep waiting.
Huo Wei knocked on the door of Zhengyunxuan, a pastry shop in the imperial capital, in the middle of the night. "Is the boss here? If not, I'll break in."
The boss opened the door impatiently. Before he could see clearly who it was, the man rushed into the shop and threw a bag of silver on the table.
"I want all the pastries made with roses. Now."
The boss looked sleepy and yawned.
"They've all been sold out. There aren't any left. The shop is closed today. Sir, come back tomorrow... Uh."
The boss trembled and carefully pushed away the long sword across his neck.
"I'll make them right away. Please wait for a while, sir."
Huo Wei said. "It has to be black - red roses. If you change the variety, I'll kill you right away."
The boss of Zhengyunxuan didn't dare to scold. He thought the man in front of him had paid money and didn't seem like a bandit, but the murderous aura was just like one.
After Huo Wei left, Zhengyunxuan closed for a day. The boss didn't sleep all night and also lost a very beautiful pastry box. That box wasn't for sale.
Early the next morning, Huo Wei rode his horse into the palace after coming out of Zhengyunxuan. After the court session, as was his usual habit, he would go to the Zichen Hall and the Fengluan Palace to pay his respects.
He took a brocade box in the shape of a fox from Meng Tan and walked towards the Fengluan Palace. But he stopped in front of the palace gate. He looked sideways and asked.
"Meng Tan, does what I'm doing make me look like I'm trying to coax that woman?"
Meng Tan scratched his head. "It's not like. You are definitely trying to coax her."
Huo Wei stuffed the brocade box with the little fox into Meng Tan's hand and stepped into the main hall of the Fengluan Palace.
Meng Tan held his breath. "My lord, I don't eat such sweet things."
Huo Wei's deep voice came sweeping over. "Try eating one?"
Meng Tan was a bit embarrassed. Holding the brocade box, he stood at the palace gate. When he saw Aunt Meijiang coming, he quickly put the brocade box into her hand.
"Aunt, these are pastries from Zhengyunxuan outside the palace. Please take them on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen."
Aunt Meijiang took the thing and glanced inside. "Sent by the prince?"
Meng Tan: "Yes."
Aunt Meijiang stuffed the brocade box back and glared at him. "Our queen doesn't want them!"
Then she walked into the palace. Du Gu Luanyue had come back with red eyes yesterday. Aunt Meijiang knew right away that the Prince of Yuzhang must have said something humiliating again. She was so angry.
She admitted that the Prince of Yuzhang had feelings for her queen, but such a man was hard to get along with in the long - run.
As time went by, Du Gu Luanyue would be driven crazy by his words.
He must not understand the truth that harsh words can hurt people deeply.
Huo Wei walked past the screen and into the hall. He saw Du Gu Luanyue lying on the beauty's couch, drinking wine.
Her black hair cascaded down like a waterfall. Her charming and enchanting appearance was tinged with a hint of intoxication.
"What are you doing here? Coming to provoke me again?"