Mu Qingshuang looked at him in disbelief.
The man’s answer was so heartless, it bordered on cruelty. Couldn’t he see that Emperor Ronghua had no intention of taking him seriously? She was just toying with him, wasn’t she?
“Who knows?” Emperor Ronghua looked at him with a half-smile, her brows and eyes filled with mockery, exuding an air of cold detachment. “Since it hasn’t happened yet, why are you asking me such a hypothetical question? It feels insincere.”
“Ronghua,” Xiao Hanjin paused for a moment, his tone half-serious, half-teasing. “If I agree to your terms, and you end up deceiving me, I’d be at a loss.”
Emperor Ronghua had never intended to agree in the first place, so she naturally didn’t relent. “Oh, well, forget it then.”
The man’s eyes flickered. Even though he had anticipated her response, hearing it still left him with an unavoidable sense of loss.
He lowered his gaze, gently brushing his palm over her forehead, and said softly, “Rest for a while. I’ll have someone bring you something to eat, alright?”
Emperor Ronghua ignored him, but he didn’t seem to mind. He stood up and walked out of the room.
Mu Qingshuang couldn’t tell whether she felt more disappointment or bitterness. She closed her eyes and left the room before he did.
Emperor Ronghua watched their retreating figures and couldn’t help but press her fingers to her temples.
From the moment she saw Mu Qingshuang in the room, or perhaps from last night, her nerves had been stretched taut. Only now did an overwhelming sense of exhaustion and self-loathing begin to seep in.
She simply couldn’t understand. If these two were so attached to each other, why couldn’t they just be together properly?
Why did they have to drag her down into this mess with them?
……
As they walked out of the courtyard, Mu Qingshuang looked at the man’s aloof profile and finally couldn’t hold back. “If she had agreed, would you really have sent me away?”
“She wouldn’t have agreed.”
The woman stared at him, stubborn and insistent. “But if she had?”
Xiao Hanjin paused for a moment, then glanced at her indifferently, his thin lips parting to utter a single word. “Yes.”
Mu Qingshuang trembled, her face growing even paler.
After a long silence, her voice, hoarse with emotion, finally broke the stillness. “If you want to win her back, why did you send me to deliver the contraceptive medicine? Even if you don’t want a child right now… you know she hates me. Did you send me there just to provoke her?”
Xiao Hanjin’s expression remained impassive as he averted his gaze. “The Red Feather Flower has arrived. I’ll prepare the first dose of medicine by tonight. You should go back now.”
……
When Xiao Hanjin returned, Emperor Ronghua was no longer in the room.
His heart skipped a beat, and his face darkened as he strode out. It wasn’t until he saw her at the entrance of the backyard storeroom that his expression softened slightly.
But when he realized what she was looking at, his eyes flickered again. He walked up behind her and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Red Feather Flower?”
The woman, with her back to him, let out a low, ambiguous laugh. “If I remember correctly, this doesn’t grow in Beixi.”
Xiao Hanjin’s gaze paused. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, enveloping her in an embrace. “Do you like it?”
“If I do, will you give all of these to me?”
“You can have as much as you like.”
The man’s sharp jaw rested on her shoulder, exuding an inexplicable intimacy. Emperor Ronghua slowly curled her lips into a smile. “Alright. I’ve heard that when the Red Feather Flower burns, it produces a pink flame. It’s supposed to be beautiful. Have someone burn all of these Red Feather Flowers for me.”
