Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Helian Jing took out another clean handkerchief from his sleeve, soaked it in warm water, wrung it out, and bent down again to wipe away the remaining bloodstains on her lips. But her closed eyelashes trembled when he wiped them a second time.

He didn't stop, continuing to straighten the blood-stained collar on her neck and smooth out the turned-out collar.

His breath fell on the stray hairs on her forehead, warm and light, carrying the scent of cypress. Then he lowered his head, his lips close to her ear, his voice extremely low.

"What happened? You got carried away with your lovey-dovey moments with another man and ended up in this miserable state."

His breath brushed against her earlobe, hot and burning. "Xi Yue Li, I have repaid Fu Yuan's kindness, but you still owe me a lot."

Helian Jing placed his hand on the back of her head, his palm covering the roots of her hair, stroking it gently.

After half a day, Xi Yueli slowly opened her eyes. Her pupils focused slowly in the twilight, taking less than two breaths to go from being unfocused to being concentrated.

She saw the face so close to hers; the candlelight outlined a dark gold line along the contours of his brow bone and nose. Her lips curved into a smile, a hint of unexpected delight in her expression.

"...Your Highness, this mask is really ugly." Her voice was hoarse, with a slight tremor.

Helian Jing looked down at her. The distance between them was no more than a hand's breadth, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

"Yes, but not as handsome as the envoy's face." His voice was still low, but the smile at the end of his tone was unmistakable. "It's good that you're awake. We can settle our scores now."

Xi Yueli's head was supported by Helian Jing's palm, a position that saved her a lot of effort, but also brought her too close to his face.

She tried to sit up straight to make herself look less weak, but her back was gently pressed back down by his hand that was supporting the back of her head as soon as it left the back of the bed.

The pressure wasn't heavy, but the meaning behind that press was clear—lie down and don't move.

"Your Highness," her voice was still hoarse, "how can I take my medicine if you hold me down like this?"

Helian Jing released his hand from the back of her head and picked up the bowl of still-warm medicine. He brought the rim of the bowl to her lips, turned his head to avoid the direct sunlight, and positioned the rim of the bowl so that it was perfectly positioned on the outside of her lower lip, allowing her to drink it all in one gulp without stopping.

Xi Yueli lowered her head and drank the bowl of medicine. The bitterness of the medicine was milder than she had expected, as if someone had added a layer of licorice beforehand, which covered most of the bitterness.

"You added licorice to the medicine."

"I was afraid you'd find it too bitter and wouldn't drink it." He put the bowl down, turned back to look at her, and when his gaze fell on her face, all the casual ease vanished, leaving only a layer of something that had been suppressed for a long time.

Xi Yueli looked at him, and something flickered quickly in his usually clear, dark eyes. "How long has Your Highness been traveling?"

Helian Jing looked at her, reached out and tucked the stray hairs that had fallen across her forehead behind her ear. When his fingertips brushed against her earlobe, his touch was slightly stronger than before, as if to confirm that she was really awake and sitting there talking to him.

"Half a month, with only three hours of rest in between." He paused, his gaze shifting from her earlobe back to her eyes. The things that had been weighing on her for half a month finally surfaced from the depths of her eyes. "I thought about many things on the way."

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"I feel more at ease taking care of my own things myself, because there are always restless people eyeing other people's possessions..."

Xi Yueli looked at him, knowing he was waiting for her to explain about Xiao Yanzhi. She picked up her teacup, took a sip, and spoke with a deliberately provocative tone at the end.

"Your Highness speaks as if you traveled those two weeks for me, but I heard that Your Highness wrote a memorial of impeachment in the Great Ying court. Was that memorial written for the sake of Great Ying's reputation, or for your own?"

Helian Jing paused for a moment, holding the cup. "That memorial I wrote was for the sake of Ying's dignity."

"But when I wrote this, with every stroke I thought—did it hurt when he carried you in? How close were you when he took your pulse? What were you doing, with the lamplight casting shadows on the window paper around midnight?"

His calm words carried a chilling undertone, and Xi Yueli's heart skipped a beat, fearing he might grab her by the neck at any moment.

"He came that day because I had a headache," she quickly said.

"I couldn't walk, so he carried me in. He gave me acupuncture in the middle of the night and left before dawn. His Highness said 'he left the next day,' which means that he was seen by the guards when he came for his second follow-up visit."

As she finished speaking, she subconsciously avoided his gaze, turning her head to look out the window at the darkening sky. But the tips of her ears were still red, the thin blush standing out clearly in the twilight.

Helian Jing sat there listening to her finish speaking, then reached out and placed his hand on hers, which was resting on the low table. His palm was cool as it touched the back of her hand, a coolness brought in from the winter night, but that coolness was quickly warmed by his body heat.

His thumb gently rubbed against the back of her hand, from the base of her fingers to her knuckles, and then back to the base of her fingers, as if touching something that had been lost and then found again.

"I understand," he said.

Xi Yueli looked down at the hand that was covering the back of her hand. Her fingertips twitched but she didn't pull them back. Her voice came from below, "Your Highness, your hand is so cold."

Helian Jing looked at her lowered eyelashes, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly. The sourness in that smile had subsided a bit, revealing something warming up underneath.

"I pretended to be dead after falling into a deep pool in the dead of winter, and traveled for half a month, exposed to the winter winds of the North every day. Of course I was cold."

Xi Yueli didn't pull her hand away. Instead, she placed her other hand on top of his, overlapping both hands as if slowly warming a frozen stone. "So, Your Highness, are you still leaving tomorrow?"

"I'm not leaving." Helian Jing grabbed her hands and pulled them into his palms, his fingers tightening. "I'm practically a dead man in Daying. I won't go anywhere until you've paid off your debts."

As dusk settled completely, the lamps under the eaves were turned on, and warm yellow light shone through the paper windows, falling between the two people.

Xi Yueli leaned against the back of the couch, her hands held in his palms, her forehead resting against his shoulder, her eyes closed, her breathing steady and long.

Before she could fall asleep, Xi Yueli opened her eyes again, turned her head slightly, and moved her gaze from his jawline to his Adam's apple, and then back to his eyes.

His voice was much clearer than before: "Your Highness wishes to remain in Beishuo, but under what identity?"

Helian Jing looked down at her. The lamplight shining through the window paper flickered in the depths of his pupils, casting a warm, gentle light on his usually aloof eyes. He lifted her hand from his palm, turned it over, and let her palm rest against his own cheek.

He tilted his head slightly, letting his cheek sink into her palm.

"Would you mind if I became the Imperial Preceptor's male concubine?"