“His Imperial Majesty ordered this humble servant to come and visit,” Seeing as Long Xuan was staring at him and not paying any attention to what the imperial physician had asked, Luo Wei spoke up, “Does your Imperial Highness feel better now?”

“I’m fine,” Long Xuan took back his gaze and spoke to the imperial physician, “What happened to me?”

“Your Imperial Highness caught a chill,” the imperial physician answered, “It would necessitate a few days of bedrest.”

Long Xuan nodded.

“Your humble servants shall take our leave and formulate some medicine for your Imperial Highness,” the two imperial physicians bowed to Long Xuan, then to Luo Wei, and excused themselves.

“If Your Imperial Highness is feeling better now, I shall go and make my report to His Imperial Majesty,” Luo Wei wanted to leave too. Spending time alone with Long Xuan made him very uncomfortable.

“Where did Xiang go?” Long Xuan asked.

“He’s still at the Hall of Eternal Light.”

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Long Xuan said, “You know this.”

“I know,” Luo Wei answered, “I’ll talk to the emperor for him.”

The half opened window suddenly blew open from a hard gust of wind, filling the room with frigid air. Luo Wei moved quickly to close the shutters, but the gust of wind in his face carried sand and dust into his eyes. Just as he was rubbing his eyes with one hand while feeling for the window shutter with the other to close it, someone’s hand pulled him back a few steps.

Long Xuan had pulled Luo Wei behind himself as he tried to close the window. When had he ever needed to do this himself before? It was only a small window, but he couldn’t get it closed at the first push, and failed at the second try too before he shoved hard, almost managing to break the shutters and pull the whole frame to the ground.

“There’s a latch underneath,” Luo Wei had rubbed his eyes until they teared up. When he cleared his eyes of the sand, the first sight to greet him was Long Xuan trying and, ridiculously, failing to close a simple window.

Long Xuan watched as Luo Wei pulled opened the latch and softly closed this shutter that he couldn’t for the life of him close. So windows had to be shut like this. In Long Xuan’s moment of sudden realization, he managed to see the tip of Luo Wei’s broken finger. Just like that, his gaze darkened.

Luo Wei turned around and caught the sight of Long Xuan standing on the ground barefoot. He quickly said, “Your Imperial Highness should get back into bed, it’ll be bad if you caught another chill.”

“And you’d care if I caught a chill or not?” Long Xuan walked towards his bed, “Luo Wei, there isn’t a third person in this room. Why do you still insist on plying me with false words?”

Luo Wei followed after Long Xuan for a few steps, “Should I summon Fu Lai back inside so he can help you into bed?”

“No,” Long Xuan laid down himself, “I’ll wager he and the rest of the servants are busy looking for another master right now.”

“Your Imperial Highness, these words of yours may weigh heavily on those servants waiting outside.”

“I just said that you didn’t need to put on false pretenses with me,” Long Xuan suddenly shouted with anger.

“Your Imperial Highness can get angry and let it out on me as you like, but when you see His Imperial Majesty again, you must remember to not rage in front of him,” Luo Wei spoke as he walked up to the side of the bed, wanting to pull the covers over Long Xuan properly.

“Your hand,” Long Xuan reached out and held Luo Wei’s hand with his own.

In an instant, Luo Wei pulled his hand back.

Long Xuan’s hand was empty.

“Your Imperial Highness needs rest,” Luo Wei reached out again, pulling the covers up for Long Xuan, “This humble servant shall excuse himself.”

It was only when Luo Wei turned to leave that Long Xuan spoke, “I was only thinking that it’s a pity for you to injure your hand.”

“It doesn’t stop me from eating, dressing myself, and writing,” Luo Wei didn’t bother to turn around to face Long Xuan as he spoke, “Let it be injured, I’m already very lucky compared to those people who lost their lives in the killing fields.”

“But you wouldn’t be able to play the qin anymore,” Long Xuan said, his voice low, “After I heard you play at the study that day, I had ordered someone to go and find a quality instrument for you. It was going to be a gift, on your birthday.”

Luo Wei chuckled, “Your Imperial Highness, there’s no one else in this room, why do you insist on trying to appease me and make me happy with these words? I never cared much for music, why would I play? Your Imperial Highness shouldn’t worry too much. You are the son of the emperor. Even if His Imperial Majesty commands the execution of the entire Liu family, he wouldn’t touch you, your consort mother, or your imperial brother.”

The room was empty now, save for Long Xuan himself. “But I really do think it’s a pity that you’ve injured your hand,” watching the wisps of smoke float out of the patterned holes on the incense burner, Long Xuan mumbled to himself. The wisp of smoke was just in front of his eyes, but as Long Xuan reached out, he couldn’t manage to hold a single strand in his hand.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:

I wanted to wait until the 100th chapter to say this but… Wow… we’re just a little over 20% through the entire length of this novel!! I can’t believe we made it this far!!! Thank you all so much for reading along and following this story, I’m very happy to have such nice readers. all of your comments make me very happy, and thank you to everyone who supported me on ko-fi!!! here’s to the rest of the 379 chapters and 9 epilogue chapters!! xD