Farewell Flower Festival

After more than ten whips were thrown, a voice of "Eunuch Gao" stopped Eunuch Gao who was about to raise the whip again.

"It's so cold, you'd better go back early, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is still waiting for you." Eunuch Wu walked over and said.

Eunuch Gao snorted coldly, his face showing disdain, and there seemed to be a bit of fear in this disdain. He threw the whip to the young eunuch behind him, took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands while saying, "You two, watch carefully. If you slack off at all, you will also taste the power of this whip when you go back." The two young eunuchs hurriedly agreed. Eunuch Gao shouted coldly, "Let's go!", and took the young eunuch behind him. After walking a few steps, he stopped and glanced back at Chao Yan who was pressed to the ground. The corners of his mouth curled up with a sinister smile, and said, "This little girl is quite courageous. We must take good care of her. Then kneel down together."

The two young eunuchs immediately did as they were told, grabbed Chao Yan's arms and lifted her up from the ground, and forced her to kneel face to face with Mu Tianling. She complained in her heart that couldn't they change the direction, making it seem like they were going to get married.

Eunuch Gao raised his sinister lips in satisfaction, glanced at Eunuch Wu and said sarcastically, "In terms of loyalty, you are not as good as a little girl."

Eunuch Wu replied: "No one can match your loyalty."

Eunuch Gao snorted coldly and left with the young eunuch. When Eunuch Gao's back disappeared outside the gate, the two young eunuchs breathed a sigh of relief. Chao Yan felt his shoulders relax and immediately gathered all his strength to get rid of the two people's hold, and then changed direction to get rid of this embarrassing face-to-face. Eunuch Wu said a few good words to the two, and they went back to the house to eat and drink.

Chaoyan tilted her head back to look at the injuries on Mu Tianling's back. His clothes were torn, but fortunately there was no bleeding. However, she didn't know if the innermost layer of clothes was stained with blood. If there was blood, she would have to change clothes as soon as possible. In such a cold day, if the blood froze on the clothes, when she took them off, the skin and flesh would be torn off together. It hurt just thinking about it.

"I'm fine." Mu Tianling uttered three words lightly.

Eunuch Wu sighed and said, "Your Highness really loves to show off."

Mu Tianling snorted, as if he disliked Eunuch Wu for talking too much.

Chao Yan also sighed, and it seemed that this sighing habit was contagious. "Uncle, you should show it to His Highness. If there is blood, you should change your clothes immediately."

Eunuch Wu lowered his voice and said, "Your Highness is wearing a gold-threaded soft armor underneath, so there shouldn't be any blood. But there will be a few more bruises on your back."

Chao Yan: “…” Uncle, why didn’t you tell me earlier? Where did you get this golden soft armor? Could it be stolen again?

Eunuch Wu seemed to see through her thoughts and explained, "There was an assassin who wanted to assassinate Your Highness before, and Your Highness has been wearing this golden soft armor since that day."

Chaoyan was stunned for a moment. Assassin and assassination sounded so dangerous. Uncle, why didn’t you tell me earlier? Is it too late for me to regret now?

Mu Tianling glanced at her face and asked, "Are you scared?"

Chao Yan said: "A small-time assassin like me wouldn't be interested. Just don't use me as a shield, Your Highness."

Mu Tianling snorted, and Chao Yan also snorted. Eunuch Wu said he would go to the kitchen to get two bowls of ginger soup to drive away the cold for the two of them.

After seeing Eunuch Wu leave, one of the two young eunuchs asked, "Who is this Eunuch Wu? How can he have such a say in front of Eunuch Gao?" The other shook his head and said, "Judging from his age, he must be an old man in the palace. Maybe he had some friendship with Eunuch Gao." The first one asked, "What about the little girl? I didn't see her when I came here before?" The second one said, "She has such a bad temper. She must have offended some noble and was banished to this cold palace."

At this point, the two saw Chao Yan raise her hand to pat the snow off Mu Tianling's hair, thinking that their relationship was indeed unusual. They also sneered at the fact that the Fourth Prince was really not picky about food, and that he had indeed never seen the world and was only worthy of hanging out with this unwanted little palace maid.

The two were laughing happily when they suddenly felt a chill on their backs. When they turned around, they were met with Mu Tianling's gloomy and cold eyes, like those of an evil ghost. They were so scared that they shrank their necks and turned their backs to him, muttering that he was mentally ill and would definitely stay in the cold palace for the rest of his life.

After a while, when Eunuch Wu came back, he was stopped by the two men. The two men asked him what he was holding in his hand. Eunuch Wu replied that it was medicine. He said that the weather had been cold recently and Mu Tianling and Chao Yan had accidentally caught a cold two days ago and had not recovered yet. If they did not take the medicine, they would probably be critically ill tomorrow after kneeling today. If something really happened, I'm afraid it would be difficult for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to explain to the Emperor.

The two men were skeptical about what Eunuch Wu said, but they were also afraid that someone might really die, so they turned a blind eye and let Eunuch Wu go to deliver the medicine.

"Your Highness, drink the medicine first." Eunuch Wu came over and said.

Chaoyan turned her head and glanced at Mu Tianling, thinking that he must have some hidden illness. Then she heard Eunuch Wu say that the other bowl was hers. After taking a sip and tasting the ginger, she realized that it was ginger soup.

The snow stopped for about half an hour, and then light snow started falling from the sky again.

Chaoyan looked up at the snowflakes falling from the sky, raised her hand to catch a few, and suddenly felt her eyes cold. A snowflake floated into her eyes and melted. She rubbed her eyes and heard a "idiot" from the side. She directly replied, "Isn't it the same for Your Highness?" Mu Tianling snorted and said nothing.

The quiet atmosphere lasted less than a quarter of an hour before Chao Yan felt bored. She turned her head to look at Mu Tianling, who was like a sculpture next to her, poked him with her hand, and asked in a low voice, "Does your highness want to hear a story?" Mu Tianling ignored her, so she took it as his consent and whispered the story of Snow White:

"A long time ago, a princess was born in a faraway country. The princess' skin was as white as snow. The king and queen, the emperor and queen, named her Snow White. The queen died soon after giving birth to Snow White. The king married a new queen, who had a talking magic mirror..."

"In the end, justice triumphed over evil, true love defeated magic, and Snow White and the prince lived happily together."

"Your Highness, let me tell you another story. A long time ago in a distant country there was a kind-hearted girl, but she had a vicious stepmother and two very vain sisters..."

"Finally, the prince put on Cinderella's crystal shoes, and they lived happily together in the castle."

After telling the story of Cinderella, Chao Yan felt a little thirsty. Seeing that Mu Tianling was still as unresponsive as a sculpture, she reached out and poked him again and asked, "Your Highness, what do you think of these two stories I told you?" Mu Tianling finally reacted. He turned his head and looked at her with his eyes as if he was looking at a fool, as if she had just said a bunch of nonsense.

Chaoyan was a little frustrated. She thought she had told a pretty good story. Even if she didn't get any compliments, at least she could have given him a look of affirmation. She secretly swore in her heart that she would never tell a story to this piece of wood again.