Spring Breezes Blowing - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I huddled in the corner.

He knelt at the other end of the bed like some abandoned little beast.

The moment that thought crossed my mind, I wanted to spit on myself.

What little beast? He was a criminal who’d almost committed a crime!

And he had just killed someone.

He hadn’t been like this yesterday. Aside from when I’d first met him, he had clearly been a gentle, courteous gentleman.

How had he turned into this?

I didn’t dare look at the dead girl on the floor, nor did I dare look at Xiao Yu, who was right beside me. All I could do was clutch the blanket and hide beneath it.

Xiao Yu was the first to recover and let the people outside come in.

The senior palace maid who had thrown me in here earlier ordered people to drag away the corpse on the floor. She barely reacted at the sight of a dead body, but when she saw that I was alive, her eyes filled with terror instead.

I reached out from under the blanket and gently tugged at Xiao Yu’s sleeve.

His dragon robe was on me, so right now he wore only a thin inner robe. When I tugged, his collar slipped open, revealing a delicate stretch of collarbone.

“She’s dead.”

Xiao Yu listened quietly as I spoke.

“I remember saving up some money before I left. Could you help me give it to her family?”

Before I left, I’d given part of my money to the palace maids and part of it to Xiao Yu.

As for the portion I’d given Xiao Yu, since we were in the palace anyway, I’d only told him that everything I left behind was his. I hadn’t gone out of my way to pack it up.

His family was filthy rich. Surely he hadn’t spent my money first, right?

Xiao Yu took my hand. I instinctively tried to pull free, but he pressed his cheek against my palm.

The palace maids were very efficient. Soon, the floor was spotless, without a trace of blood.

Only a faint, sweet metallic smell lingered in the air.

“There is no need for compensation. She was a spy sent by the Liuwu Kingdom.”

Beneath my palm was his warm skin. His voice was very soft, as if he were afraid of frightening me. “You came back at just the right time. In two days, it will be the Year-end Court Assembly. They sent many rare treasures, and quite a few spies slipped in among them as well.”

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

“Then what about me?”

The moment that palace maid saw me, she threw me to him!

Under my stare, Xiao Yu stole my blanket away. He looked silently at the dragon robe on me.

“Sister, the clothes you were wearing just now…”

What I’d been wearing just now were pajamas. Where would I have hidden a weapon to carry out an assassination?

As if he knew what I was thinking, he said faintly, “Over the years, the palace has received quite a few people who resembled you. At first, I dealt with them leniently. Then one of them snuck into my sleeping chambers in the dead of night and tried to assassinate me.”

So that was what had happened?

Xiao Yu quickly changed the subject. “Sister, are you hungry? Shall we go eat?”

If he hadn’t mentioned it, I would have been fine. The moment he did, I realized I really was hungry.

I rubbed my stomach, then suddenly remembered my little cake.

I hadn’t finished it yet.