His voice was hoarse and low, almost broken. "Don't move."
Caiyu felt a flutter of joy in her heart, but she didn't stop her steps. Ignoring him, she walked out.
Song Yinghuai got angry. With a "bang", he slapped the table. "If you dare to take another step, I'll—"
Before he could finish his words, he saw the girl dart around like a gust of wind and reappear in front of him. She tilted her head at him pleadingly.
"Your Highness, please have mercy on this maid and apply the medicine for me!"
Song Yinghuai: …
The hand holding the porcelain bottle tightened and then loosened, loosened and then tightened again.
He had the illusion of falling into the Spider Cave.
After a moment, Song Yinghuai sighed silently. He tilted his head towards the side hall and motioned. "Go in and take off your clothes."
Caiyu was stunned.
She never expected that Song Yinghuai would actually agree. Instead, she panicked.
Although the madam in Yangzhou had trained her for three years, she had never had any actual experience. She was still inexperienced.
She had learned the art of seduction quite well and could manage to keep a straight face even when facing a naked man.
However, when it came to taking off her own clothes and exposing herself, she chickened out...
"R-really take them off?" Caiyu unconsciously tightened the front of her robe. Her voice carried a hint of uneasiness that was barely perceptible.
Song Yinghuai heard it and a sneer flashed through his mind.
A girl with guts but no courage!
His face remained cold, and his eyes showed great indifference as he looked at her.
"You always have a bunch of fallacies. Don't you know that in the eyes of a Buddhist like me, form is emptiness and emptiness is form? All forms are empty. Everything in the world is an illusion. You are like a passing cloud to me. Even if you were to strip naked, it wouldn't stay in my heart or eyes. So what's there to be afraid of?"
What a great saying about "form is emptiness"!
Caiyu felt deeply humiliated. Since the arrow was already on the bowstring, she had to let it fly. She steeled herself in her heart. She mustn't be a coward!
She grabbed her clothes tightly and rushed into the side hall. Closing her eyes, she took off her outer robe, revealing a glimpse of her fair and delicate skin. She turned her head and called out to the outside in a soft, coquettish voice.
"Your Highness, I'm done."
Although Song Yinghuai had long known there was a seductive woman in the hall, when he walked in and saw this scene, his breath involuntarily caught in his throat, and his mind went blank for a moment.
Caiyu liked to wear red, probably because of the three years of training. She had developed the habit of using bright colors to entice people.
But her skin was extremely fair. The shoulder exposed outside the red satin was like a snow-capped peak emerging from a cluster of red plum blossoms. Her fair skin seemed to emit a faint glow, blinding Song Yinghuai's eyes.
However, this was not the most unbearable thing for him. What really made it hard for him to look away was Caiyu's weak appearance due to the injury at this moment.
Her already delicate face looked even paler. Especially because of nervousness and pain, her shoulders trembled slightly in the air. Her slender body shrank into the corner. When she took off her outer robe just now, she touched her hairpin, and strands of black hair fell onto her bright red inner robe.
Different from the charming woman in the hot spring a few days ago, Caiyu at this moment was more like an injured solitary crane that Song Yinghuai had seen during a winter hunt one year, lying under the petals of plum blossoms all over the mountain.
There is no form, no sensation, no perception, no mental formation, no consciousness in the void... Song Yinghuai unconsciously began to recite the "Heart-Cleansing Mantra".
Hearing the sound of footsteps, Caiyu turned her head.
Song Yinghuai's eyes met hers.
In an instant, he felt his body seem to jump up again. A surging feeling rushed through his limbs and bones. His breathing suddenly became heavy. It seemed that all the chanting of the Heart-Cleansing Mantra just now had been in vain.
Fortunately, Caiyu was also nervous at this moment and didn't notice Song Yinghuai's gaffe. This allowed him to regain his composure in time.
His Adam's apple rolled rapidly. His voice returned to its icy coldness, as if he were free from desires. "You haven't taken them all off. Am I supposed to apply the medicine through your clothes?"
Hearing this, Caiyu's slender body trembled slightly. The bright red inner robe spread on the big bed bloomed like petals under her body as it trembled, with layers of wrinkles changing like water waves.
She bit her lips shyly and turned to look at Song Yinghuai. "Your Highness, this maid's inner robe is stuck to the bloodstain on the wound..."
Song Yinghuai's lips tightened. He poured out a whole bottle of sweet dew. When he sat down, his figure was tall and straight. His movements were unhurried, and his posture was elegant, exuding boundless nobility. His fingers swept across gently with the sweet dew.
The inner robe fell loosely, leaving only the embroidered bellyband on her body.
Her back felt cool. Only a few ropes of the bellyband were holding it on. As long as the man had any evil intentions, with a wave of his hand, her modesty would be exposed...
This made Caiyu start to have wild thoughts. The fingers on the brocade quilt unconsciously tightened, wrinkling the quilt without her realizing it.
If she could turn around and see, she would know that Song Yinghuai's eyes were as deep as the night at this moment, bottomless. He held the porcelain bottle in his hand and didn't move for a long time, as if he were struggling.
Caiyu didn't dare to turn around or look at the scene behind her. She only felt the warm breath on her shoulder and neck, with a faint sandalwood smell, just as hot as that night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Both of them fell into a long silence.
Finally, Caiyu felt a chill on her bare skin. Summoning up her courage, she urged, "Your Highness, what's wrong?"
As soon as the words came out, she realized that her voice was as soft as if it were soaked in some sweet juice, a hundred times more charming than the voice she usually deliberately affected.
Caiyu immediately shut up, looking around in confusion.
At this moment, she even had the idea of backing out.
She didn't dare to seduce him anymore. She admitted that she was a coward.
As soon as Caiyu's voice came out, Song Yinghuai's body stiffened. He closed his eyes tightly. When he opened them again, he dug out the ointment and quickly applied it.
The coolness of the ointment spread between their skins, which cleared the minds of the two people who were originally in a hot state.
Song Yinghuai let out a sigh of relief and focused on applying the medicine for her.
Caiyu couldn't see the man's movements behind her, so her skin became more sensitive. She could clearly feel every touch of Song Yinghuai's fingertips.
His fingertips were not as smooth and delicate as his appearance. Instead, they were strong and slightly rough. They were indeed the fingers of a martial artist.
Caiyu was not at all unfamiliar with such fingers. On the contrary, she felt a sense of familiarity. Because her father and elder brother had also been military generals. When she was young, they had held her hand and taught her archery. The rough fingertips rubbing against her tender little hand felt just like this.
Thinking of this, she relaxed and got distracted. Her body had been stiff for too long. Now, because of her relaxed mood, it actually swayed.
The cool ointment accidentally slid down with the rhythm of her swaying. Song Yinghuai's fingertips slid down and pressed on one of her dimples.
At the moment of skin contact, a tingling electric current ran through their fingers.
Both of them were stunned at the same time.
Caiyu instinctively twisted her waist. Song Yinghuai quickly withdrew his hand and then immediately grabbed her shoulder.
"Don't move."
His voice was hoarse and low, almost broken.
Caiyu had been trained by the madam. She knew what the man's voice meant at this moment.
Her heart was pounding wildly. She was struggling crazily. Should she take the opportunity to continue seducing him?
Maybe she would succeed, and then there would be a chance for the Lan family to be vindicated...
Thinking of her family, Caiyu immediately made up her mind. She twisted her body again and leaned back slightly, getting closer to the man behind her.
"Your Highness..."
She could already feel that the hand pressing on her dimple had become much stronger, and she could also hear that his breathing had become much heavier than before.
When she leaned back, she even felt something of Song Yinghuai pressing against her pubic bone...
Caiyu's face burned even more. She took a deep breath and was about to turn around to face Song Yinghuai directly. She was ready to go all out!
"Your Highness..."
Before Caiyu could finish her words, she suddenly felt a tingling sensation in her lumbar spine. Then her vision went black, and she lost consciousness. She slumped softly on the wide six-pillared rosewood canopy bed...