Xie Qichi was absolutely furious.
He was naturally cold - hearted, and Qu Yue was the only one to whom he had ever bared his true feelings.
But not only did she abandon him, she did such a thing to him on the night in the mourning hall after her husband's death. Then she pretended as if nothing had happened and even said bluntly that she wanted to forget everything.
The anger of being toyed with filled his chest. But when he stared at Qu Yue's pale little face full of fear, all his annoyance dissipated in an instant.
He hated Qu Yue, yet he couldn't bring himself to vent his anger on her.
"Different? Of course I'm different from a dead man." Xie Qichi pointed at the desk chair.
Qu Yue was completely confused. She hadn't recovered from the near - suffocation just now and was still in a daze.
Xie Qichi gave an order, "Go and sit down."
She shivered and quickly obeyed.
She sat down shakily, stealing glances at Xie Qichi's expression with every movement.
Her hands were nervously placed on her legs. She softly reminded him, "I'm sitting."
"Pick up the brush."
The man's voice rang in Qu Yue's ear. The sudden loudness made her tremble.
Without a word, she quickly stretched out her hand wrapped in gauze to grab the brush.
The heavy and high - quality wolf - hair brush exuded the fragrance of ink. Qu Yue's slender fingers held the shiny black brush handle. Xie Qichi's eyes darkened slightly.
He placed his hands on either side of Qu Yue and leaned down slightly, whispering in her ear, "Write on the promise letter."
Qu Yue felt extremely uncomfortable, not daring to delay. She dipped the brush in ink and quietly waited for his instructions.
The unique ambergris on the man invaded her nostrils, making her heart beat a little faster. A little sweat appeared on her palm, which hurt her wound.
Xie Qichi also took a shallow breath. "I, Qu Yue..."
His cold voice unexpectedly showed a bit of shyness.
Qu Yue was extremely nervous. As soon as he said these three words, she immediately, like a student doing dictation, quickly started writing on the paper.
Her delicate and small characters were very neat, but each "hook" was slightly rounded, making them less sharp.
After waiting for a long time, there was no follow - up. She turned to look at Xie Qichi with a questioning look in her eyes.
But her nose rubbed against his cheek, like a match rubbing against sandpaper, instantly creating a spark.
Qu Yue immediately moved aside. "Your Majesty! I'm sorry!"
Xie Qichi seemed calm, but the red tips of his ears completely betrayed his shyness.
The words that were already hard for him to say became even more difficult at this moment.
He pursed his lips. "Your hand."
Qu Yue obeyed and raised her hand, ready to write.
"Hey?"
But suddenly a hand appeared on the brush, guiding the path of her strokes.
Xie Qichi quietly hid the excitement in his eyes. While guiding her to write, he complained about her, "You're so stupid. I told you to give me your hand."
Qu Yue apologized three times in a row.
Xie Qichi's palm was very cold. When it touched her hand, the coldness penetrated into her bones.
"Don't use so much force with your hand. It's a bit hard for me to write."
Xie Qichi's reminder came.
Qu Yue was so scared that she almost dropped the brush, but he forced her hand back.
His bright peach - blossom eyes became dry due to nervousness. All his attention seemed to be focused on his hand, afraid of making any more mistakes and being strangled by him.
It wasn't until her hand was numb that the promise letter was finally finished.
Qu Yue looked at it. His handwriting was completely different from hers. His flamboyant characters seemed to devour the three small and regular characters she had written before.
Before she even had time to glance at the content of the promise letter, Xie Qichi put it away.
Qu Yue looked confused.
Xie Qichi patted her on the shoulder. "Get up."
Immediately, she bounced up from the chair like a spring and stood respectfully to wait for his orders.
Xie Qichi put away the promise letter. "Does your hand hurt?"
Qu Yue almost shook her head like a rattle. "No, it doesn't hurt!"
How dare she say it hurt?
"You're so stubborn." Xie Qichi walked up to her, took her hand, and saw that there was already a faint trace of blood seeping through the gauze.
Qu Yue fell silent and was led by him all the way to the bedside.
"Sit on it."
Qu Yue obeyed his order, lifted her leg onto the step, and sat down on the edge of the bed.
When she looked up again, Xie Qichi was holding a bottle of wound medicine in his hand.
He crouched down in front of her, took her hand, untied the original hasty bandage, and re - treated her abrasion.
He threw away the careless gauze. "Who bandaged your hand originally?"
"Me..."
Xie Qichi sneered, "No wonder. Only you could get the front and back of the gauze wrong."
The powder was sprinkled on the wound. The coolness caused pain, and she pulled her hand back. "Ouch..."
Xie Qichi quickly held her hand down. "Don't move around."
This was like torture for Qu Yue.
After Xie Qichi finished bandaging her wound and looked up again, he saw that her eyes were red, her little nose was twitching, and her lower lip was bitten white.
It was obvious that she was holding back a lot.
"Does it hurt that much?"
Qu Yue shook her head. "It doesn't hurt."
Compared with all the hardships and injuries she had suffered before, this was really nothing.
But for some reason, Qu Yue couldn't help but feel her nose turn sour.
Maybe it was because her former playmate had become an enemy, and that kind of sadness made it hard for her to let go.
The wetness at the corner of her eye was wiped away. Xie Qichi looked up at her. "Then why are you crying?"
"Wasn't it you who wanted to marry Mu Yuan?"
"Wasn't it you who chose him?"
"Who do you think will pity you by crying now?"
"No one will feel sorry for a faithless liar."
His almost interrogative attitude instantly magnified Qu Yue's already sour heart to the extreme, and her face turned pale.
She took a trembling breath and didn't dare to answer Xie Qichi's three consecutive questions.
"Why don't you answer?"
Qu Yue was so scared that she wanted to run away. "Your Majesty, I... I don't know what to say..."
There was a cold and turbulent look in Xie Qichi's eyes. He knelt on the step, stood up, and got closer to Qu Yue. "Are you very afraid of me?"
The faint fragrance on her body drove away a lot of the restlessness in his heart.
He really wanted to have her like this forever.
Qu Yue bit her lip. Of course she was afraid...
He was the emperor, and everyone's life was in his hands, depending on his mood.
Adhering to the principle of saying less and making fewer mistakes, she still choked back her words and didn't answer. The closer he got, the more she backed away.
"Your Majesty... please don't come any closer!"
Her delicate little face was full of panic. The uneasiness of not knowing what he was going to do next filled her chest in an instant.
The next moment, crystal tears fell like broken pearls.
Seeing her cry, Xie Qichi immediately stopped.
This man who was always in control of life and death was completely flustered when he stared at Qu Yue's sobbing appearance.
His pupils shrank. He put away his anger, deliberately softened his voice, and gently comforted her, "Don't cry. I didn't mean to scare you."
Qu Yue didn't say a word and gently wiped away the tears from the corner of her eye.
"Why aren't you talking to me?"
Qu Yue avoided Xie Qichi's approach. Only after his repeated questions did she slowly speak.
In her soft voice, there was either complaint or simple statement. "You... you strangled me just now."
But these words made Xie Qichi's heart tighten. "Did I hurt you?"
"I'll let you strangle me back."
"Don't be afraid of me."
Qu Yue didn't even notice that when he was talking to her, he didn't use "I" in the imperial sense but just "I".
What shocked her even more was that Xie Qichi was showing kindness to her.
Before she could react, Xie Qichi took Qu Yue's wrist and guided it towards his own neck.