“I’m not full of excess vitality! I’m just… just a little overheated!” she protested, wiping her nose with her sleeve and staining the pale green fabric bright red.
That unhygienic gesture made Song Wuxia frown slightly. “Crown Princess Consort, shouldn’t you be getting off me now?”
Only then did she realize she was still sitting in his arms. Startled, she jumped down at once. But after accidentally glancing at his bare, pale chest, her face flushed again. She recalled how she had just buried her face against him, the dizzying, masculine scent of his body overwhelming her senses. Before she could linger in that daze for long, she suddenly felt a chill at her feet.
She looked down.
If it wasn’t that green snake, then what was it?!
“Song Wuxia! Help!” She had just climbed out of his arms, only to leap right back into them.
Song Wuxia had never felt so helpless. Casually picking up a teacup, he flicked it lightly. The cup struck the snake right at its vital spot, and the creature collapsed, motionless.
“Crown Princess Consort, it’s only a bamboo pit viper. There’s no need to panic like that.”
She couldn’t stand his calm, indifferent tone and said incredulously, “What do you mean, only a bamboo pit viper? It’s poisonous!”
“Don’t worry. Its venom won’t affect me.”
“It might not affect you, but it can kill me!”
Song Wuxia chuckled softly. “If the Crown Princess Consort were truly poisoned, then life and death would simply be a matter of fate…”
“Song Wuxia!” Fengguang grabbed the white robe draped over him. “People die from snakebites! If you want to die, that’s your business—but I don’t!”
Her words seemed to touch some kind of taboo. In an instant, the air froze.
Yet Song Wuxia still looked refined and gentle as ever. In a mild voice, he asked, “Crown Princess Consort, what are you saying? How could I want to die?”
“Yes, the mask you wear is flawless,” she said. “Anyone who sees you would only think you’re an elegant, charming gentleman. But Song Wuxia, do you know this? The more you act unlike a eunuch, the more it makes people feel that you’re hiding something you don’t want them to see.”
She didn’t know where she found the courage, but she questioned him word by word. “You’re the least eunuch-like eunuch I’ve ever seen. Yet… yet you are a eunuch. That whole idea of being ‘pure despite the mud’ doesn’t suit you at all. Song Wuxia, you’re not some spotless white lotus—you’re the mud underneath it!”
“Mud?” His eyebrow lifted slightly. “That’s an interesting way to put it.”
It was the first time anyone had ever described him like that.
“Yes. You’re that mass of black mud—no matter how much darkness there is, you can hide it all, make it impossible to see or understand. But…” She hesitated, clearly annoyed with herself. “I still think the name Wuxia suits you very well.”
The smile in Song Wuxia’s eyes deepened. His expression was warm and pleasant, yet all the more unreadable. “Why would the Crown Princess Consort say that?”
“Because… because you’re perfect.” She lifted her gaze, her beautiful eyes locking onto his. Reflected in her brown irises was his face—not stunningly handsome, yet one that always made her sigh in admiration. As if caught in a trance, she said slowly, “You’re the most good-looking person I’ve ever seen.”
Was that simply praise for his appearance?
No.
He looked into her eyes and dismissed that thought.
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152