2586 Side Story 90: Mu Qinghe

Tianling Dynasty, Imperial City.

The intense night sky covered everything. The large Mu Residence was quiet.

The faint moonlight poured in through the windows and landed on the figure sitting upright. It stained him with coldness.

It was an extremely young man with a handsome appearance. From his brow bones to the tip of his nose, the lines were extremely smooth.

His chin was sharp.

He was still wearing the black armor from three days ago. Yes, he had already stayed in this position and sat quietly for three days.

This was also the longest three days in his life.

Countless scenes flashed across his mind. They seemed like a strange and distant dream yet extremely real. It was so real that he thought was currently in a dream.

A gust of cold wind blew across the courtyard. The leaves rustled.

He clearly did not do anything, but he felt exhausted.

Even when he had once gotten lost in the Dahuang Swamp with severe injuries but still walked for ten days without resting, he had not felt such lethargy.

He closed his eyes and felt that everything in his mind was about to rip him open.

After a long while, he opened his eyes.

Dawn was currently breaking.

He stood up, came to the desk, and slowly scanned it.

With his current status, he naturally ate, wore, and used the best.

At first glance, the paper stopper, ink, and brush were extremely precious items. However, his gaze finally landed on the brush at the side.

This was also made with good material, but probably because it was old, the years had left marks on it.

It looked very unassuming.

He picked up the brush.

It was cold to the touch but very smooth and convenient.

At that time, he almost could recall her soft hands and the warm contact when it landed on the back of his hand.

“You have to hold it like this,” she said with a smile, without any contempt toward him on her face—even when his hands were filled with swollen and rotten callouses.

He thought of that scene and could not help but lightly rub the back of his right hand that was holding the brush. His lips curled up faintly.

However, this smile quickly disappeared and had a layer of frost on it.

Knock, knock.

Knocks were heard from outside, with the guard’s careful report. “Sir, Her Highness is going to Xin Li Garden today. Do you want to follow her?”

In this Mu Residence, there was only one Her Highness—the Crown Princess.

Hearing this, Mu Qinghe’s hand stopped.

The ink-filled brush stopped in midair, and the ink landed drop by drop, spreading into a ball of black.

After a moment, he opened that paper with a normal expression. Then, he finally placed the brush down.

His actions were very slow, and he seemed especially focused, but the palm that could hold a ton was shaking.

He seemed to pour all his heart and soul into every brushstroke.

There was clearly only one word, but he wrote it with much difficulty

When he finished the last stroke, his lips were already pale. Only that pair of eyes was so dark that one could not see the bottom.

“Sir?” the person outside boldly urged again.

These three days, the lord had been locking himself up in the study room and didn’t make a sound. They were worried.

Only talking about the princess was useful.

Mu Qinghe looked down at that word.

Yue.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, all the emotions had dissipated, leaving behind endless harshness.

“Go. Have a hundred soldiers to follow her.”

It was normal for the princess to go to Xin Li Garden. Usually, she wouldn’t make a scene and rarely brought guards.

A hundred soldiers and him were sufficient.

Sufficient to seal her path of survival.

…

Very quickly, from Xin Li Garden to the royal family’s ancestral hall.

Mu Qinghe had received her three calls for help.

The Thirteen Yue Guards were deployed to Huli Mountain, and all the useful people around her were trapped elsewhere.

Only he was reliable, but he did not move and crushed all the news.

When the fire started burning the royal family’s ancestral hall, he was not far away.

Crazy fires rushed to the sky and almost burned half of it.

He knew that Qi Han tried his best to rush back and knew that many people wanted to save her. He pretended that he did not know.

It was until later on, when time was almost up, that he finally brought them to extinguish the fire and save her.

However, who could be saved? With the big fire, there were no corpses.

Mu Qinghe searched in the fire and debris for a long, long time with reddened eyes. Finally, he kneeled on the ground defeatedly and fainted.

When he woke up again, Jiang Yucheng was also around.

“Lord Mu.” Jiang Yucheng’s face no longer had the sorrowness he displayed when he faced the outsiders. He looked down at him from above and had a smile on his lips, with strange mockery. “You should know that you’re no longer her man from now on.”

Mu Qinghe was silent for a long time, but finally, he smiled slightly under Jiang Yucheng’s shocked gaze.

He nodded and said, “I know.”

He never was. He did not have such luck, and he no longer dared to have such hope.

…

This fire then became Mu Qinghe’s demon. Every single day and night, this scene would surface in his mind.

He could not recall how many times he had woken up in shock while trembling. He was covered in cold sweat, and the coldness entered his bones.

He was tortured continuously and almost became a demon.

This situation finally changed when he went to Country Yao Chen and saw that young girl. He saw the pair of extremely familiar yet foreign eyes.

The biggest difference was the gaze she looked over with—shock, suspicion, disbelief.

Mu Qinghe acted as if he had not noticed it.

Ever since then, the fire in his dream became a pair of eyes.

He heard her interrogation: “Mu Qinghe, how dare you betray me!?”

Every single word was like a sharp knife cutting into his body, causing fresh blood to drip out.

He held his chest weakly and hopelessly. “Your Highness… I….”

None.

Even when he was alone, even in his dreams, he did not dare to say such words.

He felt that this nightmare could only be solved by her personally. It would be great if she could personally kill him.

…

He finally waited for the day.

The icy cold and sharp blade entered his flesh. He could feel his blood slowly flowing out, together with his warmth and vitality.

However, he felt great. There was no other moment even better than this.

He saw her awakened, he saw her come back, he saw her about to take back everything that belonged to her.

As the First Deity, he seemed to have lived for very long.

He was always high and mighty and held great power, but it seemed like he had only truly lived in the decade or so in Tianling.

His life seemed to be a long nightmare. Only some parts had warmth.

Actually, there were very few parts, but they were enough to comfort him his entire life. For this, he was willing to make all his choices.

His vision gradually became blurry, and he finally could not take another look at that face.

He smiled.

Luckily, I can finally be considered to have died usefully and got what I wanted.

Great.