However, Baili Jia Jue knew that only when this fox was sleeping would it stay in its place for a bit.
Normally...
Baili Jia Jue moved his gaze to fall on Wei Wei's left hand resting on his waist and extended his hand to pinch the hollow of her palm.
Just like Wei Wei was saying, the pinch wasn't like he was pinching a person. Instead, it was more like he was pinching a house pet.
That's why even now, Third Prince was debating whether he should directly destroy this pair of claws which had been used to scratch a person!
These claws which hadn't been obedient!
Baili Jia Jue's eyes again submerged in thought as he watched the side of her somewhat purely cold face pull all of the blanket over. Even his blanket was grabbed by Wei Wei and monopolized into her bosom. Still, he planned to close his eyes for a moment more.
"Your Highness." Shadow experimentally spoke out loud as he faced the inside of the room. Actually, he had already stood outside of the room for quite a long time. However, he was afraid of disturbing his master's rest.
One ought to know that His Highness' mysophobia actually had already reached a certain level.
Apart from that year when he was taming the fire qilin's beastly character, when His Highness had raised it by his side and lived with it for half a year.
After that, no one could spend the night by His Highness' side.
Could it be that His Highness really planned to take the Helian family's eldest daughter and raise her as a house pet?
Or should he say that it's because of another reason....
As Shadow was thinking about this on his end, Baili Jia Jue had already stood up. He was still wearing that ancient styled robe from since yesterday. His collar was half open. With a swishing sound, he pulled open the wood door which exposed his abs underneath the robe that could cause people to be envious. The robe on top of the wood table seemed as if it was blown by the wind as it steadily dropped on top of the man's shoulders. The black colored robe hung straight down, placing its mark on the perfect and fair skin. The intense visual impact shocked the eyes as a familiar sense of suppressed d.e.s.i.r.e pervaded.
The wound on his arm not only didn't make him appear pitiful, on the contrary, it added a different kind of wicked quality than what he usually possessed.
Looking at this appearance of his, Shadow's entire person became distracted. When combined with the dialog from a moment ago and what the Helian family's eldest daughter did to His Highness previously...His Highness shouldn't have been...He shouldn't have been forced by Helian family's eldest daughter, right? ? ?
No, that's absolutely impossible!
Shadow shook his head.
Wearing the sable fur black gown, Baili Jia Jue's expression was indolent as he reclined on the wooden chair at the side. His fingers plucked off the silver mask. As the light clearly shined on his face, one could vaguely see the side of the man's incomparably handsome face. It seemed to be the most perfect jade sculpture in the whole world, making a person who'd had a glimpse be unable to look away anymore.
"How was it?" Baili Jia Jue extended his hand and picked up the celadon cup on the table top. The joints were clearly distinguished on his hands, in contrast to the small china cup. His fingertips were even suffused with a pure and cold light appearing as white as jade.
His hands were slender and thin just like those of a scholar's, yet caused one to feel as if they could grasp the entire heaven and earth within their palms.
"Responding to His Highness. We only left one prisoner alive and already released the news. We claimed that they provoked Young Master Han." Shadow kneeled on the ground and respectfully replied.
"Mm." Baili Jia Jue sipped a mouthful of tea as his dark black eyes faintly lowered. It's unknown where he was looking while he only levelly commanded. "Continue to watch attentively."
"Yes." Shadow replied. "Then should your identity at White Academy be disclosed to Miss Helian?"
The finger Baili Jia Jue was using to twirl the silver mask paused. He expressionlessly responded. "No need. Keep everything as it was."
"Yes." Shadow's head dropped as he retreated.
Baili Jia Jue placed the mask on his face once more then entered the room reaching the bedside. His fingers knead Wei Wei's cheek while the corners of his mouth rose upwards demonically...
Chapter 138 - Setting the Engagement
When Helian Wei Wei woke up again, it was already noon. Third Prince was just sitting by the window drinking tea. His appearance was neither urgent nor slow and seemed as if he was waiting for her to wake up so they could continue on their journey.
He was feverish for several days. How could he have recovered in only one day, unless he had previously been a member of the special forces.
Wei Wei had never seen anyone have such a tough recuperative ability.
However, she also didn't mind this at all. She stretched her body while still lying down and looked at Baili Jia Jue, then unhurriedly laughed cleverly. "Since Your Highness is better, then let's discuss the matter of the medical fee."
Baili Jia Jue didn't speak and only raised his eyebrows while he looked at her. He languidly leaned against the wood chair as his pair of legs contentedly propped up slightly. His manner was imposing and purely noble, not one bit like the appearance of someone who had been wounded.
Wei Wei's empty hand took out a small abacus from the Celestial Boundary Space as she 'tap tap tap' moved the beads. "Ten taels for each mouthful of poisonous blood. I s.u.c.k.e.d about seven mouthfuls. One small scale operation no matter what should be worth eighty taels. In addition, an entire night of wiping the body to reduce the fever, I'll charge you only one hundred taels. The other miscellaneous expenses also adds up to ten taels. Altogether, that adds up to 180 taels." Calculating everything up to here, she knitted her long, shapely eyebrows. "One hundred eighty taels? How come I feel like something's not right. Oh, that's right, I even fed Your Highness a medicinal pill. I'll charge you twenty taels for that pill, to make it even." While she dropped these words, without waiting for the man to respond, her pair of spotlessly white slender hands extended towards him. "The total is two hundred taels of silver. Please settle the account, Your Highness."
Baili Jia Jue looked at the delicate fingers before his eyes. The surpassingly dark pupils hidden in depth looked up. The sun's brilliant rays seemed to all fall inside his pair of slender bedroom eyes, resplendent and moving.
Two hundred taels? This woman really dared to open her mouth wide like a lion's.
He lifted his eyelid and scanned over the simple silver abacus in Wei Wei's hand as he spoke levelly. "Are you short on money?"
Once she heard these words, Wei Wei then felt that there was hope in getting the silver as she nodded her head with an excited smile.
Baili Jia Jue calmly put down the tea cup in his hand. "How about the silver that This Highness won from you. That seemed to be more than two hundred taels."
"Is Your Highness planning to settle those accounts?" Wei Wei's limpid eyes looked at him. "That's a different matter."
Baili Jia Jue studied her. After a while, his cold thin lips slightly curved. "Did you really not know, or are you pretending not to know."
"What?" Wei Wei had always felt that Third Prince, this person, only existed to make fun of her IQ.
Baili Jia Jue's pair of eyes were chilly and clear. "Within War Dragon Empire, after marriage, all properties are managed according to the wife and children."
The hand that Wei Wei extended paused. Third Prince meant to say that in the future, his money would be managed by her?
She had no choice but to say that sometimes, there's just something cute about a Third Prince who didn't care about fame and fortune!
Wei Wei again retrieved the abacus and paused before she raised her head to ask. "Reportedly, there are a lot of treasures within Ghost Palace, is that true?"
"Mm." Baili Jia Jue replied faintly. There wasn't any change at all in the exp
ression on his face.
Wei Wei struck the abacus once. "Also, I heard that when you were younger, Retired Emperor gave you lots of precious metals, so that you can play with them?"
Baili Jia Jue nodded his head. It was but a simple gesture in conjunction with drinking his tea, but one could see from it how well bred he was.
Wei Wei was irritated. Such a disparity, oh man!
They were both disabled, yet Third Prince had always treated armament components as toys.
As for her, she didn't even know what armaments were! And even foolishly chased after Murong Chang Feng begging him to play with her.
Thinking about it carefully.
Did this count as her marrying a 'Mr. Perfect'. Did this mean that she'd reached the pinnacle of life?
Even if this was only a marriage by contract.
Even if everything was fake.
Looking at it now, this actually wasn't bad.
However, Wei Wei certainly wasn't used to being idle while only leeching off of others.
She let go of the abacus and with a light smile, said. "Your Highness, how about you give me all of the armaments components that you have. I'll use them and when they've made a profit, we'll split it fifty-fifty?"
Baili Jia Jue could be said to have glanced at her as the corners of his mouth curved into a profound smiling expression. "That's fine."
"Then how about the two of us quickly sign an agreement." As Wei Wei was speaking, she also walked to the desk to take a writing brush and started writing.
Actually, Wei Wei felt that her own calligraphy was nice. At least, considering that she was a secret agent from modern times, her ink brush writing was passable. Since the ink didn't smudge or splash, that was already pretty good.
However, that aloof and cold Mr. Perfect, Third Prince, scowled. "You used this kind of handwriting to pass the exam for entering White Academy?"
"Mm hm." When Wei Wei lifted her head, her face was even smudged with ink. "Don't you think that my writing is very artistic?"
Baili Jia Jue coldly laughed. "It's indeed so ugly that other people have no way of comprehending it."
Wei Wei:...
She now finally understood why Third Prince chose her as consort. Besides her skin tone being so dark that it was eye-catching at the time, there was another reason, and that was because from time to time, he wanted to be able to kick her down, so that it could boost his own ego!
Roughly due to a lack of a better option, Baili Jia Jue inclined towards her and wrapped his hand around hers to hold the brush, as he lightly pulled to form the brushstrokes. Each stroke was distinct and clear. Each stroke could directly be used as a template for a modern calligraphy practice book. They were natural and flowing, like moving clouds and flowing water, yet carried a faintly aggressive quality.
The posture he used to hold the brush was resolute, a kind of innate imposing manner which took control of the overall situation, producing writing which was also unusually powerful.
Only, positioning himself this way seemed as if he was hugging her entire body into his embrace from behind. Wei Wei's eyebrows creased and thought of freeing herself from this position.
"Don't move." Baili Jia Jue's c.h.e.s.t was almost close enough to touch her back as his long eyebrows knitted in concentration. His long fingertips dropped as his clear and cold emotionless voice sounded. "All done."
As expected, she was overthinking things. Wei Wei curved her mouth and smiled as she began to slowly inspect each sentence of that contract. Some were written by her, some were added by Third Prince, nevertheless the main idea wasn't changed and that was that they were to be a couple in front of others, but strangers behind them.
However, there was one problem, and that was that the scale of the wedding was too grand. They even needed to make a proclamation throughout the world?
Wei Wei focused on this last clause and bit on the handle of the brush as she raised her brows. "Don't need to be so troublesome, right? How about arranging a bit more of an ordinary wedding."
The man looked up and indifferently glanced at her. "My, Baili Jia Jue's, big day, how can it be ordinary."
Wei Wei:…..
"Then how about leaving it like this first, but afterwards, we can add to it if we think of anything else." Wei Wei specifically looked at the section concerning the married couple's obligations. The only the words there were: 'not a thing'. She felt relieved as she used red ink to imprint her fingerprint. After that, she shallowly smiled and grabbed the writing paper while pushing herself away from Baili Jia Jue.
The man's eyebrows half raised as he looked at the patch of skin exposed at the back of her neck when she lowered her head. It was very white, also soft and easy to take a bite out of.
Thinking of this, Baili Jie Jue was somewhat unable to look away from this spot that his eyes repeatedly lingered on last night...
Chapter 139 - Black Bellied Highness
"What?" Helian Wei Wei didn't understand why Third Prince would suddenly use this kind of gaze to look at her.
However, she intuitively still sensed danger as she subconsciously was going to withdraw her hand.
Yet Baili Jia Jue was a step faster than she was as he pressed down on that piece of fine writing paper using his finger smeared with red ink. His fingerprint was clearly visible.
As she saw that everything had been settled, Wei Wei also immediately relaxed and got up to move about and loosen her neck muscles as she said, "I'm going to go pack up."
It could be seen that Wei Wei was in a good mood.
Basically, her biggest problems could be considered to have been resolved.
The reason why Wei Wei thought of the marriage contract was because firstly, Third Prince was difficult to handle. If he became an ally, then matters would become much simpler. Secondly, it was because she hadn't forgotten that this was ancient times. If by chance, Retired Emperor was displeased with her for Third Prince's sake, and just had her married off to someone else as he pleased, she wouldn't be able to voice a single word of protest, as that would be considered the same as disobeying an imperial edict. That's why she had to think of a move ahead of time as a countermeasure.
Now that she's got the contract, in the future, everything would be done according to their agreement.
Both she and Third Prince happily agreed to this contract.
Therefore, now that they had this written agreement, in the future, no matter what happened, she could still escape from the palace unscathed.
However, was it truly this way?
Wei Wei didn't know at all that just when she entered her bedroom to pack up her things.
The man sitting on the wood chair extended his hand and brought the fine writing paper over. Within his profound eyes brewed an acute chill that seemed like it could freeze everything over and also seemed as if it could stab and skewer a person's c.h.e.s.t.
There wasn't a single word among all of the words on this piece of paper that didn't clearly say that she wanted to maintain her distance from him.
Heh.
Baili Jia Jue curved his thin lips down as his slender fingers grasped the writing brush firmly and added the two words 'can end' under the section regarding the married couple's obligations. After adding 'can end' after the words 'not a thing', the phrase became 'not a thing can end', which meant that their husband and wife relationship could never end.
Baili Jia Jue put down the writing brush and leisurely folded that piece of fine writing paper. His posture completely seemed like none of this had ever happened...
The mist outside the window already cleared up. The only thing that remained was a muddled yellow color, and that was an omen that the sun was setting.
Within the main hall at the imperial palace.
Prince Murong stood beside the window as he grabbed the black scarf covering his face and pulled down on it. His expression was gloomy as he threw it to the side. "We failed. He didn't die. Not only that, not a single one of the secret guards th
at we sent out was able to return."
"Then what should we do?" The other woman standing within the main hall suddenly looked up. The dangling pearl hair pin on her head also quivered as her head moved. "Father, we're already running out of time. The king's health is getting worse and worse. He'd had too much fun. Sooner or later, there'll be a day when he'll die on some woman's body. Yan Er is still too young and simply doesn't know anything. If the king passes away, based on how Retired Emperor, that old fart who refuses to die, pampers that vile spawn, this throne will be given to Baili Jia Jue for sure! I really can't wait for that to happen!"
It turned out that this woman was none other than the current leader of the imperial harem 'Empress Murong'. She gripped the handkerchief in her hand tightly. The crimson red tips of her fingers emitted unprecedented malicious thoughts. "He must die!"
"Please be assured, Empress." Prince Murong lowered his voice as his eyes revealed an ominous glint. "We failed to kill him in Armament City, but that doesn't mean that we can't kill him after he returns to the capitol."
Empress Murong tightened her grip on her handkerchief as her long shapely eyebrows creased. "Didn't they say that the vile spawn didn't bring a single person with him? How is it that not a single secret guard was able to return?"
"Our people encountered Young Master Han." Prince Murong clenched his left hand. "He won't have such good luck next time!"
The light in Empress Murong's eyes submerged deeper. "Actually, what good plan does Father have?"
"Do you still remember the servant girl who poisoned him that year?" Prince Murong slowly curved his thin lips up. "Third Prince treated her very differently than how he treats other people."
Empress Murong's long, shapely eyebrows jumped. "Didn't Retired Emperor dispose of her on the spot that year? How is she still alive?"
"Of course it's because father saved her." The corners of Prince Murong's mouth slowly raised upwards, the shadow of a smile contained within. "Such a good chess piece of course needs to be used to the greatest extent."
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