Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Huo Qi, help me

Chun Zhi heard him say “go home,” and her tears would not stop.

Just a moment ago, she thought she would never see Huo Qi again.

She thought she would be tortured to death.

She had even prepared to bite her tongue and die to resist the assault, when Huo Qi appeared before her like a god.

Huo Zheng held Chun Zhi with one arm and lifted his sleeve with the other to wipe her tears, speaking softly to calm her: “Don’t cry.”

Chun Zhi hurt all over, and the Passion Elixir made her mind hazy. She kept shifting and nuzzling in Huo Qi’s arms, whispering: “Huo Qi, I’m so hot… so uncomfortable…”

“Don’t move.”

Huo Zheng was also having a hard time from her wriggling, so he changed to holding her with both arms, locking her in place so she would stop squirming.

He carried Chun Zhi out.

“Stop him!”

After being struck by Huo Zheng, Zhou Rong had slammed into the wall, fallen hard, spat a mouthful of blood, and was half dead. He forced himself to shout: “Stop them! Are you all useless? How can you let someone break in and carry her away?”

Several Zhou Household servants rushed up in a panic to block Huo Zheng’s way.

Huo Zheng gave a cold laugh: “Courting death.”

With that, he slapped the two men in front flying.

Jiang He led the Shadow Guards, cut down everyone outside, then swept in like the wind. They dropped the thugs in the prince’s path, and the bloodstained sword pointed straight at Zhou Rong.

“You… you… you dare kill people outright?”

Zhou Rong was terrified. Only then did he realize he had picked the wrong target.

As the prefect’s young master in Nanzhou, he had always run wild. No one had ever dared face him head-on.

All the servants he brought were wiped out.

Panicking, Zhou Rong dropped to his knees and begged: “I am the Nanzhou Prefect’s son. I have money. Name your price! Don’t kill me… please don’t kill me!”

“So you’re the Nanzhou Prefect’s son?” said Jiang He as he stabbed Zhou Rong once, then yanked him up by the collar, “Your Zhou Household is about to meet disaster.”

That stab missed the vitals, but the pain was fierce. Hearing that doom was coming to the Zhou Household, Zhou Rong shook and asked in a trembling voice: “Who… who are you people?”

Jiang He answered in a low voice: “The ones here to take your life.”

The Shadow Guards stepped up and tied Zhou Rong tight with rope.

Since he had provoked their prince, the Zhou Household had drawn eight generations worth of bad luck.

In the dark, the Zhou Family Ancestral Residence stood with its gate flung open. Outside, servants lay scattered on the ground.

Every lamp under the eaves was snuffed out. Only cold moonlight spilled over the steps.

Carrying Chun Zhi, Huo Zheng walked out of the large courtyard step by step and, under the moonlight, brought her back to the tofu workshop.

Chun Zhi had lost all control of herself. Her pale arms wrapped around Huo Zheng’s neck, and she tipped up her face to kiss him.

Inside, the oil lamp flickered in the night breeze.

Huo Zheng set Chun Zhi on the bed and pressed down her hands so she would not thrash.

“Chun Zhi,” he called in a low voice, asking in a rough murmur: “Look at me. Who am I?”

“You’re Huo Qi…” Chun Zhi was burning up. She rolled on the bed, tugging her outer robe loose.

Her skin, smooth as cream, showed in the open air.

Huo Zheng looked at her, and his eyes darkened.

Chun Zhi did not notice at all. She called “Huo Qi” again and again, begging: “Help me…”

“Huo Qi, husband… help me…”

She cried from the discomfort, her eyes shining with tears.

Huo Zheng let go of her wrists, and Chun Zhi immediately wound herself around him.

She tore at Huo Qi’s clothes, slid her hands inside to touch his chest, and pressed close in urgent need.

When Chun Zhi was drunk, she could be bold, but never like this, with no sense left.

In a deep voice Huo Zheng asked: “What did Zhou Rong make you take?”

“I don’t know… I don’t know…”

Chun Zhi’s head was a fog.

She only knew she wanted Huo Qi.

She kissed Huo Qi’s chest in a rush, then moved up bit by bit, kissing his throat, his jaw, and finally his lips.

The tight string in Huo Zheng’s heart snapped in the fire. He began to answer Chun Zhi, kissing her back hard and deep.

Chun Zhi seemed not to know pain or weariness. She kept asking for more.

Outside, the bright moon moved from west to east.

Under the red gauze canopy, the sounds did not stop for the whole night.

Only when the sky grew bright and the roosters crowed again and again did the shaking bed finally quiet down.

Exhausted and sleepy, Chun Zhi struggled to open her eyes. Seeing Huo Qi beside her, she let out a breath of relief in secret.

“Once more?”

Noticing she was awake, Huo Zheng thought the drug had not fully faded, and asked in a hoarse voice.

“No, no… that’s not needed.”

Chun Zhi grabbed the quilt and pulled it over herself. Her whole body was sore and weak, and she could not move.

Forget doing that again. Even lying still made her back ache.

Huo Zheng also did not get up. He lay by her side, his breath still rough.

The sound tickled Chun Zhi’s ears.

She was so sleepy her eyes would not stay open. Her voice was husky as she asked softly: “Can you… go sleep in the next room?”

Huo Zheng looked at her, his gaze dark: “What is it? Done with me, and now you pretend you don’t know me?”

“I’m not,” said Chun Zhi as she rubbed her eyes. She forced them open and looked at Huo Qi, meeting his eyes.

Outside it was full daylight, but under the red gauze canopy it was still dim.

She felt the heat of his gaze and could not hold it. She raised her hand to block it a little: “Don’t look at me like that.”

Huo Zheng caught her wrist: “That’s not what you said last night.”

Chun Zhi blushed the second he brought up last night: “I was fed a Passion Elixir, and I clung to you for that… It wasn’t what I meant to do.”

“But it’s still true that I helped you break the drug’s power,” said Huo Zheng.

That was true.

Chun Zhi could not find words.

“After you used me the whole night, this is how you thank me?” Huo Zheng added.

Chun Zhi felt like she was on fire again: “What do you mean used you the whole night? I… I…”

“You what?” Huo Zheng watched her, “What do you take me for? Someone you can summon and then dismiss?”

“I don’t.”

Chun Zhi wished she could pull the quilt over her head.

In a small voice she said: “I am very grateful you came to save me last night…”

“Only grateful?” asked Huo Zheng.

It was not only gratitude.

But Chun Zhi could not say what else it was.

The first time she slept with Huo Qi, she had been drinking, and she had thought that having a child with such a handsome man would be good.

She had not truly liked Huo Qi as a person.

But last night, when the thug fed her the drug and tried to defile her, Chun Zhi would rather have died than yield.

So it was not that anyone would do.

Only Huo Qi would do.

In her heart, Huo Qi had long been different from anyone else.

But Chun Zhi did not know how to explain that difference to Huo Qi.

Huo Zheng kept staring at her. Not wanting to talk about the bed, Chun Zhi braced herself and switched the topic, asking him: “Last night, how did you find me?”