"Why had Gongyi come?"
As Shen Tang spoke, she set down the brush in her hand and made a gesture into the shadows, signaling for all the guards to withdraw. She didn't need them here. Luan Xin had entered the traveling palace today in a threatening manner, naturally putting the guards on alert. If he dared make even the slightest untoward move now, they would immediately seize him—or even kill him on the spot.
No dynasty would allow a subject to force his way through the palace gates!
Luan Xin's emotions were churning, but he still retained a sliver of reason.
His feet seemed almost nailed to the spot outside the hall.
At that moment, it was as if his soul had drifted out of his body without his control, watching from the sidelines as his lord approached with light footsteps. Her voice seemed unreal, now distant, now near.
Only when a steady, powerful hand closed around his wrist—
The hot air rushed through his nose and mouth and into his lungs, filling his chest until it burned and felt ready to burst. The illusion that his legs were weak and treading on clouds vanished without a trace. His feet felt the firm ground again, and he was led into the hall.
"The journey must have been exhausting, Gongyi. No matter how important the matter is, you should get a good night's rest and recover your strength." Shen Tang had taken many a minister by the wrist, and even through the fabric of his sleeve, she could tell that his wrist was nearly fleshless. "You've grown so thin."
Luan Xin tried to get his sluggish, overheated mind moving.
"Is this the lord's?"
He held up the lock of black hair before his lord, who was trying to change the subject,