After defying her superior and taking what she wanted by force, Huo Qilang had hesitated, too besotted with his beauty to bear fleeing. Yet the victim had unexpectedly chosen silence. Last night's intimacy had been like last night's downpour: fierce and surging at the time, but once the night had passed, everything returned to calm, save for the newly watered grass and trees.
The day proceeded as usual. Come evening, Li Yuanying bathed and changed at his leisure, making no special order for the guard commander to alter the duty roster. Huo Qilang took the night watch with her saber as always.
After the lamps were lit, Madam Li arranged for Prince Shao to take his medicine and retire, then left with the eunuchs and maids. The large chamber was empty and quiet. Huo Qilang's eyes met Li Yuanying's, and for a moment she did not know what to say to him.
Expressionless, Li Yuanying began, "Your senior brother..."
Having already anticipated his concern, Huo Qilang promptly answered, "He wouldn't dare."
Probably... he wouldn't dare.
After that brief exchange, they reached a tacit understanding, and neither mentioned what had happened the previous night. Li Yuanying's thoughts were impossible to fathom. Whether he believed her or not, he merely returned quietly to bed and drew the brocade curtains closed.
Huo Qilang lay on the foot couch to guard him as usual, though she could not help feeling uneasy. She had taken the money and had her way with him, and her conduct had hardly accorded with the code of the Rivers and Lakes. She privately wondered why Li Yuanying had not turned against her. Was he too conscious of his exalted status to let the matter become public, or did he fear that getting rid of her would sever his only