After Qi Yu fell asleep, the sleeping chamber grew utterly quiet. Most of the palace lanterns beneath the corridor eaves had already gone out; only the one in De'an's hand still burned. He did not enter, merely pushed the door open a crack and glanced inside. On the imperial bed, the Fourth Prince lay on his side against the pillows, wrapped in a brocade quilt, his face buried between two pillows. Only his tousled black hair and a small stretch of ankle wrapped in a medicated bandage showed. The emperor sat propped against the headboard, holding a memorial he had read halfway through. De'an closed the door again.
Qi Xiao did not annotate the memorial. He rested it on his knees, his gaze settling on the peaceful sleeping face beside him. The boy's brow had finally relaxed in sleep. His lashes rested quietly over his eyelids, a few undried teardrops still clinging to them. The ointment applied to his injuries earlier had already melted, giving off a very faint sheen in the candlelight. Qi Xiao did not touch the red, swollen area again, only drew the quilt a little higher to cover Qi Yu's exposed shoulder.
Qi Xiao did not answer. He merely shook his head. Qi Yu blinked, shaking two teardrops from his lashes, then sniffled and tucked half his face back beneath the quilt, the corners of his mouth lifting. He said nothing more.
Dawn was approaching.
Qi Xiao closed the last memorial and leaned against the headboard, shutting his eyes for a while. That night, he had annotated the Ministry of Revenue's memorial on the autumn taxes, rejected two memorials concerning river channel repairs, and pushed back the date of the Northern Border troop rotation by half a month. The tea on the desk had been replaced