Your student is foolish and cannot figure it out

"I followed you because of who you are."

Hearing Zhang Lanhe's words in his confusion and dejection, Xie Huizhou felt as though thousands of butterflies were fluttering in his heart, and his eyes brightened slightly.

It was as though a bolt of lightning had shot from his heart to his fingertips and throughout his body, leaving him trembling faintly. The strange reaction left him at a loss.

"Because of me? You must be joking, Imperial Preceptor."

Xie Huizhou had thought everyone was abandoning him, only for someone to step forward at just that moment and say he had come for him.

Imperial Preceptor, that was seriously unfair.

Zhang Lanhe said earnestly, "That is the truth. As the Imperial Preceptor, I do not lie."

Hearing this, Xie Huizhou began to wonder what charm he possessed that could win over the Imperial Preceptor, making a man no one could control willingly follow him.

Surely he had not drawn so many Phoenix Paintings that the man had seen through his lustful nature and come after him because of it.

"May I be so bold as to ask what led you to make that decision, Imperial Preceptor?" After a moment's contemplation, Xie Huizhou looked into Zhang Lanhe's serpentine eyes and asked, "Your student is foolish and truly cannot figure out the key to it."

He had a vague suspicion, but the feelings welling up in his heart were unfamiliar, and he did not know where to begin.

Pretending to be a student who knew nothing, Xie Huizhou deliberately asked Zhang Lanhe what he intended.

His eyelashes fluttered slightly like little fans as he spoke, and light filtered through them into his captivating eyes, setting the onlooker's heart surging.

Anyone else standing before Xie Huizhou at that moment would have been bewitched into telling him everything they knew.

Zhang Lanhe was different. He saw the uncertainty and avoidance in Xie Huizhou's eyes.

Xie Huizhou did not yet know how to handle other people's feelings for him.

Someone who had never accepted another person's love might well flee on the spot if someone opened his heart first, and might even start giving him the cold shoulder.

Besides, at this point, Xie Huizhou did not even know he was that snake, as well as the pervert who sent him letters and gifts every day.

He would only make his move when the time was right.

Zhang Lanhe leaned sideways toward Xie Huizhou. His voice was languid and gentle, his speech as pleasing as recited poetry, like a spring breeze brushing against Xie Huizhou's ear.

"Your Highness, you are so clever. Guess again. Do you truly not understand at all?"

Zhang Lanhe was very patient, smiling as he slowly coaxed Xie Huizhou into voicing his thoughts.

Your Highness, admit that I am the reason your heart is fluttering.

"Your student still does not understand. I will need to go back and think it over properly."

His heart in turmoil, Xie Huizhou did not dare guess any further. He stood there like a block of wood, playing dumb and pretending not to understand.

"Once I figure it out, I will tell you what it is, Imperial Preceptor, and you can tell me whether I am right."

Oh no, I have become an arsonist setting hearts on fire.

He should not have done much to provoke the villainous Imperial Preceptor, yet the man seemed to have developed feelings of another kind.

Xie Huizhou could not figure it out no matter how he tried.

Could it be because of this pretty face of mine?

Would feelings like that last?

At the Qionglin Banquet, the Imperial Preceptor had kept staring at Zhou Yanqing, plainly falling in love with him just as he had in the original novel. What sparks could Xie Huizhou possibly strike with the villain?

All these misgivings made him reluctant to speak.

Whatever the case, Xie Huizhou's low spirits had finally lifted a little.

Xie Huizhou was about to go over and say something to Zhang Lanhe, but after only a few steps, his frail body nearly gave out, and he pitched forward.

Since when did my health get this bad? I am practically Lin Daiyu, a frail willow swaying in the breeze!

Xie Huizhou cursed inwardly. This made it look very much as though he was deliberately taking liberties with the Imperial Preceptor.

The pain of falling that he had imagined never came. Zhang Lanhe caught him naturally.

"Careful, Your Highness."

The instant Xie Huizhou felt the warmth of Zhang Lanhe's chest, he quickly straightened up.

He had taken liberties with the man time and again, yet he was still wondering when he had provoked him!

Could he say it had not been intentional?

"Your Highness, you are in such poor health. Let me take you back first." Xie Huizhou was still weak after the poison had taken effect. Zhang Lanhe draped a garment over him, intending to take him away first. "You must take proper care of your health."

The little weight he had finally managed to put on during this time was gone again.

The atmosphere here grew increasingly intimate. Feeling he should not linger, Xie Huizhou walked out with the arm and leg on the same side moving together.

Zhang Lanhe chuckled at his embarrassed movements.

Huizhou, you are too adorable.

Only when they were nearly at the door did Xie Huizhou remember that they had technically trespassed. He stopped. "Are we just going to walk out like this?"

Not only had they trespassed, but they were also acting as though no one else mattered.

"What else would we do?"

Zhang Lanhe did not understand. He came and went freely throughout the imperial palace. Who would dare stop him?

"I have never announced my arrival or departure at the imperial palace. The person who would dare block my path has not been born yet."

That makes sense? Xie Huizhou thought upon hearing this.

The two walked out openly just like that. The imperial guards were shocked to see two people emerge and felt that their careers as imperial guards had reached their end.

But once they saw it was the Imperial Preceptor, they all pretended not to see them.

Oh, it is the Imperial Preceptor. Then everything is fine.

After the two left, they wondered why the Imperial Preceptor and the ninth prince, Xie Huizhou, had been alone together in a deserted palace hall, with a rather odd atmosphere between them.

The two swaggered all the way through the imperial palace to its gates, where the Imperial Preceptor's carriage had already been waiting for a long time.

Inside the carriage leaving the palace, Xie Huizhou suddenly realized something.

Could my identity have been exposed long ago?

He was not certain, nor did he dare ask.

He feared that asking would reveal this to be one of life's three great delusions: I think you like me, otherwise known as lovesick delusion.

So was it true or not?

Preoccupied with his thoughts, he failed to notice that the carriage was heading not toward the Detached Palace, but toward the National Preceptor's Residence.

An incense stick's time later, Xie Huizhou stood in front of the National Preceptor's Residence, lost in thought, unable to understand why he had ended up at its entrance.

"Why are we at the National Preceptor's Residence?"

He could recuperate at the Detached Palace too. Why come to the National Preceptor's Residence?

"Your Highness, you barely have any competent imperial physicians over there. Staying there would only harm you." Zhang Lanhe gave his reasons to persuade him. "Set your troubles aside for now and get well."

Even if the palace physicians or civilian doctors truly discovered the deadly poison in Xie Huizhou's body by taking his pulse, they would not reveal the cause under the emperor's orders. Without treating the actual condition, nothing would help.

It was not even impossible that an imperial physician might secretly poison him.

He would feel more at ease keeping him under his own watch.

Having brought the person he loved back to stay at the National Preceptor's Residence for an extended period, Zhang Lanhe was visibly in a much better mood. Some could even find a trace of a smile on his perpetually unchanging, icy face.

Some strange remarks began circulating in the National Preceptor's Residence about this.

"His Lordship the Imperial Preceptor is in a very good mood today."

"It has been a long time since His Lordship smiled like this."

"Ever since the Ninth Prince arrived at the National Preceptor's Residence, His Lordship has been happier by the day."

Listening nearby, Xie Huizhou was almost speechless. What are these lines? Are you NPCs surrounding some domineering CEO?

It was not as strange as his own absurd Phoenix Painting plot, so Xie Huizhou let them be.

Upon receiving word, the servants at the Detached Palace delivered his luggage overnight.

While Xie Huizhou stayed at the National Preceptor's Residence to recuperate, Zhang Lanhe found him an unexpected doctor.