Once the bedchamber fell quiet, presumably the two had made up.
Only after changing their clothes did the two emerge.
They looked no different from usual, nothing particularly out of the ordinary: one cold and impassive, the other refined and handsome, as though they had merely played a game of chess or indulged in some other elegant pastime.
Only a flash of vivid red on Xie Huizhou's still-exposed neck lent him an alluring touch, before his hanging hair quickly concealed it.
His hair had been tied up meticulously, in a style that looked very much like the Imperial Preceptor's handiwork, and even secured with a hairpin. He wore an understated robe in a muted succulent green, which made him look like a refined gentleman as lovely as jade.
The Imperial Preceptor had personally tied the Ninth Prince's hair. The intimacy between them was enough to leave people trembling.
The servants did not dare let their eyes wander at all. Only after they left did the servants enter to clean up the water splashed all over the floor.
"Your Highness, must you go?" Zhang Lanhe could not bear to have Xie Huizhou wear himself out traveling back and forth. "Even if you don't go, there's nothing they can do to you."
For something that involved merely standing by and watching, whether Xie Huizhou attended made little difference.
Xie Huizhou insisted on going. "Uncle Li, the minister of rites in charge of this, watched me grow up. I don't want to make things difficult for him over something so trivial."
He was the father of his good friend Li Xu, and he had secretly helped him many times before.
Xie Huizhou did know to repay kindness.
Others would not dare do anything to Xie Huizhou, but that was not necessarily true of