"Help me up." The Emperor wasn’t accustomed to lying down when talking to people.
Gu Jiao helped the Emperor sit up and provided him with a cushion for his back.
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The Emperor’s original clothes were not suitable anymore. His body shape was similar to one of Gu Yan’s hidden guards, so Gu Jiao brought a new set of the hidden guard’s clothes for him to change into.
Gu Jiao turned up the oil lamp: "Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Are you hungry?"
The Emperor shook his head with a pale face and haggard expression: "I am fine... Where did Eunuch Wei go?"
Gu Jiao replied, "He got injured, he told me to go save you and not to worry about him. When I went back to look for him, he was already gone."
"I hope he has escaped instead of being captured by those people." The Emperor closed his eyes. Eunuch Wei had served him for over twenty years, tantamount to much more than an ordinary servant.
It could be argued that it was his oversight—he had ventured outside the palace several times without incident and thought it wouldn’t matter if he was accompanied by fewer hidden guards—unaware that it provided an opportunity for the enemies.
"Why did you save me?" The Emperor suddenly asked.
Gu Jiao stared at him with a puzzled expression.
The Emperor felt a stabbing pain in his chest under her gaze. He averted his face and said weak, yet resentfully, "Isn’t it to your advantage if I died? Or do you think.....by saving me again, you would earn my trust once more? Let me make it clear to you, don’t waste your effort, I won’t be fooled."
Gu Jiao gazed at him steadily. Her initial puzzled expression gradually turned to surprise, and when the surprise faded, there was a hint of understanding.
Without saying a word,
Without offering any defence,
She just silently stood up, placed a painkiller and a glass of warm water on the bedside table, then got up and left.
The way she opened and closed the door was so gentle and calm, as if she was without any temper.
Yet, that silently disappearing figure mysteriously made the Emperor’s heart ache.
He knew it was not like that, he needed to survive, not just to earn his trust. If she hadn’t appeared, he would have been dead under the assassin’s blade. What trust can be earned from a dead person?
But he just couldn’t control his anger. Ever since Ning An left, he hadn’t met anyone who could touch his heart for many years. The moment he thought about his favored little healer siding with Empress Dowager Zhuang, he was filled with rage.
In fact, he also understood that it was not her fault. After all, she had known Empress Dowager Zhuang first and he was the latter one.
However, his spoken words were hurtful.
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