Gu Zhao shamelessly started acting like a rogue, and before Zhu Qingyu could speak, he added,
"Or perhaps it hasn't been caught yet. I'd be more than happy to try again with you."
Gu Zhao's strength was formidable. Zhu Qingyu, completely overpowered, lay on her back on the bed. She tried to get up but failed and had to give up.
Each had their own expertise—there was no point competing with him in physical strength.
Zhu Qingyu stopped struggling altogether and said seriously,
"Shouming, this is a matter of life and death. Think it over carefully. Don't act on impulse."
Hearing this, Gu Zhao's playful expression faded, and he asked solemnly,
"Qingyu, you're this worried—are you truly unsure about the emperor's illness?"
When faced with disease, nothing was ever certain. Even in modern times, a common cold could claim a life.
Let alone now, when the emperor's symptoms hadn't even been definitively diagnosed.
As a physician, Zhu Qingyu never made absolute promises, so she replied,
"I haven't yet identified the cause of the illness. I could be infected at any moment, or die at any time. Shouming, I'm serious—you'd better stay away from me."
Instead of moving away, Gu Zhao lay down beside her, pulling her even tighter and burying his face in her neck as he muttered,
"If that's the case, if even you can't do anything about this epidemic, then no one else can. Even if I keep my distance now, sooner or later I'll still be infected by the plague. It's the same, whether early or late. My only worry is that when I'm on my deathbed, if I'm asked what I regret, I'll regret missing even the last moments I could have spent with you out of fear of death. If we go to the afterlife together, in our next life, I'll find you first. I can't let anyone else get ahead of me."
When Gu Zhao said this, he was practically whispering against her skin.
His warm breath lingered on her neck, making it feel a little itchy. The hand intertwined with hers unconsciously stroked her palm, intensifying the sensation. His strong body pressed against hers, nearly sinking her into the bedding.
It felt like being trapped in a soft yet forceful cage—an indescribably strange sensation.
Overwhelmed by this hard-to-control feeling, Zhu Qingyu tried to push him away again and reminded him,
"I don't believe in next lives. If we have this life, we should live it well. It's wrong of you to be so careless with your own life. Besides, the world is full of doctors, each with their own specialties and strengths. There's no such thing as an irreplaceable doctor. If I fail, you can find someone else. Don't just give up so easily."
Gu Zhao's voice sounded ethereal, as if coming from the heavens:
"Where else would I find someone like you? It's not like I can become a monk again and beg a bodhisattva to descend to earth, can I?"
Saying this, Gu Zhao suddenly fell silent, sat up abruptly, and stared straight at her.
The strange feeling from a moment ago vanished like the wind, as if it had never existed.
Confused by his gaze, Zhu Qingyu seized the chance to sit up as well.
But Gu Zhao reached out and held her down, eyeing her suspiciously as he asked,
"Qingyu, could it be that you're the fairy bodhisattva I prayed for? Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental? Just as I became a monk, you were in Bianzhou treating the epidemic."
"What whimsical ideas you have," she said. That strange feeling was now completely gone.
Zhu Qingyu gave him a look that said, "Figure it out yourself," and replied,
"Of course I am. I'm so glad you finally figured it out. Now that you see a bodhisattva, why aren't you kneeling? Kneel down."
Hearing this, Gu Zhao deflated on his own, feeling that whenever he was around her, he lost his mind. That was why he had such an absurd thought only now—completely irrational.
Gu Zhao sighed and said,
"Ah, I don't know what I was thinking just now. Anyway, letting you stay alone is out of the question. Partly it's my selfishness, but more importantly, it's not safe for you to live alone. Those villains dared to poison even the emperor, let alone you. Don't even think about ditching me. For now, get some sleep. Soon we'll have to go back to the Qianqing Palace."
She hadn't slept all night, and she was indeed very tired. Lying on the bed, Zhu Qingyu looked outward. Through the gaps in the bookshelf, she could vaguely see a corner of the octagonal dining table in the outer room.
This meant that when the eunuch came later to deliver food and reached that table, there would faintly be a view of the inner room as he set the dishes.
Though she knew they were eunuchs, to her, eunuchs and men were no different. So she shook her head and said,
"I'm not sleepy. Do you have any books around here? I'll read to pass the time."
Ah, another losing question. Gu Zhao looked troubled.
"Take a look. But my books here are all very dull. Probably not to your liking."
Zhu Qingyu got up, walked past him to the bookshelf, and put some distance between them.
Scanning it, she saw nothing worthwhile. Probably due to the palace's strict rules, this bookshelf was even cleaner than the one on his boat—not even a geography book to be found.
She picked up a random one and flipped through it. Perhaps because she hadn't slept all night and was too tired, a skill she possessed—falling asleep whenever she read—kicked in after just a couple of lines. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she began to doze off.
When she came to, Zhu Qingyu felt herself being moved. As she opened her eyes, she found she was no longer at the desk by the window but in Gu Zhao's arms.
He was gently lowering her onto the bed, almost half-bent over her, one hand cradling her neck and the other under her knees.
The pose was rather intimate, almost as though he was up to something improper.
Seeing her awaken, Gu Zhao showed no panic. He didn't move away but instead leaned even closer until their foreheads were almost touching, and asked softly,
"Did I wake you? Do you want to eat now, or go back to sleep?"
He was so close now that when they spoke, their breaths mingled.
That strange feeling returned, gradually spreading and entangling her in the bed chamber, enveloping her entirely.
Later, in this small side room, sharing a bed day after day, there would be many more moments like this.
But when she thought back—wasn't it the same when they were trapped on the boat, confined to the cabin?
Under Gu Zhao's astonished gaze, Zhu Qingyu reached out and touched his face, thinking to herself:
Same person. So what's different now?
