Yue Mingxuan rose and retreated a few steps to stand beside Shang Qinghua.
Gongsun Xing arrived quite late, he looked like as though he had not fully woken up.
He yawned while bowing to the Emperor, then shuffled over to stand next to Yue Mingxuan.
"Why are you so sleepy?" Yue Mingxuan asked in confusion.
Gongsun Xing shot him a look as though he were an idiot.
Shang Qinghua, however, chuckled and said lightly, "Wang Jian didn’t co today. You should be able to figure it out from that."
Yue Mingxuan still did not understand at first.
After thinking it over for quite so ti, realization suddenly dawned on him.
His face flushed slightly and he lowered his head while fiddling with his sleeve.
Above him, Shang Qinghua muttered, "Idiot," while lightly tapped his head with his folding fan.
Yue Mingxuan shot him a sideways glare.
That scene fell squarely into Rong Tieshan’s eyes.
The smile on his face carried a trace of bitterness as he sat at the stone table and sipping his tea.
The Emperor had intended for lunch to be served right there in the garden.
Unexpectedly, the rain began to pour halfway through the morning.
The group scrambled to take shelter and in the end, everyone had no choice but to crowd into a pavilion.
Watching the rain fall outside, Yue Mingxuan suddenly found himself missing his old comrades from the military.
Those days of training under the downpour, soaked to the bone, when everything felt fiercely alive and full of passion.
A thought struck him.
He turned with a grin toward Shang Qinghua.
"Hey, that book you gave yesterday, do you want to practice it for you?"
Shang Qinghua did not quite understand, but after a brief silence, he nodded.
A spark lit up in Yue Mingxuan’s eyes.
He th n turned around and bowed toward the Emperor who sat at the center of the pavilion.
"Your Majesty, Mingxuan and Prince Shang have sothing to attend to. May we take our leave first?"
The Emperor glanced at the heavy rain outside. "The rain is coming down so hard. How do you intend to return?"
"So Your Majesty agrees?" Yue Mingxuan lifted the hem of his robe and smiled. Then, without warning, he reached out and seized Shang Qinghua’s hand and gripping it tightly.
Before Shang Qinghua could react, Yue Mingxuan suddenly pulled him forward and dashed straight into the curtain of rain.
Behind them ca the sound of the Emperor’s hearty laughter, but the two of them had already run far away.
Seeing Yue Mingxuan take the initiative to grab Shang Qinghua’s hand, Rong Tieshan could not quite sort out what he was feeling.
He only felt that a dull ache settled in his chest.
"Mingxuan really does love to play," soone remarked.
No one in the pavilion quite knew what to say.
A Ger so unconcerned with appearances was sothing they had never seen before, yet the Emperor did not reproach him.
Concubine Keshun watched the two figures disappear into the distance and then cast a glance at Rong Zishen.
He kept his eyes fixed on the corner where they had vanished and staring to it for a very long ti.
In truth, the rain was not heavy, only dense and fine.
By the ti they ran back to Yue Mingxuan’s courtyard, both of them were damp and yet Yue Mingxuan was still smiling, looking thoroughly delighted.
He pulled Shang Qinghua by the hand into the garden and stopped among the trees.
After checking his position, Yue Mingxuan released his hand, he closed his eyes and brought his palms together before his chest.
He then suddenly separated them, one above and one below, circulating his internal energy.
The raindrops falling into his palm condensed into a slender ice needle.
Yue Mingxuan opened his eyes, which shone brightly.
Pinching the needle between his index and middle fingers, he flicked it toward a tree branch.
Shang Qinghua narrowed his eyes as he watched the tiny needle drove itself firmly into the trunk.
An ice needle ford from nothing but rainwater had actually pierced the tree.
Just as he had suspected, Yue Mingxuan was a prodigy in martial arts.
That astonishingly deep internal energy seed to be sothing he had been born with, flowing at his command and freely directed as he wished.
Shang Qinghua could tell that even so, Yue Mingxuan had not yet drawn out his full strength.
Just how powerful could he beco?
"Not bad. Have you finished reading it?"
Shang Qinghua rembered that the book had been quite thick.
Yue Mingxuan rolled his eyes.
How could he possibly have finished such a thick book?
He had only skimd the beginning and the end, skipping most of the middle.
The text taught thods of circulating internal energy and condensing energy.
At first he had not fully understood, though the words were straightforward, but putting them into practice was far from simple.
But seeing the rain just now had suddenly sparked an idea, which was why he had excitedly dragged Shang Qinghua back.
"Never mind then. I’ll find you sothing else to read."
At that mont, Sui He returned while carrying peach blossom petals gathered in the fold of her robe.
When she passing through the courtyard, she spotted two figures standing there.
The one in purple looked unmistakably like her master, so she hurried over.
"Your Highness, Prince Shang... Why are you standing outside? It’s so cold, you’ll catch a chill!"
Sui He took Yue Mingxuan by the hand and led him toward the room.
Only then did the two of them realize they had been standing in the rain the whole ti.
Not long after, Sui He brought clothes for Yue Mingxuan and told him to change out of his damp garnts.
Yue Mingxuan took them with an absent "oh," and was just about to undress when he realized there was still soone else in the room.
Shang Qinghua was actually sitting there and showing no intention of leaving, looking as though he were calmly waiting to watch Yue Mingxuan undressed himself.
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