Blind and Bereft

Chapter 12 | His Façade

The next morning, Jingrui was not awoken by the gentle chirping of magpies by the window . Instead, thundering knocks from the door jolted her up from her sleep, and she jumped up on her feet, trying to register all the commotion. She glanced around, and her eyes met the man.

He held one hand to his head as if the sound were giving him pain. Other than that, he was calm and collected which made her wonder if he had all the patience in the world.

"Open the door, Jingrui!" Madam Fu's voice hissed from the other side of the wall.

Jingrui's heart immediately raced. Her eyes wavered and she snapped her gaze to the blind man who sat, watching her with curious eyes. How could he be so calm now?

Sweat dripped from her forehead as she shot towards the man and pulled him to his feet.

"I need to hide you." Jingrui gripped his sleeves to stop her hands from trembling. She scanned around for a hiding spot, but within her cramped room, there was no space to fit him. The window was also too small for him to escape through. Panic crawled up her throat as the banging on the door grew more violent.

"Open the door now or Yuansong will tear it down!" Madam Fu demanded, fury burning in her voice.

"You need to hide," Jingrui repeated, tugging at his sleeve as her breathing grew with the intensity of the knockings. "If you don't, I am dead, and if I am dead, I have failed my people."

The man tilted his head at her words. "You don't need to—"

"I know you are stubborn, but right now is not the time. You hide under the bed." Her voice croaked out of her throat as she pointed below the bed.

His brows furrowed. "I can't possibly fit under—"

Jingrui shoved him towards the bed before he could finish his sentence. "You will! I can't die yet. You have to hide—"

Before she could say anything more, the door tumbled down, and light flashed onto their faces. She squinted her eyes shut, knowing her fate. Unable to muster up a word, she could only whimper beneath her breath and fell onto her knees.

She bowed as Shushu walked in with Madam Fu and Yuansong following behind her.

A wide smirk plastered over Shushu's face as she looked at Jingrui's pitiful state. "Well, well, it seems like I am right. You are indeed keeping a lover in your room. No wonder you have been acting so suspiciously these past few days." Shushu stretched her arm to the side, revealing a whip sizzling with lightning, in her palm. "Madam Fu said I can be the one to punish you as the of who exposed you of your affairs." She laughed, the corners of her mouth almost expanded to her ears.

"I-It's not what you think," Jingrui stuttered. All colour had been drained from her face, leaving her like a ghost.

Shushu snorted. "All the evidence is here. What else do you have to say?" With that, Shushu raised the whip above her head.

Jingrui bit her lip and shut her eyes, waiting for the strike. Wind brushed past her, and even though she heard the wheeze of the whip, the strike never came. Slowly, she pried her eyes open and glanced up to see the blind man standing over her. His towering form cast a shadow over her, shielding her from Shushu. He clutched onto the whip, his eyes gleaming like a cool blade.

Shushu began to tremble, and all the fire in her died out as her strength dwindled in his gaze. The man snatched the whip from her and threw it across the room, letting it crash and slashed a deep indent into the bamboo wall. Shushu stepped back as she pointed her shaky finger at the man. "You! How dare you? Bewitched by a maid of the Floating Abyss Palace and having an affair, do you think you can still—"

She was cut off when Madam Fu and Yuansong dropped to their feet. Shushu looked at them with her brows raised and her body rigid. "What are you both doing?"

Madam Fu's face was bleached off colour, and Yuansong's whole body shook in fear. Madam Fu grabbed Shushu's sleeves, tugging her to bow down.

Shushu clenched her teeth. "What do you think you all are doing—"

Madam Fu's voice trembled as she kowtowed until her head hit the floor. "Greetings, God of War."

"Greetings, your highness," Yuansong said as he bowed down low.

Shushu's eyes wavered, confused. Slowly, she turned to face the blind man who was emitting anger so bleak, it could freeze one into ice. Shushu gasped, her knees wobbling like jelly as she fell onto her feet. "Greetings, God of War."

Jingrui cowered down against the ground, her breathing fell out of pace. "G-Greetings, God of War."

The God of War let out a low chuckle as he angled his head towards the people on the floor. "Madam Fu, this maid is presumptuous, punish her. As for Bao Bao, move her to the inner courtyard. Yuansong, follow me."

With that, the God of War flipped the long tail of his hanfu and exited the room. Yuansong closed his eyes and sighed in relief. "That was a close one," he muttered as he ran to follow the God of War.

Madam Fu dragged Shushu out from the room, leaving Jingrui alone, frozen on the ground.

Jingrui clenched her fists to stop her shaking fingers until her knuckles had turned white. Her mind stammered in her head, pounding and incapacitating her with fear.

"The God of War . . . that blind man is Prince Zhanying?"

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