Liao Tingyan stopped talking.

Sima Jiao looked like it was even more unbearable, “What do you do to ease the pain?”

Liao Tingyan: “…Soaking in water will make it better.”

Actually no, she needed to soak in an ice-cold spiritual pool, but there was no such a spiritual pool in the mortal world. An ordinary person’s body would be invaded by the cold next to this kind of spiritual pool. The current Sima Jiao couldn’t stand it.

Hearing her say that, Sima Jiao carried her to a pond behind Ziquan Palace. He walked in with Liao Tingyan in his arms, soaked in it together, rubbed her forehead with his lips, “Do you feel a little better?”

Liao Tingyan leaned against his arms, sniffed, and continued to lie to him, “It’s better.”

The spring water was clear, and their robes were entangled in the water. Liao Tingyan recalled many things in the past. It appeared that only painful stimulation could make her regain a little bit of lost memory.

She remembered that when she was in Gengchen Xianfu, Sima Jiao liked to soak in water. At the beginning, he was soaking in a cold pool, so cold that she couldn’t stand it, but then, she started to find a pool to soak in.

Why? Sima Jiao wanted her to be with him. Was it because she couldn’t stand the cold pool, so he just found an ordinary pool to soak?

After many years, Liao Tingyan suddenly understood Sima Jiao who was staring at her by the summer mountain stream. Was his mood the same as her now?

Perhaps he was also suffering a hundred times more pain than she was now, but he could still bear it without showing the slightest color on his face. He smiled at her, stretched out his hand and said to her, “Come here.” 

It was so calm that she felt that it was just a pleasant and lazy afternoon nap, an ordinary and comfortable time.

At that time, their pain was not interconnected.

The Sima Jiao in the memory disappeared, and the young Sima Jiao who didn’t remember anything was silently wiping the tears that fell on her cheeks.

“It really hurts?”

His brows kept frowning as he carefully wiped her tears, and kissed her eyes again, filled with a smell of love and compassion. He was only a teenager, but he was a tyrant who didn’t know what pity was.

When Liao Tingyan gasped, he raised her head and looked at her lips.

Sima Jiao brushed away the wet hair on the side of her cheek and kissed her. Liao Tingyan hugged Sima Jiao’s neck and held his back with both hands. He hugged her against the wall of the pool. Her hair floated in the water, and his hands slowly stroked her back.

Liao Tingyan felt that the stinging pain caused by the spiritual fire in her body had eased. She left Sima Jiao’s lips and leaned her head on his shoulder to gasp, “I’m better.”

“Yeah, Sima Jiao kissed her n*ck sideways, and rubbed her earlobe with his nose.

Liao Tingyan: “It doesn’t seem to hurt as much after the kiss.”

Sima Jiao thought for a moment, then began to untie her clothes.

Liao Tingyan: “Wait.”

Liao Tingyan: “I’m in pain, let go.”

Sima Jiao: “I’ll try, be good and don’t make noise.”

Liao Tingyan: “I don’t want to try! I, Liao Tingyan, would die today. Don’t do this!”

…

Liao Tingyan: “Do you feel pain?”

Sima Jiao: “…”

Liao Tingyan: “Why not forget it? You didn’t do it before… you are too young now…”

Sima Jiao held the back of her neck, “Shut up.”

Liao Tingyan: “Hahahahahahaha~”

Sima Jiao didn’t turn angry when she laughed. He watched her laugh, his brows were slightly loosened, and a smile appeared on his face. He held her tightly and changed his posture, rubbed her eyes with his thumb, “Yes, doesn’t it hurt as much as before?”

As if it was really effective, the spirit fire was soothed by Sima Jiao.

Liao Tingyan remembered that she had been confused by beauty just now and could not hold it. Suddenly she felt a little ashamed. She covered her face and knocked her forehead on Sima Jiao’s shoulder. Sima Jiao smiled and laughed in her ear. 

They were like two plants swaying in the water, entangled silently and tenderly.

“You really love me,” Liao Tingyan was in a daze and heard Sima Jiao say so. He pressed her head and pressed her tightly against his arms.

Liao Tingyan closed her eyes and hugged him as well, and gave a hum.

If I love you, I will live happily no matter where I am as long as I’m with you.

But if I don’t love you, I won’t be so happy anywhere.

　　…

The ministers had been arguing for a long time below, but they didn’t hear a word from the superior. Everyone stopped by, looked up and found that he hadn’t listened to them at all. Although the emperor didn’t listen to what they said before, and behaved very casually, that day he was in a daze, with a hand on the tip of his nose. Maybe he remembered, and a rare real smile appeared on his face.

Unlike the emperor who killed people because of a bad mood, he appeared like a young man who thought of his sweetheart.

The ministers were surprised.

Sima Jiao noticed their expressions and stood up, “You can figure it out by yourself. I am going to the Summer Palace to escape from the heat.”

He took the imperial concubine, who was afraid of heat and loved to soak in water, to the Summer Palace to escape the heat. The ministers who praised him for a long time began to feel heartbroken again: His Majesty was deceived by beauty! Hopeless! The country must be subjugated!