The Attack of the Wastrel

“I threw it away,” Rong Yuan answered sincerely. He then took a pile of blankets that were folded neatly at the side and placed it over Gu Lingzhi. “You’re too wounded to wear any clothes.”

There was regret in his eyes. Now that Gu Lingzhi was awake, he could no longer take advantage of her.

“What do you mean you threw it away?!” Gu Lingzhi clenched her teeth as she said every word. “Without my permission, how dare you…” It was too hard for her to even continue saying what she wanted to say.

This was different from the time she had been made fun of by Wen Qing. That was just a harmless prank, but this time, Rong Yuan had indeed thrown her clothes away.

“It was an urgent matter and I could not ask for your permission when you were unconscious. Your wounds kept bleeding.”

“It is all because of you that I’m bleeding in the first place!” Gu Lingzhi was furious. She had already taken care of her wounds briefly, if it was not for Rong Yuan who had hugged her so tightly, her wounds would not have reopened and caused them to bleed a second time.

Under the scrutiny of Gu Lingzhi, Rong Yuan looked down guiltily.

He had indeed seen that her wounds were briefly taken care of when he took off her clothes, but he definitely could not mention that it was his fault for causing them to bleed a second time when she was so furious. He switched the topic, “What happened beforehand? Who did you meet? Why would he do something like that to you?”

“I don’t know,” Gu Lingzhi got even more angry at the mention of this. Narrowing her eyes at him, she said, “According to what I know, I don’t think I’ve offended anyone.”

Even if she had offended someone, it did not justify a murder attempt. It goes without saying who she had suffered for.

It seems that… he had asked something that he should not have.

Rong Yuan realized that his attempt to change the topic had backfired on him. Awkwardly, he coughed twice, “Don’t worry, I’ve asked Yuan Zheng to check into what happened tonight. No matter who it is that hurt you, I won’t let him off easy.”

Rong Yuan had a murderous tone in his voice.

“Just tell me when you’ve found out anything,” Gu Lingzhi did not wish to accept his kindness, “I will look into it myself.”

“Why would I let you do that?” Rong Yuan looked at her in disagreement. “Your problems are my problems too, how can I let you face them alone?”

Gu Lingzhi pursed her lips, “Your Highness, I don’t think we’re close enough for you to say that.”

Rong Yuan opened his mouth to say something. However, he was speechless. It was definitely not an easy task liking someone with such a strong character.

At this instance, Yuan Zheng had returned. Hearing a knock on the door, Rong Yuan asked, “Who is it?”

“It’s me, Your Highness.”

Rong Yuan looked at Gu Lingzhi, who had wrapped herself tightly in the blankets. She did not say anything but the intention was clear in her eyes – she wanted him to leave. Rong Yuan clenched his teeth before standing up suddenly. He ignored the astonished look in Gu Lingzhi’s eyes and closed the curtains before opening the door for Yuan Zheng.

There was no way he would be so easily angered by Gu Lingzhi.

“Did you find out anything?” Rong Yuan asked as he let Yuan Zheng into the room.

“Not yet,” Yuan Zheng replied. He tilted his body as much as he could and averted his eyes so that he was not looking in the direction of the bed. “However, there are leads. The person who attacked Gu Lingzhi seems to be from the Royal School.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Lingzhi said, “Definitely. The person that had attacked me used skills that were at the level of the school’s professors, and he was very powerful.”

After getting clues from what Gu Lingzhi had said, Yuan Zheng and Rong Yuan exchanged a few words before Yuan Zheng left once again.

Suddenly, there was only both of them in the room again. The room had quieted to the sound of their breathing in an instance. The warm light of the candles created a romantic atmosphere.

“Your Highness, I’m alright now, you can go back and rest,” Gu Lingzhi tried to chase him away when she saw that he had no intention of leaving.

However, Rong Yuan was not deterred. He had already gone against his mother, there was no way he was going to cower now. “There’s no hurry, I have nothing much these days, I can take care of you until you recover.”

Gu Lingzhi did not know what to say. “It’s okay, they’re just minor injuries, I only need to rest for a few days and I’ll be alright.”

“It may be because of me that you were almost assassinated, you don’t have to be so polite,” Rong Yuan said sincerely, “If you do not let me take care of you, I’ll feel bad.”

Knowing that Rong Yuan had already made up his mind not to leave, Gu Lingzhi did not bother to say anything more and closed her eyes.

Though she was tried, whenever she thought about how Rong Yuan was sitting at her bedside, she could not fall asleep. Especially because she was naked underneath the blankets.

Right, her clothes!

Bastard! Who knew that for someone who was famed as the Kingdom’s War God was actually such a scoundrel!

She scolded Rong Yuan in her heart, which made her feel much better.

It was not that she did not understand Rong Yuan’s intentions, but he already had a fiancée and Gu Lingzhi did not want to offend her. If she continued to get close to Rong Yuan, she would not be any different from Bi Lingcan. Just because Rong Yuan held a higher social status than her, it did not mean that he could play with other people’s feelings. She would no longer let herself be played like a fool.

Rong Yuan sat at the side, one arm leaning against the table, his hand beneath his chin as he looked at the curtains hanging on the bed. He was fretting over how long it would take before Gu Lingzhi would stop rejecting his feelings.

In a room with just two people, they held the silence albeit with entirely different thoughts until the sun rose.

It was only until Yuan Zheng returned a second time with the news of his investigation before Rong Yuan left the room quietly.

There were too many ladies in the capital city that were fond of the Third Prince, so the assassination attempt on Gu Lingzhi yesterday was not something that the well-informed Third Prince could not uncover. His face darkened for a moment before he banged his fist on the table. He laughed coldly, “Since we can’t find out who did this, we’ll send all of them a warning.”

“What?” Send all of them a warning? Yuan Zheng thought he had heard Rong Yuan wrongly. When he looked at the cold expression on Rong Yuan’s face, however, he did not dare to hesitate. He replied quickly before leaving, yet he felt extremely aggravated.

It was an enormous task to go up to everyone who was fond of the Third Prince and had the power to deploy someone to assassinate Gu Lingzhi and warn them one by one.

Who would even do something like this? Did they not remember how the Third Prince had gained the informal title of a War God?

Just when Yuan Zheng was internally complaining, an extremely shocking rumor had been going around in the capital city, putting everyone in a frenzy.

The rumor was that Consort Rong had gone personally to the Tianfeng Clan’s house and cancelled the engagement between the Third Prince and Tianfeng Wei.