Lù Zhāo’s excited heart was like being doused with a bucket of cold water, instantly going cold from head to toe.
His heart slowly sank, the blood drained from his face.
Shen Qingyao’s expression overlapped with a memory, and Lu Zhao opened his mouth but couldn’t find his voice for a while.
“Yaoyao? You… don’t remember?” After a long time, Lu Zhao asked slowly, his voice tinged with apprehension. In a daze, he returned to that summer day again, eagerly looking forward to meeting his little girl, only to find that she had forgotten him.
It was after a serious illness like this.
“Hmm?” Shen Qingyao furrowed her brow, looking at him as if he were a strange person.
“It’s nothing.” Lù Zhāo looked down, suppressing the pain in his heart and said hoarsely, “It’s okay, as long as you wake up, everything’s okay…”
He saw Shen Qingyao gradually reveal a peculiar expression, she glanced at Cui Qiao, who had already sneered and ran off. Turning back, she looked into Lu Zhao’s deep and serene eyes, then, in the face of his puzzled and sorrowful gaze, slowly, as if unable to hold it in any longer, she burst out laughing.
Since Shen Qingyao’s soul was forcibly extracted a few months ago, she had been waiting for Xiao Mu to ascend to the throne and for Kong Lin to produce medicine. Then she watched as the system quietly placed her reward in the medicine newly developed by Kong Lin.
So after she drank it, her heart disease could be successfully cured.
As for the subsequent coma…
Shen Qingyao rolled her eyes and cursed the system thoroughly.
The other party assured her in every way that there would be no problem after drinking that bowl of medicine. As a result, the medicine was fine, but because her soul had been extracted for too long, there were some minor hiccups. Of course, she had just learned about this, after all, at that time, she was just pushed by the system and fell into her own body, then slept and woke up today.
She slept for three months.
What a ‘small’ hiccup.
Shen Qingyao sneered, remembering a moment ago when the system carefully explained upon her awakening. She wished she could just beat it up directly and then call it quits and tell Lu Zhao to just turn evil.
Then she discovered that Lu Zhao was not around, so she hurried out to find him, wanting to see him quickly and confirm that she was really okay.
But because her body was weak from sleeping for three months, she took quite a while to adjust before slowly being helped out by Cui Qiao. Never did she expect to stumble upon such a spectacle.
Shen Qingyao was furious. She had only slept for three months, and someone was already eyeing her position. How could this be allowed! Fortunately, Lu Zhao handled it decisively and cut off all possibilities, which calmed her down a bit, but she couldn’t help but want to throw a little tantrum, which led to the scene just now.
But seeing that Lu Zhao really believed it, comforting her while feeling sad, his eyes filled with too much emotion, Shen Qingyao suddenly found it hard to continue teasing him.
After bursting out laughing uncontrollably, she looked at Lu Zhao and softly complained, “Elder Brother Lu Zhao, you’re so silly…”
“?” Lu Zhao was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood.
For a while, he stood there stiffly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. After a long time, seeing the girl still smiling, he felt the warmth slowly returning to his body, as if his blood was flowing back into his veins.
“You…” He took a step forward to grasp the girl’s hand, and this time she didn’t evade him.
Shen Qingyao’s hand when she was awake felt completely different from when she was asleep. Holding this soft little hand, Lu Zhao slowly smiled, letting out a long sigh of relief. His tense shoulders relaxed, his long hair slipping from his shoulders gently intertwined with Shen Qingyao’s in the breeze.
“Am I silly?” Lu Zhao asked hoarsely. He raised an eyebrow. “Am I silly, or is Yaoyao being mischievous again? Hmm?”
With that, he placed his large hands on Shen Qingyao’s waist and teasingly pinched her sensitive spot. This made Shen Qingyao, who was ticklish there, instantly go limp. She giggled and fell onto Lu Zhao, who continued to tickle her, asking, “Am I silly? Am I?”
“Not silly anymore, not silly…” Shen Qingyao squirmed and dodged while laughing. When Lu Zhao finally stopped, Shen Qingyao breathed lightly, her smile still lingering. She looked up at Lu Zhao, her smile gradually fading, replaced by a trace of sadness at the corners of her eyes, her mouth drooping slightly in a pitiful expression.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Zhao noticed her sadness and panicked, quickly cupping her face. His cool lips kissed her eyes gently, preventing her tears from falling.
“Elder Brother Lu Zhao, I’m sorry for making you wait so long,” Shen Qingyao sniffled. Touching the faint bluish-gray under his eyes, she felt a pang of guilt.
Lu Zhao sighed softly, then securely embraced her, closing his eyes and murmuring, “Not long. Waiting for you, no matter how long, is not long.”
News of Shen Qingyao waking up on Princess Duanhua’s birthday spread within half a day.
Princess Duanhua immediately left the room full of guests and hurried over. Naturally, she embraced Shen Qingyao tearfully, declaring that Shen Qingyao was indeed her lucky star. Shen Qingyao’s awakening was the best and greatest birthday gift she could receive.
Seeing this, the wives and daughters of various families who came to follow after Princess Duanhua understood that both Lu Zhao and Princess Duanhua valued this daughter-in-law greatly, causing any lingering intentions to fade away.
After these visitors left, Shen Qingyao’s parents rushed over with Shen Yushu and Shen Qinglin, followed by the surprising news that even the Empress had left the palace to visit in person, leaving everyone astonished.
When Master Kong Lin later examined Shen Qingyao and confirmed her heart condition was completely healed, only requiring careful recuperation, everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief. By the time everyone had left, it was late at night.
Lu Zhao returned from outside to find the already washed and dressed little girl lazily leaning on the bed, lost in thought. Her long hair hung behind her, not yet properly dried, with water droplets still clinging to the ends.
Lu Zhao paused for a moment, suddenly feeling that this ordinary scene seemed surreal, as if from another world. The lively girl sat not far away, and just thinking about her made him feel calm.
Without hesitation, Lu Zhao walked over.
He picked up a towel lying nearby, silently moved behind her, gathered up her long hair, and gently dried it in his hands.
Shen Qingyao knew it was him. She leaned back slightly, squinted her eyes for a while, then comfortably stretched herself out. After a while, she leaned against Lu Zhao’s shoulder and whispered softly, “Elder Brother Lu Zhao, how did you become so good at drying hair?”
Lu Zhao chuckled softly in response, not saying much. But even without him saying it, Shen Qingyao knew that during these days she was unconscious, Lu Zhao had been the one drying her hair. Seeing that he didn’t want to talk about it, Shen Qingyao opened her eyes, turned around, and skillfully nestled herself into Lu Zhao’s embrace.
Her restless hand brushed over Lu Zhao’s eyebrows. As they passed down his eyelashes, his eyelids trembled slightly under the touch, making her palm itch. She retracted her hand a bit, only to be firmly grasped by him.
Shen Qingyao looked up at him. He was silently watching her too, not saying a word, yet his eyes seemed to convey everything.
Shen Qingyao’s heart stirred. Her fingers brushed against his hand again before she asked, “Elder Brother Lu Zhao, are you unhappy?”
Lu Zhao blinked. It wasn’t that he was unhappy, just a bit scared. But he nodded and said after a moment, “There are always so many people around Yaoyao, and I’m not happy about it.”
“Hmm?” Shen Qingyao looked at him in surprise.
Lu Zhao gently pulled her hand away from his face, holding it in his own and listing, “Father, Mother, Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, Brother-in-law, Sister-in-laws, even Kong Lin, they all come before me.” He leaned closer from behind, his chin rubbing against her shoulder, saying with grievance, “When Yaoyao wakes up, there are so many people around her that she can’t even see me.”
Shen Qingyao widened her eyes, finding it hard to believe this was Lu Zhao. After a while, she burst into laughter.
“How come you’re even jealous of them!” she said, pushing his head lightly, then added, “They’re just concerned about me.”
He tightened his grip around her waist, eyes downcast as he murmured, “But I care about Yaoyao the most.”
Shen Qingyao laughed again, seeing beneath Lu Zhao’s seemingly unreasonable behavior, there was the unease in his heart.
After laughing for a while, Shen Qingyao turned to face him, cupping his face in her hands and meeting his gaze seriously.
“Elder Brother Lu Zhao, I’m fine now.”
“I’m okay. There won’t be any more problems in the future.”
“I won’t forget about you anymore, and I’ll always be with you.”
“El…”
With each sentence Shen Qingyao spoke, Lu Zhao’s eyes grew darker. Finally, unable to resist, he pulled her close.
In the moment their lips met, Shen Qingyao heard him hoarsely whisper, “Okay, you said it…”