My Husband Became the Most Powerful Minister - Chapter 20

In the darkness, this voice was exceptionally clear and abrupt, and it was very close to her ear.

Helan Ci’s body was half buried in the bedding and half on Lu Wuyou, still not able to recover from the feeling of falling from the sky. Over there, Lu Wuyou had already pulled away from her, leaning against the edge of the bedpost, eyes tightly closed, as if she were some kind of ferocious beast.

In the empty, desolate palace, only their breathing could be heard in the silence.

Chaotic, hurried, and anxious.

No one could extinguish that fervor, and once the most unbearable tense moments passed, the taut nerves would relax, leaving the body feeling even hotter, limp, and craving touch.

Helan Ci finally retained some of her sanity after taking the pills. She lay on the couch, tentatively, and softly said, “Sorry, it was my fault for being out of my mind before and offending you… Are you okay now?”

Lu Wuyou ignored her, as if only focused on catching his breath.

In the dimly lit hall, a faint glimmer of light streamed down from the high window.

Helan Ci raised his head, and in the dim light, he could only vaguely see the rise and fall of his chest, the taut line of his jaw, and the Adam’s apple rolling up and down. It seemed that sweat droplets were faintly visible, trickling down the sides of his temples, each one rolling onto his bright red ceremonial robe.

Helan Ci was a bit better off than him, but not by much.

Because she had been forced to stay close to him earlier, her body was completely soaked with sweat. Her inner clothes clung to her skin, and the layers of the complicated crimson dress wrapped tightly around her body, making her feel like she was wearing a cotton coat on a blazing mountain of fire. It was even more unbearable, and she felt as if she was sweating profusely as well.

Helan Ci turned over restlessly, resting her head on the quilt, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and unbuttoned her collar slightly, letting a cool breeze seep in. Instantly, she felt like tearing off all her clothes.

At that moment, this definitely won’t do.

So Helan Ci said more softly, “The medicine from earlier… do you have any left?”

Lu Wuyou closed his eyes, the words squeezed out from between his teeth: “Used it all up.”

The voice was hoarse and ragged, still accompanied by heavy gasps, not at all like the clear and gentle tone from before.

“Then… are there any other… other ways?”

Lu Wuyou was probably quite resentful, and sarcastically replied to her, “If I had it… would I still need to endure?”

When going out, he would carry medicine with him, but the problem is that for emergencies, he wouldn’t carry too much of each type. Four pills would normally be more than enough, and besides, he could buy more at any time. He never thought he would encounter such a situation one day.

Outside, the voices of the palace maids can still be heard. They just searched this room, and this place is actually the safest. If he goes out now, he might run into other palace maids, and that would be all for nothing.

Lu Wuyou also temporarily didn’t want too many people to know that his martial arts were exceptional.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Wuyou once again tried to use his internal energy to expel the drug’s effects—

Now the pressure is completely unmanageable.

Who would have thought that the medicine he initially didn’t take seriously would now be surging violently through his veins? Even sealing his acupoints didn’t help. Lu Wuyou tried several methods but was still at a loss. He had never imagined that he would experience such a “fiery” moment in his life.

Originally, perhaps he could have thought of other ways by himself.

Unfortunately, in this remote chamber, besides him, there was another girl with equally rapid breathing, a flushed face, and a body that looked as if it had just been pulled out of water, lying not far from him, to be precise.

Saying that he almost got killed by her is not an exaggeration.

At least just now, when Helan Ci sat on his lap, rubbing against his vulnerable spot while fearlessly licking his fingers. Lu Wuyou truly felt for a moment that he was about to explode.

Just like it says in the book, when the fire goes berserk, the meridians are severed, and the body explodes.

The kind that would be laughed at for ten thousand years if that happens.

——Alright, Lu Wuyou confirmed again that he indeed couldn’t force out the poison using his internal energy.

Helan Ci didn’t know what Lu Wuyou was thinking. She only saw him sitting quietly, his arms seemingly making a strange gesture, then he slumped down again, his chest still rising and falling incessantly.

He had no way out, but she had to find a way to save herself.

Helan Ci tried to get up from the bed first.

She turned over, propping herself up with her hands on the bed, trying to sit up, but her arms went weak again. Although her mind was somewhat clear, the strength she had lost hadn’t returned yet. When she collapsed, the bed shook, and Helan Ci let out a short, startled gasp.

Lu Wuyou suddenly opened his eyes in the darkness.

He said hoarsely, “What do you want to do…”

Helan Ci felt like a fish struggling to the death, her body limp, flailing futilely, and even if it was embarrassing, her cheeks couldn’t possibly be redder: “We can’t… keep going on like this.”

Lu Wuyou also fell silent.

Responding to each other, there was only the sound of one heavier breath after another.

Time passed bit by bit.

Helan Ci had to speak again: “I don’t know how much longer I can stay conscious, maybe soon I will… and in my current state, it’s impossible for me to escape.” She lowered her voice a bit, “How about we… think of a way together?” She bit her lip again, “The princess’s residence should have a cellar. Should we go look for some ice? Or find someone to help?”

“If ice cubes were useful, the pill just now wouldn’t have failed…”

“……and call for help?”

Lu Wuyou gasped a few more times, his voice like a worn-out bellows, filled with extreme patience and anguish: “Do you know what this medicine is? … Who do you think will come to save you?”

Helan Ci’s mind suddenly went blank.

She always thought that such fever symptoms would eventually subside if she just toughened it out for a couple of hours.

…but in fact, she never thought about how to neutralize this poison.

I never thought about what to do if the drug’s effects didn’t wear off on their own.

Although Helan Ci was a young lady of the boudoir, she had encountered troublesome and persistent suitors multiple times, so she always kept an eye out for such matters. Later, she once rummaged through the pile of books her brother Helan Jian had carelessly left around and came across a rather explicit novel.

Therefore, she is not completely ignorant.

Knowing roughly what the medicine is and how it is normally used is one thing, but associating it with the entire process still makes her head feel a bit like it’s going to explode.

She buried her head in the pillow, and those already forgotten seductive words surged into her mind, making her head feel dizzy, as if steam were rising from the top of her head.

After a while, when Helan Ci felt her lips and teeth dry, her body burning hot and increasingly unbearable, she couldn’t help but want to roll and rub on the couch again. Finally, she turned to the side, lifted her head, and hot sweat trickled down her breathtakingly beautiful face. Her delicate eyes were now filled with intense desire.

“……Is this medicine really impossible to… not be resolved? Then you…”

The words that had no outlet came to an abrupt stop.

Lu Wuyou has many more choices than she does. Even if he doesn’t comply with Princess Shaoan, as long as he is a bit more slick, this matter could be easily resolved. But she is different.

To be honest, she was actually a bit scared that Lu Wuyou would just abandon her. Earlier, when he helped her, it could be said that he was afraid of being implicated by her. Now, all he had to do was wait for the people around to disperse, and Lu Wuyou could completely leave her behind. After all, he was also in a precarious situation.

She couldn’t fly over rooftops like him. If she were really abandoned, she feared the worst— even if by some luck the drug’s effects wore off and she could move freely, they were almost at the farthest point from the princess’s mansion gate. She had no confidence in completely evading the princess and the second prince’s searchers, and besides, even if she did, her appearance at that time might not be presentable.

Helan Ci thought to herself and couldn’t help but move a bit closer to his direction.

Lu Wuyou’s slightly lowered eyes were dark and murky, with sweat-drenched hair almost sticking to his cheek. After his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, he could see clearly that the familiar, ethereal face was now covered with a completely abnormal flush, and her red lips slightly parted with each breath.

The official hat on his head had already been removed by himself, and his hair was disheveled and scattered. Only the bright red ceremonial robe remained strikingly vivid. Besides his handsome appearance, there was an added touch of sharp, wicked charm, making him look as if he had been pulled out from some kind of sea of burning desire, his entire being exuding an intoxicating allure, with lustful intentions flowing freely.

Helan Ci moved her lips, momentarily at a loss for words, as if she could only hear the sound of her own heartbeat and breathing. After a moment, she inexplicably and slowly extended her slender fingers, gently grasping the corner of his robe.

“……Lu Wuyou.”

With her amorous voice, she called out to him softly.

The enchanting voice, capable of piercing through reason, was fully delivered into Lu Wuyou’s ears, and he couldn’t help but turn his head to look at her.

She was gripping the corner of his clothes, tilting her head to meet his gaze.

A wisp of moonlight floated, casting a very faint glow on her face, like a beauty draped in a layer of gauze. Her lips, however, were as red as bl00d, both from the heat and the thirst, and the tip of her light red tongue unconsciously moistened her lips.

He couldn’t hear what she said at all, only seeing those two luscious, dripping lips part slightly, then close again.

Lu Wuyou’s mind was buzzing, and his reason, teetering on the brink, snapped.

Helan Ci stared blankly, watching as Lu Wu You, as if possessed, slowly approached her.

The scent of Lu Wuyou, once familiar, slowly enveloped him. Those peach blossom eyes were no longer clear, no longer gentle, no longer lingering. At this moment, they were utterly chaotic, the once light hue now deepened, becoming like a bottomless pit of mire. The deep black reflected not a hint of light, filled only with the most primal, the most straightforward, the most masculine desires.

His scorching fingertips lingered by her cheek, still carrying a damp breath.

The sound of his breathing was so close it seemed to be between their lips, and she could even feel Lu Wuyou’s breath, the slightly tipsy scent of alcohol, as if it were a century-old vintage, intoxicating and fragrant, brushing against her face, barely there yet tantalizing.

The air seemed to become thick and chaotic.

Helan Ci’s already unclear consciousness began to waver.

The places that were touched felt so comfortable that she almost sighed a few times. Lu Wuyou’s fingertips traced down her cheek, finally stopping at her jaw, where he lightly tapped. Lu Wuyou’s Adam’s apple rolled slightly, his fingertip lifted, and then she heard him laugh very lightly and very indulgently.

His brows and eyes once again became sharp, proud, and imperious, as if the rebellious streak that was ingrained in Lu Wuyou’s very bones had been fully unleashed.

It also revealed a hint of unfamiliar wildness.

As if he were about to devour her whole in the next moment.

Pressing his forehead against hers, Lu Wuyou’s smile grew increasingly roguish, yet it was also filled with desire, his eyes glimmering with a hint of spring. He chuckled softly, kissing the tips of her hair and the corners of her forehead with a lingering, ambiguous kiss.

He was really devouring her bit by bit.

And she didn’t have the slightest thought of resistance.

Even somewhat willingly.

Helan Ci felt a moment of daze, and in the gradually fading clarity of her mind, she experienced for the first time the taste of being bewitched by Lu Wuyou.

A drop of fragrant sweat fell from Helan Ci’s forehead to her well-defined nose.

Lu Wuyou smoothly rolled it into his mouth, his hot lips pressing against her nasal bone, sliding down along the trail of the liquid.

Helan Ci felt as if she had been branded, and before she could react, Lu Wuyou had already wrapped one arm around her waist and roughly dragged her into his embrace.

The kiss landed on her lips.

Once it started, it couldn’t be stopped.

The surroundings remained dimly dark, with unclear light, making the subsequent lengthy kisses feel like they were happening in a deep dream.

The bl00d that oozed from the bitten lips was repeatedly licked clean by Lu Wuyou, the faint metallic taste spreading between their lips and tongues. Yet, this did not affect his unrestrained kisses at all; instead, it seemed to make the act even more thrilling.

Helan Ci only felt that she was gradually unable to breathe, every bit of space in her mouth being taken away. The masculine aura belonging to Lu Wuyou filled all her senses, her body becoming even more limp and soft, leaving her no choice but to cling to him, her knees on the couch continuously sliding down.

But because of the excessive heat within her body, this still felt comfortable.

She was too hot. So thirsty.

Helan Ci even took the initiative to reach out and climb onto his shoulder, wanting him to give her more.

For a moment, the only sounds left in the silent palace were the wet sounds of their lips and tongues entwined, and the girl’s barely bearable, fragmented moans that occasionally escaped her lips.

Before long, Lu Wuyou felt that this was not enough to satisfy him. He casually removed the hairpins from Helan Ci’s head, his hands threading through her cascading hair like a waterfall, cradling the back of her head, and decisively pressed her into the bedding to continue kissing.

Due to Helan Ci’s own tugging just now, her collar had loosened slightly, revealing the delicate neck and collarbone of the young girl. Originally as pale as snow, it was now a bright red, like the color of misty clouds, dotted with trembling, scorching droplets.

Lu Wuyou’s fingertips were like a cluster of flames, trailing down her neck and circling her collarbone.

Helan Ci’s mouth was blocked by Lu Wuyou, and she instinctively tightened around her fingers, her long, weak legs curling up as if tensing up unconsciously.

Lu Wuyou’s other hand even began to linger on her waist.

And all the confusion and passion abruptly came to a halt—

Lu Wuyou discovered that he couldn’t take off the crimson and gold silk pleated moon-patterned skirt Helan Ci wore.

The outer feathered gauze was indeed easy to remove, but this luxurious and ornate skirt was designed so intricately that he couldn’t find where the ties were at all.

He had no experience taking off women’s skirts.
His hand was stuck on Helan Ci’s waist, neither going up nor down. Perhaps it was the irritation that made him want to use brute force to tear it off, or perhaps the drug’s effect was slightly alleviated after their lips and teeth intertwined, which surprisingly allowed Lu Wuyou’s already scattered reason to gradually return.

Thus, he had no choice but to stop his actions with immense difficulty.

The person beneath him, Helan Ci, had her lips swollen and red from his kisses, her eyes filled with tears. Her face, which was always breathtakingly beautiful, looked even more enchanting and dangerous at this moment. Her long, jet-black hair lay softly across her body, the seductive colors contrasting with her pale skin. Her clothing hung loosely, rising and falling gently with her breath… like a captivating flower in full bloom, being plucked at its peak.

Any man would find it hard to resist.

Helan Ci saw him suddenly stop his movements and looked a bit dazed.

After all, a second ago she was being kissed passionately.

In a daze, she gasped for breath, locking eyes with Lu Wuyou again. Seeing his eyes tormented by desire, Helan Ci’s mind slowly caught up with what they had just done.

Suddenly, she felt incredibly, extremely embarrassed.

Helan Ci’s brain went blank for a while.

She had just been passionately intimate with Lu Wuyou, even wanting to…

But now that things have come to this point, with the arrow already on the bowstring, there is no turning back. Moreover, although the effects of the poison on both of them have slightly eased, it has not been completely neutralized, and they cannot even leave this hall.

The only plan left is probably…

Lu Wuyou still had both hands pressed against her sides, their faces less than an inch apart, their breaths audible. His voice was very low, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, and there was an indescribable sense of suppressed frustration and irritability in his tone: “…… What should we do?”

Helan Ci was somewhat speechless and, at that moment, replied irritably, “It’s already like this, and you’re still asking me what to do!”

Lu Wuyou closed his eyes for a moment, fell silent for a while, and finally said in despair, “…Then let’s both suffer.”

“……”

This kind of close, face-to-face silence is particularly awkward.

Helan Ci, with a confused mind, understood his meaning and, panting, quickly asked him, “Are you engaged? Will you take concubines in the future? Do you have someone you like? How many people are there in your family? Will your family agree? Can you marry me openly and honorably?”

Lu Wuyou, with a heart as dead as ashes, said, “Not engaged. Won’t. No. Four people. Will. Can—I will marry you.”

The last words were spoken with particular weight.

Helan Ci softly tugged at the collar of his scarlet top scholar robe, her tone equally mournful, her dazed eyes reflecting a sense of facing death with apathy: “Then go ahead.”

Lu Wuyou said sadly, “You take off your skirt first.”

Helan Ci: “……?”

She also didn’t expect that Lu Wuyou had been struggling with her waist for so long just to get her skirt off—however, this skirt was indeed designed to be exceptionally complicated and difficult to put on and take off. If it weren’t for that square-faced lady-in-waiting leading two palace maids to help her put it on, she might not have been able to wear it by herself.

Recalling the way the Second Prince looked at her earlier, Helan Ci could almost be certain that the Second Prince made her wear this dress so that after she was caught with the medicine, he could personally make her take it off.

Just thinking about it made Helan Ci feel nauseous.

Compared to the Second Prince, the current choice seemed bearable.

Helan Ci, a bit impatient, turned her back and tried to unfasten a row of hidden buttons on the inside of her dress. They were all tightly closed, like a suffocating and tight restraint. She felt hot and restless, unable to concentrate, and after a long time, she still couldn’t manage it.

Lu Wuyou, standing by, lowered his eyes in patience, unable to bear it any longer, said, “……Are you still going to wear this dress?”

Helan Ci paused for a moment and shook her head vigorously.

Lu Wuyou simply reached out, applying slight pressure with his fingers. In an instant, the crimson dress was torn into shreds, leaving only the snow-white satin undergarment underneath. Helan Ci was startled for a moment, but Lu Wuyou peeled her out of the torn fabric as if removing an eggshell. The bindings on her body were removed, and the tightness around her chest was relieved.

But immediately after, Lu Wuyou came over.

“——Turn around, and I’ll give you another one, even better.”

He finished speaking in a hoarse voice, his eyes dark and heavy, as if he were about to go mad from torment. Unable to bear it any longer, he kissed Helan Ci’s lips once more.