When Rolando didn't respond for a few more minutes, Harper stood up with the intention of leaving. There was nothing in there
that belonged to her, so she didn't have to pack any luggage. She just needed to leave the palace with her maid.
"The Heavenly Book... Don't you want it anymore?" Rolando softly asked while Harper was walking past him.
When those two words were uttered, Harper was stopped in her tracks. She quickly turned around to face Rolando. Looking at
him, she didn't utter a single word.
Rolando looked Harper into her eyes, without the least intention of avoiding her stare. "Harper, don't you want the Heavenly
Book?" he repeated.
Harper took a deep breath, turned around once again, and continued to walk away from him.
"Once you step out of the Harmony Palace today, I will destroy the Heavenly Book in my hands," Rolando stated in an extremely
gentle voice while looking at Harper's receding figure.
Frowning a little, Harper asked, "Are you threatening me?"
"I'm not threatening you, Harper. The Heavenly Book is utterly useless to me, but it has a different meaning to you, right?"
Rolando was well-aware that Harper was the only living descendant of the Qin Clan. Because of this, the Heavenly Book was
more useful to her than to anyone else.
Harper turned her head back and looked at the calm expression on Rolando's face. "You won't destroy it. If the Heavenly Book is
useless to you, you wouldn't have stayed in the Bright Dynasty for five years in the first place."
With his unique smile plastered on his face, Rolando said, "You can give it a try, Harper. Wait and see if I will stay true to my
words. But we both know that once I destroy the Heavenly Book, you wouldn't find it anywhere else in the entire world."
The expression on Harper's face froze. She looked at Rolando with her eyes full of complicated emotions. She didn't know why
her relationship with Rolando had changed dramatically overnight. Ironically, Rolando had been restraining himself until
yesterday, but what had happened became the prompt that he didn't restrain himself anymore.
"Is it really necessary for you to do that to me?" Harper asked. She then firmly closed her eyes and when she opened them
again, her eyes looked extremely clear.
Rolando knew exactly what Harper meant, but he would never be willing to let go of her. If what had happened yesterday did not
happen, he could continue to hide his true feelings as he had always done. But after being subjected to yesterday's events, he
had once again clearly seen his own affections towards Harper. He realized that he had not been simply using her. Instead, he
had unconsciously fallen in love with her already, and he could not stop loving her. Such being the case, he would not give up.
He stretched out his arm to touch Harper's face with the back of his hand. He did it so cautiously as if he was cherishing a
treasure. "I hadn't wanted to destroy the Heavenly Book until yesterday. But today, once you step out of the palace, I will certainly
get rid of it. I will keep my word. Last night, you stayed up all night... Kaaahhkkk..."
Rolando suddenly covered his mouth with his hand while coughing terribly. Before long, blood flowed down between his fingers,
which extremely startled Harper. She watched as Rolando coughed so violently that he even bent over. Subconsciously, she held
and supported him. Then she felt his pulse, only to find out that the poison in his body had not been detoxified yet. What was
happening now was a result of how Rolando was trying his best to suppress the poison with all of his internal force.
"Do you want to die?" she asked.
Rolando awkwardly wiped the blood from his mouth. "I'm fine; just need to have some rest..."
"You're saying that you're fine? Look at you! Do you think you're made of iron?" Harper furiously exclaimed. Then, she helped
Rolando lie down on the bed while he still struggled to get up.
"I'm fine, really, I..."
"If you don't want me to knock you out, you'd better listen to me!" Harper frantically exclaimed.
Upon hearing that, Rolando fell silent and stopped struggling. He just let Harper help him lie down. She then untied his
waistband, took off his clothes, and gave a quick acupuncture treatment on his skin in order to steady the surging internal force
inside his body.
From beginning to end, Rolando just quietly gazed at Harper with his tender eyes. He found that Harper cared about his health
condition very much. He wondered then if he had a place in her heart. Although he had lost to Matthew because he came to her
life a little later than Matthew did, he would not admit defeat so easily.
"Patrick," Harper called the little beast after she had stabilized the surging internal force inside Rolando's body.
At that moment, Patrick was on the table. With its arms crossed over its chest, it looked out of the door, as if it was still mad at
Harper for pressing its head into the bathtub. It didn't seem to be willing to talk to her.
"It seems like you don't want to have the pills that I've just developed. I was going to let you try some. Well, now that you don't
want to take them, then I guess I'll just have to throw them away..."
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!" When it heard that there were pills for it, Patrick flung itself into Harper's arms. It excessively swept
around with its little tail and looked at Harper in an obsequious manner. If it could speak like a human, it must be a very
unscrupulous smooth-tongued talker.
While looking at how Harper and the beast interacted, Rolando thought that he was watching a very beautiful scene. He then
realized that what Sean had said was true. As long as Harper was by his side, he would feel very happy. Even if he did nothing
but look at her quietly like at that moment, he still felt calm and content. He couldn't let go of her. Even though he knew that his
persistence would disgust her, there was no way that he could just let her go.
While Rolando was absentmindedly staring at Harper, lost in his thoughts, Patrick suddenly bit the back of his hand. When
Rolando was about to draw back his hand out of pain, Patrick loosened its teeth. It looked at Harper in the same obsequious
manner as earlier, and Harper gave it a porcelain bottle. Then, Patrick squatted down and played with the bottle, no longer caring
about the two people. Harper bandaged Rolando's wound carefully, as if nothing had happened.