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..."
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