I put out his fire

Chapter 20 Rhodes who is cold on the outside and hot on the inside

Nero wrapped the woolen blanket tightly, and a silver feather emerged from the blanket like a limp stamen.

Ever since he fell into the patio that day, he had symptoms of chills.

The doctor examined Nero's tongue with a probe and carefully observed his blue lips, and soon diagnosed him with malaria.

Malaria was a nightmare to talk about, and it was tantamount to a nightmare for the Romans.Countless people were killed by malaria, a mosquito- and blood-borne disease.

Nero's grip on the wool blanket gradually loosened, and his youthful face was as stagnant as if it was covered with a layer of stuffy oil.His fingertips trembled slightly, and a shadow escaped under his slender temples, making his face solemn as if being brushed by an evil spirit.

Nero stood up stiffly, took dry steps one by one, and moved out of the bedroom like plaster cast.

Rhodes squatted on the tree and waited for him.His keen eyes slashed like a knife and axe, and he caught Nero's abnormality at once.

The blanket fell loose and fell under Nero's feet, and he stepped on it straight.His ethereal skeleton moves like a skeleton under his toga.

Rhodes jumped off the tree, grabbed Nero's arm, and asked cautiously, "What did the doctor say?"

Nero turned his face away, and the blush slowly seeped out of his cheeks like blood spots.He withdrew his arm unnaturally, and said softly, "It's nothing..."

He didn't take a few steps when his feet got caught in the woolen blanket.He staggered like a show.

Rhodes hugged Nero's shoulders.He crouched close to him like a thick black cloud, and his slightly curly black hair tickled his neck.Nero smelled the bitter smell of the leaves staining his clothes.

His sharp eyes moved, and his hands clamped Nero's shoulders.He asked seriously, "What's the matter?"

Nero was a little flustered, hanging his head in bewilderment.He was almost like a trapped beast, and his words were powerless: "It's really all right..."

Rhodes is not forgiving.He put his lips close to Nero's red earlobes, and his breath flowed into his earholes, exhaling a hot breath like a monster moaning: "Don't be brave."

"Oh..." Nero covered his face helplessly, feeling a little suffocated.His blushing face was revealed in the long locks of hair.

Rhodes tightened the woolen blanket for him and rubbed his fluffy head.His expression was very dignified, and his black pupils were stained with a dark color, like a sword shadow quickly slashed by the light of a sword.

"What disease?" He stared fixedly at Nero.Worry filled his breath like flexible water plants.

Nero stood stiffly, peeking at his handsome features through his fingers.The warmth wrapped around his heart like a slender vine, and it met with the despair of knowing his illness, like two lips tightly stuck together.

He suddenly wrapped Rhode's neck and rubbed himself into his arms.His back trembled violently, clutching Rhodes' clothes tightly like a drowning man.

Negativity filled his mind like a high tide, and his voice was slightly crying: "I'm infected with malaria...I'm going to die...Rod...I'm going to die soon..."

"Malaria?" Rhodes asked urgently.

Mosquitoes and flies, the courtyard, and Nero rolling down from the banyan tree immediately jumped out of his eyes.

Nero's quivering curls rubbed against his ear.

Rhodes remained calm, and his leather-wrapped hand moved up his trembling back like an iron stone, pressing down on the back of his sweating head like a soul.

"I'll take care of you." He said seriously, "You won't die."

There was a faint vibration in his chest when he spoke.This kind of vibration came along the flesh and bones, almost breaking Nero's fragile heart.

……

News of Nero's illness spread like wildfire.

The life of the candidate for the throne was hanging by a thread. The news was like water dripping into boiling oil, and it was undoubtedly a sensation in Rome.

Messalina is sitting in front of the bronze mirror, chewing on a fennel leaf.This fragrant leaf improves her breath.

With the blade between her tongue, she hummed an out-of-key song between her teeth.

Her father Julius folded his arms, his broad shoulders as hard as if they had been hit by a heavy hammer.His stomach, full of wine and fish, protruded like a cone.

"I came to the palace to visit you, not to see you paint on your face!" He sighed wearily, "Apart from borrowing money from me, you never take the initiative to visit my father!"

"Oh! Father, don't say such depressing words!" Messalina frowned and cast a reproachful glance at him from the bronze mirror.

She mixed honey and flour together, dripped in some rose juice, and applied it carefully to her face.

This edible face mask was popular among the ladies of Rome.They believe that these things can get rid of wrinkles and freckles on the skin.

Her shrewd eyes rolled, and she said in a childlike coquettish tone: "Don't you feel sorry for the money you lent me?"

"How is it possible?!" Julius shook his head, "You are my only daughter, and all my property and land must be left to you and your son!"

Messalina evoked a triumphant smile, and a small piece of the flour on her face fell off.

Julius looked at his daughter and sighed helplessly.His deep nasolabial folds were embedded into his cheeks like a gully, so the tone of his speech seemed to come from the deep ditch: "What did you borrow money for... I know..."

Messalina was stunned.A drop of honey mixed with flour fell comically into her eye.She blinked rapidly, startled.

Julius was a little worried, and his beard trembled in his tone, "If Nero ate poisonous fish sauce, this incident will definitely cause a stir in the city, and the old guys in the court will investigate it to the bottom!"

"It can't be found out!" Messalina didn't want to show weakness, "Those poisonous powders are specially made, even the most experienced doctors can't see it."

"No." Julius shook his head, "If that lively little guy died suddenly, as Quentin's mother, you are naturally the biggest suspect..."

"Your worries are useless. Nero is about to die of malaria, and those poisonous powders are useless." Messalina's words were vicious, and there was a cold light like an evil spirit in her eyes.

"I don't care about Nero's life or death." The batter on her face shook, forming a grotesque ghostly appearance: "I'm glad that Agrippina is about to lose her second backer in her life..."

"You are too narrow-minded!" Julius reprimanded her.

Messalina peeled off the mask.She looked aggrieved, some batter stuck to her fluffy red hair.

"But I really can't bear it!" she said sharply, "I must surpass her!"

She seemed to have been triggered by some mechanism, and a bitterness from her childhood bound her like a rope.She writhed strangely like a snake.

"My mother always used her to belittle me..." Her face was painful, and her blood red lips were like two red centipedes twisted together.

She spat out the fennel leaves in her mouth, and said intermittently: "Could it be... am I a shadow growing after her..."

With a sullen face, Julius walked behind his daughter like a mud flow, and patted her trembling shoulder.

Messalina simply lay down on the table, buried her messy face into her arms, and her suppressed crying seemed to emerge from a dark gutter.

"...I am willing to marry even a disabled old man in order to compare to her..." She cried even harder.

Julius stroked her red hair, "Your mother's original intention was only to inspire you..."

"But she's as violent as an enraged bull!" cried Messalina. "She beats me all the time! I hate her!"

Julius brought her a handkerchief to wipe the batter from her hairline.

Sigh overflowed from his thick lips and beard: "She is not virtuous, but she also got the retribution of a short life, didn't she?"

Messalina sniffed her nose and made a chi-chi sound.The slave who was grinding eye shadow powder for her cast a sad look at her master.

……

When Agrippina received the message and hurried to see Nero, her figure swept into the house like a dragon wagging its tail.

"Go away! You bastards whose lives are cheaper than maggots!" She cursed angrily, her complexion looking like a piece of dried parchment.She didn't put on makeup, and her plain eyebrows and eyes showed crow's feet like small thorns.

The slaves fell silent in horror, and hurriedly lined up on both sides, like piles of building blocks at her mercy.

Agrippina rushed into the bedroom, pushed the slave away like a heavy rolling stone, and went to her son's bed.

Even her robes were baggy, as if a wound had been ripped from the depths of her soul, and the ripped became bigger and bigger, until it finally reached her clothes.

Nero on the hospital bed glanced at her, then closed it quickly.

The malaria made him chill all the time, and his soft forehead hair was wet with cold sweat.His lips were as white as frost, and his eyelashes were soaked with sweat and shone like cold blades.

Agrippina frowned, surprise spreading over her face like a dark cloud.There was something frantic about her empty eyes.

She shook her head slowly, grasped Nero's cold hands, and muttered repeatedly nervously: "This is not true..."

Nero raised his eyes with force, and his mother's panicked face jumped into the field of vision like a spider.His raised eyebrows cast a bronze-like shadow, and ferocity jumped up to his eyebrows like a young snake.

Still shaking, he said in a mocking tone, "What a pity... Now I can't even make that speech..."

Agrippina has hideous features.She touched Nero's forehead, and her hands were covered with cold sweat.

"You must not die..." She panicked, "We Domitius must not end here..."

She unconsciously grabbed her son's collar, her pale fingers getting harder.The corners of her eyes were as red as bloodshot eyes, and tears stuck there like salt crystals.Her consciousness was dissociated, and her whole body fell into an absolute belief.

Nero was pinched by her neck, and it became difficult to breathe.His cyanotic lips trembled, and a cold feeling came from his back.

He coughed twice unbearably.

Agrippina woke up like a dream.She quickly let go of her hand and touched his red neck, trying to make sure he was injured.

Nero opened her hand with all his strength and shouted at her: "Get out!"

Agrippina was startled, and moved to the side of the bed in a daze, like a solemn marble statue.

"You have to get through it!" She said heavily, her voice as tired as if she was carrying a thousand miles, "Your father's only wish is to prosper the name Domitius..."

A slender silk like a spider's web flashed in her eyes, and it was fleeting.

"I promised him that I must push his family to the top..." she said in a daze.

"But I'm also human..." Nero's face was dark, "I'm not a tool to fulfill your wishes and promises..."

He was tormented by the cold so weak that his limbs seemed to be filled with stagnant mercury.

"But we are your parents!" Agripina eagerly emphasized.

Nero covered his eyes with the back of his hand and remained motionless, as if frozen.His silver hair was limp and dull, like silverware with its outer layer peeled off.

He was silent for a long time, and asked himself sadly: "Why should I be your child..."

Words squeezed out of his parched throat and disappeared like mist.

Agrippina stood up in silence.Her face was bluish-white, as if pieces of mold had started to grow from under the skin, and every part of her body was destined to be corroded.

"Survive, Nero." She tucked in the quilt for her son, "I will pray to the gods for you."

Nero snorted slightly.

Agrippina did not stop.Like a torrent, she moved away from the house with great enthusiasm.

Nero is upset.He scattered the slaves around and pulled the blanket over his sweating head.

He closed his eyes tightly in the dark quilt, his consciousness was fuzzy, as if he had sunk into the bottom of a cold lake.

He didn't sleep for long when the woolen blanket covering his face was suddenly lifted off.The coolness pierced his pores like needles, and he shivered.

A hand calloused by the sword was pressed against his forehead covered in cold sweat, in an involuntary gesture.

Nero's heart clenched.He opened his eyes a little, and those deep black pupils got into between his eyelashes like insects.

"I bought medicine." Rhodes said.His sword-like eyebrows are mixed with sweat, which is the sweat from his hot walk.

Nero pursed his lips tightly.A sourness surged up from his lungs and hit his throat.The sourness was so strong that it almost came out of his nostrils and eyes.A layer of turbulent water mist floated in front of his eyes.

He turned over with difficulty, like a waking moth struggling in its shell, swallowed the sourness in his throat and said, "I don't want to eat."

Rhodes threw the herbs aside.He took off his leather gloves irritably, and glanced coldly at Nero's trembling shoulders.

"If you don't take the medicine, you will die." His fixed expression was hidden in the messy black hair, and his red lips were like flowers growing in the darkness.

Nero's stubborn lips moved, and the acid made his jaw twitch.He buried his head in the pillow and rubbed it in a low mood.

"Leave me alone..." His voice came muffled.

The next moment Rhodes approached him.

With a flash of his tough figure, he got into Nero's bed, as fast as a fish swimming.

His strong arms were tightly wrapped around Nero's waist like steel hoops, and his warm palms were covered with cold sweat when he touched them casually.

Nero was stunned for a while as if he was stupid, his whole body was as stiff as cement.He was so close that he could feel Rhodes' chest, which clings to his back like a curse from heaven.A rush of blood rushed to his head.

Rhodes wiped off the sweat from his hands and said quietly, "You are shaking."

Nero panicked and tried his best to break free.But all struggles were imprisoned by Rhodes, like a prey in trouble.

"Let go of me! Rhodes!" he said in panic.

Rhode suppressed all his restlessness.He rested his chin on Nero's shoulder, their hair tangled together.

He approached his ear from behind, lowered his voice, and the words swam into Nero's ears like mayflies: "Why are you avoiding me?"

The sourness is almost like a sharp thorn coming out of the nasal cavity.The still immature Adam's apple trembled, and Nero sniffed, his swollen eyelids were already red and swollen, there was no doubt that there were tears that had been suppressed for a long time.

Rhodes stroked his hair comfortingly, and expressed a softened tone, as if steel had melted.

"Didn't you promise me to take care of you?" he said.

Nero couldn't bear it.He turned around abruptly, buried his face in Rhodes' black clothes, and his voice was full of strong nasal voice.

"I might infect you..." he said in a low voice.

"Never mind it!" Rhodes laughed, still in that unfettered, casual attitude.

Nero closed his eyes tightly.At this moment, he has a sense of belonging like water dripping into the ocean.