“A Little Thirsty, Ah-Yuan, Feed Me Some Water.”
The two spoke together all along the way, and before they knew it, the icy lake came into view.
Rippling light shimmered among the layered woods, flashing with crystalline traces upon the water. Chu Yuan’s gaze was drawn over. As he looked at that still and limpid lake, a look of wonder slid through his eyes.
“How beautiful,” he murmured.
Lu Ronghuai rode forward at an unhurried pace, and the two of them came to the lakeside.
“Come, get down.” Lu Ronghuai leapt off the horse first and opened his arms toward him. “I will catch you.”
Today, for the hunt, they had ridden sturdy, long-limbed Northern Cong horse. Chu Yuan glanced at the distance to the ground, then lifted his eyes toward the man. Lu Ronghuai tilted his head back slightly and gave him a steady, dependable smile.
Those outstretched arms gave one a strong sense of security. Chu Yuan did not hesitate for long. Stepping on the stirrup, he jumped down.
His robes flared in midair. Like a white butterfly, he fell lightly into Lu Ronghuai’s embrace.
Lu Ronghuai caught him firmly, and after gathering him into his arms, he deliberately spun once in place.
The hem of Chu Yuan’s robe flew outward. Between the blue water and blue sky, it looked like a snow lotus just opening.
“Your Highness.” Chu Yuan looped his arms more tightly around Lu Ronghuai’s neck and let out a small, startled sound.
Lu Ronghuai laughed. He took a bundle down from the horse’s back, pulled a thick rug from inside, spread it on the ground, and then set Chu Yuan down upon it.
“Sit and rest for a while.”
Chu Yuan patted the space beside him. “Your Highness should sit as well.”
This rug was not very large. It could only hold one person at rest. Had Chu Yuan not been so slender, even this little bit of empty space would not have remained.
Lu Ronghuai lowered his head and looked at that palm-sized bit of room. Then he rose and went to fetch pastries and a waterskin.
When he returned, he handed the things to Chu Yuan, then squeezed in beside him, lifted Chu Yuan sideways into his arms, and settled him across his own lap, the two of them pressed closely together.
Lu Ronghuai leaned his head over. “I am a little thirsty. Ah-Yuan, feed me some water.”
Unable to refuse him, Chu Yuan undid the stopper and lifted the waterskin to his lips.
Lu Ronghuai truly was thirsty. Only after drinking nearly half of it was his thirst eased.
“I happened upon this lake by chance when I came here at fourteen. Once summer arrives, the lake water will be cool and refreshing. I will bring you here to bathe.”
Chu Yuan: “...”
His ears flushed red, and pink spread quickly over his pale jade-white face. “This subject does not wish to.”
Lu Ronghuai gave a mischievous smile. “Still so shy? Is there any part of you I have not seen? Last time... mmph...”
Chu Yuan bit his lower lip, half-rose on his knees, and reached up with a red face to clap a hand over his mouth.
Lu Ronghuai lounged there lazily and even licked his palm.
Chu Yuan let out a small cry and snatched his hand back at once. His shining eyes grew damp, like a startled fawn.
“Enough, I...” Lu Ronghuai laughed and caught hold of the Chu Yuan who was trying to flee. He had just begun to coax him when a faint sound reached his ear. Wrapping an arm around Chu Yuan’s waist, he bent close to his ear and said quietly, “Do not move. Someone is coming.”
Chu Yuan asked, “Is Xian Feng not in the trees?”
Lu Ronghuai replied, “I just sent him farther away. He could not be allowed to disturb the two of us.”
Chu Yuan turned his face aside and did not wish to speak with him.
The footsteps drew nearer. Before long, two figures emerged from the deep woods. Chu Yuan turned his head, and his eyes met the newcomers’ gaze.
“The Prince Consort and Prince Li are truly good at finding places,” Chu Zhang said as he came over, bow slung across his back and horse in hand.
Chu Yuan’s gaze rested upon his face for only an instant before moving away coldly to the person standing at his side.
Ning Yuqiang walked out in silence. Looking at the two people nestled closely together by the lakeshore, he wore a gloomy expression.
Lu Ronghuai’s sharp eyes swept over them. “If the two of you wish to hunt, then go elsewhere. Do not come here to disturb the peace.”
As if he had heard nothing at all, Chu Zhang instead extended an invitation to Lu Ronghuai.
“This Crown Prince sees that the others have all formed teams to help one another. Why do we not join forces as well?”
Lu Ronghuai looked Chu Zhang up and down from head to toe. “This Prince is to take you hunting? There is more meat on you than on any prey.”
Chu Zhang’s face darkened at once.
He glanced at Chu Yuan, then cast out his bait. “If Prince Li is willing to partner with this Crown Prince, this Crown Prince can tell Prince Li one piece of news.”
Chu Zhang had calculated everything clearly in his heart. Across the entire hunting ground, there was no second man whose martial skill surpassed Lu Ronghuai’s. The others all feared Lu Ronghuai and did not dare invite him, yet riches and honor are to be sought amid danger. As long as he could persuade Prince Li, today’s victory would certainly belong to him.
Lu Ronghuai feigned surprise. “Oh?”
Confident of success, Chu Zhang said, “May Prince Li step aside for a word.”
Lu Ronghuai looked toward Chu Yuan and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. “This Prince will go see what this fool wants. Ah-Yuan, rest here for a while. If anything happens, call for me. Xian Feng is nearby as well.”
Chu Yuan nodded.
Lu Ronghuai rose, his hands clasped behind his back, and led Chu Zhang off to one side.
Ning Yuqiang loosened the horse’s reins and walked toward Chu Yuan.
From a distance Lu Ronghuai cast a glance in this direction, his gaze calm, yet faintly storing up rising tides beneath it.
Ning Yuqiang usually liked to wear bright-colored clothing. Today, however, he wore black, a rarity. Chu Yuan looked at him twice more.
“These clothes were bought last spring, when Cousin took me to the shop himself.” Ning Yuqiang came to stand before Chu Yuan. The boy’s frame had already begun to take on the outline of a young man, and there was a touch more steadiness about him as well.
Chu Yuan said coolly, “Does Young LordNing have business with me?”
Ning Yuqiang paid no mind to what Chu Yuan had asked and said in a voice full of infatuation, “Cousin bought one exactly the same for himself. What I love most is seeing Cousin in black. It makes him look sharp and unrestrained, full of force.”
Chu Yuan drew his brows together and said nothing.
As for Ning Yuqiang’s feelings toward Lu Ronghuai, anyone with sight could see them.
Ning Yuqiang looked toward the horse nearby. It was the horse Lu Ronghuai had ridden just now.
A look of nostalgia appeared in his eyes. “Before you married Cousin, he used to take me riding in the countryside all the time. He bought me tasty food, accompanied me through the streets to buy books. At that time, the bond between the two of us was very good.”
Chu Yuan frowned. “What exactly is it that Young Lord Ning wishes to say?”
“Yet now, because of your appearance, Cousin has begun to loathe me.” As Ning Yuqiang spoke to this point, tears had already risen into his eyes.
“By what right did you steal away Cousin’s affection for me?”
Chu Yuan said, “He does not love you.”
Those words pierced Ning Yuqiang’s heart. Gritting his teeth, he retorted, “Nonsense! Cousin is the one in this world who has treated me best. Were it not for you seducing him, he never would have become like this.”
“He would not have come to care for you even without me.” Chu Yuan raised his eyes to meet his directly.
“Impossible.”
“Once Your Highness returns, you may ask him in person.”
Chu Yuan did not wish to say more to him. A person caged by their own illusions would only ever see what they wished to see. He would never care whether it was truly the truth or not.
Ning Yuqiang said, “Cousin was forced to marry you against his will. He could never truly care for you.”
Chu Yuan with perfect calm in return, “And if he truly does?”
With complete certainty, Ning Yuqiang replied, “Today I am here to tell you that I understand him. He would never fall in love with a person of an enemy kingdom. Everything now is nothing more than acting to suit the occasion. You are no match for Cousin. At times, I even find you rather pitiful.”
Chu Yuan said, “Then why do we not make a wager?”
“What wager?”
“We wager on whether his feelings are real or merely a show. Do you dare?” Chu Yuan picked up a stone from the ground, roughly the size of his palm.
“A very small test. You pick up a stone now. After I count to three, each of us will throw the stone in our hand toward the other’s lower leg. Then we shall see whether Your Highness cares for you or for me. What say you?”
Ning Yuqiang stared at Chu Yuan’s calm and unhurried face and nearly bit his teeth to pieces.
“You are that certain Cousin will surely save you?”
Chu Yuan replied, “I do not possess complete certainty either. Are you afraid?”
Ning Yuqiang quickly bent and picked up a stone. “Begin.”
He fixed his eyes on Chu Yuan’s face, white as a jade platter, and thought viciously to himself that in a moment he would hurl it at that face with all his strength and see how Chu Yuan would continue seducing Cousin then.
Chu Yuan glanced at him. His eyes were clear and untroubled, untouched by anything murky. Lowering his eyes, he began counting softly. “One.”
Ning Yuqiang clenched the stone tight.
“Two.”
Ning Yuqiang raised his arm.
“Three.”
Without the slightest hesitation, he threw the stone, sending it straight at Chu Yuan.
Almost the same instant the stone left his hand, a tree branch carrying inner force shot over at great speed. Just as the stone was about to strike Chu Yuan, the branch knocked it aside.
With a thud, the stone rolled down beside Chu Yuan.
“Ah-Yuan!” Lu Ronghuai came striding over in great strides.
Chu Yuan raised his eyes unhurriedly. He still held that very same stone in his hand. From beginning to end, he had never raised his hand nor had he ever intended to use it to harm Ning Yuqiang.
The moment Ning Yuqiang saw Lu Ronghuai rushing over, his face turned white.
With utter hatred in his voice, he cried, “You tricked me?!”
Chu Yuan let out a soft sigh and threw away the stone in his hand. “You say that you understand Your Highness so well. Then do you not know that Your Highness hates those who think themselves clever?”
Lu Ronghuai came over, kicked the stone at Chu Yuan’s side away, and then stood before him, glaring fiercely at Ning Yuqiang with furrowed brows.
“Ning Yuqiang, this Prince’s patience has its limits. Are you seeking death?”
Ning Yuqiang burst into tears. “Cousin, it was he who deceived me. He made this wager with me, and then he deliberately trapped me.”
Lu Ronghuai’s face was unyielding, his expression stern. “This Prince is neither blind nor deaf. I heard your conversation clearly. What exactly did Ah-Yuan say? And where was it that you threw the stone? Ning Yuqiang, your heart is crooked and your nature venomous as snakes and scorpions.”
Ning Yuqiang staggered back half a step and refused to admit it. “I did not. Cousin, I did not. It was he who schemed to harm me.”
Chu Yuan stepped out from behind Lu Ronghuai, his gaze calm and composed. “Your Highness had already given you a chance. Young Lord Ning, right and wrong, good and evil, all lie within the human heart. In that wager just now, what you lost to was your own heart.”
Ning Yuqiang’s eyes reddened from the provocation. “You deliberately did not throw the stone because you wanted Cousin to see my vicious side. It is you who are evil to the extreme.”
Chu Yuan replied, “Had you followed the rules, I would have thrown the stone. Moreover, even if Your Highness had not saved me, I would still have saved myself. It is simply that from the very beginning, you harbored another purpose and concealed ill intent. How then could Your Highness possibly tolerate you?”
“Ah-Yuan, there is no need to waste so many words on him.” Lu Ronghuai gave a short whistle, and Xian Feng leapt down from the trees.
“Tie him to a tree and gag his mouth,” he ordered coldly.
Xian Feng paused for a brief instant, then swiftly carried out the command.
It was not until he had been bound fast to the trunk that Ning Yuqiang truly reacted. He cried out in collapse, “Cousin, what are you doing?!”
Lu Ronghuai walked over atop the dry branches and rotting leaves, his expression hard as cold iron.
“This Prince warned you before. The Marquis of Xuanning’s household once did help this Prince. That this Prince has not killed you is already the utmost benevolence and righteousness. Yet from this day forward, if you dare offend again, this Prince will show no mercy.”
“How did you treat Ah-Yuan when he met danger back then? Today this Prince will let you have a proper taste of the same thing.”
He took the cloth offered to him and directly stuffed it into Ning Yuqiang’s mouth.
Then Lu Ronghuai turned his head, his eyes cold and dark, and fixed them on Chu Zhang.
“And this one too. Tie him up for this Prince as well.”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Lu Dog: Very good, one shall be air-dried, one shall be deep-fried.
Yuanyuan: ... I am not hungry.
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