“What Happy Occasion?”
Early in the morning, Chu Yuan and Nie Siran strolled out of the residence at an unhurried pace.
The two had not disguised their appearances. They first went to a vendor by the bridge and ate two bowls of wontons, then wandered through a bookshop and a porcelain shop for quite some time. Only when the sun had climbed high did they arrive at a wineshop, where they ordered clear wine and a few small dishes and sat by the window to enjoy the scenery.
“Are we staying out tonight?” Nie Siran toyed with the tea set ornament on the table, then shifted his gaze from outside the window to Chu Yuan across from him.
Chu Yuan poured himself a cup of wine. Hearing this, he smiled. “Mm. The ruler of Chu Kingdom’s people have followed us all morning and still do not dare make a move. Since they are so useless, we can only take the initiative a little and give them an opportunity.”
Nie Siran laughed. “The two of us are delivering ourselves into the net. The ruler of Chu Kingdom should be delighted.”
Once the wine and dishes were set out, Chu Yuan handed the bamboo chopsticks to him. “Ah-Die has already identified the gu parasite within Jiang Xiao’s body. It was made specifically for the unusual constitution by which men of the Jiang clan can carry a child. The gu parasite can survive only inside the bodies of Jiang clansmen. He has paid such a great cost and watched the Jiang clan for so many years. This account must be settled properly.”
“That is well enough, though the residence is no longer safe either. Does His Highness have other arrangements?” Nie Siran lowered his voice and asked.
Chu Yuan replied, “His Highness has already discussed it with Clan Leader. They have chosen a new place to settle, and today they will set out.”
While talking idly, the two finished the food and wine. Afterward, they went to a teahouse and listened to storytelling for the entire afternoon. When rosy clouds filled the evening sky, the two of them, chatting and laughing, walked into an inn.
The men responsible for watching them immediately sent the news back. Very soon, agile shadow guards filled every hidden corner around the inn.
At the third quarter of the xu hour, black shadows flashed across the silent street. Beneath the moonlight, silver-white swords gave off a cold gleam.
More than twenty men surged toward one place like ghosts and spirits, surrounding the inn layer upon layer in an instant.
Five men in black flipped up onto the roof of the second floor. A gap was quietly opened between the tiles, and a thin bamboo tube was slid inside. One of the black-clad men blew into it, then held his breath and observed for a while. Once he confirmed that the people in the room had fallen fast asleep, all five men broke in through the window at once and subdued them without any effort at all.
“Commander, the people have been captured.”
The leader of the black-clad men warily swept his gaze across the surroundings, then lifted a hand. “Withdraw!”
The black-clad men carried off the two unconscious captives and swiftly vanished into the darkness.
At the same time, the shadow guards hidden elsewhere also split into two groups. One returned to report, while the remaining six shadow guards followed the black-clad men ahead of them, keeping the finest possible safe distance.
Beneath the night sky, the imperial palace resembled a coiled dragon, silent and majestic.
A burst of hurried footsteps rang out through the deep and silent palace corridors.
Immediately after, the mottled and rotting palace doors were pushed open, letting out a hoarse, unpleasant groan. The wind shrieked sharply. In the pitch-dark night, this long-sealed palace hall appeared all the more broken and desolate, and it also gave off a smell of rot and decay.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom stood at the doorway with his nose covered. He seized the guard commander beside him, who had his head lowered, and as he spoke, the flesh of his cheeks trembled on its own. “The one inside truly is that bastard Chu Yuan?”
The guard lowered his head even further. “Replying to Your Majesty, yes. Together with him, we also seized Nie Chouwen’s eldest grandson.”
“All of you stand guard outside the door. Without this Ruler’s order, none may come in.” The ruler of Chu Kingdom threw off his grip and turned to take the lantern from the eunuch’s hand.
Liu Mingyue, clad in a black robe, quickly stepped forward and took the lantern first. When he lifted his head, the smile on his gaunt face looked harmless. “Let this one accompany Your Majesty inside. Nie Siran is slippery to the extreme and impossible to sound out. If Your Majesty goes in alone, this one is truly worried for Your Majesty’s safety.”
The ruler of Chu Kingdom narrowed his eyes and measured him. No one knew how long passed before a smile with deep meaning twisted across his face. “Very well. In consideration of your sincere devotion, this Ruler will allow you in.”
Liu Mingyue said gratefully, “Many thanks, Your Majesty.”
Liu Mingyue stepped forward one pace and personally held the lantern to light the way for him. He even thoughtfully brushed away the dust with his sleeve, then bent his waist and respectfully invited him into the hall.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom was burning with urgency. He paid no mind to the cobwebs hanging all around, which caught in his hair and clothes, and hurried straight toward the inner chamber.
Liu Mingyue followed close behind. Only one weak candle burned inside the hall, and with a single glance the ruler of Chu Kingdom saw Chu Yuan, lying asleep upon the bed.
He strode over and stared at that face again and again. The flesh on his face twitched in an unnatural way, and something seemed to burn inside his eyes.
Nie Siran woke first. The moment he opened his eyes, Liu Mingyue stood before him.
“It has been a long time, Young Master Nie.” Liu Mingyue looked down from above at Nie Siran, who was bound to a round-backed chair. The black robe covered most of his face. Under the shifting candlelight, his expression was impossible to read.
Nie Siran’s gaze remained calm. He did not answer at once. Instead, he looked around the room, then his brows drew together slightly as he asked in a level voice, “Where is Ah-Yuan?”
Liu Mingyue turned and sat down across from him. One leg crossed over the other. There was not the slightest trace of the bearing of an old aristocratic family son in his actions.
“He is in the palace hall of the Deposed Empress. The ruler of Chu Kingdom ordered me to take you out, lest you spoil his happy occasion.”
“What happy occasion?”
Liu Mingyue paused slightly, then lifted his eyes and gave a cold laugh. “Young Master Nie had best concern himself more with his own affairs. Before death comes, is there anything Young Master Nie still wishes to say?”
Nie Siran feigned surprise. “You mean to kill me?”
“You colluded with Prince Li and destroyed my entire Liu clan. Today, your blood will be used to honor the dead spirits of the Liu clan.”
Nie Siran tugged once at the ropes around his wrists. They had been tied too tightly, and the skin at his wrists had already broken. He said, “Since we have known one another, Nie offers Young Master Liu one sentence of advice. If you run now, there is likely still time to leave the city.”
“Run?” Liu Mingyue received this as though it were a tremendous joke. Grinding his teeth, he stepped closer and closer. When he bent down, the candlelight cast itself across his face, leaving it bleak as a hungry ghost. “Prince Li must surely have already laid out a net that covers heaven and earth throughout Chu Kingdom. Once I leave the imperial palace, there will be only a dead road.”
“Even if you hide within the imperial palace, you may not be safe.”
Liu Mingyue had no interest in hearing it.
Nie Siran spoke again. “The Liu family’s calamity was brought upon itself. You cry injustice for the Liu clan, but have you ever thought of how many wrongs the Liu clan committed through the years, or how many people they killed?”
“The Liu family were high officials of illustrious lineage. Countless eyes in the shadows watched the Liu family’s every move. For the sake of the clan and the family, what was wrong with making a few sacrifices?”
The innocents who had died because of the Liu clan, those whose homes had been ruined and whose wives and children had been torn apart by the Liu clan, were in his mouth no more than lives of ants, not worth mentioning.
“To become a powerful and eminent clan, who has not walked across mountains of corpses and seas of blood? Yes, the Nie family is lofty and righteous, too good to stoop to our methods. Yet how noble are you really? You still bent your knees to greet Prince Li and attended him like flies pursuing stench.”
Leaning back, he smiled with ease. “Young Master Liu is truly capable. Through one desperate flight after another, you colluded in turn with the Six Kingdoms and stirred Lu Kingdom and the Six Kingdoms into unrest. Now that the fate of the Six Kingdoms is all but exhausted, is this ending satisfactory to Young Master Liu?”
Liu Mingyue fell silent. These words had struck directly at his sorest wound. He longed to fight Lu Ronghuai until one of them died, so how could he willingly see him unify the mountains and rivers and stand honored for ten thousand generations?
Clenching his fist, he walked straight behind the screen at one side. When he came out again, he carried a wooden bucket in his hand.
Nie Siran’s nose twitched slightly. He looked toward that wooden bucket. “Tung oil?”
Liu Mingyue picked up a scoop. Hearing this, he laughed in a bright rush of satisfaction. “Yes. I prepared this especially for Young Master Nie. In a little while, once the oil has been poured, I will lightly cut open Young Master’s wrists and throat. The moment the tongue of flame leaps up with a hiss, and blood gushing forth, that sight will certainly be beautiful.”
“...You are quite perverse.”
Liu Mingyue’s face twisted for an instant. He hurled the scoop down with force, and it struck at Nie Siran’s feet. “What right do you have to judge me! If one day the Nie family is wiped out, once you too become a stray dog without a home, then you will know what I feel now.”
He was already at the edge of anger. Nie Siran lowered his head and looked at the scoop lying broken in pieces by his feet, then said indifferently, “The Nie family would never take human lives for private gain nor would we stoop to such conduct.”
“Grand words, but now that you sail upon Prince Li’s pirate ship, carried wherever he wills, you still dare style yourselves as detached and above contention. A jest fit to mock the heavens.”
“If the imperial house of Lu Kingdom had known earlier that you were so two-faced and double-hearted, then even feeding a dog would have been better than feeding the lot of you.”
“At least dogs are loyal. They do not betray their masters.”
Liu Mingyue questioned and mocked him in rapid, sharp succession, his pitch rising and his expression growing increasingly frenzied.
Nie Siran paid no attention to these goading words. There was no point spending breath on someone this warped. He sat amid the danger without the faintest trace of fear, let his eyes sweep once more to the shattered object at his feet and then, unexpectedly, he relaxed his brow and smiled.
“Young Master Liu has been long away from Lu Kingdom. Would you like to meet an old acquaintance?”
The candle flame tore a slit through the dim inner hall. One half leapt with strange light, like claws spread in fury. One half stood in darkness, stern and silent.
Chu Yuan lay fallen upon the ground, his hands bound fast. He was woken by a smell so dreadful it made the heart quake. His eyes still closed, he coughed twice, his elegant brows drawing together slightly. Cold sweat seeped out between them, and his pale, thin eyelids slowly opened.
“You are awake.”
A rough voice sounded by his ear, cold and hard. It was a voice Chu Yuan knew better than any other, a bone-clinging maggot that had entangled him for twenty years. It was disgust and hatred already carved deep into the bottom of his heart.
The moment his vision cleared, a faint fragrance followed the sound and pierced straight into his nose.
All color instantly drained from Chu Yuan’s face until it was white as paper.
His eyes flew wide, his pupils trembling as he stared at the red candle before him. His body began to shake beyond his control. He could not breathe. Pain burst its banks and smashed his heart into pieces.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom lifted a cruel smile. “Do you still remember this candle?”
“What a beautiful color,” the ruler of Chu Kingdom said, his gaze full of obsession as his hand stroked over that candle. “How could this Ruler possibly bear to give such a fine thing to that old fool of Lu Kingdom? Naturally, this Ruler kept it as a treasure and gave it to no one.”
“Look. After so many years, it is still this red...”
“I am going to kill you!”
A cry of anguish tore from the secret chamber. Chu Yuan stared at the ruler of Chu Kingdom with blood-red eyes, and in those clear, magnificent eyes flooded a killing intent so deep it bit to the bone.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom burst into a loud laugh.
“Kill me? Can you kill this Ruler now? You do not know your own limits.” Holding the candlestick in hand, he admired with deliberate provocation the way Chu Yuan trembled and struggled like someone at death’s door.
He bared his teeth. “You could not kill this Ruler back then. It is no different now.”
As he spoke, the candlestick in his hand tilted slightly, and burning, thick red wax dripped down upon Chu Yuan’s flawless white face. One drop, then another, winding soundlessly like tears of blood.
Chu Yuan stared fixedly at that bloated and hideous face. Cold sweat poured from him. The smell of the candle came flooding over him from all sides. The pain upon his face tore at his nerves. The dancing flame was like a ghost hand that had seized his soul. Every inch, every place, was shrieking with boundless hatred and pain.
“Look at you now,” the ruler of Chu Kingdom said. “Weak and pale, sweat pouring down like rain. It is only one candle, and already it can break you with ease. You are of no real use.”
“Chu Haochuan.” Teeth trembling, he called the ruler of Chu Kingdom by his personal name. Between his weak breaths, sweat from his brow slipped into his eyes, stinging his nerves. “You beast!”
Smack.
Chu Yuan took a heavy slap and his face was knocked to the side.
Very quickly, specks of blood seeped from the corner of his lips, lending a touch of corrupted splendor to that face pale as snow.
“Bastard seed, this Ruler should have killed you back then. Then there would not be so many troubles today.”
He said it through clenched teeth, laying all the disasters Chu Kingdom suffered today upon Chu Yuan’s head. Only after yet another torrent of curses did he finally realize that the man on the ground remained bent to one side and unmoving. It was impossible to tell whether he had been listening at all.
With rough force, he twisted that face back around. The moment he did, he froze.
There was no rage or blazing wrath in that face, nor was there dispirited grief. It was simply too still, so still that it made one’s blood run cold.
Most of all, those dark, deep eyes. They were black without bottom. When they looked upon you in silence, it felt as though they might draw your very soul in with them.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom gave a violent shudder and flung Chu Yuan away, retreating two steps with the candlestick clutched in hand.
His heart hammered violently. He did not know why, yet in that moment of looking into Chu Yuan’s eyes, he had actually felt endless terror from them.
Those eyes that looked at him as though looking at something already dead. Ice cold. Cold enough to make the top of his skull shudder.
Afterward, he came back to himself. He was the ruler of an entire kingdom. Why should he fear a soft-boned bastard? If word of it got out, he would become a laughingstock.
He cursed viciously, “A man in body, yet you willingly married another man without the slightest shame. You still strut about the world, as if afraid others will not know that you use beauty to serve a man, bringing great disgrace upon Chu Kingdom’s face.”
“Use beauty to serve a man, without the slightest shame?” Chu Yuan’s lips moved slowly. He looked as though he had just been dragged up from water, cold sweat pouring ceaselessly from him. Slowly, he raised his head, his black, hollow eyes staring straight over.
The flesh on the ruler of Chu Kingdom’s face trembled as he bit back in reply. “This Ruler sent you away in marriage alliance. If you had possessed any integrity, you could have chosen death. Instead, you went to take pleasure beneath another man. In the end, you are the shameless one.”
“Now, depending upon Prince Li’s favor, you have made him raise his blade against the Chu Kingdom that gave you life and raised you. Bastard seed, retribution will find you in the end.”
He never realized that the moment this stream of foul words left his mouth, Chu Yuan suddenly began to smile. It was not the shallow smile of clear eyes like a flowing stream that he had worn in days past, but a cold smile hidden deep with burning fire, shadowy as a ghost.
“If there truly is karma and retribution in this world, then it ought to be that you descend eighteen levels into hell, be carved by ten thousand blades, boiled alive in oil, your eyes gouged out and your heart cut from you. Day after day without end, year after year exactly so.”
Those words struck straight into the ruler of Chu Kingdom’s mind. In a sudden surge, he rushed forward several steps. One leg, thick and huge as an elephant’s, lifted up, and in the next instant it was about to come down, hard enough to crush Chu Yuan’s head beneath it.
Yet Chu Yuan only raised his head lightly. Within those eyes lay a sorrow deep beyond deep. He knew neither fear nor anger. At the corner of his eyes was a curve of mockery. When he spoke again, that voice, clear as striking ice and ringing jade, passed into the ear.
“The enmity of killing Mother Empress, I will not live under the same sky as you.”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Lu Dog: Come and quickly collect your number for the queue to die.
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