Dog Thing, What Dog-Nonsense Are You Barking
“Nonsense.” The ruler of Chu Kingdom said, sliding his eyes sideways, drew back his foot, and lifted the brow on the left side. “Everyone in the world knows that your mother empress lacked virtue in life and unable to bear the shame of living, so he burned himself to death in the Cold Palace.”
Using the strength of his elbows, Chu Yuan moved his body little by little. Once he had shifted himself into the corner of the wall, he braced himself on one arm and sat upright against the scorched wall behind him. Cold sweat soaked through his clothes at the back. His gaze was shattered like feathers, yet cold as an autumn night.
“What, now that it has come to this, you still do not dare admit that it was you who killed Mother Empress?”
“If it is not something this Ruler has done, then naturally I will not admit it.”
Chu Yuan’s eyes, like glazed glass beads, gave the slightest blink, and a bleak sorrow swept through them. He felt deeply that it had not been worth it for Mother Empress.
To have fallen in love with such a person, how tragic and unfortunate.
“I have one question.”
“Since you are about to die, this Ruler will indulge you. Ask, what is it?”
Chu Yuan lowered his eyes. The long lashes cast shadows downward, and a fine sheen of sweat lay at either side of his nose. “Back then, when Mother Empress rescued you and brought you ashore, had you already guessed that he was one of the Jiang clan?”
The ruler of Chu Kingdom smiled in self-satisfaction. “That is right, going out to sea from the start in order to search for traces of the Jiang clan. Heaven truly opened its eyes and did not fail this Ruler’s painstaking efforts.”
So from the very beginning, you approached him on purpose, did you not?” His voice grew lighter yet sank ever lower.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom glanced at him. Likely because he felt Chu Yuan could no longer threaten him, he spoke frankly. “And what if I did? This Ruler is the Son of Heaven. This Ruler was willing to lower himself and coax him along, grant him the position of Empress, and even make you Crown Prince. Those were already favors beyond measure.”
So it truly was as he had thought.
Even though his heart had already held a faint answer, after hearing it with his own ears, there was only a vast emptiness with nowhere to rest.
From beginning to end, he had only ever used Mother Empress, used his kindness, used his love, used his identity. For this man, there had only ever been schemes, never love.
Chu Yuan closed his eyes briefly and swallowed down the bitterness filling his chest. For such a person, Mother Empress had destroyed the whole of his life.
“For ten years he stood at your side, only for you to prove wolf-hearted and dog-lunged.” Once a person as mild as water turned sharp, the blades hidden in his words truly struck fatal blows.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom was deceitful and treacherous. He had committed every evil, yet in the end still wished to win a good name before all under Heaven.
Hearing Chu Yuan’s contemptuous and insolent words, he grew angry enough for the fire to rise. Clenching his fist, he said, “Do you think Lu Ronghuai truly loves you?”
Chu Yuan opened his eyes. His beautiful watery eyes were like mist over distant mountains, moisture gathered at the roots of his lashes, and when they moved it was like morning dew at the tip of a lotus leaf, all flowing grace.
Seeing that he had fallen silent, the ruler of Chu Kingdom thought he had struck the heart of his inner fear, and he laughed until the flesh on his face shook.
“If he truly loved you, then why has he still not come to save you?”
“Men understand men best. He merely coveted a passing novelty. Men of your Jiang clan are born monsters. Now that you have been captured, perhaps he is hoping to borrow this Ruler’s hand to rid himself of you, thereby severing all future troubles at the root.”
Chu Yuan was not moved in the slightest by those provoking words. He only said one sentence in a low voice.
“He is not you.”
The ruler of Chu Kingdom gave a disdainful snort. “Deceiving yourself.”
He did not believe for a moment that Lu Ronghuai, that great calamity star, could truly love anyone. It was all illusion, nothing more.
“This Ruler asks you this, is Lu Ronghuai inside the city or not?”
When the ruler of Chu Kingdom asked those words, he already knew that Chu Yuan would not tell him the truth. For that reason, his tone was loose and careless, not as though he truly minded the answer.
“He is.”
An answer he had not anticipated. The ruler of Chu Kingdom paused, and his eyes gradually narrowed into a slit. “Are you not afraid that this Ruler will send troops against him?”
Chu Yuan smiled.
“You are still not worthy of making him act in person.”
The ruler of Chu Kingdom was so enraged that he laughed instead. “This is Chu Kingdom. You slipped into the city in secret. It is impossible that there are enough troops at your side. Speak all the bold words you will, it is useless. Since you dared come, this Ruler will see that none of you leave alive.”
“Is that so?” Chu Yuan pressed his lips together slightly, and blood spread across them, thick and vivid.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom stepped closer to him and deliberately held the candle before his face, watching with triumphant malice as Chu Yuan’s jaw clenched and his proud frame shuddered with cold.
“Enough words. It is time for this Ruler to send you on your way.”
Now that he had confirmed Lu Ronghuai was also within the city, he had no patience left to waste words here. He wished only to settle matters here quickly, so he could free his hands and deal with Lu Ronghuai in earnest.
With Zhang’er guarding the front hall, any movement would be brought to him at once. He was not especially worried.
“Rest easy, the road to the Yellow Springs will not be lonely. That young master of the Nie family will soon come keep you company. Perhaps he is already dead now.”
Chu Yuan’s jaw tightened. His gaze was calm, yet a rare coldness and killing intent flickered between his brows. The flame of the red candle leapt in silence, and every single leap tightened its hold on Chu Yuan’s heart, bringing a suffocating pain.
Yet he knew that at this moment he had to conquer the fear inside his own heart. He and His Highness had already agreed, the hatred of many years and the vengeance for Mother Empress, he would complete with his own hands.
With that thought, the hands bound behind him suddenly lifted. Before the shocked and bewildered eyes of the ruler of Chu Kingdom, he braced himself against the wall and slowly stood upright.
His figure was as upright as bamboo, his bearing like hidden orchids. Setting aside the pallor of his face and the cold sweat soaking through his black hair, he seemed not to have been affected at all. Indeed, his bearing even pressed the ruler of Chu Kingdom down by one head.
“How could you?!” Staring at the hands he had freed, the ruler of Chu Kingdom backed away two steps as if he had seen a ghost.
Chu Yuan touched the marks left by the ropes at his wrists, then lifted his eyes and looked toward the ruler of Chu Kingdom with a half-smile that was not a smile.
That expression was one the former Chu Crown Prince would never have shown. It looked more like... more like the look Prince Li habitually wore.
At that thought, the ruler of Chu Kingdom suffered another wave of fright and retreated several more steps in a row.
Chu Yuan looked at him in silence. After a long while, he parted his lips, and in his voice there was still a faint tremor left over from the earlier agony. “The grievances between us, it is time they were brought to a complete end.”
“What are you trying to do?” The ruler of Chu Kingdom’s blustering show of strength could not frighten him. It only laid bare the panic in his own heart.
The man he had always remembered as soft-tempered and easy to control now seemed like a drawn blade, impossible to ignore. Those clear, gentle eyes no longer hid the killing intent and hatred they held toward him.
“What you did to Mother Empress back then, today I will have you repay a hundredfold.” His cool, clear voice was as pleasant as ever, yet it chilled one to the bone.
Within the gloomy and withered hall, the candle flame suddenly hissed and popped. In that instant, the ruler of Chu Kingdom shouted at the top of his voice.
“Men, come quickly, all of you!”
In the next moment, the palace doors were pushed open, and heavy footsteps entered.
The tightened string in the ruler of Chu Kingdom’s heart eased a little. He quickly turned his head to look and was about to order the guards to bind Chu Yuan again. Yet just as the words reached his lips, the words stuck in his throat and the warmth left his body from head to toe all at once.
“Prince... Prince Li!” He made two dry choking sounds. He seemed not yet to understand why Lu Ronghuai was here, yet the fear his body held toward Prince Li had already become an instinct. Even the strength in the hand holding the candle was on the verge of vanishing.
Since Prince Li was here, then... then those outside... The ruler of Chu Kingdom’s hand trembled more and more violently, and his teeth knocked together in unwilling despair.
From the moment Lu Ronghuai entered the hall, his gaze had fixed upon Chu Yuan’s face.
He saw the cool, jade-clear face he loved lose all its color. A wet trail slid past the corner of his eye, and whether it was tear or sweat could not be told. He stood there only by force of will, like a tender young shoot battered by a violent storm, fragile yet stubbornly upright, a man of pine and bamboo, bending a hundred times yet never turning back.
The treasure he had so carefully cherished had, in the span of a single shichen, suffered a torment like great annihilation.
Fire rose inside Lu Ronghuai in an instant. The way he looked at the ruler of Chu Kingdom was as though he wished to flay him alive.
He endured it and did not make a move. Instead, he showed Chu Yuan a look of encouragement. “Ah-Yuan, do not be afraid. I am here.”
He would remain here with him. He would be his strongest support.
As he spoke, he drew a magnificent dagger from within his sleeve and tossed it toward Chu Yuan’s arms.
Chu Yuan caught the dagger. Breathing in small measured breaths, he worked to settle the discomfort in his body. At last, the convulsing ache within his lungs and bowels, under the force of his own will, slowly, little by little, returned to calm.
In the end, he let out one slow breath and lifted his foot.
Step by step, Chu Yuan drew near the ruler of Chu Kingdom. The distant stillness of his eyes began to stir with rising waves, as though beneath the calm there hid a suppressed and surging tide that meant to devour a man without mercy.
“Do not come near!” The ruler of Chu Kingdom had completely lost his composure. With a vicious face, he waved the candle about wildly, trying to force Chu Yuan back by that means.
The next moment, something struck his wrist. With a cry of pain, the ruler of Chu Kingdom’s hand flew open, and the red candle and candlestick both fell to the ground.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom was horrified. Caring nothing for the severe pain in his wrist, he spread his five fingers and lunged toward the candle rolling across the floor.
Regrettably, he was one step too late.
“Ah!” The ruler of Chu Kingdom gave a painful howl. A dagger was planted straight through the center of his palm. His bloated body twisted and writhed upon the floor, and because his hand was pinned there fast, his eyes rolled white from the pain.
Lu Ronghuai walked over.
He took Chu Yuan’s hand and drew out a cloth, carefully and earnestly wiping away the blood from between his fingers. The long, shapely hand in his palm was trembling. He lifted that beautiful hand and pressed a light kiss to it.
When he lowered his head to speak, his brows and eyes were gentle as water. “This Prince’s Ah-Yuan is truly brave. Your strike was fast and true. Once we go back, I will make several useful hidden weapons for you to play with.”
Chu Yuan did not answer. Leaning against Lu Ronghuai’s broad chest, the tiredness on his face was difficult to hide. His eyes remained lowered upon the man rolling on the ground.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom’s palm had been pierced through. Bursts of white flashed before his eyes, and he very nearly thought he was about to die.
“Bastard creature, this Ruler is... is your father emperor, and yet you dare... you dare!” Halfway through his words, the ruler of Chu Kingdom let out another shriek.
“Dog thing, what dog-nonsense are you barking.”
Lu Ronghuai’s shoe pressed down upon the dagger. With the slightest force, the dagger sank straight into the brick beneath. The sound of the blade cutting through tendon and bone came through clearly. Even then Lu Ronghuai was not satisfied. He shifted his foot over it and ground down hard.
At once, the hall rang with a sharp shriek like a pig being slaughtered.
“Your Highness.” Chu Yuan raised his hand and rested it upon Lu Ronghuai’s forearm. His face was still pale, yet his breathing was gradually turning steady. “Leave him to me. Do not dirty your shoes.”
Lu Ronghuai lowered his head and looked into his clear eyes, his tone gentle. “You truly do not want me to help?”
Though everything had been planned in advance for Chu Yuan to take his revenge personally, now that the moment had truly come, Lu Ronghuai’s heart ached again, and he did not wish to let him suffer so much.
Chu Yuan shook his head. A dark gleam flickered when his lashes brushed together. “Your Highness taught me that the way to overcome fear is to face it directly. I do not want to spend my whole life living beneath the shadow of the candle. So... I want to do this myself.”
Lu Ronghuai took the initiative to move nearer. Their foreheads touched, and the tips of their noses brushed together. At their side, the ruler of Chu Kingdom was still howling in heart-rending pain, yet it was as though the two of them had already shut that sound outside. Not the slightest part of it disturbed them.
Lu Ronghuai rubbed affectionately at his cheek and said in a breath-soft voice, “Good. Everything will be as you wish. Nie Siran is in the side hall next door interrogating Liu Mingyue. I will go and look in on it. Xian Shuang is standing guard at the door. If anything happens, Ah-Yuan must remember to call for him.”
Since he wished to settle the enmity between himself and the ruler of Chu Kingdom alone, then Lu Ronghuai was willing to grant it to him.
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
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