On the bed, Jia Wujie’s face was ashen, his expression wracked with pain, the voice was clearly coming from his mouth.
Could Jia Wujie be having a nightmare? Haha, who would have thought that even someone as arrogant and domineering as Jia Wujie would be troubled by nightmares in the dead of night, Xu Baizhou thought gleefully.
Jia Wujie thrashed and struggled on the bed for a long while, then sat up. Clutching his head, he cried out in agony, “Someone! Come quickly! Dang Ji!”
There was movement outside the door. The guard captain Dang Ji seemed to have been waiting outside all along, and at the sound he burst through the door. In a few leaps he reached the bedside, catching Jia Wujie just as he was about to tumble off.
Like a drowning man seizing a piece of driftwood, Jia Wujie grabbed Dang Ji in a rather undignified manner. Seemingly forcing himself to endure something, he said through gritted teeth, “This Sovereign’s head hurts.”
“Endure it a moment, Your Excellency. I’ll go get the medicine at once.” With that, Dang Ji headed for the door. At the doorway, he saw Xu Baizhou sitting drowsy-eyed on the mat by the entrance and instructed, “Watch him. I’ll be right back.” Then he hurried away.
Watch him? I’d rather you take him away with you! Xu Baizhou thought.
He looked toward Jia Wujie. The intense pain seemed to be tormenting him terribly; calling Dang Ji in just now seemed to have used up all of Jia Wujie’s strength. Now he lay on the bed utterly drained, and Xu Baizhou could only hear waves of heavy, labored breathing.
Watching Jia Wujie’s back rise and fall slightly with each breath, Xu Baizhou felt deeply grateful that he had chosen the dog kennel. So he’d been right Jia Wujie really did get up in the middle of the night to go mad.
Still, Xu Baizhou was curious about what exactly was wrong with Jia Wujie. He remembered that at the birthday banquet earlier, Jia Wujie had suddenly collapsed unconscious, had even stopped breathing for a time, and only came back after a long rescue effort. According to what those people had said, Jia Wujie suffered from the Hysteria Affliction, well, this was certainly a distinctive way for it to flare up.
Musing on this, Xu Baizhou walked over curiously.
Jia Wujie looked extremely weak at the moment; surely he posed no danger.
But the instant Xu Baizhou drew near, Jia Wujie’s head, buried in his arms, suddenly lifted and met Xu Baizhou’s inquiring gaze directly.
Xu Baizhou froze in shock. Jia Wujie’s eyes were blood red!
In that moment of shock, Jia Wujie reached out, seized Xu Baizhou, and dragged him forcefully onto the bed.
Xu Baizhou lay on his back, both wrists gripped in one of Jia Wujie’s hands, crossed and pinned above his head.
Looking up at Jia Wujie’s scarlet eyes, Xu Baizhou panicked.
Why had he come over here anyway? What did it matter to him if Jia Wujie died? Wasn’t Dang Ji off fetching the medicine? His own little life was already hanging by a thread, and now this. All he could do now was hope Dang Ji would hurry back and save his sorry hide.
“Your Excellency, I… mmph!”
Xu Baizhou had barely begun to speak when he felt a surge of heat suddenly pour in from his wrists where Jia Wujie gripped them.
The sensation was much like when Jia Wujie had searched for the Inner Core in his lower abdomen before only this time, Jia Wujie’s internal energy seemed completely out of control, like a beast breaking free of its shackles, a massive torrent of internal energy crashing into Xu Baizhou’s body all at once.
Xu Baizhou felt the place on his wrist where Jia Wujie gripped it burning unusually hot, and the surge of internal energy flooding in made his head spin with dizziness. He began to lose feeling in his own body, only Jia Wujie’s hand, continuously pouring out internal energy, was frighteningly hot.
This sensation terrified Xu Baizhou. He could feel waves of heat flowing through his veins, circulating through his entire body, every blood vessel starting to burn and swell. Xu Baizhou wasn’t sure whether his body could hold out if this continued. He felt as if he would float away the next second, or simply explode. He began to struggle, but under Jia Wujie’s restraint it was clearly useless.
“Jia Wujie, you… mm!”
Xu Baizhou was just about to shout for Jia Wujie to let him go when, the next second, Jia Wujie’s face suddenly drew close.
As if exerting great effort to endure something, a thin layer of sweat covered Jia Wujie’s forehead. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his eyes shaped so beautifully they were nearly perfect were unfathomably deep, as if concealing an abyss no one knew of. Jia Wujie’s lips parted slightly, exhaling a warm breath.
The overwhelming visual impact left Xu Baizhou’s mind blank for an instant. The mole on the tip of Jia Wujie’s nose was right before Xu Baizhou’s eyes, dazzling him into a daze.
And the next moment, Jia Wujie closed his eyes and leaned forward, and those perfectly shaped lips pressed against Xu Baizhou’s.
“No, wait, mmph!”
Xu Baizhou panicked. This time he was truly panicked. Even when he’d thought he was done for just moments ago, he hadn’t been this terrified.
He had imagined Jia Wujie would kill him, tear him limb from limb, or drain his blood dry, or else just as Chi Xian Cang Gui had said, lock him in a dungeon and feed him demonic potions for eighty-one days straight before eating him.
He had imagined countless ways he might die, but never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that Jia Wujie would actually kiss him?
But Xu Baizhou had no time to think further. The internal energy that had circulated through his body finally found an outlet, surging out from where their lips met and returning to Jia Wujie’s body.
The immense sense of withdrawal left Xu Baizhou collapsing, limp with exhaustion, and as the internal energy left his body, his consciousness slowly blurred. At the very last, out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to see Dang Ji return, carrying something in his hands, saying: “Your Eminence, the medicine is here!”
And then, Xu Baizhou passed out completely.
When he woke again, it was already broad daylight. Xu Baizhou felt aching all over, his limbs weak, and he was short of breath with a tightness in his chest… something wasn’t right.
When Xu Baizhou lowered his head, he saw an arm lying across his chest.
No wonder he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
With great effort, he moved Jia Wujie’s arm off his body, and a deep sense of helplessness washed over him.
Thinking back on last night’s events, Jia Wujie had probably treated him as some kind of vessel again, casually picked him up and used him.
Whatever. He’d survived another day, Xu Baizhou thought with a bitter smile.
Hunger came over him, and Xu Baizhou suddenly realized he really did need to eat. He looked at Jia Wujie and, seeing no sign that he was waking, prepared to go find some food himself. But when he turned his head, he saw a bowl of soup sitting at the bedside.
It was a bowl of mushroom soup, gone cold.
Even though it had gone cold, in Xu Baizhou’s currently empty stomach’s eyes, it was still a delicious meal. He picked up the bowl of soup and was about to drink it when a hand suddenly shot out from behind him.
Jia Wujie forcefully knocked the bowl out of his hands, then grabbed Xu Baizhou’s wrist and pinned it against the wall.
The ceramic bowl, along with the cold mushroom soup, tumbled to the ground and shattered to pieces. Jia Wujie’s face was dark and ferocious, his eyes rimmed red as he glared at Xu Baizhou.
“Are you trying to die?!”
Jia Wujie said through gritted teeth.
Seeing Jia Wujie’s attitude, as if drinking that bowl of mushroom soup had been some enormous wrongdoing, Xu Baizhou suddenly felt a wave of grievance.
Even a dog only wags its tail at its master after eating its fill, let alone a human being.
Xu Baizhou hadn’t had a full meal in days. He was really hungry, he just wanted to eat something.
Perhaps seeing Xu Baizhou biting his lip, those well-shaped pink lips slightly red and swollen, Jia Wujie’s expression loosened a little, and he let go.
Xu Baizhou rubbed his wrist, where a ring of red marks had clearly appeared.
“If you’re hungry, why didn’t you say so? Why drink that stuff?” With that, Jia Wujie called the maids outside the door and ordered them to prepare some food.
Soon, several plates of proper dishes and pastries were brought in and set before Xu Baizhou.
But looking at the perfectly good food in front of him, Xu Baizhou suddenly found himself unable to take a bite.
“Eat. Weren’t you hungry?” Jia Wujie said, then suddenly seemed to think of something and sneered. “Or are you afraid I’ll poison you?” Jia Wujie lowered his voice. “If I wanted you dead, there are countless ways. Now, eat.”
Xu Baizhou picked up his chopsticks and put a piece of pastry in his mouth.
It wasn’t that he feared Jia Wujie would poison him, it was just that the previous few times, Xu Baizhou had vomited violently because of Jia Wujie, and it seemed some conditioned reflex had formed. Now, looking at Jia Wujie’s face, he really had no appetite.
He even felt a little nauseous.
“Um… Your Excellency, could you, um, look away for a bit? Looking at you makes me want to throw up…” Xu Baizhou said.
“Looking at me makes you want to vomit?” Jia Wujie frowned and asked loudly in retort.
Xu Baizhou waved his hands repeatedly. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. It’s just, ah, how do I put this…”
Xu Baizhou thought for a moment about how to explain it to Jia Wujie, then said, “In my… hometown, someone once did an experiment. This person raised a dog. Every time he fed the dog meat, the dog would drool, and every time before giving the dog meat, he would always ring a bell. Over time, even when he didn’t feed the dog meat, as soon as the dog heard the bell, it would start drooling. That’s a conditioned reflex… Do you understand, Your Excellency?”
“I understand.” Jia Wujie seemed to find Xu Baizhou’s explanation amusing, and he laughed. “So you’re a dog I keep.”
Xu Baizhou rolled his eyes inwardly. Forget it, Jia Wujie’s brain simply didn’t work like a normal person’s. There was no explaining anything to him. Better to just fill his stomach.
Xu Baizhou tried hard to ignore the gaze coming from beside him, forcing down his discomfort as he cleared every dish on the table. Just as Jia Wujie was about to call for someone to remove the trays, someone suddenly walked straight into the room.
Jia Wujie disliked people entering his room uninvited, and he was about to lash out but the moment he saw who it was, his anger instantly vanished.
“Mother,” Jia Wujie called out respectfully.