Dim, yellowish candlelight flickered within the dark and damp dungeon.
Xie Anci looked at the current Emperor, Li Jinchen, who was tied to a wooden frame before him, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Li Jinchen’s lips were pressed thin. Bound in heavy chains, his face was flushed. He kept his head lowered, eyes closed in endurance, refusing to look at Xie Anci.
“Your Majesty, aren’t you uncomfortable? Shall I help you?” Seeing the cold sweat beading on Li Jinchen’s forehead and his refusal to meet his gaze, Xie Anci felt a sharp pang in his heart.
He knew Li Jinchen loathed him, yet he insisted on binding the man to his side.
Xie Anci had originally been nothing more than the legitimate son of a prince from a different clan. He had clawed his way up to the position of Prince Regent for the sole purpose of holding Li Jinchen in the palm of his hand.
He loved the feeling of absolute control, over people and events alike.
He was well aware that Li Jinchen had a “white moonlight” a first love who happened to be the legitimate son of the Imperial Tutor. But what of it?
Had that man not already been forced into the Nanfeng Brothel by his hand?
Xie Anci smiled, a look that was as cruel as it was bitter.
To fall in love with someone who hated him. only he could be capable of such a vicious cycle.
“Get out! Don’t touch me! You disgust me,” Li Jinchen spat, looking at Xie Anci with pure abhorrence.
The man before him was roughly twenty years old and strikingly handsome. A flush of pink crept across his pale skin, a clear sign that he had been drugged.
Indeed, the drug had been administered by Xie Anci.
He had waited too long; he could wait no longer.
He had waited for Li Jinchen for over a decade. For the Emperor’s sake, he had committed every imaginable atrocity, yet he could not earn a single glance of affection in return.
Xie Anci was done waiting. Today, he would take Li Jinchen and make him his completely.
Hearing Li Jinchen’s words, Xie Anci did not grow angry. Instead, he reached out to stroke the Emperor’s flushed cheek.
The man’s skin was burning; Xie Anci’s ice-cold fingertips felt as though they might be scorched.
“There is no antidote for this drug. You can either sleep with me, or you can die. Choose one,” Xie Anci said. His expression was tender, but his words were chilling.
They were the only two people in the dungeon. Xie Anci had bound Li Jinchen here specifically to prevent any attempt at escape.
“You disgusting, using any means necessary to get what you want Xie Anci, you truly make me sick.” The drug seemed to be taking full effect; Li Jinchen’s speech was becoming labored, punctuated by fragmented moans.
“Thank you for the compliment,” Xie Anci smiled, his beautiful face blooming like a night-blooming cereus.
Xie Anci rarely smiled; he only showed his true smile when he was beside Li Jinchen.
“You, ngh… get out. I refuse to touch you. Let me go, I want to go back.” Li Jinchen’s expression was one of strained endurance. He was suffering through an agonizing ordeal, fighting to maintain his clarity and his hatred upon seeing Xie Anci.
At those words, Xie Anci’s expression turned cold, as if covered in a layer of frost.
“Go? Where would you go? Who do you want to find?” Xie Anci thought of the “white moonlight” in Li Jinchen’s heart, the person Li Jinchen kept hidden away, too precious to be defiled.
Xie Anci lowered his gaze. Anger, heartache, and helplessness swirled within him. until they finally settled into a bleak resignation.
“Ah… let me go! Xie Anci, let me go! Let me leave, before I disgust you even further!” Li Jinchen’s expression was one of unbearable longing, his long legs rubbing together instinctively.
Xie Anci knew that Li Jinchen had reached his limit, yet the words he spoke remained heartbreaking.
With a sigh, Xie Anci stepped forward and began to unlock the chains binding Li Jinchen.
The moment the chains were unlocked, Li Jinchen collapsed to the floor.
The once-tall, imposing man now lay sprawled on the ground like an injured kitten, pitiful beyond words.
Xie Anci looked down at him, his eyes devoid of sorrow or joy.
“I’ve let you go. So go, then.” Xie Anci smiled as he removed his black outer robe, embroidered with golden-threaded gardenias that traced graceful arcs in the candlelight.
Xie Anci had also drugged him with a muscle-softening powder, leaving Li Jinchen not only burning with desire but utterly weak.
“Mm… no, go away.” Li Jinchen was barely clinging to a thread of reason. His white inner robe was stained with dust, his ink-black hair spilling across his cheeks, but it did nothing to diminish his beauty.
If anything, it gave him a fragile, broken air.
Xie Anci watched his Adam’s apple bob.
Slender, pale fingers traced down that swan-like neck before slipping beneath his collar.
Xie Anci peeled off his own inner robe, baring himself completely before Li Jinchen.
Li Jinchen lifted his eyes, took one glance, and immediately looked away, his gaze full of disgust.
“You’re truly disgusting, Xie Anci.”
Xie Anci froze slightly, glancing down at his own body.
Fair and slender, pale to the point of almost glowing, with a thin layer of muscle over his frame. It couldn’t compare to Li Jinchen’s, but it should still be decent, shouldn’t it?
Xie Anci pinched his own arm. Was he getting too old?
Was Li Jinchen repulsed by his body?
Xie Anci was several years older than Li Jinchen, and at this moment, doubt crept into his heart.
Should he have been maintaining his body like the capital’s nobles did?
“Mm…” The sound from Li Jinchen pulled Xie Anci back to his senses.
He came to, crouched down, and brushed the hair from Li Jinchen’s face.
The handsome man’s face was flushed, sheened with sweat, his peach-blossom eyes looking as though he’d been crying, heartbreakingly lovely.
Xie Anci touched Li Jinchen’s left ear, where a small blue gemstone hung.
That piercing had been made for his white moonlight. Xie Anci knew this.
Li Jinchen had pierced his left ear; his white moonlight, Zhou Yunqing, had pierced his right.
What a perfect pair they made.
A pity they’d been torn apart by his own hand.
Xie Anci smiled cruelly and pinched Li Jinchen’s earlobe hard.
“Mm… let go!” Li Jinchen groaned in pain, struggling to raise a hand to grab Xie Anci.
But before he could even touch Xie Anci’s arm, it fell limply back down.
“Let’s get you to the bed first.” With that, Xie Anci hoisted the man over his shoulder and dragged Li Jinchen to the bed nearby.
The bed had been placed there on Xie Anci’s orders for this very day.
He tossed Li Jinchen onto it. The world spun, and when Li Jinchen opened his eyes again, he gazed at Xie Anci in a daze.
Xie Anci knew this meant Li Jinchen had temporarily lost consciousness.
After feeding him the antidote to the muscle-softening powder, Xie Anci straddled him.
“It hurts, doesn’t it? Come, then.” Xie Anci leaned down and murmured in Li Jinchen’s ear, his voice almost bewitching.
At those words, Li Jinchen’s eyes flew wide open impulse overwhelming reason.
One large hand gripped Xie Anci’s waist tightly, while the other undid his belt.
The searing pain nearly knocked the breath out of Xie Anci. A man under the influence of such a drug could never be gentle.
Xie Anci had known his first time would hurt, he just hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.
The pain blacked out his vision, and he nearly fainted.
Beads of cold sweat slid down Xie Anci’s beautiful face, his fair skin trembling in the air.
“Ah…” Xie Anci let out a long groan, the pain making him break out in a cold sweat.
“Gently it hurts.” Xie Anci’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s hum, but Li Jinchen had completely lost his reason and couldn’t hear him at all.
Even if he had heard, he would only have cursed him even more viciously.