Those words sounded familiar—he'd heard them in some past life, though he couldn't recall which one. He remembered desperately explaining back then that he was no longer the same Lu Yunqi, that he had reformed and only wanted to coexist peacefully with him.
But things rarely went as hoped. Murong Jie's gaze was cold enough to chill bones, and death seemed an inescapable fate.
In this life, he had already given up all pretense. He grabbed Murong Jie's chin and said, "What? Got a grudge brewing in that belly of yours?"
Murong Jie replied coldly, "How would I dare hold a grudge against Young Master Lu?"
Lu Yunqi chuckled lightly. "You'd better not. I don't even spare your brothers a second glance, let alone someone as hollow as you. Still, you do have one advantage they can't match. Who else in the Murong family has a face as pretty as yours?"
With that, he yanked Murong Jie toward him and pressed a kiss to his lips.
The passersby on the street couldn't help but gasp, yet none dared say a word—they hurried off into the distance.
Lu Yunqi felt secretly pleased with himself, thinking: Perfect. Murong Jie, even if you do kill me someday, you'll be branded a husband-killer.
Heh heh. Let's see how I disgust you.
They made their way to Second Prince's residence—Cheng Manor—where Prince Cheng himself stood at the gate waiting to receive him.
The moment he saw Lu Yunqi arrive, he stepped forward and clasped his hands in greeting. "Young Master Lu honors us with your presence! You truly make my humble manor shine!"
Lu Yunqi swayed as he stepped down from the carriage and said, "Greetings, Prince Cheng. Today is your birthday, so of course I had to come and offer my congratulations in person. A small gift—hardly worthy of the occasion."
With a wave of his hand, several servants stepped forward bearing gifts.
He added deliberately, "And those two items over there—those are from Prince Cang."
Second Prince glanced at his rather unimpressive sixth brother and said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, "Young Master Lu is too generous in praising him. It's only thanks to you that he was granted the title of Prince Cang at all. Otherwise, Father would never have thought of him in this lifetime."
The dog emperor loathed Murong Jie—not merely because of his foreign blood, but because of the disgraceful deeds the emperor himself had committed in his youth.
That Noble Lady Rui of the Yuezhi tribe had originally been the Yuezhi King's consort. When the Yuezhi came to pay tribute, the dog emperor, drunk, made advances on her, and that very night slipped into her tent and violated her.
Two months later, when the Yuezhi King and his consort were set to return home, it was discovered that she had conceived.
The Yuezhi King had been prepared to swallow this bitter humiliation, but when the emperor learned of it, he forcibly took the Yuezhi consort into his harem on the pretext that imperial blood must not be left to wander outside the palace. Later, fearing the truth would come to light, he ordered Lu Tong to march on the Yuezhi and annihilate the entire tribe.
Perhaps the feud between Murong Jie and the Lu family had been forged from that very moment.
When Noble Lady Rui learned of this, she stormed into the emperor's presence with her swollen belly and made a scene, which caused her to go into premature labor. The emperor punished her by demoting her to the rank of noble lady.
Later, unable to bear her guilt, Noble Lady Rui hanged herself.
This was why Murong Jie lived like a ghost in the harem—because whenever the emperor looked at him, he was reminded of the evil he had done in his youth, and he would never willingly set eyes on this son.
Lu Yunqi swept a glance over Second Prince and said, "Prince Cheng, Prince Cang is my man now. I'd advise you to watch your tongue. Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude."
Prince Cheng knew that Lu Yunqi had taken a strong interest in that barbarian bastard lately, so he immediately put on a smile and made a gesture of invitation. "Young Master Lu is right. Please, right this way."
Lu Yunqi gave a cold snort, thinking: These people all dance to the tune of his father, so of course they have to treat me like a god.
Murong Jie followed behind him, his fiery red robes even more striking under the blazing sun, making his face look impossibly beautiful—yet his expression was terrifyingly cold.
Lu Yunqi thought: Go ahead and be angry!
I hope it kills you. That damp, ghostly man deserves no sympathy.
Prince Cheng accompanied Lu Yunqi to the banquet. The Eldest Prince and Third Prince had already arrived. When they saw him enter, everyone present rose to pay their respects.
Lu Yunqi waved a casual hand and took the seat of honor at the head of the table. "Quite the lively gathering today. The three princes truly are born of the same mother—so united."
It had to be said that the Empress knew how to raise her children. These three princes were bound together like a single iron barrel. In those nine past lives, the hardest opponents Murong Jie faced—aside from his father Lu Tong—were these three.
They were all determined to push their eldest brother onto the throne, which made picking them off one by one an extremely difficult task.
Especially since the emperor doted on these three sons, and with the Empress's family commanding the civil officials' faction, Murong Jie's path to rebellion was long and arduous.
The damp, ghostly man sat motionless beside him, appearing to do nothing, but in truth his mind was already scheming about who knows what.
It had to be said that these legitimate princes had won the hearts of the civil officials—over half the court had shown up.
And every single one of those civil officials despised Lu Yunqi.
Especially after word spread that he had requested the Emperor to grant him marriage to the Sixth Prince, and Lu Tong not only failed to stop it but actually pressured the Emperor into approving the union, his disgust toward him had reached its absolute peak.
At the banquet, seeing Lu Yunqi's sour expression, he glanced back and spotted Murong Jie, making his face even darker.
Chancellor Li, a veteran of three reigns, let out an unpleasant snort and turned to take his seat at the upper right.
Anyone else would have simply ignored him, but Lu Yunqi was not that kind of person. He muttered a low curse under his breath—"old bastard"—then spoke in a sarcastic, honeyed tone: "Oh, if it isn't old Chancellor Li? I hear you recently took a ninth concubine? Two years younger than your own granddaughter, isn't she? Tsk tsk tsk, you really are… still vigorous in your old age!"
Chancellor Li's eyes bulged with fury: "You—"
Lu Yunqi showed no fear, shaking his leg as he shot back: "Me what? Am I not speaking the truth? A man with hairy legs sees everyone else as a demon. And you call yourself the pillar of the literary world—shameless at your age!"
Chancellor Li cursed: "How dare you, you snot-nosed brat!"
Lu Yunqi grinned slyly: "Dare? Why wouldn't I dare? Did you think I didn't hear that snort you just gave me? I've never taken crap from anyone in my life. Even the Emperor was willing to marry his son off to me—what right does an old fool like you have to speak?"
With that, he pulled Murong Jie close and planted a loud kiss on his lips: "So what? I'm marrying him, I'm marrying him! Not only am I marrying him, I'm holding him everywhere to show off our love! Last night we were going at it in my bed until the wee hours—I wonder, Chancellor Li, can you still last even half a cup of tea these days?"
Chancellor Li was so furious he nearly spat blood. Just as the two sides were about to come to blows, the Eldest Prince quickly stepped in to mediate: "Teacher, Young Marquis Lu, please both calm down. Today is my second brother's birthday—do it for his sake. Let's keep the peace, keep the peace."
This Eldest Prince was a master of smoothing things over, having inherited his spinelessness from his imperial father. First at playing dumb and admitting defeat, he called it the doctrine of the mean.
That wasn't the doctrine of the mean—that was having no backbone!
But Lu Yunqi hadn't come looking for trouble anyway. He collapsed bonelessly into Murong Jie's arms and said lazily: "Since the Eldest Prince has spoken, what more can I say? My beauty, feed me some wine."
With that he opened his mouth, and Murong Jie, without a word, cooperatively poured the wine and fed it to him.
The assembled civil and military officials couldn't bear to watch, pursing their lips in silence.
The three princes could only laugh awkwardly, until finally an attendant broke the tense atmosphere: "Prince Cheng, Miss Xie Lianyi has arrived and is preparing in the back. When would you like her to perform her dance?"
Prince Cheng's face lit up: "Oh? Is that so? Then please, quickly invite Miss Xie to come perform!"
A young talented scholar perked up at the mention: "Miss Xie? Could it be the star performer of Tianhuan Tower, Miss Xie Lianyi?"
Prince Cheng replied immediately: "Indeed! Today I have the honor of inviting Miss Xie to perform—you are all in for a treat."
The scholar's expression turned dreamy: "I've heard Miss Xie is a disciple of the Poetry Immortal, Fairy Liuyi. She performs only to seek out the finest talents across the land, and donates all her earnings to impoverished refugees and charity orphanages. Even when the Emperor summons her, he must first send a formal invitation, and she even has the right to refuse. For the Second Prince to earn Miss Xie's favor, he must have some remarkable calling card, no?"
Prince Cheng smiled modestly: "Nothing much. I happened to compose a poem the other day that Miss Xie saw fit to include in the Anthology of Ten Thousand Poems: Colorful Edition. I simply mustered the nerve to invite the Poetry Immortal's disciple here to grace us with a dance."
Lu Yunqi furrowed his brow and leaned in to ask Murong Jie: "Have you heard of this Poetry Immortal?"
Murong Jie nodded: "The Poetry Immortal, Fairy Liuyi, once saved my father's life and was granted the Imperial Brocade Edict. Later, she traveled to the Jin Kingdom, where she rescued them from a great drought and was titled Grand Lady of the First Rank by the Jin Emperor. She also once tutored the Prince of Yan, earning her the title of Imperial Teacher. Her brilliance is renowned throughout the Central Plains."
Lu Yunqi let out an "oh," thinking to himself that this newly unlocked character was quite something. He'd never encountered her in any of his previous nine lives—so in this final life, the system was really cranking up the difficulty?
A female grand scholar—now that was interesting.
But a female grand scholar's disciple was hanging around brothels and coming to dance for a prince? What was that all about?
Lu Yunqi snapped open his fan and waved it with affected elegance, thinking to himself that today's show was going to be quite the spectacle.
Just then, a massive drum was carried onto the stage, its surface carved with blooming peonies, surrounded by seven smaller drums, each white as pearls.
A soft, lilting melody began to play as two rows of dancers holding crimson silk veils encircled the drums. They tossed the veils high into the air, and as the silk descended, a woman as beautiful as a flying swallow revealed herself.
She was absolutely stunning!
Even Lu Yunqi was momentarily dumbstruck, thinking to himself—was this a real-life Zhao Feiyan?
The woman stepped barefoot onto the drum, golden bells tied at her ankles, each step producing a deep rhythmic boom. Following the beat, her waist began to undulate like flowing clouds and water.
Lu Yunqi understood for the first time what it meant to be "like the moon veiled by light clouds, drifting like snow swirling in the returning wind."