Yet looking back over the years, if he had not called the Emperor to save him, his master would have died at the Empress’s hands countless times already. Feeling somewhat wronged, he walked dejectedly toward the door.
Bai Ruofeng ate unconcernedly on his own, suddenly asking, “Your Highness, do you have any of your own people in this Eastern Palace? How is it that when you were being bullied, not a single person stepped out to plead for you?”
As if jolted by a warning, Chunfu shivered all over and turned around, wanting to pledge his loyalty. However, what he saw was the Crown Prince’s expressionless face and Bai Ruofeng’s knowing, amused gaze. He heard the Crown Prince say, “None. Chunfu is my father’s man.”
If he stayed any longer, his life would be in jeopardy. Pretending he had not heard, Chunfu hurried outside.
Fang Youcheng had said those words deliberately to keep Chunfu in check. Pausing for a moment, he spoke again, this time providing clarity for Bai Ruofeng. “His sole purpose for existing is to summon my father here.” He sneered. “To ensure I do not die.”
With everyone else outside, Bai Ruofeng moved his chopsticks rapidly, eating quietly while occasionally placing food onto Fang Youcheng’s plate.
The roles seemed to have reversed. Earlier at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, Fang Youcheng kept piling food onto Bai Ruofeng’s plate, but now it was Bai Ruofeng feeding Fang Youcheng. Only, the leisurely and happy time the two had shared at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion seemed to have slipped through their fingers instantly, leaving behind a heavy silence for the moment.
Bai Ruofeng didn’t mind at all, even joking, “Crown Prince, do you still want to kill me now? If you kill me, there won’t be anyone left to pick food for you.”
Fang Youcheng remained silent for a long while, his gaze complex. Closing his eyes, he whispered softly, “I am sorry.”
“I knew you couldn’t bear to.” Bai Ruofeng looked pleased with himself. “Where else in the world could you find another great companion who can accompany you in eating, playing, and chatting so well?”
“True.” Fang Youcheng gave a sincere response, raising his chopsticks to quietly shovel down his rice. His appetite was not great, and after forcing himself to drink a bowl of porridge, he could not eat another bite. In contrast, Bai Ruofeng’s appetite was unusually good, and he relished his food with great enjoyment, as if partaking in the most delicious feast under heaven.
Having already put down his chopsticks, Fang Youcheng watched Bai Ruofeng for a while, caught his appetite from him, and couldn’t help eating a couple of extra bites.
After the meal, Bai Ruofeng had people clear the table, brew two pots of tea, and bring out pastries and freshly cut fruit. Cupping his warm teacup, Fang Youcheng felt as though his chest had been warmed through. Freed from those irritable, angry negative emotions, he felt a clear blue sky opening up in his heart. Watching Bai Ruofeng order the servants around to do this and that, he couldn’t help smiling. “You act like this is your own home.”
He had meant it as a joke, but unexpectedly Bai Ruofeng leisurely shot back, “When you invited me over, you told me to treat the Eastern Palace like my own home. Did you forget already?”
Fang Youcheng… Fang Youcheng had indeed forgotten just then. Refusing to admit it out loud, he scrambled to cover himself: “I didn’t forget. I just meant you are doing a stellar job. Mhm, keep it up.”
How could Bai Ruofeng miss his awkwardness? He simply smiled without speaking, leisurely pouring tea for them both.
Once all the servants had cleared out, he finally asked, “Why didn’t you explain things clearly to the Empress? Forcibly snatching a civilian woman is a grave crime; why admit to something we never did?”
What he actually wanted to ask was why Fang Youcheng would rather anger the Empress than clear his own name.
How could Fang Youcheng fail to catch the underlying meaning? He slowly swallowed a mouthful of warm tea and exhaled a long breath. “Do you think she would believe me even if I spoke?”
You can’t think like that! Bai Ruofeng sat up straight, clearly rejecting this perspective. Moving closer to Fang Youcheng, he said, “If you never tried, how do you know she wouldn’t believe you?”
“How do you know I haven’t tried?” Fang Youcheng shook his head, offering a bitter smile. “From the time I was little, I tried countless times. She suffered deep trauma and her mind is unstable. No matter how it is explained, she always clings only to the truth that she believes in. Explaining things to her is just a waste of breath. In the end, things turn out the exact same way.”
So that was how it was. Bai Ruofeng fell into deep thought, which ultimately condensed into a single question: “Isn’t she your biological mother?”
“She is.”
With that, the room plunged into an indescribable silence.
Bai Ruofeng wanted to say something, hesitating. He wanted to offer comfort, but having enjoyed a harmonious family life across both his lifetimes, anything he said wouldn’t sound comforting and would instead come off as showing off, so he kept his mouth shut.
Having taken ten cane strokes across his waist and hips, Fang Youcheng finished his tea and began wriggling like a turtle, flattening himself slowly onto his stomach across the pillows.
Amidst this quietness, driven by some urge he couldn’t fully untangle himself, he took the initiative to ask Bai Ruofeng, who sat by the bedside, “Do you know why I practice martial arts?”
Tilting his head, Bai Ruofeng followed his lead. “Why?”
As Bai Ruofeng watched, Fang Youcheng fumbled beneath his pillow and actually pulled out a dagger. Unsheathing it, the blade gleamed with light, looking extremely sharp. Startled, Bai Ruofeng leaned back. “You really are something… wrapping a soft sword around your waist isn’t enough, you keep a dagger under your pillow too?”
“It is safe. It brings peace of mind.” Fang Youcheng tucked the dagger back, hugging his pillow with apparent satisfaction as he lay sideways to look at his companion, half his face sinking into the pillow while he recounted the tale with a calm expression. “When I was little, whenever I opened my eyes, I would often see her standing by the bed, just staring at me without a sound, wanting to kill me. Once, I was choked awake right out of my sleep… Afterward, she would hold me and apologize, crying and begging for my forgiveness. But her tears meant nothing; the very next time, it would happen all over again.”
The Empress had actually gone crazy to this extent. Bai Ruofeng was left speechless, looking at Fang Youcheng’s calm profile. Whether due to psychological suggestion or not, right now everything about Fang Youcheng made him look like a pitiable child.
“That she loves me is true,” Fang Youcheng’s gaze turned murky, filled with complex emotions. Closing his eyes, he buried his face into the pillow. “That she hates me is also true.”
Why would she turn out like this? Bai Ruofeng pondered for a good while, but ultimately left the words unsaid.
He felt the current atmosphere was quite pleasant, but pushing the question any further might force Fang Youcheng to carve open old scars and recall unpleasant memories. So he swallowed the words back down. They had already experienced enough today, and this wasn’t the right setting for such heavy topics.
After a moment of thought, Bai Ruofeng wiped his hands, suddenly climbed onto the bed, lifted the blanket, and patted Fang Youcheng’s side. “Scoot inward a bit.”
Hearing this out of nowhere and completely unprepared for such a reaction from the other, Fang Youcheng looked at him in bewilderment. “Aren’t you going back to your residence?”
“It is this late, you expect me to ride a horse back alone?” Bai Ruofeng feigned anger, then gave the other’s cheek a frivolous pat. “Your Highness, please make some room for me. It is so late, and I have been guarding you all day without rest; I am exhausted.”
At a loss for words, Fang Youcheng silently scooted inward to make space.
Bai Ruofeng blew out the candle, kicked off his shoes and socks, and climbed in, lying on the outer side in a standard, straightforward supine posture.
In truth, he wasn’t particularly accustomed to sharing a bed with others. Bai Yunqi hadn’t moved to his own bed until he was seven or eight, whereas he himself, ever since he could talk, had resolutely pushed his parents away and insisted on having his own bed.
Yet on this particular night, it was simply an impulse born of the moment.
Perhaps it was simply feeling that this child was rather pitiful, unloved by his father and unwanted by his mother, unable to even sleep with peace of mind. Bai Ruofeng didn’t believe he could instantly overturn the world or change anything radical, but purely thought that, at the very least, he could let someone sleep a single night of undisturbed peace.
Neither of them spoke as the night grew deeper and thicker.
Fang Youcheng couldn’t fall asleep for a while, clearly sensing the warmth radiating from the other half of the blanket. He had never been this close to anyone before, nor had he ever dared to get close to anyone in the palace. Unable to stop himself, Fang Youcheng raised his eyes to glance sideways. In the darkness, he could dimly make out the candlelight filtering through the window, illuminating nothing more than a clean, sharply defined jawline.
After a moment, Bai Ruofeng turned onto his side, facing him directly.
Both of them could see each other’s eyes. In the pitch darkness, reflecting the moonlight and candlelight from outside the window, those eyes were exceptionally bright—so bright they seemed capable of piercing through the flesh to burn right into the soul.
“Go to sleep,” Bai Ruofeng’s voice in the darkness was as gentle as flowing water. “I am more reliable than a dagger. If anyone approaches the bedhead, I will wake up before you do. If anyone tries to harm you, I will be your first line of defense. Tonight… at least for tonight, you can sleep soundly.”
Every single word sounded like a dream, as soft as an auditory hallucination belonging to him alone. Fang Youcheng was deeply moved, his heart beating lightly and uncontrollably without reason, leaping upward to transform into a warm, bright little sun hanging high within his chest.
He moved his lips, and after a long moment, a laugh finally slipped out.
Fang Youcheng didn’t exactly know what he should say. Say thank you? Too overly sentimental. Say he didn’t need it? Yet clearly, he loved this gentle, unnoticeable comfort that soaked in like a quiet spring rain.
Then what should he say?
Fang Youcheng heard his own voice slide past his throat, sounding so unfamiliar it didn’t even seem like his own mouth speaking, “Bai Ruofeng… where did you learn to say things like that?”
Bai Ruofeng looked at him in confusion, as if failing to understand what the other meant.
Deciding not to dwell on it, Bai Ruofeng reached out and clumsily patted the coverlet over Fang Youcheng twice.
Not patting it would have been fine, but this single pat seemed to trigger some sort of mechanism. Fang Youcheng blinked, and his eye sockets grew hot. That warmth served as a clear reminder: this wasn’t a dream.
He called out Bai Ruofeng’s name, that summons carrying an indistinct choked note. “Bai Ruofeng.”
He gripped the edge of the blanket tight, tightened it then loosened it, loosened it then tightened it again. The air rushed through his windpipe and nasal cavity, and when he spoke again, his voice was hoarse. “From now on, your matters are my matters.”
Not for any other reason, but simply because Bai Ruofeng was the first person willing to say such words to him. He had never dared to yearn for anyone to care, but when someone was genuinely looking out for him, he completely lost his defenses, collapsing entirely within the tiny, shared space between them two.
Bai Ruofeng watched as Fang Youcheng turned away, presenting his back. Though no sound was emitted, against the light from outside the room, the subtle tremor of the shoulders as he sniffled to hold back his tears was clearly visible in the contour of his back.
After a brief thought, he scooted forward twice in the other’s direction, closing the distance.
Bai Ruofeng slowly raised his arm, stretching it out sluggishly to rest across Fang Youcheng’s blanketed form with a bit of distance, lightly and loosely embracing the other to project an aura of protection.
The trembling stopped. The entire body stiffened like a block of ice before quickly relaxing again, melting and returning to human softness. Letting out a small yawn as drowsiness began to pull him under, Bai Ruofeng felt Fang Youcheng pull his exposed arm from outside the blanket into the warmth.
A moment later, Fang Youcheng suddenly whipped around, charging over like an ostrich to bury his head right into the crook of his neck. Still half-awake, Bai Ruofeng gave a start, instantly raising a hand to place on Fang Youcheng’s shoulder with the reflex to push him away.
Yet he quickly realized what was happening.
Thinking back on the usual self-willed, dictatorial Crown Prince behaving like this tonight, by comparison he couldn’t help wanting to laugh. Fearing the other would notice, he suppressed the impulse and turned it into a pout instead.
Bai Ruofeng thought: Setting aside the prejudice from our first meeting, the Crown Prince is actually quite interesting.