I do not know how much time had passed when Su Ce was awakened by the noisy sounds coming from outside the palace hall.
He listened carefully for a moment and discovered that the sound was a wooden board striking a body, again and again.
He felt momentarily delirious, thinking he was still caught in a nightmare, until Xiao Huai’s cold, icy voice rang out: “What exactly do I keep you people in this palace for! You cannot even take care of one person.”
“Your Majesty, have mercy! Your Majesty!”
“Gag them. It is only thirty strokes; if I hear another sound, it will not be as simple as just taking the board.”
Su Ce’s heart trembled violently, as if a bad memory were about to push through layers of fog to appear before his eyes.
In that instant, his head throbbed with intense pain, and the sound of the wooden board striking flesh circled his ears, refusing to fade. He struggled to rise from the bed, his hands clutching his head as he tried to escape, only to fall heavily to the floor.
He lay on the cold ground, staring directly at the slightly faded peace amulet beneath the dim candlelight.
A sudden sourness welled up in his heart, and his eyes turned red.
The door opened, and Xiao Huai walked quickly to his side. He watched Su Ce’s lips moving, wanting desperately to understand what he was saying, but in this moment, his world was silent once more.
He could only understand through Xiao Huai’s expression that Xiao Huai was angry, and the source of that anger was him.
In Xiao Huai’s eyes, Su Ce was in a highly agitated emotional state, his pupils unable to focus on him, his mouth repeatedly chanting: “No… no…”
Xiao Huai gripped Su Ce’s shoulders with force, but Su Ce resisted his touch, retreating step by step until his back hit the side of the bed, curling into a ball, his two hands gripping his ears, burying his head between his legs, trembling like a sieve.
Xiao Huai was panicked by his sudden breakdown; in an instant, his anger vanished. He hurriedly summoned Funing to give a few instructions.
Waiting until the timing was right, Xiao Huai moved step by step to Su Ce’s side, reached out to gently pat his back, and said to him, word by word: “Su Ce, everything is fine now! Calm down slowly. This is the medicine the imperial physician prescribed for you; you haven’t taken your medicine today.”
Su Ce’s body continued to tremble, but fortunately, he finally lifted his head slowly. However, his eyes were dull and listless, his mouth agape as he looked at Xiao Huai, as if confirming the words he had just heard from his expression. But Su Ce could not see Xiao Huai’s expression clearly, so he had to lower his head and look down at the pill held in Xiao Huai’s hand.
With trembling hands, he took the pill from Xiao Huai and swallowed it, tilting his head back.
Feeling a bit of strength return to his legs, he steadied himself against the side of the bed and slowly stood up, his toes pointing toward the palace door, walking slowly. Every step he took consumed a massive amount of his energy.
He had only walked a few steps before he was drenched in sweat.
“Where are you going?”
Xiao Huai’s voice, like a ghost, sounded behind him, startling him so much that his whole body shuddered. When his legs turned to jelly and he nearly fell to the ground, he was caught firmly by Xiao Huai.
“Door… the door.”
He buried his head so Xiao Huai could not see his expression, his entire person exuding an air of stubbornness and defiance.
Upon hearing the reply, Xiao Huai tilted his head with impatience, seeing that Su Ce was preparing to move again. Xiao Huai merely grabbed Su Ce’s arm, helping him walk toward the palace entrance.
A distance that would usually take only a few steps felt exceptionally long today.
The courtyard was already empty, but the scent of blood lingering in the air still reminded him of everything that had just happened there.
His fingers, tightly gripping the door frame, had turned white; the slender willow branches in the courtyard had already begun to sprout new buds.
Facing the spring breeze, Su Ce gradually regained consciousness. He did not understand why Xiao Huai was so angry, or why he had done such a thing.
Was it because they had been married for several years, and he was the only one in his harem? Was this, then, out of responsibility? Because royal majesty could not be violated?
And if it were not him, but someone else? For instance, the Princess of the Yan Kingdom—would Xiao Huai do the same to her?
Thinking this, Su Ce felt melancholy and sadness intertwine; sand entering his eyes caused them to blur with tears.
After a long while, he sighed suddenly, looked up at the tight-lipped Xiao Huai, and whispered softly: “Carry me inside, Xiao Huai. I am so tired…”
His complexion looked truly terrible; he was listless, and his usually stubborn eyes had lost their luster, looking like the calm that follows an extreme surge of joy or grief.
All of this was too abnormal so abnormal that Xiao Huai suddenly felt a familiar sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time: that Su Ce was about to drift away from him.
“Who told you to…”
Before Xiao Huai could finish, his hand was pulled by Su Ce, who interlaced their fingers and gave them a shake: “Carry me, Xiao Huai.”
Xiao Huai’s intended reprimand turned in his throat, and he gathered him into his arms.
In fact, Su Ce had only said the first half of that sentence; he wanted to say: Carry me, Xiao Huai. I want to possess you a little longer before you marry the Princess of the Yan Kingdom.
That night, Xiao Huai felt that Su Ce was unusually proactive, even bordering on submissive.
The two made love from late at night until the next morning’s dawn. Su Ce did not faint once throughout the night, and Xiao Huai was satisfied in a way he had not been for a long time.
Su Ce lay atop Xiao Huai as he had in the past, and the two of them silently watched the beam of golden light pass through the carved wooden window and spill onto the bed in mottled patterns.
“Do you not have to attend morning court today?”
Xiao Huai half-squinted his eyes, his gaze sweeping from top to bottom. At this moment, Su Ce was propped up halfway, his long hair scattered randomly behind him, his shoulders covered in the tooth marks Xiao Huai had left. A few strands of hair fell across his chest, half-concealing the marks belonging solely to him, left behind after last night’s passion.
“Why did you go out in the rain yesterday?”
Su Ce pursed his lips, burying his cheek into Xiao Huai’s chest. Listening to the violent beating of Xiao Huai’s heart, he said sleepily, “Because I wanted to see you too much.”
Wanted to see you too much, wanted to interrogate you too much, but I had no courage…
“Wanted to see me too much? Could you not have used an umbrella?” Xiao Huai reached out and gently pinched Su Ce’s cheeks, which had thinned to the point of having no flesh.
Su Ce rubbed his head against Xiao Huai’s chin: “So sleepy. I want to sleep.”
“Su Ce, you…” Xiao Huai began, hesitant.
“Hmm?”
“Forget it. Sleep then.”
Xiao Huai pulled the quilt over to completely wrap up Su Ce’s exposed body, slowly patting his back, and bent his head to kiss his forehead.
In the blink of an eye, it was already April, and the news that Xiao Huai and the Princess of the Yan Kingdom were about to be wed had already spread throughout the capital.
Lately, as he had more free time, Su Ce went out more often, but he did not look as happy as he had before. He felt a bit unsure of Su Ce’s mind.
“Are you okay?” Qin Zijin could not help but ask.
Actually, Su Ce roughly knew Qin Zijin’s suspicions regarding his identity, but fortunately, Qin Zijin never asked, and he was too lazy to waste effort making up excuses to answer.
After all, he was soon going to be no different from the men in the red-light districts who sold their bodies; it was just that his buyer was the high-status Xiao Huai.
Besides, after hearing too much gossip, he had gradually become numb.
Moreover, Su Ce understood that Xiao Huai was an Emperor; it was normal for an Emperor to have three wives and four concubines. If he were to stay with him forever, that would be the abnormal thing. Furthermore, he had no way to bear him heirs, and to an ordinary family, that was a matter of utmost importance. Su Ce dared not think about what would happen to Xiao Huai without heirs.
Su Ce lifted his head, his gaze calm. “I’m quite well. Isn’t this great? I can go out and play with you all day now. He’s been very busy lately and doesn’t have time to worry about me.”
“Have you really let it go?” When Qin Zijin asked this, his tone was very sincere.
Su Ce took another sip of tea and nodded. “Whether I let it go or not, it is already a fact. Let’s go. Call Du Bo and go to that restaurant from last time.”
“Are you treating?” Qin Zijin was quite surprised.
Su Ce pulled a silver ingot from his sleeve and smiled. “I told you, I can come out and play with you all the time now.”
When Xiao Huai returned to the sleeping quarters, Su Ce was lying on the bed, holding his cat up in the air.
Seeing Xiao Huai enter, Su Ce immediately rose, placed the cat on the floor, and patted its bottom. “Fatty, it’s getting late. Go back to sleep.”
Xiao Huai snorted coldly, walked to Su Ce’s side, mimicked his gesture, and patted his bottom. In a tone that was neither painful nor itchy, he said, “Su Ce, it is getting late; we should sleep, too.”
That night, after the two had been embracing in sleep for a long time—so long that Xiao Huai thought Su Ce had already fallen asleep—he heard Su Ce suddenly ask: “Xiao Huai, have you ever thought about having a child of your own?”
Xiao Huai suddenly opened his eyes to see Su Ce looking up at him, seemingly very concerned about the answer.
Xiao Huai said coldly: “Then are you willing to give birth for me?”
A flash of surprise crossed Su Ce’s eyes; he stammered: “I am a man; men cannot give birth to children. That is… that is something that has never happened. I would… I would likely lose my life, right?”
“Then that means you are willing?”
Su Ce did not know how Xiao Huai had reached that conclusion, but he then heard Xiao Huai say: “True. If you were a woman, going by the way we do things, you likely wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for three or five years.”
A heat rose on Su Ce’s face, and he saw the familiar brightness in Xiao Huai’s eyes.
Having gone out today to play pitch-pot with Qin Zijin and Du Bo for the first time in a while, he was truly a bit tired. He simply hugged Xiao Huai’s waist and whispered: “Tired, tired. I’m sleeping first.”
On the 15th of April, with grasses growing and orioles flying, the warm sun hung high, and both sides of the main street in the capital were packed with onlookers.
I do not know who uttered an exclamation at the city gate, but both sides of the street instantly began to roil like a pot of boiling water. A procession of carriages arrived, like a black snake crossing the border, gradually approaching the Imperial Palace.
Until that procession of carriages stopped before Xiao Huai.
Su Ce was standing on a pavilion in the distance, watching as Xiao Huai, radiating imperial power, stepped forward and extended his hand, waiting calmly beneath the carriage to welcome his soon-to-be bride, the Princess of the Yan Kingdom.
Soon, a figure emerged from behind the carriage curtain. Although Su Ce could not clearly see her face, judging by her petite physique, he could feel that she must be a gentle and considerate partner, and would be the best Empress for the Jing Kingdom.
In the next instant, Su Ce saw the Princess of the Yan Kingdom place her hand in Xiao Huai’s palm. The two walked side-by-side a talented man and a beautiful woman, a match made in heaven.
Only when this scene disappeared from Su Ce’s field of vision was he shocked back to reality by the pain. The skin on the back of his hand had been scratched open at some point and was now bleeding.
He subconsciously felt afraid, but in the next instant, he suddenly thought of something, and with an expressionless face, he walked out of the Imperial Palace.