“Who exactly are you?”
Jun Xun raised his head, wearing a completely harmless smile. “Yueying-gege, what do you mean by that?”
“His Highness is not here right now, so you don’t need to keep up the act. Who exactly are you, and what is your purpose for following His Highness? If you dare to do anything detrimental to him, I will eliminate you even if it costs me my life!”
Jun Xun used two fingers to push the long sword away from his neck. “Detrimental?”
In this entire world, one could never find a second person more sincere than him…
Yueying exerted all his strength, yet the sword in his hand wouldn’t budge an inch; it was clamped firmly between the boy’s fingers.
“Are you a spy sent by the Second Prince!”
“The Second Prince?” Mu Chengde? Just a piece of trash. Jun Xun chuckled softly, lowered his eyes, and continued carving the figurine in his hands.
“You… you… don’t think that just by keeping quiet I’ll let you off!”
“Yueying, you are bullying Ah-Xun again!”
Mu Chengyan walked out holding a bowl of something dark and mushy, his face streaked with dust and his white robes stained a dull gray.
Jun Xun looked at him with doting eyes, took out a white handkerchief, stood on his tiptoes, and wiped the dirt from Mu Chengyan’s face.
Mu Chengyan caught a glimpse of that white handkerchief… it looked familiar. Before he could speak, Jun Xun tucked it into his chest as if it were a precious treasure.
“Thank you, Ah-Xun. I made this meal myself… I don’t really know how to cook… I can only make simple porridge.”
Yueying looked at the dark, sludgy mess and, reminded of his past poisoning by such concoctions, curled up in a corner.
“Everything Gege makes is truly beautiful. May I have a taste?”
Before Yueying could intervene, Jun Xun took a spoonful. Yueying squeezed his eyes shut in despair. Even though I don’t really like this boy… he’s too pitiful to be forced to eat His Highness’s cooking!
Mu Chengyan asked nervously, “Is it good?”
“It’s good. Everything Gege makes is delicious.”
Jun Xun beamed with happiness, picked up his spoon, and took another mouthful. It was the best porridge he had ever tasted.
“Guchen, you have a taste too. I made two more bowls, there’s plenty.”
Guchen accepted the bowl from Mu Chengyan with a frozen expression. Without even looking at it, he took a sip. A crack finally appeared in his eternal iceberg of a face…
Yueying squatted to the side, his stomach aching with laughter. That blockhead Guchen actually dared to eat His Highness’s food?
“Yueying, do you want some?”
Yueying covered his mouth in horror. “Y-Your Highness, I just remembered, I need to go scout the terrain ahead… I… I won’t have any…”
“Everyone says it’s delicious, Yueying. Are you sure you don’t want to try?”
When he looked up again, Yueying was long gone.
“Gege, more.”
Jun Xun had already finished his bowl, gazing at Mu Chengyan with shining eyes.
“This bowl is for you too.”
Jun Xun took it, clutched the massive bowl, and polished off the rest.
The dark sky was overcast, and even the moon was obscured by clouds.
At the Feilong City Lord’s residence, the stone-built tower had endured the passage of time. The two guards at the entrance trembled from a sudden, wicked gust of wind.
“W-why did that sinister wind come out of nowhere? It sent a chill down my spine.”
“I feel it too… but what choice do we have? We were born to be servants; on a day this cold, we still have to guard the gates…”
Before the man could finish his sentence, a cold blade slashed across his neck without a moment’s pause. In the next heartbeat, his partner widened his eyes in death, unable to close them!
The blade, untainted by a single drop of blood, returned to the man’s hand.
Under the moonlight, the man stood tall and slender, dressed in black robes embroidered with gold. He wore a silver mask that obscured his face, revealing only a pair of blood-red lips curled into a faint, disdainful arc.
In a different room, the lights were bright.
“Bah, what rotten luck today. Finally ran into someone I liked, and he turned out to be a tough one!”
Long Yin lay semi-reclined on the bed while a maidservant stood by, gently dabbing at the wound on his forehead. Long Yin eyed the maid she was quite pretty, a new hire his mother had brought in; all the previous ones had been tortured to death by him. A bunch of useless trash, couldn’t even serve him properly.
Long Yin grabbed the maid’s arm with a wicked grin. “Little Ju, serve this young master well tonight, and you will be well rewarded tomorrow.”
The maid’s face turned pale with terror, and she shook her head violently. “No… Young Master… I am already betrothed, and he is a guard here…”
Long Yin’s expression turned dark and sinister. With a forceful tug, he dragged the maid into his arms. “You find this young master displeasing?”
The woman clutched her clothes, tears streaming down like broken pearls. “No… that is not it, Young Master, I beg you… please spare me…”
Long Yin was deaf to her pleas. In his eyes, women were merely tools. He took what he wanted, and no one was allowed to refuse him. Any woman he chose to favor should consider herself blessed for eight lifetimes.
Long Yin tossed her onto the bed and reached impatiently for his belt.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew the door open. A bone-chilling cold invaded the room, sending a shiver down Long Yin’s spine. As he turned, a stone was hurled out of nowhere, smashing squarely into Long Yin’s right eye!
“Ah! My eye, my eye!”
Long Yin tumbled off the bed, clutching his eye and rolling on the ground. The woman scrambled to put on her clothes and fled in a panic there are ghosts… ghosts!
A black boot stepped into the room, accompanied by a low chuckle that sounded as if it had emerged from the depths of hell.
Long Yin caught a glimpse of the man’s feet through his blurry vision and crawled under the bed, clutching his eye. “Y-you… don’t come any closer!”
The man hooked a finger, and a force seemed to drag Long Yin out by his body. A foot landed on his leg, accompanied by the crunching sound of shattering bone.
Long Yin screamed, his voice agonizing and hoarse.
“Ah! My leg!”
Blinded in one eye and with a broken leg, the intense agony left him trembling, his lips turning deathly pale.
The man stood over the pathetic creature, a curve forming on his lips.
“Do you remember the oath you swore today?”
Long Yin recalled the oath if he violated it, he would go blind and break his legs…
“Ghost… you are a ghost…”
Long Yin dragged his mangled body toward the exit, his nails raking across the cold floor and leaving behind streaks of blood. Yet, his body seemed pinned in place, unable to move at all.
The man gave a soft laugh. “How could this Prince be a ghost? Raise your head and take a good look at who this Prince is.”
Long Yin looked up at the man in the silver mask and black robes. A trembling voice spilled from his lips:
“The Prince Regent… You are Jun Qingyu!”