Xie Huaixiao stopped right in front of Wen Chu, an atmosphere of intense danger radiating from his entire body as he demanded, “Where did Your Majesty go?”
Wen Chu replied, “I went for a stroll in the marketplace.”
“What I am asking is, during the time Your Majesty deliberately eluded the hidden guards and went missing, where did you go and what did you do?” Xie Huaixiao commanded in a harsh, rigid tone, “Speak.”
A flash of anger appeared on Wen Chu’s face: “I am not a child. Why should I have to report every little thing to you?” He then turned his words around: “All the power in the Great Zhou is clenched in your hands, and I don’t even have the authority to reassign palace eunuchs and maids. Yet you still act like this is it necessary?!”
Xie Huaixiao sneered, closing in on Wen Chu: “I truly underestimated the fact that Your Majesty is no longer the delicate willow-like youth of a few years ago. You’ve developed your own thoughts and opinions.”
“You’ve grown disobedient and no longer listen to my words.”
The overwhelming pressure radiating from Xie Huaixiao made it difficult for Wen Chu to breathe. He took a step back to put distance between them, turning his face away to avoid looking at him: “How would I dare disobey the Prince Regent? I am like an insignificant ant, easily crushed and destroyed by the Prince Regent at any moment.”
“Since you know this, why did you still deliberately conceal it from me?” Xie Huaixiao’s nostrils flared slightly as he leaned down, pressing his high, straight bridge of nose close to Wen Chu’s jade-white neck.
Startled, Wen Chu instinctively reached out a hand to push Xie Huaixiao away, only for his wrist to be clamped tightly in an iron-vise grip.
“What are you doing?” Wen Chu panicked slightly.
Xie Huaixiao remained silent; his brows simply locked together more and more tightly.
He caught the scent of powder and rouge on Wen Chu’s body.
Furthermore, this was the cheapest, lowest-grade variety of rouge—something he had often smelled on officials who frequented houses of ill repute.
Xie Huaixiao straightened back up: “You went to a brothel!”
Wen Chu froze for a moment. As realization dawned, he saw that Xie Huaixiao’s various actions just now were not what he had imagined at all how ridiculous of him to think otherwise.
How could Xie Huaixiao possibly harbor that kind of feeling toward him?
It was simply that the lingering fragrance of the brothel madam’s rouge on his clothes had caught Xie Huaixiao’s attention.
“Yes, I went to a brothel for some pleasure and entertainment.”
Wen Chu raised his eyes to gaze steadily into Xie Huaixiao’s stern, resolute gaze: “I am in the prime of my youth, and I have needs, too. You rejected the memorial submitted by the ministers asking you to stock my inner harem, and you forbid me from taking an empress or concubines, so I went to a brothel to find them instead.”
“You found them?” Xie Huaixiao’s expression darkened as if it could drip water, demanding with a murderous glare, “Did you sleep with those filthy, wretched women?”
Wen Chu had never seen Xie Huaixiao this furious before. He looked like a man-eating demon, ready to tear someone apart and swallow them whole in the next second.
Xie Huaixiao stood a full head taller than Wen Chu, his tall, sturdy body completely engulfing Wen Chu in shadow.
A chill ran down Wen Chu’s spine as he realized, with a shock, that he was actually beginning to feel afraid of the man before him.
His wrist felt as though Xie Huaixiao meant to crush it, causing an unbearable wave of pain. Flustered and distressed, Wen Chu began to struggle.
His strength was negligible, feeling no more substantial than a puff of cotton against Xie Huaixiao.
Growing desperate, Wen Chu lowered his head and bit down hard.
“Hiss!” With a sharp intake of breath, Xie Huaixiao released his grip. A distinct, bleeding set of tooth marks was left raw across his wrist.
Wen Chu pulled back his throbbing, red wrist, driven by a single overriding thought: to escape far away from Xie Huaixiao.
Over-startled and panicked, Wen Chu lost his footing, and with a sudden splash, he plunged straight into the lake.
Wen Chu did not know how to swim, and he thrashed and struggled desperately in the water: “Save me… cough, cough…” Before he could finish his plea, he choked on a mouthful of water.
The patrolling guards, palace maids, and eunuchs passing by on the bank all witnessed the scene, but without an order from the Prince Regent, not a single person dared to make a move.
Xie Huaixiao stood frozen in place, watching the struggling Wen Chu with a dark and chilling gaze.