Just as Wen Chu felt a sense of despair in the water, he heard Xie Huaixiao’s icy question: “I will ask you once more did you touch those foul, filthy creatures?”
His body was sinking further beneath the water, and choking on the liquid made it impossible for Wen Chu to utter a sound.
Yet he could not die. If he died, what would become of Yu’er? He had to stop Xie Huaixiao from sending Yu’er to the Longshu Kingdom as a hostage.
Exerting every last ounce of his remaining strength, Wen Chu shook his head at Xie Huaixiao. Then, completely spent and unable to struggle any longer, his body sank down into the depths.
A splash broke the surface as someone dove into the water. The next moment, a pair of strong, powerful arms hoisted Wen Chu’s slender, fragile body, breaking through the water and leaping back up into the lake pavilion.
Drenched from head to toe, Wen Chu collapsed face down on the ground, gasping for air in great, heaving breaths.
Xie Huaixiao was soaked as well. He half-crouched in front of Wen Chu, reaching out to grab his chin and force it upward, compelling Wen Chu to look directly into his eyes: “If I find out that Your Majesty has deceived me by even a single word, I will…” He paused, “…I will kill Yu’er right before your eyes, driving Your Majesty to the absolute depths of agony.”
Yu’er was Wen Chu’s sole weakness. Trembling and still struggling to catch his breath, Wen Chu hurriedly shook his head: “I have not deceived you.”
Xie Huaixiao glared down at him: “You went to a brothel for pleasure, yet you didn’t touch a woman? Tell me, why on earth did you leave the palace today?”
“I am impotent. It’s not that I chose not to touch women; I simply cannot touch them,” Wen Chu said. “Today, I went to the brothel purely to test whether this hidden ailment had healed.”
He bit his lower lip and added, “If you don’t believe me, you can… inspect for yourself.”
Wen Chu gazed up at Xie Huaixiao with damp, tear-brightened eyes, unsure whether the moisture came from tears or the water he had just swallowed.
A man who had been frail and sickly year after year suffered from deep-seated physical exhaustion, making him prone to impotence. Still, skepticism lingered in Xie Huaixiao’s mind: “You had palace maids at your disposal—why go to such lengths to look elsewhere?”
“I loathe and despise being coerced. The women in the brothel were willing.” A bitter, mocking hatred etched itself across Wen Chu’s features: “That despicable bastard from four years ago committed his vile acts against my will…”
With a look of extreme displeasure, Xie Huaixiao cut Wen Chu off: “Your Majesty was heavily intoxicated at the time; how could you possibly know you weren’t just acting recklessly under the influence of alcohol?”
“My consciousness was merely blurred, not completely gone. I can vividly remember pushing him away.”
Xie Huaixiao let out a light, cynical scoff: “Who knows if that wasn’t just playing hard to get, deliberately trying to seduce me.”
Wen Chu stared at him quietly for a moment, then shifted the focus of the conversation: “Why is the Prince Regent so obsessed with whether or not I had intimacy with women?”
Xie Huaixiao offered a disdainful smile and replied unhurriedly, “I am simply afraid that Your Majesty might conceive again. Such an absurd, preposterous thing as a man bearing children has already happened to Your Majesty once dare I ask what else could possibly happen to you?”
His words grew increasingly harsh and grating. Facing such a man, Wen Chu felt utterly helpless. Soaked through by the freezing lake water, his pale-as-paper body trembled uncontrollably.
Xie Huaixiao pressed on: “When you gave birth to Yu’er back then, the imperial physicians already stated that you could no longer bear children without risking your life. Your life is in my hands you will only die when I permit you to die.”
Looking into the fragmented, twisted depths of Xie Huaixiao’s eyes, Wen Chu recalled the remarks Xie Huaixiao had made during breakfast and asked, “Your control over the Great Zhou isn’t merely about seizing power, is it? You’re seeking vengeance—you bear a grudge against the Wen family, don’t you?”
A sudden silence fell over Xie Huaixiao.
Wen Chu furrowed his brow in deep thought for a moment before asking again, “Since you hold a grudge, why haven’t you killed me?”
The knuckles of the hand hidden within Xie Huaixiao’s sleeve turned stark white. After a long, agonizing pause, he answered: “Because I want to make your life a living hell!”
Wen Chu’s brows locked together even tighter: “What kind of grievance could possibly drive you to this extent? Tell me!”