Lu Xiao’s pupils contracted sharply. His mind had just been racing through every possible entanglement of love, hatred, and betrayal that might have existed between the original body and the emperor, but of all the things he imagined, he had never thought the original host would actually be the emperor’s younger brother.
From the emperor’s words, it sounded as though the original had even confronted him face to face before his death.
If that was true, then Lu Xiao’s sudden arrival in this body must have been the result of the original’s demise, and the truth behind that death, he was now certain, was hidden in this mad emperor’s hands.
“How strange,” the emperor murmured, his tone half-curious and half amused. “By all reason, the pearl powder I gave you that day should have been enough to kill you.”
He stood and studied Lu Xiao from head to toe, his eyes narrowing, inspecting again and again as though to confirm that the man before him was indeed alive.
Then, without warning, his hand shot out and closed around Lu Xiao’s throat. The sudden choke stole all breath from him.
His mouth opened and closed soundlessly as he struggled for air, pain flashing across his face. The emperor’s expression, however, was one of feverish delight.
“My imperial brother died several days ago,” the emperor whispered, his voice low and almost tender, but his eyes glinting with a manic light. “So who are you?”
He suddenly lost interest and released his grip. Lu Xiao collapsed, coughing violently, his vision spinning. The emperor turned away and returned to his seat on the dragon throne. From above, he gazed down coldly, the corners of his lips lifting in a cruel, amused smile.
Lu Xiao, still gasping, raised a trembling hand to his neck. The pain throbbed with every breath. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, and for a long moment, he could not find his voice to answer.
The emperor, however, was in no hurry. He idly toyed again with the luminous pearl in his hand, as if Lu Xiao had ceased to exist.
But then, without warning, he flung the pearl to the ground with a sharp crack. The precious orb shattered, scattering fragments across the polished floor.
“The pearls from the East Sea,” the emperor said darkly, “Still cannot compare to those gifted by the Qian family. Why is that, I wonder? Why is it always the Qian family?”
At the mention of that name, Lu Xiao caught the faintest whiff of an opportunity. He steadied his breath, ran through his words several times in his head, and finally said carefully, “Although this humble servant remembers nothing, my loyalty to Your Majesty remains unshaken. I am willing to serve, to share Your Majesty’s burdens, whatever they may be.”
The words left his lips along with a cold sweat. Whether he would live to walk out of this hall now depended entirely on the emperor’s whim.
The emperor seemed genuinely surprised. His eyes lingered on Lu Xiao with a spark of amusement. “You may not be my Eleventh Brother,” he said slowly, “but that sly cleverness of yours is exactly the same. Always so quick to guess my thoughts.”
Lu Xiao bowed his head again, barely breathing. He heard the faint echo of footsteps approaching once more, the emperor was coming closer.
He felt a hand brush against his ear. The touch was almost gentle, yet it sent chills crawling down his spine. The emperor murmured something under his breath, words too soft to catch, and then pain seared through Lu Xiao’s left ear. It felt as though a needle had pierced straight through the flesh.
The emperor, still smiling, helped him to his feet as though he were a beloved younger brother. His hands even moved to massage Lu Xiao’s numbed legs with false tenderness.
“Little Eleven,” he said softly, his tone suddenly filled with warmth that made it all the more terrifying, “you may have left me once, but now you have returned to my side again.”
“I truly do want you to investigate the Qian family. You are the only one I trust.”
As he spoke, his voice grew unsteady, his eyes taking on a mad gleam. Supporting Lu Xiao toward the hall’s entrance, he continued in a voice that trembled with dark emotion. “After all, every one of your brothers has died by my hand. But you, you will not.”
He touched Lu Xiao’s ear again. The sting was sharp enough to make Lu Xiao flinch, but he dared not move away.
“Because it likes you,” the emperor whispered with a twisted smile.
When Lu Xiao finally stepped outside the sleeping chamber, his mind felt blank, his body numb. He turned back once, but the emperor had vanished like a phantom, leaving behind nothing but silence. The man was completely, utterly insane.
“Xiao! Did he hurt you?” Li Xian’guan hurried to his side, his face tight with worry. The moment his gaze fell on Lu Xiao’s ear, he froze, eyes widening in alarm. “Your ear! What happened to your ear?”
He reached out instinctively but drew his hand back, afraid to make it worse.
Lu Xiao raised his own hand to touch the spot. Pain stabbed through him, sharp and hot. “It hurts, what’s wrong with it?” he asked, frowning as he saw Li Xian’guan hesitate, looking as if he didn’t even know how to explain.
Li Xian’guan quickly called over a young maid and borrowed a bronze mirror. When Lu Xiao lifted it to look, his reflection nearly made him drop it. That lunatic had pierced his ear, and there, glinting faintly in the light, was a pearl earring.
“That madman,” Lu Xiao hissed through clenched teeth.
The hole was rough, unevenly made, the skin around it swollen and inflamed. Dried blood crusted along the edge, showing it had only just stopped bleeding.
Li Xian’guan didn’t know what to say. The last time Lu Xiao had met the emperor, before his supposed memory loss, he had come back visibly shaken and withdrawn. He hadn’t told Chen Yue’er about it then, and Lu Xiao had recovered quickly enough that she hadn’t noticed.
Now, seeing this, Li Xian’guan regretted everything. He should have found some excuse to keep Lu Xiao from seeing the emperor again. But it was too late now, what was done was done.
“Let Yue’er take a look when we get back,” he said grimly. “We can’t risk it bleeding again.”
Gone was the cheerful man he usually was; his face now was tight as ice, shadowed by guilt.
Lu Xiao, however, felt oddly relieved. The fact that he had walked out of the palace alive was blessing enough.
So what if his ear had been pierced? It was just a small wound. Seeing Li Xian’guan’s grim expression, as if mourning a death, he couldn’t help but tease.
“Brother Xian’guan, I came out alive, didn’t I? It’s just an ear piercing, not the end of the world. The way you’re looking at me, one would think I stole your wife.”
Li Xian’guan’s head snapped up, eyes wide. “No, Xiao, you said, you promised, you’d never try to take Yue’er from me.”
“Take me?” Chen Yue’er appeared at that exact moment, having finished her duties. She stepped forward with curiosity and concern.
At once, Li Xian’guan’s face flushed scarlet. He looked like a shy maiden caught in her first confession, stammering incoherently, unable to form a single sentence.
Chen Yue’er frowned at his strange behavior and decided not to waste her patience on him. She turned to Lu Xiao instead, and the moment she saw his ear, her expression froze, all traces of playfulness gone.
Before she could ask, Lu Xiao cut her off gently. “It’s fine. There are too many ears and eyes in the palace. Let’s talk back at Mingzhu Courtyard.”
Understanding immediately, Chen Yue’er said no more. Both of them were sharp enough to know that even palace walls had ears, and some things were better left unspoken here.
Li Xian’guan still looked uneasy, clearly shaken, his earlier fluster lingering in his eyes. His silence stretched the whole way as he led them out.
“The carriage is waiting,” he finally said.
The three of them climbed aboard, each lost in their own thoughts. No one spoke for the entire journey back, and the quietness was heavy, almost like the day Lu Xiao had first arrived.
By the time they reached Mingzhu Courtyard, the sky had already dimmed into dusk. The steward was waiting, having prepared a rich dinner in anticipation of their return.
The dishes were plentiful, sweet and sour ribs, steamed pork with rice flour, Lu Xiao’s favorites. The thoughtful care warmed him, and for the first time since entering the palace, he ate until he was truly satisfied.
After dinner, the steward served plum soup to Chen Yue’er and Li Xian’guan, refreshing and thirst-quenching. For Lu Xiao, he brought a full bowl of chilled mung bean soup.
The moment the cool sweetness slid down his throat, the fatigue and heat of the day seemed to dissolve completely, leaving only a faint sweetness lingering between his lips and teeth.
This wasn’t the modern world, and to make such a chilled dessert must have taken real effort. The thought filled Lu Xiao’s chest with quiet warmth.
For all the madness he had faced in that palace, at least he had returned alive. Perhaps fate had given him this second chance, to live within another man’s body and feel, just once more, what it meant to be cherished by others.
“Today, when I went to see Consort Xian’s newborn prince, I found something odd. His breathing was faint and weak. Yet just yesterday, when he was born, his cries were loud and strong. Now he is as feeble as a sick kitten. There is something strange about this, and we cannot simply ignore it.”
Chen Yue’er looked at the two men. Li Xianguan nodded in agreement, while Lu Xiao seemed deep in thought.
“Brother Lu Xiao, you’ve already met the Emperor,” Chen Yue’er said softly. “You probably don’t know much about his children yet. Most of them die not long after they’re born. Only the eldest and second princesses survived because they were already betrothed before His Majesty ascended the throne. That’s likely the only reason they managed to live.”
Lu Xiao thought of the Emperor’s face, youthful and smooth, almost unnaturally so, and a chill ran through him.
“It’s the Emperor, isn’t it?” Lu Xiao mouthed the words silently toward Chen Yue’er and Li Xianguan.
Chen Yue’er glanced around cautiously, then nodded. “The Emperor’s eternal youth is connected to the pearl powder supplied by the Qian family. The eldest son of that household, Qian Sheng, earned top honors in the imperial exams but resigned from his official post not long after. The Emperor personally tried to persuade him to stay, but he only agreed on the condition that he would handle one last matter.”
As she spoke, Chen Yue’er untied a small bundle. When she opened it, Lu Xiao saw a set of records, scrolls listing the names, titles, and birth dates of the Emperor’s children, all written in the fine hand of the Qian household.
Lu Xiao had long suspected that there was something wrong with the Emperor, but he had never imagined this. A father might be cruel, but even a beast does not eat its own cubs. That the Emperor would sacrifice his own children for the sake of eternal youth, it was beyond comprehension.
It seemed likely that Qian Sheng had discovered the truth and could not bear to take part in such wickedness. That must have been why he resigned from court. The ones currently managing these matters were probably a distant branch of the Qian family, still bound to the Emperor by greed and fear.
Chen Yue’er lit a candle and fed the papers into the flame one by one. The firelight danced on her face as each page curled and turned to ash. “Consort Xian’s child will not live past half a year,” she said quietly. “Xianguan, how is your investigation going in Loulan?”
Li Xianguan waited until the last scrap of paper had burned away before speaking. “There’s a tribe near the borders of Loulan. They worship something strange, something that demands human offerings. They perform rituals to transfer a person’s life force into another body. Once the sacrifice dies, they offer the corpse to their so-called god as a gesture of devotion and thanks.”
When he finished, the room fell silent. The three of them sat motionless, each caught in the weight of that revelation. None of them wanted to think about what had become of the dead princes and princesses. Perhaps they already knew, deep down, but refused to accept it.
After a long pause, Li Xianguan seemed to recall something. He reached into his sleeve and drew out a rolled painting.
Lu Xiao took only one glance at it, and froze.
In the modern world, Lu Xiao had a somewhat obscure hobby: running tabletop campaigns. A few friends, a handful of dice, a game module, and an entire afternoon could vanish in laughter and tension. And no matter how the stories changed, the theme was always the same, uncovering the secrets of an ancient god.
Everyone imagined their own version of an eldritch being, an image that took shape only in the corners of the mind. For Lu Xiao, that image had always been vague, a blur of darkness and eyes. But now, staring at the painting before him, the picture inside his mind suddenly came into sharp focus.
It was the same. Exactly the same.
“Burn it,” Lu Xiao forced the words out through clenched teeth. His throat felt dry, his pulse thudding in his ears. He could hardly stop himself from looking again.
There was something magnetic about the painting, something that pulled at his thoughts. Even a single glance at one of those painted eyes made his mind waver, reality rippling like water.
He knew this feeling well. Back in the modern world, it had a name, sanity loss. When the mind was pushed beyond what it could bear, it began to fracture. People saw illusions, lost control, sometimes never recovered.
Li Xianguan noticed the pallor in Lu Xiao’s face. He himself had already looked at the image once and felt its wrongness. Without hesitation, he threw the scroll into the fire.
The parchment, however, burned stubbornly slowly, as though the ink itself resisted destruction. The flames licked at the edges again and again, but the eyes on the painting seemed to move, glinting faintly in the glow, as if watching them from within the fire.
A chill ran down Li Xianguan’s spine. He turned his gaze away, refusing to meet those eyes. Chen Yue’er averted her face, keeping her attention fixed on Lu Xiao’s trembling form.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the last piece of the painting turned black and crumbled into dust.
“It’s gone, Lu Xiao,” Li Xianguan said softly. “You can open your eyes now.”
Lu Xiao slowly lifted his head. Sweat drenched his hair and clothes, his eyelashes wet with tears that clung but did not fall. Even with the painting gone, he thought he could still see it, the faint shimmer of those eyes hovering in the air before him. He blinked several times until the illusion faded.
Tomorrow, they were to visit the Qian estate. Lu Xiao waved off his companions’ concern, saying nothing, and returned to his quarters alone. His entire body felt heavy and damp, his mind thick with exhaustion.
He looked down at his sweat-soaked clothes and muttered under his breath, “I should take a bath.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
You made it to the end. The translator would like a tiny coffee. ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · The beginning of the tragedyChapter 2 · Don’t forgetChapter 3 · Look at it directlyChapter 4 · Whom are you trying to seduce?Chapter 5 · TeaseChapter 6 · Sleeping in the same bedChapter 7 · Internal locksChapter 8 · Tampering The rules…Chapter 9 · Black LotusChapter 10 · FledglingChapter 11 · There are no horses in the stable.Chapter 12 · Water-oil separationChapter 13 · The cost of backtrackingChapter 14 · It got biggerChapter 15 · Was it a mouse?Chapter 16 · Too fieryChapter 17 · Administer medicineChapter 18 · Tracing the PearlChapter 19 · A KissChapter 20 · Ge, Kiss meChapter 21 · Ten Thousand Deaths Without RegretChapter 22 · Endless CorridorChapter 23 · CowardChapter 24 · GoodbyeChapter 25 · Back toChapter 26 · It’s is me, Not MeChapter 27 · VictimChapter 28 · Crossed CupsChapter 29 · IntuitionChapter 30 · ChangeChapter 31 · DifferentChapter 32 · ErrorChapter 33 · Mind Your Own BusinessChapter 34 · WanderingChapter 35 · EmbraceChapter 36 · LoveChapter 37 · UnrestrainedChapter 38 · Asking Over a DrinkChapter 39 · As BeforeChapter 40 · SatiatedChapter 41 · A Change in the WindsChapter 42 · A’SuChapter 43 · Welcoming the BrideChapter 44 · GossipChapter 45 · WeaknessChapter 46 · Wedding NightChapter 47 · Brother QingChapter 48 · FadingChapter 49 · Lying LowChapter 50 · CaressChapter 51 · OnceChapter 52 · The Hidden PassageChapter 53 · MotherChapter 54 · FlawlessChapter 55 · ProphecyChapter 56 · EtherealChapter 57 · DecipheringChapter 58 · The TrapChapter 59 · Stone StatueChapter 60 · ChessChapter 61 · AssassinsChapter 62 · The National Preceptor?Chapter 63 · Please return my belongings to me.Chapter 64 · I’m not that desperate.Chapter 65 · No wayChapter 66 · No turning backChapter 67 · I told you, get out of the wayChapter 68 · Still became a monsterChapter 69 · Let’s end thisChapter 70 · Why do you look so much like him?Chapter 71 · One wanted to kill, two stopped himChapter 72 · Unless, the people at Mingzhu Academy are keeping it from himChapter 73 · FraudChapter 74 · Don’t look back, Lu XiaoChapter 75 · It’s coldChapter 76 · Kill MeChapter 77 · We are even marriedChapter 78 · Gege… I Love YouChapter 79 · “It” had arrivedChapter 80 · Wake Up!Chapter 81 · How Nostalgic….Chapter 82 · You already Promised meChapter 83 · Their TerritoryChapter 84 · Jokes were JokesChapter 85 · What you dream was realChapter 86 · Did you cry?Chapter 87 · What’s wrong, young Master?Chapter 88 · No, I only ever said it to youChapter 89 · Honey, Please let me go.Chapter 90 · What are you pretending to be, a gentleman?Chapter 91 · It’s just a shoddy trick to fool people, but I like it anywayChapter 92 · Ge, I did it voluntarily, it’s no useChapter 93 · You little BratChapter 94 · Gege~ please have mercyChapter 95 · Hearing Lu Xiao come in, he patted the seat next to himChapter 96 · Stop fooling around, let me kiss youChapter 97 · “I want…” “Want what?”Chapter 98 · Gege, watch closely how I get youChapter 99 · Little Eleven, how about we talk to ‘it’ first?Chapter 100 · Had it gone mad?Chapter 101 · I will make my decisionChapter 102 · Tsk, how indecentChapter 103 · You are the creator of my original worldChapter 104 · The world is not your toy, go back to where you came fromChapter 105 · He was a boy with snow-white hair and a handsome faceChapter 106 · Haven’t seen you for a long timeChapter 107 · TYRBL Extra: 1Chapter 108 · TYRBL Extra: 2Chapter 109 · TYRBL Extra: 3Chapter 110 · TYRBL Extra: 4