Yin Xiao heard my indifferent tone, completely devoid of any fluctuation, and his hand paused slightly.
Refusing to give up, he leaned in and kissed my cheek, pulling out all his little tricks to tease me.
I frowned, pushing him away and forbidding him from trying to get close again.
Yin Xiao took a deep breath, and I saw dark anger rolling in the depths of his eyes.
Someone as noble as Yin Xiao was never accustomed to being rejected.
In the past when we were intimate, it was entirely mutual, so there were hardly any conflicts. Now that I no longer wanted to do it, he simply could not swallow this grievance.
Yet swallow it he must, whether he could stomach it or not.
Ever since that day, Yin Xiao and I had noticeably grown more distant than before.
My attitude toward him also carried a few more shades of coldness.
My colleagues could tell that something seemed wrong between Yin Xiao and me again, but no one dared to come and play peacemaker anymore.
It was as if they sensed that there was a certain kind of relationship between us where outsiders could not possibly insert themselves.
In truth, I was not picking a fight with him; it was simply that on the matter of Yin Shu, there was truly no room for compromise.
The current Yin Shu possessed no ability to contend with Yin Xiao. Noble Consort De had orchestrated the kidnapping because of him, even though he himself had remained entirely unaware.
No matter how Yin Xiao chose to settle accounts with Yin Shu’s faction, he could not take Yin Shu’s life.
This was a non-negotiable condition.
One day, while wandering over to the Ziyan Palace, I happened to run into Yin Shu here.
Normally, there was nobody else around here, making it a rather good spot for me to relieve some of my recent stifling stress.
Seeing that he was also present, I could not help pausing for a moment.
When Yin Shu saw me, he raised his gaze slightly, his smile polite and restrained. “Lord Ji.”
I nodded, instinctively averting my gaze and not daring to look into his eyes.
Noticing my tense awkwardness, he only smiled more deeply. “Shall we go for a walk?”
I instinctively wanted to refuse, but the words stopped on my lips.
In the past, constrained by my identity as Yin Xiao’s teacher, I had been eager to draw a clear line between Yin Shu and myself. But things had progressed to this stage today, and victory and defeat were already decided.
I let out an affirmative hum and followed Yin Shu as he strolled through the theatrical courtyard of the Ziyan Palace, listening to him recount some events from the past.
He gazed toward the long-abandoned stage, which had been left unmanaged for ages, his expression wistful.
Yin Shu told me that he and Yin Xiao had never been particularly close. Their brotherly bond was neither thin nor thick.
Hearing this topic, I blinked uncomfortably.
Sensing that I had misunderstood, Yin Shu gave a bitter smile and explained, “Lord Ji need not worry. I am not here to plead for myself.”
His lips pressed together slightly, and after lingering in silence for a dozen seconds, he let out a heavy sigh.
“The various troubles sparked in the past and today are not entirely my mother’s fault. If only I had discovered it a little sooner.” He shook his head. “I fully understand my second brother’s feelings.”
I asked, “When Yin Xiao was poisoned and afflicted with the love gu back then, could it all have been Noble Consort De?”
Yin Shu’s movements paused slightly.
He looked at me. “Since Lord Ji knows about the love gu affair, could it be that my second brother’s love gu was…”
I froze.
Yin Shu’s tone carried a half-joking inflection; if I denied it, I could have brushed the topic aside with a smile the very next second.
Yet this brief one-second hesitation had already caused me to miss the optimal moment for an explanation.
Watching my expression of sheer, guilt-ridden, indefensible, and nervous panic, Yin Shu could not help bursting into laughter.
I failed to catch the bittersweet gleam lingering at the corners of his eyes.
Aside from this small interlude, our conversation had been reasonably pleasant.
Perhaps because I had been cooped up in the Lanyue Palace too heavily these past few days, chatting with him lifted a considerable weight from my mind.
As we parted ways, Yin Shu bantered with me, “When my second brother first made Lord Ji’s acquaintance, he even complained about Lord Ji’s various faults. Looking at it now, he must be thoroughly satisfied with Lord Ji.”
Hearing this, I felt both embarrassed and awkward.
The relationship between Yin Xiao and me was already in this state, and there was no telling when we might completely fall out in the future.
It was better if fewer people knew about the love gu affair; if I were to lose my head one day, the joke would be on me on a massive scale.
The moment I returned to the Lanyue Palace, I was intercepted head-on by Yin Xiao.
Pitch-black and devoid of light, the room didn’t even have a single lamp lit, and the evening wind carrying through brought a rather eerie atmosphere. “You met with the crown prince. What did you talk about?”
Yin Xiao’s voice was low, his expression concealed within the night, allowing only the cold, hard outline of his jaw to be dimly perceived.
I countered, “Are you having me followed?”
Yin Xiao did not feel there was anything wrong with this, wearing a matter-of-fact tone. “I was simply afraid that Teacher would run into trouble again.”
With that, he suddenly let out a cold laugh, his tone self-derisive. “Teacher has nothing to say to me, yet you chatted so warmly and happily with the crown prince.”
I had no idea what he had seen or heard; I only felt that Yin Xiao’s entire state was somewhat bizarre.
Attempting to bypass him and leave this place, I was instead yanked back by Yin Xiao, who hooked his arm around my waist and trapped me in his embrace.
His attitude, which had been so bitterly sarcastic just moments ago, suddenly softened. He murmured, “Teacher, you promised me that you would help me every month.”
I froze, my peripheral vision drifting toward that jade-plate-like full moon hanging outside the window.
It was the full moon.
The day Yin Xiao’s love gu flared up.
No wonder he looked so strange today.
Yet…
While I hesitated, he had already kissed the side of my ear, lightly pecking at my cheek as though savoring a fine delicacy.
I quickly reached out to block his haphazard kissing movements.
I pushed Yin Xiao away and asked him a very, very earnest question.
“Can you endure it?”
Yin Xiao froze.
I told him, “Try and see if you can hold back. If you can manage it, then even if you leave me in the future, you won’t be troubled by this issue.”
Although I was Yin Xiao’s teacher, in the eyes of others, I was the one he trusted most of all.
Yet could I truly live to the very end? I was not certain either.
If one day Yin Xiao wanted to kill me so badly, yet kept me alive simply because he was forced to sleep with me every month, that would be far too insulting.
If he could endure and push past it, both he and I would be freer in the future. Wouldn’t that be rather nice?
I had spoken these words with complete sincerity.
Yet Yin Xiao reacted as though he had heard some cosmic joke, grinding his teeth as he repeated, “Endure it?”
I nodded, once again telling him with absolute certainty that I was not joking.
Yin Xiao’s complexion had already deteriorated to the extreme, as if a dark aura were steaming off his entire body, giving off the impression that he was about to swallow me whole.
Fortunately, Yin Xiao did not actually resort to forcing me.
Nor did he release me, however.
We stood there facing each other in a stalemate for a moment.
“Do not leave.” Yin Xiao’s voice was hoarse from holding back, the moonlight reflecting the thin beads of sweat pooling across his brow as he truly subjected himself to a form of torture. “Just stay and keep me company. Is that not even allowed?”
He was suffering so intensely that even the arm gripping me was trembling slightly, as though he were suppressing a tremendous amount of agony.
Still, I failed to break free from his grip.
I would stay, but do nothing at all, merely remaining by his side to witness every bit of his struggle and pain.
I understood Yin Xiao’s personality; he genuinely wanted to tough it out just to show me.
Yet as time ticked away drop by drop, he gradually began to lose his grip on himself.
Yin Xiao gripped the bedsheets with a deathly vice, drawing close to me entirely on instinct.
His face pressed against mine, our necks gradually tangling as we embraced. The areas where our skin touched felt as though they were about to catch fire, scorched as if swept over by rolling flames.
I used the back of my hand to test the temperature of his cheek, nearly convincing myself I was about to get burned.
Yet the moment Yin Xiao made contact with the icy temperature of the back of my hand, he behaved like a beast catching the scent of blood, lunging forward swiftly.
I retreated in a hurry, terrified he might pull something out of line.
“Do not leave!” Yin Xiao shouted out in a hoarse voice. He was practically kneeling before me, his waist bowed as he trembled uncontrollably.
Gasping for breath, using his very last ounce of reason, he squeezed out the words syllable by syllable. “Teacher, I have always listened to you, and I have never touched you.”
By the end, he was barely capable of organizing his speech. Half-kneeling, he used those moisture-laden eyes to plead with me to the utmost limit.
“Just once, even once.”
His sweat-drenched body dared not touch me, his nose tip merely brushing against mine in a fleeting, dragonfly-like contact, his posture almost pious.
“Teacher, help me.”
Without further ado, quickly bring out the waist drums! Tap! Tap! Tap!