Chapter 61
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Just, just a moment ago, everything was fine.
“Jiang… Your Majesty.” Chu Xie propped himself up with his elbow, but his wrist was pulled, and he tumbled back into the soft bedding.
The young emperor held both of his hands tightly, stroking every inch of his fingers and skin, as if he were choosing his prey.
“Chu Xie, what do you treat me as?”
Jiang Yanchi waited for his answer, and he hesitated to say, “You are, of course, the Emperor of Great Wei, Your Majesty.”
“What about for you?”
Chu Xie didn’t like the stifling feeling of being trapped on one side. He cleared his throat and tried to answer casually, “You…”
“You are really… too much.”
I am too much.
Chu Xie was bewildered as he looked into Jiang Yanchi’s red and sharp eyes. He felt the hand gripping his arm getting heavier, close to leaving a bruise, and couldn’t help but make a sound of pain.
“I poured out my feelings to you without reservation because I wanted you to trust and rely on me. Not to have you hold it over me and use it as a threat!”
The young emperor heard the painful cry but, in turn, lifted his leg and pressed him underneath. Chu Xie, buried in the blankets, struggled to turn over. Staring at him with increasingly resentful eyes, Chu Xie felt an inexplicable sense of annoyance.
“Jiang Yanchi, do you like me?” Chu Xie raised an eyebrow slightly. “You don’t even know what liking someone means.”
The young emperor, like a growling young beast, had a red nose. “It’s you who doesn’t know!”
“Chu Xie, do you care about my feelings?”
“What?”
“Can everything be exchanged? Even the body?” Jiang Yanchi looked at the fair neck, almost wishing to cover it with his hand. “This kind of thing, you’ve done it before, haven’t you?”
“You think you’re naturally beautiful and want to rely on your appearance…”
The words became more and more offensive.
What does this mean? Am I just a gigolo for him?
“It’s you who wanted it, not me!” Chu Xie’s voice rose, sharp and distant. The gaze seemed like a sharp knife extended in front, yet covered in sugar icing.
Jiang Yanchi looked at that gaze and felt like he was licking honey off a blade.
Now, he was here like a begging dog, seeking a bit of warmth, debasing his own heart.
Alright, let it be.
The hand that pinched his arm loosened a bit, but the lingering pain remained.
“Then why do you want Zhao Lingqu dead? You better explain it clearly to me.” Jiang Yanchi’s voice grew colder, suppressing the boiling frustration in his bloodstream. “You never mentioned the cause and effect, just asking me to kill someone for you, even at the cost of… have you ever trusted me?”
“I trust you, and that’s why I’m willing to make deals with you!” Under repeated questioning, Chu Xie became somewhat irritated. He considered himself not difficult to get along with, having only caused trouble for Jiang Yanchi in the cases of Jiang Jingan and Xu Yi.
But why was it that everywhere he went, he couldn’t please Jiang Yanchi? It seemed so difficult to accomplish anything through him.
Was it because the plot became more challenging as it progressed, or was it because the main storyline deviated too much?
Chu Xie had never felt so powerless and frustrated before.
Jiang Yanchi had always been the biggest variable in his plot.
Capricious, unpredictable.
“I never liked men. If I were to marry you, then I’d marry you. I never wanted to return to the capital, but now I have no choice… You all have your plans, and I have mine. I’ve done my best to be thorough. Why are you all so angry with me?”
Chu Xie, in a moment of carelessness, revealed too much.
He inadvertently mentioned Xu Chunmu and realized his mistake.
Fortunately, he didn’t disclose anything crucial. Nervous for a moment, he quickly covered it up with other unrelated remarks.
“You say I’m plotting against you, but haven’t you plotted against me?” Chu Xie fought back aggressively. “You want to marry the person from the night, but you negotiate the marriage contract with the one from the daytime—me. Why? Because you know I’m better at negotiating. You want to use me to tie down that ‘him.’ Well, fair enough. I’ll trap him by your side, I’ll marry you on his behalf, and I might even share a bed with you, letting you do whatever you want with this body. Now, you’re talking about sincerity and goodwill. Are you trying to take advantage of me?”
Originally intending to beat around the bush, he couldn’t help but get angrier as he spoke, looking at Jiang Yanchi’s dumbfounded face.
“You talk about interests when discussing emotions with me, and then you talk about emotions when discussing interests. Are you playing with me?”
“Jiang Yanchi, go to h*ll!”
It’s just Zhao Lingqu. Without you, I can still kill him anyway.
“I don’t care what you think. I’m done. I won’t stay in the capital anymore. I’m packing up and leaving tonight. D*mn it—”
“Hold on!”
When Jiang Yanchi heard him say he was leaving, his expression changed. “Wait, don’t leave. I’m sorry… I didn’t know you were like this. Yes, I admit I schemed a bit. You, in the daytime, have ambitious plans and many schemes, making negotiations easier. I just wanted to keep you. But I genuinely like you…”
Jiang Yanchi seemed extremely sad.
“Chu Xie, it’s not just the nighttime you I like.”
“All of you, I like all of you.”
Chu Xie frowned.
The daytime me and the nighttime me are completely different characters. You say you like both?
Chu Xie suddenly realized.
You d*mn well just like my face, don’t you?!
Chu Xie swallowed this sentence without erupting into a furious tirade.
Jiang Yanchi sniffled and looked both anxious and confused, “Don’t leave, you wanted me to help you kill Zhao Lingqu, right? Well… I’ll do it, I’ll help you kill.”
His tone was pitiful.
Chu Xie’s rebellious fire had subsided, and he heard the young emperor willing to help him kill.
He no longer dwelled on the depth of affection in those sincere-sounding “likes.”
So, he sat back in silence.
The two of them stared at each other in silence for a long time.
“Have you ever liked someone?” Jiang Yanchi suddenly asked, “A man or a woman.”
Chu Xie lowered his gaze, “No.”
He asked again, “So you don’t like me at all.”
Chu Xie glanced at him and replied, “Mmm.”
“You don’t even lie to me now.”
“I promised not to lie to you.”
Jiang Yanchi was slightly taken aback and looked at his calm face. Suddenly, the hand he had clenched in his sleeve loosened a bit. It was as if his emotions, which had been filled with resentment and anger, had steadied with this simple statement.
“You don’t like me, so why are you willing to do this with me?”
“No benefit in resisting you or making you angry.”
Jiang Yanchi sighed slowly, feeling even more oppressed inside. However, he didn’t easily flare up again on the surface. Instead, he tentatively asked.
“What if someone else threatened you, would you still be willing?”
“I wouldn’t.”
Jiang Yanchi was stunned.
Suddenly, a faint sense of joy broke through in his heart, wrapping around his heart and lungs, and tightening abruptly.
“Why?”
Chu Xie seemed to deliberate for a moment, and Jiang Yanchi immediately said, “You promised not to lie to me.” He saw the hesitation in the man’s eyes.
“Tell me, tell me, please.” Jiang Yanchi’s tone became slightly gentler, with a hint of coaxing, as he lightly nibbled on Chu Xie’s earlobe. “I want to know, I want to know your feelings, I want to know how you really see me…”
Chu Xie couldn’t help but feel that this person was indeed quite strange, both in his anger and in his efforts to make amends.
He could go from acting like a rabid dog one moment to being affectionate the next.
Well, this was probably what it meant to be starved for affection.
Chu Xie didn’t want to create any misunderstandings, but at least in the daytime, he really didn’t want to lie to him.
Jiang Yanchi saw him hesitate and persisted, making Chu Xie uncomfortable with his soft words.
“Good older brother, tell me….”
A murmur exploded in his ears, and the words that Chu Xie was about to say choked in his throat, turning into a cold and icy statement: “I am not your older brother.”
Suddenly pushing him away forcefully, Jiang Yanchi hastily sat on the bed and grabbed the pinky finger of Chu Xie’s left hand, saying, “Okay, I won’t call you that… Ah Xie, you tell me, okay?”
Chu Xie couldn’t stand such soft words and requests.
He sighed and said, “I feel guilty towards you.”
Didn’t expect this answer.
Jiang Yanchi was stunned again, looking at Chu Xie, who didn’t seem to be lying. He asked, “You…”
“Puyang County, I clearly knew that Xu Yi was rebelling and would report the case of Jiang Jingan to the state government to pull you down. But I…” The situation was too complicated, and Chu Xie couldn’t explain it in a few words. “But, I was too afraid of death… Only concerned about escaping for my own life, I abandoned you, forcing you to do such rebellious things. You were originally a dignified king, but now you have become a usurper, and it’s my fault…”
“I wronged you.”
Chu Xie said very slowly, sincerely, not like pretending. Jiang Yanchi also listened attentively for a long time, carefully disassembling and pondering each word.
It was as if he wanted to rub and squeeze out some meaning from each word.
Unexpectedly, Chu Xie, who had been silent, turned out to have so much to say.
And so frank about it.
The Little Emperor was extremely surprised, and felt that the current Chu Xie had a bit of the shadow of the one from the night.
Jiang Yanchi felt his heart soften or feel guilty; as long as he didn’t really not care.
Extracting some sincere words made him completely delighted, and his anger vanished instantly.
Unable to resist, he approached again with a face full of flattery, holding Chu Xie’s hand and kneading it, saying, “Being afraid of death is good.”
“…?”
“I’m just afraid you don’t care about your life.”
The young emperor leaned in closer, “Not only this time, but in the future, you have to be clever, and if you see trouble, run away. Don’t get yourself involved.”
Chu Xie felt a strange discomfort.
Then he heard the young emperor ask, “How did you escape Xu Yi’s pursuit and encounter Xu Chunmu?”
“Just…”
It seemed a bit difficult to explain, “by chance.”
“It was indeed by chance. Who could have thought that just as we decided to intercept Jiang Jingan in Puyang, Xu Yi would arrive in Puyang County. It was too coincidental.” Jiang Yanchi murmured, tightening his grip on Chu Xie’s hand. “It’s really hard to guard against, but luckily you’re unharmed.”
“You’re not angry that I abandoned you?” Chu Xie was somewhat surprised. If the roles were reversed, he would never forgive someone who deserted in the heat of battle.
“I’m not angry, you did well.”
Jiang Yanchi’s smile didn’t diminish, and he pulled Chu Xie into his arms again, sitting on the bed and pinching his waist. “You did the right thing. Remember, in the future, whenever you encounter a problem, prioritize your own life.”
“No matter what problems you face, I will solve them. Don’t trouble yourself for me.” His hand traced the slim waist, reaching up to touch the delicate collarbone. “I told you before, you should trust me.”
Chu Xie’s glass-like eyes looked down at the ground, and this time he didn’t pull away.
The young emperor enjoyed a moment of tenderness, not as radical as before, fearing to disrupt this warm atmosphere.
The familiar scent of cypress lingered in the room, and the warm light of the approaching twilight bathed the two of them.
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