Su Yan was “invited” by several young eunuchs to the hot spring pool in a side hall, scrubbed until not a trace of cat smell remained, changed into fresh clothes, and then “invited” again, politely yet firmly, into Fengxian Hall.
Lihua stood at the entrance, glaring at him as if waiting.
For some reason, whenever Su Yan now saw those glassy eyes, he felt a bit uneasy, like a sharp-witted little maid beside the mistress of the house, specially assigned to watch whether the master had been flirting outside.
He felt guilty for a brief second, then bent down and patted the cat’s head.
Lihua turned her head to sniff his hand, then sniffed along his sleeve. She seemed pleased and used both paws to clutch his arm.
Knowing this meant “let’s make up,” Su Yan quickly picked her up and gave her a thorough petting, then buried his face in her soft belly, breathing in the “cat scent” he had missed. Lihua narrowed her eyes in comfort, a soft purring rumble sounding from her throat.
“Useless thing, forgiving so easily!” Zhu Helin was rather speechless at his pet, whose temper came quickly and went quickly. He sat on the luohan couch with a stern face, not wearing his crown, a large piece of bright red cloth spread across his knees.
Holding the cat, Su Yan walked over and saw clearly that it seemed to be a quilt cover, three sides already stitched, with one side left open.
“What is Young Master doing? If you want to take apart a quilt cover, wouldn’t it be better to leave it to the palace servants?” Thinking of Zhu Helin’s wild imagination, which from time to time brought him either surprise or shock, Su Yan couldn’t help asking.
Zhu Helin bared his teeth in a grin, a mix of heroic and roguish air under the lamplight, and countered, “Have you ever heard of the cat punishment?
“When I was little, I overheard palace maids chatting, saying that in the former dynasty’s harem, this punishment was used on unfaithful consorts. First, strip the person naked, stuff them entirely into a sack, leaving only the head outside,” he deliberately shook the quilt cover in his hand toward Su Yan, “then put a cat inside. Beating the sack from the outside with a whip makes the cat, in pain, claw and scratch wildly. The punished person gets torn open by the cat’s claws, suffering unbearably.”
“…I take my leave.” Su Yan set Lihua down on a nearby table and turned to go.
The quilt cover came down from behind, covering him from head to toe. Startled, Su Yan instinctively pushed outward with his hands and found the fabric thin, the glow of palace lanterns faintly filtering through, like a hazy red sun.
Zhu Helin also slipped inside. The cover was spacious; he used both hands to hold up a space, so the person inside did not feel suffocated.
Su Yan looked at Zhu Helin, who was now so close, everything around them was bright red, even their faces tinged with a soft red glow, like a dreamlike, surreal illusion.
He heard Zhu Helin say softly, “Just now I was deliberately scaring you. Actually, when I was little, I heard palace maids in Kunning Palace say that among the common folk there is a very effective ritual, covering two people with a red silk quilt embroidered with mandarin ducks in embrace, so that their affection will last forever and never change.”
Su Yan fell silent for a moment, about to speak, but Zhu Helin cut him off, “I know this is just a wish. If it were real, how could there be so many unrequited loves and unhappy couples in the world? But no matter what, I still want to try it, just take it as a joke.”
“This joke is rather…”
Zhu Helin interrupted him again. “I know you don’t believe in such things. To be honest, I don’t either, but trying it does no harm, what if it works?”
His tone was casual, yet in that moment, Su Yan felt a thousand emotions. There are some people you cannot avoid, because in the course of growing up your branches have touched, and beneath the ground your roots have long become entangled. And there are some things you think time will gradually wash away and change, yet instead, like gold polished by time, they shine all the more brilliantly.
“Do you still remember what the first thing I ever said to you was?”
After trying hard to recall, Su Yan shook his head. He only remembered that back then he had nearly been late for the metropolitan examination, ran too fast, and knocked over the Crown Prince who was traveling incognito. That collision had knocked his life onto another path, and the young Crown Prince who had still had a cracking voice back then had now become the emperor bearing the weight of the realm.
Zhu Helin smiled, with a trace of nostalgia and regret. “At the time, you were pressed on top of me, panting hard. I only felt the back of my head hitting the ground painfully, and I was full of anger, so I cursed, ‘Why don’t you get off me at once!’ Now that I think about it, it really slapped my own face. If you were willing to press down on me like that again, I’d only beg for it.”
The older he got, the thicker his skin became, flirting words just came out of his mouth… But thinking back, there had already been signs two or three years ago, all that talk like “is it big or not” and “begging elder brother to use his body as a ferry,” he had played plenty of verbal hooliganism. It was just that at the time, Su Yan had always regarded him as a kid, thinking that youthful feelings would fade sooner or later, so he had never taken it to heart.
But now, not only had that feeling not faded, it had instead grown stronger and more mature, how could he continue to ignore it? Su Yan suddenly felt a trace of inexplicable panic and unease, even not quite daring to look at Zhu Helin’s face, quietly shifting his gaze away.
Zhu Helin sensed his avoidance. He neither pressed forward nor retreated, but continued, “Later I asked you what to do with this overflowing affection, and you told me, ‘clarify the mind and see one’s nature; follow it naturally.’ I’ve been contemplating those words all this time, in the palace, in Nanjing, in all the days when you were by my side and when you were not. Until I finally understood, you are my nature, and also my natural course.”
“Qinghe, will you accept it?”
For a moment, Su Yan could not speak, only shaking his head with a look of guilt.
Zhu Helin was very disappointed.
Confessing with all his heart again and again, only to be underestimated, rejected, brushed aside again and again, as if his feelings could never gain the other’s trust, this endless night without a glimpse of dawn was simply despairing.
Zhu Helin clenched his teeth and endured, yet a surge of resentment still rose up. Seeing Su Yan tugging at the opening of the quilt cover, trying to slip out, he finally couldn’t hold back and grabbed his arm. “You’re not allowed to go!”
Su Yan said helplessly, “I can’t breathe.”
Zhu Helin let go of the hand holding up the fabric, and the thin cloth naturally fell down, covering Su Yan’s head and face. With his vision blocked, Su Yan reached out blindly to push it away, when suddenly his back was struck hard by a force. Losing balance, he lurched forward and crashed into Zhu Helin.
It turned out that Lihua, who had been coiling her tail on the table, saw something moving under the quilt cover like a bright red giant cat teaser and immediately got excited, pouncing hard onto it.
Su Yan was nearly knocked senseless by the ten-plus-pound living cat and staggered forward into Zhu Helin. And though Zhu Helin could have stood steady, at that moment it was as if all his strength vanished, letting Su Yan crash into him. The two of them fell onto the floor together, limbs entangled, still wrapped in the quilt.
Zhu Helin ended up underneath, exactly as he wished, his hands firmly clasping Su Yan’s waist.
Su Yan had to struggle free of the quilt while also prying his hands away, and before long he was panting from exhaustion.
Zhu Helin lowered his voice by his ear. “Now it really is a pair of mandarin ducks beneath the same quilt for the night… I think it will work.”
Now it was Su Yan’s turn to grit his teeth. “Work, my foot! You’re already so grown, and still acting like a child. Besides, if the palace servants see this, what face would a ruler have left?”
Zhu Helin gave a light laugh. “I’m willing. What servant would have the guts or the lack of sense to barge in? And don’t talk to me about face, if you want face, I can give it up. I’d rather trade it for some intimacy.”
The two struggled under the quilt while Lihua bounced excitedly on top. In the end, Su Yan was stepped on by the cat until he nearly coughed blood and surrendered. “If you say it works, it works. Fine, fine, lift the quilt, I really can’t breathe!”
Only then did Zhu Helin mercifully pull the quilt away. Su Yan lay spread out on the floor, breathing in great gulps of fresh air.
“Can’t breathe? I’ll give you some.”
“No need, mmph!”
Zhu Helin flipped over and pinned him down, forcefully kissing him. This time, they didn’t knock their lips or bite each other’s tongues.
Su Yan was forced to endure this long and intense “sharing of breath,” the saliva he had no time to swallow slipping from the corner of his mouth like a silver thread.
Zhu Helin was like a starving tiger, every rise and fall of his back filled with desire and longing with nowhere to go. With trembling fingers, he groped over the chest and waist beneath him through the clothing, speaking in a hoarse, almost panicked voice, “Qinghe… Qinghe, I’m suffering badly, help me… only you can completely put out this fire, nothing else will do…”
Su Yan gripped his wrist tightly, not letting him go further.
Carried away by desire, Zhu Helin was like someone swept into waves while drowning, unable to control his emotions, suddenly becoming angry. Fortunately, he retained a trace of clarity and redirected it at the last moment: “I’m going to kill the person who gave you that cat, and that long-haired white cat!”
“Don’t!” Su Yan was startled and quickly stopped him. “Your Majesty, of such supreme status, why bother getting angry with a mere animal? That was… I had someone buy it, a male cat to keep Lihua company. Otherwise when spring comes and she goes into heat, it would be troublesome.”
Zhu Helin vaguely felt he was hinting at something, but had no mind to think it through, and said resentfully, “You can think of finding Lihua a companion, but you can’t spare a thought for me? Am I not even as good as a cat in your heart?”
The Son of Heaven had lowered himself to compete with a cat, what could Su Yan say? He could only reply, “That’s not the case. Of course I care about you, Young Master. How about… we also arrange the selection of consorts?”
Zhu Helin froze, then truly became angry. His face darkened terribly as he threatened in an overbearing tone, “If you bring up the selection again, I’ll strip off your third-rank official robes, put you in the empress’s phoenix crown and robe, and tie you to the dragon throne, do you believe it?”
Su Yan shuddered, suspecting that if this man were truly enraged, he might do anything outrageous. A wise man does not suffer immediate losses, so he quickly smoothed things over. “Then we’ll talk about it later. And besides, with internal and external troubles right now, it’s indeed not suitable to hold a selection. I spoke wrongly.”
Only then did Zhu Helin’s anger subside somewhat. He huffed, “Let me touch your belly, and I’ll calm down.”
Su Yan was almost amused to death by him. “Touch my belly? What kind of fetish is that…”
“You bury your face in Lihua’s belly at every turn, why are you unwilling when it’s your turn? Hurry up!”
Unwilling to be treated like a cat, Su Yan was forcibly pulled open at the collar by the “litter-scooping” emperor, exposing a stretch of pale, firm chest and abdominal muscles, which Zhu Helin buried into and rubbed against, breathing in to his heart’s content.
Su Yan was ticklish, especially around the waist and abdomen. Laughing to the point of tears while curling up into a ball, he fought desperately against the young emperor who was trying to push his advantage further.
In the end, due to the disparity in strength, he was completely defeated, not only was his upper clothing pulled into disarray, even his trousers were almost not spared.
Just as Zhu Helin was getting carried away with rubbing against him, he suddenly froze, his whole body trembling a few times before revealing an extremely shocked expression, as though he had frightened himself.
Before that shock could turn into even greater embarrassment and anger from humiliation, he quickly got up and rushed out of the bedchamber in a somewhat disheveled manner.
Left behind, Su Yan was completely baffled. He hadn’t expected the usually clingy little Zhu to let him off so easily this time. While relieved, he also felt a bit worried, could it be that something was wrong with him?
He hurriedly straightened his clothes and hat, picked up Lihua, and said, “Come, let’s go check on your Father and see whether we need to summon the imperial physician.”
After going around, however, he couldn’t find Zhu Helin. An eunuch came to deliver a message, saying that the emperor had other matters to attend to and had ordered someone to escort Su Gelao out of the palace first.
Su Yan found this “matter” rather strange, likely not state affairs, but since Zhu Helin said so, it meant he didn’t intend to tell him the details, and Su Yan wasn’t one to press, so he withdrew in accordance with the order.
Before leaving, he casually asked the eunuch, “Where is His Majesty at the moment?”
The eunuch did not dare conceal it from a Gelao and answered, “At the hot spring pool in the eastern side hall.”
…Taking a bath on a whim? Well, as long as little Zhu was happy.
Su Yan kissed Lihua on the forehead, reluctantly handed her over to the cat-tending eunuch, and then left Fengxian Hall.
Only when he reached the palace gate did he realize that, in order to get away, he had so casually betrothed the Persian cat Shen Qi had given him to Lihua? The two hadn’t even met yet! What if they didn’t get along and started fighting on sight…
More importantly, what if Shen Qi found out and got angry, and his “demonic nature” flared up, what then?
Su Yan fell into a new worry. After returning home by carriage, he picked up the gentle-tempered Persian cat and looked it over from every angle, feeling that in the future it would probably be pinned to the ground and thoroughly beaten by Lihua.
Thus, with guilt in his heart, Lord Su instructed the servant, “For the time being, feed the cat as much as it wants, fatten it up… Oh right, it needs a name. Let’s call it… Haitang*.”
* begonia; pink coloured
Su Xiaobei silently complained: A white male cat named Haitang? Leaving aside gender, even the color doesn’t match!
Su Xiaobei smiled. “My lord has truly chosen an excellent name, it suits this cat perfectly.”
