Wang Dian felt like a big fool for worrying about him sleeping with a blade earlier.
The blade was as thin as a cicada’s wing, extremely soft and cool, weightless, with fine grooves carved on it, and sharp edges on both sides. Wang Dian held the blade and seriously considered whether he could kill Liang Ye with one strike before he could react, then silently gave up on this impractical idea.
Liang Ye, with drooping eyelids from fatigue, watched his gesture with the blade, lazily lifted his hand to grasp his, adjusted the position of the blade between Wang Dian’s fingers, and with a flick of his hand, a light “puff” sound was heard as the blade completely embedded itself into the wooden pillar, leaving only the tip exposed.
Wang Dian felt the force was immense in that instant, yet incredibly fast, and before he could blink, it was thrown. He couldn’t help but ask curiously, “This is also what your master taught you?”
“No, Zhen figured it out himself,” Liang Ye said smugly, raising an eyebrow.
Wang Dian stood up to look at the pillar where the blade was embedded, tried to pull it out, but couldn’t. Liang Ye leisurely came over with his hands behind his back, “You, a waste who don’t know martial arts, naturally can’t pull it out.”
After saying that, he grabbed the small tail of the blade and pulled hard.
The blade didn’t budge.
Wang Dian: “…..”
Liang Ye, refusing to believe it, pulled again, but it still didn’t move.
“Did you use too much strength?” Wang Dian found a reasonable and scientific explanation, “This point is difficult to exert force on.”
Liang Ye looked at him with a smirk, “Wait for Zhen to personally cut off your tongue.”
Wang Dian decisively kept quiet, went back to roll up the ancestral worship edict, and before entering the bedroom, he glanced at Liang Ye, who was still standing in front of the pillar, and cautiously said, “Why don’t go to sleep first, and talk about it tomorrow.”
Liang Ye was very satisfied with the steps he was given, and proudly stepped down, “Reasonable, Zhen will spare you this time.”
“Then please, Your Majesty, go back and rest,” Wang Dian said with relief, turned around and entered the bedroom, and began to arrange the bed curtains.
Just as he had done half, Liang Ye entered without any hesitation, “Where should Zhen return to?”
“Didn’t I arrange a sleeping hall specifically for you?” Wang Dian said, “If you want to rest here, I’ll go back there, and come over earlier tomorrow.”
Liang Ye acted as if he didn’t hear, and began to unbuckle his belt, shamelessly saying, “Zhen wants to sleep with you.”
Wang Dian watched him warily, “We agreed that you would review the memorial, and I would sleep with you—only sleep together.”
He stopped halfway through his sentence, feeling more and more that his words were bizarre, especially considering what had happened during the day. Does Liang Ye even know what embarrassment was?
“Zhen will do as Zhen pleases,” Liang Ye said without any sense of commitment, threw off his robe and middle garment, lay down on the bed, and patted it, beckoning him, “Come here and let Zhen hold you.”
Wang Dian twitched the corner of his mouth, stared at him for a moment, hesitated for two seconds between turning around to leave and cursing him before turning around to leave, and then…he lay down.
Wang Dian, you must be crazy. That was the only thought in his mind when Liang Ye leaned over.
Liang Ye, not knowing how he had made himself so tired, but he didn’t do anything mischievous while holding him, and soon fell asleep.
Wang Dian looked at the face so close to his, which was identical to his own, as if looking in a mirror, and really couldn’t understand what went with his mouth during the day.
He shouldn’t be so narcissistic. He thought with some uncertainty and couldn’t help but mischievously tap Liang Ye’s nose tip lightly.
Always rubbing against him there, is he a little dog?
Liang Ye wrinkled his nose but didn’t wake up.
“Liang Ye?” he called softly, but Liang Ye didn’t respond, only mumbling vaguely.
“Did you really not manage to pull out that blade, or did you do it on purpose?” Wang Dian felt a bit mean for provoking him, but he wasn’t sleepy at all, and seeing Liang Ye sleeping so soundly made him uncomfortable.
Liang Ye ignored him, and just leaned against him with force. Wang Dian raised his hand to block, but it felt as if he’d touched a piece of ice, and he frowned immediately, “Liang Ye? Liang Ye?”
Liang Ye lifted his eyelids and glanced at him, “Are you annoyed?”
“You—” Wang Dian remembered the last time he mentioned his headache, and how Liang Ye suddenly went mad and almost killed him with pain, even drinking a bowl of white jade soup himself, and immediately swallowed his words. He somewhat understood Liang Ye’s thought process and slowly said, “Reading that ancestral worship edict gave us a headache.”
Liang Ye hummed, closed his eyes, and leaned his head against his neck, a posture that wanted to be close but was also guarded.
Wang Dian lowered his voice and tentatively said, “Can you help me press it?”
Liang Ye frowned and buried his head in his neck, lazily saying, “No.”
“Alright.” Wang Dian raised his hand and lightly placed it on his shoulder, clearly feeling Liang Ye’s muscles tense up instantly, and quickly removed his hand, “Then can I help you press it?”
Liang Ye didn’t make a sound, and the next second, the gu insect in Wang Dian’s body acted up, as if it was a cold refusal and warning.
Wang Dian endured the pain and placed his hand on the back of his neck. He rubbed and pressed with some strength, but the pain did not worsen. After rubbing for a while, he inserted his finger into Liang Ye’s hair and slowly pressed with a little more force.
The pain from the gu insect gradually faded, but would occasionally flare up, as if stubbornly reminding him that his actions had displeased the master.
Wang Dian felt like he was truly going mad. He had kissed someone during the day while being ill, and now Liang Ye had come to cut his tongue at night. He cursed himself for enduring the pain and massaging the idiot’s head like a masochist.
Wang Dian spent the better part of the night massaging Liang Ye’s head. When he was half asleep, Liang Ye seemed to reach out and hug his waist. He instinctively pulled the person into his arms and then couldn’t help but close his eyes.
The next day, when he woke up, he found himself alone in bed.
Liang Ye had always been elusive, but Wang Dian inexplicably felt a sense of loss, which he forcefully suppressed.
“Chong Heng,” he tried calling out, but there was no movement around. Just when he thought Chong Heng wasn’t there, the kid suddenly appeared hanging upside down from the ceiling, holding a sword and looking at him coldly. “What’s up?”
Wang Dian looked at him wordlessly for three seconds, and Chong Heng miraculously understood what he was thinking. “The Master didn’t sleep all night and went to the mountaintop to get some air before dawn.”
“Oh,” Wang Dian said nonchalantly. “I didn’t ask you about Liang Ye.”
Chong Heng swung back and forth from the ceiling and asked him bluntly, “Why did you kiss the Master? Do you like him?”
“I don’t like men,” Wang Dian paused. “I kissed him because he pissed me off.”
“You’re really frivolous,” Chong Heng said disdainfully, then furrowed his brow then frowned and said in a tangled voice, “The Master didn’t get the aphrodisiac and took the antidote. That’s why he didn’t have the strength to pull out the Liu Ye Sword. Otherwise, he would have definitely cut off your tongue.”
Wang Dian felt conflicted. “….So it’s like this.”
Chong Heng hesitated as he hung from the ceiling, and Wang Dian kindly gave him an out. “What do you want to tell me?”
“The old witch will bring white jade soup today,” Chong Heng said. “The Master’s master said the Master shouldn’t drink it anymore, or his mind will deteriorate, but I couldn’t persuade him.”
Wang Dian understood what he was getting at. “Do you want me to persuade him not to drink it, or do you want me to drink it for him?”
“Drinking white jade soup can relieve the Master’s headache,” said Chong Heng with a furrowed brow, “but holding you, Master’s head won’t hurt too much either.”
The two stared at each other for a long while until finally, it was Wang Dian who sighed first, “I understand, but I can’t guarantee that I can persuade him.”
“Oh,” Chong Heng nodded calmly, mimicking his previous tone.
“However, I can’t just agree to your request for nothing,” Wang Dian said with a smile, “You can do me a favor in exchange.”
Chong Heng instantly became alert, “What favor?”
“A small one,” Wang Dian replied, pulling out a delicate longevity lock from his sleeve, with a lifelike dragon pattern carved on it. “If you have time, go to Ying Sufang, look for the child who previously wore this longevity lock, find out where he lives, and come back to tell me.”
“That’s it?” Chong Heng seemed to think the task was too simple.
“That’s it,” Wang Dian tossed the longevity lock to him.
“Alright,” Chong Heng caught it, flipped onto the roof beam, and with a gust of wind, the window opened and closed, and he disappeared from the room.
The Tai Chi Temple was built on the mountaintop of Shizai Mountain, rarely visited by people. Although it was on the same mountain as the imperial palace, the Emperor of Northern Liang neither believed in Buddhism or Taoism, so there was almost no interaction between them. The offering of Liang Hua’s longevity tablet here was purely superfluous, and the emperor passed away the second year after the tablet was offered.
(TL: Tai Chi or Taiji Temple)
The head of Tai Chi Temple was a female Taoist, her age indiscernible. She greeted the emperor without much enthusiasm, leading her disciples to bow respectfully, and personally took Wang Dian to Liang Hua’s tablet, handing him three sticks of incense.
“Your Majesty, there will be a two-day prayer for blessings ceremony for the late emperor. You can lead the subjects to bow and observe the ceremony,” Wen Yu whispered.
Wang Dian, lacking interest, simply nodded. After offering the incense, he led everyone to observe the ceremony.
He hadn’t slept well last night, feeling drowsy to the sound of drums and chanting. Finally, when noon arrived, he went to the back room for a vegetarian meal. Yun Fu approached quietly, “Your Majesty, as per your instructions, I’ve stopped Yang Man at the palace. Just as you expected, he brought a bowl of white jade soup and several boxes of pastries, but he refused to hand them over to me, insisting on giving them to you personally.”
“Zhen is aware,” Wang Dian said, looking at the vegetarian dishes on the table with little appetite, and then went to the backyard.
Yun Fu and the others wanted to follow, but he waved them off, “Chong Heng will accompany Zhen.”
Walking up the mountain path for about a quarter of an hour, they saw a hexagonal pavilion standing alone on the edge of a cliff. In the distance, the wind moved the clouds, and nearby, green pines stood tall. Liang Ye, dressed in a black robe with wide sleeves, leaned there casually watching the clouds. At a glance, he seemed to possess a bit of the carefree aura of an immortal.
But upon closer inspection, one could tell he was idling away his time. He leaned against a pillar, lazily tossing pebbles at the eaves above. With each throw, a tile would fall, and just looking at the broken tiles on the ground and the chipped paint on the pillars made one want to give him a good thrashing.
Wang Dian couldn’t quite gauge his mood and chose a spot a bit further away to sit down. Just as he looked up, a small stone whizzed past his ear and embedded itself into the pillar behind him, causing cracks to spread and flakes of vermilion paint to fall, dusting Wang Dian’s sleeve.
He laughed provocatively and arrogantly, pinching a pebble and aiming it at Wang Dian’s forehead.
Wang Dian brushed off his sleeve and calmly met his gaze.
Liang Ye, probably finding it all very dull, casually tossed the pebble, hitting the back of Wang Dian’s hand and leaving a red mark on his fair skin.
“Yang Man brought over white jade soup, and I had Yun Fu stop him at the palace,” Wang Dian said, picking up the small stone to examine it. He aimed at a tile that Liang Ye had already broken in half and threw the stone, neatly knocking off the protruding half.
Liang Ye glanced at him, then suddenly stood up, walked over, bent down, and grabbed Wang Dian’s hand, pulling him to his feet.
“What are you doing?” Wang Dian asked, wary and defensive, trying to pull his hand.
Liang Ye lifted his hand to look at the red mark, then suddenly leaned in and licked it, causing Wang Dian to instinctively push his head away in disgust, “Isn’t that dirty?”
Liang Ye took out a small knife blade from his bosom and sinisterly said, “Then let Zhen cut off this piece of skin and wash it clean for you.”
“I was talking about the stone!” Wang Dian exclaimed as the blade touched his hand and drew blood, his head spinning, “I wasn’t disgusted by you.”
Liang Ye squinted his eyes in annoyance, tugged at him, and walked to the edge of the cliff. Wang Dian looked down and saw clouds drifting by over the bottomless abyss. He felt a bit of acrophobia and instinctively stepped back, but a palm pressed against his back.
He turned his head, and Liang Ye was smiling with excitement and a hint of malice. The next second, a push came from behind, and before he could react, he felt the ground disappear beneath his feet.
The sensation of weightlessness and the feeling of impending doom intertwined, and time seemed to slow down infinitely. In the moment he broke through the thick clouds, he met Liang Ye’s emotionless eyes, and his heart sank heavily.
He really shouldn’t have held any illusions about such a heartless and loveless madman. Trying to reform a madman was damn well less practical than inventing a time machine and traveling back in time!
However, before his heart could sink completely, the sound of robe tearing through the wind suddenly rang out. Then, his waist was tightly gripped by someone, and he looked at Liang Ye in shock, who was holding him. The complexity and indescribability of his emotions in this lifetime all converged into an angry curse. “Are you sick?!”
Even in death, he still clung to him!
Liang Ye looked at him expressionlessly, reached out to grab a vine on the edge of the cliff, swung hard inward, and crashed straight into the rocks. Before Wang Dian could even shout, Liang Ye’s hand around his waist suddenly loosened, and Wang Dian, in terror, grabbed his waist, almost screaming. “Liang Ye!”
With one hand, Liang Ye drew the soft sword from his waist and cut off the vine that was blocking them. With the other hand, he held Wang Dian and exerted his power, and the two of them floated gently into the cave behind the vines.
Wang Dian’s legs were weak, and his mind was dazed. He clung to Liang Ye, his heart pounding in his throat, and then he heard Liang Ye’s loud laughter.
Liang Ye let him hold on, poking his face with a pleased hand while laughing and disdainfully saying, “You really are a coward.”
Wang Dian, pale-faced, looked up, shivering as he slapped away his hand, his voice hoarse. “You…madman.”
Liang Ye smiled brightly at him, “Was it fun?”
“Fun my ass,” Wang Dian lost all reason and turned to leave.
Chong Heng, holding onto the vine, swung in and happened to witness this scene. “Master, why did you let him go in by himself?”
Liang Ye stood still, staring at Wang Dian’s retreating figure, and touched his own lips with some confusion, “He’s so angry now, why didn’t he kiss Zhen?”
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