Even as they were about to leave the sleeping palace, Liang Ye was still muttering ominously, “You dared to hit Zhen’s head, you—”
“Your head isn’t made of gold, shut up,” Wang Dian supported him, hiding behind a wall and watching the imperial guards fighting each other. “What’s going on? Are your own people not clean?”
“There were always some of Cui Yuxian’s people left among the imperial guards. It wouldn’t be good to kill them all off,” Liang Ye reached out to touch the mask on his face. The next moment, an arrow grazed the back of his hand. Wang Dian was pulled into his embrace, bumping right into his wound.
Wang Dian quickly steadied himself and looked at him, but Liang Ye didn’t even frown. His soft sword unsheathed, he joined the melee with people rushing in from all directions.
The scene became so chaotic that Wang Dian couldn’t tell who was who. There were imperial guards fighting each other, black-armored guards and unidentified assassins who had rushed out from somewhere, and secret guards who had run out in the chaos to protect Liang Ye. Flames were rising everywhere in the imperial palace, and the sounds of fighting were constant.
Liang Ye had hastily put on a snow-white outer robe, and the blood seeping through his wound was particularly eye-catching. Even though he was surrounded by a murderous aura and could slice off half of someone’s head with one sword stroke, Wang Dian still watched him nervously, occasionally helping with his sleeve darts. When Liang Ye pressed on his shoulder and leapt into the air, Wang Dian’s mind went blank.
An imperial guard whose neck had been broken by a kick fell at his feet, his eyeballs protruding and blood flowing from seven orifices, truly a sight of someone dying with eyes wide open.
Liang Ye’s soft sword wrapped around another person’s neck and pulled down. The bloody head spun heavily to the ground. He elbowed the neck of someone sneaking up behind him, and Wang Dian instantly heard the cracking sound of bones breaking. The next second, Liang Ye wrapped his arm around Wang Dian’s waist and leapt onto the palace wall. He turned and threw out a handful of willow leaf knives, then retrieved them. Dozens of people standing below the wall gradually showed tiny red wounds on their foreheads, falling to the ground like soulless puppets.
However, more people quickly surrounded them. Liang Ye clicked his tongue in disgust and jumped down from the high wall with Wang Dian in his arms.
Wang Dian’s heart was about to jump out of his throat. He held Liang Ye’s hand tightly and asked, “Are you alright?”
Liang Ye gave him a contemptuous look, then turned his head and spat out a mouthful of dirty blood.
“Liang Ye!” Wang Dian shouted sternly, gripping his arm tightly.
Liang Ye leaned on him lazily and smiled, pretending to be weak as he coughed twice. “It’s nothing, just some stagnant blood.”
Wang Dian looked at him as if he wanted to swallow him alive. Liang Ye smiled and showed him the string of willow leaf knives tied with extremely thin silk threads, jingling noisily. “Surprised? Zhen has thirty-six of these. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?”
“You—” Wang Dian wanted to arrange those messy threads for him, but Liang Ye nimbly dodged, keeping the knives and threads far away from him.
“These threads can cut through bone. Don’t touch them carelessly,” Liang Ye took out a special bag to store these things, complaining, “These are useful, but they’re too much trouble to store. Zhen somewhat regrets trading a dagger with that monk for these…”
Wang Dian bit his lip and ignored him, leading the group to hide in a secluded small palace nearby. He couldn’t tell where this place was either. The long-uninhabited palace was cold and damp, with a pervasive smell of decay.
Liang Ye became dead weight after losing his strength. Wang Dian supported him to the wall, not daring to light a lamp. He could only check Liang Ye’s injuries by the moonlight outside and the distant firelight. Liang Ye leaned lazily against the wall, pulling out a clean handkerchief from Wang Dian’s sleeve to wipe his sword.
“If you dare use it to wipe your sword, I’ll throw you out,” Wang Dian snatched it back.
Liang Ye looked at the handkerchief a couple more times, suspiciously asking, “This handkerchief seems to be Zhen’s?”
“What kind of eyesight is that,” Wang Dian calmly tucked the handkerchief back into his sleeve and cut a piece of cloth from Liang Ye’s robe for him. “Use this.”
After speaking, he began examining his wound. Liang Ye carelessly wiped his soft sword a couple of times, then shifted his gaze to Wang Dian’s face. Wang Dian was half-kneeling on the ground, his expression grave, eyebrows furrowed. He searched all over his body for medicine, and when he found none, he visibly began to grow agitated, his jaw tightly clenched. “Wait here for me, I’ll go to the Imperial Medical Courtyard to find medicine.”
As he was about to leave, Liang Ye grabbed his wrist. Wang Dian’s face looked even worse than his.
“Zhen… brought medicine,” Liang Ye lowered his eyes, pressing a small porcelain bottle into his hand. “It’s for stopping bleeding.”
Wang Dian squeezed the bottle in his palm hard, staring at him for a long time before taking a deep breath and opening it. He applied it to the wound and said in a deep voice, “You brought medicine in advance.”
“Mm,” Liang Ye felt an indescribable guilt. He paused before speaking. “Zhen didn’t expect they would lose patience tonight.”
“What do you want me to do?” Wang Dian finished rebandaging his wound, his voice sounding devoid of emotion, purely rational.
Liang Ye glanced at him and then lowered his eyes again. “Nothing, just stay by Zhen’s side.”
Wang Dian chuckled lightly. “You just said you needed my help, and now you say I don’t need to do anything? The Cui family has many private soldiers, the imperial guards are too scattered, and we don’t have the advantage in numbers. It’s not the first or second time you’ve used me. Why are you being so indecisive at this critical moment?”
“Zhen is pleased to,” Liang Ye said impatiently. “Where did you get all this nagging from?”
“Six out of ten chance of victory, how many would be left without me?” Wang Dian straightened his collar. “You’ve planned everything meticulously, isn’t it just to make me willingly become your chess piece? Now at the crucial moment, with everything set up, don’t be childishly willful.”
Half of Liang Ye’s face was in shadow, his dark eyes fixed on Wang Dian. The flickering firelight from outside cast the remaining side of his face in a cold and merciless light. When he didn’t smile, he always carried an overwhelming sense of superiority that made people feel breathless, instinctively wanting to avoid him.
But Wang Dian looked at him calmly, mercilessly exposing him, “Your Majesty, you shouldn’t have taken out that bottle of medicine.”
If Liang Ye hadn’t produced the medicine, he could have panicked and lost his reason, then walked out that door with a clear conscience and willingness, maintaining the surface-level peace between adults. Finally, he could have cooled down his stupidly fevered brain, instead of now, with the two of them facing each other, uncovering those true and false calculations and conspiracies, exposing the cunning and rotten human heart, leaving only embarrassment.
“Zhen naturally has other methods,” Liang Ye, having his calculations so bluntly exposed, felt angry, embarrassed, and a mix of other indescribable emotions.
“Of course there are other methods, but the chances of success will decrease,” Wang Dian gently stroked his face. “Your Majesty, if you want to be emperor, don’t invest too much genuine feeling, because what I give you is pitifully little.”
He couldn’t even calculate how much of his interest in Liang Ye was curiosity and thrill-seeking, and how much of his care and affection was feigned. Liang Ye was the same.
To act like this at the most critical moment was really unnecessary.
“Wang Dian,” Liang Ye called his name in a deep voice, with a tone of threat and warning.
Wang Dian smiled, “I still want my glory and wealth. Compared to that bit of your true feelings, power and money are more tangible.”
After saying this, he stood up and said, “Your Majesty, I’ll go find medicine for you.”
Liang Ye instinctively raised his hand to grab him, his blood-stained hand lifting halfway before being forcibly lowered and hidden in his sleeve. When he looked at Wang Dian again, only the coldness of an emperor remained. “Be careful on the way.”
Wang Dian didn’t stop or look back, leaving decisively.
The door opened and closed, a flash of intermingling light and shadow from the fire passing through.
Liang Ye raised his hand, touching the wound that Wang Dian had just bandaged, suddenly feeling an immense emptiness.
