SEHE Chapter 38

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Tang Xizhui lay with his eyes closed. Suddenly feeling a gust of wind from below, he didn’t dodge but instead adjusted to a more suitable position, taking a solid kick to the leg from the person beside him.

 

“What madness has possessed you?” Pei Yanci coldly wiped the spot he had just licked with his sleeve again, licked his lips, pushed away his arm, and sat up supporting himself on the edge of the small table.

 

His weakened body swayed, and the weight pushed the small table to slide sideways. The incense burner on top wobbled twice before falling over on the table, spilling half a table of cold incense ash.

 

Pei Yanci inhaled some of the rising ash and sneezed like a kitten.

 

“You’re truly unreasonable. It was clearly you who took liberties with this lord first.” Tang Xizhui lay in the carriage, his elbow bent to prop up his head, gazing at him from afar.

 

“That was an accident.” Pei Yanci would never admit that he had only kissed him to break free from his restraints while he was dazed.

 

Rubbing his nose and turning his head, he saw Tang Xizhui scraping the dried blood from the corner of his lips with his thumb. When he spoke, blood foam seeped from between his lips, making him look utterly miserable. The anger in Pei Yanci’s heart dissipated somewhat.

 

Familiar heat began to surge up from deep within his body again, spreading to his limbs.

 

The Dugong Daren’s slender index finger pointed to his own lips. His blood-stained lips curved seductively, his eyes innocent. “Just now, who was the one kissing this lord here? So proactive that this lord was quite embarrassed.”

 

Was it necessary to expose this! Pei Yanci clenched his fist and embarrassedly kicked his calf again.

 

This was the most humiliating thing in his life – being pressed down and kissed in a carriage with no chance to fight back!

 

And it was he who had started it.

 

“Who would dare say this isn’t a manifestation of our mutual understanding?” Tang Xizhui’s mask had long disappeared somewhere during their kiss, leaving only coquettish charm on his face, rippling with spring passion.

 

“Who has mutual understanding with you?” Pei Yanci said irritably.

 

“Don’t you?” Tang Xizhui blinked at him.

 

Under his sword-like brows, his narrow eyes glowed with a touch of crabapple red, dotted with flying spring. His black-purple pupils emanated a dangerous, bloody aura – bewitching and mysterious.

 

Pei Yanci froze for a moment, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he turned his head away, forcing his gaze away from this androgynous face.

 

“Later, do you prefer whips or ropes? There are also foot chains, and I’d like to personally pierce a ring through your chest.” Tang Xizhui’s voice was hoarse as he lazily lay on the floral carpet, hands crossed and stacked under his chin.

 

When he had kissed him earlier, his breathing hadn’t been disturbed in the slightest, but now his gaze grew increasingly burning. “This lord can bind your lower parts with thin golden chains, hanging a delicate little golden lock, preventing any release. The sight of you with a flushed face yet still looking at this lord defiantly would surely be the most beautiful.”

 

Again, that bone-chilling feeling.

 

Tang Xizhui fell into an abnormally excited fantasy, muttering softly to himself, his eyes gleaming.

 

Then he was ruthlessly kicked awake by Pei Yanci.

 

“Keep your filthy thoughts to yourself.”

 

“Xiao Pei, this hardly counts as friendly treatment of a cooperative partner.” Tang Xizhui easily caught his foot, removed his sock, and kneaded it carefully, as if playing with and appraising a fine piece of jade.

 

“Let go.” Pei Yanci felt his body becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and his whole person grew more irritable.

 

He braced one hand on the small table, aimlessly trying to grasp something, but his pale fingers only touched a pile of incense ash.

 

His toes curled and his instep couldn’t help but arch. A flush crept across his face, and his crescent-moon eyes seemed to be soaked in sweet nectar, swaying with starlight. His trembling lips parted slightly, as if issuing an invitation.

 

How could this person be more familiar with his own body than he was!

 

“Xiao Pei, will you agree to dine together with this lord?” Tang Xizhui asked gently.

 

Only this kind of gentleness from his mouth carried ghostly, ethereal undertones with hidden cold light.

 

Without thinking, Pei Yanci grabbed a handful of incense ash and threw it at his face.

 

The drifting mist spread between them, and Pei Yanci sneezed twice more, his body feeling even more uncomfortable.

 

Wait.

 

He looked up at Tang Xizhui, who seemed completely unaffected.

 

“Your incense wouldn’t happen to be mixed with some aphrodisiac, would it?”

 

“After smelling it so many times, Xiao Pei, you’re truly slow to realize.” Tang Xizhui said reproachfully.

 

Who would think you’d be so perverted!

 

“This is a secret palace aphrodisiac incense, refined from dozens of precious medicinal ingredients.” He closed his eyes in intoxication. “Don’t you think it smells wonderful?”

 

“……” Even if it smells good, you can’t ignore its effects.

 

So that’s why his body heated up every time he saw him, with increasingly strong reactions each time.

 

But looking at the person before him, completely unaffected.

 

Truly worthy of being a eunuch.

 

Understanding that this was merely the effect of the incense, Pei Yanci felt relieved. No matter how devastatingly beautiful this face was, it was just an outer shell.

 

The foot that had been grabbed kicked mercilessly toward his chest.

 

“Don’t burn incense before seeing me in the future.”

 

“Why is that?” Tang Xizhui’s expression paused as he looked at him.

 

Pei Yanci withdrew his foot and looked down at the person lying on his side on the ground. “Disgusting.”

 

Tang Xizhui’s expression froze, his whole body stiffening in place.

 

For the rest of the journey, he said nothing more, just lying there with his arm over his forehead, his wide golden sleeves covering his face. It was unclear whether he had fallen asleep or was continuing to brew his filthy thoughts.

 

The carriage finally stopped.

 

“Foster father, we’ve arrived.” Huo Cun’s voice was high and thin. Seeing the curtain flutter, he quickly prostrated himself.

 

No foot landed on his back. Instead, from the corner of his eye, he glimpsed an indigo figure jumping down from the other side of the carriage.

 

Huo Cun looked up in confusion.

 

Pei Yanci didn’t even glance at him and walked toward the mansion first.

 

“Pei Yanci.” Huo Cun hurriedly called after him.

 

“Another carriage has been prepared here. Nine-Thousand-Years wants you to go back.”

 

Pei Yanci raised his eyebrows slightly – this was clearly a command just given.

 

Wasn’t he just full of obscene thoughts? Why was he telling him to leave now?

 

What kind of madness was this person having?

 

Pei Yanci discovered he couldn’t quite understand Tang Xizhui.

 

Just like how each meeting was never within his expected timeframe, and he always encountered situations beyond his imagination. That sense of losing control made him feel inexplicably irritated, while simultaneously arousing a secret anticipation.

 

Anticipating when and where their next meeting would occur.

 

Though this might also be the effect of that aphrodisiac incense.

 

A smaller, more delicate carriage was quickly brought over – not as luxurious as Tang Xizhui’s, but still refined.

 

As Pei Yanci climbed into the carriage, he glanced at the opposite carriage.

 

A golden silhouette flashed through the gap in the curtains. A gentle breeze stirred, the gauze curtains closed again, and the spying figure completely disappeared.

 

Pei Yanci entered his carriage.

 

When the carriage disappeared around the street corner, Tang Xizhui finally lifted the curtains.

 

Huo Cun was about to kneel on the ground but saw that Tang Xizhui had stepped down from the carriage without using his back as a step.

 

He looked at Tang Xizhui with trepidation. Under the golden mask, his expression was gloomy and dark, his eyes like deep abysses. Huo Cun feared that the next moment, this person would directly raise his hand and take his life.

 

“Nine-Thousand-Years.” He tremblingly uttered these two words, wanting to confess his guilt, but saw Tang Xizhui wave his hand.

 

“Everything is disgusting anyway.” He tugged at the corner of his mouth and walked toward the mansion.

 

Huo Cun looked around helplessly, not knowing what he should do.

 

“Pei Yanci?!” He saw a familiar carriage approaching from the distance and exclaimed in surprise.

 

Tang Xizhui stopped in his tracks.

 

The carriage quickly stopped again at the Chief Overseer’s mansion gate. Pei Yanci jumped down and, seeing everyone still at the entrance, said, “Why aren’t you all going in?”

 

“Didn’t you leave?” Huo Cun asked.

 

“Can’t I come back?”

 

“You really want to enter the mansion?”

 

“Nine-Thousand-Years summoned me for the night. Going back now before even eating dinner would be quite embarrassing for me.”

 

Huo Cun stared in shock as he walked to Tang Xizhui’s side, then past him, and entered the mansion on his own.

 

“Hurry and serve dinner.”

 

“Nine-Thousand-Years?” Huo Cun had never seen anyone dare to be so arrogant in front of Tang Xizhui. He looked helplessly at the other person.

 

Tang Xizhui’s gaze followed his figure, and he caught up in a few steps, grasping his hand.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“This lord already gave you a chance to leave.”

 

“So what? Does Nine-Thousand-Years Daren want to go back on his word?” Pei Yanci said. “What would Gu Jiuqing think? That you’re fierce on the outside but weak within – demanding someone on the surface but actually lacking the courage to touch him? Or do you want to tell him that I’m your person, that you and I are just putting on an act to deceive him, so the usually ruthless Chief Overseer Daren actually showed mercy and let me go?”

 

“You disgust this lord.” Tang Xizhui said with a sneer.

 

“Do you think anyone would believe that reason?”

 

Huo Cun: “……”

 

Don’t you know how to be modest?

 

“Do you know what it means to enter this mansion?” Tang Xizhui asked with rare seriousness.

 

If Pei Yanci had returned without entering the mansion, Gu Jiuqing and others would know he hadn’t submitted to him. But if he entered the mansion and spent the night, everyone could imagine the humiliation he would endure.

 

Eunuchs lacked their manhood and weren’t complete men, looked down upon by the world; those who submitted to eunuchs were considered self-degrading and even more despised.

 

Tang Xizhui felt that Pei Yanci had been too smooth sailing recently, always acting according to his own will, and perhaps didn’t clearly understand the consequences this matter would bring him.

 

“I know.” Pei Yanci said. He wasn’t an honest and simple sixteen-year-old youth. Regarding the affairs of palace eunuchs and their contradictory circumstances, even if he hadn’t witnessed those sordid things firsthand, he had heard quite a bit.

 

Tang Xizhui was somewhat embarrassed by his straightforward answer.

 

Even though he was a king of a different surname with power over the court, he couldn’t escape the fact of his physical deficiency.

 

“Thank you for Nine-Thousand-Years Daren’s concern.” Pei Yanci smiled, brilliant as golden fire reflecting the evening glow, and pushed his hand away. “I’ve always known what I’m doing.”

 

“You…”

 

“Let’s serve dinner first.” The food at the Crown Prince’s mansion wasn’t good; the Chief Overseer’s mansion shouldn’t be bad.

 

Tang Xizhui looked at him deeply and waved for the meal to be served.

 

****

 

Dinner ended in eerie silence. Tang Xizhui seemed to have no appetite, eating only a few bites before stopping. After Pei Yanci finished eating and rinsed his mouth, Tang Xizhui led him to the main courtyard.

 

“You sleep in the side room.”

 

“I want to sleep in your room.” Pei Yanci found it amusing – where was the fierce energy from when he kissed him earlier? Why was he being shy now? “Sleep together with you.”

 

Tang Xizhui’s expression darkened considerably.

 

“You wait here first.”

 

He strode into his room. About the time it takes to burn a stick of incense passed before he reopened the door and said coldly, “Come in.”

 

Pei Yanci entered the room. The air still carried a faint lingering fragrance.

 

But clearly, very little remained.

 

He had taken Pei Yanci’s words to heart.

 

The room’s furnishings were extremely sparse, mostly empty, as if locusts had swept through. But looking carefully, at least a stick of incense ago, those places should have held quite a few things.

 

“Afraid I’d steal your things? You put away all the good stuff.” Pei Yanci teased.

 

“Tsk, why do you talk so much?” Tang Xizhui’s face darkened. “Go bathe.”

 

The moment Pei Yanci turned to go behind the screen, a trembling, bloodied hand emerged from under the bed.

 

Tang Xizhui gazed leisurely at the screen and ruthlessly stepped down, grinding his toe heavily on the back of that hand.