SEHE Chapter 101

Dust of the Past 

Pei Yanci fell ill again.

The cold from before hadn’t fully healed, and that day he was caught in the rain. The underlying condition relapsed, and this time it was even more serious—he developed a fever.

Because of his illness, his sleep was restless. At night, he kept dreaming intermittently of a hand—withered, ice-cold, yet forceful, clutching at him desperately.

This stirred up memories from long, long ago.

Sometimes it was the thin hand of a child, desperately dragging him down into a cold pool. He didn’t understand how a ten-year-old child who could barely get enough to eat had such strength, until that dark shadow blurred into twisted hatred and unwillingly sank to the bottom.

Sometimes it was a plump, tender white hand. Though the person was middle-aged and his body had been hollowed out by alcohol, the hand was still warm and dry. It wasn’t until just before death that the hand withered, blue veins emerging hideously from the paper-thin, desiccated skin, like wriggling worms about to burst through.

He had reached out his hand, but no one dared respond to him, nor wanted to respond to him.

Until Pei Yanci grasped that hand.

Before swallowing his last breath, his father affectionately stroked his hair and only managed to say one sentence.

“Eat more, don’t be so thin.”

His Father Emperor—after suffering from a hidden ailment and the successive deaths of several princesses—had become cruel and capricious. Under successive natural and man-made disasters, popular resentment rose everywhere. This emperor, destined to leave behind an infamous legacy, gave all his tenderness to his only child.

Unfortunately, Pei Yanci didn’t heed his words. He often handled government affairs in the imperial study until late at night, and forgetting to eat was commonplace.

Since his Father Emperor’s passing, no one dared remind him anymore that it was time to eat.

These long-sealed past events, which he thought he’d forgotten through the cycle of reincarnation, vividly reappeared in his dreams when he recalled Qi Xiang’s final grasp before death.

He woke with a start, covered in cold sweat, and it took him a long while to regain his composure before exhaling a long breath.

A cool breeze blew in from outside the bed, eerie and cold.

Through the cloud-and-crane patterned gauze bed curtains, in the dim night light, he saw the dark silhouette of a person holding a white-bone fan, sitting by his bedside, leisurely fanning him.

He lifted the gauze curtain—it was indeed Tang Xizhui in black robes with a white fan.

Scaring someone to death in the middle of the night.

“I heard Qi Xiang died to make his point clear,” Nine-Thousand-Years said leisurely, waving his fan. His slender fingers held a snow-white silk handkerchief as he carefully wiped the sweat from Pei Yanci’s forehead. “Had a nightmare?”

“Mm, some trivial matters of no consequence.” Pei Yanci’s thoughts were still immersed in the dream, his face bearing a shell-like coldness. He was unwilling to say more. “Help me get a set of clean underclothes.”

Tang Xizhui closed his fan and, as requested, went to fetch things. When he returned, he also brought a wet cloth and a dry cloth.

He helped him wipe the sweat from his body, changed his clothes, supported him as he lay back down, covered him with the bedding—which was then pushed aside again.

“Don’t move. The fever just broke—don’t let it come back.”

Pei Yanci stopped struggling and let him tuck him in.

Having a fever in hot weather was truly unbearable.

“Your courtyard is short-handed. Those three don’t know how to take care of people.” He went to the table to pour a cup of cool water, and by the time he pressed it into Pei Yanci’s hands, it was just the right warm temperature for drinking. “And you don’t know how to take care of yourself either.”

“Since you’re so good at taking care of people, why don’t you come manage my household?” Pei Yanci said mockingly.

“What household does this little broken-down place of yours have to manage?”

Tang Xizhui’s glance, carrying both reproach and resentment, made Pei Yanci’s heart flutter. But he had neither the energy nor the spare mental capacity for anything else, so he listlessly lay on his side, eyes watching the person sitting and fanning him.

“I’m going to become the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy,” he said—something Qi Xiang had exchanged his life for. “The Zheng family has directly gifted me a mansion. In a couple of days, I’ll pick an auspicious date and move there.”

“Congratulations.”

“I got you confined to your residence.” Pei Yanci lowered his eyelids, his dark lashes casting an even deeper small shadow on his sweat-dampened, pale face.

“It was the Crown Prince’s doing, not yours.” Tang Xizhui noticed he seemed to feel guilty on his behalf. A trace of secret delight rose in his heart, but then, thinking this person wasn’t one to feel guilty, he privately tucked away that bit of joy and naturally sat down on the edge of his bed.

The white-bone fan in his hand leisurely fanned a small breeze. His deep, dark eyes were like two pools of pitch-black stagnant water, reflecting not a hint of light. “The matters at court—you’ll understand in time. It’s a bit complicated.”

Pei Yanci raised his eyes and blinked at him.

Tang Xizhui’s heart melted completely. His fingers touched Pei Yanci’s face, which felt somewhat cool after sweating. Pei Yanci still shivered slightly from the frost-like chill of his fingertips.

“The cultivation technique you gave me—it’s not some evil practice, is it?” His cheek was pulled slightly out of shape by Tang Xizhui’s grip as he mumbled indistinctly, “Other people practice to strengthen their bodies, but after I practiced twice as hard, I fell ill instead. Your body temperature is also abnormal—could it be that you were harmed by this technique?”

Tang Xizhui leaned down, his face only inches from Pei Yanci’s. His crimson lips, red as dripping blood, parted slightly, almost as if to bite the dumpling-soft flesh of his cheek. “Is Xiao Pei’er finally starting to want to understand me?”

Curiosity about a person is the beginning of affection.

Pei Yanci declined with thanks and didn’t want to admit it, but curiosity had indeed arisen in his heart.

He simply stopped talking.

Tang Xizhui smiled faintly, not minding at all. “The technique is a good technique. The low body temperature was caused by the technique’s suppression. After a long time, even without suppression, the body becomes naturally cold.”

“Your pupils sometimes turn dark purple—isn’t that also because of practicing this technique?” Pei Yanci turned his cheek from its side position to face him directly, looking at him seriously.

“That, ah…” Tang Xizhui sighed lightly, his expression growing heavy as his thoughts drifted far away. “Actually, I’m not from Great Yu.”

Pei Yanci wasn’t surprised.

“My father was the last clan leader of the Wuzi Clan. From my earliest memories, I heard my grandmother mention that they once lived on Mount Fashao, isolated from the world, relying on a legendary treasure called the Peiyan Thorn to ward off invasions from outsiders. The surname Tangxi came from the river that flowed through our clan’s land and sustained us. Only the clan leader’s lineage had the right to bear this surname.”

Tang Xizhui’s eyes lowered slightly, revealing a trace of divine sorrow.

“Unfortunately, I never saw Mount Fashao.”

“Twenty-eight years ago, my father rescued someone and presumptuously brought him back. That person claimed to be a soldier from Great Yu and said they were at war with Great Xi, whose troops had discovered our location and would soon massacre our entire clan. Immediately, my father rallied all the clan members overnight to leave the mountain with that soldier and submit to become people of Great Yu.

“Because of that blind decision, we lost our clan’s sacred treasure, the Peiyan Thorn, and became inferior barbarian people, like Silla slaves and Kunlun servants, to be sold at clearly marked prices. That soldier received great merit and was promoted. Everyone in our clan, male and female, was exceptionally beautiful, so the generals of the army made a fortune selling us. Even more hateful—my father, on the first night after entering the military camp, was taken to the general’s tent. A few months later, when the army departed, his naked body was hung in the camp for birds and beasts to devour. He couldn’t even have an intact corpse. With him were more than twenty clan members, all played to death by those soldiers.”

He sighed. “All this happened around the time I was born. I grew up living with my grandmother. At that time, we lived in a village with a dozen or so clan members, often having to relocate to avoid identity checks by government soldiers. People from other villages didn’t welcome us, and my clan members were very hostile toward me, because if not for my father, they would still be living carefree lives on Mount Fashao.”

“Later I learned that Great Yu, in order to incorporate that land into their empire’s territory, had deceived us. From beginning to end, there were never any so-called Great Xi people. Even more hateful—our clan’s sacred treasure became Great Yu’s army’s magic weapon for winning every battle. But by then, everything had changed. Our clan members—those who escaped escaped, those who died died. Scattered throughout Great Yu, they had long forgotten about reclaiming the sacred treasure or finding the way back to Mount Fashao.”

Pei Yanci gently grasped his hand, silently comforting him.

Tang Xizhui gripped his hand back, eyes lowered slightly, as if still immersed in the past.

“Later, a plague from a neighboring town spread to our village. Grandmother died, and I was left all alone. Where could I go? I originally wanted to end it all, but I was saved by a eunuch. So I castrated myself and followed him into the palace.”

Seeing Pei Yanci deep in thought, Tang Xizhui continued, “That plague reduced Great Yu’s population by one-tenth. At the time, the southwest region became a dead zone and was occupied by the Wuyi clan. After all these years, even though there has been intermarriage between Han and Yi peoples and gradual cultural assimilation, the fierce customs remain unchanged.”

“You also suffered many hardships in your youth,” Pei Yanci said softly.

“As a child, I was indeed often bullied by local hooligans and thugs, and cursed by clan members who had escaped together. Fortunately, our clan’s martial arts secrets were exceptional, and I began practicing martial arts from a young age. Otherwise, even after entering the palace, given my appearance, I would have suffered greatly.”

“There are indeed many sordid things in the palace.” In his previous life, Pei Yanci had never understood eunuchs. In his view, eunuchs were there to serve them—these people were human, but could also be considered not human.

Eunuchs, like the dishes and spittoons in the palace, were merely objects for their use.

But he had also experienced the cruel struggles within the palace.

“All imperial palaces under heaven are the same,” Pei Yanci said. “Servants have the servants’ suffering, masters have the masters’ difficulties. No one is truly carefree.”

“Then why do you still want to enter this filthy cage again?” Tang Xizhui asked curiously.

Pei Yanci’s thoughts drifted, and he couldn’t help but recall the past.

“My Father Emperor said he made a mistake.”

“He vented his anger upon tens of thousands of innocent people. They shouldn’t have had such miserable fates.”

“He was their emperor. He had the responsibility to let his subjects live good lives.”

“But by the time he regretted it, it was too late to reverse course.”

“I am his son. I have the responsibility to help him clean up the mess.”

“His subjects, my subjects—they all deserve to live the best lives.”

“This is the emperor’s unavoidable responsibility.”

“But in my view, he forced this responsibility upon me, telling me to handle the aftermath properly. These words are as hypocritical as claiming it’s for the common people. Everything I do is simply because I want to be emperor.”

Though his voice was soft, it carried firm conviction.

“Heaven is supreme and most honored, earth is lowly and most base—yin and yang are fixed in position. The high are naturally high, the low naturally low—nobility and baseness are fixed in position. I was born to be emperor. Even if I once lived among commoners, I naturally carried purple energy that protected me to rule the world, to establish a new era. The Great Ancestor ate dragon meat in his youth and gained the world. Dragon blood flows through my body, so my blessings naturally stretch long and far. To benefit countless generations is naturally my proper duty.”

Tang Xizhui gazed at him with smiling eyes full of infatuation.

This was his Xiao Pei’er, his emperor.

Without many fortuitous circumstances, this would be an existence he could only look up to for his entire life.

“So, did you find the culprit who ruined your clan back then?” Pei Yanci lifted his head from the pillow, gripping his hand tightly with concern and asking curiously, “Have you ever gone back to look for that Mount Fa—”

What a strange name. It didn’t sound odd, but saying it out loud was like having a fever.

Wait—Peiyan Thorn? Pei Yanci! Wasn’t that his name?!

(TL: 霈焰刺=Peiyan Thorn Pinyin: pèi yàn cì)

Tang Xizhui blinked guiltily.

Oh no, how was he discovered so quickly?

Sometimes having a beloved who was too clever wasn’t a good thing.

“Tang… Xi… Zhui…” Pei Yanci ground his teeth.

Always deceiving him!

Nine-Thousand-Years, sensing trouble, quickly embraced him and pecked at the corner of his lips.

“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry.” He placated him. “Since ancient times, those whose names are recorded in history must have extraordinary backgrounds, a twisting and turning tale of love and enmity, so that storytellers can narrate it at length and listeners will be moved. Even Xiao Pei’er thought I must carry an unusual past. I was only going along with your wishes.”

“So you deceived me?” Pei Yanci’s eyes narrowed slightly.

When had he ever wanted this person to humor him and coax him?

“Didn’t I leave clues for you?” Tang Xizhui said with a smile, holding his hand and lightly kissing his fingertips. “Xiao Pei’er is so clever, how could you possibly be deceived by me forever?”

“I could tell you weren’t a good thing.”

Cunning as a demon—this damned creature was a monster born to torment him.

TL/N:

This tler is also not sure if Tang Xizhui’s surname is Tang or Tangxi wuwu