SEHE Chapter 133

Comfort

Tangxi Zhui speculated about the forest-cold chill and terrifying aura in his eyes. His heart panicked, and he directly slid down from the chair, kneeling on the ground.

“You’re kneeling to me?” Pei Yanci’s tone was very flat, his voice tense.

Tangxi Zhui was at a loss, all his former eloquence losing its usefulness in this moment.

This kind of Pei Yanci was even more chilling than if he had lost his temper.

Pei Yanci released his hand and turned to walk outside.

“Yanci, don’t go, don’t look for Gu Jiuqing…”

His footsteps halted, and he sighed, “I’m going to get wound medicine to bandage you.”

Tangxi Zhui quieted down.

Until Pei Yanci came back in, he still maintained that same posture.

“How long are you going to keep kneeling?”

Tangxi Zhui clumsily sat back in the chair, his blood-stained fingers helplessly curling against his thighs, both hands huddling together anxiously.

He didn’t dare move his body at all, his upturned eye corners drooping, his gaze pitifully looking at the person.

“Who are you putting on this act for?” Pei Yanci curled his lip.

Tangxi Zhui moved the corners of his mouth and withdrew his expression.

Pei Yanci grabbed his arm, rolled up his sleeve, furrowed his brows and lowered his eyes, carefully cleaning his wound and sprinkling on the medicine.

“What are you smiling about?” Pei Yanci said with a cold face.

He shook his head, unable to stop the smile at the corners of his mouth.

A trace of sweetness, a trace of satisfaction.

Pei Yanci impatiently released his hand, his expression very sour.

Tangxi Zhui hurriedly restrained his expression again and grabbed the hand that was about to slip away.

“Xiao Pei’er, it hurts so much. Have pity on me.”

Pei Yanci silently reminded himself that this person was having another episode and he couldn’t argue with him. He sat back down and bandaged him.

“Do you know you have self-destructive tendencies?”

Previously, when Tangxi Zhui wanted to pull out his own hair and gouge out his own eyes, it had all happened right under his nose. In the times he couldn’t see, did he often leave himself covered in wounds?

This person had so many problems!

“Xiao Pei’er, are you worried about me?”

“No.”

Pei Yanci bandaged him with a cold face, wrapping the gauze round and round to secure it properly. His previous injuries still hadn’t taught him how to bandage properly – just as he tied a knot at one end, the other end at the wrist started to loosen.

“Why are you moving around?” He pointed at the wrist, “Look, I just finished bandaging you.”

Tangxi Zhui obediently took the blame.

After tying the strips several times, Pei Yanci finally became proficient, knowing how to avoid pressing on the wound while keeping the bandage from loosening. He breathed a sigh of relief, then felt a warm, soft sensation on his forehead.

Looking up, he saw Tangxi Zhui’s uninjured hand holding a handkerchief, gently wiping his sweat.

Sunlight streamed through the window lattice behind him, dividing into squares as it shone in, each beam of light dancing with particles, flickering with fragmented radiance.

None of it compared to the affection overflowing from Tangxi Zhui’s dark pupils.

So dark, so deep, like two bottomless pits devoid of any sign of life.

His tall, robust body, and his eyes, were all shadows that sunlight couldn’t penetrate.

Just looking at those eyes, no one would doubt that in the next moment, this person would smile while tearing his flesh from bone and consuming him.

Pei Yanci also had a moment of disorientation, thinking he too would sink and fall into that boundless darkness.

But Tangxi Zhui only wanted a kiss from him.

He leaned over, his blood-red lips tentatively pressing against the warm, soft lips, receiving no response.

“Go change your clothes.” Pei Yanci took advantage of his daze to coldly stand up and collect the items.

Tangxi Zhui froze completely in place, emanating an aura of deathly silence.

“If I see you adding new wounds to yourself again, I’ll kill you.”

“I won’t dare anymore.” Tangxi Zhui hurriedly promised, thinking this would earn him a smile, but instead saw Pei Yanci leave with the medicine and bloody cloth strips, never to return.

He waited from noon until evening, from evening until deep into the night.

Until the door creaked open again, his cold, stiff body finally moved.

Pei Yanci didn’t even look at him, ordering servants to bring hot water. Seeing him still sitting by the window couch, he called him to eat something, then went to wash up himself.

When he returned, the food on the table had already been cleared away.

Pei Yanci casually glanced over, confirming the person wouldn’t starve to death, then lay down on the bed and covered himself with the quilt.

Tangxi Zhui circled around, his hand tentatively reaching for the edge of the bed.

A foot flew from inside the bed, directly kicking his hand away.

“Go bathe.”

Tangxi Zhui sighed and resignedly went to bathe.

After quickly finishing, he climbed onto the bed from the foot end wearing only his undergarments, and was kicked down again with one foot.

“Xiao Pei’er…”

For a long time there was no movement.

Tangxi Zhui, with quick reflexes, lifted the bundled quilt and squeezed his entire body directly inside.

“You’re shameless! Get out of my quilt! There’s no place for you here!”

Ignoring his struggles, Tangxi Zhui held onto the person, pulled the quilt, and finally managed to squeeze his robust body onto the bed as well, successfully sharing one quilt with Pei Yanci.

“Hiss, don’t move, don’t move, my hand really hurts!”

“Serves you right.” Though he said this, Pei Yanci ultimately didn’t dare struggle anymore. With eyes closed and back turned to him, he pretended to sleep while letting himself be held.

Wait, that wasn’t right.

“I’m pressing on your right hand. I haven’t even touched your injured left hand at all.”

Annoyed, Pei Yanci tried to push the person away, but unfortunately, he had already firmly seized the magpie’s nest. No matter how much he pounded his chest, shoulders, and arms, he remained unmoved.

The other half of Pei Yanci’s bed could only belong to himself.

He embraced his beloved’s waist, his injured hand acting as if nothing was wrong, tightly gripping both of his hands, easily subduing him.

“I hope it hurts you to death.” Pei Yanci snorted coldly and sulkily lay back down on the bed, turning his back to him again.

A cold breeze came through the crack in the window, extinguishing the remaining candle in the room.

The hand around his waist slowly tightened, clutching like a lifeline.

In the darkness, Pei Yanci sighed quietly.

“Tang Xi, take back the Elu Bureau seal.”

With power in hand, the heart won’t panic.

“You need it more than I do,” Tangxi Zhui said softly. “This is the only thing I can offer you.”

He wasn’t even a normal man.

“I was very angry today.”

“I know, I shouldn’t have let you see that.”

How filthy it was.

“You still want to hide things from me?” Pei Yanci angrily turned around in his embrace, his crescent moon eyes glaring at him furiously.

This version of him was so lively and adorable, much more reassuring than the person during the day whose joy and anger couldn’t be discerned.

“I haven’t settled accounts with you for the Northern Frontier matter, and now you want to hide things from me again.”

“Never again. I won’t hide anything from you anymore.” Tangxi Zhui carefully pressed down the jade-like finger pointing at him, his heart fearful, trying to appease.

“Do you know what makes me most angry? You are a person – you should have self-respect and self-love!”

Tangxi Zhui’s throat felt somewhat constricted. “Alright.”

He hadn’t learned this when he was a king of a different surname or Chief Overseer of the Elu Bureau.

Not loving others, nor having loved himself.

Cruel to others, even more cruel to himself.

Pei Yanci was dissatisfied with his perfunctory attitude. He cupped his face with both hands and looked directly at him.

“Tangxi, no one gives you a reason to harm yourself like that, including me. Everything in this world will eventually slip from our hands one day, including the people you once thought important in your life, the things you once possessed, and the power you seized. I love power, but I love myself more. I hope you will be the same.”

“Remember, never attach your life to someone else. If you don’t cherish yourself, don’t expect to win others’ respect and love.”

“I like men – I like upright men with masculine spirit, not that two ounces of flesh in the crotch – that doesn’t represent anything.”

This was the Xiao Pei’er he loved.

“Tangxi, you and I have both stood at the peak. You shouldn’t be bound by worldly views anymore.”

Pei Yanci pressed his forehead against his, hooked his neck with his hand, and told him slowly and firmly, “We are the ones who make the rules.”

His words made all the hesitation, jealousy, fear, possessiveness, obsessive resentment, and even all those dark schemes of revenge he wanted to inflict on Gu Jiuqing disappear from his mind.

At this moment, he only wanted to enjoy all the beauty brought by Pei Yanci, who gave him endless tolerance and tenderness. He wouldn’t let any irrelevant people occupy even a fraction of his thoughts.

That was his Xiao Pei’er.

“What are you being smug about again for no reason?” Pei Yanci kicked him under the covers.

“Nothing.” Tangxi Zhui affectionately nuzzled his face and began warming his feet.

Having finally been appeased, the person started acting up again.

Pei Yanci turned around with difficulty and pulled out a sky-green porcelain medicine box from under the pillow.

“Looks like I won’t need this after all. I was planning to use my trump card.”

“What is this?” Tangxi Zhui’s heart and eyes were full of him as he asked casually.

“Seeing how obsessed you were with getting that prescription before, and now you temporarily can’t go out and wander around, I could only go find Xiao Yu myself,” Pei Yanci said. “Otherwise what was I doing coming back so late?”

“The Spring Revival Pill?!” Tangxi Zhui was surprised.

Pei Yanci opened the porcelain lid and took out the pill inside. “Try eating it.”

Tangxi Zhui hesitated for a moment, then put the pill back.

“Not in this setting.”

They had both had an unpleasant day today.

He didn’t want Pei Yanci to have to mention Gu Jiuqing’s embrace when recalling this moment in the future.

Absolutely not!

Tangxi Zhui stuffed the medicine box into a hidden compartment. Somehow he put it there, but when Pei Yanci curiously looked for it again, he couldn’t find it.

“Sleep.” Tangxi Zhui pressed the head that was poking up back onto the pillow and tucked in the covers properly.

Having him was enough.

“Oh right.” Just as Pei Yanci was about to fall asleep, he remembered something and spoke drowsily, “Tomorrow you’re going back to the prison.”

“I know I was wrong. I’m still injured – how can you bear to send me back to prison?” The prison didn’t have Xiao Pei’er’s supple waist to hold.

Pei Yanci explained the day’s events, saying, “We can’t let Huo Cun take your position. You are the Chief Overseer of the Elu Bureau.”

“Chief Overseer or not, I don’t care anymore.” Tangxi Zhui held him contentedly.

“I care.”

His sharp brows furrowed, showing a trace of worry, and he sighed lightly.

“Since you want it, how could I not fight for it on your behalf?”

Besides, if he was utterly useless, he would be abandoned by Xiao Pei’er.

****

After being affectionate half the night, Pei Yanci got up refreshed the next day. Lingering over breakfast with Tangxi Zhui, a young servant suddenly burst in.

“Young Master Pei, Young Master, I beg you to save my young master!”

Pei Yanci was startled and instinctively turned to look at Tangxi Zhui, who had already covered his face with his wide sleeve.

Pei Yanci pulled the person out of the dining hall. This young servant was Wang Lingche’s personal attendant, who had previously stayed at the Pei residence to care for his young master.

“Didn’t your young master return to the Wang family? What could happen?”

“This… this servant can’t explain clearly.” The servant panted, his voice intermittent. “They… they started fighting, he’s going to be beaten to death…”

Pei Yanci couldn’t understand what this person was saying, but if Wang Lingche died, all his recent efforts to win him over would be wasted.

“I’ll go to the Wang family first to assess the situation. You follow shortly after.”

There was no time to prepare a carriage now. He rode directly on horseback to the Wang family. With his long legs, he leapt down from the horse light as a swallow and knocked on the Wang family’s door.

“You’re… Pei Daren… hey, what’s wrong with you, where do you get the nerve to barge into the Wang residence! Someone, someone!”

While walking inside, Pei Yanci easily knocked down several servants who came to intercept him, asking, “Where is your eldest young master?”

“Young Master Pei, you’ve finally come! Our young master…” Another of Wang Lingche’s servants came to the front courtyard. As soon as he saw the person, he immediately bypassed the blocking servants. “Only you can persuade him.”

He followed that servant to a delicate small building in the back courtyard.

Before even entering, Pei Yanci saw Wang Lingche sitting on the floor inside, his face vacant and lost.

In his arms was a girl about fourteen or fifteen years old, a white silk still wrapped around her neck. She had long since stopped breathing.