Quarrel
In early March, news of Qi Lan’s troops clashing with the border forces was sent to Anjing by eight-hundred-li express dispatch. The Emperor had no choice but to set aside his cultivation and spend four or five consecutive days in Ganchen Palace, which greatly displeased him.
“If Eunuch Tangxi were still here, when would it be your turn to complain before Zhen!”
“This won’t work, that has no solution—what use does Zhen have for you!”
“A bunch of useless wastes!”
He had said this no less than ten times in three days.
Pei Yanci was summoned to prepare medicines and refine pills. How could he possibly understand such things? On one hand, he studied the formulas from several Daoists at the printing house, learning as he went. On the other hand, he established good relations with Yimiao. When he really couldn’t muddle through anymore, he simply taught the Emperor a body-tempering technique. It was a method that imperial physicians had taught him in his previous life when he was sickly. He added some mystifying meditation and incantations to it. After the Emperor practiced it twice, he truly felt refreshed and invigorated. Rewards flowed like water into the Pei residence.
Some people noticed something was amiss—they had finally gotten rid of one Tangxi Zhui, only to have another Pei Yanci appear.
On this day, Yue Ting sent someone with a message saying that the Cui family head, the Marquis of Quliang, along with Gu Wanchong, Cui Ya, and Huo Cun had come to the theater to watch a play. He was keeping an eye on things there, and this month’s dividend would be delivered tomorrow. Pei Yanci thought it over and invited Tangxi Zhui to watch the play together.
When they opened the door to the theater’s private box, everyone’s gazes turned toward them in unison.
Pei Yanci instinctively moved Tangxi Zhui behind him protectively.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, I forgot you have a human skin mask on your face.” Pei Yanci released his hand.
Tangxi Zhui: “……”
Was he really being treated like a kept pretty boy?
He crossed his arms resentfully and followed behind.
“Pei Yanci, why are you here?” Gu Wanchong’s expression immediately darkened.
Like a lingering ghost!
“Huo Daren, Marquis, I hope you are well. Prince Qi, it’s been a while. Pei’s private box is next door. Just now when I came in, I happened to glimpse Your Highness’s attendants at the door, so I thought I’d come greet everyone.” Pei Yanci held a cup of wine in his hand, gesturing to toast everyone, then drained it in one gulp.
Gu Wanchong’s hands clenched tightly beneath his wide sleeves.
“Pei Daren,” the Marquis of Quliang looked him up and down, “to have such a rising star in the court—I’ve long wanted an opportunity to pay a visit, but unfortunately Daren has never given Cui the face.”
The Cui clan of Boling was a prestigious family spanning hundreds of years. Even Left Prime Minister Cui Ya was just a branch member, only reluctantly acknowledged by the main family after he became Prime Minister. This head of the main family was the Marquis of Quliang standing before them.
“That is Pei’s fault,” Pei Yanci said with a smile, naturally walking into the private box. He picked up their wine from the table and poured himself another cup. “Pei was previously always attending to the Crown Prince, and now I’m busy with His Majesty’s affairs. There’s never been an opportunity to visit the Marquis’s residence. But look—what perfect timing today! After the Marquis and His Highness finish eating and drinking well, please come sit in my box as well.”
As he spoke, he leaned close to his ear, “The play in mine is ‘Second Young Master’s Wedding.'”
The Marquis of Quliang’s eyes flickered slightly. He glanced at Gu Wanchong. “We’ll see if there’s time later.”
He didn’t speak definitively—he had no intention of offending either Pei Yanci or Gu Wanchong.
“Pei Yanci!” Gu Wanchong trembled with rage.
This man simply didn’t put him in his eyes at all. He was here courting the Cui family, yet Pei Yanci brazenly came in and directly invited the Marquis to go to his side.
Wasn’t this a blatant provocation?!
“I almost forgot to specially toast His Highness with a cup.” Pei Yanci glanced at Huo Cun, his gaze coolly sliding back to him.
Gu Wanchong had been born with a sunny, handsome, and upright appearance, but unfortunately the gloom and thwarted ambition in his eyes utterly destroyed the clean aura about him.
“Has the Elu Bureau changed leadership? Has His Highness achieved his wish?” he asked softly.
Whether in the previous life or this one, Gu Wanchong had been burdened by family and kinship.
As expected, Gu Wanchong’s somber expression was instantly replaced by bone-deep hatred.
Pei Yanci walked before the Marquis of Quliang and gestured to him meaningfully.
Which business partner was more reliable had already been laid bare before them.
A mere military man—not someone to conspire with.
After Pei Yanci had made his greetings, he walked out of the private box and tossed the cup to Tangxi Zhui. “Go eat some food first to pad your stomach. There’ll be no shortage of drinking today.”
“Did you call me here just to pick up your corpse afterward?” Tangxi Zhui’s words had barely fallen when someone rushed out from the box behind them.
“Pei Yanci, stop right there!” Gu Wanchong said. “I have something to say to you.”
Pei Yanci blocked Tangxi Zhui from coming forward. “You go back first.”
Tangxi Zhui’s gaze wandered between the two of them for a moment. He smiled magnanimously, turned around, and returned to the adjacent private box.
The sound of a puppet show’s melancholic, plaintive melody and lyrics soon drifted from inside the room.
Tangxi Zhui drank several mouthfuls from Pei Yanci’s cup. With a squeeze of his hand, the porcelain cup turned to powder.
When the wind from outside the window blew, the powder disappeared along with a human figure.
Gu Wanchong brought Pei Yanci to an empty private box. Closing the door, he trembled as he said, “What will it take for you to let me go!”
“Ridiculous. Shuangchong, since you came to Anjing, when have I ever pestered you?” Pei Yanci said with amusement. “You walk your sunny path, I cross my single-plank bridge—where does ‘not letting go’ come into it?”
“Then what about today? Why did you come?”
“The capital inspection is about to begin. You and I are both trying to secure the aristocratic families’ allegiance. Everyone relies on their own abilities.”
“You’re lying!” Gu Wanchong was caught in a tangle of panic and resentment. “You just don’t want me to have peace! My clansmen—was it you who interfered, preventing His Majesty from releasing them!”
“You think I have such idle time?” Pei Yanci said contemptuously. “Whether your mother consort’s clan lives or dies—what does it have to do with me?”
“How can it not be related? Before, you feared that my Chang family’s military power would overshadow yours and seize your imperial authority. Now you fear that without my maternal relatives to restrain me, I’ll no longer respect or fear you. You…”
“Have you lost your mind?” Pei Yanci looked utterly baffled. “Stop putting gold on your own face. Whether as Chang Shuangchong or Gu Wanchong, I’ve never put you in my eyes.”
Gu Wanchong stood frozen in place.
Looking at his current wretched and defeated appearance, Pei Yanci couldn’t understand how he had become this hoarse and terrifying figure.
Recalling the previous life, his young general had grown step by step into a great general, always spirited and vigorous. The sharpness in his youthful eyes competed with the sun itself—nothing could extinguish it.
Thinking carefully, that most brilliant light in his eyes had also been destroyed by his own hand.
He patted his upper arm. “Shuangchong, you’re a free wild horse, not a mule kept bound in chains in Anjing. As long as you give up competing for the throne, His Majesty will definitely release your maternal clan.”
“For the sake of our previous life, let me give you a piece of advice: you care too much about personal feelings. You’re not suited to sit in that position.”
“Whether I’m suited or not isn’t for you to say.”
Gu Wanchong’s expression grew more savage. “I’m determined to have this throne.”
Hadn’t he said he’d never put him in his eyes? Well, he would make it so this person’s eyes could only see him!
“What are you doing?” Pei Yanci was about to leave when his arm was suddenly restrained. That force was extraordinarily powerful, nearly crushing his arm bone.
“Are you insane? Let go!” He frowned in pain, gathering internal strength in his other hand and striking mercilessly with a punch.
Gu Wanchong neither dodged nor avoided. Even when struck, his body only swayed, then he pressed forward, pinning him against the table.
“Ah——”
This man possessed natural divine strength. How could Pei Yanci be his match? His bones made creaking sounds, and he almost felt like he would be crushed to death in his embrace. No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t escape.
Seeing his mouth about to descend on his own face, he felt this unprovoked development was absurd and laughable.
“If you touch me, how will you face your dead family?”
Gu Wanchong paused slightly, only then coming to his senses about what he was about to do.
“Who cares about touching you,” he said this with his mouth, but his breath still lingered at Pei Yanci’s ear, exhaling rapidly, reluctant to leave yet unable to descend. “This is to humiliate you.”
Pei Yanci’s earlobe slowly grew hot. He turned his face away in discomfort, avoiding the scorching breath he was expelling. His crescent-moon eyes lowered slightly, gathering tears that gradually moistened and reddened his eyes.
Glistening wet, a layer of damp mist arose.
Yet beneath his eyes was a frost-cold expanse, as indifferent as a blood-stained cold sword.
Gu Wanchong was stunned for a moment.
Suddenly, he released his hand and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a sneak attack from behind. His arm was still inevitably injured by a surge of internal strength.
Rolling up his sleeve to look, his muscular arm now had a red gash, the edges tinged with black blood.
Tangxi Zhui scooped the limp person into his arms and lifted him horizontally.
“Wait.” Gu Wanchong looked at his retreating back, somehow feeling it was familiar.
“Who are you?”
Tangxi Zhui said nothing. He merely turned his head expressionlessly and looked at him once.
Just once, and Gu Wanchong felt like he’d fallen into an icy abyss.
That was… the look that only someone who should already be dead would have.
His nightmare.
Tangxi Zhui brought the person back to his own box. Releasing his hand, he tossed him onto the resting couch beside them.
“Ah…” Pei Yanci cried out softly in surprise, his whole body trembling. “It hurts…”
The jealous fury in his heart instantly dissipated completely. Tangxi Zhui’s face showed panic, his fingers hovering helplessly in midair, wanting to touch but not daring to, asking anxiously, “Where are you hurt?”
“My whole body was bruised from his grip, and you still threw me down.” Pei Yanci lifted his eyes.
If he dared say one harsh word, the tears swirling in those eyes could instantly overflow for him to see.
“Little ancestor, I was wrong, wasn’t that enough? Let me rub it for you.” Tangxi Zhui hurriedly removed his long boots and carefully tried to straighten his body, only to be swatted away by his hand.
“I don’t want your false kindness.” Pei Yanci said coldly, turning his face away.
“I saw him about to take liberties with you. I was anxious.”
“So you were following me? Eavesdropping on our conversation?”
Tangxi Zhui said nothing.
That was tacit admission.
“So, what did you learn?” Pei Yanci’s eyelashes lowered slightly, concealing the coldness beneath.
“You’re still questioning me?” Tangxi Zhui felt wronged too. “He’s your old flame, and I’m not even allowed to know this person exists?”
Pei Yanci choked on his words. “What… what old flame? He and I were completely innocent.”
“If truly innocent, why were you pulling and tugging behind closed doors? If I hadn’t appeared, who knows if you two might have rekindled old feelings.”
“Stop using that sarcastic tone with me.”
“Using it—so what? Everyone else only sees the new lover’s happiness, never the old lover’s suffering. But you’re quite something—when the old lover gets angry, whatever the new lover does is wrong.”
Pei Yanci was so infuriated he kicked him from the edge of the couch to the floor.
“You’re talking nonsense again. What new lover, old lover—nothing ever started between him and me.”
Tangxi Zhui sat askew on the floor, one hand propping up his body. He simply didn’t get up.
“Never started doesn’t mean never loved.”
Even when drunk, he kept murmuring “Grand General” over and over.
“I gave you both my first time emotionally and physically. You can’t just cast me aside and go to someone else.”
Pei Yanci: “……”
Before bringing someone to bed, he truly hadn’t known that the legendary sinister and terrifying Nine-Thousand-Years was so pure-hearted.
For some reason, Pei Yanci felt like laughing.
The tip of his toe on the edge of the couch poked at his chest. “Hey, why did you only eavesdrop on half of it?”
Tangxi Zhui kept a stern, cold face and didn’t move.
“Since you heard it today, I won’t hide it from you. In my previous life, I was the Emperor of Great Tao. I died of illness at twenty-eight and came to this place through soul transmigration. Gu Wanchong was originally my general, named Chang Shuangchong. In the past, I did have some interest in him—not to the degree of earth-shattering, must-have-him-or-no-one-else feelings. It was just that I wanted to play around if it was mutually agreeable. But he wasn’t sensible, so I lost that inclination.”
He, Pei Yanci, wasn’t lacking people to serve him. Why would he go chasing after someone?
“What if he had been sensible?” Tangxi Zhui asked.
“How could he be as sensible as you?” Pei Yanci leaned out, wrapped his arms around his neck, and with a smile, kissed him on the tip of his nose.
Tangxi Zhui was dazzled by that smile. Suddenly rising, he embraced his waist, pressed the person back down on the couch, and kissed him fiercely.