SEHE Chapter 73

Toes 

By the time dinner was finished, the sky had already darkened.

Pei Yanci had Wuli clean out an empty room for Wang Lingche to stay in temporarily for the night, leaving everything else to be discussed tomorrow.

After washing up, he took his dirty clothes to the well.

Wuli asked, “If we take him in, will the Wang family give us some benefits?”

“It’ll be good enough if we don’t cause trouble. Sometimes the more naive and straightforward people are, the easier it is to get screwed over by them,” Pei Yanci said. He still preferred dealing with people whose minds were full of schemes and calculations.

After scooping well water into a wooden basin, Wuli snatched the clothes away and shooed him aside to rest.

Pei Yanci touched his nose—whatever made him happy.

After several months as a servant, he still couldn’t manage his own household affairs. Usually it was Wuli who helped wash his clothes. Now that he’d freed him from bondage, it didn’t seem right to ask him to do it anymore. But looking at Wuli, he clearly didn’t mind these small tasks.

Wuli efficiently drew water from the well. Just as he raised his head, he let out a startled cry, as if he’d seen a ghost.

Pei Yanci turned to look back, and his whole body couldn’t help but shudder.

“Long time no see, Xiao Pei’er.” The person atop the wall smiled sinisterly.

Tang Xizhui wore robes as white as snow, with silver thread embroidering cloud pavilion patterns along the edges. Holding a fire-red oiled paper umbrella, he sat upon the black-tiled white wall, leisurely swinging his feet.

After greeting them, Tang Xizhui leaped down from the wall, his toes lightly touching the bamboo leaves and banana plants in the courtyard, landing gracefully before the two of them.

Pei Yanci warily took a step back, while Wuli quickly hid behind him.

“What brings Nine-Thousand-Years here so late at night?”

“Can’t I come see you without a reason?” In the courtyard’s dim lamplight, Tang Xizhui’s pale face was veiled with a thin bloodthirsty red beneath the umbrella.

Lights came on in the side rooms—there were still outsiders living here.

Pei Yanci invited him inside to talk. As soon as the door closed, someone grabbed his shoulder, his back slammed against the door panel, and chilling kisses rained down overwhelmingly.

Pei Yanci pushed hard against him. The body before him was like an iceberg. A hand silently found its way to his waist, encircling him, lifting his entire body upward.

“Mm……” His feet left the ground, and a sense of insecurity immediately arose in his heart, a dizzying feeling with no point of support.

His feet kicked forward fiercely several times, but Tang Xizhui’s body didn’t move an inch, letting him kick. Taking advantage of his distraction, he leaned forward even closer, pressing his body firmly against the door.

A tear welled up at the corner of his eye from the stimulation, wetting his lashes. The strength in his hands and feet began to weaken. Slowly, his feet straightened, the snow-white toes trembling helplessly in the air, unable to help curling up.

Pei Yanci couldn’t help but wrap his arms around his neck, tightening his grip, as if urging him to put in more effort.

A soft laugh came from between their lips and teeth.

But he deliberately didn’t comply with his wishes.

The lips that had finally been warmed left him, only to lower again, pecking along his chin and jawbone, then taking his reddening, protruding ear into his mouth.

Pei Yanci tilted his head back, his throat rolling as he couldn’t help but moan softly, opening his eyes.

His moistened lashes clumped together, trembling in the faint moonlight filtering through the door screen.

Their breaths mingled, listening to each other’s heavy panting in the quiet night, their noses intimately rubbing against each other.

For a moment, Tang Xizhui had the illusion that he truly possessed him.

“Do you want it?” A clear voice rang out, scorching hot breath drilling into his ear.

Tinnitus, heartbeat.

Pei Yanci’s heaving chest paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Fuck off!”

Tang Xizhui laughed.

“Tsk, still so heartless.”

The wooden clogs Pei Yanci had been wearing had already fallen to the floor during his earlier kicking. Tang Xizhui placed his feet on his own black boots, holding him as they walked step by step into the room.

No lamps were lit in the room, only a few weak rays of light filtering through the white window gauze, barely illuminating the path ahead and the surroundings.

Pei Yanci didn’t care much for material things—the room’s furnishings were quite simple. The only thing he’d put thought into was that bed.

Pei Yanci was forced to tiptoe and stand on his insteps as they walked, bobbing up and down with his steps, his heart rising and falling along with them. He gripped the clothing at his waist even tighter, steadying his breathing. “Where did the Emperor send you?”

“Southwest. Haven’t seen you for a month—I missed you terribly.” Tang Xizhui said indulgently, then his gaze suddenly darkened. He lowered his head, his gorgeous lips sliding toward the corner of his eye. “I’ve only been gone this short while, and you’ve already brought that Wang family brat into the house?”

Pei Yanci lifted his foot and knocked it against his knee. “Isn’t Dugong Daren managing a bit too much?”

Never mind that nothing had happened between him and Wang Lingche—even if there had been, what business was it of Tang Xizhui’s?

“A month ago, you were still beneath me, crying and begging for mercy.”

And now he didn’t even have the right to interfere.

Tang Xizhui’s black pupils were as deep as an ink abyss, seemingly shrouded in ethereal mist. Within the layer of gloom, a ghostly flame suddenly flickered—coldly beautiful and bizarrely absolute.

He was angered by Pei Yanci’s indifferent attitude.

“Use and discard? That’s not what a good child would do.”

“When did I use you?” After kicking once, the sole of Pei Yanci’s foot slowly rubbed down along his calf, tiptoeing back onto his instep. He smiled carelessly. “Did I accept the fake identity you offered? No. Shouldn’t Nine-Thousand-Years have written this matter off? How is it that you’re coming to settle accounts with me now? That makes no sense at all.”

Due to his entangling movements, Tang Xizhui’s steps halted, his eyes growing increasingly purple, his breathing quickening. The hand at his waist wished it could knead him into his body. “Since you already had plans in mind and never intended to cooperate with me from the start, why did you agree to give yourself to me?”

“What do you think?” Pei Yanci raised an eyebrow, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

At this rhetorical question, Tang Xizhui’s heartbeat skipped.

Because he liked him?

“If I hadn’t pretended to agree with you, when I participated in the polo match, when I won and met His Majesty—wouldn’t you have interfered and obstructed me?”

If he hadn’t agreed, when he first participated in the polo match, Tang Xizhui and Gu Jiuqing would have detected his intentions and played tricks in secret.

From his low position, he carried little weight. Either of them held high positions and great authority—a single word could easily reduce all his planning and efforts to nothing, then force him to submit under the banner of “doing what’s best for him.”

He had to think everything through.

“For this position, you’ve certainly sacrificed quite a bit.” Tang Xizhui sneered coldly, his tone gradually becoming dangerous and desolate. “Giving yourself to a lowly eunuch—don’t you find it disgusting?”

“I’m a normal man. When I want something, naturally I follow my own desires. How can that be called ‘giving myself’?” Pei Yanci replied, his hand slowly exploring toward his lower abdomen. “Or are you saying you felt wronged servicing me? Last time I didn’t let you reach paradise together—that was my fault.”

Just as he was about to touch it, his wrist was suddenly seized by a hand.

“Hiss——” Pei Yanci felt like his hand was about to break.

“Xiao Pei’er, do you really think this lord won’t do anything to you?” A trace of malevolence flickered in Tang Xizhui’s eyes.

It was the first time Pei Yanci had seen him truly furious.

Without a trace of humanity, his dark eyes let in not a sliver of light, looking at him like a dead object.

Seemed he’d touched a bottom line.

Pei Yanci straightened his body, standing on his feet, tiptoeing to kiss the corner of his mouth.

“Just joking, don’t be angry.”

The cold malevolence throughout Tang Xizhui’s body dissipated somewhat, though his expression remained ugly. His mood had plummeted.

He placed the person back on the bed, then turned back to retrieve the two forgotten wooden clogs by the door and set them by the bedside.

A snow-white foot extended from the bed, its toes pressing against his chin, lingering and teasing.

The clean toes methodically rubbed back and forth against his chin. That area was smooth and clean without a trace of stubble, but if you looked carefully, you could faintly see the bluish tinge of follicles beneath the skin.

Tang Xizhui crouched before the bed, looking up from below. The white silk pants were loose and baggy, revealing straight, slender legs inside that had once weakly wrapped around his neck, forcing his mouth to bury deeper.

His gaze deepened.

“Still angry?”

The toes pressed against Tang Xizhui’s crimson lips, wantonly rubbing, pressing, kneading, playing.

He reached out to grasp the ankle tormenting his chin. It was more smooth and soft than the finest porcelain in the palace, slender and fragile, barely a handful.

Following the loose pant leg, his hand climbed up the calf, kneading the supple muscle, increasingly reluctant to leave, gradually sliding upward.

The back of his knee felt a bit itchy. Pei Yanci’s fingers clutched the bed covering behind him, trying hard to ignore that tingling sensation. He lowered his voice to keep it from trembling. “Want to eat?”

Tang Xizhui raised his eyes, looking toward the person sitting at the bedside, high above, slightly lowering his head, casually meeting his gaze.

The sole and toes slowly flushed pink in his fervent breath—adorable and pitiful.

Tang Xizhui looked into his eyes, opened his mouth, and took the toes at his lips inside.

The wet tongue licked the pad of the toe. Pei Yanci’s foot trembled, his breathing quickening.

Enduring that ticklish sensation, he tilted his head, black hair sliding from the corner of his eye down over his shoulder. A wet redness spread through his eyes as he asked with sticky, soft murmuring, “Still angry?”

Tang Xizhui gripped his ankle, releasing his toes to place a kiss on the sole of his foot.

The toes, made glistening by the sucking, immediately curled into a ball. Each nail bed’s original pink deepened, like ripe pomegranate seeds, becoming crimson and translucent.

“I really want to chop off this foot of yours.” In Tang Xizhui’s eyes flickered strange lights, like ghostly fire drifting from a desolate grave.

Pei Yanci had the feeling of being watched by countless eyes, like thorns in his back, every hair standing on end.

He knew Tang Xizhui wasn’t joking—he would really do such a thing.

And had personally done it many times before.

“Then what about the other foot?” Pei Yanci acted unconcerned, placing his left foot up as well, extending it into his embrace.

Tang Xizhui held both feet together, closed his eyes, suppressing all his emotions deep within, and said in a low voice, “Stop fooling around.”

“Then what about me, this person—do you still want me?”

Tang Xizhui opened his eyes in astonishment, meeting Pei Yanci’s smiling eyes.

They were so gentle, clear, noble.

He knew all of this was just a facade disguised outside his cold, unfeeling flesh and blood, but still, unavoidably, his gaze was drawn to him, lingering on him for a long time.

Even if he had to use every means available, he would keep this person in his arms.

“Conditions.” He spoke coldly.

The incident on Dragon Boat Festival had taught him that Pei Yanci could never be confined or submit to coercion.

Neither he, nor Gu Jiuqing, nor anyone else could manage it.

Even when he’d had servant status they couldn’t, and now they had even less chance.

Unless he was willing to temporarily stay for someone’s sake.

After understanding this reality, the blood in his body boiled even more fiercely.

This was the wild ambition he pursued.

Pei Yanci withdrew his feet from his hands without any reluctance.

“You’ll know soon enough.”