SEHE Chapter 87

Bathing 

Tang Xizhui’s brows and eyes softened at his gentle call, the cold aura around him completely dissipating. “Are you this happy to see me?”

“This lord just ran into an evil servant who dared to bully his master. You must help me teach him a lesson.” Pei Yanci spoke while trying to get down from his lap, only then realizing he was wearing nothing but his undergarments. He looked down at himself in confusion, unable to process it for a long moment.

Tang Xizhui touched his bewildered head, maliciously pinched his cheeks, and pulled him closer against his waist, leaning in to blow air into his ear. “Didn’t Your Majesty want to bathe? Do you want this servant to attend to you?”

“If you don’t attend to this lord, do you intend to be lazy?” Pei Yanci impatiently tore his hands away from his waist. “What’s wrong with you? Why do you always cling to me? Are we that familiar?”

He was so delighted just a moment ago, and now they’re not familiar again?

“Where is the bathing pool? This lord wants to bathe.” Pei Yanci looked around with great seriousness, but as soon as his eyes moved, his body became unsteady and he swayed to one side.

Tang Xizhui caught him with quick reflexes and scooped him up in one motion, heading toward the bathtub behind the screen.

“It’s so small, this lord doesn’t want it.” Pei Yanci squirmed in his arms. “This lord wants a bathing pool, one made of black jade, with water spouting from three qilin beast heads.”

“The bathing pool is at the Chief Overseer’s mansion. You’ll have to make do with this for now.”

“I don’t want such a shabby thing.” Pei Yanci’s brows furrowed tightly, his hands clutching his neck in a death grip, looking as if he’d rather die than submit.

“Fine, put on your clothes then.” He carried him to sit on a long bench nearby.

“No, don’t touch this lord with your dirty hands.” Pei Yanci slapped away the approaching hand, but because of fear, he shrank back against Tang Xizhui’s chest and was immediately drawn to it.

He patted the chest, full of curiosity. “Eh, why does it move?” He finished speaking and pressed his ear against it.

Nine-Thousand-Years’ chest rose and fell, his eyes already a deep, pure purple, enduring with some difficulty.

Pei Yanci raised his head in confusion, the right side of his face flushed red from the alcohol bearing a faint impression mark. His hands began restlessly tugging at his collar. “Take off your clothes quickly and let this lord have a look.”

“……”

Tang Xizhui laughed darkly. “You can’t look for free—there’ll be interest.”

“Interest…” Pei Yanci blinked in confusion, then proudly raised his head. “It’s fine, this lord has money… The whole world belongs to this lord.”

Long-fingered hands fumbled randomly over his body, tearing open the collar from the middle. The collarbones below the shoulders curved into two shadowy hollows, and further down, two firm, well-built pectoral muscles were exposed.

Pei Yanci patted his chest with satisfaction, irritably pushing the obstructing clothes to both sides. The garment slipped from shoulders to elbows but failed to expose the waist, making him anxiously whine. “Go away, make them all go away.”

Tang Xizhui let him make a fuss, steadied him on his lap, released his hands, and pulled his arms out of the sleeves.

His upper body was completely exposed to the air—skin a lifeless pale white, yet his muscles contained wild power, covering his frame in an even layer, robust and resilient. The clothes from his upper body bunched at his waist, barely hanging on his body thanks only to the waist sash.

His arm lines were smooth and elegant, lightly embracing Pei Yanci’s waist as he watched him clumsily explore in his arms.

Pei Yanci pressed one hand against a pectoral muscle, somewhat curious about the two cherry-pink points above. He brought his face close to examine them carefully, his nose tentatively touching them like a small beast.

Under the soft, warm breath of his lips, the left point visibly engorged, deepening in color and standing erect.

Satisfied with what he saw, Pei Yanci giggled foolishly, patted his arm, and was immediately drawn to it again. He squeezed the muscles with both hands—taut and powerful. Delighted, he said, “Just like the Grand General’s.”

Tang Xizhui’s nostrils flared as he exhaled heavily, saying darkly, “You’ve seen the Grand General’s body?”

Pei Yanci shook his head, making himself even dizzier. “No… mmph…”

A passionate kiss completely blocked the rest of his words in his mouth.

Pei Yanci seemed to have had a dream.

He dreamed of that day in his previous life, in the small pavilion in the Imperial Garden, sitting across from the Grand General.

The warm afternoon breeze made his weak body break into a rare sweat, or perhaps he was a bit nervous. For the first time ever, the always disciplined man drank a little wine. His body truly couldn’t handle the alcohol and became somewhat light-headed, causing him to lose his sense of propriety.

He grabbed the rough palm and slowly moved up the arm, using the momentum to stand, but his body couldn’t support itself and he fell toward the soft cushioned daybed beside him. Because he was holding onto the person, the Grand General also fell down with him, hovering over him and casting a shadow that completely enveloped him.

He seemed to have said something, but he couldn’t remember clearly anymore. In fact, he couldn’t remember any of those previous events clearly, and even his fondness for that proud and arrogant person had long since dissipated.

What he still remembered to this day was only the general’s fearful pleading, and the boredom that arose in his own heart at that moment.

He was clearly so weak from illness that even walking a few extra steps was exhausting, yet he made this person turn cold with fear.

In that moment, he felt this person had become ugly.

Without the addition of power, stripping away family background and status, the resolute and refreshing appearance, the personality bright as the blazing sun—tearing away those superficial things, this person’s true cowardice disgusted him to the extreme.

It turned out his affection had conditions.

He couldn’t tolerate this person having even one flaw or shortcoming. His treatment of this person was actually just that of a plaything.

A plaything must be beautiful, must conform to his wishes. When he liked them, he casually bestowed overwhelming power and influence; when he stopped liking them, he directly used this offense as an opportunity to strike, taking back all the previous glory and splendor, grinding down their proud bones until they knelt at his feet, at his beck and call.

This was an emperor’s love.

But this time, it seemed a bit different.

The general’s upper body slowly pressed down, capturing his lips, scorching breath continuously washing over the pores on his face. The lingering musk fragrance after the incense remained strong, mixing with his body scent, forcing out the last bit of air in his body—he almost drowned in his embrace.

Finally, his lips were released. Amid rapid panting, a low laugh came to his ear, seeming very distant yet feeling within reach, like the midnight revelry of ghosts in desolate graves and burial mounds, shadowy and indistinct, shrill and eerie.

Making his head spin.

“How is it that after getting drunk, you don’t even know how to breathe?”

Pei Yanci blinked. He had long forgotten what that general looked like—before his eyes remained only a blurry figure that he couldn’t see clearly no matter how he looked.

It felt very familiar, yet he’d forgotten who it was.

He reached out to touch his face, but his fingertip was drawn into a scalding mouth, gently gnawed by teeth, like ants crawling with a tingling sensation.

A hot tongue licked his fingertip, curling and wrapping around his finger until it became moist, sticky, all covered in his taste.

Tang Xizhui didn’t want to help him this time. This ungrateful little thing didn’t appreciate his kindness at all.

Pei Yanci looked at him blankly, but before he could speak, his hand was grabbed by his.

“I can’t move it anymore, this lord’s hand is gone…”

“Mm… wu wu wu… Tang Xizhui… Tang Xi…”

This person was just as hateful as Tang Xizhui.

The consciousness in Pei Yanci’s eyes slowly gathered. The so-called “general” in the dream gradually revealed his true appearance, indeed becoming Tang Xizhui’s bewitching appearance.

At that moment he hadn’t yet reacted—one hand barely reaching up, instinctively wanting to grab him. He barely managed to grasp Tang Xizhui’s hair ornament when his body suddenly trembled and his hand fell powerlessly.

Waterfall-like black hair scattered down, flying in profusion, carrying the intoxicating scent of orchid and sandalwood, entrancing Pei Yanci’s senses.

Blinking somewhat blankly, after experiencing it once, he was a bit languid but his mind was considerably clearer.

He looked at the candlelight at the ceiling and around him, then saw Tang Xizhui’s face half-hidden in his black hair, tongue crimson as it emerged to lick away a trace of heat that had overflowed from the corner of his mouth.

His upper body was unclothed, muscles powerful, chest thick and solid, abdomen lined like a chessboard, but his lower body remained intact—even his robe hem wasn’t disturbed. His half-removed garment hung at his waist as he knelt on one knee, one hand casually draped over his raised leg, the other hand brushing his sweat-dampened black hair from his face.

Pei Yanci gazed at those muscles, his Adam’s apple sliding up and down, his abdomen heating again. Meeting Tang Xizhui’s slightly narrowed eyes, a sense of crisis shot straight from his tailbone to the crown of his head.

“Did your own fingers taste good?”

Pei Yanci froze. Just now this person had grabbed his right hand…

His face turned even redder with shame and anger. He hurriedly pulled out the wet fingers that had slipped halfway out, cursed “pervert” under his breath, and tried to get down from the bench to leave.

His body swayed and he was lifted up.

“Presumptuous! What are you doing!”

He angrily pounded his chest and arms with a few random punches. Tang Xizhui didn’t even blink, directly throwing him into the bathtub.

“Cough cough cough…” Pei Yanci wiped the water splashed on his face. This time he was completely sobered up. “Tang Xizhui, you…”

The tall figure pressed close, trapping him against the edge of the bathtub, unable to advance or retreat even half an inch.

Before he could react, Tang Xizhui’s face was already buried in the hollow of his neck.

“Ah… hiss… mm…”

Was this person part dog? Biting as soon as he came close!

Pei Yanci’s wine-softened hands irritably pounded his shoulders, but his body couldn’t help tensing and arching back in cooperation.

Tang Xizhui produced a white jade column from somewhere, its exterior carved with auspicious clouds and pavilion landscapes in relief, lifelike, with the middle completely hollowed out and the bottom open.

The whole thing looked like a hollowed-out, slender, exquisite brush holder.

Not like what he had imagined.

Pei Yanci was just puzzling over this when he saw him laugh, then lean down again, lowering his head to place a kiss beside his lips.

“Mm…”

Pei Yanci suddenly tensed his legs, but the bathtub was too small—he couldn’t straighten them and could only press his toes against the tub wall.

The protruding patterns on the surface scraped along, stirring up a tingling shiver, then hot water from the bathtub surged in from the bottom, immersing him.

The back of his neck rested on the white cloth hanging over the tub’s edge, his head leaning back in escape.

Hot, it was too hot…

He was being pinned down by this scalding force, stretched painfully and achingly.

He could feel the water flowing through the hollowed gaps, moving inside his body with his slight struggling movements, washing over him, teasing his most sensitive nerves.

As if he had sprung a leak, as if that water was flowing out from his body.

He shamefully contracted, which only made those raised patterns on the surface more hateful.

Pei Yanci cried out, his whole body shaking uncontrollably, tears sliding unstoppably from the corners of his eyes. The corners of his eyes were already wetly flushed beyond recognition. He collapsed sideways in his embrace, panting lightly, unable to help wanting to curl up.

“Your Majesty, relax—don’t break it off inside.” Tang Xizhui’s lips carried tender affection, constantly pecking lightly, his hand moving again, quick and fierce.

The water surface stirred up a spray of crystalline droplets. A wet hand lifted from the water, four fingers gripping the tub wall tightly, knuckles white with force.

As it withdrew, the water was drawn out along with it, as if his entire soul was being stripped away.

A wave of dizziness and heart palpitations.

Seeming to have given him enough time to savor it, Tang Xizhui’s movements quickened.

“You dog eunuch! Base slave…”

“I’ll kill you sooner or later!”