Chapter 122

A dark, windy night was just the time for a secret rendezvous.

Concerned for his wife’s frail health, and afraid his brothers’ drinking would make too much noise at night, the Second Chief had chosen an exceptionally secluded, clean wooden hut for her bedroom.

Little did he know that he had made things convenient for a certain “ravisher.”

The side window creaked open a crack. Five long, well-defined fingers gripped the crossbar beneath it and gently lifted it. Then a pair of long legs in black boots landed silently inside, revealing a tall, straight figure. Bathed in the mountain moonlight streaming in, he looked as clear and luminous as the moon itself.

The candle had already been extinguished. Shen Yuan gently shut the window and walked soundlessly to the heated brick bed.

The bed was pleasantly warm. Xie Chengze was curled beneath the quilt, with only his head exposed. His phoenix eyes were closed as though he had drifted into dreams. His thick, long, black lashes trembled faintly, tempting someone to play with them.

Hands behind his back, Shen Yuan lowered his gaze to the young man’s peaceful “sleeping face.” “Stop pretending. I know you’re awake.”

The young man on the bed remained motionless. His breathing grew even steadier – suspiciously steady.

Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow and brought one hand out from behind his back. Somehow, he had gathered a handful of snow into his palm. Before the young man could react, he stuffed it into the hollow of his neck.

“Fuck!”

Xie Chengze jolted at the cold. His eyes flew wide as he shot up from under the quilt and began frantically brushing snow from his neck. “You bastard! You don’t fight fair!”

Shen Yuan brushed the traces of snow from his hands. “You knew I was coming, Your Highness, yet you pretended to sleep. Clearly, you’re the one whose intentions are hard to fathom.”

“Who knew when you’d come? What if you were out of your mind and decided to do the opposite of what’s expected, turning up in the small hours instead? I couldn’t wait up all night for you!” Xie Chengze argued his case with conviction, though his logic was decidedly crooked.

“You’re remarkably good at turning the tables.” Shen Yuan gave a derisive laugh, then lifted his robe and sat down, offering a handkerchief. “Why are you here, Your Highness? Don’t tell me that as soon as you heard I was missing, you volunteered and rode straight from the capital to Liaozhou without stopping, just to save me?”

There was a teasing edge to his smile, as though he were making fun of someone’s needless anxiety. Xie Chengze began secretly regretting that he had ridden a horse here instead of a donkey.

At least then, when Shen Yuan asked, he could indignantly deny having come without giving his horse’s hooves a rest.

It would have been his donkey’s hooves instead.

Pouting, he took the handkerchief and wiped the melted snow from his neck. “If you insist on thinking that, go ahead. After all, I love my officials as my own sons. Especially this particular official, who once swore he’d call me Dad if he lost to me.”

Shen Yuan: …

What a sharp tongue.

“How are those craftsmen doing now?” Xie Chengze asked. “You stayed here to get them out, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but that isn’t the only reason.” Shen Yuan glanced at him. Seeing his puzzled expression, something flickered in his eyes.

Seemingly casual, he asked, “Do you remember where Noble Consort Hua came from, Your Highness?”

Noble Consort Hua?

Wasn’t she the original owner’s mother?

Xie Chengze pressed his lips together and began racking his brains.

Noble Consort Hua had appeared little in the original book. After all, she was already dead and existed mostly in other people’s accounts. He knew only that she was frank and bold, and wielded a whip with peerless skill. Even the other imperial consorts had both loved and hated her.

As for her hometown…

He really couldn’t remember such a small detail.

But for Shen Yuan to bring it up here and now, there must be a connection. Could it be… “Liaozhou?”

His questioning tone deepened the look in Shen Yuan’s eyes. He gazed down at Xie Chengze with an unreadable expression.

While investigating Noble Consort Hua, Shen Yuan had failed to uncover the true cause of her death. But he had learned that she and the Second Prince had been an affectionate mother and son in his childhood. Before marrying, she had been a woman of the martial world. She had often liked taking the young Second Prince outside the palace to broaden his horizons, which must have included visiting her hometown of Liaozhou.

Though her parents had died, her martial arts master had settled in Liaozhou. After rescuing Wuhen and Wuji, she had sent them there to train. Whether because he’d visited Liaozhou as a child or because Wuhen and Wuji were always at his side, Xie Chengze should not have been ignorant of where Noble Consort Hua came from.

At least, the Xie Chengze of his previous life would not have been ignorant of it.

Shen Yuan looked up and sighed. “You remember incorrectly, Your Highness. It was Shangjing.”

“Ah!” Xie Chengze slapped his hands together, pretending realization had dawned. “Now I remember. It was indeed Shangjing. The two places aren’t far apart. I mixed them up.”

“…” Shen Yuan looked at him with deep, searching eyes. “Your Highness, I was testing you. Noble Consort Hua’s hometown is Liaozhou.”

Xie Chengze: …

Xie Chengze: Grass (a plant)! He’d let his guard down!

“You tricked me?” Xie Chengze felt a crack in his composure and decided he might as well give up trying. “Fine! I’m an unfilial son who forgot where his own mother came from! So what?!”

Shen Yuan sighed. “Nothing, of course. It’s just that if you weren’t on good terms with the Noble Consort, these bandits may be difficult to win over.”

Xie Chengze turned sharply toward him. “What do you mean?”

Shen Yuan glanced at him, feigning deliberation. “Do you truly wish to know?”

“Of course!” Xie Chengze eagerly scooted over to sit beside him. He even generously pulled the warm quilt around Shen Yuan, like a child hiding under the covers with a friend to listen to ghost stories in the middle of the night. “Go on, I’m listening!”

“But I don’t trust you, Your Highness. I don’t particularly want to tell you.” Shen Yuan shook his head.

The smile at the corners of Xie Chengze’s mouth stiffened. “Stop fooling around.”

“I’m not fooling around.” Shen Yuan pulled the quilt off himself and gazed intently at the young man. “What is there about you that warrants my trust, Your Highness?”

The man’s serious expression did not seem feigned. It was as though he truly distrusted the Second Prince, and could therefore admit his reservations without discomfort.

But those words hit like a bomb dropped into a pond, detonating beneath the surface. They touched something the young man could not bear to have challenged, making his ears ring. Anger surged into his chest, and his voice turned sharp. “Shen Yuan, are you playing me?”

Xie Chengze suddenly sprang up from the bed and seized the collar beside Shen Yuan’s neck, glaring down at him in fury. “I rode all the way from the capital to Liaozhou without stopping. My fucking ass is raw! To find you, I even dressed as a woman and risked being abducted into this Qianjin Stronghold without knowing whether you were here. And now you say you don’t trust me?”

His eyes reddened with anger. The exhaustion and hurt of days spent on the road burst out at that moment, as though someone had jabbed his most vulnerable spot. He felt helpless and unbearably miserable. “Then do you trust the Crown Prince? If you trust him so much, why hasn’t your Crown Prince come to save you? Instead, it’s me – the ignorant, ruthless Second Prince you don’t trust – who’s come to save you!”

Just one day. In one more day, he could have gotten his passport and gone to find his parents. Instead, he had been struck and killed in the street. His wild joy on regaining consciousness had been matched by utter despair when he discovered that the face wasn’t his.

He knew all too well how corrupt and filthy this court was, how impoverished and burdened the dynasty’s people were. The villains coveted the throne, believing a beggar’s son unworthy of that supreme position. The good guys pointed accusing fingers at him, believing someone without a drop of royal blood had no business standing in court and flaunting his power.

Both his life and his position hung by a thread.

He feared that Emperor Jian’s and the Crown Prince’s “affection” would vanish once they discovered he wasn’t the Second Prince. He feared that Wuhen’s and Wuji’s “loyalty” would turn to betrayal for the same reason. He feared that his skills wouldn’t measure up, and that the villains would kill him before Shen Yuan could. He also feared that this backward dynasty would slide toward destruction, leaving him wandering alone through this other world, with no idea how to find his way home.

Again and again, he had sifted through the people in this world to find someone he could trust. In the end, he had chosen the protagonist, Shen Yuan: an upright, loyal official who would never betray his master, and who had repeatedly urged the original owner to abandon his evil ways.

When he discovered that Shen Yuan had been reborn, he was even more overjoyed. It meant that in this world, the two of them alone were different. They could form a connection.

Though transmigration and rebirth were not the same, he felt as though he’d found someone like himself, and longed to gain Shen Yuan’s trust. He cautiously tested and explored, hoping that Shen Yuan would stand on his side. He was even afraid that something might happen to Shen Yuan, leaving him alone to face this unfamiliar world.

It was a reader’s instinctive reliance on the protagonist of a book, in a moment of frightened helplessness.

That was why, on hearing Shen Yuan say he didn’t trust him, Xie Chengze felt not only powerless, but so afraid and lost.

There was one drawback to the reborn Shen Yuan. Because of the past, he trusted only the Crown Prince, not the current Xie Chengze. Even though the man now inhabiting this body differed from its original owner in so many ways, even though Shen Yuan had long noticed something was wrong, Shen Yuan still refused to place his trust in him. He maintained their relationship of mutual restraint and use, unwilling to take even one more step toward breaking the ice.

So Xie Chengze didn’t dare offer his complete trust either, afraid that the slightest misstep would plunge him into irreversible ruin.

Shen Yuan had the Crown Prince, the Shen family, and an emperor intent on promoting him behind him. He could gamble as recklessly as he liked. Xie Chengze had nothing. He could gamble only once, and his life was the stake.

The more Xie Chengze thought, the more wronged he felt. After his outburst, he crawled back beneath the quilt and faced the wall with his back to Shen Yuan, saying nothing. He felt like a dog catching mice, meddling where he wasn’t needed.

He worried about the man’s safety, but the man might not need his concern at all.

Xie Chengze, you really were like a dog.