Chapter 137

The door closed, and warmth gradually returned to the room. Wuji glanced at Xie Chengze’s tired face, then surveyed the room. Only after sensing no third person’s presence did he ask, “Your Highness, where’s Wuhen?”

“I sent him to help Sheng Yiren.” Xie Chengze sat back at the desk and resumed drawing his plans. “Some letters need delivering. With you away, only Wuhen could go.”

Wuji nodded, then came behind him and placed his hands against his temples.

Gentle, well-judged pressure gradually eased the heavy ache in his head. Xie Chengze immediately felt much more comfortable, his vision clearer too.

“You’ve worked hard running this errand. What reward would you like?” he asked.

Something flickered in Wuji’s peach-blossom eyes. Then he laughed softly. “There’s nothing I want.”

“Nothing? Does that mean you’re after something even bigger?” Knowing that Wuhen and Wuji usually wanted nothing for themselves, Xie Chengze couldn’t help teasing.

Unexpectedly, the owner of those eyes nodded seriously. His tone was subtle. “Yes. I’m afraid you can’t afford it, Your Highness. That’s why I’ve never dared ask.”

“Oh?” This stirred Xie Chengze’s competitive spirit. He put down his brush and looked up. “What can’t I afford to give you?”

Wuji lowered his eyes. His and Wuhen’s were both narrow, but one pair was deep and cold as a sharp sword, while the other brimmed with romantic charm. Even without smiling, he seemed gentle and refined. When he smiled, it was like peach blossoms opening in spring, pink and white petals blowing across the eyes in a dazzling rain.

“Your Highness.” A hint of grievance lingered in his voice. “Do you truly not remember?”

Once, His Highness had cared most about his legs.

On that snowy day, both legs had been beaten until they broke. He was dragged over the stairs into a private room of a restaurant. Sitting wretchedly on the floor, he saw Wuhen fiercely clutching chopsticks, pointing them at a little child’s eyes. He was threatening the richly dressed people to prepare a carriage for escape from the city, along with gold and silver.

All Wuji could think was how foolish Wuhen was. Foolish and stupid.

He should have escaped alone. Taking Wuji would only burden him. Besides, did he really think two boys could escape these powerful people’s grasp?

They couldn’t get away.

Wuhen couldn’t afford to gamble, but Wuji could. He saw the child whose eyes were threatened by jade chopsticks. Though in danger himself, the child looked at him with pity. His gaze kept falling on Wuji’s bruised, bloody legs, filled with anxious concern.

Children were the easiest to fool.

The boy from the male brothel had long since become cunning, knowing how to exploit kind people’s soft hearts. Ignoring the pain of his broken legs, he crawled pitifully toward the child, deliberately smearing blood from his legs across the floor to make himself look tragic and helpless.

Of course he succeeded. With reddened eyes, the child begged his mother to treat his legs. She brought him and Wuhen into the palace, where imperial physicians tended them carefully.

He developed a high fever that night. Afraid he would die, the child sat on the bed watching him all night without sleeping. At an age when children loved sleep, he forced himself to stay awake until his eyes reddened, constantly rubbing Wuji’s stiff, ugly legs, thinking it would make him feel better.

It actually hurt terribly.

He cried so miserably from the pain that night that the child leaned by his ear and sang little songs out of tune, gently patting his arm. Though younger, he soothed him like an adult comforting a child, urging him to sleep. Once asleep, it wouldn’t hurt.

And it truly seemed to stop hurting.

During those days, the young prince stayed beside him, reading stories and telling him amusing things from outside. He watched Wuji gradually get out of bed and begin walking. To encourage him to take more steps, he would pat his little chest and promise rewards. Such as…

“Sleep with me tonight, Your Highness.”

Wuji gently curled his lips. “When we were young, that was how you rewarded me.”

Back then, His Highness had devoted much energy to him and Wuhen, neglecting the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace. The Crown Prince seemed unmoved, but secretly exploited His Highness’s soft heart to keep him sleeping in the Eastern Palace every night.

Wuji could see that the Crown Prince deeply disliked and resented the two brothers. But he didn’t care. A boy who’d clawed his way out of that filthy place was stubborn to the bone. He secretly competed with the Crown Prince, “vying for favor” and stealing His Highness away.

The result was that the bastard Crown Prince used his old trick again and sent them to distant Liaozhou to learn martial arts.

Just as he’d sent the Eldest Prince to the faraway frontier, forbidden to return until he defeated the Xiongnu. Just as he’d induced Grand Tutor Shen to resign and take Shen Yuan out of the capital to travel and study martial arts, waiting to use him later. Just as he’d secretly schemed to make the palace consorts wary of Chenghuan Hall, keeping the two princesses and Fourth Prince confined to their own halls, unable to come and play with His Highness. Just as His Highness would never have a study companion to claim even a sliver of his attention…

Yet His Highness had always loved making friends.

Wuji had even wondered whether His Highness had been so lonely that he’d secretly slipped away, giving that wandering soul an opening to occupy this body.

And perhaps His Highness had become a wandering soul himself, floating up to Heaven, meeting many immortals and learning many skills. Then, at last, he’d been willing to return and continue being his little lucky star of Jian’an.

His thoughts drifted farther and farther. Suddenly, a hand caught his wrist. He came back to himself and found that Xie Chengze had risen and was pulling him toward the heated brick bed. “I’ll probably be up all night preparing things with Elder Gu, so I can’t sleep with you tonight. But I can take a short nap with you now.”

Xie Chengze remembered none of the Second Prince’s childhood. Afraid that hesitating or refusing would arouse Wuji’s suspicions, he moved quickly and decisively, lifting the quilt and lying flat on the bed.

He patted the space beside him and urged, “Hurry. Let’s get this done quickly.”

Wuji couldn’t help laughing.

His peach-blossom eyes narrowed to slits with his smile. He lay on his side beside Xie Chengze, pressed down the young man’s raised wrist, and gently rested his right hand over Xie Chengze’s abdomen through the quilt, leaving a shallow, elongated indentation.

He said softly, “I’m too cold from the wind and snow. No need for me to go under the quilt.”

“Sleep, Your Highness. I’ll wake you.”

Xie Chengze nodded and slowly closed his eyes.

Elder Gu’s arrival had eased his mind considerably. With that weight lifted, he soon fell asleep. Yet his sleep remained unsettled. His brows occasionally knitted, as though he faced some difficulty.

Wuji gently patted the quilt, again and again, softly humming the little tune His Highness used to hum as a child. It was the same lullaby he had sung to himself while training in Liaozhou as a boy.

“Hmm~ Hmm-hmm~ Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm~ Hmm~”

Gradually, the young man’s brows relaxed. Wuji closed his eyes too, holding that warm body as he began to doze.

They were both tired.

–

Few people in Liaozhou made pastries. Shen Yuan had finally found time to locate an experienced craftsman. Though he couldn’t make confections as exquisite as those in the palace, his local fruit cakes were worth trying.

Keeping the fresh cakes warm in his arms with internal energy all the way, Shen Yuan returned to the county yamen. There he encountered Su Qinghe carrying a food box, about to deliver pastries to Xie Chengze.

Shen Yuan stopped. Looking at Su Qinghe’s delighted expression, as though he were off to see his beloved, his gaze fell on the food box and his brows immediately drew together. “Why are you here?”