Chapter 54 p1
“Your Highness is supreme and can treat human life as grass, and can also forcibly seize a commoner’s daughter. You should be satisfied with what you have obtained. I am filthy, I deserve to die, but what about you?”
“Are you worthy of her?”
“Don’t you know! She hates your power. She would rather entrust herself to the likes of me than to be stained with your bloody hands.”
Seeing the person at the head of the table’s expression stiffen, and a storm brewing in his eyes, Ye Weiqing suddenly felt his blood boil, and a thrill of an ant shaking a great tree ran through his body.
His bright red eyes stared at him, and he spat out clear words with a smile from between his teeth, “She finds you filthy.”
The person at the head of the table seemed to have frozen. Ye Weiqing laughed even more wildly.
Song He was still clear-headed and said in a low voice, “He is talking nonsense. Master, you go first. Song He will handle it.”
Song He was about to draw his sword, but Xie Yao didn’t move.
“Gouge out his eyes, cut out his tongue,” Xie Yao said, as if he had no emotion and was not provoked by his words.
But Song He sensed a grim coldness spreading and still hesitated.
Ye Weiqing put away his smile. “You have only seen what I have drawn. Do you know to what extent my imagination has gone?
“I am blind, mute, and crippled. As long as I am not dead, I will imagine! Can you control that?”
“Come,” Xie Yao called for the shadow guards outside in a low voice, but was drowned out by the frantic roar in front of him, “She is the moon in the sky! How many people can see her? If you kill me, there are still thousands and thousands of me! Can you kill them all?”
“Lock her up, imprison her, she will no longer be her, and she will certainly not love you, hahahaha!
“Your Highness is of high status and power, but you can only get her person. You will never get her love, even in death. You are not even as good as me!”
“I will kill you.”
“Come on! Kill me!”
A person beside him quickly reached out. Song He did not have time to turn. The sword at his waist was unsheathed, and a cold light flashed.
“Master!” Song He exclaimed, and in a reverse grip, he raised the scabbard to block in front of Ye Weiqing.
The cold light did not stop. The blade cut through the scabbard, and the sharp edge still cut through his robe and flesh.
Song He held his forearm, and blood flowed from between his fingers like a stream.
Xie Yao’s hand holding the sword froze, and he was stunned for a moment. Only then did Song He turn around and kick Ye Weiqing unconscious.
Song He’s face was pale. He looked at the person before him. “This person has committed the crime of treason. He can be exiled three thousand li and die from a fall on the road, or he can die from a serious illness.”
Xie Yao seemed to have come to his senses, and the madness in his eyes was covered by a frozen calm.
“Get out of the way.” But his killing intent had not changed.
Song He let go of his hand, letting the blood from his arm gush out. “Master is the regent and no longer needs to kill people with his own hands.”
A dark, cold light suddenly appeared in Xie Yao’s eyes. “This person has ill intentions and covets my wife. Does he not deserve to die? Grinding his bones to dust is letting him off easy. I will cut him alive. Get out!”
Song He trembled all over, his brow tightly furrowed, and a complex emotion showed in his eyes. He suddenly knelt down. “If it must be so, Song He will do it.”
“Is this matter so difficult?” he asked, full of confusion.
Song He looked up at him, opened his mouth, but could not say anything.
Xie Yao saw it clearly. His eyes were full of heartache, self-blame, and admiration, and there was also a hidden trace of pity.
Xie Yao chuckled and asked slowly:
“Do you think his crime is not punishable by death?”
“Do you think I am abnormal today?”
“Do you also think I am not worthy of her?”
Xie Yao asked three questions in a row. Song He did not dare to make a sound.
“Tell the truth,” Xie Yao said, as if he were very calm.
Song He bowed his head, closed his eyes, and said in a low voice, “This person at least does not deserve to be cut into a thousand pieces. Master is not abnormal today, but has been abnormal every day since meeting the Mistress. Master is still at ease in the court’s power struggles, but with the Mistress, you are extremely controlling. Whether Master is worthy of the Mistress is for the Mistress to decide. Others’ words are empty, including what Master himself thinks.”
The person at the head of the table was silent. Song He did not dare to look up. “Song He’s life belongs to Master. Every word of this is from the bottom of my heart. If Master does not listen or believe, you can grant Song He a quick death. But before I die, Song He has one more thing to say.”
Song He paused. “Tell the Mistress everything, or let her go.”
The moment he finished speaking, a cold laugh echoed in the room, and the early summer night instantly turned into a harsh winter.
Song He quickly said, “Song He knows that it is impossible for Master to let the Mistress go. Then tell her everything.”
After a long silence, he finally heard him say, “What do you know?”
This time, his voice was hoarse, and his tone was weak, as if he had softened his high and mighty majesty and had finally let down his iron-hard defense. But what was seen underneath was still unapproachable.
Song He only hated that he had not been able to share even a single bit of his burden back then.
The pain of the wound was insignificant. Song He suppressed his trembling and said in a low voice, “I beg you, tell her. Brother.”
The room was silent, and only the different rhythms of the three people’s breathing could be heard.
After a long time, Song He looked up.
Xie Yao had his eyes closed, his face pale, his breathing sometimes slow, sometimes rapid, and he could not calm down for a long time.
*
Mingyue Residence.
It was almost the hour of Zi, and the lights in the main room’s bedchamber were still on.
Yuli couldn’t sleep no matter what. At first, she tossed and turned, but in the end, she lay straight and looked at the top of the bed curtains.
After being in this world for more than three years, she was already sure that this was a real world. Everyone had flesh and blood and was not controlled by any invisible force, which naturally included Xie Yao.
He would react completely differently from the original novel according to her actions.
In the original novel, his initial madness and bloodlust were stimulated by the heroine’s disgust. After that, the two of them continued to torment each other, cutting off the possibility of a heart-to-heart from the very beginning, let alone intimacy.
So now, she submitted to him and was close to him. Many times, they could be said to be intimate. It was just that because of his fake identity, he could not talk about himself. So, in fact, she did not know the real him at all.
Perhaps it was time to uncover this lie.
No matter what kind of past he had hidden from her, it was better than creating a rift because of the concealment and doing something that could not be undone.
Yuli decided to have a good talk with him, starting with his father. It would be best if they could talk it out tonight, so she had been waiting for him.
She waited until she was extremely sleepy, but he still hadn’t returned. Perhaps he wouldn’t be back tonight. Yuli got up to extinguish the lights.
After blowing out the lights, she noticed that the lights in Xiyun’s room in the east wing were already out. Jingyu was sleeping next to Xiyun tonight. It seemed they had already gone to bed. It was indeed not early.
However, just as Yuli took off her shoes and got into bed, she heard the door of the main room being pushed open. She didn’t even put on her shoes and immediately went back to the lantern and lit it again.
The light slowly brightened, and Xie Yao’s figure appeared in the bedchamber, from dark to light.
Before Yuli could see him clearly, she quickly walked over, held him, and pressed her side face against his chest.
“You’re back. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
Xie Yao did not hold her back for a long time. Yuli felt that something was wrong. She looked up at him and found that his face was pale, and there was something indescribable in his eyes. Yuli keenly sensed danger, but his eyes were slightly red, and it was not that simple.
It was as if he had already done something to wrong her, and he didn’t feel that he was wrong, but he couldn’t help but feel guilty.
Yuli was horrified. “Where did you go just now? What did you do to him?”
Yuli let go of him and ran into the courtyard, calling out, “Jingyu!”
Xie Yao stiffened for a moment, and the complexity in his eyes slowly dissipated, turning into a calm and waveless state. A smile flashed across his straight lips, and then it returned to coldness in an instant.
Yuli ran down the eaves. The door of the east wing opened, and Jingyu ran out from the room at the same time.
The two of them met in front of the camellia tree, both equally shaken. Yuli held her heart to calm down, and Jingyu looked behind her.
Yuli suddenly turned around and saw Xie Yao walking out of the main room.
That coiled dragon robe had already been changed. He was wearing a black outfit. His hair was black, and his jade hairpin was also black. Under the dim eaves, only his face was frighteningly white.
Jingyu and Yuli were greatly alarmed, and both shivered, looking at him with fear.
Jingyu almost wanted to kneel down immediately. But Yuli quickly returned to normal.
She said to Jingyu in a low voice, “Go back to your room. I’ll handle this.”
Jingyu hesitated for a moment. Before Xiyun could come out, she turned and quickly went back to her room, closing the door tightly.
Although Yuli’s heart was pounding, she still instinctively walked towards Xie Yao.
His father was dead, from illness, not killed by him. She had never hated him, and he had never been willing to hurt her in the slightest. Even if there was a barrier between them, they were very close. He had been with her through a lot, and they also trusted each other.
Yuli took a few steps.
“Stop,” he finally said, as if he were suppressing something, his voice a little hoarse.
Yuli subconsciously obeyed, but she only stopped for a moment and continued to walk towards him. She looked at him, not even feeling the pain when she stepped on a stone.
Xie Yao’s face was cold and deep, and his emotions were unreadable. But Yuli knew that this meant he was very unhappy.
“I told you to stop.”
Yuli froze in place.
He walked towards her step by step. Yuli was sure that she had not misheard. He had said “I.”
A humble term for the supreme ruler, which should have been gentle and modest. But when it came from his mouth, it was full of submission.
Yuli waited for him to tell her his identity.
But he squatted down in front of her, and the hand he had been holding behind his back held her embroidered shoes and placed them by her feet, holding her ankle and lifting it up.
Yuli was astonished, and her figure was unsteady. She held his shoulder.