UCTOOT CH18

This was likely the first time Xie Wuci had ever shown weakness.

A man as formidable and cold as Xie Wuci could hold up the sky if it fell. He suppressed his five desires, controlled his pain, and the fortress he built around himself was impenetrable. At times, he was so devoid of emotion and desire that he bordered on cold-hearted.

A cold-hearted person is cruel even to himself.

Yet, he was actually telling him he was in pain.

Anxious, Shi Shu looked Xie Wuci over from head to toe two or three times. “I know you’re in pain, but what should I do? I’m very nervous right now. Can you please stop being in pain?”

Xie Wuci sat upright on the bed. Like Shi Shu and the people of this ancient time, his hair had grown long. His posture had the feel of shattered jade and a cracked wall. His gaze met Shi Shu’s, and his lips parted slightly.

Shi Shu moved closer. “Do you want something?”

“Comfort me.”

Xie Wuci’s voice was soft and low.

“Ah? You just want comfort?” Shi Shu scratched his head, perplexed, and circled around Xie Wuci. “You don’t want me to do that ‘pain, pain, go away’ thing, do you? No way, are you trying to be cute?”

Xie Wuci replied, “Perhaps.”

Sometimes when he spoke, he was just this indecipherable, as if he didn’t understand his own heart.

Since he had asked, Shi Shu sat on the edge of the bed. “Alright, alright, it doesn’t hurt anymore. I’ll chant some scriptures to help you transcend, and it won’t hurt in a moment. Demons and monsters, leave quickly.”

“By the supreme command!—Damn, I’m saying, could you have been possessed by a restless spirit?” Shi Shu’s thoughts jumped from one thing to another. “Never mind, never mind. Brother, with a face like yours, even ghosts would be scared. Promise me, don’t drink this much again, okay? Seeing you in pain also makes me…”

“It also makes you feel pained?”

Shi Shu said, “I don’t feel pained.”

“Tch.”

As if he understood, Shi Shu grabbed Xie Wuci’s arm under the blanket, his acting skills kicking in. “I don’t feel pained, Xie Wuci. My insides are burning, the pain is piercing my bones, my body and soul are being annihilated! Promise me, don’t let yourself be in pain again, okay!”

Xie Wuci closed his eyes, then opened them again, his gaze locking with Shi Shu’s. “Really?”

Shi Shu chuckled twice. “Of course.”

After speaking, he placed Xie Wuci’s hand back under the covers and patted it reassuringly.

“I’ll go cook you some millet porridge.”

Xie Wuci’s gaze followed Shi Shu’s back. The youth was so vibrant and lively. As his back crossed the threshold, his calf trembled as if a ghost had latched onto him. “It’s so scary going to the kitchen alone, there are ghosts!”

The youth gritted his teeth and rushed forward. “No, I have to make this millet porridge.”

Xie Wuci had a stomachache, so Shi Shu overcame his fear, though Shi Shu himself didn’t realize it.

Xie Wuci retracted his gaze and lowered his eyelashes.

His fingertips idly tapped, brushing against the warmth of the corner of the blanket.

The kitchen was pitch-black and dim. Shi Shu lit an oil lamp, started a fire, and focused on cooking the porridge, not daring to glance outside the door. This kitchen was the closest to the tree where someone had hanged themself, and half a grimy black rope still hung from it!

The millet porridge was steaming hot. Once it was ready, Shi Shu carried the bowl and ran back to the room. “Xie Wuci, it’s ready, it’s ready. It’s a little hot.”

No one answered him. When he placed the porridge on the small table, he discovered that Xie Wuci was leaning against the backrest, his eyes closed. His pale, slender hands rested on the blanket, his posture like a reclining pine tree. He seemed to have fallen asleep.

“…Tired?”

This overachiever went to bed later than him and woke up earlier than him every day. Shi Shu rarely saw Xie Wuci in a deep sleep. As he set down the millet porridge, he couldn’t help but stare for a few extra moments.

He wasn’t wearing monastic robes, but the scholar’s gown most popular among the gentry, with wide robes and large sleeves. The collar was slightly open, and the dim light cast a shadow in the hollow of his collarbone. Although his eyes were closed, he still looked like he was lying in wait, observing.

“This sleeping posture… what a handsome man sleeping…”

Shi Shu’s own looks were more on the delicate and handsome side—fair, clean, with the vibrant aura of youth, like the protagonist of a young adult novel.

But Shi Shu had always admired more masculine features, so Xie Wuci hit all the points of his aesthetic preference.

“Sleep then. The millet porridge will take a while to cool. I have to go out for something.”

Although Xie Wuci could endure it verbally, a stomachache was still a physical affliction. It would be best to buy some medicine and brew it. Shi Shu mumbled, “Who knows how much suffering lies ahead. For now, I should suffer as little as possible.”

As he passed through the dark and gloomy peach blossom forest, a branch brushed against him. Shi Shu let out a cry, the back of his neck turning cold as if an icy hand had touched his back, and he quickened his pace into a frantic run.

“Buy medicine, buy medicine, buy medicine. Maybe I should buy a medicine pot too. I’m still taking my Chinese medicine for anemia. Great, now both Xie Wuci and I are taking medicine.”

The prince’s residence was on a bustling street. The street was right outside the door, and shops lined the connecting corners. It was already evening, and the street was sparsely populated. The pharmacy was not far, under a large locust tree two streets away.

Baohe Pills, to be taken with warm water, specifically for stomach ailments.

They came in a slender-necked white porcelain bottle. Shi Shu clutched the small bottle and left, heading back to the prince’s residence along the same path.

As night fell, Shi Shu suddenly noticed something and stopped.

Ahead were two men in tight-fitting black clothes, different from what commoners wore. Shi Shu paid them no mind at first, but when he casually looked back, he saw two more.

“…”

And it was obvious that their target was him, Shi Shu.

Seeing that Shi Shu had noticed them, the men in black simply brandished a tung wood token. “Xie Shishu, you stayed at Xiangnan Temple with your brother Xie Wuci a few days ago. We suspect you are connected to the Yuan-surnamed suspect in the North Lai Slave Street murder. Come with us.”

“…” Shi Shu’s mind buzzed.

The North Lai slaves were often hired by commoners to carry sedans, act as servants, or carry coffins, so it wasn’t a problem for commoners and North Lai slaves to interact. Shi Shu delivering the small tree aside…

“We?”

Were these guys eunuchs?

Eunuchs were investigating cases now?

Currently, Shi Shu remembered that the only person who could be connected to eunuchs was the powerful eunuch Feng Lu, who had stored his wealth at Xiangnan Temple! Xie Wuci had said this man was ruthless and vengeful, and would surely retaliate upon learning who the strategist behind the prince’s nighttime siege of Xiangnan Temple was.

He had just stepped out and was immediately followed. Who knew how long this damn eunuch had his people staking out the place!

“I know nothing about them killing anyone, why are you looking for me?” Shi Shu glanced left and right, spotted an opening, and bolted diagonally. “It has nothing to do with me!”

“Nothing to do with you? Then why are you running!”

Aah, it’s because I know there’s a problem! I won’t say a word until Xie Wuci arrives!

As he ran, his heart pounded in his chest, his body temperature soared, and his blood boiled.

The sky was dim. He ran into a long, deep, narrow alley. A few baskets were placed by the wall, a stream trickled along the street, and there were residences on both sides. Directly ahead was a high wall.

“Stop! Stop right there!” The four eunuchs surrounded him.

The white porcelain bottle was already hot from rubbing against his palm. The medicine for Xie Wuci… Shi Shu stuffed it into his pocket and used both hands to claw his way up the wall. The wall was cold and slippery, and the green moss pricked his hands. Just as his ankle was about to be grabbed, Shi Shu scrambled onto the top of the wall.

So high… His toes gripped tightly. In the night, Shi Shu’s fair face, flushed with adrenaline, his pupils dilated, his chest heaving, looked like a cat with its fur on end.

“Grab him! He’s the one Godfather specifically asked for! We don’t need him dead, but if Godfather punishes us, who will take the blame!”

“Chase him!”

The voices were getting closer.

Shi Shu leaped into the night wind. When his feet hit the ground, a jolt of painful numbness shot through him. His back scraped against the wall, and with a tearing sound, he heard fabric rip. There was a nail on the wall, and his clothes were torn to shreds—

Not only that, a sharp pain shot through his skin. Shi Shu touched it with his hand as he ran and brought it to his eyes to see—blood!

“It hurts… it hurts so much…” Shi Shu’s vision blurred.

He scrambled and ran. The alleys and buildings of the Eastern Capital were all connected. He didn’t know where he had run to. In a large courtyard filled with clutter, there was a huge stone water vat in the corner. Seeing no way out ahead, Shi Shu didn’t even think twice before diving in and pulling a mat over his head.

It was stuffy, suffocating, and his breath escaped him. His back was sticky and damp with sweat mixed with blood.

Sweat dripped down his clean forehead. Shi Shu covered his mouth to quiet his breathing and heard a group of people rush past him.

“Where did he go?” “Up ahead?” “Let’s go see.”

“…I’m safe.”

But just as Shi Shu moved, the footsteps approached again.

“The road is blocked. That brat definitely didn’t get far, he’s somewhere around here. Search first.”

“When we find him, just knock him out. It’s dark now anyway. Let’s take him back to the cage and give him a few lashes to vent our anger!”

The alley was cluttered with junk. He heard the rough sounds of baskets being overturned, wooden boards knocked down, and shelves kicked over. A moment later, the sounds got closer and closer to the water vat where Shi Shu was hiding.

Step by step, Shi Shu’s heart was in his throat, his senses infinitely magnified.

Suddenly.

Bang! The sound of a falling stone knocking over a shelf. The men hurried to look, and Shi Shu seized the opportunity, throwing off the mat and jumping out, running back the way he came!

“Damn it, he’s there!”

“After him!”

“You take the other path and block the alley entrance! We’ll catch him like a turtle in a jar!”

The high wall from before appeared in front of Shi Shu again. This time he was more skilled at climbing, but the nails on the wall pierced his knees and arms, leaving bloody wounds. In his highly tense state, Shi Shu couldn’t feel the pain. He jumped down, and the sudden feeling of weightlessness made him stumble forward, on the verge of vomiting.

Run, run, run!

Trapped from both front and back, Shi Shu didn’t have time to think and jumped into the river beside him.

The river water was icy cold, instantly submerging him. The cold made his breath catch. Then he held his breath and dove under, using the inner wall to quietly swim away.

The sky was dark, and the water’s surface shimmered. The four eunuchs met up and looked around, discussing, “Where is he! Where did he go!”

“Useless! It’s not like he has wings, could he have flown away? Find him!”

“He runs pretty fast!”

… The length of the pool was short, and the stinging pain from his wounds soaking in water became clearer. Shi Shu could only hear the drumming of his own heartbeat, getting faster and faster, denser and denser.

His neck felt as if it were being tightly squeezed by a pair of hands. Shi Shu’s head spun, and his consciousness began to blur and vibrate.

… I’m going to see my great-grandmother.

The voices were still circling above… if he really couldn’t hold on, he would just pop his head out for a breath. If he died, he died…

Just as Shi Shu’s fingers started to lose their grip and he could no longer hold onto the wall, he prepared to surface for air and be discovered—

“Hah…”

A slender, cold hand suddenly cupped his cheek. Shi Shu, thinking it was a water ghost, felt his heart clench and his eyes fly open. A shadow covered his vision.

His mouth was covered without any warning.

It was very cold, like a sharp dagger or the edge of a sword. Air was blown into his mouth. Shi Shu’s pupils widened, his chest expanding as the pressure in his lungs was released, and he uncontrollably took a huge breath!—

“Mmph…”

He inhaled instinctively, almost sucking the air out of the other person’s mouth! Too frantic, Shi Shu even clutched at the person’s clothes, his teeth clenched tight, searching for the source of oxygen like a starving little beast hunting, crashing into the lips and teeth to seize it.

It was too suffocating.

I need to breathe…

Who is giving me…

Both of their body temperatures were rapidly dropping, and the thin oxygen was exchanged fiercely between their already close-set teeth. It was like plunder, conquest, and devouring, without emotion or warmth. It was an exchange of life, a mingling of flesh and blood.

“…”

Little beast.

Shi Shu’s jaw was lifted by a finger, his earlobe was cupped in a hand, and his neck was held by a calloused hand, rubbed and kneaded, squeezed repeatedly…

The person in the cold water felt the bloody wounds on Shi Shu’s back and waist. As if surprised by Shi Shu’s will to live, he broke the kiss, tilted his head back ever so slightly to breathe just above the water’s surface, and then silently returned underwater.

…Who is it?

His survival instinct fulfilled, Shi Shu’s consciousness finally returned, and he became aware of the person submerged in the water with him. His chin was lifted, but the oxygen only lasted for a brief, gentle moment before the feeling of suffocation returned.

The fingers gripping his jaw were as cold as iron, imprisoning him. The action instantly reminded him of a certain person, of the same oppressive sense of control.

Xie Wuci?

Shi Shu opened his eyes, a string of bubbles escaping his mouth, his brow furrowed. He couldn’t see the person’s face clearly before his vision went dark again.

Cool lips, then oxygen came.

But this time, he clearly felt the biting press of their lips together.

And, a warmth spread in his mouth, transmitting between them as their clumsy, cold tongues collided and intertwined in a searching lick.