Chapter 17#
Alarm - Alarm! Favorability has dropped to X points!…#
Great ups and downs, great sorrow and grief.
When Yanzhi returned from the Beiliang Mountain hunting grounds, he had already caught a cold, and it took two or three days of drinking bitter medicine for him to improve.
Now, after being severely frightened by Xiao Cuan and then heavily tossed about by him, Yanzhi fell into a fever shortly after fainting.
Only then did Xiao Cuan realize—
This idiot Yanzhi had fainted, not fallen asleep!
Feeling something was wrong, Xiao Cuan touched his forehead, hurriedly scooped him out of the hot spring pool, wiped the water from his body, and haphazardly threw some clothes on him.
Finally, he picked him up and strode toward the main hall.
“Someone! Summon the imperial physicians!”
“Yes.”
The palace servants waiting outside heard the command, quickly responded, and ran to fetch the physicians.
Xiao Cuan walked hurriedly, his steps bringing a gust of wind. He kicked open the doors to the main hall, carrying Yanzhi across the threshold.
He placed Yanzhi on the couch and pulled a quilt over him.
But as soon as Yanzhi left his arms and was freed from his restraint, he rolled over, turned his back to him, and curled himself up.
Xiao Cuan’s movements paused, then he gripped Yanzhi’s shoulder, making him turn back and lie flat on the couch.
However, the moment he let go, Yanzhi immediately turned back again.
Frowning, Xiao Cuan grabbed him back and held him down firmly. “How are you really like a puppy? Can’t you learn to lie on your back with all four limbs in the air?”
Yanzhi twisted his body and began to struggle.
For some reason, he just didn’t want to lie like that.
With His Majesty before him, he always felt a powerful sense of oppression.
Like a great mountain pressing down on his body and heart, making it hard to breathe.
Just now, he was being held by His Majesty and could not break free no matter what.
Now that His Majesty had finally put him down and he could finally move freely, he naturally wanted to flap his wings and escape at all costs.
“Idiot, lie still! If you move again, I’ll send you back to the purification room!”
As soon as these words were spoken, Yanzhi indeed quieted down.
Xiao Cuan tried letting go. Seeing that Yanzhi was no longer moving and was lying obediently, he turned and strode out of the hall.
“Where are the people? Where are the physicians?”
Before long, the palace servants arrived in a hurry with several imperial physicians.
“Your Majesty…”
The group was about to bow and salute when Xiao Cuan cut them off.
“Stop the nonsense, get in and take a look.”
“Yes.”
Several physicians, carrying their medicine chests, rushed to the bedside without pause.
But in the next instant, after seeing the situation on the bed clearly, they all froze.
“Your Majesty…”
“What is it now?”
Xiao Cuan responded with an impatient expression and walked back.
The crowd parted to the sides, making a path for him.
“Young Master Yanzhi seems to be trapped in a nightmare. If that is the case, we… cannot examine him…”
On the couch—
At some point, while Xiao Cuan was away, Yanzhi had curled himself into a ball again and hidden in the corner.
He was His Majesty’s person, so the physicians naturally didn’t dare reach out to touch him, let alone grab him, so…
“This idiot.”
“Hiding, hiding, hiding. I don’t know what you’re hiding from. Day after day, it’s as if there’s a dog chasing behind you.”
“The physicians are here and you’re still hiding!”
Xiao Cuan cursed softly and reached his hand toward Yanzhi—
*
A pitch-black stone cell, without even a window, not a sliver of light could penetrate.
With his ears stuffed with water-soaked wheat straw, the straw felt as if it had taken root in his ears; he couldn’t hear even a hint of sound.
—This was the cell of the purification room.
The place Yanzhi had just left.
Although Yanzhi’s body had been carried out of the cell by Xiao Cuan, his soul was still left there.
His heart, his thoughts, his mind—all were still lingering there.
In a daze, he seemed to have returned to when he was eight years old.
On a spring day when all things were reviving, he was sold into the palace and dragged into the purification room by a powerful old eunuch.
At that time, he was like a little bull calf; though extremely thin and weak, he used all the strength in his body to struggle. Several times he had broken free from the old eunuch’s grip and rushed out of the purification room, only one step away from escape.
But in the end, he was caught again by the old eunuch.
The old eunuch punched him hard in the head, leaving him dizzy and seeing stars, and finally dragged him, unconscious, into the cell.
It seemed to be the very last cell in the corridor.
To this day, Yanzhi remembered the cold, damp smell of the cell.
His thin, small self lay on the ground. Once he gained a bit of strength, he would stumble to his feet, wail loudly, and pound on the door, shouting.
At first he shouted “Help,” then later he shouted “I was wrong.”
A little eunuch about to be castrated could not eat or drink, and no one was there to talk to him.
Several days and nights of solitary confinement filled him with extreme terror.
Yanzhi was afraid of the dark, afraid of ghosts, and afraid of being alone.
“I’m sorry, I was wrong!”
“Can anyone talk to me?”
“Does castration hurt? Will I die? I can endure pain very well; can I be castrated now?”
“Wu wu, I’m so scared, there are ghosts here! I’m so scared…”
But even if he shouted until his voice was hoarse and pounded until his hands bled, no one paid him any mind.
He lost his strength and collapsed on the cell floor, staring blankly into the darkness.
Reaching the extremes of hunger and fear, it was as if a white light flashed before his eyes.
At the end of the white light, his mother, who had been dead for many years, appeared before him clad in feathered garments and riding on auspicious clouds, reaching her hand out to him.
The eight-year-old Yanzhi smiled, preparing to give his hand to his mother.
But in the next instant, the eighteen-year-old Yanzhi regained his reason and took the upper hand—
His Majesty will come to save me!
This is just a nightmare!
After the nightmare, His Majesty will come to save me!
The thirteen-year-old boy Emperor will descend from the heavens like a god and save me!
Mother, I’m sorry, I can’t die yet; His Majesty will come to save me…
When Mother left, she told me to live well; I can still live on…
I still want to live…
Just then, with a clang—
The cell door was pushed open from the outside.
A spark of hope instantly ignited in Yanzhi’s eyes.
His Majesty had come to save him! It was His Majesty!
He struggled, trying to get up.
But in the next moment—
—A rough, powerful hand gripped his shoulder and lifted him up directly.
—By the bedside surrounded by physicians and palace servants, the Emperor walked through the crowd and reached his hand toward Yanzhi on the couch.
No, this wasn’t His Majesty!
It was the executioner!
It was the executioner come to castrate him!
Yanzhi reacted almost instantly and began to struggle.
“Let go! Let me go! His Majesty will come to save me! Your Majesty… Your Majesty, save me…”
—The executioner was tall and strong, like a mountain, firmly suppressing him.
—On the couch, Yanzhi struggled with all his might, and Xiao Cuan held his shoulders firmly.
—“Your Majesty, save me!”
—“Idiot, don’t move!”
The two voices, through dream and reality, overlapped.
The Yanzhi in the dream and the Yanzhi outside the dream were both stunned by this one enraged bark.
The Yanzhi in the dream stepped on the cold floor of the cell.
The Yanzhi outside the dream stood barefoot on the couch.
They simultaneously opened their eyes, raised their heads, and looked toward the sound—
The executioner hidden in the darkness finally revealed his true face.
“Idiot, what are you doing again? Move again and I’ll send you back to the purification room.”
Yanzhi’s eyes widened slightly, and two rows of tears rolled down uncontrollably.
He finally remembered; he remembered it all—
It turns out it’s not ten years ago anymore.
It turns out it was His Majesty who sent him to the purification room.
It turns out His Majesty is this executioner; it turns out it’s His Majesty who wants to castrate him.
“Ah…”
Yanzhi opened his mouth but could make no sound at all.
It turns out… it turns out His Majesty will not come to save him anymore!
The person who wants to castrate him this time is His Majesty! It’s His Majesty!
His soul collided and bled within the cell of the purification room, yet could no longer find an exit.
Because the only exit had been blocked.
The thirteen-year-old Majesty saved him from the purification room.
The twenty-three-year-old Majesty, however, had sent him back into the purification room once again.
His Majesty would never come to save him again!
His Majesty would never, ever, ever come to save him again!
When he was eight, facing a strange old eunuch and an executioner, he could summon the courage to fight back with all his might, even to the death.
At eighteen, facing His Majesty, he lost all courage to resist.
He couldn’t beat His Majesty.
His Majesty was so tall, so strong, and had led so many military expeditions personally.
He couldn’t beat His Majesty; he was completely powerless to resist before His Majesty.
He couldn’t resist…
Dazed, Yanzhi stood on the couch.
Seeing that he had finally quieted down, Xiao Cuan turned to the physicians and said, “What are you standing there for? Get over here quickly!”
“Yes.”
Several physicians responded and hurriedly stepped forward with their medicine chests.
In the next instant, Xiao Cuan turned back, intending to pick Yanzhi up.
In the next instant, Yanzhi raised both arms and opened his palms.
Drawing courage and strength from some unknown source, he pressed both hands against Xiao Cuan’s chest and gave him a forceful push away from himself!
Unprepared, Xiao Cuan was pushed back a step, colliding right into a physician.
The physician collided with a palace servant, and the palace servant collided with the candle stands and vessels behind them.
Things crashed to the floor, a mess of noise and confusion.
With no time to care about that, Xiao Cuan quickly steadied himself and snapped his head up, looking at Yanzhi in disbelief.
Yanzhi’s eyes were red and tears still hung on his face, but his stubborn, determined look as he rose in resistance was exactly the same as when he was eight.
Since he could resist the executioner, he could also resist His Majesty!
Since His Majesty had become the executioner, then he didn’t want His Majesty anymore!
Since His Majesty always bullied him and always scared him.
Then he didn’t want His Majesty anymore! Never again!
As Yanzhi clenched his fists and made up his mind, a dazzling alarm light flashed, and a piercing alarm sounded—
Alarm! Alarm!
The character’s favorability toward the player has dropped to 60 points!
The character’s favorability toward the player has dropped to 20 points!
The character’s favorability toward the player has dropped to… 5 points!
The character’s favorability toward the player… 5… 4… 3…