Chapter 55 - 1#

Rong Jiu’s lips were excessively thin; when pursed, they held a biting chill. The words spat from that beautiful mouth carried a gloomy sharpness, piercing the heart with palpitations.

He was a beautiful, dangerous beast.

Lurking beneath that magnificent exterior, thick malice almost pounced on one’s face. Jingzhe also learned to purse his lips tight, a strange sensation crawling weirdly all over his body.

This made Jingzhe subconsciously become even more cautious.

“Why not answer?”

Rong Jiu’s voice was beautiful and pleasant, carrying a slightly curled rhythm. Jingzhe liked listening to the syllables his tongue flicked against inside his mouth when he spoke. That subtle melody, gently tapping beside his ear, always made him blush involuntarily.

This was an uncontrollable instinctual reaction, even if the words themselves carried a weirdly cruel tone.

He forgot to answer Rong Jiu’s words.

The man’s eyes were deep and pitch-black. Beside his pale, bloodless face, a few stray hairs fell inevitably due to the earlier friction… that scene was beautiful, easily capturing all of him.

He didn’t even realize he was holding his breath.

Beauty is a terrifying weapon. A beautiful appearance softens the sharpness and cruelty within, like a blade coated in sweet poison, lightly piercing the prey’s heart.

…Until cold fingers touched Jingzhe’s face, and the man lowered his head to kiss him.

Long breaths transitioned between their lips. This kiss was so gentle it didn’t seem like Rong Jiu’s preference.

He was more inclined towards plundering, controlling, even a kiss that was a bit rough and mixed with the scent of blood.

Jingzhe, slightly nervous, grabbed onto Rong Jiu’s shoulders.

“Breathe.” Rong Jiu’s cold voice seemed to carry a sigh. “Open your mouth.”

Jingzhe obeyed Rong Jiu’s meaning, subconsciously opening his mouth. The tongue flexibly brushed past his palate, so sensitive that he shivered.

His fingers nervously loosened, then tightened again, crumpling the clothes on Rong Jiu’s arms and shoulders.

Until Jingzhe felt light-headed, only then did he belatedly realize that he had been holding his breath while looking at Rong Jiu earlier, not even answering his question.

A bit dazed.

…No, no, no, this couldn’t be blamed on him.

Rong Jiu’s beauty carried a dangerous edge. Sometimes just looking at him a few more times could easily wound, yet it was invariably incredibly seductive.

Just like that question earlier, it was so ill-intentioned.

Yet it also easily carried a flamboyant beauty.

Rong Jiu did not shy away from revealing a cruel side in front of him. But this also brought a certain unpleasant horror, perching on Jingzhe’s spine.

Not obvious, but always at some moment, reminding Jingzhe—letting one’s guard down is a bad habit.

Jingzhe touched Rong Jiu’s hair, his voice carrying a bit of softness: “…I cannot make a decision for you.” Finally, he remembered to give this belated reply.

Grabbing those stray hairs, white against black, making the whiteness of the fingers appear somewhat transparent.

Jingzhe spoke slowly and hoarsely, “It’s just… don’t use such things to probe me anymore.”

These words required some courage, because Rong Jiu looked really wrong just now.

Jingzhe wasn’t stupid; the matter Rong Jiu asked about must be related to him.

That hair-raising feeling caused goosebumps all over his body.

However, after the kiss just now, Rong Jiu’s mood seemed a little better again.

Truly wonderful.

Jingzhe realized so clearly that, to some extent, he could control Rong Jiu’s emotions so easily.

Such a taciturn and cold man, at least at this moment, indeed treated him with sincerity.

He could hear that slightly accelerated heartbeat, almost merging with Jingzhe’s own inner voice.

Language, body, might lie.

But this subtle physical reaction was another kind of silent, frank language.

“If you asked me more directly, I could answer you more honestly.”

Jingzhe raised his head, looking at the man’s pale, indifferent side profile.

Every sentence of his was very gentle, carrying no emotion. He wasn’t angry about this, just felt that perhaps if Rong Jiu made some improvements in communicating with him, it would be good.

Rong Jiu: “I won’t ask you.”

Jingzhe raised an eyebrow; this was an answer he had never imagined.

“You won’t ask me, didn’t you just… You mean, you won’t throw the real question out to ask me.” Jingzhe subconsciously said half a sentence, suddenly realizing Rong Jiu’s meaning, and couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “You are truly cunning.”

“Towards you, not even one ten-thousandth.”

Rong Jiu raised his hand and pulled off Jingzhe’s hat.

“Don’t move around, my hair… I still have to go back to the Zhidian Si later.”

Jingzhe was really a bit angry this time, his clear, pitch-black eyes glared at the man, minding his own business tying up his hair.

He felt that with disheveled hair, he looked like a fool.

Rong Jiu’s fingers interlaced in Jingzhe’s hair; a faint fragrance permeated, the smell of that hair oil.

Pale fingers grabbed a lock of hair, winding it around the fingers.

Like an invisible restraint.

Rong Jiu lowered his head, pulling the hair end to his lips.

He kissed the end of Jingzhe’s hair, his lowered brows and eyes indifferent, long eyelashes casting dark shadows. Contrary to his cold and hard aura, that movement was incredibly gentle, without a tremor.

Jingzhe was stunned, silently impacted by this scene, actually stopping his movements. A strange sensation scurried inside his body, silent desire growing. In an instant, an inexplicable impulse drowned his reason, and he grabbed Rong Jiu’s lapel.

The strength was so great that it actually pulled the completely unguarded man into a stumble.

For Rong Jiu, this was almost impossible.

Only he didn’t resist.

Just following Jingzhe’s force like that, being submerged by warmth.

Jingzhe kissed the corner of Rong Jiu’s lips awkwardly.

Rong Jiu’s lips curved up slightly, “This can’t be called a kiss.”

In the warmth of skin contact, Jingzhe’s breathing also became a bit rapid.

“We can’t always just do things you like.”

Jingzhe took a small step back, but was startled by the arm that suddenly appeared around his waist. The man seemed unwilling to let him leave; if he retreated a step, Rong Jiu followed a step forward.

“Why not?” Rong Jiu’s voice carried a barely perceptible smile. “Not many people can disobey me.”

Of course, there were still some.

It’s just that those who dared to disobey were mostly dead.

Jingzhe didn’t know what terrible things Rong Jiu was thinking about. He pursed his lips in some panic; only in this way could he not reveal that strange shyness.

They clearly had more intense contact, but gently pressing against each other just now, this fleeting warmth, made Jingzhe feel dazed.

Of course, of course, even dazed, he more or less listened to Rong Jiu’s words, and naturally, there was a rebuttal.

“It is natural for your subordinates to fear you, but I am not your subordinate, I don’t want to fear you.”

Jingzhe didn’t even realize what he was saying, after all, his mind was still trapped in the soft feeling just now.

His hand hidden in his sleeve pinched his fingers fiercely; only in this way could he grasp a little bit of clarity in the blurred ambiguity.

He thought wildly about the conversation just now, what were they talking about… ah, about Rong Jiu being cunning.

Jingzhe: “You tell me nothing, yet come to ask my opinion. Aren’t you afraid that the view I give is completely unusable?”

Rong Jiu: “As long as you want to, there is nothing that cannot be done.” He said it casually, still holding that lock of Jingzhe’s hair playing with it in his hand.

Jingzhe’s hair had become blacker than before.

It also felt very silky to the touch.

That frizzy feeling had disappeared a lot. This perhaps also had to do with the medicine Jingzhe had been taking recently.

Those bitter medicinal juices weren’t easy to swallow. But after Jingzhe persisted, he could also feel the daily changes in his body.

When he entered the palace, he was still young.

Even with Chen An’s protection, openly, he couldn’t be taken care of too much. The things that should be done, the punishments that should be had, none were missing. At a young age, he did a lot of hard labor, so this body naturally developed deficits.

Plus, Chen An was afraid Jingzhe would be discovered, so the pills sent to suppress physical growth also carried overly yin and cold medicinal properties.

These all piled up inside the body.

When young, this wasn’t a serious matter. Even if sick, one could recover quickly. But as one got older, these deficits would always find a time to explode, retrieving all the suffering that was due.

“I don’t have that many things I want to do.” Jingzhe’s voice was very light, carrying a bit of drift. “Rong Jiu, I am not a greedy person.”

“You can be.”

Jingzhe couldn’t help laughing. A cold person entangled in such irrelevant trifles made him feel that Rong Jiu was somewhat inexplicably cute.

Jingzhe: “I only wish for the people around me to be safe and smooth, without disease or disaster.”

He stood on tiptoe and hugged Rong Jiu’s neck.

There was still a bit of a height difference between the two, which always made Jingzhe secretly envy the man’s physique.

“You must see the doctor properly, take medicine properly, and live properly.” Jingzhe laughed. “It would be even better if you could always accompany me.”

Rong Jiu was always icy cold; in this winter, his skin became even colder.

Jingzhe always felt like he was hugging a giant block of ice. His body shivered unconsciously twice. The man’s arms circled Jingzhe’s waist, hugging him, allowing him to step on his own boots, and said coldly and indifferently: “The cunning person is you.”

Jingzhe raised an eyebrow: “This is slander.”

The two were so close, even their breathing and voices seemed to be exchanged.

“Human life is fragile, like glazed tiles, easily shattered, leaving nothing behind. What you desire to be safe and smooth, is it just one person, one life?” Rong Jiu’s beautiful voice sounded low in Jingzhe’s ear. “Jingzhe, isn’t this greedy enough?”

Wanting that duckweed, wanting that summer insect, to be stable and worry-free forever, how is that not greed?

Jingzhe laughed low: “If this is also greed, then so what if I am greedy?”

There are no pies dropping from the sky in this world, and Jingzhe didn’t expect any.

No need for good luck, may bad luck not come.

Just like this forever is good.

At such a close distance, Rong Jiu could almost smell the abundant vitality on Jingzhe, fresh warmth surging from the touching skin, like a piece of precious warm jade.

Even the words spoken carried a soft, warm innocence.

Rong Jiu always thought so.

Only the most innocent and soft people would think that without borrowing power, wealth, and status, they could possess a safe and smooth life. In this filthy, rotting imperial palace, it was even more impossible.

Without stepping on others’ bones and blood, how can one possess a peaceful life?

This sounded, even somewhat laughable.

Rong Jiu had once counted how many bones were in a human body. Naturally, that relied on sharp knives and bloody dismantling, simply because he found it interesting.

So, he also knew which place on a human body could easily cause death. Even without making a move, just a small accident was needed.

For example, an unlucky sprained ankle could shatter the back of the head.

Just like Jingzhe a month or so ago.

Look, Rong Jiu didn’t think there was anything wrong with sending people to monitor Jingzhe.

Without this, how could this fragile Jingzhe be kept alive?

He was fragile like the thinnest snowflake in winter, falling on the eaves, easily melting away.

But not only did he not know his own fragility, on the contrary, he turned a blind eye to danger time and again.

Because he had “affection and righteousness,” because he cared about those duckweeds.

Affection and righteousness.

Rong Jiu recited these words, as if chewing on Ning Hongru’s flesh and blood, haha, affection and righteousness!

For a split second, Rong Jiu’s eyes became increasingly dark. His emotions could easily slide from one extreme to another extreme. Some terrible sound was shattering, cracking, like crumbling reason.

That jump easily turned the atmosphere grim and cold.

Jingzhe should feel strange.

He should be like this.

Even a person with a peaceful state of mind would mostly not be able to stand this fickle temper.

Rong Jiu looked so silent and gloomy. He turned his head coldly, looking past Jingzhe’s shoulder into the distance. This time, Jingzhe followed his movement to look, but there was no one behind.

“Rong Jiu, what are you looking at?”

His voice sounded still so calm.

For a split second, Rong Jiu wanted to shatter this cloud-like lightness. He wanted to see Jingzhe fall into boundless darkness with him, becoming painful, despairing, angry. All kinds of burgeoning desires and violence would metamorphose into the most fundamental instincts, letting impulses be thoroughly released.

He wanted to tear apart, destroy, peel open that calm and self-possessed skin of Jingzhe, forcing everything to be naked, with nowhere to hide under the sunlight.

That obscuroty following like a shadow spread to everywhere.

Rong Jiu raised his hand and pressed on Jingzhe’s head, speaking flatly: “Nothing.”

Jingzhe moved slightly, wanting to turn back.

But the force holding his head down increased slightly. It was imaginable that Rong Jiu didn’t want him to look at him.

Jingzhe was silent for a while, then said slowly, “Rong Jiu, what are you thinking?”

Rong Jiu didn’t want him to turn back, was it because he didn’t want him to see some… expressions he shouldn’t see?

He unconsciously hugged his arms, as if he could still feel the cold breath lingering on them.

What kind of expression was that?

Jingzhe thought, was it very scary?

Rong Jiu said coldly: “Thinking of killing people.”

…Alright, maybe it really was very scary.

Although Rong Jiu said nothing, Jingzhe just inexplicably felt that Rong Jiu’s inexplicable irritability was related to him.

Was it because of what he said just now?

But Jingzhe didn’t think his words were laughable.

“Hope” is hope precisely because it is difficult to achieve. He should know that in the palace, wanting peace and smoothness was inherently not an easy thing.

Those noble imperial concubines met with accidents and lost their lives in the blink of an eye.

Let alone them, these palace servants.

Life, I’m afraid, is the least valuable thing inside and outside this palace.

But life is also very important.