Chapter 81#

When Fu Yucheng woke up in a muddle, he felt as if he had been crushed by a heavy tank; his whole being was almost falling apart. After a moment, a cool sensation spread across his back—it was a bit stinging, yet also somewhat comfortable.

He turned his head slightly and saw Bai Mo sitting by the bed with his head lowered. His long fingers were dipped in cool ointment, applying it to Fu Yucheng’s back. However, his technique was very amateurish, and his movements were very slow.

Fu Yucheng felt a bit pained and itchy. After enduring it with difficulty for a while, he said in a low voice: “Xiao Mo, call a doctor for me.”

Bai Mo’s hand paused slightly: “In your current state… do you think I’d let anyone else see you?”

Fu Yucheng was speechless and could only let him proceed. Actually, Fu Yucheng’s injuries weren’t serious, but they were very scattered. Even his ankles were covered in large patches of blue-purple finger marks and bite marks… It took Bai Mo a full two hours to finally finish applying the ointment.

The two were silent for a moment. Then the youth lowered his eyes, put away the medicine box, and whispered: “I’ll come back in the evening.”

…

In the evening, Bai Mo indeed came again.

This night, he didn’t do anything; he just silently held Fu Yucheng to sleep, not saying a word.

Fu Yucheng, held tightly from behind by those iron-like arms, didn’t have a wink of sleep.

The events of these past few days were just too sudden. He had been stunned at first, and had frantically yet fruitlessly attempted to explain to the youth… But now, he had gradually calmed down.

Fu Yucheng thought it through carefully: in his current situation, no matter what he said, Bai Mo wouldn’t believe him, let alone release him.

Since he couldn’t explain, he certainly shouldn’t provoke the other needlessly. That would have no meaning and would only make matters worse. Fu Yucheng had always been a person who recognized the reality of a situation. He thought almost jokingly: As long as the green mountains remain, one doesn’t need to worry about firewood—he was, after all, someone meant for great things.

Another two days passed, and Fu Yucheng’s injuries were slightly better. This night, Bai Mo held him for a while, then couldn’t help but lower his head and kiss his earlobe, his breathing gradually becoming hurried. This time, Fu Yucheng didn’t struggle and let the other pin him to the bed.

This extremely rare gentleness of his seemed to make Bai Mo somewhat suspicious. The youth’s dark eyes stared at him for a moment, as if judging his intentions. Finally, as if unable to bear it, he kissed along that slender nape, all the way down with fierce kisses… Fu Yucheng closed his eyes tightly, his eyelashes trembling slightly, yet there wasn’t a hint of rejection… After an unknown amount of time, when he truly couldn’t endure it any longer, he begged for mercy in a raspy voice: “Xiao Mo, gentler…”

When he lowered his posture and begged so softly, Bai Mo paused slightly and indeed became much gentler. Fu Yucheng breathed a sigh of relief. Feeling a bit better, he tilted his head in a pleasing manner and initiated a kiss on the corner of the other’s mouth. This uncharacteristically gentle appearance of his clearly left Bai Mo very confused, yet also somewhat unable to restrain himself…

…

After a few days like this, no more conflicts occurred between the two. Instead, a very eerie and fake peace emerged. This evening, Bai Mo stared at Fu Yucheng’s lips for a while, then tentatively gripped the other’s nape, suggesting his intent by pressing him down slightly. Fu Yucheng blanked for a second, then understood the other’s meaning and quite straightforwardly lowered his head… Bai Mo looked down at him, seemingly not very happy. His pale face was cold, and his entire person was gloomy. Then, he pulled the other up and messed around haphazardly, almost as if intentionally trying to humiliate this Imperial Crown Prince of dragon blood and phoenix marrow… Fu Yucheng felt slightly embarrassed but didn’t pay it too much mind.

A long while later, the clouds finally parted and the rain stopped. Bai Mo held the other tightly from behind, absent-mindedly rubbing his lips against that thin earlobe. Suddenly he said: “You’re compromising so much because… I have power?”

Fu Yucheng was speechless.

Bai Mo murmured: “But, I’m not happy at all. You used to discard me like an old shoe, and now you act like this…”

Fu Yucheng was truly a bit speechless and didn’t bother to explain. He just coaxed casually: “Xiao Mo, I was wrong before. I’ll make it up to you.”

Bai Mo ignored his words. He stroked that smooth back rhythmically and whispered: “Lu Xing once imprisoned you for a full nine months… during those nine months, did you ‘compensate’ him like this too?”

He suddenly brought the topic back to Lu Xing. Fu Yucheng felt this matter was simply impossible to talk about—the less said the better—so he said briefly: “No.”

Bai Mo looked at him steadily for a while, then suddenly said: “Lu Xing is dead.”

Fu Yucheng was abruptly stunned, his mind a bit of a mess. He and Lu Xing had known each other for many years, from fighting side by side to turning against each other. If Lu Xing were dead, his feelings would certainly be complex, but more importantly, his plan…

Bai Mo looked at his dazed expression and slightly curled his lips, but his gaze was full of chilling coldness: “I’m just teasing you, look at how scared you are. How could I let him die so easily? I just moved him from Cell 2 to a regular cell… I don’t want you to be too close to him.”

Fu Yucheng blanked for a moment: “You moved him to a regular cell?”

“You’re in this state yourself, yet you’re still worried about him? That’s right, you two met in your youth and share so much past… Moreover, he was your first…” Bai Mo’s voice was extremely dry, so jealous he almost couldn’t continue, “Even if we’re both pawns, there’s still a difference in rank. He’s the general, and I’m the soldier, right?”

As long as Lu Xing was mentioned, the two couldn’t communicate normally. At such times, any explanation seemed like a cover-up, so Fu Yucheng simply shut up.

Bai Mo watched him silently for a while, lightly gritted his teeth, and then turned over to cover him again. This time, it was truly a bit too harsh… The next day, Fu Yucheng developed a low fever.

…

Fu Yucheng was ill for several days.

His whole person was in a muddle. Not only did he not eat, but he also barely drank water. His pale lips were severely chapped. Bai Mo didn’t dare do anything to him again; he just held him to sleep every night and got up in the middle of the night to give him water.

Rarely having a few days to rest quietly, Fu Yucheng, amidst his dizziness, managed to sort through things and gradually made a decision.

He had to escape. He had to go to Titan and retrieve the “Grim Reaper’s Wings.” To the outside world, Bai Mo had usurped the throne, and he himself had escaped and gone missing… Everything would be logical and wouldn’t cause any doubts or alert Medusa.

However, there were two problems at the moment.

First, how would he escape?

Second, what would happen to the Central Empire after he left?

He already had the answer to the first question. As for the second question… he could only use Bai Mo.

The two of them had gone back and forth for all these years, from strangers to close acquaintances, from mutual reliance to mutual hurt… His mind was complex, while Bai Mo’s nature was simple. By now, Bai Mo might not yet understand him well, but he already understood Bai Mo very well.

As long as he hardened his heart, “using” would become a very simple matter.

Perhaps, as Bai Mo said, he was born this cold and heartless, doing whatever it takes to achieve his goals, capable of using anything and betraying anything.

But he no longer had a better way.

…

Fu Yucheng’s low fever persisted. This evening, Bai Mo still quietly held him to sleep from behind, with no intention of doing anything.

Fu Yucheng lay for a while, then suddenly said: “Xiao Mo.”

Bai Mo gave a faint “En”: “What is it?”

Fu Yucheng said in a low voice: “…Do you want to?” Bai Mo blanked for a moment. Without waiting for his answer, Fu Yucheng turned and sat astride him. Because of the low fever, his head was still a bit dizzy, and his body swayed involuntarily.

Bai Mo’s brow furrowed tightly: “What are you trying to do now?”

Fu Yucheng lowered his eyes and looked at him silently. His dark green pupils flickered with light in the dim room, like the most expensive emeralds, soul-stirring to the extreme.

The two looked at each other silently for a moment. Then he spoke slowly and enticingly, his voice deep and soft: “I’ve heard that it feels very good when you have a fever… don’t you want to try?”

Bai Mo was stunned, then said hoarsely: “You’re still ill… Y-You don’t act recklessly!”

Fu Yucheng’s nature was extremely stubborn. Having made up his mind, he completely ignored the other’s refusal and kissed all the way down from that smooth forehead… Bai Mo stared at him fixedly, his entire body tense like a fully drawn bow, almost forgetting to breathe… Reason told him he should immediately push the other away fiercely, yet his limbs simply wouldn’t obey…

Bai Mo gritted his teeth, wanting to struggle a bit, but once Fu Yucheng took the initiative, he was simply a walking human catastrophe. Bai Mo was no match for him and was soon routed and defeated. Finally, he could only abandon himself and follow the other into deep descent… The two became fiercely entangled in the abyss, almost losing track of time…

…

An unknown amount of time later, Fu Yucheng collapsed onto the youth’s chest as if drained of strength. He was already running a low fever and was now so tired he couldn’t even speak. His whole person was a mess, and he didn’t even want to move a finger.

Bai Mo looked down at him, his pale cheeks still bearing a faint pink flush, his expression very complex.

Looking at his awkward appearance, Fu Yucheng couldn’t help a soft, low laugh: “Xiao Mo, do you like it?”

Bai Mo was silent for a moment before saying hoarsely: “You worked so hard to please me, what kind of scheme do you have now?”

Fu Yucheng smiled and didn’t say a word.

He thought to himself: This time, I really do have a scheme.

Not hearing his answer, Bai Mo let out a cold snort but didn’t take it to heart. He only locked the person firmly in his arms, as if afraid he would run away: “I don’t care what scheme you have… in short, you can only stay by my side. Only me, no one else.”

“En.” Fu Yucheng gave a low response, “Only you, no one else.”

Bai Mo closed his eyes and buried his head deep in the other’s neck.

Fu Yucheng lay quietly on the youth for a long while, feeling the steady rise and fall of the other’s chest and the slightly lower than normal cool body temperature… That made him feel very comfortable and lingeringly attached.

After a long while, he suddenly said in a low voice: “Xiao Mo, promise me, be a good Emperor.”

This was the last sentence Fu Yucheng said to Bai Mo.

…

Fu Yucheng lay in bed, silently counting his heartbeats while calculating the time.

His heartbeat, under normal circumstances, was sixty-five beats per minute. When excited or during strenuous exercise, it would rise to sixty-eight to seventy beats per minute.

When Bai Mo left, he had glanced at the watch on the other’s wrist. Then he had been lying quietly in bed, maintaining an absolutely steady heartbeat in order to calculate the time.

The error could not exceed ten seconds.

This famous Cell 1 was the work of a top-tier Imperial bank vault designer. This designer was also an excellent magician. The cell he designed was very ingenious, claimed to be a place “where even light cannot escape.”

The structure of the cell was very complex and unique.

To make it easier to understand, Cell 1 had a nickname—the “Magic Cube Cell.”

Inside, the cell appeared to be just a 3-meter by 3-meter square metal room. But from the outside, the entire cell block was a giant magic cube composed of twenty-six 3-meter by 3-meter squares.

And Cell 1 was just one small cube within that magic cube.

In addition to this Cell 1, the other twenty-five cubes of the magic cube were different dangerous spaces: radioactive minerals, lethal poisonous gas, absolute zero… and so on.

This giant magic cube was suspended in a vacuum basement. Every so often, each cube would slowly shift positions. The way they shifted positions was different from the twisting of a normal magic cube; it was somewhat like a “Huarong Dao” sliding puzzle with one empty space, where each cube could move freely.

This created a result: the prisoner simply had no idea what was above, below, to the left, right, front, or back of the cell at any given moment.

It might be poisonous gas, radiation, monsters, or a vacuum…

This extreme uncertainty created a massive sense of dread, and this dread was the true magic of the Magic Cube Cell.

Since the Magic Cube Cell was built, many extremely powerful prisoners had been held here, yet no prisoner had ever been able to escape from it.

But Fu Yucheng had lived here for a full nine months.

Back then, he hadn’t been able to escape and had to accept the transplant surgery in exchange for the freedom to leave. But after he went to Earth, for all these years, he had been painstakingly studying the operational patterns of this cell—every time he played with that plastic magic cube, he was thinking about this.

This most secure cell in the world could trap him ten years ago, but it couldn’t trap him ten years later.