Chapter 45#

The Sun#

The semi-intoxicated Yin Yuheng looked seriously at Shen Liyuan.

His eyes were like autumn water and colored glaze; when he looked at someone, they possessed a magic that drew people in. Shen Liyuan suppressed the crazy thoughts in his heart with all his might, not even daring to make a sound. One of his hands was held by Yin Yuheng, and the other gripped the wheelchair armrest so hard that the wheelchair made a creaking sound.

Yin Yuheng blinked and suddenly revealed a faint smile, letting go of Shen Liyuan’s hand.

Shen Liyuan took a deep breath, maintaining his facade of a modest gentleman. He wanted to say something, but Yin Yuheng’s gaze moved down and landed on his legs.

Shen Liyuan’s expression froze.

Shen Liyuan’s legs rested powerlessly on the wheelchair, covered by luxurious silk clothes that hid the thin and weak limbs. These legs were one of Shen Liyuan’s deepest nightmares, and being closely watched by the person he longed for made him instinctively stiffen, with loathing and rejection surging in his heart. He said hoarsely, “Don’t…”

He tried to turn the wheelchair away, but Yin Yuheng was quick to pull him back.

“Your legs… are they okay?”

Yin Yuheng lowered his eyes and reached out a hand, gently touching Shen Liyuan’s knee. Shen Liyuan’s face changed drastically, and he trembled slightly, clenching his teeth to endure.

Don’t… don’t look.

These legs are very deformed, aren’t they… disgusting?

I think so too.

Shen Liyuan let out heavy and painful breaths. He looked at his legs with hatred, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t lift them at all. The corners of his mouth curled into a cold arc as he raised his eyes to observe Yin Yuheng’s expression.

In the next moment, Shen Liyuan was stunned.

There was no loathing or contempt on Yin Yuheng’s face, only faint concern and worry.

“It’s okay, don’t be afraid,” Yin Yuheng said softly, “I’m already thinking of a way…”

Shen Liyuan said with difficulty, “Thinking… of a way?”

Yin Yuheng nodded: “I’ve been looking for a way to treat your leg injury. There must be a way.”

Yin Yuheng’s voice wasn’t loud, but it carried sincere encouragement and certainty.

Shen Liyuan had heard many discussions about these legs of his; some mocked, some were afraid, some watched as if it were a joke, and some gave high-and-mighty pity. All of it made Shen Liyuan so disgusted he felt he was going mad. After pulling out the tongues of several servants, no one in the entire Shen family dared to mention his legs anymore.

Yin Yuheng was the first person in all these years to proactively touch his legs. But strangely, the other’s tone and gaze didn’t make Shen Liyuan repulsed.

Shen Liyuan could feel that Yin Yuheng sincerely cared about him.

The damp evening breeze blew in from the window, and Shen Liyuan suddenly felt his whole body relax. He leaned back in the wheelchair, slowly closed his eyes, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Yes, he almost forgot, His Highness has never looked down on him because of his legs…

*

Shen Liyuan’s obsession with Yin Yuheng began a long time ago.

At that time, he wasn’t very old and didn’t have his current status in the Shen family. His legs hadn’t been injured yet, and his personality wasn’t as gloomy as it was now.

Shen Liyuan was the legitimate son of the Shen family, but his mother died very early, and he was raised by a concubine-mother since childhood. The concubine-mother was a gentle woman and very protective of Shen Liyuan. Touched, Shen Liyuan served her as if she were his biological mother and treated the younger half-brother born to her as his own. No matter what happened, Shen Liyuan rushed to do things for his brother. He played with him, accompanied him in his studies, and remembered to share all good things with him.

He lived in happiness, growing up carefree. Until he was ten years old, when he and his brother happened to go out and encountered poison vines.

Poison vines were strange and dangerous plants that cultivators below the Golden Core Stage could not withstand. At the most critical moment, Shen Liyuan pushed his brother away, but his own ankles were entangled by the poison vines. The vines wrapped around his legs layer by layer, piercing his skin and allowing the toxin to spread into his blood. He screamed in pain… His brother seemed to be frightened by him and turned to run away.

Shen Liyuan watched with his own eyes as his brother left and never came back.

When he was finally rescued, he had already closed his eyes and could not move. Lying on the bed, he seemed to hear someone crying, someone sighing… and someone whispering in discussion.

Those were the voices of his concubine-mother and brother.

“Bao’er, in the future, there will be no one to compete with you for the position of the next family head…”

“Bao’er is afraid, the poison vines are so scary…”

“Don’t be afraid, Bao’er did a great job.”

They all thought he had completely fainted, but although Shen Liyuan’s body was paralyzed by the toxin, his mind was conscious. He couldn’t move or speak; he could only listen as the mother and brother he trusted whispered about how much they loathed him and how they had lured him toward the poison vines…

Shen Liyuan kept his eyes closed, his tears flowing from the pain.

He was the legitimate son of the Shen family, and the family had hired the best doctors to save him. But no matter how skilled the medical arts were, they could only save his life and could not recover his legs.

His legs were useless.

What inheritance right did a so-called legitimate son with crippled legs and a long-dead mother have in the Shen family? He fell into the dust, and the gaze of everyone turned into contempt and slight. His concubine-mother and brother occasionally showed hypocritical concern, which was only “gentleness” put on for others to see; privately, they deliberately made things difficult for him. In the Shen family, he lived like a dog.

For the first time, Shen Liyuan understood what hate meant.

The toxin of the poison vines ruined his legs and pulled his heart into the abyss. He saw through the ugliness of the world, and his heart was driven mad by hate. But as he watched those who harmed him basking in success, he didn’t even have a way to take revenge.

On the day the First Prince brought the little Crown Prince to the Shen family, he was pushed into a stream by his brother. His legs couldn’t move, so he had to desperately use his hands to claw at the mud on the bank to climb out. Covered in a mess, he raised his red eyes and saw a pair of beautiful eyes.

It was a child around his age, wearing white clothes embroidered with gold thread, without a speck of dust on him, as exquisite as a jade doll.

He froze.

He heard his father call the child “His Highness” and knew that this must be the esteemed little Crown Prince.

His father frowned at him, seeming to find him embarrassing, and was about to send someone to take him away. But the little Crown Prince suddenly bent down and reached out his hand to him.

“Get up.”

Shen Liyuan stared fixedly at that clean white hand for a long while before lowering his head: “…My legs can’t move.”

The hand, however, was not withdrawn.

“But you want to get up yourself.”

Shen Liyuan began to tremble, and finally, he reached out his mud-covered hand and held the other’s hand. He struggled to get up and crawled onto the wheelchair.

The other was right.

He didn’t need the pity of others; he wanted to climb up from the mud… and take revenge on everyone who had hurt him.

Sitting in the wheelchair, he looked at the little Crown Prince. The little Crown Prince was so clean all over, just like his past self… only the hand that had pulled him was now stained with dirt.

In an instant, a crazy thought actually flashed through Shen Liyuan’s mind.

What if… what if he became even dirtier? Just like himself, falling into the mire.

The little Crown Prince withdrew his hand and calmly wiped away the stained mud, showing neither contempt nor distaste, as if he had done the most ordinary thing. Noticing Shen Liyuan’s gaze, he even raised his head and gave him a gentle smile.

It wasn’t the kind of hypocritical gentleness of his concubine-mother. In that instant, Shen Liyuan really felt as if a spring breeze had brushed past. He didn’t come back to his senses until the other withdrew his gaze.

He suddenly felt a bit unwilling, thinking, Why not look at me more?

*

“Your Highness, you’re drunk,” Shen Liyuan said in a low voice.

Yin Yuheng was stunned: “Is that so?”

Yin Yuheng shook his head and said helplessly: “Indeed… a bit drowsy…”

Shen Liyuan said softly: “No need to rush back to the palace. I’ve arranged a place for you to stay. Why not stay at the Shen family’s place for a few days?”

“…That’s fine.”

The night had completely fallen, and the bright moon rose in the east, shedding its clear light. Shen Liyuan looked up and suddenly said: “Your Highness, I once thought there was no truly clean person in this world. No matter how much you trust someone, they will cruelly betray you.”

Yin Yuheng looked at him in confusion, not understanding.

Shen Liyuan chuckled softly: “I didn’t expect that I would actually meet one later.”

“He is my bright moon, but he doesn’t belong to me, and his gaze rarely stays for me.”

He desperately wanted to destroy him, to make those eyes never able to look at anyone else again. He wanted to fall into the mire together, so that from then on, only each other remained in their lives.

He wanted to imprison that bright moon.

*

Shen Liyuan was looking at the moon; Yin Yuheng moved his gaze away and laughed softly.

Little White said softly: “Are you okay? Don’t pay too much attention to it; Shen Liyuan is not quite normal.”

“No, just a bit sentimental.”

“He has his bright moon, but his way of treating the bright moon is constant harm and forced possession.”

“I have my sun, too,” Yin Yuheng’s eyes were bright and soft. “I want to give him the best; I want him to go upward.”

Even though it was night, a golden-red glimmer suddenly appeared at the end of the sky.

Little White said in surprise: “The Demon Emperor has fallen, and a new ruler is born—”

At the Three Barren Mountains of the Demon Clan, golden flames were soaring into the sky.