[-Why are you staring at me without saying anything? Have you gone crazy again?]
The crown prince said, "No outsider has ever stayed overnight in my Eastern Palace. What do you think of that, Scribe Shen?"
Shen Yangge had his objections, but if he had a choice, he certainly would not spend the night here. Clearly, he had none... He could only swallow his resentment.
"Your Highness, I am deeply honored. Being able to have a 'heart-to-heart' with you is a blessing I must have earned in my previous life."
If flattery had ranks, he figured his would be grave-digger level.
Everyone wanted to hear pleasant words, not unpleasant ones.
To avoid being tortured tonight and sharing a room with the lunatic crown prince, Shen Yangge racked his brains and started flattering him again, hoping it would have the opposite effect. "Your Highness, if I were also to share a bed with you, I might never wash my feet again for the rest of my life. What a supreme honor that would be!"
[-Come on, hurry up and scold me! "A lowly wretch like you thinks he can share my bed? I see no need for a heart-to-heart either. I'll have you dragged away and beheaded as a warning to everyone right now!"]
The more he thought about it, the better it sounded.
The little figure in Shen Yangge's mind grinned from ear to ear.
System 615: [...]
Its previous hosts had never taken the initiative to complete missions without its urging. Well, look at this one-he was willing to pay any price to finish his mission, even directly proposing that he share a bed with the male lead.
The crown prince glanced at the pitiful-looking Shen Yangge before him.
His dark, sinister eyes settled on that clean, thoroughly "deceptive" face, and another idea occurred to him. "Since you admire me so much, Scribe Shen, sharing a bed is not out of the question."
"I grant your request."
Shen Yangge: ??
[-Can't you tell I was just flattering you?!]
[-You bastard, are you doing this on purpose?!]
[-Who the hell wants to share your bed? I'm done for. Tomorrow, I won't be me anymore. I'll be something with no skin or flesh, just a beating heart!]
Nothing else he said could change what the crown prince had already declared. Shen Yangge wilted completely.
And then came...
The crown prince ordered a meal and permitted Shen Yangge to join him at the table.
The beginning and end of the meal went quite well. Only the middle was unpleasant.
Someone had poisoned the crown prince's food. Any other crown prince might have asked a few questions or summoned someone to take the culprit away for interrogation...
But this particular crown prince said nothing at all. He simply drew the sword beside him and stabbed the palace maid attending them to death. Blood splattered across the floor, and its metallic reek filled the hall, lingering for a long time.
Shen Yangge did not dare lift his head the entire time.
He was afraid that seeing those scenes would make him vomit, or even leave him unable to eat.
By the time he finished eating, the maid who had been stabbed to death had already been cleared away. Apart from a few lingering traces on the floor, nothing remained.
Shen Yangge did not complain inwardly. The system found that rather remarkable, but it regretted that thought a moment later.
[-That palace maid was so lucky. Why wasn't I stabbed to death? What am I still doing in this world?]
[-This bastard is absolutely ruthless, so why won't he attack me when I keep hitting every one of his sore spots?]
If only he could stab him sometime, too. It did not need to be a particularly hard blow, just a fatal one. That would be wonderful.
Lost in boundless fantasies, he let the afternoon slip away.
That night, after tending to his wounds and bathing, Shen Yangge stood alone outside the crown prince's bedchamber, unable to bring himself to enter. Though the room was brightly lit and the world outside was pitch-black, he still instinctively felt it was darker inside than out.
He was not afraid of death, but aside from death, all those other methods of torment... He was still a little afraid of those.
System 615 was just about to remark on how rare that was when its host proved it wrong again.
[--Still, those scumbags standing guard outside definitely want to murder me. Staying outside isn't safe. Getting executed by the crown prince is the way to go.]
[...]
Shen Yangge "summoned his courage," turned around, and left.
System 615: ??
"I'd better just get murdered. If I share a room with that bastard crown prince, he might chop off all my limbs. He's not just skilled with a sword-his knife work is downright masterful."
When the time came, that freak might not finish him off with a single cut, but torment him even more viciously instead.
"Shen Zhuanxie?"
He had been walking away for less than a minute when the crown prince's cold voice came from the bedchamber, laced with a menace that brooked no refusal. "Come in."
Fuck.
What would be, would be. If disaster was coming, there was no escaping it. What had to come would come eventually, so... Shen Yangge kept walking forward, saying as he went, "Your Highness, I just remembered-I can only sleep in my own bed. If it isn't the bed I usually sleep in, I can't fall asleep. I might even..."
Someone grabbed the back of his collar.
Shen Yangge swallowed the rest of his unfinished sentence.
The secret guard holding him by the collar expressionlessly returned him to the bedchamber door, shoved him inside without a word, then turned and left.
[-Like master, like dog!]
The crown prince had changed out of the Cloud-Patterned Wide-Sleeved Robe he had worn during the day. Dressed in a loose, pale charcoal undershirt and trousers, he reclined on a bed of golden-thread sandalwood, watching Shen Yangge through the beaded curtain.
He also held a book, as though he had been waiting for quite some time.
His thumb ring shifted slightly. "You can only sleep in your own bed, Scribe Shen?"
Though there was no sarcasm in his words, Shen Yangge felt certain he was being mocked. Unfortunately, he had no proof, nor could he have any.
"Yes."
[-My own bed, my ass. As long as I'm staying here, I can't fucking sleep in any bed.]
Shen Yangge pinched the corner of his sleeve, his long hair draped over his shoulders. His white undershirt was a little too large and did not fit properly, leaving it rather loose.
However, he had tied it tightly at the waist, so there was no need to worry about an embarrassing "accidental exposure." Besides, they were both grown men. There was nothing strange about it.
The crown prince hesitated for a moment, closed the book he was reading, and sat up. With a well-defined hand, he lifted a section of the little beaded curtain and said calmly, "In that case, I shall grant you the inner side of the bed."
Was this bastard trying to coax him like a three-year-old?
Did he think he was scared of ghosts?
[-I've never felt this stifled in my life. Fucking crown prince, I'm not a goddamn three-year-old!]
[-Wait, won't sleeping on the inside make it easier for him to attack me? And if I'm completely out cold, won't this bastard go even further and pull out my bones to bang them together?]
Shen Yangge's hair stood on end.
The original owner of this body had good reason to fear the crown prince. Perhaps when he had insulted the crown prince, he had already been tortured before being sent back to the Shen residence.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Huh? Nothing. I'm not sleepy yet. Why don't you rest first, Your Highness?"
He would stall as long as he could. He absolutely would not get onto that bed!
The crown prince said, "Scribe Shen, are you afraid of me?"
That question was practically a land mine. Any answer that displeased the crown prince would make it explode on the spot.
Shen Yangge opened his mouth and stammered, "I wouldn't dare."
The crown prince's voice was calm. "What is there not to dare? Get on the bed."
"...I'm not sleepy yet."
[-Don't tell me you're going to force me to sleep?]
[-I won't sleep. If you've got the guts, have me dragged away and beheaded right now.]
Before you continue