Shen Yangge quietly tucked that remark away in his mind.
This guard would definitely come in handy someday.
Shen Yangge stopped to rest several times on his way through the imperial palace. Once he reached the Eastern Palace, he immediately went to pay his respects to the crown prince.
The sun was almost down. What exactly had the crown prince summoned him for?
Shen Yangge was not wearing his official robes today. Instead, he wore a pale green outfit with blue patterned trim and green floral sleeves. Its high collar just happened to conceal the bite wound.
The wound was only occasionally visible because his collar slipped down when he bowed with his hands clasped.
The crown prince wore his usual Cloud-Patterned Wide-Sleeved Robe today. Holding a book, he beckoned to Shen Yangge. "Come here."
Being ordered around at someone's beck and call made Shen Yangge want both to refuse and to throw a punch.
[-If you have something to say, say it. It's almost dark. Crown prince, if you don't get on with it, I'm going home. Mom made braised pork tonight, and I'm still waiting to try it.]
[-Maybe I should take another day off tomorrow. There's still plenty I haven't bought.]
The crown prince looked at the little bastard in puzzlement. Today, the little bastard was not thinking about how to get himself executed?
[-What's the crown prince looking at me for? Have you finally decided to off me?]
[-We'd already be more than a dozen chapters into the main story by now. Why hasn't anything happened yet? You won't even deal with a piece of cannon fodder. How are you going to secure your rule and expand Great Chu's territory later?]
The crown prince fell silent for a moment before his thin lips parted. "Shen Zhuanxie."
Shen Yangge blinked his shining black eyes, his voice as light as a drifting feather. "Your Highness?"
They were not particularly close, yet Shen Yangge could still distinctly feel the crown prince's cold, aristocratic presence. Whenever those vicious eyes swept over him, his hair involuntarily stood on end.
The crown prince's gaze slowly traveled down from his face, finally settling on his slender, fair neck. The place he had bitten was hidden beneath the clothing.
At that thought, a flicker of irritation actually crossed the crown prince's heart. His robes stirred as he reached out with long, clean fingers and yanked aside the offending collar.
Startled by the movement, Shen Yangge sprang backward before he could stop his legs. He had not actually intended to run, but his body always reacted before his mind.
As though he had anticipated that reaction, the crown prince seized him by the pale scruff of his neck before he could escape. Despite the summer heat, an intangible chill seemed to flow from his neck through his entire body.
Shen Yangge went rigid. His almond-shaped eyes rounded, and his pale red lips pressed tightly together, making it plain just how utterly unprepared he had been.
[-Fuck, do you think I'm some little pupper you can leash whenever you please? Why do you keep pulling this unhinged shit, you damned crown prince? I knew nothing good would come of entering the palace!]
*[-If you don't kill me today, I curse you so that when you're old,*
*all you'll get for every meal is those cornmeal buns that cost one yuan for three.]*
Outwardly, he looked at the crown prince with pitifully wide, innocent almond eyes. Inwardly, he cursed him viciously, stopping just short of using curses as the center and relatives as the radius to sweep through eighteen generations of the damned crown prince's ancestors.
A hint of amusement appeared in the crown prince's half-lidded eyes, but it vanished almost instantly without a trace.
"Are you afraid of me, Shen Zhuanxie?"
This was the second time the crown prince had asked Shen Yangge whether he feared him.
It was like a wolf asking a sheep whether it was afraid of him.
"Your Highness, subjects have always respected and admired their sovereigns. I respect and admire you, with respect first and admiration second."
His answer was vague. He spoke of respect but avoided any mention of fear. Had anyone else said it, the crown prince would have thought most of those words sincere.
Only the innocent-faced little bastard before him said one thing and thought another from beginning to end.
[-Don't you fucking know whether I'm scared of you? If an ordinary person spent every day with a lunatic, they'd eventually go from being frightened to becoming just like him. I'm different, of course. I'm an extremely rational person.]
[-Crown prince, why haven't you done anything yet? Anyone could hear how wrong my words sound. Hurry up and have me dragged off and beaten to death!]
The crown prince felt only how smooth and tender the skin beneath his palm was, as though the slightest pressure could break it. Almost casually, he rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger. It felt far softer than he had imagined.
The wound on Shen Yangge's neck was still blue, red, and purple, utterly at odds with his naturally fair skin. Yet to the crown prince, that distinct mark looked especially fitting, as though it belonged right there, on this young man's body.
The stare made Shen Yangge's skin crawl, and the wound on his neck throbbed faintly. He pursed his lips, his face pale and bloodless, the pupils of his frightened almond eyes contracting slightly.
The crown prince said, "You respect and admire me?"
His tone rose lightly at the end, and a soft chuckle escaped his throat. "Do you treat others this way too, Shen Zhuanxie..." Flattering them to their faces, then stabbing them in the back?
Shen Yangge answered, "No, Your Highness. You alone have my respect and admiration. You are the person I respect and admire most."
As though tasting the pleasure of praise for the first time, the crown prince spoke in a languid, interested tone. "Oh? Wouldn't that make your words gravely disrespectful, Shen Zhuanxie? After all, I am not yet the ruler of this realm."
Although his words sounded interested, his vicious face remained as cold as a snow lotus high in the mountains, untouched by worldly affairs yet looking down upon all living beings.
Shen Yangge felt his scalp throb. His eyes practically said, Aren't you contradicting yourself, you bastard? He wanted to hear flattery, yet warned the person flattering him.
[-I've never seen your particular breed of freak before. Even praising you gets me threatened. How did you survive this long? How did the emperor not strangle you when you were little?]
Suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, the crown prince tightened his grip on Shen Yangge's neck.
It hurt so much that Shen Yangge wanted to retract his neck into his clothes and never stick it out again, even if everyone called him a turtle bastard.
He stammered, "Your Highness, I..."
The crown prince's icy hand rubbed against his neck, his eyes brimming with danger. "Since you respect and admire me, Shen Zhuanxie, I will naturally treat you well."
"I granted you a day's leave today. What should you do?"
Shen Yangge's voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "I... bow in thanks to Your Highness. May Your Highness live a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand thousand years."
With that, he moved to kneel, but the hand gripping his neck did not let go. It still held him firmly.
[-Crown prince, if you hurry up and execute me, I'll sincerely thank you before the King of Hell once I get down there.]
System 615: [...Host, the male lead probably doesn't want you thanking him like that.] Somehow, it seemed perfectly reasonable for such underworld-worthy remarks to come out of his mouth (＃-.-).
The crown prince released Shen Yangge's neck. His wide sleeve slipped down, rustling briefly before he reached out again. This time, he seized not Shen Yangge's neck but the hand Shen Yangge had no idea what to do with.
The crown prince cast him an aristocratic, condescending glance. "Has your injury healed?"
Then, regardless of whether Shen Yangge was willing, the crown prince lifted his pale green sleeve and stared directly at the wrist beneath it, so white it was almost translucent...
Before you continue