Chu Xuanzhi suddenly lifted his head and tilted his neck, pressing his cool, bloodless lips against Chu Tianyin's thin ones.
The kiss made Chu Tianyin's eyes slowly widen. He froze completely, every hair on his body seeming to tremble faintly at the contact.
Only when Chu Xuanzhi bit his lower lip did Chu Tianyin snap out of it and shove him away. Chu Xuanzhi stumbled backward and crashed onto the low table, the chains on his wrists and ankles clanging.
He lay on the floor in that same position, then let out a strange, sinister cackle. Lifting his smiling face, he pressed a fingertip to the corner of his mouth, where a smear of red lingered. He wiped the blood onto his thumb, then brought it to his lips and licked it clean as Chu Tianyin watched him with disgust.
Chu Tianyin's expression darkened. He kicked Chu Xuanzhi down again and said icily, "Chu Xuanzhi, once I ascend the throne, I'll make your life worse than death. I'll make you regret everything you did!"
With that, he swept his sleeve aside and left the cell where Chu Xuanzhi was chained.
Their encounter ended bitterly. Not long after leaving the cell, Chu Tianyin pressed a hand over his heart. It was pounding wildly. However much he refused to admit it or acknowledge the feeling, there was no denying that, even after all these years, his anxiety, urgency, and fear remained.
Even now, with that man imprisoned and his wrists and ankles firmly shackled, he could not relax in the slightest. The man who had once plunged him into the abyss still watched him with that same abyssal gaze.
The moment an opportunity to strike back arose, Chu Xuanzhi would drag him into the abyss without hesitation.
That was why Chu Xuanzhi