His cherished love was dragged away

The boy's pretty almond-shaped eyes were open, both hands cradling his head. Candlelight gilded his messy, sticking-up hair a pale brown. He looked languid, his long lashes curling slightly and casting a small patch of shadow beneath his eyes.

He seemed to have no worries, always so carefree. Even his occasional anger came only when someone bullied him too much.

When he got angry, his hair seemed ready to bristle like a fluffy little round bird's feathers, making anyone who saw him want to reach out and stroke him.

The Crown Prince's gaze was deep. He had regained his lucidity, but he had no memory of what happened while he was out of his mind.

Although he did not know why the boy was sleeping in his bedchamber, it was exactly what he had wished for.

The Crown Prince lowered his penetrating gaze and calmly sat down in the chair beside the low couch.

"Your Highness, are you lucid now?"

The Crown Prince hesitated for a few seconds, then said, "No."

The boy on the couch rolled onto his side to face him. An indescribably warm light shone in his pretty eyes, though perhaps the Crown Prince had simply mistaken the candlelight reflected in them for the thing he yearned for most.

Yet at that moment, the Crown Prince sincerely felt that the boy was like a tiny flame in darkness so deep he could not see his own hand. As long as the boy was there, he would not lose his way, even where he could not see.

A small flame burned in the distance, as though keeping vigil for someone who had long been lost.

Shen Yangge's lips curled slightly, his almond-shaped eyes forming crescents. "Your Highness, don't be afraid of anything that can light up the darkness."

"People long for light, not darkness. If you keep following a dark road to its end, you'll eventually sink into a mire you can't escape."

[-Sigh, why am I telling him all this? He can't understand me now anyway, and once he's lucid, he won't remember what happened while he wasn't.]

Shen Yangge raised his hand and gently patted the Crown Prince's shoulder, continuing solemnly, "Anyway, what I mean is, don't be afraid. I'm here."

"It's almost dawn. I'm going to get a little more sleep. You should go back to your own bed too, Your Highness."

[-I'm exhausted. Hopefully, he'll still be the mad Crown Prince when I see him tomorrow. Though that's not very realistic...]

Shen Yangge rested his head on his hand and slowly closed his eyes. His breathing was faint, his chest rising and falling so slightly that without looking closely, one might have thought he had stopped breathing.

The Crown Prince took off his boots and lay down beside Shen Yangge.

The Crown Prince lay primly until an arm landed across his throat. Only then did he pull that hand away and use whatever was handy to bind Shen Yangge's hands together.

After lying down again, the Crown Prince "put what he had learned into practice" and laid his arm across Shen Yangge's throat.

Shen Yangge woke to a suffocating sensation. He opened his eyes, only for harsh light to flood them. He immediately shut them again, then blinked several times to adjust.

Fuck, no wonder he felt like he was suffocating. The Crown Prince had rested his arm on his throat. How could he not suffocate?!

Shen Yangge was inwardly cursing first thing in the morning, but when his gaze met the Crown Prince's open eyes, his indignant expression instantly changed. He smiled respectfully and said:

"Good morning, Your Highness. Did you rest well last night?"

If not for that damned favorability, which would let him die more cleanly in the future, he would have punched the lucid Crown Prince before him several times right then.

System 615 timidly reminded him: [Host, he probably would have subdued you before you even made a move.]

Who needed a system that sided with outsiders like this!

The Crown Prince gave a quiet hum of acknowledgment and withdrew his arm, then put on his clothes and shoes as though nothing had happened.

Green Willow came in carrying water for washing. When she looked up and saw them sharing a bed, she could no longer hold what she was carrying. It fell to the floor with a clatter.

Water splashed everywhere, soaking a patch of the floor.

She did not even notice that her skirt had gotten wet. Disbelief covered her face, and her lips trembled as she tried to say something. But just as she opened her mouth, the Crown Prince's vicious gaze frightened her into silence.

In the past, she had relied on having helped the Crown Prince as a child to take advantage of others at every turn, frequently scolding palace maids of lower rank. Although she was not utterly wicked, she had earned plenty of resentment over the years.

She had thought she could rely on the Crown Prince for the rest of her life, but reality was now telling her that was impossible. The Crown Prince had someone he valued.

If she wanted to continue relying on the Crown Prince and survive in the Eastern Palace, then this person he valued had to disappear.

He had to die!

Green Willow glared at Shen Yangge with hatred in her eyes, her entire face red with anger.

"Green Willow."

The Crown Prince's sinister voice rang through the bedchamber. "From today onward, you need not attend me in my bedchamber. Leave."

Green Willow paled in alarm and dropped to her knees with a thud. "Your Highness, Your Highness... this servant didn't mean to! This servant will be careful next time. Please give this servant another chance!"

As she spoke, she began knocking her head against the bedchamber floor, thud, thud, thud.

Even after her forehead turned blue and purple with bruises, the Crown Prince did not retract his words. She knew that continuing to kowtow would change nothing.

Suddenly, an idea struck her.

She whipped her head toward the junior official, who had finished dressing, rushed over, and threw her arms around his thigh. Concealing the venom in her eyes, she pleaded pitifully:

"Shen Zhuanxie, please persuade His Highness! This servant truly cannot leave him!"

Shen Yangge looked at Green Willow clinging to his thigh and was utterly speechless.

[-What does this have to do with me? You two are flirting, and I have to get stuck in the middle as a third wheel?]

[-They say married couples fight at the head of the bed and make up at the foot. You two go straight to a death sentence?]

[-Even if you're one of the Crown Prince's cherished loves, I still don't like you.]

So Shen Yangge felt no need to help. Besides, why would the Crown Prince take back everything he had said just because of a word from him?

He searched his heart and reached a conclusion: absolutely impossible.

The Crown Prince had been displeased for a while now. As Shen Yangge pondered why he was unhappy, it suddenly occurred to him that the palace maid clinging to his thigh was one of the Crown Prince's cherished loves.

How could the Crown Prince be happy when his cherished love was clinging to him!

Shen Yangge quickly pried Green Willow off his leg. "...Please conduct yourself with dignity."

In the end, the cherished love was dragged away by two hidden guards.

As she was dragged away, the cherished love wept so pitifully that anyone would have felt for her, her tear-streaked face like pear blossoms in the rain. Yet the Crown Prince remained unmoved, as though the woman being dragged away truly was nothing more than an utterly ordinary palace maid.

Had Shen Yangge not known the inside story, he would have believed that was the truth.

[-This bastard doesn't show even his cherished love any tenderness. Why are so many cherished loves still willing to die for him? Is this what it means to bask in the protagonist's halo?]

The Crown Prince listened silently. After straightening his collar and fastening his belt, he began handling the day's official documents.