Shura Field?

Why had he stopped moving?

Xue Pingyuan leaned against the wall, observing in silence.

Suddenly, the boy turned around and headed back the way he had come.

The moment he saw the boy's fair, exquisite face, Xue Pingyuan's heart began pounding wildly.

Those crimson lips, round almond eyes, slender frame, and the pair of gray ears atop his head truly made him look... like a cat immortal descended to earth.

Even dressed in prison clothes, the boy's pure air remained completely undiminished.

Xue Pingyuan had never seen beauty like this. One glance was enough to captivate him, especially those soft ears. Just looking at them made him want to reach out and rub them.

Was the boy a monster?

Rumor had it that monsters drained people's vital essence. Could this boy do that too?

While the boy looked around, searching for something, a gust of wind lifted the lantern in Xue Pingyuan's hand, and a flash of light swiftly vanished around the corner.

"Why was there a light? Are the patrolling Imperial Guards coming?"

Shen Yangge muttered under his breath.

He immediately remembered that he had to avoid the Imperial Guards.

He had to run the other way!

Eventually, he had no strength left to keep running. He crouched in a corner, panting, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

"They shouldn't find me here, right?"

System 615: [Host, take a look at what's up ahead.]

Shen Yangge: ?

He narrowed his round almond eyes and looked ahead.

In the dim yellow lantern light, several large characters came into view.

Guangming Palace.

Wasn't that the emperor's bedchamber?

Fuck, how had he ended up here?

Lights slowly drew closer to Shen Yangge from the distance.

Those rows of lanterns clearly belonged to the Imperial Guards. He had meant to avoid them and find somewhere to hide, but now he had delivered himself straight to their doorstep.

There was nowhere to hide on either side of the road, so Shen Yangge could only run back.

But the moment he started running, the patrolling guards spotted him.

"Who goes there!"

The commander shouted, then led his men in swift pursuit.

"Stop!"

[-You tell me to stop, and I'm supposed to stop?]

[-If I tell you not to chase me, will you stop chasing?]

Shen Yangge fled fast, but he had already run once before. It wasn't long before he began to feel exhausted.

"Commander, should we split up and surround him?"

"All right."

The commander took a different route in pursuit.

The patrolling guards now split into two groups, one continuing the chase while the other went around to cut him off.

Shen Yangge alternated between walking and running. He was nearly collapsing from exhaustion, but his will still urged him onward.

"Come this way!"

"Shen Zhuanxie..."

Two voices sounded beside him at the same time. Shen Yangge froze for a few seconds, and before he could react, someone grabbed him and yanked him into an embrace.

By then, the guards had surrounded all three of them.

The sight of those broad, cloud-patterned sleeves and that ruthless face sent a jolt of alarm through the commander. "Yong Guanghui pays his respects to Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

"My respects... General Xue."

The men behind him also hurried to salute the two. They were utterly bewildered. Hadn't they been chasing a rather short boy?

Why had he suddenly become two people?

No, no, three.

There was someone in the Crown Prince's arms, too.

"Your Highness, what brings you here... instead of resting at this late hour?"

The commander asked cautiously. Ever since he had spotted the Crown Prince, he hadn't dared lift his head.

"My cat went missing. I came out to look."

Had any other master offered that excuse, he wouldn't have believed a word of it. But coming from the Crown Prince...

The commander gave two dry chuckles, swallowed, and said, "Might Your Highness have seen anyone suspicious just now?"

He had to believe it, whether he wanted to or not!

If duty hadn't required otherwise, he would have turned and left right then. It felt as though saying one more word to this Crown Prince might cost him his life.

The Crown Prince cast him a disdainful glance and replied calmly, "No."

"Understood. If Your Highness has no further instructions, this subordinate will take his leave."

Then he led his men hastily around the Crown Prince.

As he passed, the commander suddenly looked up at the person in the Crown Prince's arms.

His eyes slowly widened, his breath caught, and he nearly lost his footing.

He even stumbled forward a few steps.

Seeing their commander's reaction, the men behind him were curious enough to look back too. But the moment they met the Crown Prince's sinister gaze, they shrank back like turtles retreating into their shells.

None of them dared look back again.

Once they were far away, they quietly asked their leader, "Commander Yong, that was a person in the Crown Prince's arms, wasn't it?"

"What did you see just now? Why were you so shocked?"

Yong Guanghui shook his head, but no matter how hard he shook it, the image he had just seen remained firmly etched in his mind.

He swallowed and stammered, "It was a person."

An extraordinarily beautiful person. He had seen so many beauties in this palace, and the emperor's consorts were each lovelier than the last.

He had thought himself immune to beautiful faces, but seeing the boy in the Crown Prince's arms today had shown him just how naive he had been!

The Crown Prince hadn't come out to look for a cat at all. He had clearly been looking for someone.

But that seemed to be a boy. And why did his clothes look a little like the prison clothes worn by inmates?

Impossible. Who would lock someone that beautiful in prison?

Besides, he belonged to the Crown Prince. Who would dare touch him?

Yong Guanghui couldn't help looking back again, even though the boy's exquisite face was already completely out of sight.

He simply couldn't control himself.

Meanwhile, Shen Yangge was held against a chest by one hand, every breath he exhaled spilling over it.

"Your Highness, who is this?"

Xue Pingyuan asked tentatively.

The Crown Prince released the person in his arms. By now, the cat ears atop the boy's head had disappeared. He tidied the disheveled hair beside the boy's cheeks, his movements slow and elegant as he smoothed it strand by strand.

Only after a long while did he reply, "He is a minor official who attends me."

Xue Pingyuan's fingers itched. He wanted to touch the boy's hair too, to find out whether it was as soft as he imagined. But faced with the Crown Prince's gaze, he forced himself to hold back.

"Is that so? Your Highness said you came out to look for a cat. Have you found it?"

Each had his own thoughts, and both seemed to be probing the other.

The Crown Prince said, "No."

[-How did this bastard find his way here?]

Xue Pingyuan said, "Then... does Your Highness require this general's assistance?"

[-Xue Pingyuan, you cat-abandoning **.]

"No need."

With that, the Crown Prince ignored Xue Pingyuan, grabbed Shen Yangge in his prison clothes, and turned to leave.

Xue Pingyuan hurriedly spoke up. "Um, are you called Shen Zhuanxie?"

After all that, he had asked another utterly irrelevant question. Speechless, Shen Yangge answered, "...More or less."

He was just about to explain his real name when the Crown Prince clamped down on his wrist and abruptly dragged him forward!

Shen Yangge stammered in alarm, "Your Highness?"

He stumbled forward, colliding squarely with the other man's shoulder.

"We're going back. I wish to retire."

[-Fuck, fine, we're going back! Are you rushing off to reincarnate or something?]