[A casual fan turned obsessive, exclusive devotee: beautiful, possessive Imperial Preceptor Zhang Lanhe, top × painter Ninth Prince, bottom. Neither has been with anyone else. 1v1.]
[BL, two male leads. A melodramatic story written for fun: old tropes, old-school style, not much prose or logic. Nonhuman beings appear in this story. The author has trashy tastes and weird kinks, and is making some sweets for herself. Proceed with caution if that's not your thing. I'm letting myself loose here, so don't let me traumatize you, hahaha.]
[Leave your brains here~ You'll get them back when the story ends~]
Dig in below.
"The air is dry; beware of fire."
The night watchman's resonant voice drifted through the capital, accompanied by the faint sounds of breathing all around. Only one restaurant still bustled with people, each of them thoroughly drunk, yet still reciting poetry in a show of refinement.
This restaurant was the most luxurious place in the capital. Many high officials and nobles also drank and made merry here. All sorts mingled in this hotbed of trouble, where anything could happen.
"So hot."
Xie Huizhou's whole body felt as though it were burning in a blaze. It was as if he were pressed tight against a furnace, sweat soaking his clothes. In his daze, he wondered whether the summer heat had arrived early to leave him in such a sorry state.
He could not help trying to push the furnace away, but it quickly pressed against him again.
Dazed and unbearably hot, Xie Huizhou wanted to push away this furnace that kept pressing itself against him, but he had no strength.
Why give me a furnace in the middle of summer?
Had some enemy finally decided they couldn't stand me and wanted to roast me to death?
What a vicious scheme.
As time dragged on, the furnace grew steadily hotter, tormenting him.
Suddenly, he felt something cold coil around him. Something covered in scales wound around his waist and rubbed against it, cool as jade. Like someone finding a cold spring in the desert, Xie Huizhou could not help nuzzling closer.
So nice~ Let me rub against it some more~
He had no idea what sort of jade cooling mat the restaurant had brought him, but it was wonderfully cool. He liked it.
Xie Huizhou clung tightly to the cooling mat and refused to let go, afraid someone would snatch his treasure away.
In his haze, he seemed to see a white snake traveling alone through the night. The enormous white snake spanned heaven and earth, its silver scales like the cool radiance of the moon, especially mysterious beneath the night sky. Its emerald eyes locked on to its prey in the darkness.
Flicking its forked tongue, it tracked its prey. When the prey was exhausted, the powerful, explosive muscles beneath its white scales sprang into action, coiling tightly around the prey and biting its throat.
The prey caught in the white snake's coils struggled on the verge of death, let out one final, mournful cry, and moved no more.
Then its green eyes, filled with animal instinct, fixed on Xie Huizhou.
Divinity and animal instinct intertwined in those emerald snake eyes, devoid of human feeling, making Xie Huizhou's heart race and goose bumps rise over his skin.
Xie Huizhou was afraid of snakes. The moment the snake fixed its gaze on him, he froze in fright, and they simply stared at one another.
If the enemy doesn't move, neither do I.
To put it plainly, the giant snake had frightened Xie Huizhou so badly that he could not move.
An unknown amount of time passed before Xie Huizhou finally emerged from his drunken stupor, his head pounding fiercely from too much wine.
"Hm? What a strange dream. I really was drunk, having such bizarre dreams."
Xie Huizhou felt as though he were a little boat bobbing on a lake. His clothes were disheveled, and the wine pot and cups lay scattered on the floor in a complete mess.
"Was something wrong with last night's wine? Someone put an aphrodisiac in it!"
When he sat up, he discovered he was completely naked. The ravaged state of his body reminded him of what he had gone through the night before.
Xie Huizhou's face instantly went white.
What happened?
He had only accepted a friend's invitation to a birthday banquet and indulged in a few extra cups. How had he ended up in bed with someone?
"Isn't this Imperial Preceptor Zhang Lanhe? Why am I with him?"
As though realizing something, Xie Huizhou whipped his head toward the man beside him. At the sight of that hauntingly handsome face and distinctive silver hair, fright drove every trace of drunkenness from him. As his memories returned, his expression turned extremely ugly.
"I'm done for. I slept with the Imperial Preceptor. My little life is as good as over."
Despite all his efforts to avoid his destined death, he had only brought it forward.
Even so, he could not help stealing a few more looks at the man beside him, still dazzled by his impossibly good looks.
I'm doomed. He's exactly my kink.
Die beneath the peonies, and even as a ghost, you'll still be a romantic.
The Imperial Preceptor had been born with silver hair like the clear radiance of the moon. It cascaded down like a waterfall, spreading across the bed and tangling with Xie Huizhou's black hair. His divinely handsome face now held an added touch of the uncanny.
Although his eyes were closed, with silk over them to obscure his vision, Xie Huizhou knew they were emerald green, like the finest emeralds.
His naturally distinctive silver hair and green eyes, with their inborn, uncanny air of something inhuman, often made people mistake him for some kind of spirit.
There was only one such person in the Great Xia Dynasty, no other.
Once the usually aloof and icy Imperial Preceptor removed his official robes, beneath them was a body of explosively powerful muscles. His arms had once clamped tightly around Xie Huizhou's waist, leaving him unable to escape.
The danger emanating from him made Xie Huizhou feel that he could kill him just as easily.
It reminded Xie Huizhou of the white snake in his dream.
What should I do?
He had slept with the villain. What if this remorseless killer woke up, turned on him, and slaughtered him?
Even his imperial father did not dare do anything to Zhang Lanhe. A prince whom the emperor had loathed since birth was certainly no match for him.
Although Xie Huizhou knew that death was inescapable in the end, he was unwilling to die early at Zhang Lanhe's hands for a reason like this.
If asked why, he had his dignity.
Xie Huizhou had transmigrated into a book.
He had died suddenly while staying up late reading a novel, and in the blink of an eye, he had become the Ninth Prince, raised outside the palace. Although he wanted for neither food nor clothing, he was utterly neglected.
Apparently, his mother had died in childbirth on the day he was born. After looking for a long while at Xie Huizhou, who was no bigger than a kitten, the old emperor had declared that he would bring death to his parents and brothers, a cursed star destined to be alone who could not be raised in the palace. He had been kept outside the palace ever since, living like an invisible person.
At the time, Xie Huizhou had effectively drunk Granny Meng's soup and been reincarnated anew. He had forgotten his previous life and lived on in that muddled state.
He had thought that, as a prince at least, he could finally enjoy the carefree life of a rich man's son. Once he established his own princely household, he could live as a wastrel, stealing chickens and pilfering dogs.
Whenever he imagined those wonderful days ahead, Xie Huizhou felt delighted. He had even decided where he would travel to enjoy the scenery.
The good times did not last.
That year, the emperor suddenly fell into a coma without naming an heir. Nine princes fought for the throne, plunging the realm into chaos, and several princes met violent deaths. Only after the rarely seen Imperial Preceptor Zhang Lanhe quelled the succession struggle did the old emperor slowly wake.
Caught up in the struggle, Xie Huizhou hit his head. Only then did he remember that he had transmigrated into a book.
The day he remembered everything was also the first time Xie Huizhou met the legendary Imperial Preceptor Zhang Lanhe.
Their very first meeting left him with an impression of wild arrogance and utter awfulness.
It was also the source of Xie Huizhou's fear of him.
"I stabbed him once before. If he settles old scores along with the new, I'm the one who's going to suffer."
Before you continue