Hearing Mu Xueshi’s words, the Third Prince seemed to think of something and unexpectedly curved his lips into a smile.
The moment Mu Xueshi saw him smile, he smiled too. He had no idea what the Third Prince found amusing; he only knew that seeing the prince happy made him happy as well. Then Mu Xueshi looked again at the impressive size between the prince’s legs, compared it with his own, and immediately grew sullen, the frustration plain on his face.
Mu Xueshi had talked big, but after working at it for quite a while, both his hands had grown sore while the Third Prince only became harder, showing no sign of release at all.
Annoyed, Mu Xueshi blamed the Third Prince for not cooperating and nearly pinched him. Instead, the prince flipped him over so that he lay across his thighs, then began running a hand over Mu Xueshi’s rounded backside.
“Don’t hit me…” Mu Xueshi struggled, apparently convinced that he had done something wrong during the day and was now being punished for it at night.
The Third Prince chuckled, removed the thin layers covering Mu Xueshi, and lightly patted his bare backside. Mu Xueshi actually found the sensation comfortable and lay across the prince’s lap, murmuring, “That amount of force is fine. Don’t hit too hard. Just scare me a little…”
Before long, a cry rang out from the Third Prince’s bedchamber. Sun Ye, standing night watch outside, raised an eyebrow. Mu Xueshi had lived in the palace for quite some time, yet there had never been any sound from the inner chamber where he slept with the Third Prince. Hearing that cry in the stillness of the night, Sun Ye immediately understood what was happening inside.
“Ahhh… what kind of punishment is this? It hurts! Ahhh…”
“Corporal punishment…”
Sun Ye listened in a daze until someone suddenly appeared before him. He snapped back to attention, and in the next instant his sword was already at the newcomer’s throat.
“What kind of guard are you? I made it all the way into the courtyard, and you’re still standing here distracted?”
The sight of that infuriating smile filled Sun Ye with irritation. If the Third Prince were not still afflicted by Gu poison, making Sun Ye unwilling to act rashly, he would long ago have killed this highly skilled Gu Master with a single stroke.
No one knew Gu Master Mo Ru’s true age. He looked only about twenty, but who could say whether that appearance was the result of his cultivation? Mo Ru was handsome and elegant enough, yet his frivolous, careless manner made a steady man like Sun Ye detest him.
Sun Ye pressed the sword a little closer and said coldly, “Please show some restraint, Gu Master. This is the Third Prince’s Qinyi Courtyard. Anyone who trespasses without permission is to be put to death.”
“Then why haven’t you killed me?” Mo Ru even leaned toward the blade as he spoke, showing not the slightest fear.
Forced backward step by step, Sun Ye grew more furious. Gritting his teeth, he seized Mo Ru by the collar and flew out of the courtyard with him.
“I heard something I shouldn’t have heard! Waaah… I want to hear more… Tell me, were you distracted just now because… ah!”
Before he could finish, Sun Ye hurled Mo Ru straight into the grass. After one miserable cry, the Gu Master abruptly fell silent.
The Third Prince withdrew the jade handle from Mu Xueshi’s body. Small traces of blood had appeared at the entrance; Mu Xueshi was inexperienced and far too tight, and the prince had inevitably hurt him. Seeing the pain on Mu Xueshi’s face, the Third Prince knew he could not rush. If the person beneath him was unwilling, he would not force him, unless there were no feelings between them.
The Third Prince had only been distracted for a moment when Mu Xueshi started sleeping soundly. Looking at his own still-unrelieved arousal, the prince had no choice but to place Mu Xueshi’s hand around himself and guide it back and forth. Even in his sleep, Mu Xueshi seemed to notice and murmured as he followed the motion until his palm became slick.
Several winter crows flapped past outside the window. A breeze slipped inside, making the bean-sized candle flame tremble before it finally vanished into a thin curl of smoke.
The Third Prince gazed at Mu Xueshi’s sleeping face, breathtakingly beautiful as a painting. If this face were truly seen by the world one day, would it cause chaos beneath heaven? With unusual tenderness, he stroked Mu Xueshi’s cheek and let his fingers linger there.
His chest suddenly tightened. The Third Prince noticed the spots of blood on the bedding, and his hand stopped.
*How far have my thoughts strayed from what I intended at the beginning?*
Only when he saw the blood did the Third Prince remember that this person was his younger brother. Mu Xueshi’s parents were both his enemies, and his mother had been tormented to death by those people.
Yet in barely a month, the person before him had drifted farther and farther from the Mu Xueshi in his memory. Countless times, the Third Prince had felt that this could not be the same person. He could hold this Mu Xueshi in his arms and sleep peacefully, even when the man occasionally did things that angered him.
“Are you really Mu Xueshi?” the Third Prince could not help asking the sleeping face.
In his dream, Mu Xueshi imagined the Third Prince interrogating him about his true identity. Terrified, he hurriedly insisted that he really was Mu Xueshi.
The Third Prince felt relieved, yet also faintly disappointed. He always sensed that he was reaching for something in the dark, and even when he seemed to catch it, he still could not feel secure.
Pressing his cheek against Mu Xueshi’s, the Third Prince whispered into his ear as though speaking in a dream. “I hate people who deceive me more than anything. If one day I discover that you have been playing with me, I will make you wish you were dead.”