Yugong Zhaoye frowned as he watched Wei Fu jump from one shock to another and act out an entire play by himself.
What is he babbling about now?
If not for the tolerance expected of an elder brother, he would have thrown this chatterbox out long ago.
“Which part of what I said did you fail to understand?” Yugong Zhaoye demanded. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the problem isn’t that I explained myself badly, but that you’re the one being ridiculous?”
Wei Fu looked deeply aggrieved. “We’re the same age. Why do you insist on treating me like a younger brother? Do I really look that childish to you?”
Yugong Zhaoye could not even be bothered to answer aloud. His eyes plainly said, If not, then what?
Wei Fu: “…”
Still unwilling to admit defeat, he argued, “You’ve met my real elder brothers and cousins. Have I ever treated them the way I treat you? Even His Majesty and Chuiyun have never shared a bed with me. Never. Not once! Brothers simply aren’t like this…”
Thinking about it, Yugong Zhaoye realized that actually made sense. Given Wei Fu’s habit of packing nine and a half parts whining into every ten words and clinging endlessly once he became attached, who except a biological brother raised alongside him from childhood—or an elder brother with a very large age gap—could possibly tolerate this sticky rice cake trailing after them every day? Hugging whenever he pleased, clinging whenever he pleased, demanding someone accompany him to sleep… between friends and peers, it really was excessively intimate.
A trace of uncertainty finally entered Yugong Zhaoye’s heart. “So… you never thought of me as an elder brother?”
Wei Fu nodded frantically like a chicken pecking grain, eyes shining with anticipation as he gazed at him, waiting for this wooden post to finally understand.
Yugong Zhaoye lowered his eyes. His lashes, thick as bird feathers, concealed his gaze and allowed him to avoid Wei Fu’s stare, which was hot enough to burn a hole through someone. Unexpectedly, he looked almost shy.
“I understand now…”
Wei Fu’s heart, which had just died, suddenly sprang back to life like a carp and began dancing wildly amid banners and drums.
Did he finally realize it? Was he going to say it out loud right here? What if someone passing by overheard? If His Majesty and his colleagues asked tomorrow, how was he supposed to respond? Should he write home and tell Mu Heng and Zhong Yi first?
“You grew up without your parents’ protection. People say an eldest brother is like a father. As for those two elder brothers of yours… better not mention them.”
Although his parents had traveled far away, his grandfather, the Duke Who Stabilizes the Nation, was still alive. And besides, his marriage would require His Majesty’s approval before it counted… Wait. Could Yugong Zhaoye already be thinking about proposing marriage? But if anyone was going to propose, shouldn’t Wei Fu be the one proposing to Yugong Zhaoye first?!
“Before, I misunderstood. I thought you were so close to me because you regarded me as an elder brother you could rely on…”
For some reason, Wei Fu’s eyes suddenly began to burn. His breathing grew rapid and painfully tight, his heart pounding against his ribs like a living thing. He had suffered too many shocks today and was almost at his limit. Like a sixteen-year-old maiden awaiting a confession, he clasped both hands over his chest.
“But thinking about it now, your nature is open and easygoing, and you have friends everywhere. What you lack isn’t brotherly affection or friendship, but true family—someone who can remain with you for a long time, inseparable from you.”
His blockhead was finally about to bloom!
“Although it’s unreasonable and contrary to propriety…”
As though he had finally made up his mind, Yugong Zhaoye raised his eyes and met Wei Fu’s gaze directly. A faint, unconscious smile lingered there, his eyes deep as the sea, as though they could contain every absurd longing and impossible obsession Wei Fu possessed.
“But if you want to regard me the way you would a father, then I also… Hm? What’s wrong?”
Standing beside the carriage, Ying Yue blinked.
For an instant, he thought his eyes had deceived him.
Something had just flown past.
Oh.
It was only Chancellor Wei dragging His Highness away.
He exchanged a look with the innocent coachman watching the spectacle beside him. Perfect understanding was written across both their faces, and neither showed the slightest intention of rushing off to rescue His Highness.
If an ordinary citizen were forcibly abducted, they would at least go over and check whether the victim was safe. But when it came to Yugong Zhaoye, not resisting meant tacit permission, not striking back meant indulgence, and allowing someone to do whatever they pleased without even trying to escape meant he was giving them face.
The great bandit who resorted to violence when words failed dragged Yugong Zhaoye into a deserted alley beside the street and angrily pinned him against the wall by the shoulders.
He looked fierce, like a puppy baring its teeth, yet the force he used was so gentle that Yugong Zhaoye nearly laughed.
Raising his eyes to Wei Fu’s storm-dark expression, Yugong Zhaoye wisely suppressed the overly blatant amusement threatening to show.
Unfortunately, that untimely bit of tact only made Wei Fu angrier. He ground his teeth again and again, chest aching from the blazing fury inside him. He could not bear to scold Yugong Zhaoye and could bear even less to hit him, so in the end he simply lowered his head and took an angry bite out of Yugong Zhaoye’s shoulder.
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
No matter how romantically hopeless he was, even he knew that under these circumstances, he absolutely could not say, That didn’t hurt at all.
Looking upward from the narrow alley, the night sky resembled deep-blue silk. A perfect full moon hung high above, scattering cold silver light impartially over all living things while silently watching the travelers moving through the darkness below.
Under the moon’s gaze, a helpless smile appeared on Yugong Zhaoye’s face.
He used the Moon God as a pretext while secretly committing murder and arson in the shadows. Now, beneath the moonlight itself, he was trapped in an alley being gnawed on by Wei Fu and entirely unable to fight back.
One could hardly ask for better karmic retribution.
“Had enough?” he asked, tentatively poking Wei Fu.
Wei Fu very nearly bit his neck next.
“You were teasing me.” He lifted his head resentfully and accused Yugong Zhaoye, “You toyed with my sincere feelings, trampled all over my emotions, and even took advantage of me.”
Yugong Zhaoye could tolerate the first two accusations, but the last one turned the truth completely on its head. “You haven’t taken advantage of me enough already?” He pointed at the shoulder that still ached faintly. “You just finished grinding your teeth on me. Your saliva probably hasn’t even dried yet, and now you’re denying it?”
“There was no saliva!” Wei Fu frantically brushed at the wrinkles in his clothes. “And that was because I was angry! Didn’t you notice at all?!”
Yugong Zhaoye asked, “Angry about what?”
Wei Fu: “…”
“Go on, Young Master Wei.” Hidden in the shadows, Yugong Zhaoye wore a wicked little smile. “You were the one who demanded I explain everything clearly. Come on, then. Tell me exactly how I toyed with your feelings and trampled on your sincerity.”
Wei Fu: “…”
He was actually extremely skilled at reading people. He simply disliked using those skills on Yugong Zhaoye. He had always relied on genuine emotion to move his blockhead prince instead.
But after that misunderstanding just now, Yugong Zhaoye had thrown the question straight back at him. Wei Fu understood immediately that Yugong Zhaoye still did not want to discuss his feelings with him.
They had spent too little time together and far too much time apart. Although Wei Fu had thought of him again and again throughout those years until his feelings overflowed like water, in Yugong Zhaoye’s eyes, their entire acquaintance probably amounted to little more than half a year back then plus this past month.
The fact that Yugong Zhaoye was willing to act as his elder brother already counted as enormous indulgence.
And between them still lay the border between two countries, the secret of Yeguang, and the three-year agreement that Wei Fu would return to court.
Wei Fu had once boasted behind Yugong Zhaoye’s back that there was nothing he could not abandon for him. Yet now the greatest problem before him was that Yugong Zhaoye might not even want everything he had, much less everything he was willing to sacrifice.
Wei Fu’s voice weakened. “…Anyway, it isn’t what you said. Elder brother, father, all that—I don’t lack elders.”
Yugong Zhaoye could bully him until he drooped like a wilted fox, but once he actually did, he could not bear it.
“Then what do you want me to be?”
Wei Fu asked gloomily, “Would it matter even if I told you?”
Yugong Zhaoye thought for a moment, then coaxed him half-seriously. “If you promise to stay home obediently and stop wading into your brother’s mess, then perhaps after I return safely—bah, that sounds unlucky… Anyway, maybe someday when I’m in a good mood, it might matter.”
Wei Fu: “…”
In a soft voice, he asked, “Your Highness, with all these rules and conditions you keep setting… are you afraid I’ll eat you?”
Yugong Zhaoye brushed casually at his shoulder. “When you have no manners, you don’t even ask permission before putting your mouth on me. Is it wrong for me to protect myself?”
Wei Fu felt slightly guilty. “Did it hurt?”
Truthfully, he had only gnawed on him. He had gone ah-woo, latched on, and stayed there without even tightening his teeth, with a layer of clothing between them. Aside from leaving two shallow tooth marks, he had done no real damage.
So Yugong Zhaoye answered honestly, “I thought a mosquito bit me.”
Feeling underestimated, Wei Fu became furious and immediately decided to raise the stakes. He grabbed Yugong Zhaoye’s shoulder again, intending to leave a matching “mosquito bite” on the other side.
Yet Yugong Zhaoye neither dodged nor resisted. He did not raise a hand to push Wei Fu’s face away.
Instead, he even tilted his head slightly to one side, thoughtfully leaving him a better place to bite.
And so the second bite never landed.
Instead, it turned into a complete, airtight embrace.
Yugong Zhaoye skillfully tilted his head again, found himself a comfortable place to rest, and silently sighed.
It honestly would have been better if Wei Fu had simply bitten him and gone mad for a little while.
Assassins spent their lives mingling among all sorts of people and disguising themselves as different identities to complete missions. Yugong Zhaoye had seen every variety of love and desire there was and could already regard such things calmly. If he truly could not recognize feelings as obvious as Wei Fu’s, then he might as well stop working in the underworld entirely.
But knowing was one thing.
Admitting it and accepting it were another.
Whether he accepted or rejected Wei Fu now, it was too early. Speaking the truth aloud would only create more trouble and solve nothing.
Wei Fu’s feelings burned hot. Even hidden away, they continuously radiated warmth. One day, they would inevitably burn through the thin sheet of paper separating them.
And Yugong Zhaoye was the one continually dousing the flame with cold water, keeping that fragile sheet intact. As long as it remained unpierced, there was still room to retreat. They could still remain friends. They did not have to throw themselves into a blaze that might leave both of them burned.
“I hope…” Wei Fu wrapped both arms tightly around him, buried his nose in Yugong Zhaoye’s cool hair, and whispered beside his ear, “that you’ll always stay. I don’t care about titles anymore. You can be anything you want. As long as you stay beside me, that’s enough.”
Beyond a single wall, only a few steps away, lay the bustling world of lanterns and towers. The mortal world held endless excitement and joy. That was where Wei Fu ought to belong—not trapped in this narrow, dark alley, repeatedly hurting himself and retreating for the sake of one person.
Yugong Zhaoye raised a hand and slowly stroked down Wei Fu’s back. In the quiet night came the helpless sigh he could no longer suppress.
“Why put yourself through this?”
“It isn’t painful.”
Wei Fu immediately contradicted him and held him tighter.
“Not at all. It’s precisely because it’s too sweet that I can’t help wanting more.”
“I’ve never regretted it. Your Highness, you… don’t regret it either.”
After a brief silence, he added softly, “Alright?”
What else could Yugong Zhaoye possibly say?
“Fine. As long as you stop crying, I’ll count myself as an offering to the Dragon King.”
Wei Fu: “?”
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