Chapter 200: Trapped Beast’s Shackles
The fine rain dampened the window paper, like clouds and mist drifting over.
Xue Sui held her wine cup high, staring intently at Li Zhao, her eyes filled with sincerity.
“Your Highness, please…”
The green plum wine, warmed by the bright charcoal fire, cast flickering shadows.
“You think this is how you can dismiss me?”
Li Zhao leaned in, his dark robes sweeping across her feet like a silent snake, coiling around her ankles, his crimson eyes flickering.
“Xue Ping’an, you are more poisonous than this Love Silk Gu.”
The charcoal stove let out a soft crackle, scattering sparks onto his sleeve cuff, leaving a small scorch mark.
Xue Sui suddenly remembered, ten years ago, when she was trapped beneath the rockery at Pu Ji Temple, the young man’s sleeve cuff had a similar scorch mark, like a child who had done something foolish…
Later, curled up in that warm fox fur coat, she smelled the crisp, clean scent of the fine fabric and vaguely thought that perhaps a golden boy sent by Bodhisattva had saved her from suffering. Thus, she deeply etched the young man’s warmth into her heart.
Xue Sui’s shoulders tensed slightly as she curtsied.
“Thank you, Your Highness, for not letting me freeze to death in the snow den back then. Xue Liu will never forget your life-saving grace. However, Prince Duan’s suspicion runs deep, and I implore Your Highness to temporarily avoid the spotlight…”
Li Zhao let out a cold laugh.
He had already lowered the head of the Crown Prince; even if he admitted to being the “adulterer,” even if he was bound by the Love Silk Gu, even if he fell into hell forever, he would not hesitate…
Yet she was as hard as stone.
The promise of walking side-by-side, only to be pushed into a desperate situation halfway through.
“The powers that be in the Imperial Court are deeply entrenched, the Xiao Clan’s influence is widespread, Consort Xiao holds great sway in the harem, and Prince Duan Li Huan is cunning and calculating… Xue Liu, in the future, you may need me…”
He did not hesitate to inflate his “usefulness” just to gain a sliver of pity.
To fall to such a state for a heartless and ungrateful woman.
He found himself utterly ridiculous…
Xue Sui, however, had decided not to exploit her benefactor any further.
“There’s no need. Please return, Your Highness. I will do my best to find a way to remove the Gu for you.”
Li Zhao’s expression shifted slightly, his heart feeling as if it had split in two.
One half remained aloof, like the moon in the clouds.
The other half had already sunk to the dust.
“Xue Ping’an!”
Li Zhao’s eyes were as crimson as burning cinnabar, shattered, but upon seeing the stunned look in her eyes, he suddenly let out a low laugh, his eyes curving into crescent moons.
“If you remember the kindness, then fulfill the promise. You help me bring down Prince Duan, and I will ensure your grievances are redressed…”
Xue Sui’s fingertips dug into her palm, but her voice remained calm and restrained.
“Is Crown Prince suggesting a continued transaction?”
Li Zhao lowered his gaze to her, his eyes deep, “If you put it that way, it’s not entirely wrong.”
Xue Sui asked, “What will you exchange for it?”
“This,” Li Zhao chuckled, his laughter laced with a broken ferocity, and pressed a Golden Tiger Tally into her hand. The lines on his palm grazed her hand, burning hot.
“The Eastern Palace Six Guards are at your disposal, is that enough?”
Xue Sui clutched the Golden Tiger Tally, feeling his searing heat even through the thin fabric. The Love Silk Gu surged in her veins, and she suddenly found it difficult to breathe.
Li Zhao had gone mad.
He must have been driven mad by the Love Silk Gu.
Xue Sui gritted her teeth and pushed it back, “Not enough!”
Li Zhao suddenly leaned in, pinning her against the wooden desk, and pulled open the collar of his dark robe—
Beneath the spread of his robes was a expanse of firm muscle, slick with a thin sheen of sweat. His shoulder line was sharp as if carved by a knife, and a ferocious arrow wound ran across his left arm, still bearing dried blood scabs.
The wound was deep.
Xue Sui suddenly felt a pang of unease.
Almost instinctively, she placed her hand on his chest.
Li Zhao chuckled softly, his hot breath mingling with the scent of green plum wine, guiding her hand to press over the scar, feeling the throb of his pulse.
“And what about me?”
His voice, suppressed with pain, added a low, husky murmur.
“My life, my body.”
The moment their skin touched, Xue Sui looked into the raging fire in Li Zhao’s eyes and felt a prickle of fear.
“Crown Prince is of noble birth and precious body, how can you be so cheap?”
“Only cheap for Consort Xue.” He tightened his arm, lifting her onto the wooden desk, and bit her collarbone, his voice muffled.
The fabric of Xue Sui’s clothes was light and soft, its smooth texture making him momentarily lose himself, spreading a sweet, unbearable numbness that coursed through his entire body.
“Li Zhao!”
“Shh—”
Due to the height difference, Li Zhao had to bend his knees against the wooden desk, arching his back to restrain her. Xue Sui took the opportunity to elbow his shoulder, but he grabbed her wrist and spun her around. In desperation, she reached out and dug her fingers into his waist, tickling him.
Li Zhao grunted and countered, pulling her back, his knee accidentally hitting the embroidered stool…
The two of them tumbled into a heap.
“Crown Prince, what is this foolishness?”
“Consort Xue, I’ve come to collect my debts!”
Anger, coupled with the chains of their status, fueled by the Love Silk Gu, made their blood surge.
Li Zhao didn’t know how to please women; he only knew how to express his desire in the most direct way, infusing his obsession into his very bones, fierce and wild, like a hungry beast devouring a delicious prey, wishing he could consume her…
He was not a pedantic scholar bound by propriety, nor did he care about worldly opinions…
Before this Imperial Decree, he could still deceive himself.
But once it was recorded in the clan genealogy, how could he break free from the shackles of hierarchy and status?
Xue Sui was the designated Princess Consort Duan, his Imperial Brother’s woman…
“I will defy this Heavenly Dao.”
“But Your Highness is pushing me into a fiery pit right now.”
“You say I am… a fiery pit?”
Bang!
His sleeve brushed past.
The overturned green plum wine, mixed with the cool fragrance from Li Zhao’s collar, created a intoxicating poison in the confined space.
“Back then, at Pu Ji Temple, seeing you tremble in pain but clench your teeth and remain silent, I thought…”
“Thought what?” Xue Sui couldn’t see his face clearly, only feeling that his scorching breath was like a bonfire lit on a cold night, making her spine shiver.
“There was light in your eyes.” Li Zhao lightly touched her earlobe, his fingertips brushing through her hair, pulling her tighter.
“And there still is.”
Xue Sui remained silent, motionless.
He did not press further.
Instead, he quietly watched her fluttering eyelashes, knelt on the ground, and slowly helped her sit up. His gaze followed her disheveled clothes to the expanse of pale skin, marked with scars of varying depths.
Even with the scar-removing ointment he had sent, they had not completely faded.
“Does it hurt?”
He asked again.
Then he kissed the faint old scars, like a knight taming a wild horse, soothing a startled young beast…
The sound of rain hitting the eaves became clearer.
Drip, drip!
Drip—drip—
Like a disordered heartbeat, or a broken, mournful string, it almost drowned out the trembling of Li Zhao’s Adam’s apple as he uttered that low whisper, laced with grievance.
“Ping’an, help me…”
His forehead rested against hers, his voice filled with a vulnerability he had never shown before.
“I can’t hold on any longer.”
His robe brushed against her calf, sending a shiver through her.
Xue Sui only struggled once.
A barely perceptible struggle.
She was held tightly by a large hand, her gaze falling on the prescription for alleviating the Gu poison, which lay quietly on the ground, soaked in green plum wine.
The jade belt fell to the ground with a dull thud.
She obediently allowed him to vent his pent-up emotions, feeling the rapid heartbeat beneath his clothes, her breath seemingly stolen by him…
“Ping’an.”
Li Zhao stared intently at her.
His eyes churned with an almost obsessive greed.
“Don’t look at me like that…”
He closed his eyes slightly, his voice becoming hoarse and difficult, gasping as he whispered.
“I don’t want to be like this… so despicable…”
“Crown Prince…”
Xue Sui’s words were cut off by his kiss.
The kiss carried a punitive weight, an extreme pressure, but as his gaze met her furrowed brow, it softened. His nose brushed against her sweat-dampened temple, like a wounded, trapped beast soothing an equally pained prey…
Gradually slowing.
Gradually tensing…
The sound of rain fell into their intertwined hands.
“Ping’an,” he whispered hoarsely.
The pleasure that coursed through his spine reached his mind…
He gripped her supple waist, his mind going blank for a moment…
An unprecedented exhilaration.
Leading to downfall.
He heard himself let out a low sigh, like a silkworm at the end of spring, spinning its last thread.
Lost, trapped in the gentle haven created by the Love Silk Gu…
“Back then, I shouldn’t have let you go to Prince Duan’s Mansion.” His throat rumbled with a sigh of contentment, his fingertips tracing the scar on her lower back.
Xue Sui tilted her head back, looking at the fiery red charcoal stove.
A moth, drawn to the flame, curled its scorched wings and stuck to the hot coals, sizzling, like the joyful song of the Love Silk Gu in her veins…
She knew some things had shattered in the night’s rain…
Such as reason, such as a way out.
“I’m leaving.” Li Zhao leaned down and kissed her sweat-dampened temple, hooking his palm with hers.
Seeing her silence, her refusal to look at him, he paused as he tied his belt.
“From now on, my life is yours.”
“With mountains and rivers as our contract, and life and death as our Gu.”
The last few words were lost in the whistling wind at the eaves, as light as the trembling sound of residual rain falling on the blue stone slabs.
The green plum wine on the desk had long since gone cold, yet Xue Sui felt her chest burning.
She sat by the window, watching the dawn cast a soft glow on thehalf-volume medical book on the desk. Her fingertips traced the water streaks winding down the window frame, and she suddenly sighed.
Whether it was the Love Silk Gu or the life-saving grace, they had all become threads in this grand game, long indistinguishable.
The only thing she knew clearly was that from this night onward, her fate and Li Zhao’s had become like the wine and water of this rainy night, no longer easily separated…
Unless, of course, the day the Love Silk Gu was removed.
—
At the fourth watch, the heavy rain had just ceased.
Li Huan stepped into the mansion on the muddy blue stone slabs, his boots splashing fine water droplets.
A hidden guard hurried out from the corridor, and seeing his face as cold as ice, his hair still damp with rain, he hastily greeted him.
“How was last night?”
Li Huan glanced at the closed window of Tan Qiu Courtyard, his voice imbued with the coolness of the autumn night.
The guard lowered his head, his back stiff.
“Reporting to Your Highness, the candlelight in the Consort’s room… was extinguished at the hour of Yin, and I saw no unusual activity.”
The heavy rain had come suddenly last night, and the two of them had hidden in the side room to shelter from the rain and warm themselves. Who would have thought the brazier would make them so drowsy that they couldn’t open their eyes until they heard the drumbeats.
They truly didn’t know if there was any unusual activity.
But fearing Your Highness’s displeasure, they dared not tell the truth.
Li Huan’s brow furrowed slightly.
Thinking of how he had braved the rain last night to meet the Imperial Envoy only to find no one there, he fell silent for a moment and slowly nodded.
“You may go.”
Turning, he caught sight of a half-purple magnolia on the ground, the color Xue Sui often wore in her hair.
He walked over, then turned back to pick up the petal, cast a glance at the door of Tan Qiu Courtyard, which was covered in fallen leaves, and then returned to his room to change and wash, before mounting his horse for court.
—
The fifth watch drum sounded, and the Golden Palace bells chimed.
The court officials, their robes fluttering, lined up according to their rank and entered along the imperial path towards Zichen Hall.
Li Huan walked slowly to the sound of the morning bells, just as the Eastern Palace procession turned past the dragon-shaped screen wall.
Li Zhao alighted from his carriage before the steps.
The sunlight after the rain fell on the white marble steps, making his python-patterned court robe shimmer. His black hair was meticulously styled, and his jade-like profile was bathed in a soft glow, so handsome it was as if a deity had descended.
Li Huan deliberately stood at the foot of the steps, and as he approached, he bowed.
“Greetings, Crown Prince, and good morning.”
Li Zhao raised his hand to support him, a smile on his face, “Imperial Brother, there is no need for such formality.”
The morning breeze carried the gentle scent of ambergris from the Crown Prince’s robes, mingling with the crispness of the blue stone slabs after the rain, slowly spreading through the Golden Hall after the rain…
Li Huan straightened up, his gaze sweeping over the Crown Prince’s features, and was slightly startled.
Today, the Crown Prince truly looked radiant, like the sun in early spring.
Li Huan smiled, “Crown Prince, your complexion is excellent. Is there any good news?”
Li Zhao twirled the jade thumb ring on his finger, a slight smile playing on his lips, “Thank you for your concern, Imperial Brother. The Imperial Pharmacy has newly presented benzoin, and I slept soundly last night, hence my refreshed spirit.”
Li Huan asked casually, “In three days, I plan to host a banquet at my mansion to celebrate Consort Xue’s elevation to Princess Consort. Will Crown Prince grace us with his presence?”
Li Zhao’s hand stroked the black jade at his waist, his smile clearer than the autumn water under the twilight snow.
“Imperial Brother’s kind offer. I shall certainly attend…”
Li Huan watched his nonchalant and cheerful demeanor, his fingertips under his sleeve tightening slightly.
Had he guessed wrong?
Did Li Zhao have no improper thoughts about Xue Liu?
Did they have no improper relationship?
—
As the court session dispersed, Gu Jie, the newly appointed Clerk of the Court of Diplomatic Relations, was waiting in the side hall.
He wore a brand-new official uniform, his hair still glistening with undried morning dew, his expression very solemn.
Seeing the two Imperial Princes approaching, he quickly adjusted his cap and belt, and bowed deeply to the ground:
“Your subordinate, Gu Jie, greets Your Highnesses.”
Li Zhao’s eyes deepened slightly as he looked at him without speaking.
Li Huan, however, gently raised his hand and smiled, “Master Gu, there is no need for such formality. I hear that Master Gu has taken up his post as Clerk and is making great strides in the Court of Diplomatic Relations. Congratulations…”
Gu Jie looked at his smiling face and cupped his hands slightly.
“Reporting to Your Highness, your subordinate is here to present the envoy’s calling card.”
Li Huan said “Oh,” and smiled, “His Majesty is resting in the side hall at the moment and may not be able to receive you. If Master Gu has important matters, you may entrust them to me to relay…”
Gu Jie bowed, his voice steady, “Reporting to Your Highness, the High Priest of Xizi, Amun Rah, has sent an envoy to the capital with coral and jade as gifts. He wishes to cease hostilities with Daliang, open trade, and foster eternal friendship…”
Li Zhao: Everyone, Ping’an is saying who has gone mad?
Reader: …Some idiot has gone mad!
