After Being Mistakenly Taken for a Fellow Traveler by Emperor Long Aotian - Chapter 94

 

 

“We need to think of a solution,” Zhou Xun said, striving to calm himself. “Do you want some water?”

 

He knew what kind of drug the Emperor had been poisoned with, but unfortunately—he didn’t know how it would affect him. Until today, he had thought such drugs only existed in legends.

 

—However, drinking more water couldn’t hurt. Zhou Xun turned to pour water, and inside, the Emperor’s voice had completely faded. He steadied his wrist, thinking he needed to get a physician quickly.

 

He wasn’t unaware that one method for dealing with such drugs was to find someone to help the Emperor release some of his distress. But first, the palace was heavily guarded; Zhao Guifei must have acquired the drug through illicit means, so there might be side effects or permanent damage to the Emperor’s health.

 

Secondly, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to see the Emperor and others in bed together, but he knew the Emperor wasn’t the type to be so careless.

 

The Emperor had his own roughness, as well as his pride and sense of responsibility.

 

Through the gauze curtain, he extended the water cup, but—

 

Instead of grabbing the cup, he felt his wrist being seized.

 

Zhou Xun’s body temperature was always quite low, so this simple grasp made his entire wrist feel as though it was on fire.

 

The Emperor’s grip was tight—perhaps not intentionally, but the reality was that it even caused Zhou Xun some pain.

 

But Zhou Xun did not pull his hand away.

 

In that moment, all his calmness and decisiveness from planning assassinations returned to him.

 

What should he do now? Cry out “Your Majesty” in panic, then rush into his arms and wake up in tears the next morning? Or slap the Emperor angrily, throw the cup in his face, and make everything a mess before storming out?

 

—None of these were what he should do now.

 

It seemed like Zhou Xun was born for moments like this—he seemed to exist for various crises. He understood one thing: right now, it was just him and the Emperor.

 

If the Emperor was flustered, he must not be.

 

If the Emperor was panicked, he must remain calm.

 

He had to handle this situation—by any means necessary. The Emperor was a person with a strong sense of responsibility, so he could not let the Emperor make a decision he would regret for the rest of his life. No matter what, he had to keep his emotions steady and never be the one to break down first, especially when the Emperor was already in disarray.

 

He wanted to protect the Emperor.

 

“Rong Haoyu, do you see me?” Zhou Xun said softly. “I’m here, I’ve brought you some water. Are you thirsty?”

 

The hand gripping his wrist tightened further.

 

Zhou Xun endured the pain and continued in the most restrained tone, “May I come in now? Or do you need me to come in?”

 

The Emperor did not speak.

 

But the pressure on Zhou Xun’s skin lessened, which was indeed what Zhou Xun wanted.

 

“Then I’m coming in.” Zhou Xun said quietly.

 

He lifted the gauze curtain, and the Emperor still held onto his hand. Once inside, Zhou Xun finally saw the Emperor’s face…

 

Zhou Xun:……

 

At that moment, he thought he saw a ghostly figure with disheveled hair.

 

Clearly, the Emperor—or Rong Haoyu from another world—was being deliberate. He had let his hair fall over his face. At that moment, Zhou Xun even questioned if the Emperor had wanted to approach him or deceive him into coming in for some sinister purpose…

 

“It’s a bit messy in here,” Rong Haoyu, using his hair to deliberately obscure his face, said in a low voice. “Just find a place to sit…”

 

“Just sit?”

 

Rong Haoyu:……

 

“Just sit.” He said quietly, firmly sitting on another stool, his voice still a bit breathless. “Face away from me, don’t move, and don’t speak.”

 

Just this simple request revealed how extremely irritated the Emperor—or Rong Haoyu—was. But Zhou Xun, who had always been quiet and obedient, completely ignored his instructions.

 

His earlier cold, stubborn attitude seemed to return. Despite the Emperor giving a strong command, Zhou Xun approached, bent down, and used his hand to push aside the Emperor’s hair.

 

The Emperor tried to turn his head, but Zhou Xun said, “Don’t move.”

 

“Are you sure you don’t want to look at me?” He said, “I need to say something important.”

 

The Emperor stopped.

 

He looked at Zhou Xun in silence.

 

Through the strands of hair, Zhou Xun could still feel the penetrating gaze. Ignoring it, he reached to push the Emperor’s hair aside—

 

“I’ll do it myself.”

 

This time, when the hair was pushed aside, the Emperor didn’t say any trite things like “I’m covering my face with hair to hide my snot.” They then locked eyes in the dim candlelight.

 

The light was somewhat dim, so he couldn’t clearly see the Emperor’s face, but he knew his eyes were fixed on him. Zhou Xun looked at those eyes glowing even in the darkness and smiled.

 

“If you want to do something to me…” He tried to make his voice softer and more sincere. “I…”

 

“Am willing.”

 

“Why?” He didn’t expect the Emperor’s response to be somewhat sharp. “Is it because of the Emperor’s power?”

 

“No,” Zhou Xun said. “Because you are Rong Haoyu.”

 

“This is the reason I’m here.” He paused, smiled, and said, “You don’t think I’m that foolish, do you? To cry and be dragged in by you… and then wake up the next morning with endless shadows?”

The Emperor’s voice was a mix of confusion and muffled frustration. “So, you made me calm down, said those things, did those actions… just to tell me that you’re willing?”

 

Zhou Xun said, “I don’t want to regret it.”

 

“…Regret what?”

 

“Regret for you,” Zhou Xun said seriously, squatting down, “I don’t want you to feel like you forced me and that it was a terrible thing.”

 

—I don’t want you to feel this is a stain on your life. A stain of “forcing” someone.

 

In fact, from the moment he entered the gauze curtain, Zhou Xun had been prepared—if the Emperor needed it, he wouldn’t mind sacrificing himself.

 

However, he didn’t just give in as soon as his wrist was seized.

 

Yes, he could bleed, he could get hurt. Zhou Xun feared pain, but he didn’t mind if it was due to a predetermined process. However, it could never be due to an assault.

 

He couldn’t let the relationship between them be tainted by an uncontrollable chaos, nor did he want the Emperor to feel strong guilt or trauma from it, or even… for the pity he felt for Zhou Xun, the one he “hurt,” to outweigh his love for Zhou Xun in their relationship.

 

He knew better than anyone what kind of person the Emperor was, so he didn’t want the Emperor to see him as fragile porcelain. Since he had seen the hairpin and felt the Emperor’s hand, he understood the Emperor’s subtle feelings for him.

 

Because of this, he had to treasure it properly. He knew his feelings for the Emperor were even deeper than the Emperor’s current feelings for him, but he didn’t want to use a situation of “being forced by the Emperor to gain sympathy and responsibility” to obtain a stable relationship.

 

—To put it bluntly, he would rather they part decisively in years to come without love than for the Emperor to be a resentful man who, despite wanting to break up, was entangled in self-blame due to this incident years earlier. He wanted their feelings and relationship to be completely clean.

 

Thus, he had to tell the Emperor that he was willing and that he liked him.

 

Squatting in front of the Emperor, he could feel the rising body temperature and heavier breathing, and…

 

The hand resting on his head.

 

The Emperor’s hand rubbed his head with force, repeatedly.

 

In the end, it was—

 

An embrace.

 

An embrace that suddenly deprived him of all breath.

 

“You…” He heard the Emperor’s intense heartbeat and increasingly hoarse voice, “How…”

 

“How much do you like me?!”

 

He heard him say this.

 

It felt as if he was being squeezed into the Emperor’s bones, all freedom of movement stripped away, not even able to breathe. But the Emperor pressed his head against Zhou Xun’s neck, breathing heavily and speaking hoarsely.

 

“Do you know? I almost went crazy wanting to hold you just now. Especially when you were squatting in front of me, saying those things… Do you know what your eyes looked like at that moment? You were telling me that you trusted me so much that I could do whatever I wanted to you, even hurt you, make you cry, or even dirty you… That’s what I was thinking. I couldn’t stop myself from imagining these things… Do you understand, you culprit…”

 

“But the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t do it. Just like you said, you don’t want me to be troubled by this matter and feel I made a mistake years later, but…”

 

“But wouldn’t that make you think I just casually chose to sleep with you?!”

 

“Wouldn’t that make you think that I just did it because of the drug, just a physiological reaction, making you feel that you got something you were supposed to get just because of an opportunity… That’s not romantic, not serious, and not responsible. The fact that I like you doesn’t need any drugs…”

 

“Even if there will be others in the future, I don’t want our first time to happen in such a chaotic situation. I can’t let you feel there was any factor not belonging to us two.”

 

“And… what I have given you so far… is far from deserving you doing this for me…” His voice became a bit muffled. “I’ve only given things that, to me, losing them wouldn’t be fatal, would be mere embellishments, unremarkable things. But you… you…”

 

“You have given me so much. What you’ve given me is something that no one else in this world can give. To me, it is unparalleled. At that moment, only you appeared—no one else will appear here. So—”

 

He didn’t have a chance to say more.

 

Because.

 

He received a kiss.