After Being Reborn, He Became an Undercover Agent by My Side - Chapter 4

“Jealous?”

After Shi Zizhuo let go, he saw several bright red finger marks on Jing Si’s neck and jaw. They stood out sharply against his fair skin, which was so pale that the faint blue veins beneath were visible. It was like willow branches and plum blossoms scattered on fresh snow, a scene so beautiful one couldn’t help but want to possess it.

Looking higher, he saw Jing Si’s lips were stained red, like fresh blood, and his phoenix eyes sparkled like dewdrops on March flowers.

Shi Zizhuo had never seen his own face look this way. The sight sent his heart racing with an indescribable feeling, mixed with a strange sense of alarm.

Jing Si took a deep breath and wiped the tears from his face.

“Why are you blushing?” Jing Si teased, his voice hoarse. “Never kissed anyone before?”

Shi Zizhuo’s expression hardened. “Has Your Highness kissed someone then?”

Jing Si’s smile deepened. “Jealous?”

“Like hell I am,” Shi Zizhuo snapped.

Jing Si sighed in feigned disappointment. “Sigh… I was strangled to the point where I could barely breathe, yet you’re the one who benefited. I’ve truly lost the battle and the war.”

“What does Your Highness intend to do?” Shi Zizhuo asked, catching the hidden meaning in his words.

Jing Si looked him up and down. “You said you would pay me back,” he said slyly.

Shi Zizhuo felt a sudden sense of dread. “Pay you back how?”

“How do you think I want you to pay me back?” Jing Si raised an eyebrow.

Shi Zizhuo used his mother as a shield. “Your Highness, aren’t I supposed to go to the palace tomorrow to pay my respects to Consort Mother?”

“Oh, so you do remember you have to go to the palace tomorrow,” Jing Si said, his tone accusatory. “You’ve left me covered in bruises. If I show up before Consort Mother like this, do you really think you’ll get away with it?”

Shi Zizhuo remained unfazed. “I will accept whatever punishment Her Ladyship deems fit.”

“Fine,” Jing Si said, a plan forming in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more amusing it became. “How about this? Tomorrow, you’ll pretend to be me, and I’ll pretend to be you. That should settle it.”

Shi Zizhuo was no longer surprised by his own wild ideas. “As long as Your Highness can bear it.”

“What’s there to bear?” Jing Si’s tone shifted. “You still haven’t paid me back. Don’t think you can get out of it!”

He reached out and tugged at Shi Zizhuo’s belt, unraveling the knot he had just tied. “You have to see Consort Mother tomorrow,” he said, his voice suddenly tender. “I won’t touch your face or neck.”

Shi Zizhuo let him pull open his robes. Ignoring the tickle of Jing Si’s hand, he pressed his palm against his own chest, allowing the prince to feel his heart beating.

Jing Si pressed his face against Shi Zizhuo’s chest, listening to his heart. “So fast.”

With the warmth of Jing Si’s hand and breath against his skin, past and present seemed to blur for a moment.

Shi Zizhuo instinctively reached out and cupped Jing Si’s cheek.

This is the version of me that hasn’t faced death yet, he thought. This is the reason I returned to the mortal world.

How could I ever truly kill him, even if I can’t help but bully him?

Shi Zizhuo was lost in these thoughts when a sharp pain shot through his chest. He looked down to see Jing Si biting his skin, his eyes raised in a smug, provocative challenge.

Shi Zizhuo’s thumb slipped into Jing Si’s open mouth, pressing against his canine tooth. “Your Highness, are you tired of living?”

“You won’t kill me anyway,” Jing Si replied, his confidence bolstered by their recent encounter. He gave one more hard bite before letting go as Shi Zizhuo pushed him away.

Jing Si touched the bite mark on Shi Zizhuo’s chest and said, completely ruining the mood, “I just remembered a play. Do you want to hear it?”

Shi Zizhuo knew exactly which play he meant. His face remained impassive. “No.”

But Jing Si insisted on reciting it anyway. “‘On the child’s arm…'”

Before Jing Si could get the words “tooth marks” out, Shi Zizhuo abruptly reached out and covered his mouth.

The play The Tale of the Tooth Marks told the story of a mother who, unable to raise her child, bit his arm to leave a mark before abandoning him. After many hardships, they eventually reunited by recognizing that very tooth mark.

Jing Si had brought up the play solely to take advantage of the situation.

Shi Zizhuo’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Is Your Highness not afraid of shortening his own life?”

Jing Si let out a few muffled “mms” and mumbled, “Don’t want to hear this one? There’s another…”

“Meeting Mother in a Fishing Net,” Shi Zizhuo sneered. “I have a play for you instead: The Assassination of King Liao.”

Meeting Mother in a Fishing Net was about a mother who bit her son’s arm before throwing him into a lake to save him from bandits. The son later grew up, reunited with his mother, and took revenge. It was just another excuse to take advantage of him.

By countering with The Assassination of King Liao, Shi Zizhuo was threatening Jing Si. The story recounted how the assassin Zhuan Zhu stabbed King Liao of Wu, a deed as sudden and shocking as a comet crossing the moon. He was warning Jing Si that if he truly provoked him, Shi Zizhuo would emulate the assassin and strike him down.

Jing Si remained unfazed. “Is this threat all you can come up with?”

Shi Zizhuo finished dressing, his expression unreadable. “What else is there to say? That Your Highness has overstayed your welcome here?”

“This is just a place for you to bathe. How did it become your place?” Jing Si retorted. “You’re staying with me.”

Shi Zizhuo felt an urge to pry open his own skull and examine his brain. How could he be so foolishly trusting, offering his bed to a man he had only met once?

Clearly, his past self was completely deaf to reason. He would have to learn the hard way. Although Shi Zizhuo felt his past life had already taught him plenty, how could he have been so bafflingly naive?

Could I have been plotting something back then?

The thought thrilled him. After all, nothing was more exhilarating than meeting an equal—a worthy opponent to play this game against.

“Alright,” Shi Zizhuo said. “Won’t Your Highness take me there?”

“What’s the rush?” Jing Si countered, turning the tables. “We’ll have dinner before we go to bed.”

Jing Si picked up the hand warmer and led Shi Zizhuo to the dining hall. A feast had already been laid out. Shi Zizhuo had been recovering from his injuries in the Imperial Prison and hadn’t eaten anything good for days. The sight of the food made his mouth water.

An iron mask lay on the table. Jing Si picked it up and strapped it onto Shi Zizhuo’s face. “I had this made. From now on, you must wear it at all times, except when you are sleeping.”

Shi Zizhuo knew his face was trouble, so he didn’t refuse and let Jing Si put the mask on him. It covered the upper half of his face, leaving him able to eat.

Jing Si took a couple of bites and then stopped, seemingly having lost his appetite. He propped his chin on his hand and watched Shi Zizhuo eat, like one might watch a pet. Shi Zizhuo found the gaze piercing and deliberately glared back, but Jing Si only smiled.

“You know,” Jing Si said, “my elder sister once kept a cat. It was very disobedient and often ran away, so she would send me to catch it. I asked her, since it was so disobedient, why she wouldn’t just let it go. Why did she insist on keeping it trapped behind high walls?”

“Elder Sister says it wouldn’t survive outside. I don’t believe her. I’ve heard there are many stray cats on the streets that live just fine. Why wouldn’t this one?”

“Elder Sister told me that this cat has been kept indoors since birth, so it doesn’t know how to find food. It only wants to go out because it doesn’t understand the dangers of the world. How could we just watch it freeze or starve to death?”

Jing Si looked earnestly at Shi Zizhuo. “What do you think? Should a cat like this be let out?”

Shi Zizhuo replied coolly, “No one has the right to decide its life or death. If it chooses to go out, it has no one to blame but itself if it dies.”

“But does it really know what it’s facing outside?” Jing Si asked. “If it’s completely ignorant, how can we call it ‘its own choice’?”

Shi Zhuo said, “Your Highness, whatever happens, simply happens. There are no ‘whys’ or ‘whats’ to it.”

Jing Si smiled softly. “Is that your answer?”

Shi Zizhuo simply replied, “These are just my humble thoughts.”

After that, they fell silent. Shi Zizhuo finished his dinner, and Jing Si went to bathe. Shi Zizhuo declined his invitation to join and followed Mi Yi to the bedroom.

The room was still arranged just as he liked. A carved canopy bed rested against the wall, and beside it stood a bookshelf crammed with novels and plays, devoid of any serious literature. His study was the same; he had always avoided the classics. Next to the bookshelf was a simple wardrobe containing a few casual robes. Shi Zizhuo’s current body was similar in size to his original one, only more muscular. As a result, he put on his old clothes after bathing. He felt nothing was amiss, and Jing Si seemed to find it perfectly normal.

A table stood by the wardrobe, holding a bronze mirror. Shi Zizhuo instinctively avoided looking at it. A tall vase also decorated the room, filled with freshly cut winter plums. A few red petals had fallen to the floor, creating a scene of quiet beauty.

Shi Zizhuo sat on the edge of the canopy bed. Only now did the reality truly sink in: he had swapped bodies.

A moment later, Jing Si entered, bringing the winter chill with him. The instant he stepped inside, he threw himself onto the bed. “I’m freezing!”

He burrowed under the covers, not forgetting to scold Shi Zizhuo. “Why didn’t you warm the bed for this Prince?”

“The underfloor heating is on,” Shi Zizhuo replied. “The room is already warm enough.”

“Not enough,” Jing Si declared willfully. “The blankets are still cold. From now on, you must warm the bed for this Prince every day.”

For the umpteenth time, Shi Zizhuo thought: What am I supposed to do? This is my own body.

Jing Si lifted a corner of the blanket, inviting Shi Zizhuo to share the bed. “You’re warm. Come here and warm this Prince up.”

Shi Zizhuo removed his mask and lay down. Without any hesitation, Jing Si reached out and pulled him into an embrace.

Shi Zizhuo patted his back. “Isn’t Your Highness’s body also quite warm?”

Jing Si seemed truly drowsy now. “That’s… not the same…”

“How is it not the same?” Shi Zizhuo asked, but no answer came. He only heard the sound of Jing Si’s steady breathing.

Shi Zizhuo’s hand slid from Jing Si’s back to his arm. He felt that Jing Si seemed healthier than he remembered. Perhaps it was just a matter of perspective.

Jing Si slept soundly, but Shi Zizhuo found it hard to rest.

He kept replaying the day’s events in his mind, still feeling that Jing Si’s attitude had been far too strange.

Yet the man in his arms slept with a relaxed brow and a loose posture, showing no sign of being on guard.

Moonlight crept up the window frame, and a plum blossom from the vase silently fell. As Shi Zizhuo gazed at the face before him, drowsiness gradually washed over him too.

Just as he was drifting between sleep and wakefulness, he suddenly heard the sharp whistle of wind!

His body reacted before his mind did. Shi Zizhuo rolled inward, clutching Jing Si to his chest, and dodged the lethal strike!

The window burst open, letting in a flood of bright moonlight. Shi Zizhuo saw a masked swordsman charging at them!

Jing Si, who had just been jolted awake, let out a confused murmur.

With no time to think, Shi Zizhuo shoved Jing Si into a corner and grabbed the pillow to block the next sword thrust!

The blade struck the pillow with a crisp thud. Shi Zizhuo shouted, “Help!” and launched a kick at the assassin’s ribs!

The assassin spun away, dodging the blow. Shi Zizhuo leaped from the bed and snatched a plum blossom branch from a nearby vase.

“Watch out!” Jing Si cried from the bed.

Shi Zizhuo used the branch like a sword, thrusting it at the assassin. But the attacker feinted, then lunged at Jing Si instead.

Jing Si threw his thick blanket over the man. Seeing the tide turn, the assassin didn’t fight back. He turned and fled through the window.

Shi Zizhuo was about to give chase when Jing Si, still catching his breath, said from behind, “Don’t bother.”

Shi Zizhuo had just put on his mask when the guards finally arrived.

The Captain of the Guards, Qin Lin, knelt in terror as two pairs of eyes, sharp as blades, fixed on him. “Your Highness, I have failed in my duty,” he said, sweat pouring down his face.

Jing Si’s voice was cold. “You think a simple ‘failed in my duty’ will make up for this? Qin Lin, if Shi Zizhuo hadn’t been here, my head would have been severed long ago. How could you possibly keep your own?”

Qin Lin bowed his head even lower, too afraid to speak.

“How should we punish him?” Jing Si asked Shi Zizhuo.

Shi Zizhuo’s voice was equally cold. “Thirty strokes of the board. He is to be stripped of his rank. The same punishment applies to all guards on duty tonight.”

“If we strip Qin Lin of his rank, who will take his place?” Jing Si asked pointedly.

Shi Zizhuo remained silent.

Jing Si said, “Shi Zizhuo, for your meritorious service in guarding me today, you are promoted to Captain of the Guards.”

Seeing that his fate was almost sealed, Qin Lin finally refused to accept it. He pleaded his case, “Your Highness, it was not that we failed to protect you. It’s just that for some reason, we fell into a deep sleep tonight.”

“There is a traitor in the manor, Your Highness!”

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