After the Alluring Beauty Was Forced into a Political Marriage - Chapter 12

It was broad daylight outside, yet Lianzhi felt as though he heard the booming of distant thunder.

His decorative but useless head felt as though it had been struck by two gongs from both sides. Aside from the ringing in his ears, he was nearly incapable of thought. Shen Lianzhi froze in place. All his prepared arguments vanished in an instant, like a collapsing river. Under Siqin Bari’s cold gaze, he could not utter a single word for one reason only: fear.

He was terrified of Siqin Bari; he had overestimated himself. It turned out that Lianzhi did not possess the courage to challenge Siqin Bari to his face. The price of his overconfidence was a shameful retreat, and Siqin Bari clearly saw through his cowardice. The youth let out another short, cold laugh.

Lianzhi felt a chill at his neck. Suddenly, a massive force threw him against the side of the tent. He was trapped in a narrow corner by the steadily approaching Siqin Bari. Lianzhi heard the sound of his upper and lower teeth chattering against each other.

Siqin Bari gripped his neck, his calloused fingertips, covered in small scars, resting lightly over Lianzhi’s delicate Adam’s apple. Lianzhi was forced to tilt his head back, unknowingly offering his throat into Siqin Bari’s hands.

The young Chanyu half-lowered his eyes, appearing indifferent, yet his gaze on Lianzhi’s flesh felt like invisible blades. Shen Lianzhi trembled even more violently as Siqin Bari finally spoke.

“If you want to put on an act, you should at least do it properly. Khatun, there is not even a hint of a sword mark on your body. How is anyone supposed to believe you?”

Lianzhi had held the sword against his neck for a long time, yet that patch of skin remained perfectly intact. Not even a faint red mark could be seen. This was not surprising; he did not actually want to die.

“Does your Great Zhou not have a saying? What was it? Rather be a broken jade than an intact tile. However, Khatun,” Siqin Bari stopped mid-sentence with an ambiguous pause. He suddenly pressed his thumb down, roughly rubbing against Lianzhi’s thin neck.

Siqin Bari’s hands bore old scars and thin callouses. To Shen Lianzhi, such a merciless action was no different from being ground by a blunt knife.

“You must have the backbone to back it up. Do you have it, Shen Lianzhi?”

Siqin Bari abruptly withdrew his hand. Lianzhi’s legs went weak, and finding no support, he collapsed pathetically onto the ground in front of Siqin Bari. Before he could even crawl up, he was suddenly pinned down by Siqin Bari’s foot on his chest. Lianzhi propped himself up and looked up, meeting the young Chanyu’s condescending gaze.

“You are the second person to put on a show of suicide before me. Do you know who the first person was? Hmm? Khatun, take a guess.” Siqin Bari leaned down as he spoke.

Shen Lianzhi did not even have the courage to look directly into those narrow, fierce, wolf-like eyes again. He lowered his head, his eyes darting around in panic, before his chin was gripped by Siqin Bari and forced upward. “Khatun, speak.”

“I do not know, I do not know, Great King!” Lianzhi’s voice broke into a sob. A few crystal-clear tears overflowed from his beautiful, clear willow-leaf eyes, sliding down his face. “It was all my momentary confusion.”

Siqin Bari narrowed his eyes and lightened his grip slightly. Lianzhi let out a secret sigh of relief. Although Siqin Bari stopped his interrogation, he was not going to let him off so easily.

“He was also a man of Great Zhou.” Siqin Bari curled his lips, revealing those two sharp, white canines. “I captured him alive on the battlefield. My father ordered me to pry his mouth open. Both of you attempted suicide, but his backbone was much stiffer than yours. He actually tried to bite off his own tongue. Khatun, can you guess what happened next?”

His voice was steady, yet it caused Shen Lianzhi to break out in a cold sweat for no reason. Lianzhi could do nothing but shake his head. Siqin Bari continued, “I shoved my fingers into his mouth. That man of Great Zhou almost bit my finger off.”

Siqin Bari flashed his left hand toward Lianzhi. Sure enough, there was a deep, circular scar at the base of his thumb. “I locked him in the sheep pen. Then I stuffed his mouth with stones and whipped him for three days. Finally, he spat out the information. Our Great Xia won a total victory thanks to him. If he had held out until the end, we might not have broken the Great Zhou army. Then, perhaps you would not have had to come to the grasslands. What do you think, Khatun?”

Shen Lianzhi trembled like a withered leaf battered by wind and rain. He opened his mouth, but his throat felt as though it had gone hoarse.

“After prying his mouth open, I cut off his head and made it into a wine cup to present to my father. Khatun, would you like to see it?” Siqin Bari changed from gripping his chin to stroking his cheek.

Without waiting for Lianzhi to speak, he turned his head and gave a cold command to Xurigan nearby. “Xurigan, go and fetch my wine cup.”

“Yes.” Xurigan shot a quick glance at the tear-stained Khatun. Just as he was about to turn and leave the King’s Tent, Shen Lianzhi, who was pinned underfoot, suddenly burst with a surge of strength to break free from Siqin Bari’s restraint.

Lianzhi cried as he clung to one of Siqin Bari’s legs, shaking his head like a rattle. “Great King, please do not fetch it. I was wrong, I was wrong.”

Siqin Bari shook his leg a few times but could not shake him off, so he eventually stopped moving. He looked at the heart-wrenchingly sobbing Shen Lianzhi. For some reason, instead of the pleasure of success, his heart felt as heavy as if a mountain of rock were pressing down on it.

He became irritated and spoke without thinking, “Get up! What do you look like right now? Are you even a man?”

Between backbone and life, Shen Lianzhi naturally chose life. Showing weakness was his personal way of dealing with the world. There was a certain pleasure in breaking a person’s pride, but bullying a useless person was quite tasteless.

He treated the method of showing weakness as his guiding principle, playing the role of a coward perfectly. Upon hearing those words, instead of stopping, he cried even harder, to the point of producing real snot. “Great King, I know my mistake.”

The more Siqin Bari looked at this pathetic state, the angrier he became. He pulled his leg back and grabbed the man by his back collar to make him stand up straight and steady. “How did your Great Zhou Emperor raise a son like you, who is utterly useless for anything except crying?”

Actually, he had said similar things many times before. Lianzhi usually let it go in one ear and out the other. But now, for some reason, he felt a strange, suffocating pain in his heart. It was probably because Siqin Bari had mentioned his imperial father.

Lianzhi’s sobbing gradually stopped. Siqin Bari remained immersed in his unknown irritation, failing to notice the slight change in Shen Lianzhi. He took two deep breaths and suddenly leaned down to pick up the cold, shimmering sword from the floor. Noticing his movement, Lianzhi’s pupils dilated for an instant.

Siqin Bari glared at him fiercely. Shen Lianzhi stood frozen, not daring to move an inch, until Siqin Bari forced the sword into his hand. Lianzhi’s eyes widened even more. He looked at the sword as if it were a monstrous beast, constantly trying to shrink away. Siqin Bari blocked his path and, without allowing any room for refusal, grabbed Lianzhi’s hand to grip the sword. “Hold it!”

Lianzhi trembled, clutching the sword with shaking hands. He shrunk his neck and looked up at Siqin Bari, the corners of his eyes flushed deep red. He could not guess what Siqin Bari was planning, and he certainly did not expect the youth’s next move. Siqin Bari grabbed the sharp blade with his bare hand and pressed it directly against his own chest.

“What kind of skill is suicide? All that talk about rather being a broken jade than an intact tile is just a coward’s way of sugar-coating their words. I am telling you! If you truly want to leave, do not kill yourself. Kill me instead, and then leave like a real human being!”

The force in Siqin Bari’s hand increased. The sharp blade sliced open his palm, and bright red blood dripped down, landing on Lianzhi’s thin, pale feet.

“Stab me!” Siqin Bari raised a sharp eyebrow. His deep eyes stared unblinkingly at Shen Lianzhi with his unique wildness and even a hint of madness. “If you dare to stab me once, I will let you go! Stab me!”

Clang! Lianzhi let go of the sword in a state of shivers. The sword drew an arc in the air, the hilt hitting Siqin Bari’s shin with a dull thud.

Siqin Bari threw the blood-stained sword aside. He knelt down and looked with a stiff face at the sobbing Shen Lianzhi curled into a ball. After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“Tell me, what use are you? Suicide is the act of a coward, but you are even worse than a coward. The sword was placed in your hand, yet you did not even dare to stab forward. Since you are so timid, why can you not be more obedient?”

“There is nothing wrong with being submissive.” Saying this, Siqin Bari stood up. He looked down at Shen Lianzhi for a moment, his gaze moving from the thin body dressed only in a single inner garment to his two feet that were unconsciously shrinking back.

Siqin Bari withdrew his gaze and glanced toward Xurigan. “Bring the white fox skin over.”

Xurigan nodded slightly, turned, and walked out of the tent. He returned shortly after and placed the lacquer tray containing the white fox skin on the wooden table. Siqin Bari called out heavily, “Khatun.”

Shen Lianzhi did not respond.

“Put your clothes on. And let this be the last time.”

With those words, he left.

The King’s Tent fell into a heavy silence. After a long time, Shen Lianzhi finally looked up. The first thing he saw was that white fox skin. The head had not been removed, and the entire fur still emitted a strong scent of blood. Shen Lianzhi covered his nose and slowly moved toward the fur.

He pinched a corner of the fox skin to lift it. Unclotted blood dripped down, and Lianzhi even saw several strands of red flesh. This fox skin had just been flayed. Lianzhi realized this with a delayed shock.

The snowy white fox skin seemed to change before his eyes. In the end, Lianzhi actually saw himself on that black lacquer tray, naked and covered in whip marks.

A strange gurgling sound came from deep in his throat. The suppressed nausea and the sticky sensation on his body rushed back like a sudden storm, leaving him defenseless. Shen Lianzhi covered his mouth desperately, but it was in vain.

Crash! The white fox skin and the lacquer tray fell to the ground. Shen Lianzhi grabbed a corner of the wooden table and vomited until the world turned upside down, revolted by the lingering scent of blood, his churning stomach, and his own weakness.

Tears, saliva, and bile mixed together. Lianzhi wiped his face and turned around while gasping. His gaze suddenly fixed on a glittering gold object near the bloodstains. He walked over slowly, his fingers brushing aside the bead ornaments on top to reveal a hidden gold hair crown inlaid with white jade.

Shen Lianzhi cradled the gold crown in his arms with extreme care and weight. He lowered his head and closed his eyes contentedly, as if drawing a bit of warmth from this inanimate object.

Just as Siqin Bari had said, there was nothing wrong with being submissive. However, a true coward lacks even the courage to disobey. Lianzhi understood this well in his heart.

But he had dreamed of Lu Jingce, and today was the seventeenth day of the second month. Shen Lianzhi did not know if anyone in the Great Zhou Palace thousands of miles away still remembered that the seventeenth of the second month was the day of his capping ceremony. Lu Jingce had said, “Lianzhi, once you reach adulthood, we will be married.”

Unfortunately, he was too cowardly. A tiny bit of resistance had already exhausted all of his courage.

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