Sickly Jade - Chapter 6

Ye Shaoyun tried to shake off that hand, but found he couldn’t break free at all. He simply gave up and looked down at Qi Chu with cold eyes. “You are the sovereign, I am the subject nothing more.”

At these words, Qi Chu seemed unable to comprehend them. Sovereign and subject? What an alien term. When had the relationship between the two of them ever been like that of a sovereign and a subject?

Ye Shaoyun had never treated him as a sovereign, and he had never treated this man as a mere subject. Qi Chu gritted his teeth, wishing he could finish what had been interrupted earlier right there. With a dark face, he stopped looking at Ye Shaoyun and hoisted him up, quilt and all.

“We can discuss this question when we get back.”

Whether Ye Shaoyun was willing or not, he was determined to bring him back today. If soft tactics wouldn’t work, he would resort to force.

This position reminded Ye Shaoyun of the madman from moments ago. He began to struggle, chiding, “Qi Chu, put me down!”

Qi Chu said in a low voice, “If the National Teacher still wants to maintain some dignity, don’t move around. You know I can’t bear to hurt you.”

His original worst-case scenario had been to knock the man unconscious to bring him back, but he had softened his heart. If he were struck on the back of the head, Ye Shaoyun would be in pain for days upon waking, and he didn’t want the National Teacher to suffer that much.

Ye Shaoyun’s expression shifted. “Put me down, I will walk myself.”

“You’d better not push yourself.”

Qi Chu’s words were layered with meaning. Ye Shaoyun fell silent. He was pushing himself, and in Qi Chu’s eyes, he was merely struggling unable to even protect himself. Was he blaming him?

After being shoved into the carriage, Qi Chu still didn’t let him go. Seemingly afraid he might run away, he placed him on the seat and kept him tightly embraced.

“Back to the city!”

Ye Shaoyun’s attendants exchanged glances; naturally, they could not defy the Crown Prince and had no choice but to turn the carriage back toward the capital. Ye Shaoyun knew he couldn’t win against Qi Chu, so he stopped struggling, only asking him to let him go.

The carriage sped back to the capital, the sound of the wheels grinding against the cobblestones as dull as thunder. The confined space was filled with a sense of oppression, and for the first time, the atmosphere between them was this awkward.

Ye Shaoyun could clearly feel that Qi Chu had changed his eyes, his expressions, every gesture, all controlled with effortless ease.

Qi Chu’s reaction to his departure had been too extreme, which left Ye Shaoyun perplexed. Was there something in the capital he couldn’t handle, and that was why he wouldn’t allow him to leave? That was the only conclusion he could reach.

Although the two of them were sometimes sticky and affectionate, blurring the lines between sovereign and subject, Ye Shaoyun knew that Qi Chu had always possessed a core of rationality a rationality that allowed him to face the intrigues of the court and maintain a balance in all things. As for those words that shouldn’t be said, those he shouldn’t hear he chose to treat them all as the ravings of a madman.

When they neared the city gates, Ye Shaoyun spoke first: “What is your purpose in forcing me to return?”

Qi Chu was silent for two seconds before retorting, “Did I not make myself clear?”

Ye Shaoyun stared straight ahead. “I don’t understand.”

Qi Chu’s emotions were ignited once again. “I want you to stay in the capital, stay by my side, just as you were before.”

If he could, Qi Chu would have loved to make Ye Shaoyun marry him, but he knew that would dishonor this man, so he had never dared to mention it.

Ye Shaoyun scoffed coldly. “Before? What were we like before? Did I do something that made you misunderstand?”

Qi Chu’s straight posture froze instantly, his gaze turning chillingly cold.

“Hahahaha!”

An eerie laughter echoed in the cramped space, and Ye Shaoyun couldn’t help but frown. After the laughter ceased, Qi Chu’s eyes were bloodshot, and as he looked at Ye Shaoyun, there was a playful mockery he had never shown before. “It doesn’t matter. The National Teacher can stay stiff all you like; I will do, and you will just watch.”

Ye Shaoyun’s heart was cold and hard Qi Chu had witnessed this before; it was nothing new. It doesn’t matter, as long as you don’t leave. He wanted Ye Shaoyun to never be able to leave him.

Listening to Qi Chu’s raving, Ye Shaoyun found it all incredible.

At the National Teacher’s residence, Ye Shaoyun discovered that the servants had all been replaced, and there were more guards outside the gates. He didn’t need to guess who had arranged it.

Qi Chu jumped off the carriage first and reached out a hand to him, his smile as refreshing as a spring breeze. “National Teacher, we are home.”

Ye Shaoyun ignored the hand, climbed out of the carriage, and headed into the residence on his own. Qi Chu gripped his empty palm, then followed him inside as if nothing had happened.

The moment the gate behind them closed, Qi Chu suddenly rushed forward, gripped the National Teacher’s waist, and hoisted him onto his shoulder.

“Qi Chu!”

Ye Shaoyun roared in anger. There were servants and secret guards in the courtyard Qi Chu was being far too bold. Qi Chu knew he cared most about his dignity and, out of spite, provoked him. “These people were all left here by you; now they are all mine. I want to treat you like this right in front of them do they dare have an opinion?”

The attendants remained silent, each turning their backs immediately.

Ye Shaoyun knew he was in the wrong, and knowing Qi Chu’s stubborn temper, he decisively stopped speaking. Qi Chu carried him into the bedroom with a cold face and threw him onto the couch. Before he could enter the bedroom, Ye Shaoyun, predicting what this guy wanted to do, hurriedly spoke up before he could lunge over: “I want to take a bath.”

Qi Chu, halfway through undoing his own clothes, grew impatient. “No need to wash.”

Having been left unsatisfied twice in a row, and then dragged around for nothing, he was simmering with rage and just wanted to pin the man down and have his way with him. Ye Shaoyun glared at him, the anger in his eyes seemingly stabbing at Qi Chu. Qi Chu frowned. “Yun’er, don’t look at me like that.”

Qi Chu wanted to lean down and kiss him, but was dodged, leaving him with an utterly indifferent gaze. Qi Chu ground his molars, reached over to force the National Teacher’s face to turn, and kissed him heavily.

“Mmph!” Ye Shaoyun was forced to tilt his face up. While he resisted and pushed at the man on top of him, the man not only refused to retreat but advanced, forcefully prying his teeth apart.

In the past, they rarely kissed. Even on the couch, it had only been light touches, suitable for flirting they had never kissed this deeply, because Ye Shaoyun had never allowed it. Qi Chu was determined to do it today, just to irritate his National Teacher.

After a long while, he reluctantly lifted his face, looking at the National Teacher, whose face was flushed crimson. The corners of his mouth curled into a satisfied, slightly wicked arc much like a child who had been denied candy by an elder for years, only to suddenly snatch a handful outside and shove it all into his mouth at once.

“Does the National Teacher like it this way? You don’t? You want to hit me? Then go ahead.”

As he spoke, he deliberately stretched his face forward.

Ye Shaoyun’s eyes were bloodshot, his breathing ragged. His hands, poised to strike, were seized by Qi Chu first.

“Since when did Your Highness become so childish?”

Frustrated to the extreme, this was all he could say.

Qi Chu smiled slightly, a smile a few shades more sinister than usual. “The National Teacher didn’t like how I was before—how about now?”

He lowered his gaze slightly, looking at the National Teacher’s neck and his continuously heaving chest.

“I think, National Teacher, you like it quite a bit now. If I may say so, you don’t have to be so bashful. If you like something, just tell me tell me, the Crown Prince. Whatever style you want, I can satisfy you.”

Ye Shaoyun was vaguely shocked by these words. When did that once-obedient Crown Prince become so unruly?

Finally unable to maintain his composure, he scolded sternly: “Shut your mouth! Such foul and filthy language have you no sense of propriety?”

Hearing the word “propriety,” Qi Chu showed a rare, mocking laugh. “Is the National Teacher speaking to me about propriety? There has long been no propriety between us! Did you really think I didn’t know anything?”