Xue Yan remained silent for a long while, not making a single sound.
Jun Huailang patiently held him, gently patting his shoulders and back.
Suddenly, Xue Yan pulled him forcefully into his arms.
His embrace was so tight that the tremendous force sent Jun Huailang stumbling forward, straight into his chest.
Xue Yan’s arms clamped around him, squeezing his shoulders and back until they hurt.
Jun Huailang did not resist. He simply raised his hands to wrap them around Xue Yan’s shoulders and silently returned his embrace.
“…Huailang,” Xue Yan said, holding him tightly. “I originally planned to personally lead the troops to reclaim Yan Commandery once the political situation had stabilized. On the day Yan Commandery was recovered, I would take you with me and show you my home.”
Jun Huailang knew that Xue Yan had always considered Yan Commandery his home.
In his previous life, when the Xu family and the Fourth Prince had seized the opportunity to usurp power, they had launched their coup while Xue Yan was leading troops north. At the time, Chang’an had sent Xue Yan three urgent reports, but he had refused to return until he had completely conquered Yan Commandery.
Jun Huailang knew how important that place was to him.
Now that he thought about it… something must have happened to Yan Commandery.
He hummed in acknowledgment and patted Xue Yan’s back, speaking gently. “I want to see it too. I want to see what the place where you grew up looks like.”
But Xue Yan said, “I don’t have a home anymore.”
As he said this, his throat caught almost imperceptibly. But the very next moment, he stubbornly forced the feeling down, suppressing those tears before they could fall.
Jun Huailang hugged him in return.
“How can you say you don’t have a home?” he said slowly, his clear, gentle voice like snowmelt flowing through a mountain valley.
“Back then, Yan Commandery was your home. But now that you’re with me, wherever I am, shouldn’t you move your home there too?”
Xue Yan’s body visibly stiffened for a moment.
Then he held Jun Huailang even tighter.
“You’d better think this through,” he said fiercely, turning his face to press his cheek tightly against Jun Huailang’s neck. “You always say I’m not a calamity star, but now I’m telling you that I really am one. Even if you say otherwise, I still am.”
He had clearly drunk too much. Although his words remained perfectly clear, the stubborn, almost bullying fierceness in his voice was impossible to conceal.
Jun Huailang found it both exasperating and strangely endearing. He chuckled softly. “All right. You are.”
Xue Yan continued, “I bring misfortune to my parents and ruin my family ties. I’m a calamity star, and now even the emperor’s poisoning is connected to me.”
“No, you’re just…” Jun Huailang began.
“I am.”
Jun Huailang was caught between laughter and tears. “All right, you are.”
Xue Yan continued, “In any case, I’m no good. They’ve all been scheming to use me to hurt others. Although I keep clinging to you, you should know to be afraid of me too. You ought to stay away from me.”
His voice gradually grew quieter.
Jun Huailang raised a hand to the back of his neck and gently pressed his face into the hollow of his shoulder.
“Can you bear to let me go?” he asked.
Xue Yan fell silent for a long moment.
“You’re all I have left,” he said, his voice terribly dejected, a faint, suppressed tremor running through it. “But…”
“No buts.” Jun Huailang cut him off.
He pushed at Xue Yan’s shoulder, signaling for him to loosen his embrace. Xue Yan relaxed his arms a little, but still held him as though he could not bear to let go.
Jun Huailang gently pushed him back until they were far enough apart to look into each other’s eyes.
Those amber eyes still glistened with moisture. His eyelashes were long and thick, and tiny tears clung to their delicate tips, trembling whenever he blinked.
Jun Huailang raised his hand and wiped his eyes.
“I won’t leave either,” he said. “You’re always copying the Sutra of Deliverance from Calamities, but you know those scriptures can’t suppress your baleful aura, don’t you?”
Xue Yan nodded.
“The scriptures are naturally useless,” Jun Huailang said. “But I know what can suppress your baleful aura.”
Xue Yan’s eyes brightened a little.
“What?” he asked.
Jun Huailang answered slowly, “Me.”
He raised his hand and cupped Xue Yan’s cheek.
“Do you believe me?”
Xue Yan muttered under his breath, “I’m not that drunk. Don’t try to fool me…”
“Then spend the rest of your life with me and find out,” Jun Huailang said.
——
Jun Huailang did not leave the palace all night.
When he awoke, the first light of dawn was breaking. Golden-red sunlight spilled across the floor through the precious, heavy window lattice.
There was a small bed in the Imperial Study. The previous night, after Xue Yan had pinned him down and kissed him repeatedly, he had wrapped Jun Huailang up in his arms and dragged him onto the bed.
The bed was only meant for the emperor to take a short nap, so it was not particularly spacious. With two tall, broad-shouldered young men lying on it, things were rather cramped.
But Xue Yan had drunk too much and was clingier than ever. He held Jun Huailang tightly in his arms, so at least neither of them ended up falling off the bed.
The previous night, as the alcohol took effect, Xue Yan had grown dazed and muddled. Jun Huailang had only needed to ask a few questions before Xue Yan lost control of his tongue and told him everything that had happened that day in one breath.
He rambled on and on, gradually talking himself to sleep. But through his words, Jun Huailang had managed to piece together most of what had happened with Prince Yan.
Only then did Jun Huailang finally understand.
In his previous life, he had seen Xue Yan once as well. Although Xue Yan had looked cold and unapproachable, Jun Huailang had not detected any obvious viciousness in him.
Xue Yan had also generally gotten along reasonably well with Emperor Qingping. Although the emperor feared and despised him, he had no choice but to make use of Xue Yan’s abilities. The two had maintained the boundaries between sovereign and subject, and had managed to coexist without incident.
But after Xue Yan returned to Chang’an from Yan Yun, he became an entirely different person.
After killing the Prince of Yunnan, he personally led troops into the imperial city, killing his father and brothers with his own hands, along with numerous civil and military officials. During this process, the Jun family had also been destroyed at his hands.
Jun Huailang knew that Xue Yan at the time must have learned of Prince Yan’s scheme. He must have discovered that the uncle he had regarded as his own father had merely treated him as a pawn in the struggle for power and the throne.
That was precisely why, in his previous life, even when Xue Yan had amassed all power in his hands, he had refused to touch the imperial throne or become emperor, right up until the day Jun Huailang died.
At the time, everyone had assumed he did so because his claim to the throne was illegitimate. But Jun Huailang knew that moral codes and conventional notions of propriety had never been enough to restrain Xue Yan.
Back then, Xue Yan must have been trapped in a pitch-black swamp of despair, with only the blood on his blade capable of giving him a little warmth from the world of the living.
Lost in thought, Jun Huailang’s gaze involuntarily settled on Xue Yan’s face.
Xue Yan was still asleep.
His eyes were closed, and beneath the morning light, his long, thick eyelashes cast shadows across his face, accentuating the exquisite handsomeness of his features, which bore traces of foreign ancestry. His features were sharply defined, and his brows were equally fierce and angular. Even with his eyes closed, he looked so sharp that people might hesitate to meet his gaze.
Yet his brow was completely relaxed.
Although he was asleep, he still held Jun Huailang in his arms. Despite his imposing stature, when he embraced Jun Huailang, he seemed like someone desperately clutching the only lifeline he had left.
Jun Huailang slipped an arm around his waist.
Then, almost without thinking, he leaned forward slightly and pressed a kiss to Xue Yan’s lips.
It was as light as a dragonfly skimming the water, gone in an instant.
The kiss had been entirely instinctive on Jun Huailang’s part. After that single touch, he was about to pull away.
But at that very moment, a tremendous force swept over him, and the world spun.
After a brief moment of dizziness, he found himself looking into a pair of amber eyes.
His crow-feather-like eyelashes shimmered with a golden sheen in the morning sunlight. His gaze still carried a trace of the haziness of someone who had just awakened, but Jun Huailang clearly saw the blazing, scorching fire deep within those eyes.
“You kissed me secretly,” Xue Yan said, his voice hoarse.
Jun Huailang felt as though he had been caught doing something naughty. He hurriedly turned his face away, trying to avoid Xue Yan’s gaze.
But Xue Yan seized his chin and turned his face back.
Jun Huailang had no choice but to meet his eyes.
“I remember what you said last night, too,” Xue Yan said.
The two of them were extremely close. As Xue Yan spoke, Jun Huailang could feel his scorching breath.
It made his throat tighten.
Jun Huailang could feel the heat rising in his ears, and his heart grew flustered. He hurriedly raised his hands, trying to push Xue Yan away.
But before he could even exert any force, Xue Yan bent down toward him.
A torrent of fervent kisses swept over him, engulfing Jun Huailang in its rushing tide in an instant.
Outside the window, the golden sun slowly climbed above the rooftops of the imperial city. Sunlight spread across the glazed roofs, pavilions, towers, and white marble steps, gradually enveloping the entire magnificent palace in brilliant light.
But today, His Highness the Prince of Guangling did not attend court.
—End of Main Story—