Lu Qiao lowered his head and continued eating the cake, his face flushed red.
This was also his first time doing something like this… His heart was pounding wildly.
But—
“The Second Prince seems like a completely different person,” Lu Qiao said with a frown. “I remember he used to be quite introverted. How did he become like this now…? Do you have some kind of grudge against him?”
“I haven’t even seen him once in the past five years.” At the mention of this matter, Yan Qiu’s voice sank again. “He really has changed. It seems something happened, but Luo Ye never told us.”
Lu Qiao suddenly remembered something and asked, “By the way, from the very beginning, he specifically invited you…and me to attend this banquet together, right?”
Yan Qiu nodded and slowly said, “That’s why I thought it was a little strange at first and wanted to refuse him. But His Majesty said that he would also be attending the banquet and wanted to meet you, so I agreed to the invitation.”
On the other hand, he also wanted to see what exactly Luo Yu was trying to do.
Luo Yu seemed genuinely interested in Lu Qiao, but why? Was it simply because Lu Qiao possessed special mental power?
Luo Yu had never cared about such things before.
Yan Qiu glanced at Lu Qiao again and straightened his hair at the temples for him. “Don’t worry. With me here, he won’t be able to do anything to you.”
“Mm, I’m not worried about that. I’m just a little curious,” Lu Qiao said.
A song in the banquet hall came to an end, and another soothing melody began to play.
Yan Qiu suddenly took Lu Qiao’s hand and asked, “Want to dance?”
Lu Qiao was startled. “I don’t know how!”
“Neither do I.” Yan Qiu smiled and led Lu Qiao toward the crowd.
Quite a few people had already paired off and begun dancing.
Yan Qiu brought Lu Qiao to a dimly lit corner. With a tug, he pulled Lu Qiao close and placed a hand around his waist.
Lu Qiao said softly, “I really don’t know how…”
“Just hold on to me.”
“But—” Lu Qiao awkwardly glanced behind him, afraid someone would notice them.
Yan Qiu had already tightened his arms around him, almost holding him completely in his embrace, and began gently swaying with him.
There really wasn’t much difficulty to it. They were simply holding each other and moving their bodies along with the music. Everyone else was dancing the same way.
But Lu Qiao’s heartbeat was far too loud. Enclosed in Yan Qiu’s arms, he felt as though he had gotten drunk, and his thoughts seemed to evaporate completely.
The man’s lips were right beside his ear. His movements were gentle, and his voice was gentle too.
“I love you, Lu Qiao.”
Lu Qiao could no longer say anything. He buried his face against Yan Qiu’s shoulder, his ears so red they looked as though they could bleed.
Elsewhere, Luo Yu withdrew his gaze from the two people dancing together in the corner, and his expression gradually turned indifferent.
He turned and walked toward the back of the banquet hall.
There were only the sounds of his and his guards’ footsteps in the corridor, but soon, another hurried set of footsteps followed behind him.
Luo Yu stopped and turned around.
His guard blocked the newcomer and said warily, “What are you doing?”
The person who had come was none other than Ji Zhuyun. He stared at Luo Yu.
“I have something I want to talk to you about.”
When Luo Yu met the man’s gaze, his expression became dazed for a moment. When he came back to his senses, the indifference on his face had faded, replaced by panic.
He clenched his fist and avoided Ji Zhuyun’s gaze, saying nothing as he turned around and tried to continue walking.
Suddenly, angry shouting and the sounds of a struggle came from behind him. Luo Yu was startled and turned around again.
Ji Zhuyun had already reached him and grabbed him by the arm!
The guard hurriedly got up from the floor and drew his gun, saying tensely, “Your Highness!”
“It’s fine.” Luo Yu immediately raised a hand to stop the guard from pointing the gun at Ji Zhuyun. He shifted his gaze around somewhat helplessly and asked in a very low voice, “You…what do you want with me?”
Ji Zhuyun said, “Tell your guard to leave.”
“I…”
Ji Zhuyun tightened his grip and repeated, “Luo Yu, tell your guard to leave.”
“Your Highness!”
Luo Yu opened his mouth, hesitating, but in the end he quietly said to the guard, “Go away for a moment.”
The guard looked at Ji Zhuyun, then at Luo Yu. He had no choice but to obey the order. After answering, “Yes,” he turned around and left in a disheveled manner.
Only the two of them remained in the corridor.
Ji Zhuyun looked at the young man standing before him with his head lowered.
His lips were tightly pressed together, and his small face was drawn taut. The uneasiness and nervousness on him were impossible to conceal. Compared with the person who had just provoked Yan Qiu and struck up a conversation with Lu Qiao, he seemed like an entirely different person.
Ji Zhuyun said softly, “It’s been a year since we last saw each other, Luo Yu. A year ago, you suddenly cut off contact with me. After I came back, you refused to see me too. Why? What happened?”
“I…I didn’t…” Luo Yu continued looking down, denying it without much confidence.
Ji Zhuyun pulled him a little closer and asked, “Why did you go provoke Yan Qiu and Lu Qiao just now?”
Luo Yu’s entire body tensed.
“What are you trying to do?” Ji Zhuyun narrowed his eyes slightly.
“…”
Luo Yu was silent for several seconds before suddenly saying, “In any case, I won’t hurt them.”
Hearing this answer, Ji Zhuyun frowned. “I’m not suspecting that you want to hurt them. I just don’t understand what you’re thinking!”
“You don’t need to understand!” Luo Yu suddenly raised his head and snapped.
Ji Zhuyun was somewhat stunned.
Luo Yu had always spoken softly. When they had first met, his voice had been so quiet that he could barely hear him. This guy was easily embarrassed, lacked confidence, and was afraid of strangers.
He had never spoken this loudly before.
“Luo Yu—”
Luo Yu panted, struggling against Ji Zhuyun’s hand, but he could not break free. He took a step back and said, “I won’t hurt them. You don’t need to worry about them!”
Ji Zhuyun followed him closely and said, “I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about you!”
“There’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine.” There was some confusion in Luo Yu’s eyes as he murmured, “I’m fine.”
“If you’re fine…” Ji Zhuyun stepped forward again, directly forcing Luo Yu back against the wall. He stared intently into Luo Yu’s eyes and asked, “On the day the World Virus invaded the system, why didn’t we meet?!”
Those words struck Luo Yu like a bolt of thunder. He looked at Ji Zhuyun in shock.
Ji Zhuyun said hoarsely, “Luo Yu, you—”
He did not dare to ask the rest.
People who secretly fell in love with each other would be locked together.
That was only a deduction, but it was practically already a fact.
Why had the two of them not been locked together? Ji Zhuyun did not dare to think about the reason, nor did he want to.
He didn’t understand.
He had thought he understood Luo Yu’s feelings for him, and a year ago, he had finally recognized his own feelings for Luo Yu as well.
But just when everything had become clear to him, Luo Yu had unilaterally cut off contact with him.
He could no longer see him, and he could not even hear his voice. Now that he had finally been able to return from the border, he had thought he could get a little closer to this person, but the situation had not improved in the slightest.
Luo Yu had hidden himself inside the imperial palace.
As long as he stayed hidden and refused to come out, the two of them were like people living in two completely different worlds.
Luo Yu had not invited him to today’s birthday banquet either. It had been Luo Ye who invited him.
Ji Zhuyun wanted to know why things had become like this. What exactly had happened a year ago?!
Luo Yu trembled slightly as he stared at Ji Zhuyun, his eyes gradually turning red.
Ji Zhuyun’s heart felt as though someone had squeezed it. He reached out and gently caressed Luo Yu’s cheek. He no longer wanted to worry about so much and said in a low voice, “Did you even read the messages I sent you throughout this past year? I wanted to see you. I like you. Luo Yu, I don’t think I’m narcissistic enough to have completely misunderstood your feelings for me back then. So there must have been something that happened for you to refuse to see me, right? Tell me. What happened a year ago? No matter what it is, I’ll definitely help you and protect you—”
As Ji Zhuyun spoke, the tears in Luo Yu’s eyes accumulated more and more. He opened his mouth, about to speak, when suddenly his entire body swayed and he collapsed into Ji Zhuyun’s arms.
Ji Zhuyun was startled and quickly caught him. “What’s wrong?”
Seeing that Luo Yu did not respond, he said solemnly, “I’ll go call a doctor!”
Luo Yu suddenly grabbed his hand.
Ji Zhuyun froze.
The person in his arms moved and slowly raised his head.
When Ji Zhuyun saw Luo Yu’s face again, he froze.
Luo Yu’s eyes were still red, and there were even tears on his face, but his expression had changed…
It had become casual and indifferent.
Luo Yu sniffed, released his hand, wiped his face, and said blandly, “I’m fine.”
Ji Zhuyun stared intently at his face. Only after several seconds did he find his voice again.
“…What happened to you just now?”
“Headache. I probably didn’t get enough rest yesterday.” Luo Yu’s tone had become listless. After a pause, he said, “Ji Zhuyun, since the two of us weren’t locked together, you should know what’s going on with me and you by now, right?”
Ji Zhuyun stood rooted to the spot.
Luo Yu’s gaze fell upon his face. His eyes were extremely strange, very cold, yet there was sorrow hidden within them, as though two completely different emotions had been strangely grafted together.
Luo Yu lowered his eyes and gently patted Ji Zhuyun on the shoulder. His hand slid down along Ji Zhuyun’s arm, finally brushing against his fingertips as though intentionally or unintentionally…
Then he simply left.
Luo Yu said softly, “I’m going to rest. You should leave.”
“You still haven’t told me what happened a year ago—” Ji Zhuyun insisted.
“A year ago…” Luo Yu tilted his head slightly and laughed before saying, “A year ago, I secretly slipped out of the imperial palace because I wanted to go to the border to find you.”
Ji Zhuyun was stunned and immediately said, “I told you several times not to run to the border by yourself!”
“Yes, I was scared too. But my fourth brother said he also wanted to go there to have some fun and asked if I wanted to go with him.” Luo Yu blinked. “So I went with him.”
Ji Zhuyun suddenly thought of something else and frowned. “But I never saw you.”
“Mm.” Luo Yu smiled. “Because my fourth brother played a prank on me. I ended up stranded on a planet, got injured a little, and then was frightened unconscious. By the time I woke up, I was already back in the imperial palace, so I never managed to see you.”
Hearing what had happened to Luo Yu, Ji Zhuyun was somewhat shocked. His expression turned ugly for a moment, but he restrained himself and asked, “And then?”
“That’s all.” Luo Yu shifted his gaze away, his tone faintly sorrowful. “Nothing special happened, so you don’t need to keep questioning me. When it comes to feelings, you can stop liking someone just because you no longer like them. And when you can never seem to meet each other, it becomes even easier for feelings to fade.”
Ji Zhuyun still wanted to say something, but Luo Yu paused and said almost coldly, “Ji Zhuyun, don’t be someone who can’t let go.”
Ji Zhuyun suddenly stiffened.
After saying that, Luo Yu turned around and left without looking back.
Ji Zhuyun stood there, staring fixedly at Luo Yu’s back until he disappeared around the corner.
He turned around and quickly walked back toward the banquet hall, where he ran into Luo Ye, who was just heading in that direction and also wanted to go to the back to rest for a while.
Seeing that Ji Zhuyun’s expression looked bad, Luo Ye glanced behind him and asked, “What happened?”
“Why didn’t you tell me that Luo Yu came to find me a year ago?” Ji Zhuyun asked.
Luo Ye was stunned. He closed his eyes and sighed. “Luo Yu told you? A year ago, he was also the one who told me not to tell you. He was injured quite badly that time. Father was furious and confined him for three whole months. He told me not to mention this matter to you. At the time, I thought he didn’t want you to know because he was afraid you would blame yourself.”
“But later, I realized something was wrong. Luo Yu didn’t want Ji Zhuyun to know about this matter. It seemed it wasn’t merely because he was afraid Ji Zhuyun would blame himself. It was more like…he was afraid that once Ji Zhuyun knew, he would misunderstand something.”
Simply put, Luo Yu gave him the feeling that he wanted to sever his relationship with Ji Zhuyun. He did not want Ji Zhuyun to know that, for his sake, he had once tried to overcome his fear and timidity and gone all the way to the border.
He did not want Ji Zhuyun to know about the depth of his feelings, because he had already abandoned those feelings.
Ji Zhuyun clenched both fists tightly. After a long while, he finally said, “He’s become very strange.”
Luo Ye frowned and said quietly, “Mm. He’s been strange ever since then. Father and Mother are also very worried. After the doctors examined him, they said he may have suffered some kind of psychological shock, which is why he seems like a completely different person…”
Ji Zhuyun suddenly asked, “Which planet did the Fourth Prince throw him onto?”
Luo Ye sighed and said, “Fourth Brother…has a very mischievous personality. Originally, he only wanted to scare him, so he threw him onto a low-level planet that they were passing by. But Fourth Brother had also brought some devices used to activate spatial passages leading outside the Empire. I don’t know what exactly happened, but the warehouse storing those spatial-passage activators exploded. Several of them were blasted out and happened to fly straight toward Luo Yu and the others. Luo Yu fell into a spatial passage, and in the end landed in…Blue-Eye Star Nation.”
In other words, the most chaotic country in the Alliance right now.
Anger appeared on Ji Zhuyun’s face.
He knew some things about the imperial family as well. Everyone knew that the Fourth Prince liked to bully Luo Yu. But Ji Zhuyun had never imagined that the Fourth Prince would hurt Luo Yu to such an extent.
“Father has already severely punished Fourth Brother for this,” Luo Ye paused, then said helplessly, “You and Luo Yu have already talked, haven’t you?”
He had secretly invited Ji Zhuyun to this banquet without telling Luo Yu because he wanted to help Ji Zhuyun. They were friends, after all, and he couldn’t bear to see him suffer in pain without understanding anything.
But judging from the result, it hadn’t gone very well.
Ji Zhuyun remained silent.
Luo Ye could only console him. “Let it go. There’s nothing you can do about feelings like this.”
“…I’m not willing to give up,” Ji Zhuyun said quietly. “I won’t just give up like this.”
Lu Qiao, Yan Qiu, and Yan Qiu’s parents left early.
After saying goodbye to the people they knew, Lu Qiao followed Yan Qiu onto the aircraft.
Outside the window, beneath the banquet hall, there was a bamboo grove illuminated by the lights of the imperial palace.
When they had arrived, they had not landed on this terrace. Instead, they had landed on the west side of the banquet hall, so they had not seen this bamboo grove.
Lu Qiao leaned against the window and suddenly sighed. “Ah, when I went back to my hometown that time, I ended up forgetting to bring you bamboo shoots!”
Hearing this, Yan Qiu glanced outside the window and said, “I can have people plant a bamboo grove at the estate too.”
Lu Qiao turned to look at him.
Yan Qiu slowly said, “That way, we’ll have bamboo shoots to eat every year.”
Lu Qiao squirmed a little and snorted. “Who said anything about ‘every year’ with you?!”
Yan Qiu looked at him with a smile.
Lu Qiao felt a little mischievous and said, “I was still thinking that after I retire, I’d go back to San Guang Star to live out my old age!”
Yan Qiu’s smile froze.
“…”
He calmly said, “If you go back every year and stay for a month as a vacation, that’s certainly fine.”
“I said ‘live out my old age.’” Lu Qiao held back his laughter and said with utmost seriousness.
“…”
Yan Qiu remained calm. “I can have someone move your house from your hometown to the estate exactly as it is.”
“Without the scenery of San Guang Star, it won’t have the same feeling!” Lu Qiao continued.
Yan Qiu was silent for a moment. In the end, he gently squeezed Lu Qiao’s hand and sighed.
“Don’t make things difficult for me, Lu Qiao.”
Lu Qiao burst out laughing. “There’s actually a day when you can be ‘put in a difficult position’!”
“Only you can do it.” Yan Qiu surrendered completely.
Lu Qiao curled up the corners of his lips and said softly, “I really did seriously think about going back to my hometown to retire before. But now…”
He glanced at Yan Qiu and said, “I can consider it.”
Yan Qiu looked at him with smiling eyes and said softly, “Please do.”