CH 15

I Will Protect You

"A'Yu!" Yan Yuan abruptly and violently sat up on the bed, the bright yellow quilt slipping from his body to his waist, his eyes wide and staring dead ahead, and his breathing rising and falling violently.

Xuan Long was startled and sat up slowly, holding back the pain from his body, and looked at Yan Yuan with a subtle concern in his icy turquoise pupils, "Did you have a nightmare?"

Yan Yuan seemed to have woken up from his dream, slowly turning his head to stare at Xuan Long, his seductive peach blossom eyes were now bloodshot and looked a bit hideous.

Xuan Long had never seen Yan Yuan like this before, and he didn't know what to do for a moment, but even though he was at a loss inside, his face was still expressionless, "You…"

Before the words could be spoken, Yan Yuan turned his head away with a glare, lifted the covers and got out of bed to get dressed with a kind of indifference that rejects people from a thousand miles away.

Yan Yuan took the clean robes from the mica screen and put them on after removing the green dragon patterned robes. Turning his back to Xuan Long on the bed, he continued to dress without any intention of speaking to him.

It was not yet time to wake up in the morning, the rain was falling outside and the hall was as quiet as if no one was there.

Xuan Long was the worst at dealing with such a scene. If Yan Yuan was angry with him, he wouldn't even know how to coax him, he would just tell him not to be angry. He didn't even understand what was wrong with Yan Yuan at that moment. It was obvious that he had been fine last night, so why did he suddenly lose his temper?

"A'Yuan, you…" Xuan Long guessed that he was not feeling well and that was why he was so inexplicable, but Yan Yuan did not give him the chance to ask.

"Don't call me that." Yan Yuan's hand tying his belt paused, his tone not too heavy, but enough to shut Xuan Long up, "And don't talk to me."

Apart from his father and mother, in this world, Ning Zhiyu should be the only one qualified to call him that.

When coaxing Xuan Long to make love that day, he pestered him to call him, ‘A'Yuan', but now he regrets it.

That dream was like a wake-up call.

When Xuan Long saw that he was unhappy, he was silent and looked quietly at his tall back, his thoughts bewildered.

Yan Yuan treated Xuan Long like air and did not say a word to him when he left. There was a knock at the door and it was time for Chen Yan to call him to court.

The door of the hall suddenly opened from the inside. Chen Yan looked up and saw the emperor with his long hair unbound walking out with a tense face, and he said in surprise, "Your Majesty, what are you… doing here?"

"Going to Luanfeng Hall." Yan Yuan said and left, walking very quickly. Chen Yan looked up at the rain under the eaves, panicked, and followed him with an umbrella, "Aiyo, my Emperor, take care of your body…"

The more the rain fell, the more impatient it became. The sky seemed to be leaking, and the storm was raging. When Yan Yuan arrived at Luanfeng Hall, half of his body was soaked through, and the smooth fabric was cold against his body.

At the sight of the man with a jade-like face on the bed, Yan Yuan's eyes became wet, and without any sense of decorum, he knelt straight by the bed, grabbed the man's beautiful hand and pressed it to his face, murmuring obsessively.

"A'Yu…"

"A'Yu…"

It was only at this moment that he felt truly alive.

That dream had been too painful.

It was as if it had ripped his heart out of his chest.

Yan Yuan had dreamed of that scene countless times before. He could not see the man's face clearly, but that despair clung to him like it was gnawing at his bones, making him want to die with the man in his dream immediately.

It was someone who was very, very important to him, much more important than his own life, Yan Yuan was sure of that.

He started having that dream at a very young age.

Since he was fourteen, he had seen a man in his dreams almost every night, and it was always such a tragic scene that he would wake up with a wet pillow.

That man was so cruel, making him suffer like that but not even letting him see what he looked like.

He thought that it must have been his lover from a previous life, otherwise why would he have returned to this dream so stubbornly and strangely?

He probably wanted him to go looking for him, but Yan Yuan was the crown prince at the time and had not been outside the palace gates more than a few times, so he did not know where he could find him, therefore all he could do was wait, wait for him to come looking for him.

If it was destiny, they would surely meet each other, right?

Yan Yuan waited, and waited for a long time, but he never came. On his 16th birthday, his father said that he would choose one of the noble daughters to be his crown princess, but he refused without thinking. He knew that he loved that man deeply, even though he did not know what he looked like.

But he knew he would come.

That summer, Yan Yuan met Ning Zhiyu, and the bloody face of the man in his dream became clear…

On that day, he followed his father out of the palace to visit the Prime Minister who was ill. His father went into the Prime Minister's bedroom to visit him, while Yan Yuan waited outside. When he got antsy, he couldn't resist wandering around, and he wandered into the garden. 

At that time, Ning Zhiyu was already 17 years old, one year older than Yan Yuan. He had the appearance of a breeze, but he was extremely tender. His mother had been a foot washing maid without a name and had died in childbirth, so although Ning Zhiyu was the son of the Prime Minister, anyone could secretly step on him, and the Prime Minister had never bothered much about his frail son.

When Yan Yuan first met Ning Zhiyu, he was forced by his younger brother to climb a tree to collect a kite, and the tree was several people high. Ning Zhiyu was wearing a white robe, and his two thin arms were struggling to climb up the trunk of the tree. His sleeves were in a heap under his arms, and when he was about to touch the kite, he suddenly stepped on air and fell down.

His forehead hit a stone on the ground and his head was bloodied, but as if he was used to it, Ning Zhiyu trembled and tried to get up. When Ning Hong, the Prime Minister's son, saw that his brother had been injured, he knew that he had caused trouble and slipped away.

The moment Ning Zhiyu turned towards him, Yan Yuan's heart was suddenly struck…

He looked at Ning Zhiyu's bloodied face and thought of the man's bloodied face in his dream, and his heart ached so much he couldn't breathe. He didn’t know why he was feeling distressed, whether it was because of the man in his dream or because of the man in front of him, he couldn’t tell.

Ning Zhiyu's lips were pale and there was no one around him, so he staggered and was about to leave the garden when Yan Yuan stepped out of the shadows where he was hidden and stood in a daze in front of him, "Are you… hurt?"

Yan Yuan was dressed in civilian clothes, and Ning Zhiyu had never seen His Royal Highness before, so he only thought he was a noble son of some family. After being slightly stunned, he smiled and shook his head, "It doesn't hurt."

That smile was miserable and helpless.

In his dream, Yan Yuan could not see the man's face and could not hear him speak, but through the shape of his mouth, he could vaguely guess that the man had also said to him that it did not hurt.

It was obvious that he was hurt badly, yet he comforted him by saying that it didn't hurt.

"How can it not hurt?…" Yan Yuan trailed off with a strained throat.

"When you get used to it, it doesn't hurt anymore." Ning Zhiyu was still smiling, his eyes were beautiful, as clear and warm as his nature. Yan Yuan felt that the man in his dream should also have such a pair of gentle eyes, so he followed the impulse in his heart and spoke softly, "Come with me, I won't let you get hurt again in the future."

"I will protect you."