CH 47

The guards in front of King Guang’an mansion stood solemnly. There were chirping sounds from a few small sparrows stopped under the pair of stone lions, but when they heard the sound of people, they squeaked and flew into the distance.

Xue Zaixing got on the horse, pulled the reins and tried to turn the horse’s head, then thinking of something, he turned back again,

“In six days, it will be my son’s tenth birthday. There will be a family banquet in my mansion, I wonder if Your Highness would do me the honor to attend?”

Li Yuanmin smiled slightly: “Of course.” 

Xue Zaixing bowed his head slightly, his gaze wandered several times on his constant smiling face. The feeling in his heart increasingly expanded. He restrained himself and his Adam’s apple moved before he raised his hand to bid farewell and walk away.

When the figure disappeared at the end of the long street, the smile on Li Yuanmin’s face gradually turned cold. His eyes seemed like ice shards and he immediately spun backward hurriedly at a fast pace. 

The guards behind him also promptly followed behind.

Entering the back hall, he saw that Ni Lie was kneeling on the ground, his back straight, his expression cold, and his face expressionless.

The two guards stood there with long sticks at a loss behind him. When they saw Li Yuanmin come in, they were even more frightened. They raised their hands to salute.

“Your Highness…”

Li Yuanmin narrowed his eyes slightly. He first looked at Ni Lie, and seeing that there were no traces of injuries on his body, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then a bigger nameless fire came out due to the guard taking their own initiative and even more due to the sigh of relief just now.

Everyone could see that he will not really punish him.

He couldn’t help but get angry: “So no one listens to Ben Wang’s order now? Who acted without permission?”

The two people in front looked at each other in dismay and couldn’t help but lower their heads in shame. Zhou Dawu stuck his head out and looked around and finally couldn’t help but come out: “Your Highness, A Lie, he…”

Before he could say a few words to ease up the tension, Li Yuanmin shouted, “Whose idea was it?”

There was silence in the courtyard, everyone was anxious. No one had ever seen King Guang’an get this angry.

Suddenly, the two guards fell to their knees, headed by the earnest person: “Your Highness, Commander Ni’s loyalty pierces through the sun and the moon. He is the most cautious, he definitely is not a person who intends to offend others. There must be some misunderstanding in between. Your Highness, please reconsider!”

Li Yuanmin sneered, “So you guys learned to go against Ben Wang’s will now!” 

The guards hurriedly kowtowed: “Subordinates do not dare!” 

“Do not dare….but Ben Wang saw that each and everyone of you dared very much! Good! This mighty King Guang’an mansion unexpectedly doesn’t even listen to Ben Wang’s words now!”

Li Yuanmin was so angry, he clenched his fists tightly so that his bones turned white. The people in the courtyard did not dare to make a sound.

Zhou Dawu swallowed his saliva and carefully stepped forward: “Your Highness, Commander Ni will have to lead the troops to join the Jiangbei water army in the next few days. In order to not delay this matter, how about we postpone this punishment for a few days…..If you really want to punish him, why don’t we wait until he returns back from Jiangbei. Your Highness, what do you think?” 

Zhou Dawu had always been obedient to his orders without a second thought. But at this moment, he was careful to come up and beg for forgiveness for the person who was kneeling on the ground.

Li Yuanmin actually did not expect that Ni Lie would be so supported in the mansion, his heart was both gratified and pained.

Gratified that this child had prestige in the hearts of others, that this child had finally had so many people in this life to protect him wholeheartedly, while pained because if he does not remember this lesson, of what is right and what is wrong, it will inevitably ruin all his efforts in this life–their foundation was too shallow. In the face of power as high as the mountain, they are not allowed to live as they wish.

Remembering the tragic conditions of the two in his previous life, he almost shed tears, gritted his teeth and angrily said, “All of you get lost!”

The guards were about to say something, when Zhou Dawu hurriedly signal with his eyes. The two of them stammered while bowing their heads, before walking outside the gate and soon the gate was closed.

Li Yuanmin’s chest heaved, his eyes were a little red, but his face was ice cold, looking angrily at the person in front of him.

“Lie down!”

Ni Lie looked at him, his Adam’s apple moved and finally he laid down slowly.

Li Yuanmin swept left and right, picked up the rough wooden staff on the side, and hatefully said: “Since others won’t hit you, then Ben Wang will have to do it himself!” 

He ruthlessly hit his buttlock, Ni Lie was without a word and silently received this hit.

“Let’s see if you dare to do it next time!” Li Yuanmin trembled.

Ni Lie didn’t answer.

Li Yuanmin gritted his teeth, endured his heartache, and fiercely dropped another hit, but Ni Lie still didn’t answer.

A wave of powerlessness struck Li Yuanmin’s heart. He threw away the wooden staff, knelt on the ground, pulled him up before showering him with hits.

Ni Lie’s thin lips pursed, but he didn’t say a word. He let him vent his feelings as he pleased, while he only deeply looked at him.

Li Yuanmin wanted to ask him if he looked heartbroken, so he avoided his gaze. He hurriedly picked up the wooden staff on the ground, but at the moment a stuffy groan came out. His fingertips were pricked and split open a bit by the wooden staff causing red blood to spill out.

The man kneeling on the ground reacted faster than he did. He suddenly stepped forward, grabbed his injured hand, and found that not only was there a puncture, but the white and tender palm was also strapped red by the wooden staff.

Li Yuanmin struggled and went to get the stick again.

Ni Lie clutched his hand without letting him do it. His breath was hot, letting out a stuffy voice: “Stop hitting, let someone else do it instead.” 

Li Yuanmin couldn’t bear it any longer, his eyes immediately turned red. He punched him in the chest, and his voice changed into a grievance tone: “I insist on doing it myself!” 

He insisted on bending down to pick up the wooden stick, rigidly struggling, as if hysterical.

Ni Lie’s eyes were overwhelming. He took control of his hand, held that hand that was beating him unreasonably and no matter how he struggled, he directly took him into the hall.

He placed him on the long bed, and immediately went to the side to take a soft whip out. He took off his robe, exposing the red naked upper body, before kneeling in front of him, presenting the soft whip with both hands.

Li Yuanmin’s eyes were already full of tears. He looked at the leather whip dazedly. The delicate handle was wrapped in smooth leather skin, embedded with a smooth and rounded jade. It would not hurt the hand as badly as the coarse wooden staff, but although this keel whip looked unremarkable, its whip body was made of polar black iron and western blood silk. Not only was it tough and durable, but it could even break a hard boulder with one hit.

Li Yuanmin grabbed the handle of the whip, finally his tears fell. He asked tremblingly: “You’re sure that I won’t really hit you, right?”

He threw the soft whip at him fiercely. He didn’t care whether it would be unsightly. While crying, he threw the things that could be reached next to him randomly at Ni Lie: “You think you have the upper hand over me! Do you think you have the upper hand over me! Am I right?!” 

Ni Lie looked at him crying while distraught with anxiety. He didn’t dare to step forward to hug him, but only kneeled down in the same place letting him throw things at him.

In the chaos, Li Yuanmin grabbed the jade seal on the table and threw it over, slamming it into Ni Lie’s forehead. The sharp corners cut through his skin, then beads of blood seeped out. Li Yuanmin screamed. He threw himself down in shock, holding his face, his whole body was shaking.

Ni Lie hurriedly wiped the little blood from his forehead and put his arms around him to comfort him: “I’m fine.”

Li Yuanmin’s strength seemed to have disappeared. Big bead of tears rolled down, he hugged his neck and buried his face in it, crying until he was out of breath.

In the darkness, he remembered the tragedy and misery that he had endured during his childhood. He remembered that chastity belt that symbolized humiliation and abuse, remembered that the two of them did not see each other through the layers of beaded curtain in his previous life, remembered the suffocating pain from that thin silk around his neck….His heart trembled uncontrollably, a burst of chilliness emitting from him one after another.

He would never repeat that nightmare of his previous life.

He didn’t dare to make even a little mistake, lest everything he had come up with great difficulty be annihilated into dust.

The previous life was too bitter, he had finally tasted a little sweetness now. He would never allow anyone to destroy it.

But the person in front of him could not understand this panic of gain and loss in his heart, he was the one who bore everything, but he could not say it out at all. Once this kind of emotion was triggered, he could only wail out in this kind of weak and unnatural manner.

Ni Lie had never seen him like this, his heart had been in chao due to his crying. Not knowing if it’s a good thing, all the depressed feeling in his heart vanished like smoke in thin air. There was only restlessness and pain left inside his heart. 

He ate his tears recklessly, but his tears were so many, wetting his face, like water poured over. He was crying and trembling throughout his body. Ni Lie was impatiently at a loss of what to do. He did not know why he was crying so aggrievedly. He wanted to substitute his pain but there was nothing he could do. This kind of feeling made him almost go crazy.

He could only say in a hoarse voice: “Don’t cry!”

He leaned over to eat his tears again. He couldn’t endure it after a long time, so he held his face carefully and pressed it against his heart, as if this was the only way to relieve the burning sensation of his heart for a short period of time.

Facing that powerful and violent heartbeat, Li Yuanmin felt his uneasiness and restlessness and he was even more heartbroken.

Perhaps it was because he never experienced a trace of true happiness in his previous life that he instinctively believed in the deepest part of his heart that happiness did not belong to himself. In this life he forced himself not to think like this, he also tried his best to numb himself. Outside, he was King Guang’an who was at the top of the world, a well protected, beautiful and elegant Royal Highness. Yet in fact, at the bottom of his heart, he was just a frightened child, a wretch who was no different from his previous life.

Li Yuanmin tightly clutched the front of Ni Lie’s clothes, crying until he could not speak at all. The depression, trepidation, and self-loathing that had been suppressed for many years surged up madly.

He thought about what was the use of him hitting the child in front of him, but he was merely afraid that he would not be able to protect him at all. So he vented his anger at his own incompetence on him. He was unexpectedly this kind of despicable person.

In his previous life, he had used all his strength and power to send him out of the palace, but in the end it made him change into that kind of terrible appearance. In this life he changed his fate without permission, luring him into an emotional path that could not be returned. He was so afraid, afraid that all this would lead to a worse ending than in his previous life.

He wanted to become a little stronger, so that everything would not escape his control, so that he could let the person in front of him blatantly vent his dissatisfaction with outsiders.

But now he couldn’t, and instead, he vented his helplessness on him.

On this winter afternoon, no one came to this side.

They were happily profaning each other’s bodies, using the most straightforward and vulgar positions.

Li Yuanmin was already wet and full of sweat all over his body, a total mess. It was very cold in winter, but his black hair was soaked with sweat. The original snow white and extraordinary face was covered with flush. He tightly wrapped himself around the other party.

“Ngh….A Lie….A Lie….”

He was like a swimming fish out of water, his body bouncing in a difficult manner; but his soul was attached to the freedom of the take-off.

He cried again, tears flowing out uncontrollably. The tip of his nose had turned pitifully red, but he refused to let the youth stop his movement to comfort him.

“A Lie…..my A Lie…..”

He cried out breathlessly.

His heart hurt until it was numb. If at this time there was only one person in this world who could save him, it could only be the person in front of him.

His A Lie, his only A Lie.

Ciacia/N: Okay, now we know who’s ho*nier. 乁( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)ㄏ