Su Majestad

Capítulo 33

Tang Congrong shed tears.

He thought he would never see these things again this year. He thought Tang Qiefang had started a different life. He thought the years they spent together were now a thing of the past.

He turned around, and Tang Qiefang was right beside him, the tassels of her jeweled crown flowing beautifully in the night. His lips trembled slightly, "Qiefang, I..."

"Don't talk..." Tang Qiefang lit the fireworks next to him, "Set off fireworks."

The fireworks attracted guests and Tang Clan disciples, who watched and laughed from afar. Ten feet away, the Listening Water Pavilion was a separate world, where only the two of them were.

No one but them can reach it.

This thought made Tang Congrong smile slightly. It turned out that nothing had changed. Qiefang, I had misunderstood you. You're still the boy who would light lanterns and set off fireworks for me on my birthday.

It always has been.

I once thought I had lost it, but now I have regained it. This happiness makes my whole body feel hot, and my bones tremble slightly.

Tang Qiefang asked, "Shall we count the lanterns?"

"No need to count, I know, seven thousand three hundred."

Do you know how many fireworks there are?

"Seven thousand three hundred flowers."

"No." Tang Qiefang's voice was low, with an indescribable hoarseness, "Four thousand seven hundred and forty-five flowers."

"Oh?" Tang Congrong smiled. "What's the explanation—"

Before he could finish speaking, his body suddenly went limp. He thought it was a deep sleep he hadn't experienced in a long time, but it wasn't. He was fully conscious; he had simply lost control of his body.

Tang Qiefang caught him.

He moved his lips and blinked. What had happened? He couldn't make a sound; his limbs were weak and he had no strength at all.

Tang Qiefang picked him up.

Put him on the bed.

His eyes were the only movable part of his body; he looked at Tang Qiefang, hoping to get an answer.

Tang Qiefang looked at him; his eyes were so calm and still, as if nothing could disturb them. His voice was also quiet: "Don't worry, it's just a sleeping potion."

Tang Congrong's eyes widened. Was this the drug he had given her?

"We met in that courtyard thirteen years ago in winter. It has been 4,745 days since then, so we will set off 4,745 fireworks."

Tang Qiefang sat on the edge of the bed, his pearl crown and tassels gleaming alluringly under the lamplight. His red lips were like blood as he quietly said, "That day, you were frozen stiff, so cold. When I held you, it was like holding a block of ice. You were so small and thin then, like a cat. Why did I meet you that day? If I had run into any other room, my life would have been different."

Chapter Sixty-Two

But we met. We grew up together, practiced our sect's unique skills together, became prominent figures in the martial arts world together, and received the admiration and respect of others. In summer, we sat in the Listening to the Water Pavilion drinking chilled lotus seed soup, and in winter, we told jokes over a charcoal brazier. More than four thousand days passed like this.

I thought we could live like this forever, and I thought this intimacy and understanding would never change, but Congrong, I've changed.

"I'll tell you a secret," Tang Qiefang said softly, "I like you."

Tang Congrong's eyes widened in shock.

Then he chuckled softly, “If you could speak now, would you call me filthy? Just like you call other homosexuals. If you could move now, would you slap me? Oh no, you would shoot me with a shower of flower needles. You can’t move or speak now, isn’t that good?”

He gently raised his hand and stroked Tang Congrong's cheek. The skin beneath his hand was warm and smooth as jade, as soft as water. There was no silk as delicate as silk, nor jade as gentle as jade. He closed his eyes and laughed. He laughed so hard that he coughed and it took him a long time to calm down.

"Congrong, Congrong, do you know how I feel? When you considered me your best brother and best friend, I wanted to touch you like this, I wanted to hold you in my arms, I wanted to get closer to you. At first, I thought it was the poison gas from Tianxiang that damaged my mind—ha, Congrong, do you know why I crippled Yue Shenlan's martial arts? You should know, and Yue Tong should know too, but you all think Yue Shenlan deserved it, since he insulted me. But I used a deadly poison at the time. Later, I thought it would be difficult to explain to Yue Tong, so I made him take the antidote, but he couldn't regain his martial arts."

He chuckled softly, tilted his head back, closed his eyes briefly, and his red lips, illuminated by the lamplight, looked as if they were blood-red and alluring. He said as if sighing, "At that time, I already understood that those words were not slander to me, but the truth. That's why I was tempted to kill."

After he finished speaking, he suddenly flicked his sleeve and extinguished the candle.

"Don't look at me like that... I can't stand it." He slowly lay down next to Tang Congrong and gently pulled her into his arms. Tang Congrong, who had no ability to resist, looked so compliant. Tang Qiefang gently rested her chin on his head; his hair was so soft.

"The effects of this sleeping potion last for twelve hours. But since you have the mother snake's blood, it will only last for four hours at most. Calm down, go to sleep, have a good sleep, and when you wake up, just think of it as a dream."

Tang Qiefang's fingertips landed on Tang Congrong's sleeping acupoint, and Tang Congrong closed his eyes irresistibly.

Tang Qiefang smiled softly, her eyes cold in the night.

I've longed to hold him like this so many times, and now that he's in my arms, I feel a deep sense of desolation.

How cold it was; my lungs and heart were frozen solid, inch by inch.

In that case, once it's spoken, it's a mistake, irreversible, and beyond redemption.

Right in front of him, he literally plunged himself into the deepest abyss.

There was no turning back, so they simply cut off all escape routes.

He closed his eyes.

He could feel that the person next to him was breathing very lightly and evenly, and was asleep.

Tang Qiefang knew what he looked like when he was asleep: long eyelashes drooping, skin as smooth as jade. That night, she painstakingly pierced his left hand with a lotus flower, then stained it with the blood of the mother snake.

Chapter Sixty-Three

That night, I decided to refine the Heavenly Incense. Looking back, I was extremely calm at the time, clearly knowing that this decision would affect my entire life, and I didn't hesitate at all.

I'd do anything for him.