Chapter 0230: Waking to an Empty World, A Truly Bizarre Dream

After a moment’s hesitation, Xie Chengze finally reached out.

His fingertips carefully undid the loose knot. He lifted his head to glance nervously at Xie Shoujun, confirming he hadn’t woken him, then squirmed like a little mud eel into the quilt, inching forward bit by bit until he reached the center.

Seeing Xie Shoujun still showed no reaction, Xie Chengze cautiously lay still for a while, afraid that continued movement might startle the man in his dreams.

However, the quilt had been warmed by Xie Shoujun’s robust body, and soon Xie Chengze grew so hot that moisture beaded on the tip of his nose. In the dark, confined space, all his senses were amplified. Even the tickle of his hair brushing against his neck felt magnified several times, making him instinctively scratch.

This should be enough.

Xie Chengze couldn’t hold out any longer. He carefully and swiftly worked to partially loosen the undergarment in his hand.

Guided by memory, Xie Chengze reached toward that area and soon felt a patch of sunken skin about the size of a small fist. Compared to normal skin, it felt extremely soft, as if a needle could easily pierce it—a truly peculiar texture. Based on his limited medical knowledge, Xie Chengze guessed it was likely a healed scar from some kind of penetrating wound.

The scar was much lighter than the surrounding skin, almost a bright white, making it easy to leave a lasting impression. As Xie Chengze caressed the soft skin, his other hand unconsciously slipped inside the inner garment.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the reason Xie Shoujun had asked him to wait earlier behind the screen and deliberately draped a towel over himself was to conceal these unsightly, even ugly, marks.

When his fingertips brushed against the man’s abdomen, Xie Chengze felt rough and smooth skin interwoven beneath his palm, dense and intricate, like achievements carved into stone with a chisel. With each new patch he touched, his turbulent emotions grew increasingly difficult to calm.

In the darkness where nothing was visible, he could hardly imagine how many such wounds covered Xie Shoujun’s body.

Sent to the battlefield at just fourteen, still a youth, for ten long years he had been separated from family and home, his eyes witnessing nothing but bloodshed and slaughter. And who in the palace could see how many life-and-death trials he had endured?

If that child could see this, they would surely cry from heartache, wouldn’t they?

A teardrop silently fell from his chin into the air. Xie Chengze snapped back to reality, realizing his face was unexpectedly wet.

His nose stung unbearably. Xie Chengze wiped his face hastily, withdrew his hand, and was about to redress Xie Shoujun when he suddenly felt his arm bump against something.

Xie Chengze’s shifting body came to a subtle halt.

Ahem, ahem… Despite all the injuries, it seems Big Brother’s health is still quite robust!

Xie Chengze quietly retied the waistband and squirmed back to his pillow. Glancing at Xie Shoujun, whose breathing remained steady and undisturbed, he finally relaxed slightly, closed his eyes, and began to drift off.

From now on, he must treat Xie Shoujun even better.

The young man soon fell asleep. As his breathing gradually evened out, the man lying beside him, who had appeared to be sleeping soundly, suddenly opened his eyes.

Releasing a slow, pent-up breath of frustration, Xie Shoujun turned to look at the young man with red-rimmed eyes, his gaze deepening in the night’s shadows.

He wasn’t asleep.

When Xie Chengze asked if he was sleeping, he was actually awake. He simply thought that whenever the young man engaged in late-night conversations, he would inevitably stay up without restraint, so he wanted to bring it to an end and let the young man sleep early.

Later, seeing him tossing and turning under the covers, he grew curious about what he was trying to do, but he never expected the young man to become increasingly unrestrained, his small hands growing bolder and more intrusive.

Naturally, he didn’t want the young man to see any of this. From childhood, Xie Chengze had always been so perfect in his heart, as if he shouldn’t even exist in the mortal world. He deserved to enjoy the finest things in life, and his gaze should only fall upon beauty and happiness—not pain, torment, scars, or anything symbolizing ugliness and misery.

That was why he had deliberately used a towel to cover everything.

But the young man was too perceptive.

Perceptive, yet oblivious.

So oblivious that he failed to notice the increasingly erratic breathing above him after his slow, deliberate touches, or the subtle, uncontrollable trembling of the slightly heaving abdomen, which had long grown scorching hot.

At this moment, what was far uglier than those old scars were the filthy thoughts that should never have arisen in his mind.

Raising his hand, Xie Shoujun pressed a sleep point on Xie Chengze’s body. He then got up, threw off the covers, and sat upright. The cool air in the room rushed over him, but it did little to ease the restlessness in his heart. He stepped down from the bed and walked toward the door.

The chilly wind outside finally calmed him completely. Just as he was about to re-enter the room, a figure suddenly descended upside-down from the eaves. The other person’s Peach Blossom Eyes gazed at him indifferently, and after a moment, a hint of playful amusement flickered in them.

“Well, well, Your Highness the Crown Prince, can’t sleep so late? Out here catching the cold breeze?”

Wuji’s gaze drifted almost imperceptibly toward his legs. Xie Shoujun couldn’t help but pinch the furrow between his brows. “Can you two never break the habit of spying?”

Since they were young, these two had loved hiding in dark corners, silently observing his second brother.

“It’s your mind that’s filthy,” Wuji replied lazily, crossing his arms.

The words seemed to carry a double meaning. Xie Shoujun choked back a retort and, unwilling to engage further, turned and went back inside.

Wuji shrugged, bored. With a slight push from his toes, he retracted his upside-down posture.

His footsteps silent on the tiles, he strolled along the roof. The faint, teasing smile that had lingered on his lips gradually faded as the moon sank lower in the sky.

The night grew longer.

…

Xie Chengze had been sleeping soundly, but at some point, his rest grew unsettled.

It felt as if something were pressing down on him, suffocating and uncomfortable. A sensation crept over his body, coiling around him like a python, constricting him until it was hard to breathe. After struggling for what felt like an eternity, Xie Chengze finally opened his eyes and met a pair of deep, sorrowful eyes.

Xie Jinyu was lying on top of him, staring at him with a grief-stricken and resentful expression, as if he could devour him whole.

“Second Brother, you went back on your word!”

His voice sounded like a mournful tune played on a flute—hoarse and piercing. “You’re not mine alone! But I am yours alone! It’s not fair, it’s just not fair!”

Before Xie Chengze could react, a strong arm reached over from beside him, wrapping tightly around his chest as if to crush him into its very bones. Turning his head, he saw Xie Shoujun’s handsome, imposing face, wearing an unnervingly provocative expression. “Third Brother, jealousy is not a good habit.”

“You promised me! Swore you’d have only me! Why is eldest brother in your bed? Why didn’t you tell me? What did you two do last night!”

“Of course he invited me himself. What, third brother, are you so naive as to believe in such nonsense as a man remaining faithful to one person?”

“I don’t agree!”

“Your agreement isn’t required. You’re merely the Crown Prince, and in all matters under heaven, only the Emperor’s word counts.”

“Shut up! Xie Chengze! The line of people supporting me stretches from here to the great plains! I’m offering you the entire realm in exchange, and you treat me like air? You actually went after some scrawny, ugly creature with barely any decent flesh on their bones!”

Xie Chengze: ???

Xie Chengze jolted awake abruptly, his gaze blank and fixed on the bed canopy.

There was no one beside him.

The silence was as awkward and mortifying as when you let out a loud fart and the entire class falls dead quiet.