This time, Song Liang truly had not intended to flaunt their affection. He had pulled Xie Yun into his imperial carriage simply because he knew the man was genuinely wounded. It was not as serious as the urgent dispatch had claimed, but it was far from trivial. He had been stabbed in the lower right abdomen. The injury itself was not particularly severe, yet the rush to launch the surprise attack on Lai’an, the relentless travel, and the fighting had left it poorly treated. The moment he was helped into the carriage, Xie Yun’s strength gave out.
Song Liang supported his back and let him lean against him. Hearing the heavy breathing beside his ear, he asked whether Xie Yun could hold on.
Xie Yun answered with a light kiss behind his ear. Song Liang took him straight to Zhaoyang Palace.
The palace staff were no longer surprised, and those serving in Zhaoyang Palace were thoroughly accustomed to it. Zhou An and the others immediately helped him onto the imperial bed, where Qi Yunzhang, already waiting, began treating his wound.
She finished quickly. Song Liang told him to rest in his bed, but Xie Yun refused to release his hand, watching him without looking away. That gaze stirred something in Song Liang’s heart. He was considering simply climbing into bed and holding him as they slept when Xie Yun spoke.
“I brought you a gift. I don’t know whether you’ll like it.”
Song Liang wanted to say that he would like it even if Xie Yun brought him a dead man. To his surprise, that was precisely what he had brought—a “dead man.”
In a small room in the eastern side hall, Song Liang regarded the youth kneeling before him. He wore a face identical to Song Liang’s own and was sobbing so hard that tears and mucus streamed down his face as he begged for mercy.
Song Liang could not help marveling.
“No wonder my characterization adherence is only a C. He’s a brilliant actor.”
3085 was speechless. 【Has it occurred to you that his feelings might be genuine?】
Song Liang smiled without answering. Lifting the hem of his robe, he crouched until he was at eye level with the pleading youth.
“Are you that frightened?”
Frightened hardly described Chen Min. Since the moment Xie Yun had captured him, he had fainted several times from terror and barely slept throughout the journey. As the army approached Yanjing, he had even wet himself.
Then Song Liang entered. At the sight of that almost perfectly identical face, Chen Min sank into utter despair. With someone who looked exactly like him here, he could die without a sound and no one would ever know.
His lips trembled.
“People outside say you… like killing… like… eating people’s heads…”
Song Liang looked at him with something approaching pity.
“And you believed them?”
A spark of hope rose in Chen Min’s eyes.
“Then it’s… a lie?”
Song Liang smiled.
“It’s true.”
Chen Min’s face went deathly white. He looked ready to faint again.
Song Liang stopped teasing him.
“I’m joking. I only kill people. I don’t eat their heads.”
That offered Chen Min little comfort. Unable even to maintain a flattering smile, he stared at Song Liang in terror.
Studying that familiar yet unfamiliar face, Song Liang suddenly asked, “Does Your Majesty like sweets?”
Chen Min assumed he was devising some cruel new way to torment him. Weeping, he shook his head frantically.
“No! No!”
“Really? I don’t like liars.”
“I’m not lying! I’m not! Sweets ruined my teeth when I was younger, so I stopped liking them! I’m telling the truth!”
“…”
Song Liang could not bear seeing his own face wear such an unseemly expression. He ordered the man gagged and left the room.
Song Chuyang approached him.
“I hear Miss Qi has a liquid that dissolves corpses without leaving a trace.”
Song Liang smiled and patted his head, then went to Ci’an Palace.
The Empress Dowager was busy as always, embroidering something—a flower whose shape was difficult to distinguish. Seeing him, she looked up with a smile and invited him to sit, then returned to her needlework.
“What brings my imperial son to see his mother?”
Song Liang said, “Chen Min is in my hands.”
“…”
The needle pierced her fingertip. Blood instantly stained the embroidery, but the Empress Dowager seemed to have lost all sensation.
After a long silence, she spoke in a trembling voice.
“He is your own brother, born of the same mother.”
“An emperor has no brothers.”
“…”
The Empress Dowager slowly raised her head, her eyes already red.
“You can tolerate even someone like the Prince Regent, yet you cannot tolerate your own brother?”
Somewhat surprised by her grief, Song Liang raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t tell me you actually gave birth to him?”
“He may have been a child I brought home, but I raised him with my own hands. He is no different from my own son.”
“…”
The story was simple. With her husband away year after year, the Princess Consort of Kangjing had remained childless. To secure her position, she had brought home a baby boy and raised him as her own. Then, when that child turned thirteen, he had unexpectedly been chosen as emperor. Through that strange twist of fate, the Chen imperial bloodline had been disrupted.
“That day, when you returned from Hanshui City, I knew who you were the moment I saw you…”
The Empress Dowager choked back a sob.
“I raised him for thirteen years. How could I fail to recognize him?”
“Now your throne is secure. No one dares threaten you. Keeping him alive would do no harm. Why must you take his life?”
“…”
Song Liang did not argue. On the transparent electronic screen before him, the side quest “Find Your Family” had acquired the words “Completed.” He rose and left Ci’an Palace.
3085 sounded eager for gossip.
【Are you really going to kill your own brother?】
Song Liang replied casually, “I don’t even remember who my parents are. Where would I get a brother?”
【That isn’t how it works. You are Li Huai now, and Chen Min is your brother. If you kill him, your Tyranny Score will rise again.】
“Then I’ll do it secretly.”
Suddenly remembering something, Song Liang added, “First, have Xu Qingye tied up and sent beyond the frontier.”
3085 immediately recalled all the Debauchery points Xu Qingye had earned its host and burst into wild laughter.
To Song Liang, it sounded as though firecrackers were going off in his head, unbearably shrill. But he did not stop it. He knew the system had already sunk into despair.
The system interface lay spread before him. Main plot progress had reached 73%, while instance difficulty had climbed to 91%.
Song Liang was not surprised. From the day he had resolved to kill Helan Ze once and for all, he had expected the small world to do everything it could to restrain him, and the main system to keep applying pressure to stop him.
But once he decided to do something, retreat had never been an option.
It was already the third month, the warmth of spring settling in. Hibiscus blossoms carpeted the palace paths. Looking at them, he thought how bare the garden outside Xie Yun’s study was. He could have a few flowering trees transplanted there, so that when Xie Yun read or reviewed memorials, he would only need to turn his head to see them.
By the time Xie Yun woke in Zhaoyang Palace, evening had fallen. Only an imperial physician remained in the room. The person he wanted to see was absent. He was about to rise and look for him when he noticed a crimson hibiscus beside the bed, blazing like fire.
He put on his outer robe and carried the flower into the main hall. Sure enough, Song Liang was sitting with no regard for proper posture at his desk, frowning at two thick stacks of memorials.
Xie Yun approached slowly. The attendants discreetly withdrew.
At their departure, Song Liang’s lips curved without his even needing to look up.
“You’re awake?”
Xie Yun did not answer. He came to his side, lifted his face, and kissed the corner of his mouth. Song Liang’s eyes brightened with his smile, his face more exuberant than the hibiscus as he looked up.
“Missed me?”
“Yes.”
Xie Yun cupped his face, gently stroking it with his fingertips. He watched him without blinking, as though he could never look enough.
In the southwest, he had thought of this man countless times. Most of all, he had missed him when a blade plunged into his abdomen. In that moment, he had thought that if he died, he would never see him again.
So he could not die.
However much he missed him, he was still injured. They shared a little tenderness, then settled close together to discuss more serious matters.
Xie Yun asked how he intended to deal with Chen Min. Smiling, Song Liang instead asked when he had learned the truth. Xie Yun gave him an indifferent glance and remarked that his acting was hardly convincing. Qi Yunzhang had noticed something wrong the very first time she met him.
Song Liang laughed, then said he intended to keep Chen Min confined for now. He also asked Xie Yun to hand over the two people Qi Yunzhang had rescued.
Xie Yun agreed without hesitation and asked what he intended to do.
“Kill someone.”
Song Liang toyed with his broad hand and long fingers, speaking with apparent casualness.
“I want to kill that person openly and justly. And then—”
Xie Yun lifted his eyes. “And then?”
Song Liang kissed the corner of his mouth, a sly smile on his lips.
“Then we get married.”
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