Three Steps: From Assassin to Empress - Chapter 55

Chapter 55: A Life of Waiting

The emperor looked down at Ying Xiu. His dark eyes flickered, passing over the golden chain in his hand and resting on the youth’s features.

They were clear and bright, calling to mind that single ray of light on the edge of a sword.

He bent down and held out his hand to Ying Xiu. Ying Xiu hesitated for a moment, then cautiously offered his uninjured hand, discreetly hiding his dislocated one behind his back.

The emperor didn’t say anything. He simply reached out and pulled Ying Xiu’s hidden hand from behind him.

The youth’s wrist was long and slender, as beautiful as carved jade, but the wristbone was dislocated and swollen. There were also faint rope marks on it, deeply imprinted into his pale, soft skin.

It was a bruised purple color, looking truly miserable.

Ying Xiu wanted to pull his hand back. His wrist was still in pain, and the pain became even more pronounced when it was held.

Snap.

A soft sound.

Before Ying Xiu could even react, his dislocated wristbone was pushed back into place.

The other man’s movements were too fast and too practiced. He didn’t even have time to feel the pain before the bone was reset.

Even so, the pain that followed still made Ying Xiu frown.

Outside the hall, a palace attendant walked in lightly, cautiously presenting a jar of ointment.

Ying Xiu was about to reach for it, but the emperor held his wrist to stop him. He turned and took the ointment himself.

The attendant knew to mind his own business and discreetly retreated, his head bowed. He was like a phantom whose face you couldn’t make out, and in the blink of an eye, he had vanished without a trace.

For a moment, only Ying Xiu and the emperor were left in the vast Hall of Supreme Harmony.

The youth tried to take the ointment from the emperor, but the latter raised his hand, not allowing him to touch it.

In front of him, he took a little bit of the ointment himself, melted it in his palm, and then took Ying Xiu’s wrist and gently massaged it.

The emperor’s fingertips were a little rough, covered with fine calluses. Even with the soft, healing ointment, his fingertips were still icy cold, with a biting chill.

He massaged the swollen wrist inch by inch. The cold slowly seeped into the warm flesh.

Ying Xiu was a little flustered by the coldness. He wanted to break free, but he couldn’t exert any strength. He could only let the emperor apply the medicine for him.

The ointment was indeed magical. As it melted into his skin, his wrist no longer hurt.

The young assassin swung his wrist curiously and then winced in pain. When he looked up again, the young emperor was looking down at him coldly.

Ying Xiu guiltily put his hand down. He suddenly realized that he had been seriously injured last night, but he hadn’t felt any pain when he woke up. Someone must have put medicine on him.

…Who?

The answer was obvious.

It was the emperor, the current monarch, Emperor Zhaosu, who was known for his cruelty and tyranny.

…And also his Xie Zhou.

Ying Xiu suddenly thought of something important and looked up to ask Xie Zhou, “What about the other assassins?”

Xie Zhou glanced at him lightly, his tone was very soft: “Killed.”

Upon hearing this, the young assassin sitting cross-legged on the dragon bed suddenly fell silent. His thick, dark hair covered his pale skin, revealing a rare and beautiful vulnerability.

“Do you think I shouldn’t have killed them?” Xie Zhou asked him in a low voice.

All the people involved in the assassination in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, except for Ying Xiu, were executed by dismemberment. They were torn limb from limb, bloody and unrecognizable, and hung in the marketplace early that morning as a warning to others.

As for the mastermind behind the assassination, the Wang clan of Langya, which was hidden behind the scenes…

Xie Zhou’s eyes shifted slightly, revealing a flash of cold, murderous intent that was deliberately reined in but quickly disappeared.

Assassinating an emperor was a major crime that resulted in the extermination of nine generations of one’s family. How could Ying Xiu not know this?

The fact that he was still alive was entirely because…

Ying Xiu felt a little confused. He asked Xie Zhou directly, “Why didn’t you kill me?”

It wasn’t a question filled with hatred or a challenge born from confidence. It was simple confusion. The youth didn’t understand why the emperor didn’t kill him.

Xie Zhou smiled. That beautiful face. The brief, fleeting smile made Ying Xiu’s eyes blur.

Even after the smile disappeared, he still hadn’t fully recovered.

The next moment, the young, cruel emperor reached out his fingertips and gently pushed aside Ying Xiu’s messy hair, revealing those clear, bright eyes.

The emperor leaned in and whispered in the assassin’s ear, “Because I am your Xie Zhou.”

How could Xie Zhou kill Ying Xiu?

A cold, thin breath brushed past Ying Xiu’s ear, carrying the terrifying aura of a superior. It came rushing toward him with almost no restraint.

His intuition for danger made Ying Xiu instinctively tremble. His body reflexively spasmed. The movement was slight, like a crane with wet feathers shivering.

He didn’t notice the strangeness of his body or even that he was trembling. Instead, he let out a sigh of relief and gave a smile, complaining earnestly:

“No matter what, you still lied to me. If you don’t apologize, I won’t forgive you.”

Xie Zhou keenly caught the key point. “If I apologize, will you forgive me?”

—No matter what I do to you, if I just apologize, you will forgive me, is that right?

“Of course not!” Ying Xiu was so angry at his logic that his cheeks flushed slightly. He instinctively bossed him around, “Bring my bird in. I need to send a message that I’m safe.”

His bird, that round owl, was named “Bird” because it was very round.

When he lived in the guest house, Bird was kept in the corridor of the quiet room, and Xie Zhou would often take care of it for him. After a long time, Ying Xiu got used to ordering Xie Zhou around.

Xie Zhou seemed to think for a moment. “I don’t know where Bird is. I’ll have someone look for it for you.”

He answered flawlessly, but Ying Xiu was still suspicious. “Is that so?” He wrapped the quilt around himself, climbed out of bed, and stepped barefoot onto the carpet. “I’ll go find it myself.”

After taking a few steps barefoot, the long quilt dragged on the floor of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Ying Xiu tried to hold all of it but gave up after a few attempts.

He looked back at Xie Zhou, who was still standing in the same spot. “Where are my clothes?”

How can I go out without clothes?

At the very least, you have to find me a set of undergarments, right?

Xie Zhou had the face of a Bodhisattva, but his tone was indifferent and calm. “They are broken.”

“Broken?” Ying Xiu repeated. He thought for a moment and seriously asked, “Are there no clothes in this palace?”

It’s such a big palace, surely they have at least one spare set of clothes, right?

Xie Zhou still had the same calm, unchanging tone. “Yes.”

Ying Xiu paused. If there are clothes, why won’t he give them to me?

In his opinion, Xie Zhou wasn’t so poor that he didn’t even have a spare set of clothes. At the very least, he could give him a set of clothes from a palace servant.

“Just find me a random set of clothes,” Ying Xiu decided to try a gentler approach first.

“Beg me.”

Xie Zhou said calmly.

Even when saying something so humiliating, his beautiful and cold features remained unchanged. His expression was serious and proper. His beautiful eyelids were lowered as he looked at Ying Xiu, almost with a sense of pity for the world.

The young assassin, wrapped in the dragon-patterned brocade quilt like a golden steamed bun, hesitated for a moment. Fine, if I have to beg, I’ll beg. What am I afraid of?

He took a deep breath and moved back fiercely while still clutching the quilt. On the way, he didn’t forget to squat down and pick up a corner of the quilt that had fallen on the ground.

The golden steamed bun shuffled in front of Xie Zhou and pounced into his arms. However, he hit the other person’s cold, hard chest, and Ying Xiu’s forehead hurt.

Ying Xiu: “（QnQ）”

Xie Zhou was silent for a moment. He reached out and embraced the steamed bun. Through the thin quilt, their bones were pressed tightly against each other.

After a quiet moment of holding him, Xie Zhou held Ying Xiu in his arms with one hand and held the hanging corner of the quilt with the other. He carefully placed him on the dragon bed.

He lowered the layers of bed curtains, making sure that the person inside the bed could not be seen.

The emperor then instructed the outside world, “Someone, bring the bird in.”

A court attendant cautiously held a birdcage and walked in. The bottom of the cage was sealed with a base, and there was a small mountain of bird food. The owl was lying on the small mountain, sleeping soundly.

When it saw Ying Xiu, the owl didn’t react much. It had clearly betrayed its master for food.

Ying Xiu opened the cage and let the bird out. The bird glanced at him and went back to lying down.

Ying Xiu: “…”

After one night apart, how did it become so pampered and decadent?

As if he could see into his mind, Xie Zhou said faintly, “You’ve been sleeping for three days and two nights.”

He thought the assassin was in good health, but now he realized he needed to be taken care of.

Ying Xiu got goosebumps from Xie Zhou’s loving gaze. After spending so much time together, even though Xie Zhou’s expression didn’t change at all and was as indifferent as ever, he could vaguely see his true emotions.

He ignored Xie Zhou. He held the bird in his hands, asked for a pen and paper, and wrote a message, planning to have the owl deliver it.

A moody voice suddenly came from above his head. “The eldest son?” Xie Zhou asked coldly, “You’re sending him a message that you’re safe?”

“Yes,” Ying Xiu admitted readily. “He’s my closest friend. I have to tell him that I’m still alive.”

The youth was so overly honest that it made Xie Zhou not know what to do.

He didn’t stop him. He quietly watched Ying Xiu send the message.

“Ying Xiu.”

Ying Xiu had just released the bird from the window of the Hall of Supreme Harmony when he turned around and saw Xie Zhou standing behind him. Their eyes met, and he felt a sudden panic for no reason.

From the moment he woke up until now, the things he had deliberately ignored came back to his mind—

For example, what was the fate of the Wang clan of Langya, the mastermind of the assassination?

Wang Shouzhen was not at all involved in this assassination. The person who ordered them to assassinate the emperor was the master of the Wang clan of Langya, the Minister of the Southern Dynasty.

When a noble family rises, everyone rises with it. When it falls, everyone falls with it.

The amber glazed tiles and the double eaves of the palace filtered the light through the window, making it bright and clear, reflecting Ying Xiu’s pale face.

Even if he wanted to see the tyrannical emperor as his retainer, Xie Zhou, and the emperor was willing to play along with his nonsense.

In the end, the cruel, indifferent, and high-and-mighty emperor would never be his Xie Zhou.

After a long time…

Xie Zhou walked toward him, not mentioning Ying Xiu’s past deceptions, nor how he would deal with the Wang clan of Langya. He simply said softly:

“You don’t have to think about anything. Just stay here.”

If he stayed in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, anything he wanted, he would have someone get for him.

He didn’t have to worry about anything else.

For the rest of his life, Ying Xiu would never have to worry or be sad about anything.

The only thing he had to do was to wait for his arrival in this hall and then accompany him.

He couldn’t promise to come every day, but you must wait every day.