Chapter 13 part14
Chapter 13 part14
Translated by Eve
Edited by Wuxian
In the end, Zhao Xihe got what he wished for. Only, so as to comfort his overly nervous and shy sweetheart, his actions were extremely cautious and restrained. The position they used was also the one they used the most frequently. Even when his lover hid under the covers and didn’t permit him to look at him, he did not object, complying to his requests.
Although he only had a taste, and was not fully satisfied, this enormous step forward still made the Emperor’s day especially joyous. Even when the Officials at morning court had accidentally tread on his bottom line, he only gave them a friendly smile and warned them before letting them off.
The Cabinet Ministers?"........................"
——The Emperor is really strange today! However, we hope that he will continue acting this strangely from now on...._(:?)?)_
Situ Gui, who had long since perceived the abnormality that was his Emperor Father’s good mood today, could vaguely guess the reason for it. He incessantly glanced at his brother who didn’t seem to be any different, heart uneasy. After morning court, he immediately dragged Sui Yuan to one side, tone especially nervous and worried, "Xu Tu, did Emperor Father do...that...to you?"
After having truly stepped over that threshold, Sui Yuan no longer vehemently denied things like he had in the past. However, when someone asked about this so frankly, it still made him feel rather embarrassed.
When Situ Gui saw Sui Yuan’s expression, he tacitly understood. He sighed and patted him on the shoulder, "Didn’t I tell you before not to let Emperor Father get what he wants so easily? Regarding my Emperor Father who has a harem of countless beauties but still remains cold-hearted and unfeeling...I’m worried that he will turn his back on you at some point in time...."
Sui Yuan: "...Hehe, you speak as if this matter has nothing to do with you. Just who was it again that brought me into the palace yesterday?"
——Even now, he can still remember that repulsive face Situ Gui had made when he had stuck him into Zhao Xihe’s embrace, as if he was holding onto a scorching hot sweet potato, ne!
Situ Gui?".............................."
——Since things were like this, even with a glib tongue, he was still left speechless.
Just as Situ Gui was explaining the methods used by the harem—that he saw while growing up—to his brother, His Majesty the Emperor’s attendant had already quietly made his way over and coughed once, awkwardly.
Situ Gui, who was caught in the act, flushed. He also knew that his words just now weren’t very appropriate and thus looked at the attendant at once, seeming to be trying to cover up his slip-up, "What does Emperor Father command?"
The attendant swept a glance at Sui Yuan, "His Majesty invites Young Master Xu to enter the Imperial study."
Situ Gui?"........................"
——I knew that it would be like this.
Sui Yuan waved goodbye to Situ Gui and followed the attendant towards the Imperial study. As soon as he entered, he discovered that His Majesty the Emperor was uncharacteristically standing before the Imperial desk, head lowered, looking at memorials. It was completely different from how he usually directly called him over to do this and that with him.
He didn’t know why, but the words of ’once a man has obtained what he wants, he will throw you away like worn out shoes’ that Situ Gui had brainwashed him with, immediately resurfaced in his mind. Sui Yuan was all ? to that hole in his brain. He then took the initiative to walk over and hug His Majesty the Emperor from behind, arms around his waist.
The Emperor’s actions halted, but he didn’t react. He just let Sui Yuan intimately rub against him however he wished. However, after Sui Yuan’s rubbing, he felt that the situation was not quite right and he subconsciously let go, taking a step back.
The Emperor who originally had his back towards Sui Yuan turned around. He looked down at him with a feeling of superiority, towering above him. It was still that same familiar face that it couldn’t be any more familiar, but the cold and robotic light exuding from his eyes made him look inhumane—made him look like a computer program manipulating a puppet.
Sui Yuan’s pupils contracted, and the hair all over his body stood up in an instant. He went ’thump thump thump’ as he retreated a few paces, directly sticking his body against the wall, and realized what had most probably happened. Sui Yuan opened his mouth but could not make a single sound. His brain was a mess and he completely did not know how to react.
#I had only stepped out to chat a bit with another person. Once I returned, I discovered that my lover has been replaced. What to do?!#
His Majesty the Emperor slightly tilted his head, sizing Sui Yuan up. He then threw the memorial in his hand down onto the desk, and then picked up a pastry that the palace attendants had specifically prepared for Sui Yuan, taking a bite.
It was obvious that this kind of sweet and soft pastry did not suit his tastes—or rather, it should be ’its’ tastes. The Emperor placed the rest of the pastry back down on the tray and lightly patted off the remaining crumbs on his fingers. Each and every one of his movements carried a sort of rigidness, but also carried a hint of child-like curiosity. Sui Yuan watched as the Emperor took a walk around the study, each step exactly the same length, touching everything that caught his interest. Only then was Sui Yuan able to slowly accept the truth before his eyes.
"...He...I mean, what about Zhao Xihe?" Sui Yuan licked his lips, voice hoarse as he spoke.
"I think that, according to the rules of etiquette, you should first greet me," The other’s voice was not at all indifferent. It carried an indescribable charm. Rather than say that his tone was reprimanding and full of dissatisfaction, he seemed more like he was stating a fact, "I recall that I had taught you that."
"Alright, ba...Hello. I never thought that I...would meet you here, my Creator," Sui Yuan blinked, readily amending his ways.
"Creator..." The other muttered it again, as if a little discontent, "I much prefer that you...call me Emperor Father...or...Father," after pausing, he nodded, as if having confirmed something, "Yes, Father. I would like for you to call me that."
Sui Yuan?"........................"
——Although he had always called the shell of this character Emperor Father, once you changed who was inside the shell, he completely could not spit it out, ah! QAQ
...Even if his Creator could be considered his father....
Fortunately, the other did not continue nagging about the matter of what to call him. Instead, he reached out towards Sui Yuan, "Come here."
Sui Yuan could not control himself. He blindly walked towards the other and was taken into the other’s embrace.
——This was kind of...Sui Yuan could not describe just how comfortable it felt. It made him feel at ease, as if returning to a mother’s embrace. An aura completely different from Zhao Xihe’s circled around him, easily making his mind blank out. He didn’t think about anything, only indulged in the feeling of sinking into this moment of tranquility.
Sui Yuan finally ascertained that his Creator and Zhao Xihe were completely different from one another. He respected the former like one would a father and would not develop any kind of romantic feelings towards him like he did with Zhao Xihe. Perhaps the feelings between himself and Zhao Xihe were sparked by his Creator, but the following development came from their own will.
"This kind of feeling is indeed not bad. No wonder he always likes to touch you," the Origin evaluated, fists clenching as soon as he let go of Sui Yuan. Meanwhile, Sui Yuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. However, he had no way to explain that the embrace between ’family’ was different than that between lovers.
Likely because he had been hugged, but Sui Yuan felt much more relaxed. Rather, the resonance of their feelings had evoked one of familiarity, suppressing his reverence of the other. Sui Yuan raised his head and anxiously looked at his Creator. He once again asked his question, words more eloquent this time around. He was impatient as he asked again, "What about Zhao Xihe? Where did he go? Why did he suddenly disappear? Is he OK?"
The Origin evidently did not like that Sui Yuan’s each and every word seemed to be about that part of it that had split from his main body. His brows knitted, rigidly: "He did not respect me and had misguided my child, causing my child to give up on all of the missions I assigned to him. Thus, I needed to teach him a lesson."
The Origin replied, not in the least concerned. He plucked off the jade crown atop of Sui Yuan’s head and then twirled strands of long, black hair around his finger, as if he particularly liked the feeling of exquisite smoothness against his finger.
Sui Yuan was fiddled around with like a toy by his Creator. Inside however, he was very concerned about his sweetheart. Although he did not know just how Zhao Xihe had inwardly cursed and provoked his Creator regarding Sui Yuan’s abandonment of his missions, he felt that he could still work hard to justify this point.
"Originally, I also did not want to abandon my missions. However, he said that there was no way to solve the issue of the halo on my body. Even if I work hard, my efforts would still produce the opposite effect," Sui Yuan’s gaze shone with anticipation as he stared fixedly at his omnipotent Creator, "Can you solve this problem? I definitely won’t disappoint you then!"
The Origin’s actions paused. He took out the hand entangled within Sui Yuan’s hair and coughed into his fist.
Sui Yuan?"........................"
——That’s a ’no’, right?
"...I actually have been trying my best all along. However, no matter how hard I try to rectify the plot, it ends up getting messier and messier...perhaps, it would be best for me to do nothing at all..." Sui Yuan’s eyes darkened. He lowered his head in dejection, looking like a child who had done something wrong.
The Origin looked at him quietly, feeling quite the headache. He had received the systems’ reports and had also understood everything through Zhao Xihe’s eyes. He could not criticize Sui Yuan. After all, it was because that part of him had looked for trouble at the very beginning. Afterwards, it was because of the main body’s influence. If one wanted to look for the main offender, then the Origin was the number one being that could not shed responsibility. It naturally had no position to criticize Sui Yuan.
Although the Origin did not feel guilty, however, as matters stood, he had no idea how he ought to handle these two BUGs that stirred up trouble in every world they entered.
The best way would be to quickly exterminate them. He could obliterate that piece of himself and reset Sui Yuan, thereby putting everything back on the right track. However, it was not a trifling matter to erase or create a part of himself. It would certainly affect the main body’s stability to some extent. Furthermore, he also did not actually want to do this.
The Origin was not averse to the idea of killing his own creations. However, these two creations were the first ones that allowed him to feel these novel things called ’emotions’.
Since that part of him had encountered Sui Yuan, the Origin had felt the spark of a rare-to-come-by interest. When he thought of having to return to his life void of joy and sorrow after these two people disappeared, the Origin felt rather reluctant.
He could get rid of Sui Yuan’s status as an experimental subject and give him ’freedom’. In any case, he still had data left and could use Sui Yuan as a blueprint to build a new experimental subject. However, the Origin also could not quite tolerate allowing these two to continue running amok and destroying one world after another, collapsing the plot and jeopardizing the stability of the worlds.
Of course, the reason for having shut that part of him in a little black room—aside from punishing him for corrupting his experimental subject and for abusing his special status to act unrestrained— was because each time Sui Yuan had resisted him, he would curse and slander the Origin in his mind, blaming him for everything that have happened.
What ’he is a pitiful creature that has always been trapped within the Original Space and has never even taken a step outside of it’?
What ’he is a crazy, perverted peeping Tom’?
What ’he’s a third wheel that is disturbing other people’s dating?’
The Origin’s memory was extremely powerful. He remembered every word, crystal clear. Even though he did not have much by the way of emotions, he couldn’t exercise patience when faced with this division of himself, if even for just a bit.
He needed that part of him to realize that he, the main body, controlled everything. So long as he wished for it, he could make Zhao Xihe pay the price for his thoughts and actions at any time and place.
As for what he should do about him and Sui Yuan after teaching Zhao Xihe a lesson...the Origin muttered to itself for a while before saying: "After this world has ended, I will send the two of you after the Destroyers."
——Although this was not a solution, at least for now, it was the most appropriate and advantageous choice.
"The Destroyers?" Sui Yuan stared blankly, subconsciously recalling the Destroyer named ’Mo Ziyou’ that had expressed goodwill towards him.
"Your innate warmth can help you easily gain the aid of the world’s protagonists. Meanwhile, that part of me...although he’s rather willful and rash, I have no choice but to admit that his strength is strong enough to ascertain your success. Worlds where a Destroyer exists do not need to take the plot into consideration. The only requirement is to erase the Destroyer. I believe that this suits the two of you well," the Origin’s voice was indifferent, but he was obviously relieved with his own decision.
Sui Yuan’s eyes glimmered. He had once again discovered a meaning for his existence.
"Find the Destroyers, kill them, and do your best to put the plot back on track...in any case, even if your destructive power increases, it cannot cause more damage than a Destroyer," the Origin looked at Sui Yuan, expression softening slightly, "Can you do it?"
"Of course! I can do it!" Sui Yuan quickly responded, tone especially uplifted.
"Then I will directly notify your system of the next world," After hesitating for a second, the Origin politely added, "Be careful."
Sui Yuan?"........................"
——He didn’t know why but the last two words made him feel extremely complicated.
The Origin could not stay in the individual worlds for long. His action this time was already a rare, willful move on his part. Before an hour had even passed, he had disappeared from the Emperor’s body. The empty shell fell backwards and was barely caught by Sui Yuan in haste.
Seeing that the chest of the body with tightly shut eyes still rose and fell, and showed signs of life, Sui Yuan was stunned.
There was no use in leaving an empty shell, ah! Where did Zhao Xihe go? When can he come back?!
Even if the Emperor was only a stage piece in the entire plot, however, ’a country could not go a day without a ruler’. Even if he’s a stage piece, he still needed to be able to run, hop, and intimidate the rest of the stage piece-like characters within the story, ah!
——My Creator, you can’t dig a hole for me like this! QAQ [Er Kang hand]
The author has something to say:
Zhao Xihe has been too arrogant for too long. Finally, someone has come to sort him out....
Eve: Agrees with the author. Yay Creator for knocking him off his high horse!
Wuxian: If only ZX had more self-control...the Creator would have no need to punish him like that. But he didn’t and so he thus deserve it. ?