The Emperor’s Runaway Lover

Chapter 25

“They are all dead,” Fu Yucheng repeated in a low voice.

He lowered his eyelashes, dark like a crow’s feather, and his expression seemed a little out of it.

Bai Mo felt his heart thump heavily.

It was a feeling akin to his heart being pierced at that very moment.

The boy couldn’t even begin to describe the hot and painful feeling that spread in his chest. He had an urge to hug the man tightly, hold him in his arms, and then tell him repeatedly that everything would be okay. And that he-

That he-

That he would protect him.

Those that had hurt him, those that made him miserable, Bai Mo would make them all pay.

After who knows how long, Fu Yucheng came back to his senses, only to realize that Bai Mo was still staring at him blankly, with a complicated, unreadable expression.

He grinned reluctantly. “What is it, did my story scare you? C’mon, don’t take it so seriously.”

The boy looked at him intensely, and shook his head slightly. “What happened after?”

Fu Yucheng shrugged. “There’s nothing left to say about what happened later on. After the surgery, I was exiled by the Rong family to Earth. Afterwards, I spent time picking up trash in the desert, squandering my days and waiting to die. I just did that for several years, and then I found you, brat.”

The faint atmosphere of fragility around him up to that point completely disappeared, and his entire being had switched back to his usual indifferent appearance.

However, Bai Mo continued to watch him for a while, feeling uneasy.

How had he survived those years?

“Yu-ge, I-” he wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what.

“Okay, storytime is over, I’m not taking any questions.” Fu Yucheng squinted and let out a long yawn. “Brat, you should go to sleep, or you won’t grow tall.”

“Yeah.” Bai Mo looked at him, but he didn’t move.

Perhaps it was because this confession had been cathartic for some of his long-suppressed emotions, but Fu Yucheng felt a lot lighter, and his overwhelming exhaustion surged back up. He felt his entire body being pulled by a deep lethargy, falling back into Morpheus’ arms.1

He rolled over and nestled himself into the blankets. “I have to sleep now, I still got work tomorrow. Little Mo, don’t stay up for too long.”

Bai Mo nodded, reached out with his hand to slightly dim the lamp, and whispered, “Go to sleep.”

Fu Yucheng muttered something unintelligible, and his breathing gradually evened out.

The boy leaned against the head of the bed, gazing down at the other’s quiet sleeping face.

He had always been aware that Fu Yucheng was extremely good-looking. At this moment, even while deeply asleep, the man still looked arrogantly handsome, the expression between his brows full of rebelliousness and pride.2

He didn’t look like someone who should be pitied.

But when Bai Mo looked at him, he could only feel a soft sourness in his heart, sorrow and sympathy.

The boy’s eyes drifted past the man’s smooth and ample forehead, the slanted corners of his eyes and the straight bridge of his nose, finally landing on his pale and thin lips.

The shape of Fu Yucheng’s lips was extremely beautiful, but they weren’t well cared for. The skin looked a little dry and was cracked in some places, looking a bit too pale.

Bai Mo looked at these lips, in a daze. After a long time, as if he were possessed by a demon, he slowly leaned down.

The touch was very soft but a little rough, like a dried rose petal in need of a little moisture. Fascinated, the boy savoured it for a moment, then stuck out the tip of his tongue as if in a trance and gently licked the dry lips.

The sleeping man seemed to feel something and rolled slightly to the side with a quiet hum.

Bai Mo suddenly sprang back up as if struck by lighting.

His plain and white face looked bloodless, and, this time, his usually cold and indifferent eyes were staring at the man almost in a panic.

Fu Yucheng didn’t wake up. Instead, he turned over unsuspectingly and went back to sleep.

Bai Mo stared at Fu Yucheng until his breathing gradually evened out, and the boy’s frantic heartbeat slowly subsided.

What did he just do? Was he crazy?

Weren’t they both male? How could he have an impulse like that?

His brain felt like a pile of sludge, and he couldn’t help but peek at the other man again. Fu Yucheng was still soundly asleep, oblivious to the world. His dry lips were now glistening with saliva, and they looked very bright and defenseless.

Bai Mo turned his head abruptly as if he’d received an electric shock, not daring to look any longer.

What was wrong with him?

His heart was beating like a wild horse whose rider lost the rein, and his blood was burning up, boiling in his veins and urging him to do something.

Do something.

Bai Mo was actually clueless about this sort of thing, but he instinctively knew that he couldn’t keep thinking about it anymore. Hurriedly, he stood up and escaped quietly, back to his upper bunk.

He stared at the pitch-black ceiling in silence, scenes flashing through his mind.

One moment, it was Fu Yucheng whispering in his ear, “Little Mo, remember how you asked me before if I knew the green ghost? The answer is actually very simple. I am him”. Another moment, it was the exquisite mint ice cream at dinner. The next, it was that hideous surgical scar. And then, it was that person’s fragile expression, as if he wasn’t quite there, as if he could shatter at any moment- and the soft and dry touch of those thin lips.

Bai Mo closed his eyes tight, thinking that he must have lost his mind.

The next few days went by very peacefully, and they were completely uneventful.

One day, when Bai Mo had just returned from the outside, he spotted Fu Yucheng hanging from the iron railing of the upper bunk with one hand, doing single arm pull-ups.

He was only wearing a pair of gray sports trousers and a tight black tank top, looking slender and lean. His hair was messy and sweaty because of the exercise, and his lips were flushed with pumping blood.

Bai Mo barely glanced at him, his throat went dry, and he quickly turned his head away.

He turned his back to Fu Yucheng and poured himself a glass of water, saying dully, “It’s quite cold all the way down here. Can’t you at least put a T-shirt on?”

Fu Yucheng spun mid air and landed, light on his feet.3

After exercising for a good time, he was very thirsty, so he took a sip of the water that Bai Mo had just poured, and then glanced at the boy. “How can you feel cold? I can see that your face is flushed.”

Bai Mo’s eyesight was very good. He watched Fu Yucheng’s beautiful lips pressed against the rim of the glass. The glass of water was Bai Mo’s. Then, a drop of transparent sweat slid down the man’s slender neck, gathered at the hollow of his throat and finally disappeared underneath his tank top.

Seeing Bai Mo staring at him, Fu Yucheng blinked, confused. “What’s wrong? Oh, right, this is your glass, sorry! I took it without thinking. I’ll wash it for you later.”

He had almost forgotten that the kid was a serious clean freak.

Bai Mo lowered his eyes and said in a muted tone, “It’s okay.”

His five senses have always been extremely sharp. At that moment, he was extremely aware of the other’s breath post exercise, enveloping him. He was standing way too close.

Without saying anything else, he turned around and picked up some dirty clothes and piled them onto a chair.

Fu Yucheng shrugged, thinking that the kid was obviously upset and didn’t want to talk.

Anyway, it was just a glass of water. This brat was too stingy and squeamish, he didn’t even behave like a boy, tsk tsk!

As he slandered the boy in his mind, he suddenly thought of something. “By the way, Little Mo, it has been months since we did the last compass test. Since we happen to be free today, let’s test it again.”

Bai Mo was tidying up the mess of clothes, and he had barely gathered his thoughts at that point. He nodded. “Alright.”

Fu Yucheng leaned down, pulled out a disc-shaped object from the chest of drawers, and then gestured at Bai Mo with his chin. “Little Mo, come sit on my bed.”

Bai Mo hesitated for a moment before sitting down.

The disc-shaped thing Fu Yucheng was holding was a crude psionic compass.

The so-called psionic compass, as the name suggested, was a tool for testing psionic power. There were many types of psionic compasses, from extremely expensive and precise ones to the cheap and crude compasses like the one in Fu Yucheng’s hand.

This compass was no bigger than a palm. The white dial had a horizontal and vertical axis, which cut the dial into four quadrants.

These four quadrants represented one of four psionic systems respectively: strength, heat, light and electrical.

If the testee had a certain psionic power, a bright red spot would appear in the corresponding quadrant. The readings of this bright spot on the horizontal and vertical axis would indicate the active range of the psionic field and the strength it could exert.

Bai Mo sat on the bed and offered his hand palm up.

Fu Yucheng gently placed the compass onto his hand. “Okay, concentrate.”

Bai Mo nodded, focusing as much as he possibly could. The two of them stared at the compass intently for a long time, but nothing appeared on it.

Over the course of the past few tests, the results had always been the same.

Fu Yucheng couldn’t stop himself from frowning. “Why is it still like this? This can’t be right. You have clearly awakened your psionic power already.”

Bai Mo looked down. “Back then, the laboratory wasn’t able to detect any psionic power in me either. Perhaps my power isn’t stable all the time.”

Fu Yucheng scratched his head. “You’re still young, so your psionic power being unstable wouldn’t be uncommon. However, there is another possibility.”

He paused. In the end, he didn’t explain any further.

Fu Yucheng himself had the same thing happen to him as a child. No matter how precise the psionic compass was, it wouldn’t react at all. He was once considered to have no psionic power whatsoever, as well.

The thing was, if the manipulator psionic power value exceeded the compass’ scale by far, the psionic compass, naturally, would not show anything.

There was one more possibility. If someone was a special system manipulator, which was extremely rare, they would often have abilities outside the ‘strength, heat, light, and electricity’ quadrants, so the psionic compass wouldn’t be able to detect anything.

Fu Yucheng had been both.

Seeing the other frowning slightly as he stared at the compass, Bai Mo felt a little embarrassed.

“Yu-ge, am I completely useless?”

Fu Yucheng was stunned. What was this brat thinking?

“Why are you saying that out of the blue?”

“You’ve gone through so much, but I still can’t help you with anything,” Bai Mo said softly.

“What’s going through your head?” Fu Yucheng couldn’t help but smile. “I’m a grown man, so of course I’m responsible for handling my own affairs! You are just a kid, why are you worrying about that?”

Bai Mo lowered his head with a blank expression.

He thought to himself. Maybe you don’t care, but I want those who have hurt you to pay their due price.

I want to be powerful.

“Alright, alright, don’t overthink it so much.” Fu Yucheng patted the boy’s hair to comfort him. “You will keep growing in the future, and maybe one day your psionic power will become stable. As for my affairs, you just have to wait two more years. When you are all grown up, it’ll be time for us to go our separate ways then.”

Bai Mo suddenly looked up, his voice strained. “What did you say?”

Author, must you truly add spoilers on the chapter title? T_T Anyway, showdown Bai Mo’s gay panic vs Fu Yucheng’s nonexistent emotional intelligence. Fight!

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