The Emperor’s Runaway Lover

Under the dim light, Fu Yucheng was still sound asleep.

His breathing was deep and even, and his body was wrapped in a tacky, old, pink blanket, exposing his long and fragile neck.

Defenseless.

The boy’s eyesight was so good that he could even see the light blue blood vessels pulsating on the side of the man’s neck.

The sleeping man, in contrast to his appearance when he was awake, now seemed quiet and harmless, and wouldn’t say stupid things such as ‘each go our own way’.

Bai Mo stared at the other in silence, feeling his heart beating fiercely.

If… if this man wasn’t able to recover his psionic power… would Bai Mo be able to keep him in the palm of his hands?

And never let him leave, never let him go to anyone else.

And even with… with…

Just after thinking about it for a short while, the boy shivered involuntarily. His scalp was practically tingling with some unspeakable, secret desire.

He didn’t dare look at the man again and hurriedly lowered his gaze. Inadvertently, he saw that a corner of the blanket had slipped to the floor. There was an old brown blood stain on it.

That blood stain… had been left by Fu Yucheng after he got injured when fighting with a sandworm to save Bai Mo, back when they met for the first time. Bai Mo had washed it several times, but he still wasn’t able to wash it clean.

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Bai Mo stared at the bloodstain blankly, feeling all sorts of emotions swirling in his chest for a while, like the waves at high tide, splashing one after the other against his heart. Longing, guilt, gratitude, pain, resignation…

After a long time, he closed his eyes forcefully and took a deep breath.

I can’t… no.

The thought just now… it’s too despicable and vile.

It was almost like a poisonous poppy, luring him with the thing he desired the most, entangling him to pull him into a dark abyss.

The next day, Fu Yucheng started the off-road vehicle and the two continued on their route towards the depths of the ice plains. The vehicle had become much slower, because the tires had been wrapped in thorny metal tire chains for the snow.

When it was time for dinner, Fu Yucheng slowly stopped the car.

For a while, he just looked at the flat, icy expanse in front of him, and then he suddenly said, “Little Mo, clean up, wear something warmer… Let’s get out of the car for dinner.”

Bai Mo was stunned. “Why are we getting out of the car?”

Fu Yucheng turned his head and smiled mysteriously. “You will know when you get out of the car.”

The Eternal Night face was very cold. Although they hadn’t reached the center of the Devil’s Antarctic yet, the temperature had already dropped to nearly minus 20 degrees.1

Fu Yucheng put on a thick cashmere sweater and a down jacket, and finally layered a fleece waterproof jacket on top before getting out of the car.

Perhaps because of his metabolism, Bai Mo didn’t mind the cold, so he just wore a casual thin sports jacket.

Carrying an ice axe, Fu Yucheng walked up and down the ice, poking around.

Finally, he identified a place where the ice layer was slightly thinner and began to strike it with the axe. Not long after, a hole the size of a well had appeared on the ice.

Fu Yucheng took some compressed biscuits, crushed them and sprinkled the crumbs on the water.

Bai Mo blinked, and finally understood what Fu Yucheng wanted to do. “Yu-ge, do you want to… fish here?”

Fu Yucheng shrugged. “I have been to the Devil’s Antarctic to find stuff more than once… There are several types of mutant ocean fish around here, and they’re all delicious. Moreover, the ice layer here is not too thick. Once we advance a bit more, the ice layer will be several meters thick and I won’t be able to do this anymore.”

Fu Yucheng was obviously very experienced at fishing.

He was holding a crude harpoon, his eyes fixed on the dark water in the ice hole, holding his breath.

After a long time, he suddenly threw it down!

The water splashed all around!

The harpoon was firmly stuck in an ugly, fat black sea fish. The fish thrashed around, splashing water everywhere with its big tail.

Fu Yucheng looked at this ugly fat fish, ran his fingers through his hair in embarrassment, and glanced at Bai Mo. “Ah, this is a very common type of mutant fish, usually known as the black-backed ugly fish.2 It’s edible, it’s just that my cooking… isn’t too great.”

“Well, of course I know that.” Bai Mo understood what the other meant and couldn’t resist feeling a bit amused. He took the small emergency gas stove from the vehicle, as well as a few bottles of seasoning and set them next to the stove.

The boy squatted next to the ice hole and quickly washed and peeled the unfortunate, strange fish. Then, he skewered it on the harpoon, and grilled it on the fire of the gas stove.

He kept turning the harpoon around while adding various seasonings: sesame oil, chili, salt…

Fu Yucheng also sat down beside the stove. As he warmed his hands idly, he kept chanting, “…Is it done yet? It should be done already, right? Can I eat now?”

Bai Mo answered helplessly, “Don’t fuss, wait a minute.”

Stars flickered in the deep blue sky. Two people grilled fish in the middle of snow and ice while chatting. The moment had a special flavor to it.3

The fish was delicious, but it had a lot of spines.

Fu Yucheng was impatient. He almost choked on a fishbone several times. He cursed out loud, “What the hell, this fish hasn’t evolved right! The one I caught last time didn’t have so many spines…!”

Bai Mo helplessly said, “Yu-ge, this fish didn’t evolve for you to eat it. Besides, you’re eating too fast… I told you to eat the parts I removed the fishbones from, but you just couldn’t wait.”

As he spoke, he passed the small dish in his hand, which had a few slices of clean and fresh fish. “Here, this one has no bones.”

“Uh, well…” Fu Yucheng felt somewhat embarrassed about getting a kid to pick out fishbones for him, but in the end, he didn’t refuse it and he took the plate.

He tried a bite. The skin was roasted and the flesh of the sweetfish was tender and smooth, without even half a fishbone. He couldn’t help but praise him, “Hey, Little Mo, you’re so meticulous.”

Seeing him eat happily, the boy pursed his lips slightly and tentatively said, “If you like to eat grilled fish, I can remove the fishbones for you for the rest of my life, alright?”

Fu Yucheng smiled and said, “I just fear that you won’t be happy with that once you grow up.”

Bai Mo lowered his eyes and muttered, “What if I said that I’m happy with it?”

“Hey brat, you’re just a teenager, what a silly thing to say! For the rest of your life…” Fu Yucheng replied vaguely while eating the grilled fish.

Bai Mo paused, and then said patiently, “It’s not a silly thing to say. I’m willing to… no, I want to pick fishbones for you.”4

Fu Yucheng blinked and thought, This kid… isn’t he a bit too clingy?

Although an older brother is almost like a father, this kid has to be sixteen or seventeen years old now, and he will soon be an adult. How come that, lately, he seems a little bit…? However, once he grows up and gets a broader world view, maybe he’ll change his mind.

Fu Yucheng thought for a while, and then he found a good way to respond. “If you’re willing to, then of course, I’d love that.”

If everything goes well, after I’ve finished what I have to do… at that point, even if we each have our own lives, we can meet up often and eat grilled fish together, it wouldn’t be complicated.

The boy suddenly raised his head, his eyes shining. “Really?!”

Fu Yucheng shrugged. “What would not be real about it?”

Bai Mo carefully observed the other’s expression, as if gauging something. After a long time, he finally asked, “Then… you promise?”

Fu Yucheng felt a bit confused. Promise…? What was he supposed to promise? Promise to let this kid pick out the fishbones?

He still hadn’t figured out what it was when Bai Mo looked at him and, suddenly, he smiled.

Fu Yucheng was stunned by this smile. The boy usually looked sullen and rarely smiled. Now that he did smile, it felt as if the ice and snow were melting and spring flowers had begun to bloom.

The boy looked at the other, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from going up.

He seemed to feel a little silly, and he leaned forward, a bit embarrassed, and placed his forehead against the other’s shoulder. He said in a low voice, “You promised. Then you aren’t allowed to leave me, either. Don’t say anything like… each of us going our own way.”

So it turned out to be about that… Fu Yucheng couldn’t help but feel a bit amused. This kid never had any sense of security. He was still young now and feared that Fu Yucheng would abandon him. Once he grew up a bit more later on, he probably wouldn’t stay this way.

He touched the fluffy head leaning on his shoulder and comforted him softly. “Yeah.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Bai Mo said in a muffled voice. “Otherwise, I will get mad.”

Fu Yucheng casually asked, “When did I ever lie to you?”

The teenager snorted unhappily. “You love to lie. You lied to me the first time we met, saying that you would arrest me and sell me back to the laboratory.”

“Uh… I was just joking, why are you still holding a grudge?” Fu Yucheng scratched his nose, a bit embarrassed.

“I remember everything,” Bai Mo murmured, and then he started humming and kept leaning against the other’s shoulders for a long while.

Fu Yucheng felt like a giant stuffed animal.

He endured it for a while before finally pushing the boy aside. “That’s enough, how old are you? Last time you said you’re almost seventeen and practically an adult, and that you won’t let me treat you as a child. How can that be? You’re still so pampered.”

“…Oh.” Bai Mo sat up reluctantly.

He lowered his head, as if looking at the flames on the stove, but he couldn’t help but glance towards Fu Yucheng out of the corner of his eye.

The man had just promised that he would not leave him. Although the boy knew that the other man did not mean it that way, as long as they could stay together…

Maybe one day…

Bai Mo looked at the crackling flames, mulling it over. With his head full of beautiful fantasies about the future, even his eyebrows relaxed for once.

Fu Yucheng couldn’t figure out what the kid was thinking, so he didn’t interrupt him and instead went back to eating the grilled fish.

Once the two were full of grilled fish, they didn’t feel like going back to the car yet, so they lay down side by side on the ice, looking at the vast night sky high above.

Fu Yucheng looked at it for a while, then suddenly spoke up. “Little Mo, your birthday is on September 15th, right?”

Bai Mo said, “Mmhm. Why?”

Fu Yucheng lifted his hand and pointed to a certain spot in the night sky. “Here, that’s your constellation. Virgo. And now that I mention it, I guess it’s no surprise that you’re such a clean freak, you brat…”

Bai Mo looked in the direction he was pointing at. He only saw a large area filled with ​​twinkling stars, and he didn’t know exactly what Fu Yucheng was talking about.

Fu Yucheng patiently explained, “Alright, it’s really not easy to find. Look there, do you see the three bright stars forming an equilateral triangle? The one on the top is called Spica. It’s a first-class star and the alpha star in the Virgo constellation.”

Bai Mo finally spotted the alpha star. It was very bright.

He stared at it for a while, and then asked suddenly, “Yu-ge, what’s your zodiac sign? You have never mentioned your birthday… I asked you before, and you dodged the question.”

Fu Yucheng froze, and then he laughed. “Ah, I don’t care too much about these things. If you need to know, I was born on November 9th, I’m a Scorpio.”

Bai Mo looked at the vast starry sky. “Then… where is your constellation?”

Fu Yucheng pointed in the southeast direction. “Above the horizon over there, do you see that lone orange star? That’s Antares, the alpha star in Scorpio.”

Bai Mo stared blankly for a long time before saying abruptly, “These two constellations are so far apart.”

He thought for a while, then added, “However, we’re very close.”

As he spoke, the teenager turned his head slightly and looked at the man next to him.

Fu Yucheng also just happened to turn his head, and the two of them looked at each other.

Bai Mo blankly stared at those black eyes, faintly tinged with dark green. He felt as if those eyes were a vast sky full of stars, and he was falling into them, endlessly.

At that moment, there was a bright blue starry sky above, and a vast white ice plain below. Between heaven and earth, it seemed as if there were only two people left in the world.

At that moment, time almost froze.

“Little Mo, you…” Fu Yucheng blinked, feeling that something was off, but before he had enough time to think about it, a steady chipping sound could be heard in the distance.

Momentarily taken aback, Fu Yucheng stood up abruptly. “Ah, the ice is cracking, run!”

Before Bai Mo could react, Fu Yucheng took hold of his arm and pulled him into the off-road vehicle.

The vehicle sped across the boundless ice field, the ice constantly cracking open behind them like a spiderweb.

After an unknown amount of time, the cracking sounds at their back gradually disappeared.

Fu Yucheng breathed out a sigh of relief and slowly stopped the off-road vehicle.

He looked around and found that the vehicle had arrived to a foggy area. They were fully surrounded by white, and the visibility was extremely poor.

Fu Yucheng cursed out loud. “What damned place did we end up at?”

Bai Mo stared out the window and suddenly said, “Yu-ge, look over there.”

Fu Yucheng followed his gaze and saw that, far ahead, there were many tall ships clad in shadow appearing in the fog, a veritable forest of masts and sails.

“Could it be a settlement?” Fu Yucheng instantly felt more energetic. “I’ve heard in the past that the residents of the nuclear civilization used large abandoned ships as communal living spaces, and the energy source they used for living was a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier…”

Bai Mo looked at the ship’s shadowy silhouettes. “Let’s go over and take a look.”

 

 

Fu Yucheng cheerfully seals his fate.

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Footnotes

Celsius, because we’re civilized here. That’s minus -4 Fahrenheit.黑背丑鱼, the 丑 literally means ugly, hideous, disgraceful. Yes, not a very scientific name.别有一番风味 might be a bit of a play on words between the scent of the cooking and the uniqueness of the situation.The first “willing to”, 我愿意 is a bit more intense than the want, in fact in some texts/songs 我愿意 it’s directly translated as “I do”.