The Emperor’s Runaway Lover

While Fu Yucheng was still considering it, Bai Mo had already grabbed the invitation letter and apparently wanted to tear it up directly.

Fortunately, Fu Yucheng was quick and snatched the invitation back. “What are you doing?”

“I never attend these banquets or balls or anything of that sort. So keeping this invitation is useless.” Bai Mo was a little puzzled.

Fu Yucheng stared at the invitation in his hand and narrowed his eyes slightly. “No, this time you will go… and take me with you.”

Bai Mo blinked.

For some reason, he felt very resistant to the idea and he didn’t want to take the man to such a… to such a messy event.

He simply didn’t want to.

Bai Mo fell silent for a long time, but then he finally nodded. “Okay.”

He paused, then muttered softly, “Let’s go eat.”

…

Bai Mo lived in a high-end residential area in the Ninth Ecoregion, not far from the White Rose Palace, and there were many large-scale malls nearby, similar to an urban complex1 from the past.

However, the modern urban complexes were different from the past ones.

From a distance, it could be seen that the huge urban complex had hundreds of floors, each of which was suspended independently, and there were large floating gardens in full bloom between the suspended floors.

There were fully transparent panoramic elevators that linked the sky pavilions like a thick, see-through fishing line connecting the hundreds of commercial floors and the sky gardens.

The two of them got out of a floating car and Fu Yucheng looked up, sighing inwardly.

The Earth, the Industrial regions, the Ecoregions… they were simply different worlds.

Originally, Fu Yucheng had wanted to wear a mask, but then he thought better of it. After so many years, no one in the Ecoregion would recognize him except for the man in the White Rose Palace. It seemed stranger to wear a mask, so he just gave up on the idea.

Bai Mo took Fu Yucheng to the transparent elevator.

The elevator rose higher and higher, and the view of the Ecoregion became unobstructed.

Under the transparent, turquoise artificial sky, there were endless green lawns and gardens, dotted with small and large lakes and exquisite buildings… Farther away, some large towering white buildings were vaguely visible.

The White Rose Palace.

Fu Yucheng stared at it quietly, with a complicated look in his eyes. The world-famous space palace deserved to be called gorgeous and magnificent, and it had an extraordinary atmosphere.

It was a pity that few people knew of the sordid filth beneath its gorgeous exterior.

Seeing him looking into the distance, Bai Mo muttered, “What’s the matter?”

Fu Yucheng stared at the white buildings, a mocking smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. “Nothing.”

Bai Mo still wanted to ask more, but the elevator slowly stopped with a soft chime.

“Help, help!” A young man screamed as he barged into the elevator.

The poor man, apparently scared, rushed in chaotically like a headless fly to hide behind Bai Mo and Fu Yucheng.

Bai Mo couldn’t help but frown, blocking him from Fu Yucheng.

“It’s okay.” Fu Yucheng pushed him away, and looked at the visitor carefully.

The young man was only in his twenties and he looked delicate and beautiful, but his expression was clearly frightened, and his eyes were full of despair. “Save me…!”

“Tap– tap–” Softly, something dropped onto the elevator’s smooth floor.

Fu Yucheng looked down and couldn’t help but freeze.

He saw that the first joints of the young man’s three fingers一thumb, index and middle finger一 were gone from his right hand. The dark red stumps left behind were extremely flat, and it was obvious that he hadn’t been injured by an ordinary blade.

The thick, warm blood followed the severed fingers, dripping onto the ground.

“What, still want to run?” A clear, crisp voice came from outside the elevator.

Hearing this voice, the young man trembled even harder. He dared not go near Bai Mo, so he desperately shrank behind Fu Yucheng, tightly pulling at his clothes. “Save me…!”

“Who are you asking to save you?” A bright looking boy walked into the elevator and his expression quickly turned to one of surprise.2

Fu Yucheng raised his eyebrows. The boy turned out to be the knight, Liang.

The boy was surprised. “Mo, why are you here?”

He paused, and then spotted Fu Yucheng. “Did you bring this man to the Ecoregion?”

Bai Mo didn’t bother to answer him. He saw the young man grab onto Fu Yucheng and couldn’t help but feel displeased. “What’s going on? Who’s this?”

Liang pouted with disdain. “This is someone I brought back from the Industrial regions… But I’ve been a little too nice to him and now he wants to go to heaven. I’m not in a good mood today, but he still insisted on pampering me and feeding me grapes, so I’m just teaching him a small lesson.”

After giving it a little thought, Fu Yucheng understood.

This young man had most likely used those three fingers to hold a grape, insisting on feeding it to the knight, Liang.

The young knight seemed cute and lovely, but he was actually very cold. He got impatient, so he directly used his space breaking skill to cut off the young man’s fingers. That was the reason they had been sliced off so cleanly.

For centuries, the nobles in the Ecoregions, especially those that were top manipulators as well, didn’t care about the lives of ordinary people.

Fu Yucheng lowered his eyes lightly, concealing the disgust in his eyes.

Liang grew impatient, and he stretched out a hand to pull at the young man. The young man screamed, shrinking in order to try to hide his entire body behind Fu Yucheng.

The boy’s delicate eyebrows twitched slightly and he came close to laughing from how angry he was. He then drew a short whip from his waist.

Seeing his expression, Fu Yucheng knew that the boy was already moving to kill.

Although the knight was young and fierce, he was just a kid that had yet to grow teeth in Fu Yucheng’s eyes. He turned slightly and shielded the young man at his back.

The boy’s whip struck fiercely like a flying dragon!

In a blink of an eye, the short whip was right in front of Fu Yucheng’s face.

Fu Yucheng didn’t dodge nor hide, he didn’t even blink.

He could have killed the young knight Liang in a second and not even leave his bones behind.

However, then he’d be exposing his psionic power to Bai Mo… and Fu Yucheng couldn’t help but hesitate.

Should he hide? Or should he…

The whip suddenly stood still.

At that moment, the snake-like whip had turned into a sculpture and remained quietly frozen mid-air.

Its tip was only a few millimeters away from Fu Yucheng’s eyes.

The teen clenched his teeth while Bai Mo stared at him coldly.

For a short time, dark blue sparks crackled above the short whip, and a white frost quickly spread. Within a moment, the whip was frozen solid.

Bai Mo slowly raised his hand, gently grabbed the whip, and squeezed lightly.

With a crisp, cracking sound, the frozen whip shattered and instantly fell to the ground.

The teen stayed still for a long moment before he was able to react, and then he screamed, “My whip!”

He couldn’t be bothered with the young man any longer and hurriedly knelt down, but when he got closer he saw that the whip had been broken into powder, and no matter what he did he’d never be able to put it back together.

Fu Yucheng turned his head slightly and winked at the young man. The young man gave him a grateful look and left the elevator while shaking.

Fu Yucheng sighed inwardly as he looked at his slouching back.

At that time, a lazy woman’s voice could be heard outside the elevator. “Little Liang, what’s taking so long? Haven’t you caught him yet? Reid and I have been waiting for you for ages.”

“Xie Ling, I think he’s probably playing cat and mouse and taking his time with him. However, since this elevator is a public area, please take it easy and don’t get blood on the floor, it wouldn’t be good…” said a gentle male voice.

Then, an enchanting brunette and a tall youth with gray hair walked into the elevator.

The two of them saw the situation before them and couldn’t help but freeze up a bit. “Bai Mo?”

The brunette looked around and realized Bai Mo and Liang had clashed, so she smiled and said, “Little Liang, you’ve been yelling and screaming all day long, and now you’ve finally met someone you can’t afford to mess with, haven’t you? Bai Mo, it’s rare for you to come back here, let’s go have a meal together.”

Fu Yucheng did not move and calmly sized the two of them up.

According to the information he had previously collected, the enchanting dark-haired woman should be an A-class Dark Knight, Xie Ling, a light manipulator. Meanwhile, the tall young man with gray hair should be another A-class Dark Knight, Reid, an electricity manipulator.

Liang stood up and stared at Bai Mo, his expression bitter. “You, you let my man go and broke my whip…!”

Xie Ling flipped her long hair lazily. “Little Liang, stop making trouble. Why bother everyone just for a pariah from an Industrial Region? Come on, let’s go eat together, I’ll pay.”

Liang pouted in annoyance. “Sister Ling, why do you bully me…?”

Xie Ling smiled and said, “Nobody would bully you unless they wanted to die. Let’s go and eat. Bai Mo, come with us too, don’t be so cold all the time.”

“No need.” Bai Mo frowned slightly, pulling Fu Yucheng along with him to leave. He just wanted to have a quiet meal with Fu Yucheng.

But Fu Yucheng wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity to listen to the Dark Knights chatting, and maybe get some useful information. At that moment, the soles of his feet were practically stuck to the floor, and he couldn’t be pulled away.

Bai Mo glared at him, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

Xie Ling gestured and a waiter greeted them graciously, leading the group to sit down at a dining table by a French window.

The scenery beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows was very good, the lobby was filled with light piano sounds reminiscent of spring, and there weren’t many guests, making it feel very quiet.

Liang was still angry, using a fork to indiscriminately stab the cod on his plate with his head down, not saying a word.

“A brat being a brat.” Xie Ling gave him an amused look, and then she looked at Bai Mo and Fu Yucheng. “Bai Mo, are you going to the masquerade three days from now?”

Bai Mo nodded.

“I had some private matters to attend to and I didn’t want to go to the dance… But I heard that His Royal Highness is going to attend, so it wouldn’t be nice not to go.” Xie Ling drank a sip of lemonade and complained, “I don’t know what His Highness is thinking. We have the ceremonial hunt next month, and he won’t even allow us to prepare properly. What sort of masquerade are we supposed to have?”

“What ceremonial hunt?” Bai Mo frowned.

Xie Lingqi asked, “Didn’t little Liang notify you? Little Liang, didn’t you notify Bai Mo?”

Liang said coldly, “I went to inform him last time, but he drove me away before I could finish speaking.”

The gray-haired man named Reid shrugged. “His Royal Highness summoned us twelve knights to organize a grand beast-hunting ceremony during the pledge.”

After listening to them for a while, Fu Yucheng understood what was going on.

Psionic power tests were held every four years, and those manipulators that managed to pass would enter the Tower of Light. And every twenty years, the five batches of manipulators who passed the tests would leave the Tower of Light together to implement the Pioneer Project.

At present, twenty years had gone by once more.

Before the last group of manipulators entered the Tower of Light, they would celebrate a traditional pledge ceremony.

And this time, the pledge ceremony would be very different from usual.

Crown Prince Rong Yuan had proposed to add a ‘beast hunt’ to the ceremony: the Imperial family had carefully prepared a batch of valuable mutant beasts, to allow the twelve royal knights to slaughter the beasts to their heart’s content and display their psionic power as inspiration to the new manipulators.

The knight who hunted the most fierce beasts would obtain the title of Head Knight.

And the costume ball three days from then, called the Sky Lantern Festival Masquerade, was actually for the purpose of letting these knights meet before the hunt and choose a partner or form a small team while they were at it.

Reid smiled and said, “I’ve heard that there’s a 90% chance that the Prince Regent will attend the costume ball… It’s rare for him to show up. Xie Ling, I think you’d better show up.”

Xie Ling rubbed her temples. “Ah, so troublesome.”

While listening to their conversation, Fu Yucheng absently poked the salad on his plate. He lowered his eyes, his expression unreadable.

Bai Mo glanced at him and didn’t say anything, just pursing his lips instead.

…

After they returned home, Bai Mo couldn’t help but ask, “Yu-ge, do you really want to go to the costume ball?”

Fu Yucheng shrugged. “Let’s go and take a look.”

Bai Mo looked at him with a complicated expression, then turned his gaze away and said quietly, “But I don’t want to go… I don’t know how to dance.”

Fu Yucheng smiled and asked, “What’s wrong with that? I’ll teach you.”

“You can dance those high class ballroom dances? Who taught…?” Bai Mo withstood the urge and didn’t finish his question. Instead, he stood up and said, “Teach me.”

“Wait, you have to play some music first.” Fu Yucheng tinkered for a long time before starting the gramophone in the living room.

The melodious, ancient music flew slowly across the room, as if time itself had turned sluggish.

Fu Yucheng directed Bai Mo to put his arm around his shoulders, and he wrapped his arm around the other’s waist. “So, follow the music and follow the rhythm… Slowly and smoothly… Look, it’s easy. Hey, how can you step on my foot like that? See if you dare do it again!”

Bai Mo complained, “I’m not used to having my arm up like this.”

Reluctant, Fu Yucheng ran a hand through his hair. “What’s there to get used to…? Forget it, let’s change things around.”

Bai Mo cautiously encircled the other’s waist. Touching Fu Yucheng’s thin and smooth waist, his heart felt slightly shaken, and he asked in a quiet voice, “Is it alright like this?”

Fu Yucheng nodded. “Yeah, be careful, don’t step on me again.”

The two danced back and forth to the soothing tune. Gradually, their pace became slower and slower.

Bai Mo gently buried his head on the side of the other man’s neck, breathing in his fresh, bitter scent, and muttered, “You smell so good…”

Fu Yucheng’s mind was wandering.

He was thinking of many things. Of the ball, of the hunt, of the White Rose Palace, of the Tower of Light, of the slum rat with severed fingers, of his teacher’s unknown location, of close friends turning against each other…

The simulated sky of the Ecoregion gradually dimmed, and the golden sunset light coming in through the french windows dyed the floor of the living room a warm orange.

As if in a trance, Fu Yucheng let the other hold him gently, swaying slowly to the melody.

Bai Mo lowered his gaze lightly, with a dull look in his eyes.

 

 

Footnotes

Urban Complex (English: HOPSCA , namely: Hotel, Office, Park, Shopping Mall, Convention, Apartment) is a “city within a city” integrating five core functions of commercial retail, business offices, hotel and caterings, residential apartments, and comprehensive entertainment all based on the building complex. (definition from Baidu); it seems to be like a financial district full of skyscrapers with officers but more diverse. Idk I’m European.While the section can be a bit confusing with all the boy and young mans, Liang seems to be in his teens and his boy toy/victim is actually older, in his early 20s and closer to Bai Mo in age.