The Emperor’s Runaway Lover

Bai Mo didn’t say anything or stand up. He just sat on the sofa, staring at Fu Yucheng with a blank expression.

His eyes were dark and dull, devoid of any emotion, but his gaze made Fu Yucheng’s hair stand on end. He stood awkwardly at the entrance hall, neither stepping in nor back.

Just as he was considering this dilemma, Bai Mo finally took pity on him and spoke. “So you’ve returned ‘home’?”

He spat the word ‘home’.

Fu Yucheng gave him a dry smile. “Yes.”

Bai Mo smiled.

Fu Yucheng felt his throat go dry for no apparent reason, and then he suddenly realized. The ‘home’ Bai Mo was talking about was referring to what Rong Yuan had told him during their dance —“I’ll wait for you to come home”.

“That’s not what I meant… I mean I’m back, I’m back to this home,” he quickly argued.

Bai Mo whispered, “This home? How many homes do you have?”

This fucking situation is getting darker and darker… Fu Yucheng was a little bit frustrated. He tried to come up with something for a long moment. But, right as he was about to speak, Bai Mo beat him to it. “Yu-ge, I imagine you’re going to say that you cannot explain it right now again, right?”

His voice was quiet and deep, and it sounded very soft, but Fu Yucheng did not dare to say anything.

Bai Mo stood up slowly, walked in front of him, and looked at him with his eyes slightly downcast.

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The faint light of the entrance gradually dimmed, and the cold moonlight poured in from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. The room was very quiet.

Fu Yucheng could almost feel Bai Mo’s gaze landing at the corner of his mouth, and, after a long time, moving to his cheek.

“…Did he hit you?” The other man sucked in a very light breath, as if suppressing something.

Fu Yucheng didn’t know what to say, so he nodded.

“Did you fight back?” Bai Mo asked in a quiet voice.

Fu Yucheng thought, I want to fight back, but how could I fight Rong Yuan right now?

Back in the day, the young and frivolous, seventeen or eighteen-year-old Fu Yucheng would not have been able to bear a slap in the face. However, now, he had learned to endure what was once intolerable for the sake of other, more important things.

Seeing that he kept silent, Bai Mo seemed to slightly grind his teeth, and then his eyes fell on Fu Yucheng’s neck.

Very clearly, Fu Yucheng felt a sudden, extremely sharp fluctuation in the other man’s previously cold and calm psionic field.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the room became suffocating, and Fu Yucheng couldn’t help but awkwardly pull at his own collar. “It’s not what you think.”

Bai Mo ignored him, lightly touching the obvious tooth mark on the man’s slender neck, and whispered, “You did it with him?”

Fu Yucheng categorically refused, “No!”

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“…I don’t believe a word of what you said.” Bai Mo closed his eyes, and then added coldly, “Take off your clothes and let me check.”

Fu Yucheng was stunned.

What did he just say? Did I hear him wrong?

It took a long time for Fu Yucheng to react, and for a moment he only felt all his blood rushing to his head. Unable to bear it, he pushed the other man aside. As he began walking upstairs, he stuck his middle finger up towards his back. “Fuck you.”

Bai Mo grabbed his arm from behind and snarled, “Stop right there!”

Fu Yucheng was pulled back so hard that for a moment, he couldn’t get out of his grasp.

Feeling extremely irritated, he turned to the side, planning to use some of his fighting skills to break free from that damned boy, but, suddenly, he felt taken aback.

Standing under the clear and cold moonlight, the young man lowered his head, his dark and long eyelashes shaking violently. His face seemed sculpted from snow, almost bloodless, and even the hand that was holding Fu Yucheng trembled slightly, in a way that Bai Mo was obviously trying to suppress. He seemed extremely sad.

Fu Yucheng’s heart softened slightly. He forcibly held in the anger in his heart and explained, “I sneaked into the White Rose Palace to find information and accidentally ran into Rong Yuan. He was drunk and kissed me by force. That’s all.”

Bai Mo was silent for a long moment before he whispered, “At first, you told me you two didn’t have a relationship. Later, when you couldn’t hide it anymore, you changed your story and said that he liked you but it was one-sided. Now you come back in this state and tell me that he was drunk and kissed you by force… How am I supposed to believe you?”

Fu Yucheng asked helplessly, “Then what do you want?”

Bai Mo took a deep breath and repeated again. “If, if you really didn’t do anything… take your clothes off and let me check.”

Fu Yucheng stared at the other, not knowing what to say, feeling so furious he almost laughed. “On what grounds?!”

Bai Mo whispered, “You just have to.”

Fu Yucheng was so angry that he almost spat blood. He felt extremely pissed, and for a moment, he almost wanted to agree with the other’s words. So what if I did it, and what if I didn’t? Hell, I can sleep with whoever the fuck I want, so what?!

However, Bai Mo was, after all, different from Rong Yuan.

He took a deep breath, forcibly resisted the urge to yell at him and gave the other man an earnest look. Then he said clearly, “I swear I didn’t.”

Bai Mo stared at him blankly, obviously not believing it.

Fu Yucheng ran a hand through his hair anxiously. “Fuck, I must really owe you something from my last life!”

Bai Mo was silent for a long time before muttering, “Why… Why did you go find him? And he treated you like that, why did you let him… let him… Just because he’s the Regent? The master of the Empire?” He paused, and then continued softly, “You have been pushing me away and refusing to sleep with me just because… I don’t have any of that? If I did, would you like me, too?”

At the end of the last sentence, Bai Mo was practically talking to himself, and his voice was so soft that Fu Yucheng could not hear him.

Fu Yucheng only thought that the man was simply inexplicable, so he couldn’t help but curse quietly and shake the other’s hand off. He turned around and walked upstairs.

He walked half the way up, then he hesitated and looked back.

Bai Mo was still standing under the stairs, staring up at him blankly. His sad and confused look made him look just like a puppy abandoned by its owner in the rain.

“Little Mo, go… go to bed already. Soon, the issue will be solved, and then I’ll tell you everything.” Fu Yucheng sighed and turned to go upstairs.

After running around in the White Rose Palace for most of the night, returning home, and arguing with Bai Mo for a long time, Fu Yucheng felt so tired that he didn’t even have the strength to take a bath. He walked into the bathroom and turned on the hot water faucet in the sink to wash his face.

In the steaming mist, the mirror behind the sink gradually became blurred.

When he looked at the mirror, Fu Yucheng was a little startled. A few faint letters spelling ‘I like you’ appeared on the misty mirror surface.

Fu Yucheng thought for a while, and then he couldn’t help but laugh.

Bai Mo, such a silly boy! He must have secretly written this on the mirror with lemonade, who knows when—probably a few days ago, hoping that I’d see it when I washed my face. I wonder where he learned that from, he’s so naïve. It’s completely different from his behavior just a moment ago, coldly forcing me to undress.

Fu Yucheng shook his head, washed his face, returned to the bedroom and fell asleep.

Sadly, he didn’t sleep well that night. His dreams were all a mess.

One moment, he dreamt of Rong Yuan viciously saying, “You lied to me!” The next moment, he dreamt of Bai Mo looking heartbroken, asking, “You don’t want me?” Then, he dreamt of his teacher whispering, “A-Cheng, you’re doing something you know you can’t do…”, and after another moment, he dreamt of Lin Su saying furiously, “You traitor!”…

The next day, at eleven o’clock, Fu Yucheng reluctantly got up and went downstairs, with two huge dark circles under his eyes.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he suddenly paused.

Bai Mo was standing in front of the counter in the open kitchen area. He gave him a sideways glance, turned around and placed a plate with fried eggs on the dining table.

As he untied his apron, he smiled and said, “Yu-ge, I just heard you wake up. Eat it while it’s hot, it will taste nasty when it’s cold.”

Fu Yucheng walked to the dining table a little hesitantly, and couldn’t help but glance at Bai Mo in suspicion.

I thought that I’d have to deal with Bai Mo throwing a temper tantrum today,1 but, looking at this situation, it almost seems like he calmed down.

Could it be that this brat finally figured it out, and finally believed that nothing happened between me and Rong Yuan?

Bai Mo didn’t seem to notice his weird look. He wiped his hands clean, sat down at the dining table again, and peeled an orange for him.

Fu Yucheng looked down and poked at the fried eggs on the plate. The eggs were done sunny side up, fresh and shiny, with a little bit of tomato sauce on them. It was Fu Yucheng’s favorite way of eating them.

“What’s the matter?”Bai Mo asked him while cutting the orange.

Fu Yucheng cleared his throat and tentatively asked, “You… you finally understand it?”

Bai Mo looked at him quietly and then he gave him a soft smile. “I understand.”

Fu Yucheng still felt like something was a little off, but he did feel relieved. I have so many troubles to deal with, I can’t deal with relationship problems too…2 Wait, what relationship? Fuck, I’ve really been brainwashed by Bai Mo.

While he was still pondering, Bai Mo placed a full orange segment in front of his mouth and said, “Open your mouth.”

Although it felt very awkward, Fu Yucheng really didn’t want to argue with him, so he opened his mouth obediently and accepted the orange.

Bai Mo smiled and said, “Right, back in the Twilight Belt, the conditions were really rough and fruit was rare, and you wanted to eat some. But it turns out that now you only like to drink fresh juice. That doesn’t have any fiber.”

Seeing that his expression was very relaxed, Fu Yucheng didn’t mention Rong Yuan at all and finally stopped worrying.

One feeding and the other eating, they finished the orange soon after.

Bai Mo stared at him. “You have juice… in the corner of your mouth.”

“Oh.” Fu Yucheng licked his lips.

Bai Mo said quietly, “It’s here.”

Before Fu Yucheng could react, the other had already leaned close and licked the corner of his mouth.

The soft and moist touch of Bai Mo’s tongue made him shiver unconsciously. Then, the young man said softly, “Open your mouth.”

Bai Mo’s tone was exactly the same as when he had been feeding him oranges just a moment earlier, and Fu Yucheng reflexively opened his mouth. Realization hit him the moment he opened his mouth, and he wanted to close it, but it was too late.

At first, the other was cautious and tentative, but then he became almost uncontrollable. He kissed him viciously and relentlessly, swallowing down his breath and saliva. The intensity and depth made his scalp tickle, it was almost impossible to control, as if he was trying to eat him up. After an undetermined amount of time, Fu Yucheng was only aware that his tongue was getting sucked so hard he might pass out, and he felt dizzy. He couldn’t help but push the other away.

The young man paused for a moment before letting him go with great difficulty. His young, strong body was tense, his snow-white face was flushed slightly pink, and his eyes were filled with barely suppressed passion. Even his pupils had become darker.

Fu Yucheng looked at him. For some reason, he felt that his heart was beating a little faster than usual, and he couldn’t help but wonder, if the other pestered him to get him to ‘teach’ him again, should he do it or not? And how much should he ‘teach’ him?

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His heart, which had always been hard, suddenly faltered.

However, Bai Mo did not do anything else.

He just stared at Fu Yucheng for a while, then tried his best to regain control. He shut his eyes tight and whispered, “I know, you still don’t want to give yourself to me. I don’t have anything now, so naturally, I can’t compare to him… But one day, I will have…”

Fu Yucheng felt that there was something off with the other man’s words, but, at that moment, his brain was lacking some oxygen, and he didn’t take them too seriously. He just asked without thinking, “Will have what?”

Bai Mo looked at him, with his dazed appearance, and he couldn’t help but to lower his head to kiss the lips which he had colored red. “You don’t need to worry about it. I didn’t understand anything before, and I would just get angry and quarrel with you… I was naïve, I was in the wrong.”

In the following days, the two lived in peace and harmony. It was almost weird. Although Fu Yucheng thought Bai Mo seemed a little weird, as long as he didn’t make a fuss, it was better than the alternative.

After half a month went by like that, the time agreed upon with Yao Ning arrived.

On that day, Fu Yucheng left early in the morning and went to the city cemetery.

The cemetery was very big, devoid of people at that time. There were just gray metal tomb markers, both tall and short, standing silently in the morning light informing of the lonely or wonderful lives of those inside the tombs.

The morning breeze blew through the pine forest, the trees rustling. It seemed unbelievably peaceful.

Fu Yucheng hesitated and then started walking down one of the paths.

Footnotes

In the raws the expression used is 一哭二闹三上吊, it refers to a girl throwing a tantrum at her boyfriend specifically. Here’s an antique meme as an explanation.The literal translation is “start a fire in my inner yard”, the center of the home, where traditionally the wife/harem/family/etc. would reside.