Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

40. Prince Qin

Translator: Flying Lines

When Xiao LuoXuan got back to his mansion, the Guqin Master was playing a melancholy tune presenting the view of one waiting for his beloved travelling afar by the whispering river in the bleak winter.

Brows furrowed, he wanted to question him but swallowed it back when seeing the sorrow and sadness on his uncle’s face. In the end, he sighed helplessly and stood silently by the side to wait for the end of the tune.

Every member of Prince Qin’s Mansion knew this unbreakable rule: No talking is allowed when the Guqin Master is playing his guqin, not even His Highness Prince Qin.

As it tuned for the end, the Guqin Master’s finger came to a sudden pause because of a broken string.

“Say it, what brings you here?” asked the Guqin Master in a hoarse voice grating to the ear as he stroked the guqin, his eyes on the broken string.

Xiao LuoXuan managed to speak in a calm voice, “Uncle, why did you send Sharp Sword to Prince Rui’s Mansion?”

Sharp Sword, that was Su Jie’s code name, a name known by all in the circle of assassins. While his true name was long forgotten.

Hearing the question, the Guqin Master raised his head, deadness in his eyes like the darkest abyss where the sunshine could never reach, horrifyingly chilling.

Xiao LuoXuan summoned up the courage to meet his uncle’s eyes. He grew up with a strange fear for his uncle, which never subsided a bit even after he came of age but even increased in the passing of time. The fear was so deep rooted to the point of becoming a psychological shadow, a shadow that would never disappear.

“What? Your heart aches for him?” The Guqin Master smiled, but there was something sorrowful about his smile as if sorrow was glued to his face whatever expression he had.

Xiao LuoXuan said, his brows knitted, “Prince Rui is but a tool father uses to stop the courtiers from proposing to name the first prince as the Crown Prince. It is unnecessary to let Sharp Sword approach Prince Rui.”

The Guqin Master pulled broken a string slowly like he was fiddling with an exquisite artwork, his look still sad, which gave him an eerily air that would chill one to the bone. One after one, he plucked all seven strings of the guqin, took out his handkerchief and wiped his hands carefully, with great casualness though, like they were stained by something filthy. He stared right into Xiao LuoXuan’s eyes, asking, “You wanna know why I assigned him the task?”

Xiao LuoXuan’s brows knitted as he knew his uncle would only destroy the strings when angry. However, he still braced himself up to ask, “Yes, I wanna know why. Any profound reason behind your arrangement, uncle?”

“No.” The Guqin Master laughed as he threw the handkerchief to the ground, clapped his hands and said, “I heard that Prince Rui is gay, and Sharp Sword happens to be such a good-looking boy. So I sent him to be a male concubine of Prince Rui because what we need in the future is not assassins but a wise mind. Sharp Sword has lost his value, yet as a token of our gratitude for his long years of loyalty and devotion, I didn’t kill him and even found him a good husband. Am I not being kind?”

The Guqin Master spoke in quite an unhurried manner, which along with his hoarse voice made his speech quite grating to the ear. Yet what Xiao LuoXuan felt more uncomfortable with was the meanings his uncle’s words conveyed.

“Uncle, we’re still keeping many Men of Sacrifice. It’s still too early to discard assassins, and Sharp Sword is an unparalleled weapon we ever had. If even he is useless for us, then what about the seventy-one Men of Sacrifice?” fumed Xiao LuoXuan as he fought hard to hold back the rage burning in his heart. His uncle must be kidding. It wasn’t an explanation, but utter nonsense. None of their Men of Sacrifice was as capable as Sharp Sword nor was any other man as loyal as he was.

“Xiao LuoXuan.” The Guqin Master, in his cold tone, called the prince’s name as his piercing eyes fixed on his nephew and his lips curled up into a sneer, “You’ve fallen for him?”

Xiao LuoXuan, as if getting furious for being seen through, denied immediately, “That can’t be. I won’t fall in love with a Man of Sacrifice. He is not worthy of my affection for his humble origin!”

“Don’t be afraid to admit your feelings. Your way of denying it actually confirms my doubt,” sneered the Guqin Master after a glance at Xiao LuoXuan, who was then rendered speechless.

“I won’t stop you loving anyone, but that one must be a girl. If you do have feelings for Sharp Sword, find a woman first and let her bear you a son. Then I wouldn’t object to your summoning him back, or he must die.” Then Guqin Master’s voice suddenly softened as he thought of something, laughing eerily, “Oh right, I almost forgot that Sharp Sword has been sleeping with Prince Rui these days. Funny that he thought the order was given by you…Pity you didn’t see his look when getting the order, surprise mixed with extreme pain. Yet he still took the order without a word of complaint when I told him it was your idea.”

The Guqin Master seemed to be in a delight mood seeing Xiao LuoXuan gritting his teeth to hold back his rage. Lips slightly curled, he continued in his grating voice, “Sharp Sword is the best and most loyal among all Men of Sacrifice. He didn’t waste a bit the time and efforts I’ve put to train him…hahaha. And hear this, if you want him back, go find a woman tonight. I will not interfere your choice of a partner as long as you have an heir.”

Xiao LuoXuan’s face turned extreme sullen. That the Guqin Master didn’t give a damn, who left laughing, hands behind his back.

For an instant, Xiao LuoXuan could barely refrain himself from knocking his uncle to the ground.

The Guqin Master was eerily temperamental, who followed no pattern nor any sense in his way of doing things, which Xiao LuoXuan had thought he had long been used to. Yet just now the way his uncle talked to him, in his taunting and condescending tone, disgusted him. Along with the disgust, he felt helpless. Was he truly in love with a Man of Sacrifice? Xiao LuoXuan found it hard to accept. He could remember every move and look of Su Jie, and the dazzling confidence and pride in his clear eyes when he unconditionally took all his orders, so dazzling like the brightest sun of the day.

Sharp Sword…sharp sword, once unsheathed, resolved to killing and bloodshed was certain.

Sharp Sword belonged to him, and him alone. Yet now that Xiao NianXuan dared to lay his filthy hands on what was his!

Xiao LuoXuan gnashed and kicked the guqin away to vent his anger, veins on his forehead bulging, and his face distorted from extreme wrath.

Yet anger was the most useless thing for him. He could do nothing about his uncle who was now controlling all the Men of Sacrifice of his. Yet he knew his uncle was merely assisting him to the throne to retaliate against the Emperor.

His uncle made him who he was today. Back when his mother was deprived of her title, driven to the cold palace and died there shortly after, it was his uncle who got him out of that hell.

Years after that, he followed his uncle on the long travelling life. His uncle took good care of him, brought his presence to the knowledge of the emperor and even managed to let the emperor accept him and grant him the princeship.

Everything he had was given by his uncle, including Sharp Sword.

“You, come to my room tonight,” coldly he said to a maid coming over with a sneer after standing in silence for quite a while.

The maid, Xiu Ning, though not a stunning beauty, had a comely face with a tender bearing, who upon hearing the order, was caught in a daze before coming back to her sense and curtsying, “Yes, Your Highness.”