"Mmm... this tastes pretty good!" Lu Yuanfeng finished Lu Wuxie's noodles cleanly, smacking his lips with a satisfied expression.
Lu Wuxie looked at him sideways and said, "A prince acting so uncouth, how can you become the Son of Heaven in the future?"
Lu Yuanfeng's smile widened when he heard this. "You're the one who pulled me into this struggle for the throne. Otherwise, I'd be napping in my own little corner right now."
Lu Wuxie found Lu Yuanfeng's words quite rhyming, and his handsome peach blossom eyes slowly narrowed.
He recalled the events of his previous life. Court intrigue had led to the death of the entire Lu family, with only Lu Yuanfeng surviving. Back then, he had known this man had been pretending all along, so in this life, he was determined to drag him down with him. He hadn't expected retribution to come so swiftly.
"If you had no ambition, how could I have persuaded you?" Lu Wuxie sneered, looking at Lu Yuanfeng with a trace of drunken intoxication.
Lu Yuanfeng leaned back in his chair, gazing at the stars in the sky. "Can't be helped, that position is quite tempting."
Lu Wuxie shot him a glance and casually asked the noodle stall owner for another bowl. To his surprise, the owner informed him it was the last one.
Lu Wuxie's expression darkened, his internal frustration growing. "Since that's the case, I have a better shortcut. Do you want to know?"
"What?" Lu Yuanfeng raised an eyebrow.
"Marry Shen Ying, and you'll soar to success afterward."
"What?" Lu Yuanfeng thought he had misheard, and exclaimed in surprise, "Lu Wuxie, are you joking? You want me to marry Shen Ying? Do you think I've lived too long and want the Empress to kill me?"
Lu Wuxie observed Lu Yuanfeng's reaction and sneered, "So you want me dead sooner? That's why you didn't dare to say a word at the banquet?"
"Hey, Lu Wuxie, don't speak so rudely," Lu Yuanfeng shot him a glare.
"I'm rude?" Lu Wuxie pointed to himself and retorted, "Then let me ask you, why did you tell Li'er about the Flying Kite Pavilion incident?"
"Lu Wuxie! I did it for your own good!" Lu Yuanfeng's eyebrows furrowed in seriousness. "Your purpose in deploying the Flying Kite Pavilion to save your father was none other than to reveal your last trump card to the Emperor, intending to dispel the Emperor's suspicions about the Prince of Xian's mansion.
You've gone this far. If Zhong Li was the last to know, what would she think?
She would definitely believe you've been toying with her. Rather than that, it would be better if I brought this matter up first, to prevent her from developing a rift with you. Isn't that better?"
"Whether I say it or not is my business! You meddle too much!" Lu Wuxie gritted his teeth and sneered.
"Lu Wuxie, you and Zhong Li have come to this point, don't blame it all on me! She doesn't care about you hiding the Flying Kite Pavilion from her; she feels your feelings for her are impure. Don't you understand?" Lu Yuanfeng roared.
"I understand, I understand what? She's already pushed me away! What do I understand?" Lu Wuxie could no longer control himself, standing up in anger and slamming the table.
"Lu Wuxie, don't act crazy with me, I... mmm..."
"Thud!"
Before Lu Yuanfeng could finish his warning, a heavy punch unexpectedly landed on his face.
He was not as skilled as Lu Wuxie, and being unprepared, he took the blow squarely, blood slowly trickling from the corner of his mouth.
"You hit me?" Lu Yuanfeng's eyes widened, and he spoke through gritted teeth.
"So what if I hit you? I did it!" Lu Wuxie said, preparing to strike again.
Lu Yuanfeng hadn't drunk much and was still clear-headed. Seeing the situation, he quickly dodged and countered with a hook punch to Lu Wuxie's jaw.
Lu Wuxie felt a numbness in his jaw, and by the time he reacted, a腥sweetness filled his mouth, and he spat blood onto the ground.
"Master!" Lin Jin, seeing this, wanted to step forward but was stopped by him.
"Lu Yuanfeng, I'm telling you, ever since you told Zhong Li about my little secret to hit me, I've wanted to hit you. This is the perfect opportunity!" Lu Wuxie said, rushing forward and grappling with Lu Yuanfeng.
Neither of them used martial arts; it was all bare-knuckle fighting, fist against flesh, terrifying the noodle stall owner so much that he didn't even collect his money and ran off to pack up.
Lin Jin watched from the carriage, unable to bear looking away from the more gruesome parts.
After an unknown amount of time, when even the sparrows in the trees were too scared to make a sound, they lay on the ground like dead dogs, gazing at the sky in silence.
"Heh heh!" Lu Yuanfeng chuckled, his mouth wound aching as he drew a sharp breath with the movement.
"If you can't stand the pain, don't laugh!" Lu Wuxie retorted.
Lu Yuanfeng took a deep breath, a hint of bewilderment in his eyes. "Yes, compared to enduring, I, Lu Yuanfeng, admire you the most in this life."
Lu Wuxie remained silent.
After a while, Lu Yuanfeng said, "Actually, you and I both know Zhong Li's choice was the right one. It's you who's been struggling with yourself all along."
Lu Wuxie remained silent, looking at the stars in the sky, his eyes filled with hurt.
"You approached Tian Lianxue years ago, wasn't it to meet Shen Ying today? Zhong Li is so smart; she should have guessed it the moment she saw Shen Ying," Lu Yuanfeng said.
"Yes, Shen Ying's appearance was an accident in all my plans," Lu Wuxie said, his voice already growing hoarse.
Lu Yuanfeng's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed the blood in his mouth. "I'm not like you. Even living two lives, I have no memories of my past life and don't understand that kind of pain. But I think Zhong Li does."
Lu Wuxie's gaze flickered slightly.
"With Shen Ying's appearance, Zhong Li had only two choices: either become your concubine or leave you. She knew that forcibly keeping you by her side would cause the plans you'd been meticulously arranging to fail due to her interference. She could see through it, and Lu Wuxie, you... should understand it even better," Lu Yuanfeng sighed, his tone as light as the spring breeze in March, casually brushing past but capable of stirring Lu Wuxie's heartstrings.
"Her choosing to leave me is her style. She maintained her dignity and didn't disrupt my plans. I've been deceiving myself all along," Lu Wuxie closed his eyes, his chest rising and falling, a wave of stinging pain coursing through him, but he couldn't distinguish whether it was heartache or the ache from the blows.
Lu Yuanfeng pushed himself up from the ground, looking at the overturned tables and chairs and the spilled noodle soup on the floor. He staggered to Lu Wuxie's side and kicked him in the waist.
"Oof!" Lu Wuxie groaned in pain.
"So, get up quickly. Once the matter is settled, you can go chase her back, can't you?" Lu Yuanfeng said.
Lu Wuxie clutched his waist, flipped over, shot Lu Yuanfeng a glare, and turned to walk towards the carriage, saying, "I don't need you to tell me."
Lu Yuanfeng shrugged and watched the carriage drive away.
After a long time, he spat out the blood and saliva, placing his hands behind his head as a pillow, and walked away. "I really can't understand. You could have been a carefree dandy who wasn't tied down, yet you insist on binding yourself to one tree. Unlike me, my greatest wish isn't to be emperor, but to have a harem of beauties once I become emperor."
Lu Wuxie lifted the curtain, watching the receding figure of the man on the opposite street, and sneered, "Lu Yuanfeng, you'll be eating those smug words sooner or later."