“Yu-ge, what’s wrong?”
With a slight shiver, Fu Yucheng suddenly came back to his senses.
Right across from him was the handsome boy’s face, sporting a confused, straightforward expression. His black eyes, pure and clear, reflected Fu Yucheng’s own pale face like glass.
Fu Yucheng smiled reluctantly and pushed the ice cream forward with a hand. “Little Mo, you eat it. I’m not going to.”
Bai Mo looked at him in suspicion, feeling that something was definitely not right.
The other man had been in a daze from the moment the ice cream had been served. Even though he was still sitting across him, his thoughts were floating who knows where.
“Eat it quickly. It won’t taste good if it melts,” Fu Yucheng urged him, cutting the pizza absently.
He was a little out of it. With a piercing, wince-inducing sharp noise, the knife slid violently to the edge of the plate.
The knife, unexpectedly, cut crooked.
Fu Yucheng’s skill with knives were undoubtedly top notch, and yet, today, he couldn’t even cut a slice of pizza. It was obvious how absent-minded he was.
Bai Mo looked down softly, without saying anything.
He knew that, even if he asked, Fu Yucheng would not tell him the truth. Just like he wouldn’t tell him the actual origin of that strange scar.
Perhaps he didn’t trust Bai Mo.
The boy lowered his head. He felt unhappy and unbearably dejected.
By now a few customers had been arriving in groups of two and three, and the restaurant finally seemed more lively. Fu Yucheng and Bai Mo both had their own concerns, and kept their heads down while eating dinner silently.
Suddenly, the glass bead curtain at the entrance jingled sharply, as more customers entered the restaurant.
The restaurant owner, Samanta greeted them warmly. “Ciao, do you want to eat some-?”
Halfway through her question, her entire body froze when she had a clear view of the visitor.
“Clear out the restaurant first. The fortress master is going to have dinner here today.” Said a tall guard captain.
Immediately, dozens of guards wearing heavy exoskeleton armor marched inside The few customers in the restaurant who saw this spectacle either whispered to each other in alarm or stepped aside in a flurry, dispersing in an instant.
A guard walked up to Fu Yucheng and Bai Mo’s table, and said solemnly, “Please leave immediately.”
Fu Yucheng pointed at the table. “I haven’t finished my pizza yet. It was expensive.”
The guard became impatient. “Looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way.”1
He stretched out his hand as he spoke, trying to forcibly pull Fu Yucheng up.
To his bad luck, before his hand could touch Fu Yucheng’s arm, his wrist was seized by the boy sitting next to him.
Bai Mo twisted the opponent’s wrist tightly as he stood up slowly. “What are you trying to do?”
“You stinking brat, you dare to start trouble in Fort Hurricane?!” The guard looked at the teen in disbelief. Three guards immediately surrounded them, staring at the two civilians who didn’t know what was good for them.
“Little Mo, let’s forget about it.” Fu Yucheng sighed, took a napkin and wiped the corners of his mouth carefully. “It seems that finishing our meal won’t be possible. Let’s go.”
“Everyone, stand down.” At this moment, a gentle voice spoke.
A few guards bowed before the person arriving in fear and trepidation, stepping aside without a word.
Fu Yucheng also nodded to the visitor. “Fortress master Mo.”
This visitor was, of course, none other than Mo Ziwei, the owner of Fort Hurricane.
That day, Mo Ziwei was still wearing that delicate green ghost mask, with only a delicate and pale chin and a pair of thin lips visible below it.
He was wearing a pure white satin Tang suit with dark patterns, and the slender hook hanging from his arm emitted a faint blue light in the dim dining room.
A teenager stood by his side, about fifteen or sixteen years old. The youth had a lovely, childish face, and he was looking curiously at Fu Yucheng and Bai Mo. “Brother, who are they?”2
Mo Ziwei tilted his mouth slightly. “Someone interesting.”
Fu Yucheng looked at the man, speechless.
During his two years in Fort Hurricane, he had not seen the master of the fortress. And now, today, he ran into him in this small restaurant by chance.
Although He Lei had been dead for a long time, Fu Yucheng had not forgotten the scene he had witnessed back then. Although this Mo Ziwei seemed gentle and polite, he was bloodthirsty and cruel, and even somewhat of a deviant.
“Let’s sit down here, I’m sure the esteemed sir won’t mind.”3 Before Fu Yucheng answered, Mo Ziwei had already pulled out a chair and sat down at Fu Yucheng’s table. “Ziran, sit down too.”
“Brother, this is not proper, is it? There are many empty seats elsewhere.” The baby-faced teenager glanced at Fu Yucheng and then at Bai Mo. He felt that the two practically had the words ‘not welcomed’ written on their foreheads, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward.
“Ziran, I told you to sit down, so sit down,” Mo Ziwei said in a soft voice.
Although his voice was very gentle, it was hard to resist.
The baby-faced boy was Mo Ziwei’s younger brother, Mo Ziran. He obviously revered his older brother. He didn’t dare to say anything else, and quickly sat down with his back straight.
Samanta tremblingly took a menu and handed it to the Fort Hurricane master shakily.
Mo Ziwei flipped through it carefully, and finally ordered two steaks. He gently closed the menu and handed it back to Samanta. “Thank you.”
If he hadn’t seen him killing people without batting an eye, Fu Yucheng would almost believe that this man was a modest gentleman, as well as very gentle and polite.
He wasn’t sure what Mo Ziwei’s intention might be, so he smiled and said, “Master Mo, how come that you are so leisurely today, coming here to relieve your boredom?”
Mo Ziwei picked up a water glass, took a shallow sip, and smiled. “An old friend asked me to go on an errand. Sir, I remember we seemed to have met before, at the bar in Parking Lot 4.”
Fu Yucheng nodded. “Fortress Master, you have a good memory.”
Mo Ziwei smiled and said, “I don’t have a good memory. The esteemed sir made a deep impression. At that time, I was outside the bar and I saw your match with He Lei, good sir. It was very exciting. By the way, I have yet to learn your name.”4
“Oh, you flatter me. It’s Fu Yucheng,” Fu Yucheng replied lightly.
Mo Ziwei raised his eyebrows. “So it actually is Mr. Fu.”
Bai Mo stared at Mo Ziwei blankly, definitely feeling that the man had no good intentions. He couldn’t resist the urge to quietly peek at Fu Yucheng, and Fu Yucheng glanced back at him with a ‘stay calm’ look in his eyes.
The baby-faced boy, Mo Ziran, looked left and right, his big eyes darting back and forth quickly. He felt that his older brother seemed a little strange today.
Mo Ziwei said some more words, then suddenly seemed to remember something. “Oh, by the way, as it turns out, the training overseer position just became vacant at the Mo family fort. All the benefits would be according to the overseer’s specifications. Mr. Fu, would you be interested? If you were, you could start working next week.”
Fu Yucheng was taken aback for a moment.
If he could enter the Mo family fort, it would be a perfect opportunity to find ‘that thing’.
Unless this was a trap.
Did Samanta serve him the ice cream simply by chance, or was it a warning from afar?
In any case, it was too much of a coincidence.
Did Rong Yuan and Mo Ziwei know each other? But Rong Yuan had never mentioned the other in the past, and Fu Yucheng hadn’t heard of any dealings between the Dyson Cloud and the Twilight Belt.
Mo Ziwei’s request was very strange. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Fu Yucheng’s mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts. He stared at the other man and suddenly smiled. “Since Master Mo offers it, of course, I would love to.”
Bai Mo looked at Fu Yucheng in surprise, as if he wanted to say something. However, in the end he swallowed his words.
After returning to the dormitory, Fu Yucheng was still thinking about what had just happened.
Bai Mo looked at him walk in a daze all the way back, and couldn’t resist asking anymore. “Yu-ge, you and that Mo Ziwei, do you… do you know each other?”
Fu Yucheng came back to his senses, and blinked, confused. “What, know who?”
“That Mo Ziwei, why did he suddenly decide to transfer you to the Mo family fort?” Bai Mo asked suspiciously. “But, if you already knew each other from before, why would he ask for your name and act as if he didn’t know you? Was he pretending not to? Were you guys acquainted and had a fall out?”
Fu Yucheng was completely dumbfounded by all these questions, and he couldn’t resist smacking Bai Mo’s forehead. “Acquainted, what bullshit is that? You little brat, you have such an active imagination!”
“But, in the past, when Fatty Wu mentioned the fallen green ghost, why did you react that way then?” Bai Mo muttered. “I’ve heard many people say that Mo Ziwei is the green ghost, too.”
Fu Yucheng rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming. Bai Mo, this brat, the older he got, the harder he was to coax.
All in all, Fu Yucheng blamed Mo Ziwei. He just wanted to plant a banner and let people know of his power and authority. Why did he have to get Fu Yucheng involved?
The name of the fallen green ghost or the treacherous green ghost, was it even that goddamn powerful? If anything, it was infamous.
“Ahem,” he coughed slightly, trying to get through the conversation. “Well, I had heard of the green ghost, but I didn’t know it was him at that time. When Fatty suddenly mentioned it, I was a bit surprised.”
Bai Mo frowned and stared at him, apparently gauging whether or not his words were true.
After a while, he suddenly said, “You are lying.”
Fu Yucheng looked at the other, feeling helpless. This kid, how could he be so serious? Didn’t he understand that ignorance was bliss?
He rubbed his temples. “Little Mo, stop asking me questions, alright? It’s time to sleep.”
“Fu Yucheng, you only have yourself blame yourself for all of this.” Standing on the high steps of the White Rose Palace, Rong Yuan enunciated each word slowly. “You brought it all upon yourself”
The Prince Regent had an outstanding appearance. He had a lonely and arrogant face that appeared rather mean, but the heavy-lidded eyes gave him a slightly melancholic look. This complicated and strange contradictory feeling made him seem like a disillusioned nobleman of some declining dynasty.
Of course, this powerful Imperial Prince Regent was, at this exact moment, at the zenith of his power, and, in no way, a declining noble.
At the bottom of the steps, Fu Yucheng was firmly held down on the ground by several royal knights. His face was pressed against the cold, rough floor tiles, and a silver mental suppressor around his neck left him with no power to struggle.
He heard the man walking down the steps, and the steady, distant footsteps gradually became clearer.
The other man slowly bent down and two slender fingers lifted Fu Yucheng’s chin. He met a pair of eyes as cold as two black crystals dipped in freezing water. “Fu Yucheng, have your thoughts cleared up yet?”
Fu Yucheng stared at this face, so incredibly familiar yet incredibly foreign at the same time. Suddenly, he sneered, and spat out a mouthful of bloody spit.
Rong Yuan only narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn’t even bother to wipe the saliva from this cheek. “You are still so stubborn. Look at your current situation, why do you still bother?”
“The only issue was that I trusted the wrong person, and mistook a beast for a friend,” Fu Yucheng said in a muted voice. Because of his severe injuries and thirst, his throat was so hoarse that every word he spoke cut him like a rusty knife.
His words, for some reason, suddenly angered the other man.
Rong Yuan straightened back up immediately, speaking in a stern voice. “You believed in the wrong person? You believed in the wrong person?! Fu Yucheng, you deserve- these words, you deserve them as well!”5
His voice even broke from how excited he was.
“Fu Yucheng, you liar, you liar!” The chest of the Prince Regent, who had been very calm up to this point, was now heaving violently. He stared at the other man’s handsome and wretched face with his teeth clenched. The hatred in his eyes was so strong, it almost felt like a physical presence.
He walked a few steps back and forth like a trapped beast, and, finally, as if he couldn’t bear this any longer, he turned around and gave Fu Yucheng a fierce kick.
Rong Yuan’s kick hit him in the chest, so strongly that Fu Yucheng rolled over himself several times on the ground.
He now lay on his back on the cold floor, feeling as if the sky was spinning above him. His throat suddenly flushed with a strange burst of sweetness, and he vomited a mouthful of warm blood.
Rong Yuan stared at the pool of bright red blood for a long while. Then, he slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, seemingly trying to get himself back under control and restrain his boiling anger.
In the huge front hall of the White Rose Palace, no one dared to say a word. The silence was deafening.
After who knows how long, Rong Yuan finally opened his eyes, his expression now completely calm.
“Put this man into an isolation cell, and torture him with a high-frequency current every day until he gives his assent,” The Imperial Prince Regent said coldly.
Fu Yucheng opened his eyes in the darkness, his expression still a little dazed.
Perhaps because of the crap he’d ran into during the day, he unexpectedly dreamed of the not-so-pleasant events from that year.
Unconsciously, he touched his hair, his fingertips sweeping over the scar on the back of his head. He paused momentarily. Seven years prior, after he had spent a full nine months in isolation in prison, Rong Yuan had finally lost all his patience and resorted to the last possible option.
After seeing the cup of ice cream, Fu Yucheng finally gave in and agreed to cooperate with the surgery.
Was it worth it? He couldn’t stop himself from wondering.
He thought that it was worth it.
However, perhaps, the teacher, he… he might not have wanted Fu Yucheng to do that sacrifice, in exchange for his life.
With his thoughts all over the place, Fu Yucheng rolled around irritably, and the dilapidated bunk bed squeaked.
“Yu-ge, are you still awake?” Came a voice from the upper bunk.
Fu Yucheng froze, only then remembering that the brat was in the room.
He felt a bit embarrassed. “Oh, I just woke up now. Did I wake you up?”
“Not really,” Bai Mo said quietly. In fact, he hadn’t fallen asleep the entire night, his mind busy thinking of all the events that happened during the day.
Mo Ziwei, Rong Yuan, the green ghost.
All of it made it difficult to fall asleep.
He looked at the dark ceiling and spoke in a very soft voice. “I can’t sleep.”
Perhaps it was the thick darkness that gave the boy courage, but, after a pause, he unexpectedly asked, “Yu-ge, can you tell me about your past? And I don’t mean confusing nonsense to fool children. I want to know your real past.”
A long moment passed, and Fu Yucheng had yet to answer.
Just when he thought Fu Yucheng would not say another word, the man suddenly spoke up from the bottom bunk. “Come down here, I will tell you.”
Bai Mo was stunned for a moment, and then he felt inexplicably happy. Quickly, he climbed down from the top bunk.
Fu Yucheng stood up, turned on the table lamp beside the bed, and then patted the space beside him. “Come, sit here.”
Bai Mo hesitated slightly.
After a moment, he sat down onto Fu Yucheng’s bed. The quilt was very thin, but it felt very warm, with a soft smell of fresh soap clinging to it.
Perhaps, after bottling things up for so long, Fu Yucheng felt that he needed to let some of it out. Moreover, out of all the things that happened that year, he could freely discuss almost anything.
Except for that one matter.
He touched Bai Mo’s head. The boy’s soft and thick hair slipped through his fingers, feeling very nice to the touch. “Little Mo, do you know the Rong family?”
Bai Mo nodded. “I know some stuff. About two centuries ago, Rong Qian, the commander-in-chief of the Deep Space Fleet, launched a military coup. He overthrew the coalition government and restored the Empire. Since then, the Rong family has been the de facto ruler of the Dyson Cloud Central Empire, generation after generation, until this day.”
“Well, that’s probably all true. However, the Central Empire is not a utopia. In order to keep the Dyson Cloud, a huge man-made celestial body, working normally, two things are needed: the extremely strong psionic power from those in power, and a large amount of ordinary human resources, which need to actively maintain it 24/7.
“The Rong family divided the nine regions of the Central Empire into two: the Ecoregions, where the nobility reside, and the Industrial regions, where the civilians live. In the Industrial regions, most civilians spend their whole lives working on maintenance for the Dyson Cloud.”
Bai Mo listened quietly.
“The Imperial Ecoregions are naturally magnificent in every way. However, the environment in the Industrial regions is unimaginably harsh. People have to perform extremely hard labor, day after day, year after year. Eventually, because of such conditions, a major rebellion broke out.”
“The great rebellion was the rebellion of the Ninth Ecoregion, led by the green ghost, seven years ago,” Bai Mo said, unsure.
“Well.” Fu Yucheng paused for a while, as if he didn’t know how to phrase what he wanted to say. “Little Mo, remember how you asked me before if I knew the green ghost? The answer is actually very simple.
“I am him,” he said softly.
" "Bai Mo’s eyes widened abruptly.
The light of the desk lamp was dim and hazy. Fu Yucheng looked down at the boy quietly, his dark eyes glowing with a strange, dark green light under the lamp.
A deathly silence settled in the cramped room.
After a long while had passed, Bai Mo stammered, “Yu-ge, you said you are the green ghost? That green ghost?”
Fu Yucheng smiled faintly and shrugged. “Why, do I not look like it?”
Bai Mo shook his head in disbelief. “But, I heard that the green ghost is terrifying, and completely despicable! Even though he was the leader, he voluntarily handed in a list of his companions to the Imperial family to save his life!”
His voice became smaller and smaller, until he couldn’t say another word.
Fu Yucheng was silent for a long time.
Under the dim light, his handsome face was shrouded in sharp shadows. His dark eyelashes, pointing downwards, painted a complicated, unreadable expression onto his face.
“I’m sorry,” Bai Mo whispered. “No matter what the rumors say, no matter what kind of person others say the green ghost is, to me, you are you. And that’s all.”
The man chuckled lightly. “Don’t worry, I’m not that frail. I can’t control what others say, and I never cared to do so.”
Bai Mo looked up at the other man, with an inexplicable emotion surging in his chest. Then, the boy said softly, “Then, what happened before you became the green ghost?”
Fu Yucheng hesitated for a moment before he slowly opened his mouth. “I was born in the Ninth Industrial Region of the Empire. In my family, apart from my parents, there was only my older brother and I. My father died unexpectedly when I was very young. I don’t even remember his face. Because of his death, my mother was overwhelmed with grief and spent a long time bedridden. For a long time, our family of three all had to rely on my older brother working odd jobs.
“Later, my older brother was lured into a black workshop that sold human organs and never came back. When it happened, he was the same age you are now, little Mo. He had just turned sixteen.”
His voice was very calm, showing practically no emotions.
Bai Mo listened quietly. He felt as if something were squeezing his heart and pressing against it, making it hard for him to breathe.
Fu Yucheng seemed to notice something was off with him. He rubbed the other’s head and, with a smile, he said in a quiet voice, “It’s okay, it’s in the past.
“After my older brother died, life was really tough for a while, and I struggled to keep on living, until I met a teacher by chance. He discovered my potential and invited me to study in his private academy. I developed my psionic power, and my life changed after that.”
Fu Yucheng’s gaze was pointed somewhere very far, as if he were reminiscing about some distant past. “That teacher used to be an aristocrat from the Ecoregions. He was sent to the Industrial region for a number of reasons. He lived very poorly, and he was reluctant to spend money even on food and shelter, but he was willing to spend time with us and give the money to his students.”
As he spoke, Fu Yucheng paused before whispering softly, “Back then, the teacher would often take us to an alley. There was a small shop at the back of the alley that sold very cheap mint ice cream. It was the best thing I had ever eaten in my life.”
“Mint ice cream,” Bai Mo whispered.
“Yeah, mint ice cream.” Fu Yucheng nodded and continued speaking. “Later, some of us got into a lot of trouble when we grew up, starting that rebellion. The teacher didn’t know about it beforehand, much less participated, but it got him into big trouble.”
Bai Mo suddenly understood something, and felt cold all over. “So, after the rebellion failed, the Rong family used that teacher, threatened you, and destroyed your psionic power, and that’s the origin of that surgical scar.”
Fu Yucheng paused, as if considering his wording. “Pretty close, yeah, you could say so.”
“What about the rest of them? The other students? Didn’t they help you?”
Fu Yucheng was silent for a long time before he slowly said, “Our teacher only had four students. All of them are dead except for me.”
Flashbacks! Bizarre developments! What are Mo Ziwei’s intentions? How will things develop in the Mo family fort? Stay tuned for the next episode of The Emperor’s Runaway Lover!
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