Chapter 63 - Evening scouting

Fu Yucheng was always a man of great mobility.

The night after Bai Mo’s departure, he took all the equipment he needed and sneaked into the northwest corner of the White Rose Palace.

The White Rose Palace occupied a very large area. It was mostly built with artificial white jade, which gave it a textured milky white look. Its overall structure imitated the Forbidden City from Ancient China. On the central axis, there were three grand halls, and on the east and west there were the six Eastern Palaces and the six Western Palaces respectively.1

Unlike the Forbidden City, the Rong family had always been monogamous, with no concubines nor male consorts, and the palace’s structure wasn’t fixed. The empress usually lived in the Western Palaces, while the Crown Prince and other minor princes lived on the northern side of the Eastern Palaces while the southern side had the Grand Secretariat and the Grand Council,2 as well as other administrative and political offices.

The White Rose Palace was huge, full of intricate roads, and extremely tightly guarded. Guards wearing exoskeleton armor cross the paths, patrolling back and forth, and groups of armed drones buzzed around in the air.

Moreover, just like the Forbidden City from ancient times, the White Rose Palace had a moat. Of course, the moat wasn’t full of water, but of a new type of strong acid, which was four times more corrosive than aqua regia.3 If anyone fell inside, it wouldn’t be possible to recover even their bones.

Almost no one could successfully sneak into the White Rose Palace.

But Fu Yucheng was an exception.

He was extremely familiar with the place.

It was late at night, and Fu Yucheng headed to the northwest corner to take a look. Sure enough, the crooked willow tree was still there.

The big willow tree grew under the northwest corner of the palace wall, its thick trunk extending curved outwards. Its branches hung down towards the center of the moat, only a few meters away from the shore.

The dark water under the willow’s branches glowed a daunting green shade under the pale light of the artificial moon.

Fu Yucheng wasn’t very scared. He used to swing from that same willow tree to go in and out of the huge palace. He simply felt like revisiting an old familiar location.

Right then, a drone’s buzzing noise began to approach from far away, east from the location.

Fu Yucheng immediately crouched and hid behind a big rock by the river.

After the drone left, he took a couple of steps back, then took a deep breath and ran forward, stepping on the boulder to take a leap!

Just as he did in the past, he easily grabbed onto a branch.

Of course, the soft willow branch couldn’t bear his weight and it bent instantly. But Fu Yucheng had been prepared for that, and used the chance to apply his strength, propelling his whole body across the moat and landing on the bank opposite.

“Heh.” He chuckled triumphantly, then turned around and scaled the white jade wall.

The palaces in the northwest corner were all unoccupied, and there were fewer guards patrolling the area, passing once every quarter of an hour.

Fu Yucheng squatted on the wall and waited patiently for a while. Sure enough, he eventually heard steady footsteps. A team of guards wearing exoskeleton armor approached over, holding dark infrasound guns in their hands—in man-made celestial bodies such as the Dyson Cloud, firearms were forbidden, and only blades and infrasonic weapons could be used.

When the group of guards was about to pass him by, Fu Yucheng quietly flipped over and stepped down from the wall, striking the last soldier from the group on the nape of the neck with his palm.

The hapless guard passed out softly without a word.

Fu Yucheng held him carefully and dragged the guard into some small bushes.

After rustling there for a while, a tall and athletic guard stepped out. It was, of course, Fu Yucheng.

Once he had changed his clothes and put on the gray goggles, Fu Yucheng finally breathed a sigh of relief and headed towards his destination unhurriedly.

The six Western Palaces were cold and quiet, and he didn’t run into even a couple guards along his way. When walking past a ruined palace wall, he couldn’t help but look up.

In the old days, the large wall had been covered with white roses in full bloom, their beauty unparalleled. At that moment, only a few dead branches and dry leaves remained on the wall.

It was the former residence of the current Empress, Rong Xu.

A little further ahead was the place where the Empress’ elder brother, Prince Rong Jin, used to live.

At that moment, they were no longer there.

Rong Xu had retired to recuperate many years earlier, and Rong Jin already died during the rebellion. The power of the Empire, after the war against the rebellion back at the time, fell all in the hands of a certain young prince who had lived in seclusion for a long time and was unfamiliar with the outside world, but he turned out to be ultimately a great success.

Fu Yucheng shook his head, stopped thinking about that mess from the past, and continued to walk to the six Eastern Palaces. The prince’s dormitory hall was in that area, and theGrand Council was just south of that hall.

That’s where he was heading in order to find some important information… about his teacher’s whereabouts and about the six Light knights.

After the bitter lesson he received in the past, he didn’t want to make any more mistakes. He wanted his plan to be foolproof.

Fu Yucheng came to the Grand Council’s palace without being stopped at any point. He jumped through the rear window, light on his feet, and searched through the boxes and cabinets.

But after turning them over for a long time, he found nothing.

Fu Yucheng pondered for a moment. The documents there didn’t seem to be important documents at all… Could it be that Rong Yuan didn’t work there?

He remembered that Rong Yuan seemed to have mentioned that he really liked the study at his dormitory hall, because outside the study room there was an exquisite pavilion next to a large, white magnolia tree.

Could it be that Rong Yuan had moved his office to that study?

Shit. Fu Yucheng rubbed his temples, feeling a headache forming. It’d be one thing to sneak into the White Rose Palace, but sneaking into the Crown Prince’s bedroom would be a completely different matter.

Rong Yuan was an S class, hybrid system manipulator. Unlike Bai Mo’s aggressive yet slightly naive and shallow psionic force field, Rong Yuan’s field was very deep, sharp, and capable of easily detecting him as an intruder.

But… do I really have to give up after I already got here?

Fu Yucheng gritted his teeth and turned around to walk towards the Prince’s bedroom.

He removed the heavy armor and carefully used a small amount of psionic energy to suppress his breath, to the point where it became insignificant, before going over the wall and entering the garden behind the palace.

Unlike other areas in the White Rose Palace, the back garden of the Prince’s dormitory was full of magnolia trees. Now it was the time when the flowers would be blooming. It was only possible to see the flowers, not any leaves, and the big milky white magnolia flowers appeared breathtakingly beautiful in the silent night.

Fu Yucheng didn’t feel like appreciating the view and walked forward along the path.

Not too far ahead there was a delicate, small pavilion: the Magnolia Pavilion.

Fu Yucheng’s feet suddenly stopped.

He had excellent eyesight, and, at a glance, he spotted a man in the pavilion resting on a rattan chair, facing him.

Rong Yuan.

Fu Yucheng stiffened slightly and unconsciously took two steps back slowly, but Rong Yuan didn’t respond.  Fu Yucheng took a closer look and realized that the other had slightly closed his eyes, as if he was asleep.

As the evening breeze reached him, it carried a faint smell of alcohol.

It would seem that the Crown Prince had slept directly in the pavilion after getting drunk.

Fu Yucheng breathed a sigh of relief and then calmed down for a moment. After staring at the other more closely, he walked around the pavilion extremely carefully.

He had just taken two steps when Rong Yuan suddenly muttered, “Who is there?”

Fu Yucheng’s feet stopped moving and he held his breath, not daring to continue forward.

He noticed clearly the fluctuation of an unusually dangerous psionic field, and he couldn’t help but cry internally. This guy is obviously drunk, but his psionic field is still very sensitive.

If I reveal my cover and get into a fight, my plan will be ruined.

Should I give up? Act like a coward? Escape? 

Fu Yucheng was distracted for a moment and he remained in place, not having decided whether to leave or to stay.

Rong Yuan propped himself up halfway in a daze, his gaze clearly drunk and out of focus. After a while, he slowly opened his eyes more. “A-Cheng? What are you doing here?”

Fu Yucheng cleared his throat awkwardly.

Rong Yuan stared at him closely and said in a quiet voice, “A-Cheng, come- Come here… let me look at you.”

Seeing that he seemed to be very drunk, Fu Yucheng walked over stiffly, softening his voice into a hypnotic tone. “You are dreaming… Go back to sleep, go back to sleep.”

Rong Yuan stared at him blankly for a while and then whispered. “Oh, I’m dreaming again.”

Seeing his glazed eyes and how unaware he looked, Fu Yucheng felt relieved. He was about to turn around and leave when, suddenly, something tugged at his sleeve.

Rong Yuan slowly raised his head and stared at him with reddened, drunken eyes. Apparently remembering something, he gritted his teeth and said, “You- you used me! You liar!”

Fu Yucheng looked at him speechlessly.

“You- you put up a show and deceived me, making me waste so many- so many years… and you gave me nothing! Nothing! And then you let that mon- that monster do that to you…”

He inhaled heavily, his breath reeking of alcohol. “If I had known- if I had known you were so cheap down below and that you like to degrade yourself like that, I- I would have never let you go to Earth… I wonder what kind of messes you’ve been getting into… I cannot bear it… How- how many people did you fuck to bring me down? You let them- ack- I really want to kill you…”

He took a heavy breath, and his breath was full of strong alcohol: “I knew… I knew you were so cheap in your bones and you like to ruin yourself so much. I will, I will not let you go to the earth… These years,  I don’t know what the hell you made yourself look like… I’m so uncomfortable… You, how many people have you slept with to bring me down? You let them…cough cough… I really want to kill you  …”

Fu Yucheng’s lips twitched unconsciously, and he could only wish that Rong Yuan would fall asleep quickly.

Rong Yuan continued cursing over and over for a while and suddenly he grew excited again and pushed him. “You, get out of here! I want to puke every time I see you! Leave!!”

“Alright.” Fu Yucheng turned around to leave as if he had gained amnesty.

Rong Yuan pulled him back to the rattan chair and said angrily, “Do you still dare to run?! Who are you going to look for?!”

Fu Yucheng glared at him. This fucking crazy drunktard.

Rong Yuan took a deep breath and grabbed Fu Yucheng’s chin with slender and powerful fingers. His voice was horribly hoarse. “I was really blind… How did you seduce that monster? He was so young when you… You’re really too bold, how can you be so shameless…”

Fu Yucheng had nothing to say, realizing that Rong Yuan was so drunk that he wouldn’t come back to his senses for a while. Suddenly, he had an idea and decided to simply push Rong Yuan on. “I couldn’t help it, you’re the one who made me do it.”

“I made you do it?! Me?!” Rong Yuan grew excited. “I’m right here, right here, at the White Rose Palace, all you had to do is come beg me, admit your wrongdoings and I’ll give you anything… You- you’d rather let others fuck you? Why don’t yo- why don’t you come and beg me?!”

Fu Yucheng stared at him and slowly said, “Back then, I begged you more than once to tell me about my teacher’s whereabouts… but that didn’t work.”

Rong Yuan looked a little sluggish, as if trying to recall something. “Teacher…oh, that teacher…”

Fu Yucheng coaxed him in a quiet voice. “Yes, that teacher…where is he?”

Rong Yuan seemed to be in a trance. “That teacher is in…”

“Yes… Where is he?” Fu Yucheng softened his voice as much as possible, trying to get the other to tell the truth.

Rong Yuan stayed still for a long time and did not answer his question. Instead, he suddenly became angry once more. “You were the one who lied to me! You lied to me first!”

He got more incensed by himself as he spoke and continued indiscriminately shooting random insults at Fu Yucheng over and over, calling him ‘shameless’, ‘liar’ and ‘disgusting’.

Fu Yucheng could do nothing but listen to him cursing. He thought, this man must have no friends and he’s probably just stayed in the palace for a long time, because his cursing vocabulary is really poor. He can’t come up with anything as interesting as the ladies from the Winter Flower Alley in the Industrial Region.

Rong Yuan kept cursing for a while and eventually seemed to tire of it. Then, he murmured. “I should have known… back then, when I put you in jail and you no longer had psionic power… I… But I didn’t want to force you, and I still believed that you’d come to me to confess…” He stared at Fu Yucheng. “Why didn’t you come and beg me? Why?!”

Seeing him so drunk, going on and on about the same things and throwing old insults, Fu Yucheng wasn’t able to learn anything new. He got impatient and turned around, wanting to leave.

Rong Yuan pulled him back and threw him onto the rattan chair. “Speak! Why won’t you come and beg me?! Do you just like getting fucked?!”

Fu Yucheng couldn’t be bothered with him anymore.

His silence seemed to irritate the other more and more, and with a crisp sound, Rong Yuan slapped him hard. “Slut!”

This slap in the face was so powerful it made Fu Yucheng’s ears ring, and the heavy flavor of blood spread inside his mouth. He felt a bit dizzy.

Fuck. Ever since he was a child, he had suffered a lot, but he had neve been slapped in his entire life.

Rong Yuan lowered his eyes and looked at the other condescendingly. His distant and arrogant face was full of cold contempt. “You’re filthy.”

Fu Yucheng couldn’t avoid feeling angry at seeing the noble Imperial prince acting deranged. However, he had gone through too much to be that easily affected by emotions.

At that moment, he was extremely angry, but his face was devoid of any unnecessary expressions and he simply looked at Rong Yuan in silence.

It was then that the artificial moon emerged from behind the thick cloud cover.

Under the soft and cold moonlight, the two men faced each other in the shadow of the magnolia tree. An evening breeze was blowing, a fragrance floating in the air. It was a very familiar scene from the old days, and it remained quiet for a while.

Rong Yuan stared at his former friend for a long time and suddenly stretched out his hand, pinched the other man’s chin, and unceremoniously bit the lips that he both hated and longed for. “This mouth of yours, have other people been using it too? Filthy. How did he fuck you? Huh?” Rong Yuan grabbed Fu Yucheng’s hair fiercely, biting and nibbling all the way from the beautifully-shaped lips to his neck. “How can you be so selfish? You simply make me sick… I really want to kill you… How could you do that to me…? You liar, you used me… I hate you…”