Chapter 35: He’s Just Jealous
“Really not going to consider it? More people means more fun! Whatever issues you have can be resolved at the Mahjong table. It’s much more relaxing than you guys plotting against each other…”
Before Huangfu Changan could finish babbling, Nangong Liyue’s gaze suddenly shot toward the door, sharp as a cold blade.
“Who is outside?!”
As he spoke, he flicked his sleeve and struck a palm strike. Boom! The door was blasted open. A figure swayed outside, and a blur of brocade clothing was knocked to the ground by the force of the palm wind.
Huangfu Changan looked toward the sound. Recognizing that the person who fell outside the door was Nangong Jingluan, she was slightly startled and immediately rushed over to help him up.
“Little Luan, why did you run over here? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Nangong Jingluan clutched his chest with one hand, howling in pain, looking as if his eyes might roll back and he might faint dead away at any moment. His tongue stuck out, and he couldn’t spit out a single syllable for a long time.
Seeing this, Huangfu Changan couldn’t help but turn back and glare at Nangong Liyue, complaining.
“It’s all your fault. Why did you hit so hard for no reason? Think you’re amazing just because you know martial arts?”
Nangong Liyue’s face turned cold. He stood aside with his hands in his sleeves, chin raised arrogantly. Hearing the complaint, he merely gave a dismissive snort.
“Who knew who was hiding outside the door? If it were a spy planted in the princely manor by the Crown Prince’s faction, wouldn’t a light strike have let them escape for nothing?”
“Tsk…” Huangfu Changan smacked her lips in disdain, casting a sidelong glance at him. “This Young Master thought the Prince had some great ability, but unexpectedly, even your own manor isn’t safe. Being suspicious all day long, aren’t you tired?”
Nangong Liyue gave a faint, ghostly smile. His gaze fell on Nangong Jingluan’s bruised and swollen face, offering an ambiguous sneer that made it impossible to guess what was going through his mind.
“The Crown Prince is deeply shrewd, his methods insidious and cunning, impossible to guard against… As long as the Crown Prince is not removed, This Prince will not have a day of peace. Let alone the entire manor, This Prince cannot even be at ease in his own sleeping quarters.”
Hearing him say this, Huangfu Changan couldn’t help but frown, looking up to question him.
“Hey! You two are biological brothers after all. Must you fight to the death like fire and water? Is there… no room for maneuver at all?!”
Nangong Liyue flicked his sleeve, standing with his hands behind his back, gazing at the azure sky. The morning glow cast a warm hue on his face, yet it couldn’t melt the sharp, indifferent expression in the slightest.
His thin lips parted slightly, spitting out two syllables. The tone was light, yet incomparably final.
“None.”
As the words fell, Nangong Jingluan’s eyes darkened slightly. Although Huangfu Changan had long guessed this answer, she couldn’t help but ask one more question.
“Why? Is power truly that important in your eyes?!”
Questioned by Huangfu Changan like this, for some unknown reason, Nangong Liyue felt a tightness in his chest. He hadn’t wanted to explain too much, but after a pause, he couldn’t stop his voice from rising. Even his usually eternally cold, demonic face was covered with a thin layer of frost.
“This isn’t your first day knowing This Prince. You know very well in your heart how the Crown Prince treats This Prince… It isn’t that This Prince is blinded by greed and ambition, but that the Crown Prince simply cannot tolerate This Prince!”
Rubbing her chin, Huangfu Changan tilted her head and thought for a moment. Finding it very reasonable, she nodded in agreement.
“True enough…”
Leaving aside the fact that Prince Li’s mother died at the hands of the Empress—a grudge filled with enough love and hate to sing about for seven days and nights—just consider when little Liyue was sent to Yelang as a hostage; the Crown Prince’s faction had sent people to assassinate him countless times, and she had even encountered it twice… That posture of wanting him dead was something no one could easily let go of!
Looking up at Nangong Liyue’s frosty expression, Huangfu Changan felt somewhat guilty. She reached out and tugged at the corner of his clothes, laughing ingratiatingly to appease him.
“Hey, don’t be angry! I didn’t say you were blinded by greed and ambition… I just can’t stand seeing you brothers killing each other. Regardless of who kicks the bucket in the end, I’ll feel heartbroken…”
Hearing this, Nangong Liyue’s expression didn’t soften. He only sneered and made a move to brush away her dog paw.
“Then go feel heartbroken for the Crown Prince!”
“Hey, hey, hey…” Huangfu Changan quickly hugged Nangong Liyue’s thigh, smiling cheekily to coax him. “I won’t feel heartbroken for the Crown Prince, okay?! I’ll only feel heartbroken for you, alright? No need to be wildly jealous like this…”
Nangong Liyue looked down from above, glancing at her coldly.
“Who are you saying is wildly jealous?”
“Me, me, me… I’m wildly jealous! I’m wildly jealous!”
Only then did Nangong Liyue compose his expression, lightly tugging at his hem, speaking indifferently.
“Let go.”
Huangfu Changan looked up, carefully verifying, “Then you’re not jealous… ah no, then you’re not angry?”
Nangong Liyue raised his brow, giving another inexplicable snort.
“Why should This Prince be angry?”
“Ah… nothing!” Huangfu Changan immediately let go of her claws, then pulled the corners of her mouth into a sycophantic smile. “Pretend I didn’t say anything!”
“Dad—, Young Master…” Beside them, Nangong Jingluan finally caught his breath. He scrambled up and made as if to throw himself into Huangfu Changan’s arms, complaining pitifully. “My chest hurts so much… rub it for me, rub it for me… okay?”
“Okay, where does it hurt? Daddy will rub it for you…”
Huangfu Changan turned back. Just as she reached out to press the bruise on Nangong Jingluan’s chest, Nangong Jingluan was suddenly hoisted up by Nangong Liyue before her fingers could even touch his clothes. Liyue then channeled internal energy and struck his chest with a palm, clearing all the stagnant blood and qi in his body.
With this, Nangong Jingluan couldn’t yell anymore. When Nangong Liyue let go, he only stumbled back two steps, hugging Huangfu Changan’s arm and hiding behind her with lingering fear.
Nangong Liyue refused to let him off easily. His sharp, cold gaze was like a sword, seeming ready to pierce through Nangong Jingluan’s soul.
“This courtyard is a forbidden area of the Prince’s Manor, heavily guarded outside. Unless This Prince permits it, outsiders are absolutely not allowed to enter… So, how did you get in?”
Pursing his lips, Nangong Jingluan lowered his head. The fist hidden under his sleeve clenched slightly, but he didn’t make a sound.
After a moment of silence, Nangong Liyue raised his eyebrow slightly.
“Hmm?”
Biting his lower lip, Nangong Jingluan buried his head even lower, but still didn’t answer.
Seeing Nangong Liyue’s gaze gradually becoming fierce, Huangfu Changan immediately gave Nangong Jingluan a shove, intervening to smooth things over.
“That’s right! Weren’t you still sleeping in the room when I left this morning? How long has it been since I left, and you’ve already chased after me? Do you have to be so clingy… You know what they say, distance produces beauty. I think we should keep a little distance… Go on, you go back first, I’ll come find you later…”
“Hold it!”
Drawing the sword from his waist, Nangong Liyue placed it straight on Nangong Jingluan’s shoulder. He narrowed his fox-eyes slightly, shooting cold, sharp light from his demonic purple pupils.
“You haven’t answered This Prince yet. How did you get in?”
“Hey! What are you doing?!” Swatting Nangong Liyue’s hand away, Huangfu Changan glared at him reproachfully. “Guarding against fire and theft shouldn’t go this far, right? Jingluan is still young, how can he harm you… Don’t scare him…”
“Young?”
Nangong Liyue suddenly hooked his lips in a faint sneer. With a wave of his hand, he stabbed the long sword into the pillar beside them, piercing straight through its heart!
“This Prince knew how to kill at age six. He is already ten now; he isn’t young.”
Huangfu Changan was noncommittal. “You are you, he is he. How can he compare to you?”
“What?” No longer dwelling on Nangong Jingluan’s age, Nangong Liyue raised the tail of his eye, smiling faintly as he swept a meaningful look at Huangfu Changan. “You protect him so much; could it be you’ve taken a fancy to him? Heh… you really rob the cradle and the grave, refusing no one…”
“Pfft! Fancy your brother-in-law! What ‘robbing the cradle and the grave, refusing no one’—that sounds terrible…” Huangfu Changan’s face went pale, instantly displeased. Too lazy to deal with Nangong Liyue anymore, she grabbed Nangong Jingluan’s hand and turned to leave. “Let’s go!”
Nangong Liyue lowered his brows slightly, standing with hands behind his back, not speaking to stop them.
After two steps, it was Nangong Jingluan who suddenly stopped. As if making up his mind, he looked back at Nangong Liyue, then looked up at Huangfu Changan. Then, biting his silver teeth, he spoke word by word in a tone that was quite tragic and aggrieved. His voice was as thin as a mosquito’s hum, but clearly audible.
“I was… thrown in by someone!”
“Huh?!” Huangfu Changan blinked, confused. “Thrown by who? What exactly happened?!”
“It was that guy from last night…”
Huangfu Changan couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her eye… Could it be Little Si again?!
Nangong Jingluan took a deep breath, throwing caution to the wind, his speech speeding up.
“I woke up not long after you left this morning. Seeing you weren’t there, I asked the servants. They said the Prince called you here, so I came looking for you. But the guards at the gate wouldn’t let me in, so I waited for you outside. Unexpectedly, that guy suddenly popped out and wanted to beat me up again… I tried to dodge him, but after running a few steps, he caught me. After threatening me viciously, he casually threw me in like a dog…”
Hearing this, a silence fell over the corridor.
A moment later, Nangong Liyue stepped forward and gently patted his shoulder.
“This Prince… heard nothing.”
Huangfu Changan covered her mouth and coughed lightly, nodding in agreement.
“Me neither…”
Leaving the Fine Cloud Residence, Nangong Jingluan tugged tightly at Huangfu Changan’s sleeve. After walking for a while, he was still somewhat resentful and felt it wasn’t worth it for Huangfu Changan.
“Daddy, Prince Li treats you like that, why do you still treat him well?!”
Huangfu Changan didn’t think much of it. “What’s wrong with Prince Li? I think he treats me pretty well!”
Nangong Jingluan’s little face collapsed, deeply feeling that Young Master Zheju needed to take her medicine.
“Where does he treat you well?! He’s so fierce!”
Yet Huangfu Changan hooked her lips happily, appearing to enjoy it.
“He isn’t fierce, he’s just jealous…”
Nangong Jingluan: “…” Really?! Which eye did you see that with? Anyway, he didn’t see it!
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