GSY Chapter53

Cen Yelan spoke coldly and seriously, with no room for maneuver. Yuan Zheng’s expression froze, and all his expectations were dashed, which made him feel a little embarrassed. He was always arrogant, but he still held back and smiled reluctantly, “It’s not like I asked you to stop being a general.” He complained, half-truthfully, “I’m just inviting you to stay for a while, why are you in such a hurry?”

Cen Yelan’s eyes were calm, and he looked at Yuan Zheng indifferently. Yuan Zheng’s heart sank, and he felt that Cen Yelan looked just like when they first met and were disgusted with each other, as if all these days were just his own wishful thinking, and he could hardly keep the smile on his face.

Cen Yelan said, “Don’t worry about it. When you return to the capital, we won’t have to see each other again.”

Yuan Zheng suddenly raised his head, stared at Cen Yelan, and said, “What do you mean by won’t have to see each other again?”

Cen Yelan said calmly, “Your Highness doesn’t understand?”

“The bridge is the bridge, the road is the road, there is no need to see each other again.”

Yuan Zheng felt a sudden pain in his heart when he heard those words. He took a deep breath and said, “Cen Yelan, do you know what you are talking about?”

Cen Yelan said, “You are the one who doesn’t know what you are talking about, Yuan Zheng.” He turned his eyes away and looked at the endless wilderness outside Hanzhou City. He raised his hand and touched the city wall. The wall was rough and cold, soaked with blood that had turned black over the years. “The struggle for imperial power has always been cruel. Now that the position of the Eastern Palace has not been decided. You are the legitimate son of His Majesty. Do you think you can avoid it? Will they let you live as an idle king in peace?”

Yuan Zheng was impatient when he heard this, his face was grim. “So what? I will do these things myself—”

Before he could finish his words, Cen Yelan interrupted him and asked, “How are you going to do it?” He pulled the corner of his mouth and sneered, “Throw a tantrum or just walk away and hide behind your emperor father and uncle for the rest of your life?”

Yuan Zheng is getting more and more restless, staring at Cen Yelan fiercely, but Cen Yelan remains unmoved and calmly says, “You can’t avoid it, Your Highness the Seventh Prince.”

He spoke the last few words lightly but deeply, and every word hit Yuan Zheng’s heart with a thousand pounds. He punched the city wall fiercely and said angrily, “Cen Yelan!”

Yuan Zheng tried to calm himself down. He said, “Whether I can avoid it or not, and how to do it, is my business. I only ask you.”

He paused, thinking about Cen Yelan’s words, ‘The bridge is the bridge, the road is the road’, and his tongue felt bitter. He stared at Cen Yelan and said, “Cen Yelan, I just want to ask you, all these days, have you ever—had feelings for me…”

Yuan Zheng just wanted to ask Cen Yelan, they had been through life and death together. Has Cen Yelan changed his mind about him these days? Does he like him at all? But Cen Yelan’s face was too calm, as calm as a mountain of black ice and snow, as if Yuan Zheng’s words of love could not move him at all.

Cen Yelan said, “No.”

Cen Yelan raised his eyes, looked at Yuan Zheng, and said, “I’m not, I don’t like you, not at all.” He even raised the corner of his mouth and asked Yuan Zheng, “How could I like you?”

Yuan Zheng stared at Cen Yelan in a daze and said, “You’re lying.”

“You’re lying.” Yuan Zheng’s eyes fell on the kiss mark on Cen Yelan’s neck, as if he had caught a ray of hope. He tightly grasped Cen Yelan’s wrist. “Cen Yelan, ask yourself, do you really not like me at all?”

“If not, why didn’t you refuse when I tell you that I like and love you!”

“You and I, over and over again, how emotional you like it, do you think you can fake it!”

Cen Yelan said, “Why should I refuse?”

He said calmly, “Yuan Zheng, have you forgotten how we started?”

Yuan Zheng’s fingers trembled, but he didn’t say anything.

Cen Yelan said, “I have never forgotten how you stepped on my pain, peeling off my old sores again and again and dragging me into nightmares.” He looked at Yuan Zheng and said, “You don’t know how much I hate you.”

“I begged you to let me go at that time. I almost knelt on the ground and begged you to let me go. And you said.” Cen Yelan’s voice was slightly hoarse, but the corners of his mouth curled up. He whispered in Yuan Zheng’s ear, “How can that be? I haven’t had enough fun yet.”

Yuan Zheng’s face turned pale, and he took a step back in panic.

Cen Yelan said, “I hate myself for being a monster, and you, Your Highness the Seventh Prince, the Seventh Prince, reminded me again and again when I was trying hard to get rid of the past and forget my own shame.”

“A neither male nor female monster, ominous, a star of disaster.” Cen Yelan spat out these words, not caring at all that he would hurt eight hundred of his own while hurting one thousand enemies¹It means that if you fight head-on with others, it is not only the enemy that suffers heavy losses, but both sides.. His heart was filled with bloody pain, and he said, “Yuan Zheng, how could I not hate you?”

Yuan Zheng’s eyes turned red, his lips moved, and he said in a hoarse voice, “No, no… Cen Yelan, it’s not like that, you are not a monster, not…”

Yuan Zheng used to be an eloquent man, but now he seemed to have a broken tongue, with a mouth full of blood, and even his words sounded as if they were pierced with pain.

Cen Yelan looked at Yuan Zheng, smiled slightly, and said, “Why not? Didn’t you just want to play at first?”

It was as if Yuan Zheng was struck by lightning and suddenly let go of Cen Yelan’s hand. Cen Yelan rubbed his wrist, and it seemed that the temperature of Yuan Zheng’s fingers still remained where his fingertips passed.

Cen Yelan said, “An eye for an eye.”

“Since Your Highness has given me your heart, if I refuse so easily, wouldn’t I be letting Your Highness down?” Cen Yelan smiled. His smile was really beautiful, careless, and a little cold.

He looked at Yuan Zheng, whose face was pale. The young man’s eyes were dim and red. He couldn’t hide his love, nor could he hide his sadness. He was young after all.

Yuan Zheng looked at Cen Yelan and murmured, “An eye for an eye.” He smiled miserably, “Ha, an eye for an eye, what a good way!”

Yuan Zheng suddenly grabbed Cen Yelan’s collar and slammed him against the wall behind him. “As expected of the commander of the Northern Territory, he endured humiliation and kill with one blow. General Cen calculates so well!”

Cen Yelan groaned, took a short breath, looked at Yuan Zheng, lowered his eyes, and slowly said, “Your Highness, you are too naive—hmm!”

The young man’s hot lips and tongue came up to him all at once, kissing him urgently and hard, not just a kiss, but like a trapped beast biting him, wishing he could bite his lips and tongue to pieces and eat them, chewing up those heart-piercing words as if they were never spoken. Cen Yelan tasted the fishy-sweet blood and felt pain in his mouth. He pushed Yuan Zheng away with force, leaned against the wall, panting, his cheeks red, and a trace of blood at the corner of his lips.

Yuan Zheng wiped off the blood and rubbed his lips as if in revenge until they turned red and hot. He asked hurriedly, “Cen Yelan, if you hate me so much, why don’t you just kill me, ah?”

“You obviously had so many chances, and I gave you my life.” Yuan Zheng said hatefully, “Beicang Pass, Luoyun Valley, anywhere—why didn’t you kill me?!”

Cen Yelan bit his finger fiercely. When their eyes met, Cen Yelan loosened his teeth. He stood up straight and said indifferently, “Because your last name is Yuan.”

“You are from the royal family.” Cen Yelan said, “The Cen family has been loyal to the royal family and to Dayan for generations.”

Yuan Zheng looked at Cen Yelan’s indifferent face and felt a mouthful of blood stuck in his throat. The light in his eyes suddenly disappeared.

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  It means that if you fight head-on with others, it is not only the enemy that suffers heavy losses, but both sides.