OVPBM 14
by MochiChapter 14 – “Having a Desire for Control Is a Good Thing.”
After Lu Yunwan’s back disappeared around the corner, Pei Zhaoan slammed his wineglass against the wall with a bang.
The crimson liquid splashed across the white wall like sprayed blood.
Pei Zhaoan did not spare the wall another glance. He took out a white silk handkerchief, wiped the liquid from his hands, then turned and opened a hidden door.
A young human dressed in a black silk night robe stood up from beside the table.
“P-Pei… Mr. Pei?” He looked at Pei Zhaoan nervously.
“Mhm.”
The room lights were not on. The natural light on the seafloor was so faint it was nearly imperceptible.
The human subconsciously took a step back, gripping the edge of the wooden table tightly with his hand.
Pei Zhaoan stopped where he was and raised his gaze to examine him.
As a merman, he could clearly see it. The man across from him was filled with fear and helplessness, like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
Not like him. He would never have such a look in his eyes…
An inexplicable irritation stirred in Pei Zhaoan’s heart.
He suddenly leaned down, pressing the man down onto the table, and viciously bit down on the slightly parted lips.
The abrupt movement frightened the other person, who instinctively began to struggle and push him away.
Just as despair surged once more, Pei Zhaoan stopped.
He slowly lifted the wrist of the person beneath him. Seeing that the other party was still wearing gloves as he had demanded, he finally revealed a satisfied smile.
The next second, Pei Zhaoan tugged one glove off and gently brushed his fingertips over the slender wrist bone.
“He has a scar here,” Pei Zhaoan said, trailing a line of light kisses along the man’s wrist.
“Y-Yes…”
“That makes you look even more like him.”
As Pei Zhaoan’s words fell, a sharp pain spread from the wrist.
“It hurts!”
By the time the man reacted, a thin, elongated scar had already appeared on his wrist.
A light breeze lifted the gauze curtain, and a sliver of pale light finally seeped into the room through the gap, illuminating a face that bore five or six parts resemblance to Lu Yunwan.
Pei Zhaoan leaned in once more. As he scattered soft kisses beside the man’s ear, he clenched his teeth and said, “Sooner or later, I’ll kill you.”
The man had always known that the “you” in Pei Zhaoan’s words was not himself, but the Empire’s lofty Regent.
* * *
After venting verbally, Lu Yunwan was in an excellent mood.
He boarded the starship directly, leaving the chaos of Capital Planet behind as he flew toward the far side of the galaxy, not sparing a single thought for what Pei Zhaoan might be doing after being put through that performance.
As they were about to arrive at Planet Cangrui, a small auxiliary craft flew over and docked with the starship.
“Brother Yunwan!” A teenager wearing a light blue T-shirt ran briskly into the cabin, happily placing the gift in his hands onto the table. “I heard you went to the Capital Planet. I was worried I’d miss you, but I didn’t expect to run into you here.”
After speaking, he plopped down onto the sofa opposite Lu Yunwan and grabbed a cup from the table, about to drink.
He had brown hair and looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, bearing a slight resemblance to Lu Yunwan.
—This was the original host’s younger brother, Lu Sirong.
He was studying at Imperial University. Come to think of it, this was the first time Lu Yunwan had seen his only relative since transmigrating.
Seeing family, he should have been happy. However, the past messages between the original host and the other party that Lu Yunwan had seen on the optical-brain told him one thing clearly.
The Regent would never be this normal.
“There’s coffee in that cup.” He turned off the optical-brain, walked over to Lu Sirong’s side, and smilingly took the cup out of the teenager’s hand.
Lu Yunwan ordered his subordinate, “Pour a glass of plain water.”
Chu Xuanzhou, who was seated on the other side, also lifted his eyes to look over.
Lu Sirong pouted, looking somewhat helpless. “Fine.”
Unexpectedly, Lu Yunwan did not let him off so easily. “Change your clothes. Put on something white,” he said again.
“No freedom to eat or drink, no freedom to move around, and every time I go out there’s a whole group of people following me…” The smile on Lu Sirong’s face faded bit by bit. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Brother Yunwan, why do you always control me so much? I’m not a kid anymore.”
Isn’t that right!
Lu Yunwan wanted to complain himself. The original host was clearly someone who hated dealing with trivial matters.
Yet for some reason, whenever he faced Lu Sirong, his desire for control skyrocketed.
From food, clothing, housing, and transportation to social interactions, every move Lu Sirong made, even every second of his time, was under Lu Yunwan’s control.
The living person right in front of him was like a remote-controlled toy.
Seeing that Lu Yunwan did not speak, Lu Sirong stubbornly held his ground. He simply flopped back onto the sofa and refused to leave.
Lu Yunwan: ……
The original work never described their interactions in detail. Compromise was obviously not something the Regent would do, but for the moment, he truly had no idea how he was supposed to make this brother, right in the middle of his rebellious phase, behave.
He subconsciously shifted his gaze away, only to collide with the questioning look in Chu Xuanzhou’s eyes that he had not managed to withdraw in time.
Clearly, the protagonist had been observing for quite a while.
“What is Your Highness looking at?” Lu Yunwan walked over and stopped behind Chu Xuanzhou, asking in a calm, unhurried tone, “Curious why I manage these things?”
Perhaps because he had acted with Chu Xuanzhou too many times, Lu Yunwan had actually developed a conditioned reflex. The moment he saw the protagonist, he slipped straight into character.
The instant the words left his mouth, inspiration suddenly struck him.
Chu Xuanzhou hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he still nodded. “Yes, Your Excellency.”
Lu Yunwan smiled, his gaze suddenly drifting toward the view beyond the porthole.
“Your Highness, do you know? In this world, there is nothing that remains unchanged or can be held forever.”
“On the contrary, at any given moment, you may lose everything.”
Lu Yunwan’s voice was slightly hoarse, and between every word was a deep sense of reluctance and nostalgia, as though he had sunk into a memory of the past.
At the sound of his voice, even Lu Sirong, who had been sulking, could not help but listen intently.
“When the Empire was founded in Stellar Year 1003, that remarkable ruler would never have imagined that one day the authority of the imperial family would fall into the hands of someone like me, a human. Nor did I ever expect that one day, all my family members except Sirong would die in a ridiculous star-pirate raid.”
Lu Sirong suddenly snapped his head up, clenching his fists tightly.
Lu Yunwan’s family?1Chu Xuanzhou’s thought.
On the star network, aside from Lu Sirong, there was not the slightest trace of information about any other members of Lu Yunwan’s family.
Before this, Chu Xuanzhou had not even known that they had passed away.
“Brother Yunwan…” Lu Sirong’s voice trembled.
Lu Yunwan still wore a smile on his face. He gently patted Chu Xuanzhou on the shoulder, then leaned close to his ear and said softly, “Your Highness, tell me. If I had brought them to my side back then, or stationed people to guard them twenty-four hours a day, would the outcome have been different?”
The merman remained silent for a long time before finally nodding slowly.
“So there is nothing wrong with indulging in this feeling of gain and loss.” Chu Xuanzhou’s reaction pleased Lu Yunwan. He smiled and straightened up, walking toward the porthole.
“That taught me something,” Lu Yunwan pressed his hand against the porthole, gazing at Planet Cangrui not far away as he murmured, “The more you care about something, the more tightly you must keep it under control…”
‘Only then will it not be lost.’
“Brother Yunwan, so this is how you’ve always thought about it… I always thought, thought that you had already forgotten what happened back then…” Lu Sirong slowly bit his lip, holding back tears as he spoke.
Perhaps because the topic was too heavy, the cabin suddenly fell silent.
No, the original host probably really had forgotten… Lu Yunwan could not help but complain inwardly.
Not long ago, he had thoroughly combed through all the information left behind by the original host, and only then did he find scattered records about that incident.
It seemed that because he had been busy with official duties, the original host had only sent subordinates to deal with the matter perfunctorily and had not even gone to the scene himself. Truly cold-blooded to the extreme.
Lu Sirong really was simple and easy to fool.
Through the reflection on the porthole, Lu Yunwan saw a trace of guilt appear in Chu Xuanzhou’s eyes.
He felt that he should not have made Lu Yunwan recall this matter.
Seeing the protagonist’s expression, Lu Yunwan, fully immersed in his act, suddenly felt that he had to say a few more lines. He absolutely could not let this topic go to waste.
“Having a desire for control is a good thing.” Lu Yunwan turned and walked toward Chu Xuanzhou. Starlight streamed in from outside the porthole, coating his body in a layer of cold light. “Losing control is what should truly inspire fear,” he said.
“Whether it is what you cherish, your authority, or even the entire Empire in the future… You must grip it firmly in your hand. You absolutely cannot let it be taken away by others.” Lu Yunwan said with grave sincerity.
After my staged death, the protagonist has to keep the Empire firmly under control!
“Only by controlling it forever can it completely belong to you.”
Lu Yunwan slowly bent down, pressing Chu Xuanzhou’s fingers downward, guiding them into a loose fist.
“You must never let it slip away.”
The youth suddenly lifted his gaze to look at Lu Yunwan, his eyes slightly bewildered, as though he had not yet fully understood Lu Yunwan’s words.
“Does Your Highness have something you wish to hold tightly in your hand?”
“No.” After hesitating for a few seconds, Chu Xuanzhou shook his head, just as Lu Yunwan had expected.
Lu Yunwan smiled. Leaning close to Chu Xuanzhou’s ear, he whispered softly, “One day, Your Highness. You will certainly have something you wish to control.”
𓇼 ˚｡⋆ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞⋆｡˚ 𓇼
Author’s Notes:
Teacher Lu’s class has started XD;
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