OVPBM 18

Chapter 18 – “Your Highness, Never Trust Me.”

The tiny bubbles rising from the bottom of the pool obscured Lu Yunwan’s vision.

He simply shut his eyes tightly again and, relying on instinct, moved closer to Chu Xuanzhou.

Their lips collided just like that.

Amid the piercing alarm that echoed throughout the entire laboratory, Lu Yunwan fumbled forward and bit hard at the youth’s lips, trying to use pain to force him to part them and pass over oxygen.

However, human teeth, flat and even, were practically harmless to a merman.

He bit down fiercely, yet Chu Xuanzhou’s lips remained tightly sealed.

The icy pool water coiled around Lu Yunwan like a giant python, the chill seeping little by little into his bones.

In his daze, Lu Yunwan even felt that… Chu Xuanzhou’s embrace was colder than the water.

As his muscles contracted rapidly and involuntarily, a mouthful of water nearly choked its way into his windpipe.

…He could not give up at a time like this!

Absolutely not.

Lu Yunwan leaned in once more. This time, instead of biting Chu Xuanzhou’s lips again, he hesitated briefly and then gently licked them with the tip of his tongue.

His movements were careful and tentative, devoid of even a trace of lust.

Human lips and tongue were soft and warm. At his touch, Chu Xuanzhou’s lips tingled as if struck by a faint electric current.

The sensation began at his lips and spread through his limbs and bones.

An unfamiliar feeling rampaged through his body. Chu Xuanzhou unconsciously loosened his fingers and, without realizing it, parted his lips.

Deprived of oxygen, Lu Yunwan’s mind had already gone blank.

The instant the young man opened his mouth, he withdrew his tongue and pressed in deeply, desperately drawing oxygen from him.

But as if he knew exactly what Lu Yunwan wanted, Chu Xuanzhou controlled his breathing, gently biting down on Lu Yunwan’s tongue and luring him to deepen the kiss.

A merman’s hearing was naturally powerful, and submerged in water, he could gather every faint sound around him.

Lu Yunwan’s strained breaths beneath the surface became especially distinct.

Chu Xuanzhou knew he was in a state of extreme oxygen deprivation. Yet in the midst of his awakening, he could not persuade himself to release the person in his arms and send him to shore.

This was the nature of living things.

Lu Yunwan’s consciousness gradually faded until his vision was swallowed by darkness.

Mermen possessed two respiratory systems. They could easily extract oxygen from water and convert it in their lungs.

Yet Chu Xuanzhou did not immediately pull Lu Yunwan out of the abyss of suffocation. Instead, he waited until the moment he was on the verge of complete oxygen deprivation and unconsciousness before slowly passing him a breath of air.

By now, Lu Yunwan’s limbs had gone limp from lack of oxygen. In his blank and fading world, there remained only the merman’s icy lips and tongue, and the thin trickle of air.

Even when Chu Xuanzhou’s teeth tore his lips until blood flowed freely, Lu Yunwan felt nothing.

This was a kiss steeped in extreme oxygen deprivation.

Lu Yunwan’s mind drifted in a state between dream and wakefulness.

Interstellar realm, the Regent, mecha… Every bit of that chaos vanished from his mind. In Lu Yunwan’s world, there was nothing left but this kiss and Chu Xuanzhou.

Mermen were creatures of extreme beauty and danger.

Especially when ruled by instinct.

Suffocation and pain struck him one after another. Lu Yunwan had no choice but to endure it numbly.

He did not know how long he had remained underwater. Only when his body began to tremble violently from the cold and the taste of blood filled his mouth did the merman finally defy instinct and carry him slowly upward.

Then Chu Xuanzhou sank back into the water.

His black tail whipped up a surge of waves, splashing against the cold, pale floor.

With a loud splash, oxygen finally rushed into Lu Yunwan’s lungs.

After several seconds of blankness, Lu Yunwan, slumped against the edge of the pool, gradually regained consciousness.

It’s gone… My first kiss is just gone like that?!

In his previous life, he had only lived to eighteen. Forget kissing or dating, he had barely even met a handful of living people.

He never could have imagined that his first kiss would disappear like this, utterly devoid of romance or warmth, and with… the protagonist?

“Cough, cough, cough…”

The burning pain in his lungs arrived belatedly, and Lu Yunwan could not help coughing.

A stabbing ache pierced his mind. Blood trailed down from the corner of his lips.

He saw Song Feiyan stride quickly toward him, eyes wide as he stared over. “Lu Yunwan, you… You didn’t drown?”

Then he noticed the wound on Lu Yunwan’s lips.

Though he felt miserable beyond words, Lu Yunwan, remembering to maintain his persona, forced a faint smile at that moment.

“Why would I drown? I was just playing with His Highness for a bit.”

He would sooner die than admit he had truly been dragged under completely off guard.

Then, slow and ambiguous, he brushed his fingers across his lips, trying to wipe away the blood.

“You…”

Only belatedly did Song Feiyan understand what had happened underwater.

“I didn’t expect you to have fallen to this extent,” Song Feiyan said with a cold laugh as he looked at Lu Yunwan. “So this is how the Regent usually plays?”

Not exactly…

“Professor Song is interested as well?” Lu Yunwan shot him a provocative glance.

Song Feiyan let out a derisive snort. Clenching his teeth, he said, “I really shouldn’t have overestimated you. The Regent truly has become just as they say, a human who is ‘more merfolk than a merfolk.’”

“I should never have had any expectations of you.” He enunciated each word as if carving them in stone.

The laboratory alarm had yet to stop. Smiling, Lu Yunwan braced himself against a nearby machine and slowly stood up.

His skin was a sickly pallor, and the trail of blood winding from the corner of his lips was the only color on his face.

After being deprived of oxygen for too long, his voice had turned unbearably hoarse. He walked slowly to Song Feiyan’s side and, forcing all his strength into a smile, said, “So Professor Song once had expectations of me?”

“That is truly unbelievably foolish.”

In that instant, he saw in Song Feiyan’s eyes a blaze of fury, boundless hatred, and… disappointment.

* * *

Aboard the starship bound for the Capital Planet, Lu Yunwan reclined against the sofa, staring at the light screen.

An itch like ants gnawing suddenly rose from his lungs, spreading in an instant through his entire chest cavity.

He began to cough uncontrollably. Mechanically, he lifted a silk handkerchief to his lips, forcibly stifling the heart-rending sound of it.

A few seconds later, he lowered his hand.

The handkerchief, clean only moments ago, was now completely soaked in blood.

Without sparing it a second glance, Lu Yunwan casually tossed it into the nearby waste disposal system.

Chu Xuanzhou, who had just stepped into the cabin and witnessed the scene, hurried over. Stopping before him, he said, “Your Excellency, are you truly going to the Capital Planet now?”

Unlike mental power, the awakening of the bloodline was a relatively long and intermittent process.

Chu Xuanzhou’s bloodline had not yet fully awakened, but his mind had temporarily returned to normal clarity.

Lowering his eyes, he bit his lip in unconscious self-reproach and ventured, “If it weren’t for me…”

The prolonged hypothermia and oxygen deprivation had nearly crushed Lu Yunwan’s body, already more than half ruined by years of warfare.

Now, old injuries and new ailments struck together.

His intolerance to cold had grown increasingly severe. Even indoors at a constant temperature, he had to drape himself in a heavy coat. His pale, slender hands were completely hidden within gloves.

By now, the entire Empire knew that the Regent had fallen gravely ill.

“No.” Lu Yunwan gently pressed a finger to Chu Xuanzhou’s lips, cutting off what he was about to say. “I told you, Your Highness never needs to say ‘sorry’ to me.”

After a brief pause, Lu Yunwan slowly smiled, gazing at Chu Xuanzhou with warmth. “And that kiss was very much worth it, Your Highness.”

Unlike Song Feiyan, who had believed Lu Yunwan’s nonsense, Chu Xuanzhou could not understand why Lu Yunwan would risk danger to approach him.

The young man could not help but probe for his purpose, yet Lu Yunwan’s answer caught him completely off guard.

As an illegitimate child without any mental power, Chu Xuanzhou had always been despised and ignored.

He had long since accepted that he had been born into a low station.

After all, even his own mother had once said that Chu Xuanzhou’s life was worth less than one of her necklaces.

Yet the most exalted person in the Empire was now telling him, with utmost sincerity, that it was “worth it”?

That word had never existed in Chu Xuanzhou’s dictionary.

Lu Yunwan’s cherishing made him uneasy.

But alongside his suspicion, the youth could not help wanting to seize that feeling…

Lu Yunwan slowly reached out and drew the youth closer.

Chu Xuanzhou dropped to one knee at the Regent’s side. A faint scent of alcohol drifted into his nose.

—A bottle of liquor sat by Lu Yunwan’s hand. It carried a mild analgesic and numbing effect.

He was using it to ease his discomfort.

“Why didn’t you refuse the trip to the Capital Planet?” Chu Xuanzhou could not help asking again.

Several hours earlier, the Emperor had summoned him to the Capital Planet under the pretext of reviewing the Empire’s recent financial situation.

Lu Yunwan could easily have refused that puppet.

“Because His Majesty wishes to see me.” Slightly tipsy, Lu Yunwan propped his forehead with his fingers and smiled at Chu Xuanzhou. “His Majesty suspects whether I am truly ill, so he wants to see me with his own eyes.”

“The entire Empire knows you’re ill. Doing that makes no sense,” the young man could not help voicing his thoughts.

Lu Yunwan slowly closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he shook his head. “No. He’s right.”

Still weakened by illness, the Regent’s voice was languid and frail.

In that moment, Chu Xuanzhou was reminded of how the merfolk had once described him long ago, a human as beautiful and fragile as porcelain.

“Your Highness must remember this well. As a ruler, you must never trust the words of a powerful minister.”

Lu Yunwan knew that Chu Xuanzhou was suspicious by nature, yet it was clear that after everything he had done, the youth was no longer the same as when they first met.

He felt satisfied, but having read countless novels, Lu Yunwan was also deeply worried. He had inexplicably transmigrated here. What if he had been given some kind of quick-transmigration script, and one day he would be sent to another world while the original host returned?

If that happened and the original host used the protagonist’s trust to continue courting disaster… Would he not have dragged Chu Xuanzhou, along with this entire world, into ruin?!

At that thought, he suddenly opened his eyes.

Leaning forward, Lu Yunwan looked at Chu Xuanzhou and enunciated each word to the youth. “And the one you must least of all trust is the Regent, Lu Yunwan.”

He picked up the glass filled with liquid from the table and slowly swirled it, lowering his voice with faint disdain. “You see, even Song Feiyan once believed in me.”

“Professor Song?”

“Yes.”

After Song Feiyan had said to his face, ‘I should never have had any expectations of you,’ Lu Yunwan had grown curious about their past relationship.

With a casual search, he unexpectedly uncovered things that had never been written in the original novel.

Staring at the wine, Lu Yunwan narrowed his eyes. “He was also a human born on a lower-class planet. After I became the first human at the Imperial Military Academy to receive the Top Cadet medal, he was inspired and managed to escape that hellhole.”

“Do you know what happened later?” Lu Yunwan set the glass down and leaned close to Chu Xuanzhou’s ear.

“Professor Song became a professor at Imperial University of Science and Technology.” That was all Chu Xuanzhou knew.

“Ah.” Pain struck again, forcing Lu Yunwan to pause and steady his breathing before he smiled and shook his head. “That was much later.”

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but Chu Xuanzhou felt a trace of teasing in the Regent’s tone, along with a faint, almost imperceptible helplessness.

“He could have entered the Imperial Research Institute.” Lu Yunwan took a sip of wine and smiled as he looked out the porthole. “But I took that precious opportunity and gave it away as a gift to a merfolk noble.”

“See how pitiful he is.” Lowering his gaze, Lu Yunwan murmured, “That is the price of trusting me…”

If the original host ever comes back, you absolutely must not repeat that mistake!

“So will you deceive me as well?” Chu Xuanzhou interrupted his train of thought, his violet eyes fixing on Lu Yunwan’s.

Lu Yunwan: !!!

Wait, no! What nonsense did I just say?

At last, he snapped back to his senses. Slowly, he lifted his eyes and smiled at Chu Xuanzhou.

His Excellency the Regent did not speak.

He appeared mysterious and profound, but in truth, panic had already turned his heart into chaos.

Hurry and fix this!

Under Chu Xuanzhou’s expectant gaze, Lu Yunwan first shook his head slowly, then suddenly nodded.

He did not answer the question directly. Instead, he looked at Chu Xuanzhou with deep attachment. “Your Highness, my love for you is real.”

The young man gave a light nod.

Lu Yunwan’s words once again awakened the unease that lay buried in Chu Xuanzhou’s heart.

He suddenly realized that he seemed incapable of forgiving… or even imagining, Lu Yunwan’s deception.

—Anyone else in the world could lie to him, but he would never allow Lu Yunwan to deceive him.

The Regent was clearly sitting right in front of him, yet Chu Xuanzhou felt that Lu Yunwan was like a gust of wind.

Unfathomable, liable to vanish at any moment.

No one could keep hold of a gust of wind.

And yet, the more that was so, the more Chu Xuanzhou wanted to hide him away forever within his own world.

Only by gripping him tightly in his hand could he feel at ease.

𓇼 ˚｡⋆ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Author’s Note:

Lu Yunwan: How can he just run off right after kissing me!