OVPBM 19

Chapter 19 – My Past and My Methods Are Not Clean

Years of excessive medication had severely damaged the merman’s nervous system, leaving him afraid of sunlight.

The palace where the Emperor resided year-round was built at the deepest point of the Minan Trench on the Capital Planet.

The starship slowly descended to the seabed. The moment the hatch opened, a wave of damp chill rushed toward them.

Lu Yunwan could not help but lower his head and cough softly.

A heavy black overcoat made from exotic beast fur draped over his shoulders, yet his figure remained slender and upright.

At the instant he stepped out, Lu Yunwan pressed his fingers to his lips and rubbed hard.

In that brief moment, the small bite wound that had not yet healed split open once again.

His originally bloodless lips flushed with a faint red.

Only then did he lower his hand and walk out of the starship.

Seeing this, Chu Xuanzhou, who had followed closely behind him, held his breath. The scene inside the nutrition chamber from a few days ago resurfaced from the depths of his mind.

Subconsciously, Chu Xuanzhou turned his gaze aside, not daring to look at Lu Yunwan again.

“Good morning, Your Excellency the Regent. Please proceed west. His Majesty is waiting for you in the living room.”

A merman dressed in a dark blue suit walked over. Somewhat perfunctorily, he placed a hand against his chest and gave Lu Yunwan a reluctant bow, not even lowering his head.

He made no move to lead the way.

The Regent raised his brows slightly.

Leaning on his cane, Lu Yunwan smiled and remained where he stood. “Very well. However, please inform His Majesty that I will arrive a few minutes late.”

This was not his first visit to the Minan Trench, and everyone in the Empire knew that the Regent possessed an extraordinary memory.

The merman slowly looked toward Lu Yunwan, and after several seconds, finally gritted his teeth, bent down, and said, “I will take you there.”

He had not expected that the Regent would use tardiness as a threat.

Lu Yunwan coughed softly again. This time, he truly had not done it on purpose.

Without the original host’s memories, he genuinely did not know where the living room was, nor could he tell east from west.

* * *

The moment he stepped into the living room, a strange fragrance rushed toward him.

Through a massive crystal screen, Lu Yunwan saw the Emperor standing with his side turned, idly teasing the fish swimming inside a tank with his fingers.

Lowering his head, Lu Yunwan stood behind the screen and reviewed the information about the man in his mind.

The supreme ruler of the Empire was named Chu Zhang. He was not yet sixty years old this year, still considered very young in an interstellar era where the average lifespan reached three hundred.

However, after years of excessive drug use, Chu Zhang’s appearance bore none of that youth, looking far older than his age.

Knowing that Lu Yunwan had arrived, Chu Zhang did not even lift his head.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Pei Zhaoan, who was seated not far away, finally smiled and looked over, reminding him, “Your Majesty, it is His Excellency the Regent.”

“Oh.” The person behind the screen finally turned around. “Lu Yunwan has arrived.” Chu Zhang’s voice was slow and drawn out, putting on airs.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” In the moment he lowered his head, Lu Yunwan could not help rolling his eyes inwardly.

As a puppet emperor, this was about the only way he could assert authority.

Sure enough, Chu Zhang did not invite Lu Yunwan to sit. Instead, he looked past him at Chu Xuanzhou standing behind.

As if he had never seen this son before, he scrutinized the young man. “You resemble your mother very much.” After speaking, he added in a tone both ambiguous and disdainful, “No wonder the Regent likes you.”

Chu Xuanzhou’s mother had once been a famous socialite in the interstellar realm. Besides Chu Zhang, she had maintained ambiguous relationships with many of the Empire’s upper echelons.

Chu Zhang was commenting on his appearance, but he was also mocking the fact that he stayed by Lu Yunwan’s side.

The youth silently lowered his eyes, revealing a suitably fragile expression.

In truth, having grown up on a lower-class planet, he did not care about such remarks at all.

“Sit.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Lu Yunwan stepped back and sat on the sofa to the right, coughing softly once more.

Hearing the faint rasp in Lu Yunwan’s lungs and seeing the small wound on his lips clearly, Chu Zhang could not help but laugh. At the same time, he began to sketch the scene in his mind.

“I did not expect that Your Excellency the Regent would truly fall ill. I heard it even has something to do with Chu Xuanzhou?”

Lu Yunwan smiled, not avoiding the topic. “Yes. His Highness Chu Xuanzhou suddenly experienced a bloodline awakening and accidentally dragged me underwater.”

“Oh? Then you did not suffocate?”

At this, Pei Zhaoan, who had remained silent until now, and even the merman who had brought Lu Yunwan inside earlier, joined in the laughter.

Chu Zhang had asked the question deliberately. A man so steeped in indulgence could tell what had happened the moment he saw Lu Yunwan’s lips.

He was using this method to humiliate Lu Yunwan.

Chu Xuanzhou could not help but observe Lu Yunwan’s reaction.

Having just finished coughing, Lu Yunwan’s voice still carried a trace of hoarseness. Smiling faintly, he slowly rotated his cane before lifting his head to say to Chu Zhang, “I kissed His Highness the Ninth Prince and had him pass oxygen to me. Then we stayed at the bottom of the pool for a while…”

Hearing this, Chu Zhang’s mood brightened considerably. “As expected, Your Excellency the Regent’s amusements are always novel.”

Though Chu Zhang was a puppet, he was not a fool. Being sidelined by Lu Yunwan, a mere human, for so many years had filled his heart with resentment and hatred.

Only at moments like this, when Lu Yunwan allowed himself to be belittled, could Chu Zhang feel a fleeting sense of superiority, enough to make him forget the humiliation he had endured for years.

Chu Xuanzhou realized that Lu Yunwan was deliberately playing along with him.

But why would someone in the position of Regent do such a thing?

A few seconds later, his thoughts were interrupted by Lu Yunwan’s soft cough.

Pei Zhaoan said a few words of concern, while Chu Zhang said disdainfully, “Humans truly are fragile.”

Lu Yunwan did not refute him, nor did he show the slightest displeasure. Smiling, he used a silk handkerchief to wipe away the blood at the corner of his lips. “Yes, Your Majesty. Humans have always been so.”

The faint smear of blood made his lips appear even redder. Against his pale skin and dark lashes, he resembled a poppy in full bloom, just about to wither.

The living room fell abruptly silent.

Perhaps because Lu Yunwan was too cooperative, Chu Zhang began to find it dull.

He waved his hand. “Enough. There will be a regular meeting next week. The Regent will remain on the Capital Planet to preside over it. You may leave after it concludes.”

In truth, even without being told, Lu Yunwan would have presided over the meeting as usual.

But as an emperor in name only, Chu Zhang always relished this illusion of authority.

At his gesture, a merman in a dark blue suit hurried over and placed a small bottle into Chu Zhang’s hand.

Suffering from a severe addiction, he had to take these substances at regular intervals.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Lu Yunwan rose from the sofa and slowly withdrew from the living room.

The damp chill of the deep sea tormented him with every passing second.

It was not only his lungs. Old injuries across his body, even his bones, began to ache.

More importantly, Lu Yunwan had long noticed that the protagonist was observing him.

What had begun as mere perfunctory cooperation with Chu Zhang had therefore turned into a fully committed performance of depravity.

At last, it is finally over!

Lu Yunwan forced himself to leave the living room. Yet the moment he entered the starship, dizziness surged over him again.

His hand moved of its own accord, gripping the young man’s shoulder as he let his chin rest against it.

Lu Yunwan: ……

Perhaps because they had already shared an embrace before, Lu Yunwan froze for only a brief second before lowering his head and murmuring softly, “Support me, Your Highness.”

Chu Xuanzhou hesitated, then slowly raised his hand and placed it against Lu Yunwan’s back.

The human body beneath his palm was trembling lightly.

Even through the heavy cloak, Chu Xuanzhou could feel the delicate, wing-like bones along his back.

Never before had he perceived the fragility of a human so clearly.

At that moment, a familiar figure suddenly appeared outside the starship. It was the merman in blue from earlier.

“Your Excellency the Regent, may I ask if this is a convenient moment?” He cast a hesitant glance at Chu Xuanzhou before lowering his voice.

Lu Yunwan did not understand what he intended to do. Could it be that Chu Zhang had come up with another scheme?

“What is it? Speak.” He remained leaning against Chu Xuanzhou’s shoulder.

Seeing that Lu Yunwan did not dismiss Chu Xuanzhou, the merman immediately revealed an expression of sudden understanding. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he lowered his voice and said, “In the past month, His Majesty has taken thirty-nine different medications and suffered seventeen episodes. On two occasions, he completely lost consciousness…”

Wait, wait, wait!

Why are you telling me this?!

Upon hearing these words, Lu Yunwan finally forced himself to lift his head despite the discomfort.

He saw that the merman before him wore a respectful and nervous expression. There was not a trace of opposition in his demeanor.

“I have already replaced certain ingredients in some of the medications according to your instructions.”

At that point, Lu Yunwan understood completely.

This merman, who personally attended to Chu Zhang and even had direct access to his medication, was in fact a spy planted by the original host!

Chu Zhang’s descent into madness also bore a share of “his” credit.

The original host truly deserved his title as the number one villain in 《 The Merfolk Empire 》!

Even as he sighed inwardly, Lu Yunwan felt genuine admiration for the original host for the first time.

After rattling off a lengthy report, the merman finally came to the key point of the day.

“Your Excellency the Regent, do the medications require further adjustment?”

Help! How would I know that?!

“Continue observing. If there are any abnormalities, inform me immediately.” Knowing absolutely nothing about the subject, Lu Yunwan could only respond this way.

“Yes, Your Excellency.” Fortunately, the merman did not overthink it. After finishing his report, he nodded and withdrew at once, not daring to disturb Lu Yunwan further.

When his figure disappeared completely, Lu Yunwan finally let out a long breath.

The next second, however, he met those beautiful dark violet eyes.

“The close attendant by His Majesty’s side is also one of your people?”

…At this point, how could he possibly deny it?

“Yes, Your Highness.” Having recovered slightly, Lu Yunwan slowly stepped back two paces. Leaning diagonally against the cold wall of the starship cabin, he gradually spread his arms and smiled at Chu Xuanzhou. “You see, this is what I meant earlier by ‘wings.’”

Lu Yunwan seized the initiative. “Everything that just happened was meant to show you that so-called ‘wings’ do not exist only in the open. They can also remain hidden in the shadows. Aside from delivering a fatal blow, you may also choose to gnaw away at your prey bit by bit. In short, no method is off limits.”

The young man nodded slowly. “I understand…” He said softly.

Although he was very curious about what exactly the protagonist had understood, for the sake of maintaining his image, Lu Yunwan swallowed his doubts.

He decided to move past this chapter as quickly as possible and shift the protagonist’s attention elsewhere.

“The way I spoke in front of His Majesty just now was also to lower his guard.”

“But you were belittling yourself.”

…That is because the original host had always been that shameless.

Lu Yunwan suddenly laughed. As though seeing Chu Xuanzhou for the first time, he looked at him and said, “Your Highness must never forget this. I have never been upright or honorable. That so-called ‘better to break as jade than remain whole as tile¹“宁为玉碎不为瓦全” is a classical Chinese idiom meaning, It is better to die with integrity than live in disgrace / One should uphold dignity even at the cost of destruction / Jade is precious but breakable; tile is cheap but durable. The saying expresses the idea that moral worth is more important than mere survival. It conveys heroism, backbone, and a refusal to bow to humiliation or compromise principles.’ has nothing to do with me.”   

The Regent rarely smiled so brightly.

There was no disguise in it, not even the slightest concern for maintaining appearances.

Lowering his head, Lu Yunwan toyed with his cane as he continued, “There is one thing they did not say wrong. I am a human who is ‘more merfolk than a merfolk.’ Do you understand what that means, Your Highness?”

Degenerate and cold-blooded…

Chu Xuanzhou slowly clenched his hand.

Lu Yunwan’s features were already striking beyond reason, and when he smiled, it felt as though he could burn him alive.

And yet Chu Xuanzhou did not like that smile.

He knew that Lu Yunwan had committed countless evil deeds… Yet like everyone else in the world, the Regent in his eyes had always stood high above, looking down upon all beings, holding the lives of others firmly in his grasp.

Dangerous and powerful.

It was as though Lu Yunwan had guessed what he was thinking.

He fell silent, then looked at Chu Xuanzhou with a half-smile. “Your Highness, I am not a merman, nor was I born a noble. Before the age of fourteen, the only education I received was the lowest-tier remote instruction of the interstellar era. It was not until I was fifteen that I left that planet for the first time.”

This was something Lu Yunwan had found in the information left behind by the original host.

Perhaps no one in the entire interstellar realm would imagine that the Regent who truly controlled the Empire had initially applied to the military academy simply because he wanted to see other star systems.

At that time, he did not even know what a mecha was.

“From the slums of the lower-class human planet to becoming the Regent who controls the Empire, that path was not glorious in the slightest.”

There was a faint trace of confusion in Lu Yunwan’s voice. “Whether my past or my methods… neither has anything to do with ‘clean’ or ‘noble.’ You have long known this.”

Their gazes collided in midair. After an indeterminate silence, Chu Xuanzhou finally nodded slowly.

This version of Lu Yunwan felt unfamiliar to him.

In an instant, every rumor about Lu Yunwan throughout the Empire surged into Chu Xuanzhou’s mind, only to be cast aside the next moment.

At this moment, Lu Yunwan was like a deity who had set the altar ablaze and willingly fallen into corruption. He voluntarily descended from the clouds back into the mire, smiling as he tore away his disguise to admit his hypocrisy and disgrace, even guiding the other to witness his most despicable side.

“Your Highness, have I disappointed you?” Lu Yunwan asked.

The young man’s heart felt as though it were being gripped tightly in someone’s hand.

He realized that this Lu Yunwan, who smiled as he admitted his filthy methods, his exhausting schemes, and his own wretched past, had somehow become even more dazzling.

—This version of Lu Yunwan had been seen by him alone.

Chu Xuanzhou had never touched the drugs that lured the merfolk into depravity. Yet at this moment, he felt as though he understood that loss of control, the sensation of knowing full well that it was an abyss and still stepping forward willingly, savoring the fall as he descended.

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  “宁为玉碎不为瓦全” is a classical Chinese idiom meaning, It is better to die with integrity than live in disgrace / One should uphold dignity even at the cost of destruction / Jade is precious but breakable; tile is cheap but durable. The saying expresses the idea that moral worth is more important than mere survival. It conveys heroism, backbone, and a refusal to bow to humiliation or compromise principles.