WMSG Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Offended

Ye Yueshen harbored a deep distrust of his second brother. Considering Ye Lingshen’s history of being demoted for wrongdoing and still daring to steal tribute goods upon returning to the capital, Ye Yueshen suspected that the “good place” he mentioned was probably a brothel.

“I’m not going,” Ye Yueshen said, turning over and raising a hand to wipe away the sweat that had broken out on his forehead when he woke up.

Last night was the first time since his transmigration that he had slept lying down with his butt on the bed, resulting in a night of chaotic dreams.

He was either falling or experiencing earth-shattering tremors, and he worried all night that he would fall into a fissure.

Only when he was about to wake up did he dream of picking tangerines, only to be startled awake by Ye Lingshen.

“Yes, you are,” Ye Lingshen said, not giving him a chance to refuse, forcibly pulling him into a sitting position.

Ye Yueshen’s mood soured due to the disturbance: “Could you be a little gentler? I’m in pain.”

“Oh, right,” Ye Lingshen scoffed: “I forgot you were spanked. Get up quickly; it’s a good opportunity to go out for some fresh air and get rid of the bad luck.”

Exhausted the night before, Ye Yueshen had fallen asleep without taking off his outer robe, still wearing the old undergarment he had exchanged for it. Gong Shengyin was taller and much stronger than him.

He was draped in the loose, soft silk, like a bewitching flower spirit just taking human form, veiled in light gauze.

The neckline was askew, revealing inches of his creamy skin. Ye Lingshen wordlessly adjusted his collar, then grabbed his wrist, asking, “Whose clothes are you wearing?”

Ye Yueshen noticed the tattered cuff of his sleeve and vaguely remembered the events of yesterday.

“It’s Gong, Fifth Prince’s clothes.” Ye Yueshen simply took off the garment. “His clothes were all torn; I thought he was pitiful, so I gave him mine to wear.”

Ye Lingshen grabbed his shoulders, his expression serious and somewhat frightening: “Is that really all?”

Under his palms was the warm temperature recently extracted from the blankets, making Ye Lingshen think the matter was even more severe.

“Of course, that’s all,” Ye Yueshen said, unable to break free, looking at him dispiritedly: “Then what do you think it is?”

“Third Brother,” Ye Lingshen said to him: “Normally, it wouldn’t matter if men exchanged outer garments, but you’re different, understand?”

Ye Yueshen’s eyes showed a hint of anger: “I don’t understand.”

“Alright, then your second brother will tell you.” Ye Lingshen pinched his face: “Exchanging undergarments is a trick between boy prostitutes and their patrons. Perhaps some people in the academy jokingly exchange clothes, but you’re so good-looking; your second brother painstakingly warned you not to joke around with stinky men. Why don’t you learn?”

Ye Yueshen had just taken off his undergarment, and the early morning chill made him shiver. He thought for a moment: “I know I was wrong; there won’t be anything like this again.”

Ye Lingshen took a step back, casually picking up clean clothes from the low table and placing them on the bed, watching as his younger brother reached forward, took the clothes, unfolded them, and slowly put them on.

He suspected that his father had beaten his already not-so-bright but self-perceived-as-wise younger brother into a fool.

Previously, Ye Yueshen had loathed being lectured. He had his own set of right and wrong principles, which he deeply believed in and would not allow anyone to discuss or refute.

Such a submissive apology was as rare as the sun rising in the north; he had never imagined it.

After breakfast, they got into a carriage. They didn’t bring anyone with them, and Ye Lingshen drove the carriage in front. He rolled up the curtain so he could turn around and talk to Ye Yueshen at any time.

Ye Yueshen could only hug his arms tightly, resisting the wind that rushed in as the carriage sped along. His injury didn’t hurt too much when walking or lying down, but enduring the jolting of the carriage was still too much to bear.

Soon, Ye Yueshen was in so much pain that he couldn’t sit still.

Yet Ye Lingshen prattled on in front, completely unaffected by the discovery of his theft of tribute goods. His high spirits triggered Ye Yueshen’s bad mood.

Yesterday, he had limped along, accompanying Junzhu into the Imperial Palace, and Junzhu had clearly been there because of Ye Lingshen’s matter.

When he was an orphan, he hadn’t cared so much, but on the day Ye Yueshen had first transmigrated, he had tasted the flavor of family affection and couldn’t help but feel jealous.

He felt ashamed and sad for his pettiness and finally couldn’t bear it any longer and called out to stop: “I want to get out of the carriage!”

“We’re here, we’re here,” Ye Lingshen said, jumping down from the carriage and tying the horse to a large willow tree. He turned back and reached out to Ye Yueshen, asking in surprise, “Why are you crying?”

“I’m dying of pain,” Ye Yueshen said, looking at him resentfully.

Ye Lingshen coaxed his younger brother, who had been jolted into a fit of pique, out of the carriage with soft words.

The place they had come to was a manor in the mountain suburbs. The open space at the foot of the mountain was filled with wooden racks for drying fruit preserves, now filled with sweet potatoes left over from the winter. Beyond the racks were a dozen or so rooms where the workers who looked after the manor lived.

Ye Yueshen’s resentment faded a little, and he walked around on the rustling grass. He wanted to visit the houses in front, and he also wanted to look at the fruit preserve racks in the back. The sound of flowing water not far away also attracted him, and every sign of life drew him in.

Ye Lingshen took him to look at the houses and picked up some half-dried sweet potatoes for him to eat.

The two of them were led to the water’s edge by the manor’s steward. Ye Lingshen told the steward to go about his business and not to follow them.

The half-dried sweet potatoes were soft, chewy, and sweet. Ye Yueshen stood next to him, slowly gnawing on them, watching Ye Lingshen cast two fishing rods into the water.

So the two of them sat on small benches, Ye Yueshen’s padded with rabbit fur.

Ye Lingshen comfortably stretched his long legs. Ye Yueshen wasn’t interested in fishing; he just stared at the water’s surface in a daze, his thoughts running wild.

He wondered if there were many versions of himself, distributed in different eras or different worlds. If that were the case, could he switch again? It seemed like his family in this place didn’t like him enough.

Although he had felt care and love for the first time, it wasn’t enough for him.

He lacked a lot of deep emotions and intimate connections, and just a little bit wasn’t enough to fill the emptiness in his heart.

He was in so much pain and needed a lot of love to heal.

Ye Lingshen asked him: “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m wondering where the previous Ye Yueshen went,” Ye Yueshen said, feeling a little guilty, worried that the “Ye Yueshen” had disappeared like a bubble.

Ye Lingshen assumed that he still couldn’t accept being beaten by his father and laughed: “Our family is the only one who won’t get beaten, and you’ll slowly get used to it.”

Have to get used to being beaten, Ye Yueshen frowned, suspecting that the place he had transmigrated to was not the novel he had read.

Ye Lingshen reeled in his rod again and again, looking at the bucket with satisfaction: “I’ve caught a bucket of fish; could it be that your fishing rod doesn’t have a hook, Old Man Ye?”

Ye Yueshen himself was already sitting uncomfortably. He glanced at Ye Lingshen, his head still, his eyelids lowered, sweeping his eyes over the bucket, then lifted his eyelids to look at him: “It’s not even half a bucket.”

From his cold tone, Ye Lingshen heard a bit of contempt, and he laughed, putting his hands on his hips, turning back to take the newly caught fish off the hook and put it in the bucket.

The fish, unable to accept its wide river life suddenly narrowing to a bucket, slapped its tail and splashed water everywhere. Ye Yueshen hurriedly stood up to avoid it, wiping the water on his cheeks with his hand.

Ye Lingshen said: “This is why it can’t be filled; do you see?”

Ye Yueshen didn’t think that was the reason, but he couldn’t think of anything to refute him.

“Idiot,” Ye Lingshen raised an eyebrow at him.

In a moment of silence, Ye Yueshen pursed his lips, habitually enduring it. Compared to the nasty things he had heard in the past ten years, “idiot” was practically a compliment.

Ye Yueshen slowly took a step forward, his eyes still as clear as a lake as he looked at Ye Lingshen.

“What are you doing?” Ye Lingshen asked.

With a plop, Ye Lingshen instinctively put his hands up to block the splash. The bucket was floating on the water, slowly drifting away with the current. The fish had never dreamed they would experience a turning point in their fate, swimming away in a miracle of life.

Ye Yueshen turned and walked away, leaving the unreactive Ye Lingshen behind.

After a long while, Ye Lingshen chuckled.

Ye Yueshen’s greatest traits were kindness and justice. Being pampered since childhood gave him the courage to uphold justice.

Besides that, he was also an obedient disciple who followed his teachers’ teachings. Like every scholar who had read the books of sages, he was gentle, polite, respectful, and revered his elders, although Ye Lingshen had always teased and annoyed him.

But he would only seriously reason with Ye Lingshen, and when he realized that his second brother couldn’t be reasoned with, he would leave on the pretext whenever he detected that his brother was trying to make fun of him.

His younger brother was a bit strange today. Ye Lingshen quickly walked a few steps to retrieve the bucket, fishing with both rods at the same time.

Behind the drying racks were the mountains. Ye Yueshen saw a narrow passage, picked up a few more sweet potatoes, and walked toward it.

Passing through the passage were mountains connected to not-so-high mountains. Ye Yueshen went up and down slopes, up and down slopes, smelling the fresh air of spring and looking at the scenery.

The slope was slowly climbing higher, and the forest gradually had more vines that would pierce the skin on the back of his hand. Several times, Ye Yueshen almost tripped. He steadied himself, panting heavily as he leaned against a large tree, slowly pulling out the small thorns that had pricked into his skin. Each mark oozed a bead of blood, and when they gathered, they flowed down his fingers.

After cleaning up, Ye Yueshen breathed a sigh of relief and decided to return the way he had come.

Just as he raised his head, he heard a short, forceful sound of something cutting through the air.

The sense of urgency that pulled at his scalp lasted for a while before he realized that he couldn’t move. Something had hooked his hair.

His first reaction was that it was some living thing, perhaps a snake coiled on a branch, using its sharp teeth to hook his hair, or perhaps a bear was teasing him with the sharp claws on its paws.

Ye Yueshen trembled, frightened by his own imagination. He heard the sound of footsteps in front of him, like a four-legged animal such as a cow, horse, or deer.

Dense vines and branches that obscured the distance were pushed aside, and Gong Xunwu, riding on horseback, holding a bow in one hand and the reins in the other, looked down at him with a fierce aura.

The moment Ye Yueshen recognized him, he thought of Ye Yuanshen telling him to “avoid Qi Wang as much as possible recently, and don’t be alone with him.”

Just this morning, Ye Lingshen had also told him, “But you’re different.”

Gong Xunwu didn’t speak, silently staring at him for a long time, his eyes gradually revealing an indescribable expression.

In the long silence, a subtle chill spread down his spine. Ye Yueshen was familiar with this; it was a sign of tension and fear. He felt his skin tightening.

Gong Xunwu tightened his grip on the reins, and the stirrup on one side of the horse swayed, a sign that he was about to dismount.

The sound of rustling came from not far away. Gong Xunwu looked in the direction of the sound, and the stirrup was still.

“Damn it, Third Brother! Which bastard stabbed you…” Ye Lingshen yelled as he ran toward his immobile brother, and as he passed through the last lush tree that blocked his view, his cursing stopped abruptly.

Ye Lingshen slowed his pace, silently stepping forward, pulling out the arrow that had sunk deep into the wood, and catching the somewhat weak Ye Yueshen, who had been weakened by tension, in his arms.

Ye Yueshen’s eyes were vacant, and his hair crown was loose, his hair scattered and messy, looking disheveled and pitiful.

He was frightened; he had almost thought that Gong Xunwu had come to kill him.

The reason “to sacrifice the prince’s white moonlight to the heavens to allow the prince to sever his emotions and ascend the throne” didn’t seem impossible.

Gong Xunwu dropped a rabbit from the horse’s back to the ground, explaining: “I didn’t see anyone, my apologies.”

He lowered his head slightly as an apology, pulled the reins, and intended to leave.

Ye Yueshen trembled with lingering fear, his voice soft and trembling: “Rude…”

“What did you say?”

The horse, having turned halfway, was restrained by the reins and turned back. Gong Xunwu looked at Ye Yueshen again.