The Road to Glory

Сhаpter 227 "Wеn Yu, rеmеmbеr tо kill me..."

The viоlеnce in Хiao Li's wоlfish еуеs аlmоst boiled оver. He crushed the winе jug in his hаnd, and thе remаining hаlf-full jug оf winе spillеd bеnеаth thе thronе, making the scеnt оf alсohol in the аir even strоnger.

His fingеrs wеrе сut аnd blееding from the shаttеred роttеry shаrds, yеt hе seemеd сomрletely оblivious to the раin. With blоodshоt eyes, hе stаrеd at Wеn Yu, his соld vоiсе unablе tо hide its dеeр hoarsеness. "Whаt аrе yоu dоing hеrе?"

Wen Yu gazed аt his bleeding fingers, her brow furrоwing tighter involuntarilу, but her voiсe rеmаined just аs cold. "Didn't Lord Xiao seek me out to discuss a matter?"

Recalling the strange behavior of the bearded general before she entered the hall, she more or less understood what had happened. Wen Yu turned and said, "Since there is nothing, I will not disturb Lord Xiao any longer."

"Stay."

The voice that came from behind her was deep, hoarse, and the words were bitten out, as if laced with immense hatred.

Wen Yu stopped, her back still to him.

The man behind her said, "Pour this marquis some wine."

Wen Yu didn't move. She only said, "Lord Xiao is in need of a servant to pour tea and fetch water. I will pass the message on for Lord Xiao."

A storm of emotions crashed through Xiao Li's heart, threatening to make his chest explode. He suddenly said with cold viciousness, "Don't you want to know who this marquis interrogated in the imperial prison?"

The step Wen Yu was about to take halted. She turned back to look at Xiao Li and said, "The court officials who knelt to welcome you into the palace that day, you may interrogate them as you please. But the other officials in the imperial prison, do not touch them."

Xiao Li lifted his face slightly, a cold sneer appearing on his grim features. "Is it because one of them is the princess's lover?"

Wen Yu stared at Xiao Li for a long time without speaking. Finally, as if exhausted, she asked calmly, "Xiao Li, have you forgotten that I am married?"

"When I left the pass for Southern Chen all those years ago, did you not know that I was going to be a wife, to have children with another man?"

"When we met again at the Northern Border, what happened at the mountain nunnery was consensual between us. I don't believe I owe you anything."

"Now you have a confidante by your side and are never short of beauties in your bed, so why must you be so concerned with the bedroom affairs of an old acquaintance like me? What's more, Pei Song is not dead, and the alliance between the Liang and Xiao camps has not been broken. For you to turn and besiege my royal court—it will not sound very good if word gets out."

She lifted her eyes, looking at the man seated on the high throne with neither joy nor sorrow, and changed her form of address. "To this day, I am still willing to negotiate peace with Lord Xiao."

Xiao Li let out a sarcastic laugh. The veins on the back of the hand he had clenched into a fist bulged, and sticky blood oozed from between his fingers. The whites of his eyes were burned red with hatred and jealousy as he looked at Wen Yu. "What the princess says... is not wrong at all."

"But the princess should understand the principle that the victor is king and the loser is the bandit, no?"

Wen Yu met his dark, vicious gaze, which carried a hint of madness, for two breaths before finally stepping onto the imperial dais.

The royal desk had been overturned by King Chen during the day and had not yet been replaced. Fortunately, the low tables on either side of the throne could hold refreshments and wine.

Wen Yu saw a bronze wine goblet on one of the small tables, but there was no wine pot next to it, only a wine jug the size of a honeydew melon. After unsealing the jug, she filled the goblet.

Xiao Li took the goblet, tilted his head back, and drained it. He then extended his hand toward Wen Yu, his blood-red eyes filled with self-destructive madness. "Continue."

Wen Yu saw the blood dripping from between his fingers as he held the goblet. The smell of blood mixed with the strong scent of alcohol, creating an odor she couldn't quite place, and a stifling bitterness suddenly filled her heart.

She put down the wine jug and did not continue to pour. Just as Xiao Li turned his gaze, about to speak with a hint of sarcasm, she took a handkerchief from her sleeve, took the goblet from his hand, and wrapped it around the wound that was bleeding ceaselessly.

Xiao Li's eyes instantly turned an even deeper red. He turned his head slightly to look away, desperately holding back the tide of emotion welling in his eyes.

After a long moment, he forced down the hoarseness in his throat and asked stiffly, "Trying to plead for those lovers of yours in the prison?"

Wen Yu's hands paused for a moment. After tying the knot, she straightened up and said, "Lord Xiao can assume so."

As she finished speaking, she was about to turn and leave, but he seized her wrist tightly with his injured hand.

The handkerchief was already soaked with blood from the wound. Because of his forceful grip, its sticky wetness pressed against both their skins.

The several layers of cloth could not block the scorching heat of his palm. Before long, Wen Yu felt as if a branding iron had been wrapped around her wrist.

She tilted her head back slightly, waiting for him to speak.

A cold wind poured in from the open doors of the hall, causing the flames of the long-necked palace lanterns in the front row to flicker erratically.

Xiao Li's fingers gripped her wrist to death. His voice was extremely deep and extremely hoarse, as if he knew how ridiculous it was, yet he was still playing the last card that had sustained him until now. "You said you liked me."

The suffocation in Wen Yu's chest intensified. Thinking of the various rumors about him at the Northern Border, she pressed her lips together, closed her eyes, and said, "But people change, don't they? I liked you before, but now I can not..."

The last few words went unspoken as she was suddenly yanked by an immense force into an embrace that reeked of alcohol.

The armor he wore was cold and hard. Wen Yu's elbow was struck painfully, and before she could even let out a muffled grunt, her chin was seized.

That handsome, deeply-contoured face was just inches above hers, his features stretched taut, his eyes so fierce it was as if he wished he could tear her apart and eat her raw. He had completely lost control, threatening her viciously, "Go on, keep talking. I guarantee, if I hear one more word I don't like from your mouth, I will find that lover of yours and your daughter, and I will chop them into mincemeat to feed the dogs!"

Wen Yu glared at him, a sarcastic smile on her face. "What is the Marquis doing? Is this a case of 'the magistrate is allowed to start a fire, but the common people are not allowed to light their lamps'?"

Xiao Li was completely consumed by rage. Even though he could tell that Wen Yu had truly misunderstood that he had someone by his side, at this moment, he couldn't bring himself to explain.

The bitterness and pained anger tore at him. He struggled to control his breathing. "Don't you dare think I'm lying."

Hearing this, Wen Yu took it as his silent admission. Her eyes, reflecting the flickering candlelight, seemed to be glazed with ice. She suddenly wrenched at the hand Xiao Li had clamped on her chin with exceptional force, a cold smile on her face. "Go ahead."

"I'm telling you, Xiao Li, if you kill one, I can find a second. There are plenty of good men in the world. Can you kill them all... Mmph..."

Her hand was still desperately trying to pry his fingers from her chin when the back of her neck was suddenly forced down. A sharp pain shot through her lips, and by the time she realized what was happening, her breath had been stolen.

It was not a kiss, but a pure, savage bite.

Barbaric, furious, insane.

Wen Yu couldn't push him away, nor could she struggle free. She raised her leg to kick, but her legs were quickly restrained as well. The moisture in her eyes, whether from an emotion called grievance or from the pain, rolled down and mixed into their kiss. She was hysterically angry, cursing him.

The salty taste of tears spread between their lips and teeth. The person pressing down on her and kissing her had clearly tasted it too, but he only paused for a breath before, almost with grim finality, forcing her teeth apart as she cursed him again. He entangled, swept, as if to devour everything of hers.

Wen Yu tasted more saltiness, and that pain and grievance seemed to not just be coming from her.

But he was domineering and forceful, as if he had already decided to use such a barbaric method to conquer and defend something.

This kiss was practically a fight.

Wen Yu's lips were bitten until they were numb with pain, her hair was disheveled from her struggles, and a layer of sweat had broken out on her body. Her breathing was heavy and rapid.

The person holding her down with all his might was not faring much better. As his kisses trailed down from her snowy neck, following the line of her disarrayed collar, Wen Yu closed her eyes and said, "Xiao Li, don't make me hate you."

Xiao Li's lips were still pressed against that warm, frost-white skin. Hearing her words, he almost let out a sarcastic laugh. He lifted his head slightly, and when he looked at Wen Yu, the blood-red in his eyes was practically overflowing. "Who started this a year ago?"

He cupped her face with one hand, his gaze so full of hate and so full of pain. "You wanted to go down the mountain, and I didn't stop you. You were the one who came back. You were the one who provoked me!"

"You call that repayment? You call that being even with me?"

He suddenly bit down viciously on Wen Yu's shoulder. This time, Wen Yu couldn't hold back and cried out in pain. On the expanse of frost-white skin stretched over her delicate bones, a circle of bloody teeth marks appeared.

When Xiao Li released her, the tide that had been gathering heavily in his eyes also broke, crashing down as water.

His expression was still just as fierce. He said, "Wen Yu, you owe me this."

Wen Yu trembled slightly from the pain. The ties of her cape had long since been torn apart, and it was only because Xiao Li was holding her waist that the wide fabric hadn't slipped off.

Disheveled strands of hair stuck to the sweat on the side of Wen Yu's neck. Her distinctly concave collarbones rose and fell with her breathing, and next to them was the tooth mark that was seeping blood.

After recovering her strength, Wen Yu clung to Xiao Li's armored shoulder and bit down on the side of his neck, returning a bloody tooth mark of her own, unwilling to suffer a loss in the slightest.

Xiao Li also let out a muffled grunt, but he had no intention of stopping her at all.

After Wen Yu released him, before she could even catch her breath, he grabbed her chin and kissed her again.

He was covered in hard armor; she had nowhere else to bite, which was why she had viciously sunk her teeth into the side of his neck.

Unexpectedly, the man was like a madman. After she bit him back, he began to kiss her frantically again.

Unlike the previous kiss, which was laced with anger, this one, though still hysterical, carried something else within the taste of blood.

Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and the cold rain poured down in sheets. Wen Yu broke out in another sweat.

The cold, hard armor and her cape and outer skirt were tangled together and thrown to the floor.

Her inner skirt was torn. She trembled constantly under his blood-free fingers, and when he pressed against her, she was still unable to move an inch.

Xiao Li's body was scalding hot, the muscles in his shoulders, back, and arms coiled as tight as rock.

Wen Yu's hands were twisted behind her back, easily captured in one of his hands, leaving his other hand free to hold her waist.

He kissed his way from her neck to the tooth mark on her shoulder. As he continued downward, she trembled violently, almost unable to sit up, relying entirely on his scorching hand to hold her waist steady.

In the chaos, as he finally sank deep into the mire, Wen Yu trembled, lost in a daze, but suddenly felt something cold on her neck.

When clarity returned to her hazy eyes, she saw that he had at some point released her wrists. A pure gold collar, polished smooth on the inside, was now fastened around her neck. The collar was attached to a golden chain, the other end of which piled in a long heap onto the throne.

When Xiao Li moved with her in his arms, the chain scraped and rattled.

Wen Yu felt a surge of fury rush straight to her head. She raised her hand, pulled the hairpin from her hair, and pressed it against Xiao Li's neck, her voice cold. "What do you think you're doing? Take it off."

Xiao Li easily seized her wrist. With a skillful twist, he made her wrist go numb with pain. The hairpin fell to the floor. He once again twisted both her hands behind her back and gripped them, his eyes fierce and sinister as he looked at her. "I know why you chose that bunch of trash."

"Isn't it because King Chen is a good-for-nothing, and you want to sit securely on this throne?"

"Am I not stronger than that bunch of trash you've chosen?"

He held her waist with one hand, his movements below extremely fierce, the chain rattling ceaselessly. "Everything you want, I can give you now. You don't need to see anyone else or feign civility with them anymore."

"As for those lovers of yours..."

A bead of sweat fell from his eyelid. His force was so vicious, the words bitten out between his teeth so heavy. "I'll do what I said. I will find them, one by one, and chop them into mincemeat to feed the dogs!"

Wen Yu was under his control. Overcome with anger, she threw herself at him, biting countless teeth marks into his shoulders and arms. When he seized her chin, she sneered and retorted, "Then what about those confidantes of yours?"

Xiao Li's movements suddenly stopped. The effects of the alcohol made his thoughts slow. He stared at Wen Yu for a long time, as if in disbelief, then asked uncertainly, "Wen Yu, are you jealous?"

Sweat beaded on Wen Yu's forehead, her expression as cold as ever. "Lord Xiao is overthinking it. I just feel it's a bit unfair. Lord Xiao wants to kill everyone in my bed, but his own bedmates... Mmm..."

His movements suddenly became extremely fierce and heavy. Wen Yu couldn't bear it and was unable to speak for a moment.

He pressed down on the back of her neck, forcing her head toward him. As the drunkenness slowly took hold, it shattered his usual composure. Water silently fell from those extremely blood-red eyes. He said with hatred, "Do you think everyone is like you, Wen Yu?"

His roughness sent her to the peak, leaving him a disheveled mess himself. When he bent down to kiss her, it was unclear whether he was speaking to Wen Yu or to himself. "It's alright. Soon, I'll kill everyone around you until I'm the only one left."

Wen Yu was enveloped in the scent of alcohol from his body. In this extreme, stifling humidity, her head also felt a little dizzy. She felt the wet tracks on his face brush against her own cheek, and recalling the answer she had heard, the thorns all over her body retracted slightly. In her exhaustion, she raised a hand and stroked Xiao Li's head.

Xiao Li raised a pair of crimson eyes to look at her. Before Wen Yu could speak, the sound of the chain rang out once more.

The course of events had taken a turn for the worse.

The aftereffects of the wine kicked in, and Xiao Li became completely drunk.

The candles burned high until dawn, and Wen Yu was trapped on that throne for the entire night.

When the first light of dawn broke, her clothes were completely soaked with sweat. After the golden chain around her neck rattled for the last time, the man who had put it on her lowered his head to press his forehead against hers as she was nearly passed out. He gazed at her flushed face, the crimson in his eyes churning, still murmuring like a trapped beast, "Wen Yu, I have soldiers, I have power now. Will you marry me?"

When Wen Yu woke again, it was evening.

Her throat hurt, her bitten lips hurt, and her body ached, even more so than when she had been on the run.

There was no one in the bedchamber. She got up, wanting to pour herself a glass of water, but with a single movement, she realized the sound of the chain was still there. Looking down, she saw the other end of the chain was tied to the bedpost.

The memories of last night flooded back. Wen Yu was stunned with anger for a moment. How dare he?

In that moment of daze, the chamber door was opened from the outside. Xiao Li walked in carrying a bowl of congee. Seeing her sitting on the edge of the bed, he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "You're awake? You slept for a whole day. Eat something first."

Wen Yu fought back the urge to lose her composure and throw something, merely staring at him with fire in her eyes. "Take it off!"

Xiao Li automatically ignored her words. He walked over, pulled a stool to sit in front of Wen Yu, stirred the congee in the bowl, and scooped up a spoonful to feed her. "It's the lily bulb and coix seed congee you like."

The tooth mark on his neck was in a conspicuous spot, impossible for his collar to cover. It was just there, out in the open, silently proclaiming everything that had happened last night.

Wen Yu thought about how she had called his name for the latter half of the night, trying to get him to stop, but once he was drunk, he was simply deaf to human speech. She felt even more furious.

She didn't even know how she had gotten back to the bedchamber after she fainted.

That she could even get up now was all thanks to the fact that after giving birth to A Li, she had resumed her daily practice of martial arts to strengthen her body as soon as she had mostly recovered.

She closed her eyes, forcing down her anger, and said, "The Hall of State Affairs..."

Xiao Li said, "I've cleaned everything up. No one saw me bring you back."

Wen Yu didn't want to open her eyes at all. She never would have imagined things would turn out like this.

A moment later, she continued, "The thing you put on me, take it off."

Xiao Li remained silent.

Wen Yu snapped her eyes open, yanked hard on the chain he had padlocked to the bedpost, and questioned coldly, "You were drunk last night, what about today?"

Xiao Li said slowly, "From the moment I decided to come to the State of Chen to find you, I ordered the best craftsman in the Military Camp to forge this chain."

The look in his eyes as he gazed at her was so alarming that even Wen Yu herself was frightened to see it.

What rose in her heart immediately after was a thick rage. "What do you take me for?"

Xiao Li unexpectedly retorted, "And what am I to you, Wen Yu?"

"Back then, it was your word that drove me from Pingzhou. After we parted at the mountain nunnery in the Northern Border, you didn't even leave a single word. You were the one who kept saying you liked me! Is this your 'like'?"

Wen Yu pressed her lips together tightly, finally saying, "I'm sorry."

In Pingzhou, she had trampled on his feelings. At the mountain nunnery, she had been unsure of his attitude, not knowing if he would ultimately let her go, and for the sake of the bigger picture, she had chosen to leave without a word.

She looked at him. "Forcing you to leave Pingzhou in that manner, I've said it before, it was my presumption, my fault. But as for our parting at the nunnery, I never promised you I would stay. If you hold a grudge, I can apologize to you for that as well."

A foulness churned in Xiao Li's chest. Back then... he had already been prepared to leave with her. They had done such things, so why could she still be so indifferent?

Was it because she only saw it as a means to repay his affection?

If they hadn't parted, if he had followed her back, would she not have found someone else?

Unfortunately, there were no 'ifs' in this world. What still bothered him to this day was that she had said she liked him, yet she had divided everything as clearly as interests on a chessboard, more like a transaction of give and take.

So she didn't feel she owed him.

Under his relentless pursuit, she had only given him another apology that seemed to wipe the slate clean.

Xiao Li lowered his head for a moment. When he looked up again, he only laughed. "Wen Yu, I didn't make a mistake in forging this chain."

Outside the hall, a member of the Wolf Cavalry knocked timidly on the door and reported, "Marquis, the reinforcement troops from the Chen border have arrived at the royal court."

Xiao Li put down the bowl of congee. Before leaving, he turned his head to the side and said to Wen Yu, "You and King Chen are both in my hands. That bunch of rabble can't stir up any trouble. Even if they surround the royal court, they only dare to make a show of it. If I were you, I wouldn't use a hunger strike as a threat during this time and ruin my own body."

Wen Yu picked up the bowl of congee he had set down. She was so angry she wanted to smash it on him, but then she saw the green rice plants with their budding ears in the courtyard through the half-open window and forced herself to hold back.

After the door closed again, she resentfully drank the congee, slammed the bowl down on the low table by the bed, and began to study the chain around her neck.

The part locked to the bedpost was easy enough to deal with. If she chopped down the bedpost, she could move freely.

But the collar on her neck was as thick as a little finger. Like the iron shackles used on prisoners in jail, it required a key to open. Otherwise, even if she tried to smash it with a hard object, because it fit snugly around her neck with only a few fingers' worth of space, it was impossible to break.

The chain rattled with any movement. Wen Yu recalled the humiliation of last night. Unable to find a sharp object in the hall, she moved a stool and tried to smash it.

But she didn't know what else the craftsman had added when forging the chain. Wen Yu smashed the stool until it cracked, but she still couldn't even make a dent in the chain.

It was rare for her to be this agitated. She threw the stool far away and lay back on the bed, exhausted. Perhaps because she was so tired from the previous night, she actually managed to close her eyes and fall asleep again.

Later, in a half-dreaming, half-awake state, she felt an intense heat behind her, and the back of her neck felt somewhat wet. She opened her bleary eyes, and just as she realized what was happening, she was kissed.

Wen Yu was so angry she opened her mouth to bite him, but the man, whose lips were a mess of broken skin, had no intention of stopping.

It was just as chaotic as the night before in the Hall of State Affairs.

He let her scratch and bite until she didn't even have the strength to lift her hands. Only then did he bite a piece of tender flesh on her neck and ask, "Have your lovers ever done this to you?"

On that night in the Hall of State Affairs, Wen Yu had still wanted to talk things through with him completely, but now she just closed her eyes and said nothing.

As he carried her to the bathing pool to wash, the chain continued to rattle. Only then did she utter two words: "Take it off."

Xiao Li kissed her cheek, having already learned to ignore those two words.

So Wen Yu said no more.

When he went too far in the bathing pool, she didn't hold back and gave him another bite mark on his arm.

The next few days were all the same. Wen Yu no longer fought with him. She ate her meals as usual and found books to read in her spare time.

But then one day, a large rash appeared on her body without any warning, especially around her neck, where she had scratched herself in many places.

When Xiao Li saw it, he stared at her fixedly, seeming to be suppressing some kind of anger. He then unlocked the collar on her neck and ordered the imperial physician to examine her.

The physician said it was likely a heat rash caused by the hot weather and prescribed medicine to be taken orally and applied topically. Xiao Li personally applied the ointment for her. When she showed resistance, he had a young palace maid come to Zhaohua Palace on schedule every day to change her dressing.

But even though Wen Yu had broken out in a rash, Xiao Li had no intention of moving out of Zhaohua Palace.

At night, when they shared a bed again, he wanted to hold Wen Yu as he liked to do. Wen Yu, using the excuse that his body was too hot and made her uncomfortable, tried to drive him away. Without another word, he simply made a pallet on the floor by the bed.

Seeing that she couldn't drive him away, Wen Yu simply let him be. Occasionally, when the Wolf Cavalry came to deliver a report, she could also learn a bit about the situation outside.

This day, she had tired of reading and was about to rest her head on the small table for a nap. But when she looked up, she saw Xiao Li, who had been handling military affairs by the window, gazing at her with a deep look in his eyes, as if suppressing some emotion. He had clearly been watching her for a while, his gaze holding a suffocating, hidden pain.

Wen Yu grew vexed and said sharply, "Could it be that my current appearance still gives the Marquis ideas?""

That night, Wen Yu regretted the words she had spoken during the day.

She was pressed into the bedding, the sweat on her body barely having a chance to dry. Xiao Li kissed her cheeks, where the rash had yet to fade, his kisses exceptionally meticulous.

He had turned up the candlelight in the hall so brightly that when he folded her hands and pinned them above her head, her face was even more exposed. Wen Yu herself couldn't bear to face him with a visage still marked by a rash and turned her head away. But he pinched her jaw and turned it back, continuing to place light, scattered kisses on her face.

As his lips roamed to the side of her neck, they touched the faint scab where she had scratched him before. Suddenly, he covered it with his sharp teeth.

From the ferocity of his action, Wen Yu thought he would bite a mark into her neck, but he only held the piece of flesh and ground his teeth against it gently before mercifully letting go.

Wen Yu was sweating profusely. When she could bear it no longer, she cursed him, calling him a beast.

In the sweltering, sweat-drenched heat, Xiao Li gripped her jaw and continued to kiss her deeply. In a breathless moment, he finally said to her, "You're not wrong. When you were in Yongzhou with a face like this, I already wanted to do this to you."

He did not know what she looked like, nor did he know her identity, but from that moment on, he had taken a liking to her.

His words sent Wen Yu into a daze.

His actions were so fierce that when he finally collapsed at the end as the drug took effect, the only thing he said to Wen Yu was: "Wen Yu, remember to kill me."

A fine sheen of sweat covered Wen Yu's forehead, and in the candlelight, her eyes were as clear as a lake.