65 The Nine-tailed Fox feels something big [+18]
Wu Yun isn't prepared for the sight of a naked Lan Tian. His eyes are drawn to the path of the water rivulets across his sharp collarbones, smooth chest, and defined stomach. He wills them not to travel further down, to where the clear water barely hides anything.
He turns his face away, desperate to hide the furious blush climbing up his throat. "How did you change back?"
Lan Tian drops a gentle kiss on his shoulder, and runs his hands over Wu Yun's exposed arms, raising goosebumps across the path his fingers trail. "I don't know, I just did."
"Do you remember anything from when you were a dragon?" Wu Yun asks, trying to ignore the fire burning in his middle.
He doesn't see Lan Tian's amused smirk, pressed as it is against his shoulder. "I remember you calling me "little" an awful lot, and feeding me peaches."
Wu Yun has the distinct impression that he's going to make him pay for that.
His suspicions are confirmed when Lan Tian wraps his arms around his waist and hauls him up into his lap.
He gasps at the feeling of their bare skin coming into contact.
"So?" Lan Tian asks, and Wu Yun can almost hear the smugness in his voice.
"Not little," Wu Yun says, letting out the words in a breathy exhale.
The feeling of Lan Tian's hard cock rubbing between his cheeks drives him close to madness. He digs his fingernails into Lan Tian's arms and turns his face to meet his eyes.
"Please?" he asks, overwhelmed by the desire he sees reflected in those amber eyes. He's not sure if it's is own or Lan Tian's.
Lan Tian chuckles and snakes one hand up over Wu Yun's chest, grazing over a nipple and making Wu Yun's breath itch. He arches into the touch, but Lan Tian's hand bypassess his chest altogether to wrap around his neck, and turn his face around.
The kiss is searing, and Wu Yun feels himself dissolve against Lan Tian's strong chest.
He thinks he's about to get what he wants when his hopes are cruelly dashed on the jagged shores of Lan Tian's restraint. "Not yet."
If it wasn't for how hard he is, and the heat of his kisses, Wu Yun would almost think he didn't want him at all.
"Are you punishing me?" he asks, when Lan Tian's other hand skates over his navel, making his muscles contract with how close he is to where Wu Yun wants him.
"Perhaps." Lan Tian pulls Wu Yun's wet hair to the side, and drops a fleeting kiss over the first bump of his spine.
Wu Yun groans. He squirms in Lan Tian's lap, but the hand on his waist holds him in place. "I'll never call you little dragon again, I swear."
Lan Tian's chuckle his heavy with promise. He brings his lips close to Wu Yun's ear, and whispers, "When I'm done with you, you won't even be able to talk."
Wu Yun has to close his eyes, to block out the image those sultry words bring to mind. He can picture it with vivid clarity, the way Lan Tian will wreak him with pleasure, leave him unsteady on his legs, unable to feel anything but the hot press of him inside.
He would be lying if he said he will never bully Lan Tian again, if this is what it gets him.
His lust addled brain, doesn't allow him enough presence of mind to know that plan is better kept to himself. "I need to tease you more often, so you can threaten me with what I want."
Lan Tian laughs, and wraps one arm under Wu Yun's knees, lifting him out of the water in one fluid movement.
He carries him out of the pool and into the upper floor, and for one exhilarating moment, Wu Yun thinks he finally managed to break through his composure.
That is until Lan Tian deposits him in the unmade bed, and pulls the comforter over him, laying on his side above the sheets.
"Sleep, it's late already," he says, dropping a lingering kiss on Wu Yun's lips.
Wu Yun frowns when their lips separate. "Are you enjoying torturing me?"
Lan Tian's chuckle is as warm and smoky as a log fire. "Maybe a little."
Wu Yun would complain about it, but Lan Tian bundles him up in the comforter and pulls him against his chest, and he's too warm and happy to think of an appropriate rejoinder.
---
Wu Yun is relieving Ling Yan's memories again, and he almost wants to groan. He wishes he was anywhere else but here. Why can't he have a dreamless night, or dream of Lan Tian instead? His soft kisses? His tender embrace?
Why must the relieve the pain of his past life every night? Is it a reminder? That nothing good lasts forever?
He can't see anything, and only belatedly realizes that Ling Yan is wearing a blindfold. He's being carried along by two people who hold him up by the arms. His back is still raw and bleeding, he can feel the blood seeping in through his robes.
They finally come to a stop, and the blindfold his cruelly pulled from his face.
Ling Yan gasps in horror, at the scene in front of him.
Shu Luan is bent over the swing under the weeping willow, his hands tied behind his back, and the blood dry on his empty eye sockets.
There's a gathering of other Gods surrounding the weeping willow, some wear expressions of consternation, other look as placid as if this is a common occurrence.
When Ling Yan looks down he notices he's wearing red robes. Extravagantly embroidered and brimming with precious gems. His head is heavy with the weight of the gold crown securing his hair.
The revulsion that runs through him makes him bite his lips until they bleed.
Shu Ai joins the gathered audience, a pleased smile twisting his handsome features, and a dark obsidian black blade in his hand.
His robes are as red as Ling Yan's.
"This orphaned one, has called you here to witness the execution of this foulest of traitors, who has committed the heinous crime of patricide," Shu Ai says, pointing the sword at Shu Luan's neck.
There is no reply from the gathered Gods, although some of them look away from Shu Luan.
Ling Yan wants to call them all cowards, they know as well as him that Shu Luan didn't kill his father.
"It was this one's Heavenly Father's desire to see him married. Due to this traitor's cruel actions that will no longer be possible, but this humble servant wants to grant his father's wishes, so the wedding ceremony will happen before the funeral, so Father can also attend, in his imaterial form."
That gets the Gods talking. Ling Yan hears murmurs of disbelief. Some Gods remark on how improper it is to have a wedding before the funeral, and so soon after the previous Emperor's death.
That they find offense with. Not with the senseless murder about to happen in front of their eyes.
Shu Luan makes a quiet raspy sound, Ling Yan tries to run to him but the Heavenly guards at his side, restrain him.
"Ling Yan, Ling Yan, don't hurt Ling Yan," Shu Luan manages to say, dragging the words out of his burning throat.
Shu Ai smirks, as if he was expecting Shu Luan to say just that.
"This, venerable ones, is the true motive of his odious crime. Filled with rage that our great father saw fit to marry Ling Yan to this lonesome one, and not to him, he killed him in a fit of jealousy."
Some of the Gods gasp, looking down at Shu Luan in disgust, others, however, don't look convinced.
Ling Yan can't take it anymore. "He's lying! Shu Luan didn't do anything, he's innocent! Why aren't any of you trying to stop him?"
A goddess with beautiful curling hair looks pityingly at Ling Yan, but she only folds her hands below her waist and looks down at her feet.
Shu Ai approaches Ling Yan with a look of profound consternation on his face. He wraps one arm around his waist in a mockery of a tender embrace. Ling Yan tries to struggle free, but Shu Ai digs his thumb into his back, into one of the open slashes, to keep him in place.
"As you can see, his crimes went further than the Emperor's senseless slaying, he also addled Ling Yan's mind, so he would believe the two of them were in a relationship."
Before Ling Yan can say anything he feels Shu Ai's touch at the back of his neck. When he tries to open his mouth to call him a liar, he finds that he can't. He's unable to move his lips.
Shu Ai closes his eyes and sighs deeply, pulling Ling Yan's head against his neck. Ling Yan fights his hold but Shu Ai's arm around his waist keeps him in place.
He finally lets go of Ling Yan, and walks towards Shu Luan.
Shu Ai pulls Shu Luan's head up by the hair, stretching his neck over the swing, like a butcher's chopping block.
Wu Yun's stomach twists, with what he knows is about to happen. He wishes Ling Yan would turn away, but he stares resolutely ahead, tears falling unbidden from his eyes while he looks into Shu Luan's unseeing face.
Shu Luan knows what's going to happen next, and while he can't see Ling Yan, his last words are for him.
"A-Yan, I'll love you forever, I hope we can meet again, in a next life."
Shu Ai's cruel grin, cuts through his features like a jagged knife. "You'll never have a next life," he says, and slices the sword's edge over Shu Luan's vulnerable throat.
The blood has barely begun to run, when his body folds into itself like a paper construct, until all that remains is dust, and a bloody silver pool, dripping down the swaying swing.
Ling Yan falls to his knees, gripping the soft grass between his fingers. He squeezes his eyes shut with all the repressed anger and pain he cannot shout into the skies.
Shu Ai walks towards him, the sword still swinging at his side, and picks him up like an attentive lover. He holds up Ling Yan by the arm, and addresses the shocked crowd.
"Now that justice has been delivered, this orphaned one would like to invite you all to the Jade Palace, to celebrate our wedding, and the beginning of a new era in the Heavens."
He's met with halfhearted cheers, but he either doesn't care or doesn't notice.
The goddess with the long curling hair seems to be wiping away a tear as she stares at Ling Yan's grief stricken face. Wu Yun has a feeling he's seen her before.
The other gods starts dispersing, but Shu Ai and Ling Yan stay behind.
Ling Yan is too dazed too move, staring at the bloody swing where Shu Luan was only seconds ago, trying to reconcile that image with the dust that remains.
Shu Ai runs a possessive hand over his jaw, and he's brutally brought back to the present.
"Gods don't usually, scar, no mark lasts long on our skin," he says, offhand. Wu Yun notices that the scar above his nose bridge is completely healed. "But there are ways...While you were unconscious I asked someone to spread a tincture on your wounds, they will scar beautifully and never fade, and you won't make the mistake of forgetting..."
Ling Yan realizes he can talk again. "Forget what?" he asks, spitting out the words.
Shu Ai's smirk could swallow the whole world. "That you belong to me."
---
A.N.: Unlike in chapter 30, here Shu Ai is talking very humbly in the third person. "This orphaned one", and "this lonesome one", are pronouns Emperors would use to refer to themselves, since them being Emperors meant that their fathers were usually dead. Humility was a big thing in ancient china (still is to this day), and it was common for people to talk self-deprecatingly about themselves. Speaking in third-person was usually a sign of humility, and respect for the audience or interlocutor, but it can also be used very arrogantly as Shu Ai did in chapter 30.
