Hua Hua You Long - Volume 1 - Chapter 9.2

HHYL Chapter 9 Part 2

Lu Cang tried to open his eyes, but his forehead was coated in a thick layer of blood, dripping past his eyelids and preventing him from doing so.

"No...no, I didn't...", He could barely hear himself, trepidation flooding his mind and rendering him unable to think.

Jing's face was like a sheet of ice.

Seeing Lu Cang unable to withstand another round of violence, the head of the guards stepped forward, "Your majesty, please calm down. He will die if you continue, and there will be no more 'live offerings' when Prince Yongyi is buried."

Lu Cang gained a little bit of consciousness and heard the guard's words - Heavens, Xuanyuan Yongyi was really dead - because of some harmless tonic pill he gave him?

Hearing the guard's words, Jing could not help but viciously kick Lu Cang's vulnerable lower body, then swiftly turned to walk back to his horse. "Put him in prison, bring him out as a sacrifice to the heavens when uncle is buried."

Lu Cang was curled up on the ground in severe pain, and even the guard could not figure out how such bad luck could befall the young man. Unable to hold it in any longer, flesh blood burst forth from Lu Cang's lungs, flowing in copious clotted gobs out of his mouth and finally giving in, he fainted underneath the blazing sun.

Hours passed.

Lu Cang raised his head with great difficulty and found that he was in a humble cell. The only light on the wall was dim and the size of a bean, and he feared that is was night.

Lu Cang bit down on his lip, trying to sober up - his body was burning like a fire but had since long been numb to the pain.

Mustering his strength, he turned to assess the damage - three deep finger marks in the flesh of his shoulder was surrounded with blood, all in all a horrible picture.

He gently tried to move his legs, but a terrible pain between them cause him to call out and gasp in pain. He could only lie there with his legs slightly apart, struggling like some kind of dying beast lying on a pile of rotten grass.

The ceiling was in disrepair, decayed in ugly streaks of yellow and black, the stifling air made Lu Cang struggle with breathing and feel as if he was about to suffocate.

He felt like he had awoken into a horrible nightmare or fallen into a terrible, inescapable hell. But he knew this much - he was innocent.

Lu Cang choked on air - he could not even cry properly, and that notion made him bitterly laugh at himself.  He thought about the times he was free to roam the mountains and how he landed up in the capital and in the bed of the most powerful man under the sun - the only wrong he ever did was to fall in love with a beautiful lady that fateful night and yet here he was, in a dark, dank cell, will a heap of unwanted criminal charges weighing on him.

His hands and feet were bound by shackles, the only freedom he had was in his heart - he did not want to complain, he was even a little thankful for Jing's cruelty; to fill the last days of his existence with unimaginable violence and insanity and tear him away from all these beautiful delusions.

Once again, he reminded himself that his feelings were only one-sided. No one would ever treat a person they were even a little bit afraid of liking like this - to strip them of every last scrap of dignity and toss their bloody body aside like some kind of sick comedy.

That thought had lingered in the back of his mind for some time, but it had never caused him so much grief before.Lu Cang began to shiver and even when someone opened the door and walked into his prison cell, he could not force down the cold, sharp despair in his heart.

Jing walked into the small cell and sat on the only piece of furniture in the room -  a small stone bed. He stared down at Lu Cang's bloody body on the floor with an unfathomable gaze.

"I'll ask you one more time, why - did - you - kill - uncle - Yongyi?" He put such emphasis on each syllable until it felt as if a thousand year frost had covered the walls of the room.

Lu Cang heard him clearly. He blinked his eyes, then swallowed - there was no use telling the truth, as much as he wanted to.

There was nothing more he had to say to Jing.

"Hm, even if you do not say, I still know. You foul bitch, you're just jealous that I pay attention to Yongyi and throw you aside."

Without looking at Jing, Lu Cang still knew the cold expression he had on as he made those remarks.

An ugly smile crawled onto Lu Cang's face. If he had the energy to make one last wish, it would be to face Jing without a hint of fear on his face.

This apparently angered Jing until he wanted to explode, but Lu Cang looked as if he would fall apart from even the slightest touch, so Jing forcefully reined in his anger.

"I've always liked to do things plainly(clearly). I know you feel wronged now because you do not know how your actions were brought to light. Fine, on grounds that we were once considered friends, I'll let you know everything clearly."

Note: Jing uses "情谊" qingyi, which google (and I) translated as 'friends/friendship'. A more accurate term for friendship is 友谊， youyi. "请" qing refers to love,passion etc.

"Come, call him in."

Since he was going to die anyway, Lu Cang also wanted to know how a simple tonic pill could have killed Prince Yongyi.

Soon, a man walked into the prison cell, and although his vision was blurry, that person seemed vaguely familiar to Lu Cang.

As if it was some sort of ceremony, he silently moved to kneel at the corner.

"You, face him and tell him what you saw that day." Jing's tone was calm and Lu Cang wanted to sneer --how could this idiot witness something that totally did not happen?

"I obey his majesty." The man glanced at Lu Cang, " Early today morning, imperial guard Lu came to the Lin Qing temple to look for his majesty, but his majesty had already left, but Prince Yongyi ordered me to let imperial guard Lu in to see him, but did not allow me to enter. I could not clearly hear what they talked about. "

Lu Cang suddenly remembered - this man was the eunuch who had brought him to see Xuanyuan Yongyi -  he never thought he'd step forward to implicate that he killed Xuanyuan Yongyi.

"After awhile, imperial guard Lu returned to the temple again, this time deliberately inconspicuous, as if he were hiding something. Prince Yongyi said something about giving imperial guard Lu some kind of antidote and Imperial guard Lu told Prince Yongyi about some kind of medicine, and that something would happen after one hour..." At this point, the eunuch looked at Lu Cang's face. Seeing it expressionless, the eunuch continued.

"Just a moment after imperial guard Lu left, just a moment later, Prince Yongyi...he...he...", the eunuch was shaking so badly and his voice was breaking, making it difficult for him to continue.

Jing waved his hand for the eunuch to stop talking. The eunuch breathed a sigh of relief, then went to stand by the side.

Jing shifted his gaze to Lu Cang and sneered, "You think no one would know what you did?  Justice has long arms. The drug took effect half an hour early, and you didn't have time to escape the capital. I caught you. If you want to blame something, blame your bad luck. Even heaven does not want to help you."

Not wanting to explain himself while knowing that explaining would do him no good, Lu Cang's nature still forbade him for remaining silent , "Since I have already committed a great crime, I will suffer no more of my own words." He forced those words out of his mouth and saw Jing's face twist in to a clear, severe frown.

"Leave, all of you." All the guards acknowledged the order and cleared out.

Jing's voice was cold, but Lu Cang was unafraid; what was there to be afraid of? There was nothing left but a rotten life. He opened his eyes and saw Jing approach his side - his vision had still not cleared.

"Oh? You tried to escape, you aren't scared of me anymore?" Jing crouched beside him and gave Lu Cang an amused look.

If the time were anything but the present, Lu Cang would have been frightened to the point of trembling, but now, in the face of death, a sudden wave of courage took over him - Lu Cang met his eyes without a hint of fear in his eyes.

"Do you know?" Jing smiled his noble smile and procured a silk handkerchief from the inside of his robes and wiped away the blood on Lu Cang, "do you know what the Lingchi is? Tomorrow they will start from here..." He ran the pads of his thumb across the translucent skin of Lu Cang's eyelids, "then here..." Jing viciously wrung that place that hurt until it coldn't hurt any more, making Lu Cang call out in pain.

"They will cut you apart, scrap by bloody scrap, and leave you as a pile of flesh and bloody bones, but you will not die. You will watch as you dissolve into a ball of meat and innards..." Jing spoke slowly while his palms maliciously pressed over every part of Lu Cang's body as he described the slow death.

Jing's hands were cold like ice and every place he touched felt as if it had been frostbitten and Lu Cang could not believe that these same hands had touched him with warmth and passion before. Jing's words were like acid, but Lu Cang was unfazed - dying was better than to continue living with the filth that Jing had smeared all over his body; just disappearing into thin air was the best thing he could wish for.

Not seeing any signs of fear on Lu Cang's face, Jing was a little disappointed. The pain of losing the Yongyi whom he had held in his heart for a long time made him go insane, there was no notion of thought other than to kill in the most painful way the person who had poisoned his uncle.

Lu Cang was not affected, it seemed like he had to change tactics too.

Jing stretched out his arms and used a little bit of strength, carrying Lu Cang bridal style while rising from a crouch.

"What are you doing...." Seeing the calm mask slip of Lu Cang's face, Jing felt he had picked the right approach.

"Don't you just love me so much? You love me until if you can't have me, you'd kill anyone who so much as attracts my attention?" Jing coolly insulted Lu Cang, and drew great pleasure from the feeling of the lightly quaking body in his arms.

"No! You can't do this!" As Jing lay Lu Cang on the cold stone bed, he finally realised what kind of torture Jing intended for him - this would tear his heart apart more than the slow death, hurt his body more than any other kind of torture and reawaken all those humiliating memories. He knew his body was too weak to withstand any of this anymore; he'd break asunder if Jing were to...

"Don't...", he shrilly screamed.

------ TBC------