HOYSE CHAPTER 98

Chapter 98 — The Whole World Wants You Together

No one knew what Wu Hanqi had gone through that day. He vanished from sight again, as if sinking beneath still water.

Rong Jing could not see what tomorrow would bring. All he knew was to live the present well and treat every day as if it were the last.

Most of his time, he stayed by Gu Xi’s side. For a while, people noticed a tall “bodyguard” was always escorting Gu Xi in and out. The guard was mysterious, rarely showing his face, sitting in a fully shaded car. When someone asked Gu Xi about it, he only smiled and said nothing. Marketing accounts immediately declared that Gu Xi was in love and his partner was his bodyguard. Princess and knight, what a pairing.

Gu Xi had rumors every two or three days. After being “wolf-cried” so often, even gossip-hungry onlookers stopped believing it.

Then the production announced the premiere of the Sovereignty.

Critics from every circle were invited, along with a handful of lucky fans chosen from the official site. The producer, director, and lead cast would all be there. The most excited of all were two fans who had won the drawing. Because there would be a live broadcast, they dressed with extra care, unsure if a camera would ever land on them. They ran into each other at the door, headed to the fans’ section, sat down, and exchanged code names at once.

“Hello. I’m a ‘Whale’.” That was what Rong Jing’s fans called themselves.

“…Hi. I’m ‘Sago Pudding’.” That was Gu Xi’s fandom’s nickname.

What inconvenient timing. They had run into the “rival” camp.

They smiled with politeness and distance, then fell pointedly silent, refusing to give the other side even a glance.

This premiere was a rare chance to see leads Rong Jing and Gu Xi share a stage. For CP fans, it was a once-in-a-thousand-years event, but everyone knew the two fandoms’ history. They had once joined forces online to clap back at Xun Jiarui’s fans and the cheap tricks they pulled, which had softened attitudes a little on both sides. Even so, no one had ever heard of rival fandoms actually shaking hands and making peace.

Rong Jing and Gu Xi sat in the front row. The two fans who were CP in disguise but “solo” on the surface stared at their favorites, hearts pounding.

What kind of tonic had the brothers taken? The two of them looked unbelievable tonight. Look at Gu Xi’s face. He barely seemed to be wearing makeup. His skin glowed like a ripe peach.

The girls opened the live-stream app. They watched the bullet comments while comparing notes with what they saw on site. It was glorious. The app was built by the Fun Video team, which had recently exploded in popularity. Landing the exclusive live broadcast for The Sovereignty’s premiere showed just how deep their backing ran.

Although the seats placed them side by side, Rong Jing and Gu Xi did not speak once.

Rong Jing was chatting with the assistant director, the very man who had been hardest on him during auditions. After Rong Jing delivered those first remarkable scenes back then, the AD had realized he might have been too prejudiced, that perhaps, as Gu Xi had said, newer actors deserved more chances. He had been an AD for many years and had picked up bad industry habits, including a senior’s pride. Even knowing he had been wrong, he had not wanted to bow his head to a junior.

Today Rong Jing came to him first, humbly asking a technical question. The man shared everything he knew. Looking again at Rong Jing’s consistently modest face, he could not help thinking: while the public might still be guessing, everyone on the team knew Rong Jing was the Xie family’s second-in-line heir. He was capital incarnate. Yet he had never once put on airs. Even with the assistant director who had nitpicked him, Rong Jing had never paid him back with pettiness.

The AD sighed. He had seen too many artists with rich backers strut around with arrogance. That was why someone like Rong Jing felt so rare. And the young man’s ability was undeniable. If an actor this good still deserved to be held down, what a joke this industry would be.

He patted Rong Jing’s shoulder. “At the audition, I was narrow-minded. You are an excellent actor.”

Rong Jing had not expected praise from a man who rarely had a kind word for anyone. He could not stop himself from smiling.

The live camera caught the moment. The comments surged:

— Mom, it is him, the Alpha I fell for at first sight!
— Quick, bring me my heart pills!
— His face is perfect again today~~
— Did you ever see Rong Rong’s interview where he said he was ‘very ordinary’? He was being dead serious!
— He needs to look in a mirror before he says that again!
— If he is ‘ordinary’, then what are other Alphas? Trash for recycling?
— Xi Xi, look to your left at that god-tier Alpha. Just one look and you will see. He is really that handsome!

The producer took the stage first, then the director, and finally the actors. Reporters asked why, during the roadshow, the two leads had never appeared together. Before the event, the producer had privately asked the press to keep their questions gentle. But there is always that one reporter who wants a headline, even at the risk of being shown out.

Gu Xi took the mic and gave the reporter a cool look. “Coincidence.”

When it was Rong Jing’s turn, he answered with a mild smile. “Thank you for your concern, but please keep your questions about the movie.”

The two fans in the rear row tensed up. With all the nonsense about “sugar daddy” and “kept men,” their senior and junior had been dodging each other in public to avoid gossip. They had almost gotten through this one too.

Hearing the answers, the girls let out the same breath at the same time, then stared at each other and blurted in unison, “A surprise?”

They were not truly solo fans. They were CP fans who had been brainwashed by their super-topic threads and fanfics, lurking in alt accounts and hoarding their stash. Meeting a fellow traveler felt like finding a friend from home in a foreign land. The two clenched fists and whispered, “My people!”

A perfect-looking pair standing together in real life, yet zero interaction in private. It was enough to break a shipper’s heart.

Someone asked, “Gu Xi, is this really your first on-screen kiss?”

Gu Xi’s ears went pink. That effortless sensuality that gave him, even when he was shy, made the entire audience’s hearts itch. “You will know when you watch.”

That single sentence lit everyone up. Gu Xi had debuted as a child star and kept his cold-bloom persona ever since. What would his kiss scene be like? Curiosity ran wild.

Q&A ended and the screening began. The house lights dropped.

On his way down the steps, Gu Xi slipped and nearly fell. Rong Jing moved like lightning, catching him in one swift, effortless motion, so smooth and composed it was over before anyone had time to react.

But gasp they did. Thank goodness Rong Jing was quick. Just a scare.

The streaming audience screamed too. Who expected a live grenade at the very end of the broadcast? Per the agreement, the platform cut the feed once the film started rolling. Even with a black screen, the bullet comments boiled over, and #GuXiFalls and #RongJingGentleman shot up the trending list, climbing higher and higher.

No one knew that when Rong Jing grabbed him, Gu Xi’s palm landed on Rong Jing’s chest, and on the way back to his seat he squeezed, just once. The muscle felt as perfect as always. A certain Omega snacked on what belonged to his own husband with a clear conscience.

Rong Jing was so startled he wanted to haul a certain Omega over his knee. Back in their seats, he hissed under his breath, “We are still in public, you…”

The screen’s glow lit the water-bright of Gu Xi’s eyes. He glanced at Rong Jing in puzzlement and blinked innocently.

Rong Jing could not tell if Gu Xi had done it on purpose or if it was just his own imagination running wild. Either way, he was already thoroughly rattled.

The film opened. The theater fell silent.

Dawn in winter. A young palace maid knelt in the snow, digging. Her hands turned up a buried hand. She screamed and the plot snapped into motion. As the story began, Gu Xi’s Seventh Prince, Zhao Hua, was being bullied by a group of veteran eunuchs. Only by feigning madness could he survive.

At his lowest point, a poor, half-starved little eunuch risked hiding a cake. While the guards looked away, he ran over and fed the freezing prince.

That boy was Fu Qianming, who would later be tangled with Zhao Hua for years. Because his family was destitute, he had entered the palace to protect them. He was a “false” eunuch. To keep his secret, he kept his head down and avoided entanglements. Seeing a prince being abused like a slave, his pity stirred and he slipped the boy some food.

Who would have guessed the madness was an act. From that day on, Fu Qianming would never again fully trust the crafty prince hiding under a plain mask.

To live, Zhao Hua schemed to secure Fu Qianming’s allegiance. Weighing survival, Fu Qianming yielded, yet neither truly trusted the other. Before long Zhao Hua was abandoned by all. Fu Qianming came secretly to check on him and was met with cutting sarcasm.

Their first kiss happened here.

Moonlight on the lotus pond. Wind rattling through bamboo. Red lanterns swayed. Zhao Hua pushed him with cruel words, suspicious of everyone, and especially wary because Fu Qianming had been sent to serve Consort De, who favored him highly. She was mother to the Third Prince, so Fu could easily switch sides.

Cornered and out of patience, Fu Qianming finally snapped. He shoved the prince against a wall and kissed him roughly. Startled, Zhao Hua trembled.

The kiss moved fast. From argument to force, it was one swift line. The editing was clean and sharp. The audience’s emotions were fully lit. Tight shots cut between Zhao Hua’s shivering, his reluctant response, and Fu Qianming’s dominance tempered by flashes of care. Sweat beaded at their temples. Their breathing tangled.

Even viewers blushed. In the theater, a few Alphas and Omegas nearly lost control of their pheromones and fled to the restroom for inhibitors.

In the dark, Gu Xi hooked a finger around Rong Jing’s thumb.

“You were shaking so hard,” Rong Jing whispered.

“That was because you… you would not kiss me,” Gu Xi muttered. Even now he felt aggrieved. He had almost asked for a stand-in. Thank goodness he had held the line.

“I had no experience then,” Rong Jing said, embarrassed. It had been his first time too, and with a man. He had not known how, then suddenly the block in his mind broke.

“And now?” Gu Xi slanted him a look, as sharp as a hooked barbed arrow.

“Who is talking? Quiet down,” someone scolded from behind. The voice sounded familiar. The two of them straightened at once like scolded schoolchildren.

Rong Jing caught Gu Xi’s hand. While Gu Xi stared at him, startled, Rong Jing traced words in his palm, just as Gu Xi had once done to him. Four characters: At your disposal.

It was his answer to “And now?”

How could Gu Xi withstand that kind of gentle snare. His defenses crumbled to dust.

The leads’ hearts were a mess. Everyone else watched in complete silence, eyes fixed on them, utterly absorbed by the unfolding scene.

Perhaps it was the leads’ acting and looks, but that kiss truly set off the film’s first emotional peak.

The plot picked up pace. Consort De came close to being deposed. Zhao Hua narrowly avoided one trap after another. Fu Qianming was almost exposed by enemies. Yet through the chaos, they began to understand each other. The edge between them softened and something like affection began to stir.

Just then, the story plunged. Fu Qianming unveiled a conspiracy between the Third Prince and a foreign power and was burned alive in an inn.

The theater held its breath. Zhao Hua arrived to find the place in roaring flames and nearly broke. From the ashes he found Fu Qianming’s jade pendant. Only then did he realize he had loved this fierce and brilliant “eunuch” all along. Perhaps from the very first moment the boy had appeared before him, no one else would do.

But it was too late. Zhao Hua’s hair turned white overnight. He waited for years, searching for Fu Qianming, convinced he had not died. He mistook countless backs in countless crowds.

In the years that followed, Zhao Hua rose from prince to lord, but he never found the man buried in his heart. On a mission through the desert, he met a pack of wolves.

He turned and saw a figure who looked nothing like Fu Qianming and yet felt like him. The face was different, the voice was different, even the build had changed with age. Zhao Hua knew in his bones it was him.

He was born an imperial son, so of course their reunion was fraught. After many trials they confirmed each other at last. Zhao Hua’s standing grew firm. Later he was framed and sent to a plague-ridden border city. He did not want to drag Fu Qianming down and went alone.

However, Fu Qianming found out and chased after him. Under the setting sun, anger and relief spilled into another hard, breathless kiss. He could not accept that Zhao Hua had plotted to leave him behind.

The kiss carried sorrow and warmth both. The image was beautiful and made every heart ache.

The audience could feel what the characters could not yet say. Their hearts had already met.

At first, Zhao Hua still held a prince’s distance in the plague city, torn about whether to save people who might be beyond saving. He had known the city was likely doomed. The reality on the ground was worse than expected.

Some viewers felt disappointed, but they also understood. No one is a saint. If you cannot do it yourself, how can you demand it of others?

Little by little, Fu Qianming changed him. He let go of distance and fear, and through their work the city breathed again.

Again the audience leaned in. Zhao Hua was selfish and proud and yet he was also a future ruler with responsibility and heart.

Just as hope rose, Zhao Hua fell ill and refused to see Fu Qianming. Fu discovered the letter he had written, and at last the paper-thin barrier tore. Sleeves swirled, red candles guttered behind gauze. In half-visible light, breath met breath. The love scene was both tender and fierce, its heat and restraint perfectly judged. Gu Xi only exposed the slope of one shoulder under a white robe. Neither man showed much skin, yet the feeling was exactly right.

Sniffling spread through the rows. Someone even dripped a nosebleed and hurried to wipe it, embarrassed to be seen. All around, A and O alike were held tight by the tension on screen. The two leads’ charisma seemed to overflow the frame. People longed to step into the story and be the one who received that gentleness.

The plot tightened again. Zhao Hua had caught a chill, not the plague. Together they saved the city. They should have been rewarded. Instead, the emperor sent Zhao Hua to hold the border. His troops were too few. His requests for aid were intercepted by rival factions. They held for three days. Arrows were gone. Food was gone.

And then Fu Qianming left without a word.

Everyone around Zhao Hua said the man had run. He was only a eunuch, after all. When disaster comes, even husbands and wives flee each other, let alone a eunuch. He must be two-faced.

Zhao Hua refused to believe it. He knew Fu Qianming would not abandon him.

On the third day, the city’s people donated what little food they had to the soldiers. Together they held two more days. No reinforcements came.

By dawn on the fifth day, despair lay over the walls like frost. Zhao Hua stood atop the gate. He knew they could not last. Better to gamble everything. He decided to sound the horn and take the fight to the enemy.

Just as he drew breath, a figure appeared on the horizon and charged toward the city.

Zhao Hua’s eyes locked on the silhouette. His heart pounded as if it would tear free.

Fu Qianming arrived at the last possible moment, a severed head swinging in his fist. He roared, “The enemy general’s head is here!”

For the soldiers on the wall it was a sun breaking through cloud. They shouted and clutched each other. For a moment they forgot the rider was a eunuch. He was the man who had saved them all. He was their hero.

Those staffers who had sneered that he had run burned with shame. They played war on paper. This “eunuch,” lame in body and iron in will, had infiltrated the enemy camp alone and taken a head. Courage and cunning were not enough words.

Zhao Hua did not care about them. He wanted only to fly down the stairs and reach the man he loved.

Fu looked terrible up close. Hair disordered, clothes filthy. Zhao Hua should scold him until he never dared leave again.

He ordered the gate opened to welcome him home.

And the film cut the moment like a blade. An enemy unit thundered up. One arrow slammed into Fu Qianming. Then a second. A third.

Zhao Hua watched, eyes wide and bloodshot, as Fu Qianming was struck in front of him.

No. It could not be. He was Fu Qianming. Fire had not taken him. How could this?

Zhao Hua commanded that squad be wiped out to the last man and stumbled down the stairs. Fu fell from his horse. He forced himself up through the pain and saw Zhao Hua running to him. He could not lift his arms anymore.

For that one instant, the weight on his shoulders vanished.

He collapsed into Zhao Hua’s hold and whispered, broken and soft, “Your Highness. I came back.”

Zhao Hua nodded over and over. He understood. Fu had left because he could not be sure he would succeed. If he failed, better for Zhao Hua to believe he had run. That would hurt less.

How could Zhao Hua miss his heart’s intent. He held him as if he were made of glass.

The words spent, Fu Qianming closed his eyes and did not open them again.

He did not even manage to touch Zhao Hua’s face.

“Qian… Qianming…”

First light rose at the edge of the world.

Zhao Hua stroked the face that was still warm, and his tears fell in a sudden rush, sprinkling Fu Qianming’s cheek.

“You liar. You are fine.”

“How could you be gone.”

“You promised you would stay my whole life.”

“…Wake up.”

“You told me you were the most selfish man alive, that you would never hurt yourself for someone else, that it was the dumbest thing. You are so smart. How could you do something so stupid…”

“Fu Qianming…”

His cry tore the air.

Since the night his hair turned white, Zhao Hua had not shed another tear. He knew he had to climb to the highest place and bear what most men could not. He had thought he could be like Fu Qianming and keep everyone out of his heart.

But when this cold-seeming man finally put someone in his heart, he would spend everything, even his life.

Outside the empty city, a single soul keened without sound.

The man who once held him hard and fierce would never come again.

In the final act, Zhao Hua took the throne at last. His harem stayed empty. During his reign the realm was peaceful and prosperous. In his old age he adopted a youth from the imperial clan as heir, then passed from this world with a sigh.

The new emperor brought flowers to a small city on the border. On a modest hillock outside the walls lay a low mound of earth, and beside it, a newer grave. No one knew that the “enlightened ruler of a generation” was not buried in the imperial mausoleum. He had chosen this place.

He had finally returned to where he most wanted to be.

With tears in his eyes, the new emperor smiled. “Father, you must be very happy now.”

His father had worked himself raw every day he lived, and even when he fell ill at the end he never stopped his duties. He had said that even under the ground he wanted that man to be proud of him.

Father, you did it. Are you with him now?

Two white blossoms lifted on the breeze and spun away.

Sniffling rose and fell throughout the theater. The loudest sobbing came from directly behind Rong Jing. The wailing was truly disruptive.

Rong Jing turned just as the lights came up and caught Wu Fuyu with tears and snot all over his face.

He was one of the investors, but he had not wanted to watch Rong Jing and Gu Xi sprinkle sugar in front of him, so he had slipped in late and planned to slip out early. No chance to be force-fed dog food today.

He would pretend he never saw them.

He had not expected to fall so deep. Now when he looked at Rong Jing and Gu Xi he could only see Zhao Hua and Fu Qianming. He was not out of the story yet.

Wu Feiyu bellowed, “I forbid you to die! The two of you better get locked up together forever!”

Gu Xi: …

Maybe take a breath. Look at who I am.

He realized what he had shouted as soon as he saw Gu Xi’s stunned face. He covered his own and groaned. F***. It just slipped out. No one is going to take that seriously, right?

Mortified, he bolted for the aisle.

He was not alone. Other audience members were wiping at their faces, especially the two “surprise” CP fans, who had caught Wu Fuyu’s mood and were crying as they shouted, “I hope you two end up together for real!”

Seeing these two safe and whole felt like seeing Zhao Hua and Fu Qianming safe and whole.

Director Liu Yu smiled at his leads. “Once this hits theaters, do not be surprised if the whole world wants you together.”

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