Yan Yuan forcefully shoved the spoon into Xuan Long's mouth. Xuan Long closed his lips and refused to open his mouth, the warm porridge dripping from the corner of his mouth to his cheeks, soiling the pillow. He ducked his head and lifted his shackled hand to block Yan Yuan's, and when he moved, the chains clattered.
The heavy chains hit the jade bowl in Yan Yuan's left hand and the bowl tipped down, knocking the porridge onto Yan Yuan's dragon robe.
Yan Yuan's face was gloomy as he raised his hand to strike him, but the hand stopped in the air and did not fall.
After nearly 20 days in a coma, Xuan Long had lost so much weight that he had almost lost his face, and his already thin profile had become more and more defined, and he seemed to be covered in a layer of white frost. If he closed his eyes, he was no different from a dead person.
He knew that Yan Yuan was going to hit him, but he didn't dodge, as if nothing mattered anymore.
Yan Yuan gritted his teeth and withdrew his hand, then stood up with a black face, handed the jade bowl to Xiao Zhanzi and took the handkerchief he handed him to wipe the dirt off his robe.
Before long, the palace staff brought over a new bowl of porridge. Yan Yuan wanted to coax him, but when he thought of Xuan Long's elopement, his words turned out to be barbed, "Do you want to starve yourself or the bastard in your belly to death?"
Xuan Long's eyes were closed, as if he was about to fall asleep again.
Yan Yuan sat down on the edge of the bed and savagely opened Xuan Long's eyes, but there was little focus in his icy turquoise eyes. When Yan Yuan saw that he was not listening, the porridge was eventually forced down his throat.
Xuan Long choked several times, coughing up a lot of blood and soiling a snow-white handkerchief. Yan Yuan gently wiped the corners of Xuan Long's mouth, his eyes bloodshot as he remembered his illness.
"Being with me has caused you to become sick?"
"That day, if you had left with Yan Huo Heng, would you have lived happily with him?"
That day, if he had succeeded with Yan Huo Heng, Xuan Long might have had a chance to live, but now, there was no hope for him. He knew that being caught would end in a dead end. If it weren’t for having a child in his womb, he would not have to suffer anymore.
Death is an easy thing for a demon who has lost all his strength. He doesn't even need a weapon, his soul can burn itself out of the world completely and disappear into ashes.
He did not deliberately starve the child in his belly, but he did not like the food Yan Yuan handed over to him, he did not like Yan Yuan treating him with false affection, he did not like being face to face with Yan Yuan.
He had fallen in love with the other man and the cold world along with him, but now he had nothing to look forward to, and when he looked around, there was no light at all, only grey.
The corners of Xuan Long's mouth were rubbed red with a handkerchief, and Yan Yuan was still wiping: "You want to get rid of me that badly..."
"I'm telling you... it's impossible, you'll never get rid of me in your life..."
Xuan Long didn't feel much pain, and Yan Yuan's voice was so distant and yet so close that he could more or less hear it.
This life was too long, he had lived too long to walk any longer.
When Yan Yuan left, the soul-eating pain in Xuan Long's body flared up. He curled himself up, the chains on one side pressing into his body as he turned sideways, which was heavy. His body felt lighter as uncontrollable spasms drove the chains on his body to clank, and his fingertips sank deep into the bedding, so hard that blood seeped from his fingers.
In a trance, he seemed to see Hu Le crying by the bedside, and he reached out his hand, clumsily telling the other man that he was not in pain and not to cry. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not touch the other man. He stubbornly straightened up and probed his hand across, and when he finally touched Hu Le's face, the other man disappeared without warning.
“Hu Le..."
Xuan Long was stunned for a long time, recovering a bit of reality from the sickness that had nearly destroyed his sanity.
Hu Le was long gone.
It was just an illusion...
……
Luanfeng Hall.
Ning Zhiyu was sitting at the table, his hand on the table, a black handkerchief on his fair wrist, and Zong Hua standing beside him, bowing to check his pulse.
After a short while, Zong Hua withdrew his hand, took a small step back and bowed with his eyes downcast.
"Your Majesty, the twin children in your womb... are stable."
The candle flame reflected Ning Zhiyu's ghastly white face as he mumbled in a loose white robe, his waist untied, "Why is this so... I have taken so many abortion pills, how could it not have fallen, did you prescribe the wrong medicine?"
"In reply to the Empress' words, I have been practising medicine for several years, how could I even prescribe the wrong medicine to abort a foetus."
"Perhaps... it is because the dragon child in your womb has the protection of an immortal and is not destined to die."
What kind of immortal protection, it is clearly an evil demon. Ning Zhiyu's right hand caressed the slightly bulging belly under his robe and slowly tightened. He had only been pregnant for a month, and this evil demon was already showing itself.
"Do you have anything else, anything more potent?"
Zong Hua: "Yes... but the Empress is weak, I'm afraid you can't bear it."
Ning Zhiyu: "Prescribe the medicine."
Zong Hua: "Your Majesty..."
The corners of Ning Zhiyu's eyes were red and he did not look at him, not knowing where his god was going.
Zong Hua had never heard or seen anything like this, but it was normal for the palace to have some strange secrets and he had people he needed to protect, so he had to keep his mouth shut and do his job.
After the imperial doctor left, Ning Zhiyu got up and lay down on the bed, facing inwards, uncovered by the bedding. Mo Zun transformed into a solid form from within him and quietly landed behind him.
“For the children of a demon, the mortal abortion medicine will not make the foetus fall away."
Ning Zhiyu unsteadily propped himself up on the bed and sat up, grabbing the collar of Mo Zun's battle robe, "Then tell me... how can I make them fall?"
This is the first time Ning Zhiyu took the initiative to approach him. Mo Zun's blood red pupils stared at the other party's fading face and asked in a hoarse voice: "You hate them that much?"
He hated them, and in addition to hating them, he was horrified. How could an ordinary human not be afraid when he woke up and found out he was carrying a demon's child? What he feared even more was how disappointed Yan Yuan would be when he found out about it.
Ning Zhiyu spoke in a trembling voice, "I am a human and you are a demon, how can you and I have an heir?"
"I am Yan Yuan's empress, and I love him..."
"If I keep the child, how can I face him... Please, help me, okay?..."
Mo Zun, whose tall form trembled slightly as he was shaken, brushed off Ning Zhiyu's hand and turned sideways, "This honourable one has no body now and cannot move more than two feet away from you, so I cannot help you."
"The children of the demon race need to take the Demon Fall Grass to fall, and that thing is only available to the demon race."
"Even if you take it, with a mortal body, not only will the child in your womb die... but also you."
Ning Zhiyu smiled, eyes moist: " All that talk... is perfunctory. Don't you just want me to give birth to your child?..."
Mo Zun turned his back on him: "This honourable one disdains lying."
Ning Zhiyu hoarsely said, "I tell you... I will not give birth to your child even if I die."
A little more than half an hour later, the palace attendant brought over the newly-prescribed abortion medicine, and the smell alone was more bitter and stronger than what he had drunk before. Ning Zhiyu drank it all without wrinkling his brows.
He quietly waited for the imagined sharp pain to come, but there was no response from his abdomen. Ning Zhiyu leaned back on the bed and pressed his palm against his abdomen, pressing his hand down hard.
"Why..."
"Why are you doing this to me, why..."
What he didn't expect was that this action would actually work. The pain in his abdomen was sharp. After Ning Zhiyu was stunned, he squeezed his abdomen harder and harder, he felt some blood gushing out between his legs, his lips were white with pain, but his heart was very happy.
Mo Zun appeared and took him by the wrist to stop him, "You are not allowed to do that..."
Ning Zhiyu violently waved his hand away, "Don't touch me!"
"Get lost."
"I don't want to see you, demon... you've ruined my life."
"You're the one who ruined my life..."
Ning Zhiyu seemed to have gone crazy, suddenly crying, using all his strength to desperately squeeze his abdomen, however, except for the initial flow of blood, there was no more movement.
"How could this be..."
"How could this be..."
Seeing his panicked and bewildered appearance, Mo Zun whispered, "The foetus in your belly have inherited the magic power from my life, and will still protect itself in the mother's womb. Ordinary people cannot hurt them, including you."
Ning Zhiyu muttered, "Evil demons… they really are really evil demons."
"There are good and bad people, and the same goes for demons. If they are born and you teach them well, they may not choose evil.” Mo Zun gloomily said.
Ning Zhiyu leapt back, "Don't even think about it."
The gentle, weak and timid person from the past could reveal such a cold and hard sidd. He was afraid that Ning Zhiyu was more pleasant to the servants in the palace than to him.
In his heart, Mo Zun knew that he was different to this human, but as a demon lord, he could not allow himself to be at a disadvantage at any time.
"When this honourable one revives the demon clan, there will be demon maidens who will be willing to breed heirs for this honourable one. Do you think this honourable one really cares for you?"
"It's just that I want to devour the children in your womb when they are born to strengthen my magic power."
With a sneer, Mo Zun dropped a few sentences and disappeared into thin air.
After tossing and turning alone for a long time, Ning Zhiyu was sure that he could not abort the child in this way, so he finally gave up and lay down on the bed exhausted and fell asleep.
After he had fallen asleep, a man dressed in black and red battle robes appeared beside the bed. Mo Zun sat down quietly, his large palm slowly probing Ning Zhiyu's slightly bulging abdomen, and his red pupils appeared to be filled with restrained joy and excitement, yet soon, all those emotions disappeared and were replaced by darkness.
Humans and demons were different, and it was only normal for Ning Zhiyu to be disgusted with him and with their child. Once upon a time, he would never have cared what a tiny human thought of him, but he just couldn't help but care now.
He had been asleep for ten thousand years, and the moment his soul woke up from Ning Zhiyu's body, he was destined to be inseparable from him. Since that day, he had watched how Ning Zhiyu lived, how he spent time with his beloved, how he was happy, sad and upset.
At first, when he saw Ning Zhiyu grieving for Yan Yuan, he thought that this really was a foolish human being who can't live without anyone, who can't eat or sleep properly, and who was completely led by the nose by the other person. It was almost funny.
Until one day, he suddenly began to care about Ning Zhiyu's actions, about everything between him and Yan Yuan. He didn't know when it started, probably after the day they had their lovemaking, or even earlier, when he saw Ning Zhiyu in tears, but he found this human being a little bit more appealing.