Langhua: The Codependence of a Prince and His General

Punishment

The funeral was over, but the incident was not.

The very next day, Xuanyuan Rui walked out of his room to find Xuanyuan Lang in the main hall of Competence Palace. The book he was holding flopped to the ground.

"S-Seventh Brother."

Xuanyuan Lang was sitting in the same seat that he had taken when they had first met here, with Hua Yuheng standing behind him as before. However, it seemed to Xuanyuan Rui as though the layout of the palace had shifted, revolved around the Seventh Prince. The guest's seat Xuanyuan Lang had taken was now the central throne of the hall.

The Sixth Prince's legs shook in his own palace.

"You didn't attend the funeral yesterday," Xuanyuan Lang said softly. "I had hoped to see you there."

Xuanyuan Rui clenched his hands tightly. Stumbling up to Xuanyuan Lang's chair, he fell to his knees.

"On... On behalf of my mother..."

He put his hands onto the floor, and then his head.

"I beg your forgiveness."

There was none of his usual clumsy guilelessness. It seemed the Sixth Prince had been rehearsing this.

But when Hua Yuheng stole a glance at Xuanyuan Lang, he saw that the Seventh Prince's face remained cold and stony. There were no cracks in his armor.

"An apology, Sixth Brother? Do you truly think that will suffice?"

Xuanyuan Rui's entire body shuddered as he lay prostrate. "My mother and I are at your mercy."

"So I heard," Xuanyuan Lang sneered suddenly, making Hua Yuheng frown. He had never heard such venom in Qilang's voice before. "Father said the disgraced consort's fate is in my hands. That was awfully generous of you, Sixth Brother."

"...It is only right."

"You have so much faith in me." Xuanyuan Lang leaned against one hand. "I just want to know one thing, Sixth Brother.

"Did you know what she was planning?"

"I..."

"Tell me honestly, now. Your lies cannot hope to deceive me."

Xuanyuan Rui bit his lip hard and knocked his forehead against the floor thrice. When he spoke, there were a few drops of blood on the floor, from his head or his lips no one knew. "I... suspected something amiss. Mother was becoming... unstable. But I didn't think—"

He choked. "No, I—

"Even if I knew, I—

"There was nothing I could— I couldn't—"

Xuanyuan Lang watched as his brother shook like a leaf, his words tripping all over the place. The floor was cold, and slowly Xuanyuan Rui curled in on himself, like a worm shrivelling up.

When Xuanyuan Lang cast his eyes down, he could see the traces of fading bruises on the back of Xuanyuan Rui's neck as his hair fell over his shoulders.

"Qilang." Hua Yuheng spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. He need not have bothered—Xuanyuan Rui probably could not hear him anyway.

"Sixth Prince."

However, Xuanyuan Lang's voice, flinty and firm, seemed to reach right into his addled mind. Xuanyuan Rui froze at the sound of his title, his involuntary trembling stiffening with one almighty jolt.

"Seeing as we are still brothers by blood, I will spare your mother's life."

"...!" Xuanyuan Rui's head whipped up, his eyes wide in disbelief. However, when he did not find the forgiveness he hoped for in Xuanyuan Lang's cold gaze, the flush that had risen in his cheeks receded once more.