Chapter Text
Jiang Yuelou spurs on Xiao Hei like a madman as he chases through the streets of Jingcheng, peddlers and passers-by jumping out of his way in fear for their lives. He doesn’t even notice them. His heart is hammering up to the confines of his throat while his mind is bursting with an emotion he had almost believed to be extinct in himself: fear, white-hot-burning, all-consuming horror.
After what the rebels did to him as a child, after his mother killed herself, what did he have left to fear? Jiang Yuelou never cared enough about his own life to fear losing it, and he never cared enough about others to fear their loss either. Not on a fundamental level. But he can't lose Chen Yuzhi. He's the only soul he has irrevocably tied himself to over the course of his incredibly lonely life. Losing him is worse than death, and worse than hell, because this is his fault. Only his egoistic desire to hold Chen Yuzhi close has led to this point. And when Yuzhi needed him, he wasn't there for him.
When he finally forces his way through Shou Xi Road and to their house, their home , everything appears uncannily normal at first sight. The gate is thrown wide open, as if Chen Yuzhi was sitting in his clinic awaiting patients, and for a treacherous second, hope – a faint glimmer of hope – makes Jiang Yuelou wonder whether the boy was maybe mistaken. Maybe this is a trap and Jiang Yuelou was lured here? Even this thought feels like hope.
He climbs off Xiao Hei’s back and ties her to the door post. He hardly dares to enter. There are no soldiers around, no signs of violence, nothing looks amiss from here, but then his eyes land on Keying’s meticulously cared for flower beds – or what is left of them. Some ignorant brute has trampled all over them, pressing the leaves of some of her most precious herbs into the soil. Immediately, his heart grows cold.
“Yuzhi!” he shouts into the silence, hardly recognizing his own trembling voice, and runs to the door of Chen Yuzhi's clinic, throwing it open with one forceful push.
Inside is pandemonium.
A carpet of dried herbs covers the ground, pressed against the floorboards by disrespectful feet. All of Chen Yuzhi’s treasures are strewn across the floor and every other surface of the room, as if the person who did it had no inkling of their value, had no idea that Jiang Yuelou himself was the one who carefully sorted them into neat little drawers on that night before he could give Chen Yuzhi a home, always imagining how wide and round Chen Yuzhi’s beautiful doe eyes would go once he’d see them. Now, the cabinet is in tatters, the herbs an indistinguishable mess on the floor. Papers and books carelessly thrown into the mix.
For a moment, Jiang Yuelou can do nothing but stare at the chaos, his legs frozen to the spot. Then a noise from outside pulls him out of his daze and he rushes out.
“Ge!”
Keying is running up to him, a basket dangling perilously from her arm, fruit and vegetables falling out left and right. She stops in her tracks once she spots Jiang Yuelou, her eyes panic-stricken.
“Where is my brother?!”
Standing on the threshold to Chen Yuzhi's clinic, Jiang Yuelou just stares at her, unable to speak. He has no words to give her. All he knows is that he needs to go now, he needs to be with Chen Yuzhi, protect him at all cost. It can't be too late. It mustn't-
“Sir!”
At this very moment, Song Rong runs across the yard and joins them, bending over to catch his breath.
“Imperial Guards,” he forces out among pants, “they’ve arrested Doctor Chen. An hour ago. For colluding with the rebels.”
“Stay here,” Jiang Yuelou shouts over his shoulder, while his feet are already running back to his horse. An hour ago he was stupidly enjoying himself, while Yuzhi- He should have been here! To protect Yuzhi! Who knows what- An hour in Jin Dacheng's interrogation room can mean a lifetime of pain. What if-
~÷~÷~
“I need to go to the palace. I need to go save gege.”
Before Song Rong can even react, Keying has turned and is running towards the gate in pursuit of General Jiang. Song Rong sprints after her and with his long legs he catches her just before she can make a mistake she’ll forever regret.
“A-Ying!” He grabs her by the wrist and spins her against his chest, where he folds her into his arms – not as a man embraces his lover but as a dompteur tries to calm a raging beast.
Keying’s fists beat against his chest without holding back, “Let me go!”
“No. You can’t go out there.” Song Rong wraps his arms around her even tighter, more to protect himself at this point than to protect her.
“I need to help my gege!”
“You’re not helping him if you run to the palace and get yourself killed! What do you think? You’ll just run there and they’ll release him? That’s not how things work here!”
“Let me go!” Keying tries to shift tactics from her arms to her legs. Before she can knee Song Rong where it hurts the most, he does the only thing he can think of. He releases her and uses the moment of astonishment on her part to grab her by the thighs and hoist her over his back like a sack of rice.
“Put me down, you bastard!” She kicks and beats him like a wild beast – and it hurts so much, not because he hasn't received worse beatings, or because Song Rong is stupid enough to confuse her desperation for real anger, but to see his wife, as he’s already gotten used to thinking of her, in so much pain.
“A-Ying, I’m doing this only for your best,” he mutters and, carrying his rabid bundle over one shoulder, marches to Keying’s room.
Once he’s somehow made it through the door, he throws her down on the bed, clambering on top of her to stop her struggles by pinning down all four of her limbs. That's not at all how he imagined the first time sharing a bed with Keying.
“I hate you!” She screams, but he takes it in his stride.
“I know, darling. I know.” With his arms and legs busy restraining his wife, he can only peck her forehead, before he continues in his calmest voice. “A-Ying, do you think your brother would approve if you run to the palace and get yourself imprisoned or killed? Do you think he could bear it? Or that I could bear it?”
Her breath is coming sharp, but her arms slowly stop to struggle. “I need to help him,” she forces out, her voice already beginning to shake.
“Darling, Jiang Yuelou is already on his way. If anyone can help Doctor Chen, then it's him. He's the Emperor’s adoptive son, he's the Empire's most important general. He will save your brother, I’m sure. You know what your brother means to him, right? He would never allow anything to happen to him. Just like I could never allow anything to happen to you.”
She inhales a shaky breath, exhales, inhales again and then she breaks apart. And all Song Rong can do is release her arms and legs and fold her into his embrace, swearing to himself that he'll never allow anyone to hurt her.
~÷~÷~
“Say it!”
Crushing pain. Excruciating, electric pain. Chen Yuzhi feels his skin splitting, the metallic taste of copper is filling his mouth. He can hardly feel his legs anymore, he’s just kept upright by the wooden cross they’ve tied him to, the ropes cutting into his wrists the more his legs cave in. He still doesn't really understand what's going on. It still feels too absurd to be real, even after an hour of incessant pain and questioning.
His interrogator leisurely waves the whip in front of his face again, as if Chen Yuzhi could remember more of what he hasn’t done if they just inflicted more pain.
“I’m innocent,” he forces out through gritted teeth. Speaking hurts. So much.
“Ayah, Doctor Chen… We found solid evidence of your arms smuggling,” another man drawls, “Don't you think it's time to give up pretending and cooperate?”
He is playing with dirt under his fingernails, while he’s lounging on a chair in the corner like he's watching a rather boring show.
The buffoon.
Chen Yuzhi recognized him immediately when he flounced into the dungeon where they dragged Chen Yuzhi in an endless hour ago.
“I’m innocent,” he repeats, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth.
Before he can close his eyes, the whip cracks down again. Searing pain shoots through his bare chest and into every extremity, making his knees give in for a moment.
“Why don’t you tell us who your accomplice is and we can think of an arrangement for you,” the buffoon starts again. Chen Yuzhi feels like he is talking to a brick wall. There is just one way to get out of here, just one way.
“Jiang Yuelou,” he slurs, his vision blurring with the throbbing pain in his skull, “wanna see Jiang Yuelou.” He swallows down another mouth-ful of blood. They must have knocked out a tooth or two with how bad he’s bleeding.
“Uh?” The buffoon jumps up from his seat like he's been pricked with a needle. Suddenly he is leaning into Chen Yuzhi’s space with wide-open eyes, “Jiang Yuelou?!”
“No!” Chen Yuzhi is getting dizzy with how vehemently he shakes his head. This is all so wrong. So wrong. The buffoon somehow doesn’t think so.
“Jiang Yuelou?!” He has leaned even further into Chen Yuzhi’s space, grabbing his cheek between two fingers, “Oh that’s so…,” he clicks his tongue, “Of course, he always pretends to hate the rebels more than anyone else, and secretly… Oh that’s so perfidious ! That-”
Unexpectedly, the buffoon’s monologue is cut short by a soldier who throws the heavy metal door open with enough force to leave an indent in the wall. Chen Yuzhi flinches and the buffoon drops his hand.
“Sir!”
Staring at his subordinate with his mouth hanging a little open, the buffoon whirls around. “What are you doing?!”
“S-sir! G-general J-Jiang! He-”
The young soldier never gets to finish this sentence, because he gets shoved out of the way by a clearly livid Jiang Yuelou. Chen Yuzhi must be running a fever at this point. There is no way Jiang Yuelou just broke into the Imperial Prison.
Immediately, Jiang Yuelou's eyes land on Chen Yuzhi, widen and then harden to a deep metallic black.
“Let him go! Now!”
Jiang Yuelou's hands are shaking with rage, something dark is bleeding out of his every pore. He's going to kill them all, Chen Yuzhi thinks before pain shoots through him again like a bolt of lightning, because his legs have given in for good.
Obviously not able to read his opponent, the buffoon walks up to Jiang Yuelou like he's talking sense into a stubborn toddler.
“Ayah, Jiang Yuelou, what are you doing here?”
Jiang Yuelou walks further into the cell, his whole aura frightening the surrounding soldiers into inaction.
"Let Chen Yuzhi go! Now!"
“But he's under investigation.” The buffoon still doesn't seem to get what trouble he is in. “We found documents that prove he's in cahoots with the insurgents.”
"It's all a lie.” Jiang Yuelou forces out between gritted teeth. “Let him go!"
"Now, come on. Calm down. He's under -"
With one swift movement, Jiang Yuelou unshieves his sword. Faster than a flash of lightning he's raised it to the buffoon’s throat, whose eyes are nearly bulging out of his head.
"If you don't immediately let Chen Yuzhi go,” Jiang Yuelou barks to the soldiers around, “I will kill my way through to him. And I'm starting with him!"
Everyone knows that he's not bluffing. The sheer and utter will to kill is written all over his face.
“Yuelou,” Chen Yuzhi whispers, too weak to stand on his feet anymore. He can hardly follow whatever is going on around him, all he knows is that Jiang Yuelou is here with him.
“Let my man go!” Jiang Yuelou yells with another look at Chen Yuzhi, his voice reverberating against the high walls like thunder. He presses the blade harder against the buffoon’s throat.
"D- do it, for God's sake! Let the man go!"
The buffoon points a shaky finger at Chen Yuzhi, but he hardly notices. All he can see are Jiang Yuelou's frantic black eyes and the sword in his hand. He's seen them before, turned against himself. Eyes that hold so many facets, so much warmth, so many smiles – but also this bottomless rage.
The bastard who enjoyed whipping him so much just a few minutes earlier hurries over and begins to untie the ropes around his wrists. As soon as the ropes fall, so does Chen Yuzhi. Like a puppet whose strings are cut, Chen Yuzhi collapses, his legs caving in immediately. However, before he can hit the ground, a pair of warm arms wrap around him and steady him in his descent.
“Yuelou,” he mumbles, and the arms around him tighten. “I'm here, baby.” From where he has his face buried in Jiang Yuelou’s robes, he can see Jiang Yuelou’s sword raised in self-defense.
“Who accused him?”
The buffoon seems to have recovered some of his usual swagger and leans back against the cell door, shooting Jiang Yuelou a glare, “You know I can't tell you that.”
“Jin Dacheng! For you to immediately go and arrest the man it must have been someone high up,” Jiang Yuelou replies, “Who the fuck was it?!”
“I can't tell-”
“Who the hell accused my Yuzhi?!” Jiang Yuelou bundles Chen Yuzhi up tighter in his arms, and if he isn’t completely mistaken he can feel Jiang Yuelou’s heart thumping through his robes.
The buffoon crosses his arms over his chest. “We found documents that prove beyond doubt that he's helping the rebels smuggle weapons into the city!”
“Bullshit!” Jiang Yuelou screams, “He's been set up!”
“For fuck’s sake, Jiang Yuelou! I've got evidence!”
“You didn't even ask for his alibi or check his-”
The buffoon pushes himself away from the wall, spreading his arms in exasperation, “What the hell do you expect when the Minister of Finance personally gives me a tip, eh?!”
For a second, Jiang Yuelou freezes, then the will to kill is back in full force, “Zhao Jingming?! That little rat! That worthless, little bastard!”
The shouting rings in Chen Yuzhi’s ears, making him feel dizzy and sick, but Jiang Yuelou’s voice just keeps rising in volume.
“I should have slaughtered him and his entire despicable clan instead of canceling the engagement!”
Chen Yuzhi scrunches his eyes shut, feeling dizzy to the point of being sick. “Yuelou, please.”
Jiang Yuelou freezes and glances down at Chen Yuzhi with guilt written all over his eyes. “I’m sorry, baby. I’ll get you home. I promise, I’ll get you out of here.”
Suddenly a murmur rises in the corridor, like ripples on the surface of a lake, and then an unnaturally high voice echoes through the hall, “Bow to his majesty the Emperor!”
Chen Yuzhi stares on like he’s watching someone else’s dream as the rows of soldiers fall to their knees, and the man he last saw in the Ceremonial Hall strides into the cell. He looks completely out of place in this space wearing his elaborately embroidered robes. Again, Chen Yuzhi is not sure he isn’t hallucinating.
Slowly, Jiang Yuelou lowers his sword, but with Chen Yuzhi lying bonelessly in his arms, he can’t bend over in a respectful bow. From the furious expression on the Emperor’s face, a bow would probably not have made much of a difference anyway.
“Out!” He commands without even a glance over his shoulder, and the assembled imperial guardsmen and eunuchs scuttle out as quickly as their feet can carry them.
Only Jiang Yuelou and the buffoon remain in the cell with him – and Chen Yuzhi, whom Jiang Yuelou gently shifts so that he can rest against the wall. Before he gets up to join the two other men, he removes his outer robe and drapes it over Chen Yuzhi's shoulders with a brief reassuring smile.
The Emperor meets him half-way, and before Jiang Yuelou can even flinch, he has raised his hand to slap Jiang Yuelou so hard his head snaps to the side, a thin line of blood trickling from his nose. He doesn’t budge by an inch.
“What do you think you're doing here?! Immediately apologize!”
The buffoon seems on the point of agreeing when a single dark look from his father shuts him up. Jiang Yuelou glares back at him, his eyes still pitch-black but the hatred is slowly ebbing out of them.
“I won’t apologize for injustice!”
Another slap echoes through the cell, making Chen Yuzhi flinch in sympathetic pain.
“I am your Emperor !”
“But he is my life !”
“And does your life stand above the Empire, General Jiang ?! Do you even remember who you’re talking to? On your knees!”
Jiang Yuelou stiffens and then falls to his knees, pressing his forehead firmly against the cold stone. “Forgive me, your majesty. I only know with absolute certainty that Chen Yuzhi would never harm a living creature. He would never act against his majesty. All he has ever wanted was to live a life in peace. I vouch for him with my life. I-”
“Be quiet, Yuelou!”
Now, the buffoon senses a potential opening again and leans forward, “What about my apology, eh?”
“You, too, Dacheng! Be quiet!”
The Emperor draws a deep exasperated breath, like he can't believe those two men are somehow the next people in line for the throne. After a short silence, he continues in a more moderate tone, “In fact, Minister Zhan has already spoken to me on behalf of this young man. He seems to be of the same opinion as you, Yuelou. What a bunch of influential friends this young doctor has made already… It’s really quite astonishing.”
“Chen Yuzhi is innocent,” Jiang Yuelou pleads again, this time in a quieter voice, his head still pressed against the floor.
“Even so, he has to be investigated like everyone else in this Empire. Just because he is your…” the Emperor visibly struggles for words, “whatever he is… he will not receive different treatment. And you, General Jiang , can't march into these halls, threaten the heir to the throne, disregard my orders – again – and force your will upon my soldiers! That's close to being an act of treason, do you understand?”
Without raising his head, Jiang Yuelou mutters, “This general was wrong. Please forgive me, your majesty.”
In Chen Yuzhi's opinion, it's probably better that Jiang Yuelou still has his face hidden from view, because he can't imagine him to really feel apologetic.
“This is a matter I can’t just let slide, Jiang Yuelou. There are rules for everyone in this Empire. Even for you.” The Emperor pinches the bridge of his nose. “Apologize to the Crown Prince and then you will receive twenty blows with the rod.”
Chen Yuzhi’s fingers curl into the fabric of Jiang Yuelou's robe, feeling the phantom pain of those blows on his own back.
“Twenty blows,” the Emperor repeats in a quieter voice, “and then you can take that man away for the time being.”
“Thank you, your majesty!”
The Emperor impatiently waves the buffoon to his side.
“Execute the punishment, and then I don't want a single word of this to leak out, understood?”
For the first time, the buffoon appears to be speechless. Under his father's watchful eyes, he slowly goes to pick up a rod from a rack that also contains the whip Chen Yuzhi was introduced to earlier. From where Chen Yuzhi is watching, he looks almost unwilling.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yuelou has lifted his head, kneeling now on the hard ground with his back ramrod straight and his head turned to directly address the buffoon. “Please accept my sincere apologies.”
Then he turns around until he is face to face with Chen Yuzhi and awaits his first blow. Chen Yuzhi can do nothing but stare back, feeling sick with anticipation.
The buffoon glances down at both men and the rod in his hand, briefly looking undecided, before he takes a deep breath, lifts the rod and lets it come down on Jiang Yuelou's back. Hard.
“Yuelou,” Chen Yuzhi mutters under his breath over and over again, like an incantation, while Jiang Yuelou's eyes are fixed on him. With every blow, every rod coming down on him with a loud, bone-cracking thud his eyes are focused on nothing but Chen Yuzhi. And when Chen Yuzhi notices that there are tears streaming down his own face, Jiang Yuelou forces the corners of his lips into a distorted little smile. The sight is enough to drive him mad.
As soon as the twenty blows are delivered, the buffoon takes a step back and throws the rod into a corner of the cell like it disgusts him and leans back against his chair. Chen Yuzhi doesn't care about him or the Emperor anymore, the only person who matters is Jiang Yuelou, who somehow manages to push himself to his feet, although he has to bite his lips to suppress a groan. He stumbles over to Chen Yuzhi and helps him up. For a second Chen Yuzhi just gazes at him, at his man, his Yuelou who has just gone through hell for him, before he pulls him into a fierce hug.
“I love you,” he sobs against his shoulder and feels Jiang Yuelou nod and swallow heavily, as he wraps his arms around him.
“Let's go home, Yuzhi,” Jiang Yuelou whispers after a long while.
Reluctantly Chen Yuzhi allows Jiang Yuelou to shift an arm around his back and wraps his own around Jiang Yuelou's neck as they start to stagger out of the cell.
“Thank you, your majesty,” Chen Yuzhi mumbles as they move past the Emperor, but he's not so sure how much he really means it.
Then the door opens for them and they file past soldiers and eunuchs firmly in each other's arms.