Chapter 135:
Extra 2
The Strange Amnesiac Adventures of His Highness the Crown Prince (Part One)
WHEN XIE LIAN opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor inside a strange house. This puzzled him.
He had been training at the Royal Cultivation Hall on Mount Taicang. How had he ended up here?
Confused, Xie Lian sat up. He noticed he was wearing a simple white cultivation robe, but it was too simple—it was starkly basic, as if he were some peasant. The material wasn’t great either; it was coarse and chafed his skin.
Xie Lian frowned. He wanted to climb to his feet, yet as he straightened up, he noticed further signs of discomfort from his body—his waist was sore, his legs were sore, his lower belly was sore, and his neck was sore. Was it because he’d been lying there uncovered on the floor the entire night?
…Surely not. He was hardly so delicate.
Where were Feng Xin and Mu Qing? As they came to mind, Xie Lian called out, “Feng—”
He promptly dissolved into a fit of coughing and was left utterly baffled. His throat didn’t feel great either.
The night before, Feng Xin and Mu Qing had argued again over something trivial. They were so loud that Xie Lian couldn’t concentrate on his meditation, so he ordered them to go outside and train idioms. He’d gotten drowsy as he listened to them train two hundred idioms or more while continually blowing their tops, so he headed off to rest. How had he woken up in this unbelievable, hugely perplexing situation?!
Xie Lian finally pulled himself to his feet using the table next to him and surveyed his surroundings. This place was probably an inn, but if he chose to stay at an inn instead of camping outdoors, he wouldn’t select one that looked so economical. His hands and feet weren’t bound, nor were the doors and windows locked, meaning he wasn’t being detained. If someone or something had ambushed him, why would they toss him here?
The more Xie Lian thought about his situation, the more peculiar he found it, particularly his current physical condition. With aching arms, he stripped off his outer robe to check for injuries—and yet, when he looked down at himself, the blood instantly drained from his face.
Amorous red marks covered him densely from chest to stomach. It was as though a shower of oversized flower petals had fallen and landed on his jade-fair skin and bloomed into blossoms of vivid red—so very red—and he was left deeply unsettled.
He threw himself at a nearby mirror, and it was just as he’d expected! It wasn’t just his chest and midriff—the marks covered his neck and back too.
Xie Lian was shocked speechless. He didn’t dare remove any more clothing down below for further checks, as it was already more than obvious what had happened.
During the period that he’d been unconscious, someone had…taken his virginity.
For the first time in his life, Xie Lian understood what the phrase “legs going weak” meant, but he ultimately managed to stay upright and steady.
A long time ago, he’d heard horrible gossip from the palace maidens who attended him—tales of shady establishments run by evil crooks who specialized in rape and sex trafficking. They would drug girls, then commit their crimes. But…but…
Xie Lian clutched his head and mumbled to no one, “But I’m a man…!”
His appearance right now was unseemly to the extreme. In addition to the kiss marks and fingerprint bruises from a heavy hand, there were also—mortifyingly enough—bite marks. Xie Lian covered his face, feeling his mind burn while his body ran cold.
Then, something extremely serious hit him. Oh no!
In the cultivation method he practiced, carnal acts were strictly forbidden. Didn’t this mean he’d broken that precept?
Quickly, he tried to test his spiritual power. Sure enough, there was nothing!
Xie Lian had always been a calm person, but under the current circumstances, he was on the verge of breaking down.
He didn’t know how this had happened…but he found himself—like that—when he woke up. Feng Xin and Mu Qing were both gone, and someone had done something somehow and now he wasn’t a virgin anymore. He really was going to fall apart!
Even after trying to compose himself for a long moment, he still couldn’t accept this. He was in a tizzy. Nevertheless, he couldn’t just stay as he was, so he grabbed his clothes and scrambled into them before rushing out of the inn. No one on the road stopped him as he went, and Xie Lian sighed in relief at that. He didn’t have the mind to care about the oddness of his surroundings—from the architecture, to the dress of the pedestrians, to the accents around him.
Perhaps it was just the shame he felt, but he kept thinking that everyone could tell what had happened to him and were giving him odd, appraising looks. This urged him to walk faster and faster until finally he broke out into a mad dash. He charged into a small forest and slammed his fist into one tree, snapping it with a crack.
“Jerk!” he shouted angrily.
He wanted to curse the one who had abused him with the most malicious words there were, but again and again, all he could come up with was “jerk,” “scumbag,” and “sleaze.” He felt stifled, unable to vent the fire inside him—and there was no way he would burst into tears. All he could do was set his mind to furiously swing his fists.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
He knocked down dozens of trees in a row. At last, the local Lord of Soil and Ground crawled out and hugged his leg.
“Your Highness! Your Highness, please stop hitting things!”
Although Xie Lian’s rage still brimmed within him, this old man gave him pause—as obviously no ordinary human could have popped out of the ground.
“Who are you?” Xie Lian demanded.
“I’m the local Lord of Soil and Ground, Your Highness!” said the old man as he wiped away his tears. “I retired to this little wood to pass my old age. If Your Elderliness keeps hitting the trees, I’ll be made homeless!”
Xie Lian knew that his own problems had nothing to do with everyone else and that he shouldn’t randomly take his issues out on them. Besides, no matter how insignificant the position, a Lord of Soil and Ground was still a heavenly official—and this one was an elderly official, a senior to whom he needed to show respect. Thus, Xie Lian arduously pulled back some of his temper and stopped the violence.