Winning the male lead

“Awake?”

A soft and gentle voice rang in Han Qi’s ears, calling to him. His thoughts drifted, but he couldn’t control his body to respond. Even his lips and tongue felt stiff. Only in his mind did alarm bells ring: Damn it, I’ve fallen for this eunuch’s trap.

Le Tian sat considerately by his bedside, casually playing with a brocade box. He waved it in front of his eyes. “For me?”

Han Qi’s eyes moved sluggishly. As anger surged in his heart, an inexplicable sense of shame and indignation also rose, even overpowering his fury. His eyes locked onto the brocade box in front of him.

Seeing his eyes redden in rage, Le Tian thought to himself: This little bastard has such thin skin. He’s mad just because I exposed his concern for me? If he’s this pissed now, he’s definitely going to cough up blood later when I give him a lesson.

Le Tian chuckled slightly, put the brocade box away, and coughed lightly before speaking in a low voice: “Didn’t I say before, if you don’t kill me now, I’ll kill you later? Your Highness, do you regret it?”

Han Qi: Glare.

Le Tian pretended to have a sudden realization. “Oh, I forgot. The Seventh Prince is paralyzed by Soft Tendon Powder and can only wait to be slaughtered.”

Han Qi: Glaring harder.

With a sharp clang, Le Tian unsheathed his Xiuchun Blade. His pretentious demeanor almost cracked—damn, this knife is heavy! I can’t even lift it properly.

Sunlight reflected off the blade, and through its white sheen, Han Qi caught a faint glimpse of Lin Le Tian’s pale jaw and lightly colored lips. They say people with thin lips are ruthless. Le Tian’s lips were indeed thin—so sharp from the side they seemed even sharper than the blade itself.

Did Han Qi regret it? Yes.

He regretted letting Lin Le Tian recover and thrive. He had forgotten—this was a tiger. Releasing a tiger back into the wild was an act of sheer stupidity. He should have forged a golden chain and locked this vicious beast up for good.

With a clatter, the Xiuchun Blade’s scabbard was discarded onto the floor. Le Tian sneered, “Almost forgot, this blade is filthy. Nearly soiled my hands.”

Verbal humiliation didn’t affect Le Tian much, but for Han Qi, it was a heavy blow. Born of royal blood, he had willingly sullied himself by joining the Eastern Depot, yet now, he was being turned into a scapegoat by the very person responsible. His face trembled with anger.

The moment he felt his facial muscles twitch, he realized—this eunuch didn’t drug me heavily enough. His heart steadied. Without revealing anything, he began to slowly gather his strength.

Le Tian hadn’t actually intended to fully paralyze him. Where was the fun in drugging him into a corpse? Besides, given Le Tian’s personality, he wouldn’t resort to drugging Han Qi for something indecent. Instead, he was setting things up for him to flip the game—to make him retaliate and completely humiliate him.

Casually placing the brocade box on the bedside table, Le Tian pulled out a delicate short knife from his sleeve. With a swift motion, he cut through Han Qi’s belt.

Han Qi heard the sound but couldn’t see what was happening. He only felt his waist loosen as his outer garments were pushed aside. Piece by piece, his clothing was sliced open. His expression grew darker. Le Tian’s actions were clean and precise. Only when he left with just his inner garments did he finally stop.

“Seventh Prince, do you know? The first master I studied under in the palace was Grandpa Yuan from the Castration Chamber. He was famous as ‘One-Slash Yuan.’ With just one stroke…” Le Tian’s wrist flicked, and the sharp blade lightly traced Han Qi’s undergarments. The fabric split open in an instant. “I guarantee, you’ll be cut completely clean.”

Any man would feel a primal fear at this kind of threat. Han Qi forced himself to stay calm, focusing his energy. As long as he could recover just a little strength, the roles of butcher and prey would be reversed.

Le Tian, meanwhile, was having far too much fun. He patiently continued his teasing, carefully carving a heart-shaped cut into Han Qi’s undergarments. “System, system! Look, isn’t my heart-shaped cut perfect?”

The system, which had been passively blocked out, was now enduring unbearable torment. It responded numbly: “Yes. Absolutely perfect.”

While Le Tian was busy drawing his heart, Han Qi gradually felt strength returning to his body. His fingers could now move. At this rate, I’ll recover in no time.

Eunuchs were cruel by nature—there was no way Le Tian would give him a quick death. If the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t let him off easily either.

A chill crept up his lower body as the sharp knife glided over his skin. He couldn’t stop the goosebumps from forming along his spine. He gritted his teeth, forcing his willpower to accelerate his recovery, while mentally calculating just how he would torment Lin Le Tian when the time came.

Perhaps it was the external tension, or maybe it was the intoxicating scent of Le Tian lingering in the small space. A certain memory—one laced with indulgence and decadence—surfaced in his mind. He realized, to his horror, that his body was reacting.

Le Tian, of course, noticed immediately. His eyes widened in horror. “System, system! Did you see that? He’s a damn masochist! He’s getting hard while being held at knifepoint—how perverted is that?!”

System: …Of all the people here, you are undoubtedly the most perverted one.

Sure enough, Le Tian quickly switched gears, his tone turning delighted: “I love it!”

“What’s wrong, Your Highness?” Le Tian deliberately nudged the blade against him. The external stimulus only worsened the reaction. Han Qi was seething with rage, his humiliation fueling his determination. The more he burned with anger, the faster his strength returned.

“Oh, I see now! This must be your final burst of energy before the end,” Le Tian giggled, imagining the lesson he was about to deliver. The sheer anticipation made him giddy.

But to Han Qi, that laughter was nothing but pure mockery. A surge of emotion flooded his chest, and suddenly—

With a swift motion, he sat up.

Le Tian had no time to react before he was slammed onto the bed. His laughter cut off abruptly. His wrists were seized, the dagger fell with a clang, and his face was frozen in shock. Wait, I haven’t even started teaching yet—how did he recover so fast?!

Han Qi smiled. It was a slow, deliberate smile, yet behind it lurked a chilling, bloodthirsty aura.

“Cut completely clean, you say?”

Le Tian’s mind went blank: Big bro, I was just joking! I would never actually do it!

Han Qi found amusement in his stunned, slack-jawed expression.

This person looked fragile, harmless even. But after this experience, he knew better—he would never again underestimate Lin Le Tian.

Le Tian opened his lips, a pair of phoenix eyes staring at him sorrowfully.

So he once again convinced himself “to bully others”.

Han Qi almost drunk, had sweaty, slippery hands and Lin Le Tian’s flexible skin was pasted in a place that could not be separated, thin as paper. 

His black hair was scattered, hitting Han Qi’s arm as solid as a rock, Han Qi whispered, “Will be fast, do you still dare?”

Lin Le Tian could not speak and  Han Qi leaned down to bite his earlobe. Using this excuse, he came again and again, until Lin Le Tian could not help but spit out blood, blood splattered on his chest, angry peonies in general, after spitting out blood, it seemed that the throat was not clean, Lin Le Tian tilted his head back painfully while gasping and coughing.

Han Qi could not help but pinch his neck and kissed him deeply, tasting the blood in his mouth. He could feel the “dong dong dong dong” intense heartbeat of Le Tian.

Is it his? Is it Lin Le Tian’s? Or theirs?

Chaos, all chaos.

In the end, Lin Le Tian fainted.

When Lin Letian’s consciousness returned, he realized that it was extremely quiet around him, and the first time he called out to the system, excitedly saying, “Han Qi kissed me!”

The system replied: “Oh, didn’t see it.”

Le Tian sighed, “He’s done, he likes me.”

The system calmly said, “Oh.”

What could it do? It was also desperate, it came out of the passive shielding before Le Tian woke up, and watched Han Qi draped in his coat, his eyes looking deep into the unconscious Lin Le Tian, his eyes were so complex that a word quickly appeared in the system’s vocabulary – love-hate.

Han Qi’s pants even compared a heart to it.

Shit.

Le Tian was full of peace, “Where is he?”

The system reluctantly said, “Going to stew ginseng.”

Le Tian nodded affirmatively, “Should be.”

While he was flirting blindly with the system, Han Qi returned, his flying fish costume that was cut by Lin Le Tian barely tied up, a jade bowl in his hand.

Lin Le Tian was also really a strange person, the huge courtyard was completely deserted, Han Qi remembered all the behavior of Lin Le Tian when he was with him, and presumed that he should be extremely averse to people.

System: you think too much …… He just wants to isolate to do something with you that shouldn’t be done.

This time, Lin Letian was very calm after being humiliated, Han Qi did not even turn his eyes when he sat next to him, it seemed as if his heart was dead.

He tightened his eyebrows, “Want to die?”

He wasn’t angry but sneered, “Drink the medicine.”

Le Tian replied: “you drink it yourself.”

Han Qi was exasperated by his half-dead attitude, “Seriously you won’t drink it?”

Le Tian used silence to express his position.

“Good.” Han Qi picked up the jade bowl, drank a mouthful of medicinal soup, pinched Lin Le Tian’s chin, bent down and kissed him. Red in the face, he got up and coldly threatened, “How do you want to drink the rest of the medicine?”

He gritted his teeth in anger, put the bowl of medicine on the table, whisked his sleeve and turned around, “If you won’t drink it, forget it!”

Le Tian: This is different from what was promised!