After administering this small warning, Gu Huaiyu asked, “The General’s mouth is certainly hard. I wonder if your bones are just as tough?”
Pei Jingyi stared up at him, his voice turning husky. “I have something even harder on me. Does the Chancellor wish to inspect it?”
Gu Huaiyu’s brow twitched. His fingers lightly stroked the handle of the whip. With a flicker of his eyes, two Iron Eagle Guards understood the signal and stepped forward, pinning Pei Jingyi’s arms from behind and holding him firmly in place.
“Is that so? I would quite like to see just how hard you are, General.”
The head of the whip was suddenly shoved violently into his mouth!
The hard leather, carrying the metallic scent of someone’s blood, shoved deep into Pei Jingyi’s throat. The muscles in his neck bulged, but he used his canines to bite down hard on the whip. A low, muffled growl escaped his throat, sounding like an enraged beast.
Two guards were not enough to restrain a general who could take an enemy’s head amidst ten thousand soldiers, but the power in Gu Huaiyu’s hands could.
Gu Huaiyu looked down into those fierce eyes, paying him back in his own coin. “The General is biting my whip so tightly. What am I to do with you?”
Pei Jingyi suddenly let go, but it wasn’t an act of submission. He curled his tongue around the head of the whip and licked it heavily, like a predator tasting its prey, swirling every drop of blood into his mouth.
Beads of blood leaked from the corner of his lips, yet he bared his teeth in a bloody grin.
Bastard. He’s looking for death!
Gu Huaiyu flicked his wrist, and the metal clasp at the end of the whip tore into the corner of Pei’s mouth.
Blood sprayed onto his green robes, yet Pei Jingyi remained in that position, his blood-stained teeth catching the whip again, his eyes filled with a savage light.
Even pinned beneath a claw, this wolf used its fangs to tell the hunter: I can tear your throat open at any moment.
With a frozen expression, Gu Huaiyu twisted the whip. The sharp head hooked between Pei Jingyi’s teeth and his cheek, like a blade skinning prey, scraping his throat and tongue until they were a mess of blood and flesh.
The smell of blood mingled with the cold, hard scent of leather, saturating the air.
Gu Huaiyu suppressed his agitation and took a deep breath of the scent of Nine Li blood. With a clack, he dropped the whip.
Such fine Nine Li blood, wasted once again.
Pei Jingyi shook his shoulders back, breaking free from the guards’ grip. He turned his head to spit out a mouthful of bloody foam, then turned back to stare at Gu Huaiyu with reckless abandon.
It wasn’t the first time Gu Huaiyu had encountered a “hard bone,” but Pei Jingyi was the only one who made his fingertips itch. The more this wild horse neighed and struggled, the more he wanted to break its spine with his own hands, grinding its pride into dust until those defiant eyes held nothing but his own reflection.
He turned and walked back behind the desk, using a handkerchief to wipe the blood from his palms. “I take it the General is still not convinced?”
Pei Jingyi wiped the tear at the corner of his mouth, the blood smearing across his cheek into a crimson streak. Suddenly, the corners of his mouth curled up, the scarlet stain extending to his jaw, giving him a ferocious appearance. “The Chancellor’s official prestige is so great, how could I not be convinced?”
Gu Huaiyu slowly wiped each of his fingers, his gaze leisurely measuring the man. “Since you are convinced, then so be it. I was going to give you a chance for revenge.”
Pei Jingyi knew he was baiting a hook, but he couldn’t resist his own nature of “knowing there’s a tiger in the mountains, yet walking toward them anyway.”
“What does the Chancellor mean?”
Gu Huaiyu tossed the bloody handkerchief onto the desk and opened a metaphorical beast trap he had long prepared. “General Pei, do you dare to make a bet with me?”
“What kind of bet?”
Pei Jingyi’s brow arched. He truly wanted to see what medicine was being sold in this gourd.
Gu Huaiyu spoke with total composure. “I bet that within ten days, General Pei will willingly kneel and beg to be my man.”
Pei Jingyi narrowed his eyes, his tongue pressing against the wound behind his teeth. “The Chancellor is that confident?”
“If the General is afraid…”
“Afraid?”
Pei Jingyi suddenly laughed. That word was simply too ridiculous. To someone who had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, there was nothing in this world he feared.
He took a step forward. The scabbards of the Iron Eagle Guards immediately crossed to block him, but he didn’t care, letting the edges press against his throat. “Since we are betting, shouldn’t the Chancellor mention the stakes?”
“If General Pei wins…” Gu Huaiyu hadn’t actually considered that possibility. He said slowly, “This Chancellor shall be at your disposal.”
“At… my… disposal?”
Pei Jingyi repeated the words one by one, the playful mockery in his eyes carrying a deep, suggestive meaning.
Gu Huaiyu leaned forward slightly, his red lips and white teeth parting softly. “Does the General dare to bet?”
Pei Jingyi stared at him for a long time, as if trying to find a crack in that beautiful, flawless mask. Finally, he let out a low laugh. “I’ll bet.”
Damn🫣