Chapter 48: Closing the Doors for a Massacre Part 2

His dark eyes, under the warm glow, took on a translucent depth, emotions hard to discern.

The leader slowly extended a hand, his bloodied fingertip brushing the prince’s broken brow, leaving a vivid red of blood and power.

“Tired?” he asked softly.

The prince said nothing, only shifting aside to make space on the throne, gesturing for the leader to sit.

Thus, Yan Xinfeng sat on the cold, hard expanse of precious metal, and looking down, found nothing particularly special about it.

Wei Tingxia murmured softly by his ear, “Before sitting up here, it seemed perfect in every way. But once you’re on it, it’s really just that.”

He stared dazedly at the bloodstains under the evening sunlight, a mocking smile curling at the corner of his mouth. Then he looked at Yan Xinfeng. “Did everything go smoothly?”

Yan Xinfeng said, “Very smoothly.”

Wei Tingxia had single-handedly held back all the nobles on Capital Star by himself. The external forces held back, afraid to act rashly for fear of harming their own, which gave Yan Xinfeng his chance.

By the time the forces reacted, it was already too late. Everyone had lost the chance to fight back. After all, no one could have imagined that Wei Tingxia would go so mad as to directly seal off the Imperial Palace and start a massacre inside.

Wei Tingxia let out a hum of laughter upon hearing this. “Good, as long as it went smoothly.”

He idly fiddled with his fingers, which weren’t fully clean, feeling a bit tired and very sleepy. He had handled a lot that day, which had been extremely draining on his spirit.

Yan Xinfeng had another question. “How did you control the Imperial Guards?”

The Imperial Guards had only one leader: the Emperor. How had Wei Tingxia faced down so many of them to kill the Emperor?

“The army’s alphas could all be dragged off for experiments, so of course they could imagine they wouldn’t have completely stable days either.” Wei Tingxia explained casually. “Besides listening to the Emperor, they also listened to the Assistant Minister.”

And the Assistant Minister had a secret.

“On the Blue Nail Ship back then, there was a new recruit who had been in service for less than three years. Full of patriotic fervor, he volunteered for the Border Military District to temper himself, and it just so happened he was on that reconnaissance ship. Later, his body was lost without a trace.”

And that new recruit, before entering the army under a false identity, had shared the same family name as the Assistant Minister.

The family’s only promising child had died so inexplicably, and though the Assistant Minister held a high position himself, his own future was uncertain. Of course, he had to leave himself a way out.

As his words fell, a brief silence settled in the hall. The last rays of the setting sun filtered through the high windows, gently spilling in and dyeing the motes of dust in the air into flecks of gold. They also fell on Wei Tingxia’s lowered eyelashes, casting small patches of quiet shadow.

His fingertips unconsciously rubbed at his knuckles, as if pondering something.

Yan Xinfeng’s gaze fell on him, saying nothing, quietly waiting.

A few seconds later, Wei Tingxia suddenly moved.

He practically let go entirely, his movements carrying the relaxation of shedding a thousand-jin burden. His forehead gently rested against Yan Xinfeng’s shoulder, wearily nuzzling against it.

“Yan Xinfeng,” he said, “I’m so tired.”

Yan Xinfeng still didn’t speak. He simply leaned back against the chair along with Wei Tingxia’s weight, tilting his head toward Wei Tingxia, his cheek pressing down on his hair.

The two rubbed against each other, their pheromones faintly intertwining, silently receiving all the emotions left unspoken.

Their gazes still looked toward the massive setting sun outside the hall, the lines of their jaws seeming to soften a fraction in the warm light.

The afterglow of the sunset carried warmth as it slowly flowed over the cold floor, gently enveloping and elongating the figures of the two side by side.

In this extreme tranquility, Wei Tingxia suddenly remembered something.

“Do you still resent me?” he asked.

“Resent you for what?”

“For stabbing you and then dumping you on Insect Mother Planet.”

On this matter, Yan Xinfeng shook his head in a tiny motion. “It’s fine.”

“Really?” Wei Tingxia was skeptical. Though he felt justified, he also knew that casually throwing someone into danger like that was rather extreme and not very likable.

“Really,” Yan Xinfeng’s tone was light and airy. “I forgave you long ago.”

“When?”

“That day you suddenly burst into the repair room, all pink. You looked at me once, and I forgave you.”

Wei Tingxia: “I didn’t apologize.”

“Didn’t you?” Yan Xinfeng seemed surprised, then calmly said, “But when you looked at me, I couldn’t resent you for long…”

“You have to understand me, Xiao Xia. I’m not a whole person.”

There was still the hoarseness of gunpowder smoke in Yan Xinfeng’s voice, so intimate yet so helpless. He leaned against Wei Tingxia’s forehead, lazily recounting his own brokenness. “I can’t live without you.”

Wei Tingxia clung to his reason. “Combined alphas go through a separation period after leaving their partner, but it’s not like they can’t recover.”

“That’s them. They can live, but I really can’t.” Yan Xinfeng murmured in emphasis. “I really can’t.”

Seeing Wei Tingxia suffer was like carving out his heart. Realizing Wei Tingxia was leaving him was like crushing him entirely into dust and scattering it to the wind.

Wei Tingxia knew he was telling the truth.

Fine.

“I hid something from you before. Do you remember?” he asked.

Yan Xinfeng nodded. “I remember.”

“I’m going to tell you that secret now.”

A very soft breath escaped Wei Tingxia’s throat, like a sigh. “…I love you.”

These were words he had never spoken aloud. In silence, he had always thought them so difficult, so cowardly. But when he actually said them, it was as if he had merely exhaled a breath. Neither of them was surprised.

“I love you too.”

The person beside him nuzzled his hair, responding in a low voice.

At the same time, Yan Xinfeng reached out, circled around Wei Tingxia’s back, and pulled him forcefully toward himself. They embraced, sitting on the throne of the world’s last emperor, no longer distinguishing between you and me.

……

……

The Alliance was born from the corpses of the dead nobles, and the first person to hold up the Alliance was the imperial Second Prince.

He said he was an omega.

He said he wasn’t supposed to be an omega.

When the interstellar broadcast echoed through the universe, all the past filth and mess surged out like splashing water droplets, rushing in all directions, carrying the blood, tears, and agony of countless nameless people, washing the Empire’s foundations into ruins.

Wei Tingxia stood amid the ruins, thoughtfully staring at the bright red Marriage Certificate in his hand.

“We’re in an interstellar era, and they’re still doing this?” He didn’t understand. “Isn’t there any progress at all?”

[This is called a sense of ceremony,] System 0188 understood better than he did. [There are digital records, and physical records must exist too. After all, it’s marriage.]

Marriage required loyalty, endurance, long-term tolerance, and love. It deserved some special ceremonies.

“Fine.”

After Wei Tingxia put away the little booklet and returned it to the shelf, he turned and lay back down on the single iron-frame bed in the confinement room. He felt himself far more dignified than some neurotic space pirate who would frame a Marriage Certificate and hang it on the wall.

With the Alliance established, all nobles had to undergo review. Though Wei Tingxia was on the rebel side, he still had to go through the process.

This was his second day living in the confinement room.

Footsteps came from outside the door. It was Wei Tingyun.

“Bro!”

She lowered her voice and bounced over to the door, her gaze darting around as if drawn by a magnet.

Because she was an omega who had never participated in any imperial decisions, and since Wei Tingyun had vigorously helped the kidnapping victims before the coup erupted, the Alliance had lifted her confinement the earliest.

Wei Tingxia was puzzled. “What are you looking at?”

“The Marriage Certificate, of course,” Wei Tingyun said naturally. “You married your spouse. Shouldn’t you display the Marriage Certificate?”

Though she already knew her brother was the omega, in Wei Tingyun’s view, Yan Xinfeng was the one who got married—when the two were together, Wei Tingxia was clearly the more dominant one, while Yan Xinfeng was a bit more sensitive. He had even cried when they got the certificate!

“It’s on the shelf,” Wei Tingxia said, lying there unwilling to get up. “Want to see it? Come in if you do.”

“Sure!”

Wei Tingyun pushed open the practically nonexistent iron door and walked in.

Like a child, she rummaged through her brother’s things, found the Marriage Certificate, and happily looked it over twice, critiquing their photo as if she had tons of experience.

Wei Tingxia was a bit bored too, so he propped his head up and listened to her talk. Then someone else entered the confinement room, bringing new bedding and a bed.

“Mr. Wei,” the man was a guard from Yan Xinfeng’s side. “Please get up for a moment. I need to install some new furniture.”

The new bed was a double. Wei Tingxia was stunned for a moment. “Why change it? This one’s fine.”

The guard smiled. “Well, this bed might be a bit cramped for two people.”

This was Wei Tingxia’s single-person confinement room. Where were two people coming from?

The guard added, “Prime Minister Yan said he’ll be living here soon.”

Wei Tingxia had been under review for a while and hadn’t gone back home. Clearly, Yan Xinfeng didn’t want to wait.

Wei Tingyun snickered on the side, her eyes teasing, while Wei Tingxia didn’t know what came over him—his face suddenly flushed a bit.

“This is just insane…”

He muttered a curse without any real bite, then stood up awkwardly and watched from the bedside as the guard changed the bed and bedding.

Once everything was set, the guard straightened up, turned to Wei Tingxia, and saluted him solemnly.

“Wishing you both eternal unity!” he said. “I know you’re an excellent mecha pilot. I hope Mr. Wei can make great contributions to the Alliance!”

With that, he left. Wei Tingyun happily draped herself over Wei Tingxia’s back.

“This does seem a bit better than the Empire,” she whispered. “Bro, thank you.”

Wei Tingxia patted her hand, swallowing all his regrets about not becoming emperor. “You’re welcome.”

“Then I’ll head out,” Wei Tingyun put the Marriage Certificate back, grinning. “Have fun with your spouse. See you in a few days!”

……

That night, Wei Tingxia lay on the soft, comfortable double bed, hazily catching a familiar scent.

The Prime Minister Yan, who had nearly worked himself to death with state affairs, flopped back onto the bed with a thud. He pulled Wei Tingxia into his arms like hugging a roll, planting a hard kiss on the omega’s forehead.

After the kiss, he murmured to himself, “I missed you so much I nearly died.”

“You’re too pathetic,” Wei Tingxia wriggled in his arms to find a comfortable position. “I can get out in a few more days.”

“I miss you,” Yan Xinfeng said. “And we’re married now, we have the certificate. You can’t just start something and abandon it.”

He really cared about the official status.

Wei Tingxia laughed.

“I won’t,” he promised solemnly. “I’ll take responsibility for you.”

“That’s the best,” Yan Xinfeng said. “I’ve just been waiting for you to say that.”

He had waited his whole life for those words from Wei Tingxia. He knew one day he’d hear them, but when he actually did, Yan Xinfeng still felt his heart heavy, as if all its gaps had been filled.

“Good night, Xiao Xia,” he said. “Good night.”