Chapter 54: Class Game (Twenty)

“No.”

The ghost groom was still in the bridal chamber. He didn’t know what would happen if he went back.

“If you don’t take me back, you’re just going to leave me outside?” Fu Wuxuan’s tone was teasing. “How heartless.”

Yun Xueqing didn’t respond and instead asked, “Are you staying in the Marquis Mansion?”

Staying here wouldn’t accomplish much. It was better to go out and look for clues.

Fu Wuxuan raised an eyebrow. “You’re chasing me away?”

Yun Xueqing neither confirmed nor denied it. “Have you seen the Second Prince?”

“It’s not that I’m complaining, but you’re really getting into character fast. Your speech suddenly got all formal and archaic,” Fu Wuxuan joked. “Not yet. I came straight here to crash your wedding banquet.”

Yun Xueqing’s gaze was inscrutable as he swept a glance over him before silently looking away. “Could this place be related to The Divine Comedy?”

Fu Wuxuan chuckled mockingly. “Perhaps.”

Although The Divine Comedy was a Western book, and they were now in an Eastern setting, who knew? Maybe it was a fusion of East and West.

After exiting the fourth layer of hell, he had been cautious and taken The Divine Comedy from the bookshelf, storing it in his Storage Space.

Hell was an illusory realm disconnected from reality. When he returned to the Blue Castle and checked his Storage Space, the book was gone.

But upon re-entering, the book reappeared. Clearly, The Divine Comedy permeated hell and could circulate within its environments.

They had pored over The Divine Comedy carefully but found no obvious clues, so they closed it.

Yun Xueqing pondered. “We probably don’t have enough clues yet.”

“Then let’s go investigate outside.”

“Okay.”

Fu Wuxuan smiled, his expression teasing with an undercurrent of something ambiguous. “What about that one in your room? How are you going to handle him?”

Yun Xueqing didn’t react for a moment. “Who do you mean?”

Fu Wuxuan wasn’t sure if he was genuinely clueless or just playing dumb, but a surge of irritation rose in him. “The one you’re married to.”

Yun Xueqing looked at him strangely. “Do you want me to probe for clues from the Crown Prince?”

Fu Wuxuan: “…”

Not like that, you blockhead.

He found it amusing and rubbed his forehead. “Forget the ghost groom for now. We should probably go check out the Second Prince, the one who’s supposedly at odds with the Crown Prince.”

It might be tricky for Yun Xueqing alone, but Fu Wuxuan was with the Second Prince’s faction, so getting an audience wouldn’t be hard.

He had Yun Xueqing cover his face with a veil and then took him to the Second Prince’s Mansion.

The entry process wasn’t complicated. They just notified the steward, and they were let in.

Yun Xueqing was from the enemy faction, essentially infiltrating the heart of the opposition, so he was much more cautious in his words and actions. Once inside, he stayed silent and followed Fu Wuxuan.

A heavy yin chill permeated the Second Prince’s Mansion. Even in the height of summer, it felt like a layer of frost clung to one’s back, sending shivers down the spine.

Yun Xueqing sensed the place was thick with ghostly energy, perhaps hiding something, but he didn’t look around recklessly. He even considered shutting down his senses.

Sometimes, senses that were too sharp attracted filthy things. Ignorance was bliss.

The Second Prince’s Mansion was vast. The guiding maidservant led them down the Veranda to a room door, her head bowed low, her expression hidden. “Please, both of you.”

The maidservants of the Second Prince’s Mansion were coldly indifferent, nothing like the trembling ones in the Marquis Mansion.

Fu Wuxuan glanced at her twice but said nothing, pushing open the door and entering.

No one was in the room except for a figure in middle garments lying on the bed, breathing faintly. If not for the slight rise and fall of his chest, one might think he had been dead for ages.

The one lying there was undoubtedly the person they wanted to see. Fu Wuxuan gave a perfunctory clasp of hands in salute. “Your Highness.”

The person on the bed didn’t respond. Instead, a bout of heart-wrenching coughs erupted, agonizing as if he were hacking up his heart, liver, spleen, and stomach.

Yun Xueqing watched, and even through the thick veil, he could smell the bitter medicinal scent filling the room.

Was this Second Prince also a sickly invalid?

The Crown Prince was neither man nor ghost, and now the Second Prince was gravely ill. What a coincidence.

He pinched his fingertip absently, lost in thought, when the bedridden figure rasped, “Are you… big shots?”

That familiar form of address.

Yun Xueqing was surprised and instinctively stepped closer to the bed. Sure enough, he saw Li Yulin’s familiar face.

Fu Wuxuan also saw clearly and raised an eyebrow. “You landed quite the role randomly.”

Li Yulin was no longer as lively as before, nor as listless as a stagnant pool in the Blue Castle. He said weakly, “Don’t mock me, big shots. I lie in this bed every day, living worse than death… Sometimes I really can’t help thinking, rather than dragging on like this, I’d be better off dead.”

Yun Xueqing caught his words. “Every day? How long have you been here?”

Li Yulin let out a long sigh. “I don’t know.”

These sick days blurred together. He was like a living corpse on the verge of the coffin, living in constant fear, force-fed medicine daily to keep him clinging to life. Only at specific times could he perk up briefly.

Li Yulin said weakly, “Maybe half a year, or even longer.”

Yun Xueqing hesitated slightly for once. “Then in the Blue Castle… do you remember choosing the red or blue ball?”

A blank look crossed Li Yulin’s pale face. “What red and blue balls?”

After being selected as a slave to enter hell, he had been trapped on this layer and never left.

Yun Xueqing speculated, “Then the you we saw in the Blue Castle was either fabricated by the King or impersonated by a Weird, or… it was your real body, but your soul has been trapped here all along.”

Li Yulin didn’t refute, but his mood didn’t lift either, as if he didn’t want to discuss it.

He had gained some vitality compared to the Blue Castle, but now he reverted to that half-dead state.

Fu Wuxuan observed for a moment before suddenly speaking. “To get out of here, do we need to help one of you factions seize the throne?”

Li Yulin denied it. “I… don’t know.”

Fu Wuxuan: “What do you know, then?”

He had been here half a year longer and held such a key position. Surely there were clues to extract.

But Li Yulin shut his mouth, saying nothing more and asking nothing. A faint aura of death clung to him, as if he cared about nothing.

He didn’t seem to care much about his current state or escaping.

Even a fool could see something was off. Fu Wuxuan suspected he knew some inside story but didn’t press.

He chuckled. “I’m on your side, but if you won’t cooperate, I’m in a tough spot.”

He sat in a chair and poured himself a cup of tea. “It shouldn’t be poisoned, right?”

He asked but drank anyway.

Tapping his fingers on the table, he said casually, “If you know something but won’t say, I’ll have to find another way to make you talk.”

The threat in his tone was obvious, but the usually timid, life-clinging Li Yulin remained a silent gourd.

Fu Wuxuan: “You really think I can’t kill you?”

He waited a while, and after a long pause, the bedridden figure sighed deeply. “I really don’t know. If you want to kill me… do it now.”

He knew that secret, that despair.

He wouldn’t live much longer anyway. Better a quick end than this limbo of not living or dying.

For a life-lover to say such words meant a massive secret was involved.

Fu Wuxuan’s gaze darkened, but he didn’t press further. He took Yun Xueqing and left the Second Prince’s Mansion.

They walked down the street. Though the sun blazed, it brought no warmth.

Each harbored their own thoughts, and neither spoke the whole way.

The banquet had ended, and Fu Wuxuan couldn’t follow Yun Xueqing back to the Marquis Mansion. They parted ways, agreeing to meet at the pavilion the next day at noon.

Yun Xueqing returned to the Marquis Mansion. Unsure if the Crown Prince was still in the room, he didn’t want to face a Weird, so he sat in the pavilion instead, reviewing the day’s events.

As he pondered, a servant came running up and handed him a letter.

The envelope was blank except for a bloody handprint, looking extremely eerie.

But the servant seemed oblivious to the anomaly, beaming. “Young Master, you’ve received an invitation to the Qionglin Banquet.”

Yun Xueqing took the envelope. A wisp of black qi burst out immediately. He dispersed it casually before slowly opening the envelope. Inside was indeed an invitation.

The envelope was eerie, but the invitation looked ordinary.

It was from someone named Su Mingxi, inviting him to the Qionglin Banquet at midnight.

This world was dangerous no matter how you looked at it.

Yun Xueqing looked up at the ecstatic servant. Instead of asking what the Qionglin Banquet was, he asked, “Who will be attending?”

The servant scratched his head. “Some young nobles from noble families… of course, including the most esteemed Crown Prince and Second Prince.”

These two enemy factions were both attending the same banquet. It reeked of tension.

But Yun Xueqing knew he had to go.

It was a crucial opportunity for clues, one he couldn’t miss.

Fu Wuxuan had probably received an invitation too and would surely attend.

The banquet was that very night. Yun Xueqing made no preparations and rode a carriage straight to the venue.

They didn’t hold it in the palace or a noble’s mansion but rented the largest restaurant in town.

The attendees were all high-status, so no one dared neglect them. The shrewd manager greeted them cautiously.

Beautiful dancers performed graceful whirling dances. The young nobles each held a dancer, drinking fine jade dew wine, reveling merrily.

Yun Xueqing didn’t watch but waited until that person finally arrived fashionably late.