Let us dance in the scarlet moonlight, without legs, but with strong wings to carry us.
Far beyond the envy of this world.
A man entered the tent. He hummed the song softly and freed himself from his heavy leather uniform. He froze when his gaze fell on Tiān Lè.
His hand immediately slid to his sword. A second later, he sighed heavily.
"It's you, so Fùguì wasn't joking," he groaned. As the man stepped further into the tent, the candles illuminated his face.
He was tall, and an athletic, muscular body was visible beneath his clothes. His hair was tied back in a knot and adorned with a magnificent crown of hair.
His eyes were large and dark. A feeling like a bolt of lightning struck Tiān Lè.
Realization: The feeling shot through him, spreading through his muscles and blood vessels, burning away the fear and making room for a much stronger, much more explosive feeling: anger.
Cuī Ruò Tián, he had almost forgotten the name. He had forgotten the man, no, the boy from back then. The only one with whom he had ever shared this song.
The image of a tall but slender boy appeared before his eyes. His braid was undone and his eyes were red and swollen.
Cuī Ruò Tián cried as he stumbled along the palace corridors, calling for his father. He bumped into pillars, ran into railings, and instead of pulling himself together and asking for directions, he just ran past all the servants, crying and ashamed.
Tiān Lè remembered the boy. At the time, they were both ten years old.
Tiān Lè, locked in his chambers, had just been lying in the sun after several doctors had subjected him to an ordeal to strengthen his bones.
It had been a hot summer. The courtyard was in full bloom, crickets were chirping, and the pond in front of his chambers offered a welcome distraction when suddenly someone sank into it with a cry and a big splash.
Minutes after the uninvited guest screamed for his life and flailed wildly, Tiān Lè struck him hard on the head with his fan.
"Stand up, child, the water only comes up to your knees," he scolded boredly.
The boy stood up. Indeed, the water only came up to the backs of his knees. Completely soaked and covered in mud and weeds, he sniffed.
"You can't swim?" asked the young Tiān Lè. The boy shook his head.
"Yes, I can!" sniffed the boy. Tiān Lè folded his arms under his chin and rolled his head back and forth on the railing.
"And yet you prefer to scream like a little girl," he giggled. The young Cuī Ruò Tián gasped indignantly.
"You're the girl here," he scolded angrily and received another blow from Tiān Lè's fan.
"Watch what you say, I'm Crown Prince Fèi Tiān Lè," he hissed angrily.
Ruò Tián wiped the mud from his face and stepped closer to the balcony that hung over the pond. The tip of his nose was only inches away from Tiān Lè's, and he blinked a few times.
"You're a man?" he asked skeptically. "I've never seen such a beautiful man," he admitted honestly.
Tiān Lè blushed bright red. He was constantly told how feminine he looked, that he was more like a woman than a man.
Because of his appearance and his illnesses, even his family avoided contact with him. Yes, he was constantly told that he was a lost heavenly fairy. But no one had ever called him a beautiful man before.
He swung his fan, but Ruò Tián caught it and grinned broadly.
"I want to marry you," he announced out of the blue. Tiān Lè let go of the fan that Ruò Tián had caught and slapped him across the face with the flat of his hand.
"I don't marry crybabies, and besides, who do you think you are? Running around the palace screaming and crying."
Cuī Ruò Tián rubbed his cheek. He waded toward the railing and hoisted himself over. A splash of muddy water hit Tiān Lè, who sat there completely bewildered, not knowing how to put this insolence into words.
"My name is Cuī Ruò Tián, my mother is the cousin of the emperor of Bǎoléi.
So I'm quite a good catch," he introduced himself. Tiān Lè regained his composure.
"Two men cannot marry," he hissed.
"Says who?" asked Ruò Tián. Tiān Lè struggled for words. It was so obvious, did he really need an explanation?
"The gods!" he hissed. Ruò Tián raised an eyebrow.
"It would indeed be unwise to anger the gods," he agreed.
"Then I will return later, when I am strong enough to fight the gods, and then I will marry you," he announced.
Tiān Lè, who had regained his fan, immediately struck Ruò Tián over the head with it again.
"You've known me for five minutes, what made you want to marry me?" Tiān Lè cried indignantly. Ruò Tián leaned forward and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Because I've fallen in love with you. My mother says true love is something that makes your heart tremble.
You just know: this person is the one for you, and you alone. And my heart trembles when I see you. Prince Fèi Tiān Lè, you are the one for me."
After another beating with the fan, Tiān Lè was gracious enough to allow Ruò Tián a bath and new clothes.
As he scrubbed the clothes the boy had soiled, he hummed the old children's song of his nurse, who had already passed away.
Cuī Ruò Tián swam through the gigantic bathing pool. He showed no shyness in presenting himself naked, and Tiān Lè had trouble not wanting to beat him again.
"What song is that?" asked Ruò Tián curiously.
"That's none of your business," replied Tiān Lè curtly.
"I like it, it's beautiful, teach it to me. Then I'll sing it to you at our wedding," teased Ruò Tián. Tiān Lè sighed in defeat.
It was late in the evening when the soldiers of the Fèi Palace found the lost boy. It turned out that he had not been lying and had been there with his father on a peace mission. As he said goodbye, he looked Tiān Lè straight in the eye.
"Wait for me, I'll come and get you soon," he promised.
There he stood, eighteen years later, as an enemy, as a general who had invaded his country and driven his family to their deaths.
"Cuī Ruò Tián!"
The general looked up. Something in the woman's voice made him shudder.
He was about to say something when she tore the veil from her head and strode toward him. Angrily, she raised something sharp that glinted in the candlelight high above her head.
Ruò Tián reached for his sword again. When she was close enough for him to see her face, he paused. He knew that face, that beauty and that undisguised anger.
"Tiān Lè?" A sharp pain brought him back from his surprise.
Tiān Lè had driven the hairpin deep into his shoulder. He pulled it out of the bleeding flesh and was about to stab again when Ruò Tián caught him and stepped back.
Together they bumped into the table and shelves. Papers and wooden dolls flew to the floor with a clatter.
"General?" someone called from outside. Just as he was about to reply that the men should stay outside, his sentence was abruptly interrupted.
Tiān Lè had rammed the hairpin into his chest. Cuī Ruò Tián gritted his teeth and exhaled sharply. Anger and tears glistened in Tiān Lè's eyes.
"You piece of trash," he growled angrily.
The tent entrance was torn open and a handful of soldiers stormed in.
Ruò Tián's head flew up. His gaze darted frantically between the prince and his men. It didn't matter if they recognized him as a man: if his men saw that he was being attacked, they would execute him on the spot without hesitation.
He grabbed the prince's silky, still damp hair and turned him away from his men. With one hand, he clasped the prince's head, and with the other, he prevented him from ramming the needle even deeper into his chest.
Ruò Tián's lips met those of the prince. Tiān Lè was still as soft and tender as when they first met. There was no difference from the lips of a woman.
Only his undisguised anger and power raged beneath the guise of a fragile man.
"Oh, uh, General?" The soldiers squirmed uncomfortably.
Tiān Lè bit down, and Ruò Tián felt a sharp pain in his lower lip and the blood that flowed from it.
He let go of Tiān Lè. His strength had waned, and Ruò Tián carefully pulled the needle out of himself. He stood with his back to his men so that they could not see him or Tiān Lè, let alone his injury.
"Did I give you permission to come in?" he asked angrily. The soldiers looked at each other sheepishly.
"Then go!" he ordered furiously. Without another word, the men sprinted out of the tent.
"Did you see that?" one whispered frantically.
"Even our general doesn't waste any time with a beauty like that."