Chapter 196 Confession

Chapter 196: Confessing Feelings

“...”

Zhou Zhan scrambled to his feet and lunged after the fleeing figure.

His voice was frantic and strained, almost cracking: “Don’t you dare leave!”

Cheng Ge, frightened out of his wits by the sudden closeness, instinctively swung his arm fiercely, shoving Zhou Zhan—who had grabbed his sleeve—away.

The force was so great that Zhou Zhan, caught off guard, stumbled back several steps before barely managing to steady himself.

“Your Highness, please conduct yourself with dignity!” Cheng Ge’s voice trembled with shock and fury.

He didn’t dare even to look back, wanting only to flee this suffocating, chaotic place. Without pausing, he continued rushing toward the palace gate.

Zhou Zhan was stung by the merciless shove and the decisive, retreating figure.

His eyes instantly reddened, beyond his control, carrying a trace of having been wronged—the humiliation of rejection, the panic of losing control of the situation.

And even a hot, inexplicable surge of possessiveness.

Seeing Cheng Ge about to bolt out the gate, the last thread of rationality in Zhou Zhan’s mind snapped.

The stubbornness of youth and the authority vested in him as Crown Prince overrode everything in that moment.

He screamed, his voice completely out of control: “Stop him!”

The guards standing outside the palace gate had already sensed the trouble inside. Hearing the order, they acted immediately.

Several tall guards drew their blades and stepped forward, effectively blocking Cheng Ge’s path.

Cheng Ge’s steps came to an abrupt halt, forced to stop just one step away from freedom.

He stood with his back to the hall, chest heaving violently from rapid breathing and surging anger.

Under his official robe, his fists were clenched so tightly that his nails nearly dug into his palms.

The hall fell into a deathly silence, the air thick with an indescribable tension.

After a long moment, Cheng Ge slowly turned around. The fear and unease had faded from his face, replaced by anger so palpable it seemed ready to congeal.

His gaze fixed directly on Zhou Zhan, who stood not far away, and he asked, slowly, word by word: “Your Highness, what is the meaning of this?”

Zhou Zhan’s chest was still heaving, his face flushed with a lingering flush and a trace of embarrassment.

Cheng Ge’s undisguised gaze was like a bucket of cold water, sobering his fevered mind slightly.

A faint whisper of reason tried to tell him that this was wrong—very wrong!

But the instinctive emotion, the sting of being rejected, the panic at the thought of the other person disappearing…

Like a raging tide, it easily drowned out that fragile thread of reason.

He forced himself to straighten his still-slender back, deliberately cooling his voice.

Yet it still betrayed the bluster of a cornered youth: “You—come here.”

But Cheng Ge merely looked at him without moving an inch.

Zhou Zhan’s chest heaved violently as well, the flush on his face now mingling with a desperate helplessness from being pushed to the edge.

Cheng Ge’s icy gaze made his heart race with panic, but it only fueled the characteristic defiance and possessiveness of youth.

He forced himself to straighten his back, trying to use his dignity as Crown Prince to suppress his inner trembling.

His voice was deliberately raised, but it couldn’t hide the hollowness underneath: “I—I forbid you to leave!”

He took a step forward, his eyes locked onto Cheng Ge as if he wanted to nail him to the spot.

“Muyu, listen to me! I'm taken with you! Ever since that night… you’ve been all I can think about!

When I don’t see you, I get restless and irritable; when I do see you… I only become even more…”

He faltered, unable to express the chaotic, burning emotions in precise words.

Sweat beaded on his forehead in his anxiety, and finally, he could only conclude bluntly and stubbornly: “In short, I want you to stay by my side!”

“Feelings?” Cheng Ge let out a laugh as if he had heard the most absurd joke, a bitter, mocking curl forming on his lips.

“Does Your Highness even know what feelings are? Is forcing someone against their will called feelings? Is violating human decency and pushing your subject into an abyss of damnation called feelings?”

His voice turned sharp, each word like a dagger: “Your Highness says you want me by your side—how? Do you want me to end my bloodline, deceive my parents, abandon any thought of marriage, and live without status or legitimacy, following you in obscurity?”

“Or perhaps, when Your Highness someday fills the harem with consorts, you’ll set aside a remote corner of the palace for me, where I can skulk like some dirty secret, waiting for you to remember me occasionally and throw me a sliver of your pity?”

Cheng Ge’s gaze blazed like the scorching sun, trying to burn away all of Zhou Zhan’s unrealistic fantasies.

“Your Highness! Look at me! I am a man! And moreover, an imperial censor! What I want is to stand tall and upright under heaven, to live in the light, to have… one person, one lifetime! Can you give me that, Your Highness?!”

“I can!” Zhou Zhan was stung by his words.

That reckless impulse surged up again, and he almost shouted, cutting Cheng Ge off sharply: “I will protect you! I…”

“And what about the throne?!” Cheng Ge’s voice was even louder, crashing down like a hailstorm, shattering Zhou Zhan’s unfinished words.

“Without heirs, without a harem to balance the court, how can you secure your position as Crown Prince? How will you take over this vast empire? Will His Majesty and the court officials tolerate such perversion?!”

He stepped forward, his eyes sharp as knives, laying bare all the blood-soaked realities.

“Or—are you willing to give up your position as Crown Prince, the throne that's almost yours, for my sake, Cheng Ge?”

“Can you?!” The last three words, spoken softly but with crushing force, carried an immense weight, pressing down heavily on Zhou Zhan’s heart.