Don't be a Kept Man

Chapter 40: Kneeling in Punishment

Once the last word came out of his mouth, silence swept through the courtyard.

Stunned out of his mind by what Xie Yu Zhi just said, Chen Miao Ping thought, kill someone? He couldn't kill a person. He reflexively looked at Chun Qiao, but he was only greeted with the sight of her soul leaving her body from shock. Her eyes were dazed and it looked quite like she was already dead.

That golden dagger was lying quietly on the ground and it was glimmering under a beam of moonlight which gave it a bit of a bloodthirsty aura the more you look at it.

Seeing that Chen Miao Ping was not moving, Xie Yu Zhi questioned him,

"What, are you unwilling?"

Chen Miao Ping thought in his heart, not exactly, but he felt like this type of question presented the same dilemma as the question that asked 'If your mother and your wife fell in the water at the same time, who would you save first?'

He hesitated as he reached out, but the moment he was about to touch the dagger, he withdrew his hand. Standing up under the heavy gaze on him, he said,

"Today is our wedding night, a joyous celebration between you and me. It is not lucky to see any blood being spilled on this day. Second Master, if you do not mind, we should discuss this issue on another day and let her go instead."

Ignoring his excuses, Xie Yu Zhi shifted his body and stared intensely at that elegant face,

"I have been on the battlefield since my youth, and I can't even remember the number of people that have died by my hands. There was never a time where I needed to pick a date to do it."

Xie Yu Zhi had made a name for himself when he was young. His skills in calligraphy, poetry, fighting, everything was above that of the average man. At just sixteen years of age, he led the troops to conquer their barbarian neighbours and came back victorious. Since then, he had never lost a battle, which made him very admirable and desirable to many women. One could even say that there was no one in this generation better than him.

Yet while everyone thought that there was no stopping to his path to greatness, no one could have expected that an incident would occur and cause his downfall. With a seemingly bright future from his growing victories collected under his sword in the name of the emperor, he had a straight path upwards, towards the title of the greatest in the imperial court for authority and power, just below the emperor.

But during the conquest of Dong Xia, Xie Yu Zhi would fall into an enemy's trap. Because of this, his right leg has since been crippled. For two years he has never left the mansion and his mood became more volatile, changing at the drop of a hat.

If one looked at it closely, one could understand, but unfortunately, the focus was and always has been on the results, never the journey. It didn't matter why his mood was always changing, his name was still associated with cruelty and evil because of the change in his personality after Dong Xia.

Chen Miao Ping had not moved as his brain was rapidly turning on its gears, trying to find a way to get out of this unscathed. However, Xie Yu Zhi's patience seemed to come to an end. He interlaced his fingers and calmly threw out another landmine,

"And if I said, between the two of you, one must die today?"

His eyesight was like a snake slithering around Chun Qiao's neck and slowly stopped on Chen Miao Ping. Each word was pronounced clearly and slowly as he said,

"Will it be your death...... or will it be hers?"

Of course it would be hers.

Chen Miao Ping stared at that dagger for a moment and then turned to look at Chun Qiao. His eyesight went back and forth between the two, as if wondering if he should do it.