QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

Chapter 165: Don't put a collar on your captive

As expected, Han Yu doesn't take well to Xi Zirui's words and redoubles his efforts to topple him. Even with the rope around his neck.

Xi Zirui's patience is hanging by a thread. 

Once he gets back his memories Han Yu needs to make it up to him for all the trouble he has been putting him through in this world -- and in all the other worlds before, now that he thinks about it.

Just then, he hears a knock at the door. 

"Announcing her Royal Highness, Princess Bai Mi," a maid's voice says from outside Xi Zirui's door.

Han Yu stops fighting. Xi Zirui glares down at him. "You're going to stay quiet, unless you want a quick one-way trip to the executioner's block!"

He doesn't reply and just keeps his hateful gaze fixed on Xi Zirui.

"If you attack me while the princess is here, there will be no way for you to survive, I won't be able to protect you again, do you understand?"

At great cost, Han Yu nods.

Xi Zirui takes the rope again and ties it firmly around his hands, looping it several times around each wrist.

He gets up and straightens his robe. "The Princess may enter."

Bai Mi walks into his room in a flurry of billowy silk robes, fanning herself gently with an embroidered silk fan.

Her smile grows when she sees Han Yu trussed up on the floor. "I heard younger brother got himself a pet, but I scarcely believed it! So bold!" She hides herself behind her fan as she makes her way towards Han Yu. "It's a strong statement to make a pet out of one of the barbarians, and one who tried to kill you, no less."

Han Yu glares at her, and when it seems like she's about to touch him with her foot he snaps his teeth at her.

She lets out a startled yelp that soon turns into a peal of laughter. "Oh he bites! Younger brother will have to be careful not to wake up missing anything important."

Xi Zirui rolls his eyes at her.

As per Ni Ni's insight, he knows Bai Mi is one of the original's older sisters, of which there are ten.

Fate made it so the Emperor only had three sons, while all his other children were daughters.

He and Bai Mi are the youngest, and therefore were raised together and have always been close. In the past, Bai Mi made efforts to receive a formal education, beyond being taught how to read and write, but her concubine mother was of too low standing to intercede for her daughter, and the Emperor had no interest in yet one more girl among a gaggle of them.

And while he was initially thrilled with Xi Zirui's birth, it soon became apparent that his youngest son wasn't the sharpest, did poorly and his lessons and would rather spend his days idling about than learning statecraft, so the Emperor had no use for him either.

Bai Mi and Xi Zirui were left largely to their own devices, growing up as unruly children. Her growing more despondent each day with the boredom of life inside the palace, waiting for the day she would be married off, and the original making merry in brothels with a group of equally disreputable young master friends.

"Is older sister here just to confirm if he gossip she heard was true?" Xi Zirui asks, clasping his hands behind his back and leveling Bai Mi with a raised eyebrow.

She lowers her fan a fraction and gives him a searching look. "Is younger brother planning something?"

"Perhaps," Xi Zirui says, with a shrug. 

Her grins widens. "Please let this sister help! Younger brother is very new at this after all."

If her relationship wasn't that good, Bai Mi would be severely punished for speaking with the Emperor so casually -- and insultingly.

"Older sister can start by finding me a way to control him," Xi Zirui says, tilting his head towards Han Yu. "And then trying to find information regarding who might have been involved in his attempt to assassinate this Emperor."

The glibness melts off Bai Mi's face. "Does younger brother think someone from the palace might have been involved?"

He hums, neither confirming it nor denying it.

Bai Mi raises her eyebrows, covering her delighted smile with her fan in just the nick of time. "Younger brother can leave it to this one! Younger sister will gather information!"

She leaves in a flurry of perfumed silks, and Xi Zirui is left looking at the door, an indescribable feeling tightening his chest. 

This Bai Mi is so different from the serious, hyper-competent cousin he met in the Coiled Dragon Palace, and from the jaded Empress he met in the second world, and yet her shrewd smile is the same in every world.

A testament to the influence of nurture versus nature.

Han Yu too is always a little different, shaped by the circumstances of a life before that isn't his own, but that he has lived, nonetheless.

Too bad that in this one he's at odds with Xi Zirui, more than he has ever been before.

Xi Zirui kneels in front of him with a sigh. "Hurry up and remember me," he says, poking him softly in the shoulder. "You'll be sorry you tried to kill me, and I want to milk it."

For once Han Yu just looks at him without saying anything.

---

The next day, Bai Mi visits him again, bright and early, which is convenient, because Xi Zirui is expected in court shortly, and unlike the original he's determined to attend.

"This sister has something for little brother," Bai Mi says, smirking as she presents Xi Zirui with a fine lacquered box. 

Slightly suspicious, Xi Zirui opens the box only to find a delicate silver collar, attached to a long chain that splits halfway to connect to two identical silver cuffs.

It looks like high-end fetish gear.

"What is this?" Xi Zirui asks Bai Mi, mildly scandalized.

"Brother mentioned that he needed a way to control his pet," she gestures towards the box. "Older sister has provided," she says, looking unduly smug.

So it is fetish gear.

As her brother, Xi Zirui wonders if he should admonish her about it.

In the end, the situation is plenty awkward as it is, and he just brushes it off. "Uh, thank you, this Emperor must leave for court now."

Thankfully, Bai Mi doesn't press the issue, and leaves without another word. Xi Zirui dismisses the servants along with her.

Han Yu is still trussed up in the corner, giving the box in Xi Zirui's hands a suspicious look.

The thing is. Xi Zirui can't just leave him here, but he also very much needs to attend court, if he wants to keep raising the Empress Dowager's favor.

"Remember all those times you called me a dog?" Xi Zirui asks, pulling the collar out of the box and dangling it in front of Han Yu's face. "Well, my sister thinks the sentiment should be mutual."

Han Yu splutters and trashes, but in his current state there's precious little he can do. Xi Zirui manages to get the collar around his neck with some effort, and then the manacles over his bound wrists.

Xi Zirui tests the strength of the chains and confirms they are much sturdier than they look.

"This King will not forget this humiliation," Han Yu says, his nostrils flaring with barely suppressed anger.

"I wish it didn't have to come to this, but you did try to kill me." He cuts off the rope around Han Yu's wrists and tries to help him to his feet, something he fights off. "Twice," Xi Zirui reminds him in the face of his grumpy displeasure.

"You would be dead thrice over if this King had his way," he says, stepping close to Xi Zirui's personal space, the chains jingling with each step.

Xi Zirui hooks his finger into the chain attached to the collar and pulls Han Yu down to his eye-level. "And what about if I had my way? Has my King thought about that?"

A deep crimson flush overtakes Han Yu's ears, making them red all over. Xi Zirui does his best not to smirk.

Too cute, too fun to bully.

"What do you want from me, you cursed, mad dog?" Han Yu asks through gritted teeth, vexed beyond belief.

"I want to help you."

"I want to destroy your cursed country!" Han Yu exclaims his eyes wide.

Xi Zirui clicks his tongue. "No, you want to help your people, that's just a nice bonus." 

Han Yu still looks completely befuddled, so Xi Zirui elaborates:

"If given the choice between helping your people by putting an end to the border wars, and destroying my country, which one would you choose?"

"Both."

Xi Zirui sighs fondly, Han Yu is so single-minded.

"You can only have one," Xi Zirui says tugging down on the chain.

Han Yu glares at him. "Saving my people," he grumbles, under his breath.

"Good," Xi Zirui nods. "If you follow my lead we can put an end to the war, but you need to play along."

"With what?" He asks, still fuming.

Xi Zirui grins. "With the show I'm about to put on for the whole court." He wraps the chain around his fist, admiring how it looks against his skin. "My dear sister has given me a great idea."