Chapter 21.1 - Affections of Love

Ji Ling:? ? ?

He gawked at the sight in front of him. That godly black mecha had smashed Ning Yu's white mecha back with one punch. You could practically see the black question marks by Ji Ling’s head! 

Wasn’t Jing Sui acting pretty normal before? What happened now? Why was he attacking Ning Yu? He hadn’t gone crazy, right… Noo, don’t! You’re the male lead. You have to hold on! You’re my only hope of going home!

Ji Ling almost cried. 

Right when he was dazed out, a cold and majestic voice rang out through the duel grounds: “The victor has been decided. The duel is over."

Although Ning Yu was not directly named, everyone could see it was only a matter of time before he defeated Ji Ling. There was no doubt that this match was Ning Yu’s victory.

But the grounds were still shrouded in silence. His Majesty had personally piloted his mecha to interfere in the duel. This kind of thing...was a first in the history of the whole empire!

As an emperor, he broke the rules and intervened in a fair duel…

To defend an imperial aristocrat.

Clearly he wasn’t being impartial.

People on the net were silent for a while, and then began to express their dissatisfaction.

"I thought His Majesty was the closest to us ordinary civilians and the fairest. I heard that he also punished Ji Ling for Ning Yu before. Looking at it now, I think it was just a hoax, because look at who he protected at the critical moment..."

"In the end, His Majesty still defended the interests of those nobles. They’re birds of a feather, after all. He was just putting on a show for us to eat up before.”

“Does he take us for fools?"

“You bootlickers awake now?”

“Hasn’t he gone too far? He’s the emperor.”

"Even if you recognize Ning Yu’s victory, he would’ve won anyway.”

"You guys shouldn't have had any hopes for those imperial nobles. Of course, the emperor has to protect their interests, hehehe."

"I feel so bad for our Great Ning Yu. Since you’re so terrible to him, we’ll take him away.”

“……”

Ji Ling didn't know that in just a few minutes, the netizens had completely changed directions several times. He was almost purged of all blame, and the flaming had fallen onto Jing Sui, who was starting to become the object of their ranting.

Ji Ling was muddle-headed as he emerged from his mecha, and looked gloomily at the gigantic black mecha in front of him.

What happened to Jing Sui, friend of civilians?! How could you do something like this?!

Were you reborn, or were you led astray by Brandon?!

When Ji Ling was reaching the peak of despair, he saw the hatch in the middle of the black mecha open. A tall figure jumped out lightly, then leaped down from his mecha dozens of meters high, steadily landing on the ground.

Jing Sui raised his head and revealed a peerlessly handsome face. His golden eyes reflected a piercing radiance. Instead of glancing at Ji Ling who was behind him, he went straight to Ning Yu's mecha, grabbed the edge of the hatch door and lifted it up. He directly tore open the damaged cabin hatch and pulled Ning Yu out from inside.

Ning Yu's lips were pale and he seemed to be injured. He looked up at Jing Sui, and his green eyes flashed. In a low and husky voice, he said: "Your Majesty."

Jing Sui slowly said: "Are you all right?"

Ning Yu nodded. “It’s nothing serious.”

When Jing Sui intervened just now, he had controlled his strength. He saw right away that Ning Yu was probably like that because he was injured. It seemed that Carlos had arranged for some of his people to secretly interfere with this match… But now wasn’t the time to talk about that. He paused for a moment, looked at Ning Yu with apologetically, and said in a gentle voice: “It was an urgent situation just now, and I have wronged you…Although this was a duel, since the outcome has already been decided, I believe ending the matter peacefully would be best. What do you think?"

Ning Yu showed an understanding smile and said with a sigh: "You’re right. I was a little impulsive just now, and almost couldn’t stop myself.”

Jing Sui smiled faintly: "It’s fine.”

Ji Ling was originally so caught up in his despair that he’d almost believed Jing Sui was reborn. Although Jing Sui had suddenly saved him, he ran over to exchange pleasantries with Ning Yu without so much as a glance back at him… Then showed such a public display of affection! Ji Ling began to doubt his own ideas again.

Could it be that Jing Sui wasn’t here to help me?

Ji Ling's eyes brightened. That was very possible! Because of the butterfly effect, Ning Yu hadn’t fallen for his schemes this life. Instead, Ning Yu had beaten him so badly that he had to run away like a rat. There was no doubt Ning Yu would win the duel, so Jing Sui didn't have to play the hero saving the beauty, but winning wasn't necessarily a good thing for Ning Yu.

As an ordinary civilian, if Ning Yu had really killed him in the duel ring, even if he’d won the honor of victory, he’d undoubtedly have invited even greater trouble!

Am I someone who can just be killed off without a second thought? I think not!

In the case that he killed Ning Yu, Ning Yu could only accept it, but if Ning Yu killed him, there would be crazy consequences waiting for him. Killing an aristocrat was something he could not stoop to doing. 

A duel was fair, but society was not so.

When the time came and other nobles retaliated against Ning Yu to maintain their power, there would be infinite troubles. Even his parents, Grand Duke Ji Ting and Madam Marina, would do whatever it took to kill Ning Yu!

Therefore, Jing Sui appeared to be interjecting and saving him, but he was actually protecting Ning Yu. This way, Ning Yu would win the duel beautifully, gain everyone's affirmation and sympathy, while also not offending his parents and other aristocrats. In other words, there were no losses to anybody.

So this was the correct way to carry out the plot!

Ji Ling thought until here, and his heart was filled with hope once again. Male lead, you’re good!

I really wasn’t mistaken about you.

While everyone's attention was focused on the emperor’s radiance and the protagonist, Ning Yu, the cannon fodder, Ji Ling, quietly slipped away. Today was really tiring.

Although a lot of things had changed this life, he definitely had to put the story back on track to go home!

Ji Ling returned to his dressing room, washed his face with cold water, and rested a while to recover his strength. Then, he got ready to leave and pushed open the door.

At this time, everyone was gathered outside, and there was no one here. Ji Ling walked alone in the empty steel hallway. As he made a turn, he suddenly bumped into someone accidentally. He was about to say sorry, but when he looked up, he froze stiffly. His mouth hung speechless in shock. 

Was he hallucinating? How could he meet Jing Sui here?

Wasn’t Jing Sui talking to Ning Yu outside just now?!

What are you doing here by yourself instead of going to comfort your sweetheart? 

Jing Sui looked at the stunned youth before him through lidded eyes. The boy was in a bit of a mess. His fair face was still slightly flushed from the battle and a complex emotion slowly emerged in his eyes. 

He’d actually wanted to talk to him more before… but he didn’t.

He didn't want to push the youth out into the fire where he’d receive more malicious flaming and unwarranted bashing. That’s why he hadn’t looked back, no matter how much he’d really wanted to inside.

Ji Ling stared at the man in front of him. After a short pause, he thought this might be a coincidence. Perhaps Jing Sui was also preparing to leave ... Now that they’d unfortunately met though, he had to continue acting it out.

His eyelashes trembled, and he looked at Jing Sui with reddened eyes full of anger and sadness. He said unwilling: "Who told you to save me? I… can beat him even without you!"

Jing Sui didn't say anything, and only looked at him.

Ji Ling felt a little panicked being stared at like that. Jing Sui's eyes made him feel like something was wrong. He shivered and went on to say: "I'll show you. I'm no worse than—"

Ning Yu.

But these two words didn't come out.

A cold wind whooshed by his neck. Jing Sui had suddenly stretched out his hand on the wall behind Ji Ling, and moved in closer to his face. Those sharp golden pupils stared at him continuously; His jaw was taut and his thin lips pressed together to show that this man in front of him was not calm.

Ji Ling suddenly crashed.

F*ckkkk. This was the first time in two lives that he’d seen Jing Sui with such a serious expression. It was really terrifying! No matter how much this person disdained him last life, he would just casually ignore him. Even when Jing Sui had given the order to expel him from Empire Star, he still hadn’t shown any expression. It was like he wasn’t even good enough to make him angry. 

Although Jing Sui and Carlos were both the kind of people who kept their thoughts hidden deeply, if Carlos was the type that always wore a fake mask of elegance, then Jing Sui was one to never reveal any emotion. There was probably no one in the world who could guess what he was feeling in his heart.

That’s why seeing a Jing Sui that suddenly had emotions, and anger no less, was very scary!

Ji Ling, who was pushed to the wall (kabe-don), was so scared that his teeth chattered.