44. Rupture

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The sudden question thundered against the General's ears as he stood silently wounded in the five feet distance between them. Fu Lin's eyes met the General's, whose eyes floundered into his own with something ablaze within those dark, lock-like eyes.

"What do you think could make me desperate, Your Highness?" he walked forward slowly. "There are few things in this world that could blister my sense of composure. What." He had emerged right before Fu Lin. "Do you think it is Your Highness?"

Fu Lin's lashes trembled slightly. "The great have greater concerns. How would this meagre one with fewer accomplishments know of them?"

"In heart and in mind to be one, in soul and in fate to be suffused–in life and in death to be the undying counterpart and in body and flesh to seek sole refuge. To cherish and ravish only each other. Tied upon by acknowledged loyalty," the General recited.

Fu Lin looked at the General, baffled but narrowed his eyes shortly. "I am not here to listen to the General read parts of classical scriptures."

"Isn't that what marriage means?" he cut in, his voice raspy, "and yet where have you been, Your Highness?"

Fu Lin watched his arching figure in confusion. "I do not know what you imply–"

"Do not lie to me!" The General's fingers banged hard against the cold embers of the iron rods, its tremors shocking Fu Lin. "I have been slaving away for the sake of the manor and getting my thoughts collected while you..." The General's ever-unmoving eyes had in them the vestige of something breaking. "Go make merry and coddle with somebody else."

Fu Lin was shocked by the completely battered man in front of him. His breath was erratic and usually poised hair now barely held by the crown on his head. His upstanding figure hunched over and stony face etched with the slightest of cracks wherein yearning spilt forth.

He looked desperate.

He looked desperate for nobody else but Fu Lin.

A sliver of hot joy burst forth within Fu Lin. But what surged hotter was a bout of anger overpowering any sense of rationale he held back. He felt angry at every word that spilled out of the General's lips. He felt angry at himself–especially the joy he felt at the General's misery.

"And what if I coddled somebody else?"

The General looked up, astonished. His eyes slowly shrank.

"What about my actions dissatisfied you so much that you would seek another for your needs?" he spoke rather disoriented. "Why? Just what..." He almost growled out the last part. "What did I do wrong?"

Fu Lin remained silent, his gaze unflinching. He couldn't bring himself to say it–the fact that he felt irrationally furious at the fact that the General was joyous without him despite the feelings he harboured for Fu Lin. And the fact that though Fu Lin had no smidgen of feelings for the General, he was the one toiling in the sustenance of the feelings the General harboured for him. It felt to him he was the only one struggling.

His anger resurfaced.

"And?" Fu Lin asked, his lips curling in a mocking smile. "Why does it warrant dissatisfaction from you if I were to go sleep with another person? I shall bed whoever I want. It is absolutely of no concern to you."

"It is of my concern!" The General's eyes bore slight redness.

"And why would that be?" Fu Lin asked and got silence as an answer. The General was now looking down, his ruffled hair concealing his eyes. He seemed to have no answer. No, he had the answer but will not disclose it. Fu Lin felt scalded by this passivity and opened his mouth. "There it is. You, yourself, realise my affairs are not–"

"Because I'm your husband." "What?!"

"I said." The General looked up and emphasised, "Because I'm your husband."

The direct admittance shocked Fu Lin into speechlessness. The General looked at him earnestly and twirled his palms around Fu Lin's wrist, his hold on the slim hand tightening by the minute. "We are bound by the vows of marriage to only be dependent upon each other for bodily requirements." His sharp voice harped like fingers against an instrument. "Therefore you cannot embrace another than me!"

Fu Lin slapped his hands away. "Do not kid yourself! Even if a promise of marriage loyalty was etched at the very beginning when I agreed to the marriage, the moment you proclaimed 'I shall cut off a part of my body and wash your feet and drink that water the day I willingly come to touch you with carnal intentions' any, and I mean any promise of loyalty we had was shattered. We clearly came to acknowledge this is nothing but a marriage of convenience." He pointed his chin at the General. "Can you still, with good conscience, proclaim that I was at fault for going to another?"

The General remained silent, his eyes viciously probing Fu Lin's own. As the rupture that vaguely hung in the air materialised before them, it grew heavier by the second and weighed against their lungs. Chests tightened and nails clogged with their own blood. The rupture finally settled its weight drearily on the 3-inch distance between Fu Lin's frowning lips and the General's own.

The General turned his face away from Fu Lin. His eyes regained clarity with every step he took back and said, "You're right, Your Highness."

Pain. Fu Lin felt a stab of pain in his chest at the General's words. And yet he swept his robe across the floor and began walking away saying, "As long as you understand. Please do not do such rash activities like confining people next time–"

Fu Lin stopped what he was talking about when he felt the General's presence behind him. Before he could react, he was hoisted by the waist and nestled within the Haoran's arms.

"General?!" Fu Lin looked down at his face.

"I cannot fault you for going to another because we're married," he spoke, his voice rife with resounding clarity. "I cannot fault you for giving your heart to another either. However," he stopped, his gaze darkening. "If I beg you to not go to another, will you not go?"

"Why?" Fu Lin whispered, his gaze hypnotised by the other's.

"You know and yet you ask." His voice was rough, callous and burning as he said, "Because you have my heart captive and have it buried in your whim. Because you're the one the stars have assigned for me. Because I love you. Painfully so."

And then he captured Fu Lin's lips in a ravenous kiss.

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(ノ'ヮ')ノ*Me just causally walking away after dropping that 2 tons heavy confession fufu 


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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲'𝐬 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 || 敵の旦那様 (𝐁𝐋) ✔ [COMPLETE]Where stories live. Discover now