Lost You Forever

Chapter 17: Swimming Upstream Seeking You, The Road is Long and Hard

When Zhuan Xu lived in Gao Xing, he was living at someone else’s house essentially with the empty title of a Prince without actually enjoying any real power.

Now that he was back at Xuan Yuan and hanging out all the time with his wastrel cousin Cui Liang, he was wining and dining everyday and sampling all the delights of the world. Zhuan Xu gradually got hooked on Cui Liang’s bad habits.

His formerly quiet residence started having dancers and singers in residence. It wasn’t a big deal to have women around, which of the rich and powerful men didn’t have kept women around.

Cui Liang and his friends felt alcohol wasn’t a big enough buzz and started taking pills made from magical drugs that would give them a bigger high and even hallucinations. Cui Liang wanted Zhuan Xu to try it and initially he declined but after awhile watching Cui Liang take it and having their women coax him, he finally tried it when a sultry dancer used her pert mouth to pass a pill to him.

When there was a first time, there was a second time…..and Zhuan Xu and Cui Liang got even closer.

One time Cui Liang brought his buddies and women to Zhuan Xu’s residence and ran into Xiao Yao. She was furious and went to tell the Yellow Emperor in detail without sparing any words. The Yellow Emperor ordered each of his grandsons whipped sixty times, with Cui Liang unable to get out of bed for the next month afterwards. He also berated his Cang Lin and Yu Yang in front of the entire court and had them kneel for two hours. Cui Liang was scared of Xiao Yao after that and never came by the residence anymore and would go a different direction when he saw her coming.

Zhuan Xu stopped coming back to the residence and was always out with Cui Liang. No one in Xuan Yuan Castle cared about Zhuan Xu so no one worried that he was wasting his life away. Only the Great General Ying Long, when he ran into Zhuan Xu and saw him drunkenly trying to say hello, slapped him hard and said “This slap is on behalf of your parents!”

Zhuan Xu got slapped and felt terrible about it, locking himself up to reflect. But after a few days, Cui Liang came by when Xiao Yao was not around and dragged him out after a few drinks.

Initially Zhuan Xu would be repentant and embarrassed after each carousing session, but gradually that stopped. Another time when he ran into Ying Long and saw him angry, Zhuan Xu actually drunkenly pulled out a whip and threatened to beat up Ying Long. Cui Liang had to drag him off since Ying Long was one of the Yellow Emperor’s most trusted generals and was a renowned hard rock.

Within the entire Xuan Yuan Castle, the person who worried the most about Zhuan Xu was Ah Nian.

She would beg him to stop and he would sweetly agree, and then turn around and forget his promise. Eventually Zhuan Xu never came back to his residence and Ah Nian didn’t know the castle so she couldn’t go look for him and could only wait all night until he came home. But he was so drunk he couldn’t understand what she said and definitely couldn’t keep any of the promises he always made.

Ah Nian was so at her wits end she got in a heated fight with Zhuan Xu, even raging at him. But no matter her pleading or her yelling, or even threatening to go back to Gao Xing and never talking to him again, Zhuan Xu would only willingly promise to stop but never followed through.

Gradually, Ah Nian lost her temper and started crying. She hated Xuan Yuan Castle! In the most important castle in the vast wilderness, she encountered the most painful thing in her life. She gradually saw Zhuan Xu become a different person, everyday with a different woman on his arms, and she could do nothing to stop him!

Because of Zhuan Xu, Ah Nian’s formerly innocent eyes that had never seen any hardship, gradually became clouded with disappointment. It was like she grew up all overnight.