Ficorpio
Chapter 1
When I first saw Ethan Sterling, he was being auctioned.
The spectators marveled at his beauty, competing to offer higher bids for the privilege of touching such a lovely man.
I had gone there as nothing more than a bystander, but I could not bear to watch a once-celebrated prodigy be humiliated and passed from hand to hand. In the end, I spent one thousand silver taels to buy his freedom.
I had him settled at the Bennett Garden House and instructed the servants to care for him properly. Beyond that, I had no intention of showing myself.
I simply hadn’t expected him to come looking for me.
Ethan Sterling and I had been bitter rivals since childhood.
Our families lived near each other. Years ago, his mother and mine had been pregnant at the same time. They had joked that if one child turned out to be a boy and the other a girl, they would arrange a Childhood Betrothal between them.
Unfortunately, we were both boys.
Ethan had been born one day before me. When we were little, our mothers were always saying that I was the younger brother and Ethan was my elder, so he ought to indulge me.
Ethan always agreed readily enough, but he had never actually indulged me. He had to be better than me at everything.
When we were children, we competed with crickets, and I never once defeated him. Later, when we climbed trees, he was always faster and reached higher branches. Then we began attending school, learning to read and write, and he still outperformed me at every turn. His handwriting was better. He learned faster.
Back then, Master Edmund Hartwell praised him as a brilliant young talent. Whenever he looked at me, however, he could only sigh and mutter that rotten wood could never be carved into anything useful.
My father was even fonder of Ethan. He would gaze at him with undisguised envy before saying to Thomas Sterling, “If only Adrian could be even one ten-thousandth as clever as Ethan.”
My mother was never pleased to hear that.
Afterward, she became even stricter with me in private. She told me that her son had to be the best.
She no longer allowed me to go out and play. Every toy I owned was burned, buried, or locked away. Day after day, she watched over me and ordered me to study, write, and fill page after page with essays.
That was when Ethan Sterling stopped being my big brother Ethan.
He became my bitterest rival.
I pushed myself with everything I had, driven by a single desire: to surpass him and see once again the warm smile my mother had given me in the past.
Chapter 2
His handwriting was beautiful, so I copied it again and again until my fingers ached. He could compose fine essays, so I wrote every day and revised every day. He was skilled at chess, so I carried the Chess Manual with me and studied it from morning until night.
I became almost obsessed with imitating Ethan Sterling in everything.
Perhaps persistence truly did pay off. Before long, Master Hartwell began praising me as well.
But I was still not as good as Ethan.
Because I devoted myself entirely to figuring out how to defeat him, and because my mother’s discipline grew harsher with every passing year, I had almost no friends while growing up.
Ethan was different. He excelled at everything, yet none of it seemed to cost him much effort. He still had plenty of time to make friends with half the school.
I considered Ethan Sterling my bitterest rival, but I didn’t even know whether I existed in his eyes at all.
Then, when we were twelve, an imperial decree arrived from the palace. Ethan and I were both selected as Imperial Prince’s Study Companions.
But Ethan was assigned to the immensely popular fourth prince, Prince Theodore Ashford, while I was assigned to the little-known sixth prince.
From that day forward, our fates began to change.
Late that night, one of the servants knocked on my door and told me that the young master staying at the Bennett Garden House had a fever that would not break.
It took me a moment to realize he meant Ethan Sterling.
I was still heavy with sleep and snapped, “Then take him to a doctor! Why come to me?”
But once I lay back down, I couldn’t stop worrying. In the end, I threw on a coat and went straight to Ethan’s rooms.
By the time I arrived, the doctor had finished his examination and written out a prescription.
“Good evening, sir,” he said. “The young master is in no serious danger. He’s simply dressed too lightly for this freezing weather and has caught a chill.”
I had the servants pay the doctor and see him out.
Ethan’s face was flushed. When I placed a hand against his forehead, I found it burning like a furnace.
His lips moved constantly, murmuring to himself. I leaned closer before I could make out the words.
“Mother… Mother…”
In an instant, I remembered Margaret Sterling, gentle as still water. After Thomas Sterling had been sent into political exile, she had died far from home alongside him. And now the son she had once been so proud of had been auctioned off like a plaything, reduced to a kept male companion in someone else’s household.
I couldn’t help sighing at the thought.
Looking at Ethan again, I felt even more sympathy for him.
All my life, I had chased after Ethan Sterling. All my life, I had envied him. I had never imagined that one day, I would be the one to pity him.
Chapter 3
I had a maid bring warm water and a towel, then used it to cool his forehead. When I turned to leave, Ethan suddenly seized my hand.
There was nothing I could do but take the bowl of medicine the servants had prepared and feed it to him one spoonful at a time.
Perhaps the medicine was too bitter. Perhaps the noise of moving him had disturbed his sleep. Whatever the reason, after a few mouthfuls, Ethan suddenly opened his eyes.
“Adrian?”
His voice was weak and hoarse.
“Adrian… cough, cough… is that you?”
As he spoke, he actually tried to reach up and touch my face.
I quickly leaned back. “Ethan Sterling, what are you doing? Besides me, who else would be kind enough to save you now?”
He gave me a weak smile, his eyes narrowing into slits. He looked absurdly happy.
I couldn’t understand what he had to be happy about. If our positions had been reversed, Ethan would have been the last person in the world I wanted to see.
“You’re this weak, and you still have the strength to smile?” I scolded softly, handing him the bowl. “Here. Since you’re awake, drink it yourself.”
He took the bowl and drained it in one go. His eyes and brows were full of delight.
I thought the medicine must truly be effective. A moment ago, he had been so weak that he could barely speak, and now he seemed so much more alert.
Once he finished, I stood to leave. Ethan immediately grabbed my hand again, looking tense.
I stared at him, puzzled.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes. What else would I do?”
“Can’t you stay? We haven’t seen each other in two years.”
I didn’t understand why he had to emphasize the fact that we hadn’t seen each other for two years. It wasn’t as though our friendship had ever been deep enough for us to have anything worth catching up on after such a short separation.
Fortunately, one of the servants spoke up at that moment.
“The young master has caught a chill. It may be contagious. You should be careful, sir.”
Only then did Ethan let go of my hand. He pulled the blankets over his head and urged me out repeatedly.
Ethan was sick for three days. Every time I went to check on him, I found him making the maid assigned to care for him laugh so hard she could barely sit still.
He was shamelessly flirtatious, nothing like the upright gentleman I remembered. If his face had not been unchanged, if he had not recognized me, I would have suspected that this Ethan Sterling was an impostor.
“I’ve been here for so long, yet I haven’t seen your lady of the house even once,” he was teasing the young maid again before I had even entered. “Tell me, sweetheart, is your master afraid his wife will get jealous? Has he hidden me away in some secret little room?”
I frowned, deeply displeased. Ethan’s behavior these past few days was so unlike the man in my memories that I could hardly reconcile the two.
I pushed the door open.