Yan Mingting had already taken the initiative to remove his clothes. He lay down and said: “I’m ready, come on.”

Zhao Yelan looked at his tall, strong body in disbelief: “Me?”

“En, you used to like to be on top, ah.” Yan Mingting asked, “Could it be that you want to change positions this time?”

“I didn’t expect that you would have such beautiful dreams,” Zhao Yelan said speechlessly. Then he patted his leg. “Get up quickly and follow me to Nanjiang for treatment.”

“Won’t go. Why do you spoil the fun every time.” Yan Mingting turned over in a fit of anger, then found that his back was facing the other party and immediately turned back, aggrieved. “You always tell me to live a good life, but you just want to abandon me again. My flesh and blood are gone, and now even you’re gone. How can you tell me to live a good life?”

Zhao Yelan clenched his fingers tightly.

“I tried to live, but it was so difficult. There are traces of you everywhere in the house. As long as I drink, I can see you, but when I’m sober, it hurts. Even if I didn’t get poisoned this time, I wouldn’t listen to you anymore. I’ll tell you a secret, in fact,  I even prepared arsenic before I set off. I was just going to wait until I got my revenge and had nothing left to worry about, and then go see you with peace of mind after returning to Beijing to deal with the funeral.” Yan Mingting sat up and slowly hugged him. “You wait for me to come back.”

Zhao Yelan pinched his thigh fiercely.

“Hiss—” Yan Mingting rubbed his leg with a grimace. “This dream is so real, I actually felt pain.”

“It’s not a dream. I’ve already said it’s not a dream.” Zhao Yelan pinched his face again. “You take a good look at me. The one in front of you is a living person.”

Yan Mingting felt the pain, but couldn’t distinguish between dreams and reality. He looked at him blankly, and caught a glimpse of the mask beside the bed from the corner of his eye.

With trembling hands, he picked it up and put it in front of Zhao Yelan, then moved it away. His eyes darkened: “You’re Little Face?”

“I am.” Zhao Yelan paused, and was about to speak more, but the other party suddenly threw the mask away.

“How did you catch up? Are you imitating him again? How do you know what he looks like? Aren’t you mute? How can you still talk?”

Zhao Yelan went to pick up the mask and said: “Little Face is me, and Zhao Yelan is also me.”

Yan Mingting felt a burst of pain. He gripped his head with a splitting headache, and asked with an expression of pain: “Where is this place?”

Zhao Yelan couldn’t tell whether it was a symptom of the poison or whether he was wandering between reality and dreams, so he hurriedly stepped forward to hug him, patting his back and comforting him: “Fangli, Yan Fangli, listen to me when I say I’m not dead. I just took a drug to fake my death, and then someone sent me out. The person in the cemetery was just a substitute. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have kept it from you. I shouldn’t have found out so late that I actually fell in love with you a long time ago.”

The person in his arms seemed to be less resistant to his words and embrace, so he continued: “Occasionally when you were sleeping, you would turn over and hit me with your hand, and I would pull your hair in retaliation. You don’t make a lot of noise when you eat, I just deliberately wanted to punish you, so I scolded you for eating like a pig. You have such a good, healthy physique, and I envy you for it, but I really hate horse stance even though I want to learn horseback riding and archery.”

Yan Mingting slowly raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked at him in disbelief.

Zhao Yelan stared into the other’s eyes and said: For your birthday, I bought you a total of twelve bunches of tanghulu, and I also bought you new clothes. I knew you didn’t need anything, and I didn’t know what gifts to get you, so I gave you all the gifts I received when I was young. I also gave you a painting, which was the portrait you had been pestering me about for a long time. It shows you riding a strong horse and holding a bow while shooting an arrow. It is the most beautiful and enviable appearance I could imagine.”

Something came to mind, and Zhao Yelan opened his bag. He took another painting out from it and handed it to him: “Actually, I made another painting at that time, and I always carry it with me.”

Yan Mingting opened the scroll with trembling hands. The person in the painting stood outside the gate of the General’s Mansion, turning his head and waving.

This was the last time the two of them saw each other, and it was also the scene that Yan Mingting couldn’t bear to recall the most.

The drawing paper was a bit wrinkled, and had presumably been opened countless times.

Teardrops fell on it, soaking the paper. He slowly raised his hand and caressed the other’s cheek in disbelief: “It’s really you?”

“It’s me.”

As soon as the words were spoken, Zhao Yelan was dragged onto the bed with irresistible force. His head hit the pillow, and as soon as he raised it, overwhelming kisses fell upon his face. Out of control, he kissed his cheeks and lips wantonly and forcefully.

Zhao Yelan pressed the other’s chest with his hands, trying to find a comfortable position, but his wrists were captured by the other party and pressed over his head.

“Are you trying to escape?” Yan Mingting asked.

Zhao Yelan shook his head, then raised his chin and kissed him proactively.

Yan Mingting’s reasoning almost broke in that instant. His mind was in chaos, and he didn’t want to distinguish between dreams and reality. All he knew was that he must catch the person in front of. Whether it was a dream or reality, he didn’t want to be alone when he opened his eyes again. The pain caused by waking up had almost driven him insane.

Zhao Yelan was about to be tormented to the point of madness. This was a post station room. There were not only soldiers outside, but also guests. He bit his lip tightly, raised his chin, and dared not make a sound.

“Why don’t you call my name?” Yan Mingting forcefully compelled him to speak out. “Didn’t you say you’re real? Then call me and prove it.”

Zhao Yelan couldn’t resist anymore, and let out a rough sob.

Yan Mingting embraced him for a long time, running his fingers over every inch of skin. Then he raised his head and stared at his flushed face and tear-stained eyes for a long moment: “Is it really you?”

“It’s really me,” Zhao Yelan said hoarsely.

Yan Mingting seemed unable to believe it, and moved again, urging him to call out his name.

“F-Fangli!” Zhao Yelan called his name intermittently. He noticed that the other’s cheeks were wet, and raised his hand to wipe the other’s face.

“Are you real?” Yan Mingting asked.

“I’m real.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Zhao Mengting, not Zhao Yelan anymore.”

“Mengting, Mengting, don’t leave, okay? What can I do to make you stay? Mengting…..”

As night fell outside, the room gradually quieted down. Zhao Yelan lay weakly on his side, Yan Mingting still trying to identify him by his ribs.

Zhao Yelan said: “You didn’t know what my ribs looked like before, so how can you identify them now?”

“I can do it.” Yan Mingting touched his left ribs over his heart and said, “There’s a heartbeat here.”

The corners of Zhao Yelan’s mouth twitched, and he said in a low voice: “Keep this matter secret. Can you promise me not to spread it?”

Yan Mingting looked up at him for a moment, and was about to speak, when his head suddenly hurt again. His limbs began to feel weak, and he pressed his head in pain.

“What’s the matter? Is it the poison again?” Zhao Yelan heard the doctor say that this kind of poison surged up intermittently. He sat up at once. “I’ll go to the doctor.”

“No, don’t go!” Yan Mingting grabbed his hand. “You’re not allowed to leave. If you leave, you’ll be gone!”

“I’ll be back, I’m just going to get a doctor.”

“You can’t, you always say that before you leave!” Yan Mingting rolled in pain on the bed, but still refused to let go of his hand.

Zhao Yelan knew that this person thought he was a figment of his dreams again, so he lay back down and hugged him, saying: “Okay, I won’t leave. It’s getting late, let’s go to sleep early.”

“I can’t sleep, you’ll leave if I sleep,” Yan Mingting said with an expression of pain.

“I won’t. I’ll stay with you.”

Zhao Yelan comforted him for a long time before he fell asleep in pain.

Glancing at him worriedly, Zhao Yelan got up and picked up the clothes that had fallen on the floor. The sleeves were torn, so he could only bravely put on his mask and awkwardly open the door.

The guard at the door gave him an awkward look.

The commotion the two of them had made just now was not small, and Zhao Yelan couldn’t help feeling embarrassed at this moment. Fortunately, there was a mask to cover him. He ordered: “Go find some doctors, and find out if there are any Nanjiang witch doctors around here.”

The guard nodded, and before leaving, he couldn’t help but say: “I heard from another brother that you are very similar to the deceased Zhao-daren, and that is why the General made you work so hard to make this trip. In the future, I would like to ask you to help take care of the General. You are perhaps the only one who can persuade him to seek medical treatment.”

Zhao Yelan nodded: “Go.”

“Wait, there’s one more thing. Didn’t my brother say you were mute?”

“I was poisoned by an enemy, and my throat was ruined. I’m cured now,” Zhao Yelong bluffed.

“Okay, I’ll go get the doctor now!”

Zhao Yelan returned to the room. He picked up a wet handkerchief to wipe the marks left on his body, and couldn’t help muttering, “He’s still so capable after being poisoned.”

He lay down again and held the other’s hand, but couldn’t fall back to sleep. Then the doctor came and prescribed several medicines for Yan Mingting to relieve the pain, but the poison still couldn’t be cured.

After Zhao Yelan fed him the medicine, he went to discuss with the guards and said that he should be taken back to Nanjiang to find a local witch doctor. But they all lacked backbones, and didn’t dare to make up their own minds. They were afraid that Yan Mingting would wake up halfway and run back to the capital again.

“He won’t. I’ll find a way to convince him. You go arrange a carriage first. One team will be enough, and the rest will return to Beijing as usual,” Zhao Yelan said.

When the others heard this, they also felt that they could give it a try. Perhaps the General really regarded this man as Zhao-daren and would be willing to listen to him?

When everyone split up, a doctor suddenly asked to see him at the post station, saying that he heard General Yan had been poisoned at the southern border, and he had come here to treat him.

Zhao Yelan went out to take a look. He felt that this person looked familiar, but couldn’t remember who he was for the moment. However, his eyes landed on another person, who was dressed in the clothing of the Nanjiang people.

Although he had a bit of hope, Zhao Yelan still remained vigilant and said: “Who are you? Why did you come here of your own initiative?”

“I spent thirty years in the Imperial hospital before resigning,” said the leader. “A while ago, the General’s people found me and said he had been looking for me. When I inquired, General Yan happened to be nearby, so I rushed over only to find that he was poisoned.”

Zhao Yelan finally remembered where this sense of familiarity came from. In order to find the murderer who poisoned his father, Yan Mingting did indeed send someone to find the former Imperial Hospital Envoy. He said rejoicefully: “Wonderful, come inside, please.”

“This is a witch doctor I met in Nanjiang. We often exchange medical skills together. He will need to see him as well, do you mind?”

The soldiers were a little uncertain, and looked toward Zhao Yelan one after another, but Zhao Yelan had already brought him inside: “Please do your best. If you can detoxify him, I will reward you with one thousand pieces of gold.”

“No need, I just don’t want to see the General sacrifice his life for no reason.” The court envoy drove everyone else out of the room, leaving only a few helpers behind.

Zhao Yelan was watching from the side as the two doctors checked Yan Mingting’s physical condition. Unexpectedly, when the two took off his clothes, mottled and ambiguous marks appeared on his chest.

Zhao Yelan choked for breath: “……..”

Several guards immediately lowered their heads, and the two doctors subconsciously looked at Zhao Yelan.

Zhao Yelan really wanted to flee, but he couldn’t leave, so he could only lower his eyes stiffly, thankful that he still had the mask on him. Otherwise, he would have found a tree and hanged himself.

Fortunately, the two doctors were used to seeing extraordinary things, and didn’t make any remarks.

After confirming it, the witch doctor said that he could be treated, but the poison must be drained.

Zhao Yelan agreed straightaway. Just as long as he could be cured. However, when he saw the doctor cut Yan Mingting’s wrist open and blood flowed out like pillars, he couldn’t help but feel an ache in his heart.

He walked to the bed and held Yan Mingting’s other hand.

Time seemed to stretch. The doctors applied medicine to the wound, bandaged it, and said that they would return in three hours to continue detoxification. Zhao Yelan was so frightened that his face paled. However, what the envoy said next made his face turn red again.

“He may wake up a while later, but remember, don’t indulge in sex, so as not to let the toxins spread too fast through the body.”

Zhao Yelan: “…….”

After everyone departed, he stretched out his hand to straighten Yan Mingting’s sweaty hair.

After a while, a guard delivered porridge to the door. Yan Mingting needed to eat something during this time.

Zhao Yelan got up to take it, and just as soon as he closed the door, he heard a frantic voice: “Mengting!”

Zhao Yelan looked over immediately and saw Yan Mingting sitting up in bed and looked around in a panic. When he saw his figure, he called out again doubtfully: “Mengting?”

“I’m here.” Zhao Yelan stepped forward. “Are you hungry?”

Yan Mingting looked at him without saying a word.

“Come on, eat something first.” Zhao Yelan picked up the bowl, scooped up a spoonful, and fed it to his mouth. “Open up.”

Yan Mingting slowly opened his mouth like a marionette, doing whatever he was asked to do.

“Swallow it, ah.”

Yan Mingting didn’t even chew it, but swallowed it with a gulp.

“…….” Zhao Yelan fed him another spoonful and ordered, “You eat well for me.”

Yan Mingting was taken aback by this long-lost tone. He slowly reached out and carefully touched his cheek: “You’re real?”

“En, I’m real,” Zhao Yelan answered him patiently. Then he grabbed his hand and bit his finger. “Does it hurt?”

“It hurts.” Yan Mingting raised the other hand and looked at the bandages, asking in confusion: “What is this?”

Zhao Yelan explained: “This is from the doctor treating you. You’ll recover soon.”

“I don’t want treatment,” Yan Mingting said with a forlorn expression. “It’s good now, I can see you every time I wake up.”

“Yan Mingting, if you keep doing this, I will get angry,” Zhao Yelan said sternly. “When you are cured, you will be able to see me every day.”

“You’re lying to me again.”

“If I’m lying to you, I’m a dog.”

Yan Mingting glanced at him: “You’re a dog to begin with.”

“What did you say?” Zhao Yelan glared at him.

Yan Mingting was stunned, carefully sizing up his expression. It was so vivid. He hadn’t seen Zhao Yelan like this in a long time.

In countless dreams, Zhao Yelan had an obedient character in order to cater to his dreams, and he gradually became distant from Zhao Yelan himself.

But now, he seemed to see the angry Zhao Yelan appear in front of him so vividly.

Yan Mingting suddenly reached out and hugged him into his arms, not letting go for a long time.

“Do you feel like your chest is hot?” Zhao Yelan asked.

“Yes, could it be because my heart has begun to come alive again?” Yan Mingting asked.

“It is because you spilled porridge on yourself.”

“…….”

The treatment lasted for three days. The poison needed to be cleared every three hours, but every time afterwards, Yan Mingting remained awake, holding Zhao Yelan tightly with one hand for fear that he would no longer be by his side when he woke up.

The guards outside couldn’t help muttering, wondering if they should tell the General that this person was just a substitute he brought back from Nanjiang.

One of them was a guard who sent Little Face home before. He said: “I think it’s good this way. Before, I saw that Brother Little Face has a sincere affection for the General, and now he has actually saved the General’s life. It doesn’t make sense to make the General drive him away as soon as he recovered, ah. And you see the way the General clings to him now and can’t take his eyes off him.”

“Brother Little Face really loves the General a lot. The General gave him a Xuan Dynasty name, with the given name Mengting and the surname Zhao, ah. He’s not afraid of braving hardships, very respectable and admirable.”

Zhao Yelan stood upstairs listening to their conversation, and couldn’t help being amused. Only Zhao Xuan, Gu Niaoniao, and Yan Mingting knew the name Zhao Mengting, so these people ventured that it was Yan Mingting’s new name for him.

His mind took a turn, and he suddenly had an idea. If he wanted to do his best after making a mistake, he would let the world think that he was Zhao Mengting, who sacrificed himself for love.

Three days later, the treatment finally entered the final stage. Yan Mingting was lying in bed with a pale face. The doctor said he was at his weakest now, and the next thing was to see if he would wake up.

Zhao Yelan’s heart felt like it was suspended again, and he stayed by the bed day and night. He was unable to sleep late one night when he suddenly heard Yan Mingting shout in fright as he raised his hand: “Mengting, don’t go!”

“I’m not leaving.” Zhao Yelan held his hand and waited for a long time, but he didn’t wake up.

The next day, he heard him talking in his sleep again, but he couldn’t hear his babbling clearly. He lay down with his ear next to him and listened for a long time before he realized that his name was being called over and over again.

A few days later, there was still no sign of him waking up. Zhao Yelan was becoming increasingly worried, and the doctor said that he could whisper something in his ear to make him subconsciously want to wake up.

Zhao Yelan sat at the bedside alone and said: “Yan Fangli, I still have a lot of things I want to do. In the past six months, I’ve traveled around and seen many interesting things and scenery, but every time, I think about how I’m the only one there to appreciate such things. It’s really a pity. Can you go with me in the future?”

“I’m sorry, I underestimated your feelings too much. I thought that time could erase everything, but all that time gave us was regret. I shouldn’t have deceived you, nor should I have suppressed my emotions. If only I could have seen my heart clearly earlier.”

“Yan Fangli, I love you.”

Yan Mingting moved his fingers.

Seeing this, Zhao Yelan looked at him with joy: “Fangli, Fangli?”

However, there was no response from the other party. He was anxious to find the doctor, but just as he got up, he heard a weak voice. Although he couldn’t hear it clearly, it was indeed from Yan Mingting.

“What did you say?” Zhao Yelan immediately leaned closer to his ear, and heard him say weakly, “Say it again.”

“What did you say? Zhao Yelan repeated.

“You…..say that again.”

“I love you?”

“En.” Yan Mingting nodded his head with difficulty, without opening his eyes, and fell unconscious again.

Not long after, a guard knocked on the door. He delivered food to Zhao Yelan and told him to pay more attention to his body.

“Understood, thank you.” Zhao Yelan took the food and closed the door, and was suddenly taken aback by the person on the bed.

Yan Mingting had sat up silently. His face under the moonlight was extremely pale, and he stared at him with burning eyes as he said hoarsely: “Which man are you talking to?”

“A guard.” Zhao Yelan quickly put down the food, ran to the bed, and hugged him. “You finally woke up.”

Yan Mingting hugged him back and felt his heartbeat, then reconfirmed: “You’re really my Zhao Mengting?”

“Yes, I am your Zhao Mengting.”

Once Yan Mingting woke up, on the one hand, he needed to replenish his body and blood, but on the other hand, he couldn’t do so without someone’s help, specifically Zhao Yelan’s.

Whenever Zhao Yelan left his line of sight, he would immediately stop everything he was doing and look for Zhao Yelan’s figure without hesitating. After he overturned the dinner table four or five times in succession, Zhao Yelan no longer dared to make up false excuses for the guards. Thus, he could only stay by his side obediently and never leave, facing others with a mask during the day and seeing Yan Mingting with his true face at night.

But there was one problem. Yan Mingting would easily go mad when he saw his true face, and he had to remind the other party: “The doctor said you must abstain from sex.”

Yan Mingting was so angry that he beat his chest and stomped his feet.

It took about a month for Yan Mingting to regain about half of his original body strength, but fortunately, he had accepted that Zhao Yelan was indeed alive.

Recently, Zhao Yelan lived and ate with him every day, but when he woke up in the morning, the other party would always stare at him silently and say: “Is it you?”

Then Zhao Yelan would kiss him and tell him patiently: “It’s me, I’m Zhao Mengting.”

The army was about to arrive at the capital, so Zhao Yelan bid goodbye to them for the time being and waited for Yan Mingting at the post station outside the city.

Yan Mingting had originally refused to let him leave his side, and even wanted to follow him and take a fake death pill, not giving up until he heard that there wasn’t any more. So Zhao Yelan promised him one hundred and eighty times that he would wait for him outside the city.

After he returned to Beijing to deal with the follow-up matters, he would go on a tour of the mountains and rivers with him.

In fact, both of them were gambling. Zhao Yelan was betting on whether he would be bound by worldly affairs, and Yan Mingting was betting on whether he would leave without saying a word. 

But Yan Mingting had made preparations this time. The post house was surrounded by his secret informants, and Zhao Yelan couldn’t fly away even if given wings.

A few days later, a major incident occurred in Beijing. General Yan actually voluntarily relinquished his military power, retired, and went home.

After further inquiry, it turned out that General Yan, who was like a walking corpse a while ago, had actually found a man who looked very similar to Zhao Yelan in Nanjiang, and they were going to travel the rivers and mountains together.

At the beginning, no one was optimistic about it, and were quite critical of this matter. But many years later, all the news anyone heard was of General Yan and the man named Zhao Mengting’s adventures. A storyteller even wrote a storybook about it, which was very popular.

Zhao Xuan died half a year after Yan Mingting left Beijing.

When he heard the news, Zhao Yelan was planting flowers with Yan Mingting in Nanjiang. When the two returned to the small courtyard at that time, Yan Mingting teased him for pretending to be mute, but Zhao Yelan said: “Didn’t you tell me not to smile?”

Yan Mingting’s expression changed: “You always remember this. Who told you to deliberately imitate yourself?”

“Heh.”

“It’s true that you rarely smiled at me before,” Yan Mingting muttered.

Zhao Yelan smiled, and Yan Mingting also looked at him and smiled. Then they heard the news of Zhao Xuan’s death.

He was someone who had some friendship with him, after all, so Zhao Yelan burned three sticks of incense for him that night.

A few days later, Zhao Yelan said: “Now that Zhao Xuan has passed away, there is one less person in the world who knows who Zhao Mengting is. Why don’t we go tour other places first, and after a few years, we can go to places in the Xuan Dynasty.”

“Okay, ah, where do you want to go?”

“Jiangnan. When I passed by last time, I thought Jiangnan was very suitable for sightseeing.”

“We can do that. I will go wherever you want to go, as long as you don’t leave me alone.”

Zhao Yelan raised his head and kissed him: “That won’t happen again.”

Yan Mingting kissed him back, and the two rolled in the flowers, covered in petals and leaves.

In the evening, the two marched toward dusk and stepped in each other’s shadows.

Yan Mingting asked: “Why do I feel that you’re so happy when you talk about going to Jiangnan?”

“The main reason is that there is a lot of delicious food and many inns. You know this well.”

“I know, it’s very luxurious. It’s fine for you to plant flowers and dig in the ground for a day or two, but it would be difficult for a year or two,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan chuckled: “Right.”

“Then what are we waiting for? There’s no time like the present. We’ll set off tonight.” Yan Mingting tossed the hoe away. “Let’s go and live a good life. I’ve seen you touching the silver in the middle of the night more frequently than you touch me.”

Zhao Yelan laughed loudly and said: “Can we go to Jiangnan on horseback?”

“We can, what kind of horse do you want to ride?”

Zhao Yelan took a look at him, and suddenly placed his hands on the other’s back. Yan Mingting skillfully lifted him up.

“The moon is out.” Zhao Yelan looked up at the sky.

“Yes, ah.” Yan Mingting paused, then asked with a smile, “Do you hear what the moon is saying?”

“Ah? What is it saying?” Zhao Yelan asked curiously.

“It’s saying, Mengting, I love you.”

Zhao Yelan smiled and leaned on his shoulder, saying: “I also love the moon very, very much. I love him more than the moon can even imagine.”

---

T/N: Please support the author if you haven’t already! I’ve provided a link in the table of contents. And if you’re feeling extra generous, any donation is welcome. You guys help me keep this site ad-free! (Honestly, I hate ads and think they ruin the reading experience, so I won’t include them anyway.) 🙂

---

Consider donating via Kofi here!

Extra 12: Faking Death (5) <<Table of Contents