In the blink of an eye, it was Friday.

The elevator doors opened and Bo Yueming walked out in formal attire, holding a walking cane in his hand. Pei Yi followed him out obediently.

With assistant Lin Zhong as a guide, the two slowly walked to the main entrance of the G.M. company floor.

The new receptionist was surprised when she saw Bo Yueming’s “blind man” accessories, and didn’t realize Bo Yueming’s identity for a moment.

Then Yan Cen’s assistant hurried out and said respectfully, “Boss Bo.”

Her eyes fell on the familiar assistant Lin Zhong, and then on the face of the completely unfamiliar Pei Yi—

The person before her had a cute and innocent face, and the casual clothes on his frame were designed by famous niche brands. He didn’t look like a person capable of blending into the workplace.

A little taken aback, the assistant subconsciously asked Lin Zhong, who had the same status, “Assistant Lin, who is this?”

As soon as she spoke, Bo Yueming took the initiative to say, “He is my……family member.”

The term “family member” was very special.

Not only the two assistants, but even Pei Yi himself was surprised for a moment. But when he thought about it, this term was indeed more appropriate than “marriage partner,” “companion,” and so on.

Pei Yi seemed to want to prove his identity, so he called out in a well-behaved manner, “Er-ge.”

The assistant had a good sense of propriety. Although she was bewildered, she didn’t ask any more questions.

Bo Yueming changed the subject. “Where is Yan Cen? Is he here?”

The assistant replied, “I just called to inquire. Boss Yan is already in the underground parking lot, and will be here soon.”

Speak of the devil and he will arrive.

The elevator doors opened again, and Yan Cen took the lead to step through them. In addition, there were two other people in the elevator—

They were Li Yuan, who had come to participate in the competition, and an unfamiliar woman with short hair.

Pei Yi stared slightly, secretly observing everything.

Yan Cen had not changed much since the previous two meetings. Superior and refined, he wore the familiar gold-rimmed glasses on his face, but compared to the previous two occasions, with his “working status” today, he had the extra calm aura of a boss.

Li Yuan, who was standing diagonally behind, had donned a new blue suit with a gray pattern for today’s official selection. He also seemed to have taken extra care of his hairstyle, and the wolf tail was cut a bit shorter, the little fluff on the upper part curling.

With his deliberately indifferent expression, there was a faint sense of lovely contrast.

As for the short-haired woman next to Li Yuan, she was dressed even more simply, with a plain white T-shirt and jeans and a black bag over one shoulder.

It looked as if she had followed the wrong person and strayed into this area, but she was calm and without stage fright.

Pei Yi stared at her for a moment, and then his lips curved indistinctly.

“Hello, Boss Yan.”

Yan Cen’s assistant was the first to react, and at the same time recognized Li Yuan from the competition materials. “And Mr. Li, did you come here together?”

“N-no.”

Li Yuan got stuck for a moment, and his voice was slightly tense. “I happened to meet Boss Yan in the elevator.”

“En, I came up from the underground parking lot, and when the elevator stopped on the first floor, I met Mr. Li and……” Yan Cen glanced sideways at the relatively unfamiliar woman, and inquired politely with his eyes.

“Lou Yang.”

The woman met his gaze and introduced herself calmly and naturally. “I came here with Mr. Li, and can be regarded as one of the staff participating in the competition for “The Last Fog.”

Li Yuan was silent for a moment. “En.”

He had just picked up Lou Yang at the airport an hour ago. As for the complicated relationship, it was not easy to explain for the time being.

Yan Cen looked at Pei Yi, who was following along, and teased for a rare moment, “Mr. Bo, you really brought a “family member” to the company? Violation of company regulations will result in fines.”

“As you say.” Bo Yueming answered lightly, “I’ll watch him, he won’t cause trouble.”

Yan Cen nodded slightly, and asked his assistant, “It starts at two o’clock?”

“Yes, there is still another half hour, and the other group of investment competitors hasn’t arrived yet.” The assistant accurately reported the current situation and asked, “Do I need to call to confirm their situation?”

Bo Yueming was decisive. “No need. If they don’t show up at the end, it will be regarded as an automatic waiver. Our G.M. never seeks out cooperation from project parties.”

Yan Cen agreed.

As soon as his voice fell, the elevator opened for the third time.

Everyone from Youming Studios had arrived. Ke Ming looked at the group of people gathered at the front desk, and after some brief surprise, showed a polite smile. “What a coincidence, why is everyone gathered here?”

Ke Ming identified Yan Cen and took the initiative to greet him. “Boss Yan, I am Ke Ming, the head of Youming Studios. I’ve admired you for a long time.”

Yan Cen pushed his glasses up lightly and gave a polite, “Mr. Ke.”

Compared with Li Yuan’s indifference and restraint, Ke Ming obviously knew how to make friends with others. He took the initiative to move to the side and introduce two people, “Boss Yan, this is the program technical director of our “Alien Beasts” project, Xiang Nansheng.”

“And our project operator, Pei Huan.”

When the name of the latter person was mentioned, aside from Bo Yueming, who was pretending to be blind, everyone looked toward the back in unison.

“…….”

Only then did Pei Huan, who was blocked by Xiang Nansheng, come forward. When he saw Bo Yueming and Pei Yi standing in front of him, the smile on his face froze slightly, but it quickly returned to normal.

Yan Cen glanced at Bo Yueming and Pei Yi beside him and asked in surprise, “Pei Huan? You’re involved in Youming Studios’ project? Why wasn’t this mentioned in the prior information?”

“Boss Yan, you don’t know that Pei Huan is a newcomer, but I have been lobbying him since the beginning of the project and finally managed to persuade him two days ago.”

Hearing Ke Ming’s false claims, Pei Huan smiled and did not refute.

In fact, he had no substantive relationship with the “Alien Beasts” project, and the so-called “project operator” was just a temporary name.

Pei Huan and Ke Ming had met at an “excellent student exchange meeting” organized during university. Although they came from different schools, they became friends over time due to having the same hobbies and interests.

A week ago, Ke Ming suddenly contacted Pei Huan and put the “Alien Beasts” project in front of his eyes, saying—

If Pei Huan was interested in the project, he could transfer part of his personal equity to the other party. Although it took a long time to wait for the initial investment, once the follow-up game was successfully released, they would definitely earn a lot of money back.

The real power of the Pei family was still in the hands of Pei Ruzhang for the time being. With the failure of the partnership project with the Bo family, Pei Huan had originally planned to start an investment on the side, and Ke Ming’s invitation was very warm.

After some consideration, Pei Huan accepted the idea.

Ke Ming invited him to participate in today’s competition as a chance for him to learn more about the project, but he didn’t expect to meet so many acquaintances here.

Ke Ming’s voice continued, “Boss Yan, Pei Huan and I met in college. The original concept of “Alien Beasts,” including the biological prototypes, were also discussed by us over drinks.”

When fabricating this layer of lies, Ke Ming’s pupils flickered momentarily.

It was just that these calculations couldn’t escape the notice of Bo Yueming and Pei Yi. The former was inwardly suspicious, while the latter saw through everything directly—

Ke Ming must have learned about the relationship between Pei Huan and Yan Cen in university, so he pulled this trick on purpose.

After all was said and done, wasn’t this just counting on Yan Cen seeing the face of a “student from the same school” so that in the competition between the two parties, they would be favored and given preferential treatment?

Pei Huan already realized the true purpose of Ke Ming’s invitation for him to join him, but didn’t have hard feelings about being “used” at all.

To be honest, Yan Cen was indeed the only person he had a crush on during university, but there were few opportunities to meet him at school.

So long after graduation, the two could still meet again. If he could use this opportunity to gain impression points in front of the other party and improve their relationship and communication a bit, then he was perfectly willing.

“Senior, that’s not right…..” Pei Huan paused slightly, and then changed his words with a smile, “Boss Yan, I look forward to future exchanges with your company.”

“…….”

Exchanges?

Was the result of this competition already confirmed?

Li Yuan, who had remained silent the whole time, heard this term of address and involuntarily took half a step back.

Pei Yi noticed the other party’s retreat, and his disdain for Pei Huan and Ke Ming rose to another level.

He was thinking about how to “play the fool” to frustrate the other party’s inexplicable confidence and drive, but Bo Yueming beside him spoke in a resonating voice—

“G.M. has always valued capability. As for things other than work, there is no need to communicate more about them.”

In a word, he pretty much shoved those hidden words onto the surface.

Pei Yi suppressed his smile for an instant, and raised his eyes to look at Bo Yueming who was much taller than himself. The more he looked at him, the more he felt that the other party was incredibly handsome, and he wished he could directly give this person a thumbs-up.

Exactly.

This game competition only depended on pure prowess, what were these dishonest means!

The atmosphere froze for a moment.

Ke Ming looked at Bo Yueming, who was “dressed up as a blind man,” with a hint of inner displeasure. “May I ask who this gentleman is?”

Yan Cen introduced the identity of his friend, “Mr. Bo is my partner, the highest-level shareholder of G.M., and one of the decision makers for today’s investment.”

“…….”

“…….”

When these words were spoken, the astonishment of Ke Ming and Pei Huan almost reached their faces.

Ke Ming’s inner displeasure suddenly dissipated, and he regretted at once the contempt in his question just now. When he researched the company before, why didn’t he know that there was such a person as Bo Yueming?

Thank goodness he was being polite when he spoke just now, otherwise he would have offended him terribly!

Pei Huan attempted to stabilize his complexion, but there was a sudden and indescribable panic in his heart.

Last time, he and Bo Guancheng had tried to send Pei Yi to Sun Yelong’s bed in exchange for greater cooperation, and as a result, Qin Yishun severely denounced and accused him first, and then he suffered a huge loss after the cooperation failed. If Bo Yueming knew about his shady business, would he still give him a fair chance in this competition?

What about Yan Cen?

Did he also know what he did to Pei Yi? Would his perception of him change?

The next moment, Yan Cen calmly spoke, “Shen Na, please take both parties to sit down in the lounge. We will start on time at two o’clock in the conference room.”

After speaking, he patted his friend on the shoulder lightly. “Yueming, let’s go.”

Bo Yueming gave a slight nod and accurately held Pei Yi’s wrist under the cover of the guide sunglasses in order to prevent the kitten beside him from running around. “Let’s go.”

Pei Yi had originally wanted to stay and take a look at Li Yuan’s situation, but then thought of how he had agreed to Bo Yueming’s request, so he had no choice but to honestly let the other party lead him away. The group of people left first.

Pei Huan looked after Yan Cen’s departing figure, and then at Pei Yi, who was always at Bo Yueming’s side on such occasions. His perpetually bright smile gradually stiffened and weakened, and finally disappeared.

. . . . . .

The lounge was fairly bright and spacious.

Each of the competing parties chose to sit on one side, and Li Yuan tried hard to break free from his subtle and complicated emotions.

He took out the documents and materials he had organized from his backpack, and planned to take the last bit of time to sort out the content of his speech and check for omissions and gaps.

Lou Yang next to him asked  in a whisper, “Young Boss Li, do you have any backup documents? Show me.”

“Sister Yang, you are older than me, you can just call me by name. You don’t need to be bound by that term of address.”

While speaking calmly, Li Yuan took out the documents belonging to Lou Yang and purposely tapped on a line above. “Will asked me to prepare this for you.”

— It was the character roles and NPC images for “The Last Fog 1.0.”

Lou Yang looked at his line of title text, and then at this thick stack of text settings, and a carefree smile flashed in her eyes. “This person didn’t come, but it is very clear that he wanted to.”

As soon as she spoke, there was a faint laugh from across the room. “Young Boss Li, I haven’t seen you for a few days, why is there an extra assistant by your side? Is this lady your partner?”

Li Yuan’s fingertips tightened as he held the documents, and his expression didn’t look very good.

Lou Yang heard the unkind “greeting,” and raised her eyes to look back at Ke Ming. “I’m just a staff member who came to observe, there’s no need for Boss Ke to trouble himself.”

“That’s true.”

Ke Ming examined Lou Yang from head to toe.

Wearing ordinary and unremarkable clothing, how could she look like a capable person in the workplace? He brought such trash to attend? Wasn’t this just putting the big characters “Dawn Company is incapable” on the table?

And of course, Bo Yueming, one of the decision makers, was blind.

They really didn’t need to spend time on attire, and could really only speak through their capability.

Ke Ming slandered in his mind, his eyes still stained with contempt. “Mr. Li, did you really not think about what I said last time? It’s better to abstain now than to lose shamefully in the end.”

In public, they had the foundation, capability, and momentum of technology and development; in private, Pei Huan and Yan Cen, the Executive Director of G.M., were still university brothers.

Ke Ming didn’t know the relationship between Pei Huan, Bo Yueming, and Pei Yi for the time being, but he was still sure of victory and full of confidence.

Li Yuan looked at Ke Ming, who had a “victorious” expression. From the corner of his eye, he saw Pei Huan’s figure again, and a trace of indescribable uneasiness swayed in his heart.

He didn’t want to show timidity in front of the other party, and put up a front of cold arrogance. “Mr Ke, worry about yourself.”

Ke Ming gave a smug laugh. “Mr. Li, your stubborn temper really needs to be adjusted.”

Li Yuan ignored him. He glanced at the time on the phone and disclosed in a low voice, “Sister Yang, I’m going out to get some air.”

Lou Yang nodded, comforting him quietly, “Don’t lose confidence because of this villain. Don’t you remember my purpose for being here?”

Of course Li Yuan remembered. His eyes flickered slightly. “En.”

. . . . . .

Inside the Executive Director’s office.

In addition to Bo Yueming and Yan Cen, there was also Song Ci, who had just returned to China. The three of them would jointly come to a decision on one of the two game projects—

Whether in the overseas market or the Chinese market, this was the first time for G.M. to contact and invest in the game industry, so they were more cautious in making a choice.

Pei Yi listened to their analysis and discussion on the first four rounds of investment projects, and wanted to interrupt but was unable to speak. Bored, he could only cast his gaze on the glass door with anti-peeping protection.

Not long after, he glimpsed a person walking out of the nearby lounge. It was Li Yuan.

Pei Yi thought of Li Yuan’s silent reaction when they were at the front desk just now, and was still a little worried.

Most of the “Last Fog” project relied on Li Yuan to drive forward alone. The more critical the moment, the more he should find a way to stabilize the other party’s mind.

Pei Yi lowered his eyes and hesitated for a second, then turned his head and gently tugged twice at the corner of Bo Yueming’s clothes. “Er-ge.”

Bo Yueming was constantly paying attention to Pei Yi from the corner of his eyes hidden under the lenses, and knew something was up when he felt him tugging. “En?”

“I, I’m going to the bathroom.”

Pei Yi quickly glanced at the “outsiders” around him and spoke softly, a blush of embarrassment spreading across his cheeks.

A person in his twenties had to report when he went out to use the bathroom!

It was true that it was only an excuse, but his embarrassment was also real!

Bo Yueming saw through him but didn’t say anything, deliberately letting his gaze wander. “Alight, let Lin Zhong outside take you there.”

He wanted to follow personally and see what “bad things” this kitten was going to do behind his back, only it would be a bit of overkill for a dignified company executive to accompany him to the bathroom.

Before coming, Lin Zhong had already been notified—

Where he was unable to personally see, the other party had to help “supervise” Pei Yi’s every move.

Pei Yi was unaware of this, and after obtaining Bo Yueming’s consent with a blushing face, he maintained his cute appearance and slipped out.

It didn’t take one minute.

Under Lin Zhong’s considerate guidance, Pei Yi entered the restroom alone. Sure enough, he ran into Li Yuan standing silently at the outside washstand.

Li Yuan’s face was covered with a lot of water. He had likely washed his face just now, and the watery light gathered on his face magnified his exposed fragility and anxiety.

Glimpsing Pei Yi through the mirror, he hastily pulled out a tissue from the side and wiped his face, trying to restore that cold and arrogant outward appearance. “Little Young Master Pei, I didn’t expect to meet you here today.”

Pei Yi saw through him but said nothing.

He knew that Li Yuan still needed time to “organize himself,” and wouldn’t leave here for a while, so he slowly advanced into a private stall.

The small door was tightly locked.

Li Yuan let out a sigh of relief when he heard the sound.

He grabbed the cigarette case he carried with him from his pocket and took one out to hold at the tip of his nose and inhaled lightly, trying to calm down his inner restlessness.

Footsteps from outside sounded again, and another tall figure walked in.

Li Yuan automatically opened his eyes and turned around, and unexpectedly caught Yan Cen’s gaze. “M-Mr. Yan.”

“Young Boss Li.”

Yan Cen’s gaze rested on the cigarette for a moment.

Li Yuan noticed and subconsciously held the cigarette in his palm. “I……I know you can’t smoke indoors. I was just picking it up to sniff it.”

After speaking, he felt that he sounded stupid, and went silent again.

“It’s fine.”

Yan Cen raised his right hand. “I got some ink on my hand, I came to wash it.”

He walked to the sink and rinsed his hands slowly.

Li Yuan glanced at Yan Cen, who was only a short distance away, from the corner of his eye. He didn’t know whether to stay or leave for a moment.

“Young Boss Li, are you nervous, or are you not confident?”

“Ah?”

Yan Cen rubbed some hand sanitizer onto his hands and offered, “I’ve read the basic information of Dawn Games and the game “The Last Fog.” In fact, your plot settings are very good, and the structure is incredibly complete.”

“G.M. has always valued the capability of its partners, and no ‘back doors’ or ‘sentimentality’ will be found here.”

Li Yuan was stunned. “I……”

“I thought you might be worried that Youming would take advantage of my and Pei Huan’s relationship as university brothers to pull ahead.”

Yan Cen smiled lightly at him through the reflection in the mirror. “If that is the case, then shouldn’t you and I also be regarded as brothers who are directly affiliated through university?”

“…….”

Li Yuan held the cigarette tightly in his palm, not knowing how to answer.

Be regarded as university brothers?

The two had little extraneous contact in university.

Yan Cen wiped his hands clean, then motioned to him from the side. “Open your hand.”

“What?”

Li Yuan was a beat slow. His bodily instincts were greater than his rationality, and he spread his right hand uncertainly.

“You’re right, it is G.M.’s policy that no smoking is allowed inside the company. So I’ll take that on the company’s behalf.”

Yan Cen took the crumpled cigarette and instead placed a toffee in his palm. “It looks like your lips are a little pale. If you have low blood sugar, it is better to eat one.”

“Pay attention to the time, you can’t be late for the meeting.”

After speaking, Yan Cen neatly left the bathroom.

The footsteps gradually faded away.

Li Yuan looked at the toffee in his palm and couldn’t recover for a while. 

Then there was a noise in a stall and Pei Yi, who had secretly heard the entire process, came out.

He observed Li Yuan’s expression again and suddenly felt that he didn’t need to rack his brains for a way to persuade him, so he only let out a profound—

“Oh~”

This sudden sound made Li Yuan feel awkward for a moment. “L-Little Young Master Pei, what did you see me doing?”

In order to completely suppress Li Yuan’s anxiety that might make a comeback, Pei Yi deliberately reached out to tease him. “Candy, give me. Kid stuff.”

“…….”

Li Yuan’s ears gradually turned red.

He used this term to “rebuke” Pei Yi in the coffee shop, but the other party used it to “laugh” at him.

Li Yuan quickly placed the toffee into his suit pocket and pretended to dislike and avoid him, “What’s the point of one candy? If you like it, have your Boss Bo buy it for you.”

Pei Yi hummed. He took out a package of small bread from his pocket that he had just bought at the company’s snack bar and handed it to the other party.

Others may not know, but Pei Yi, who was Will, knew very well—

Li Yuan had been re-examining all the documents and materials early in the morning, and had taken time to pick up Lou Yang at noon. He likely hadn’t had time to eat, otherwise his lip color wouldn’t have faded like this.

“Give. Not hungry.”

“……..”

Li Yuan stared at the bread delivered to him, and his affection for Pei Yi rose rapidly.

He slowly accepted this kindness and then gave an awkward cough, changing his words, “How about this, ba. If I succeed in the competition today, how about I treat you to cake?”

Anyhow, last time in the coffee shop, the other party listened quietly to his distress and even bought him a glass of juice and a piece of cake when he was on his deathbed.

Li Yuan had a good impression of Pei Yi, and also didn’t want to owe him such a small favor.

Pei Yi raised his outstretched palm, and with real affection for cake and this ally, he gave a real smile, “Wish you success.”

Li Yuan’s heart was no longer anxious now, and knowing that the other party was a “little fool,” he was still willing to treat him as a friend.

He stretched out his hand to shake it back, and gave a rare smile. “It’s a deal. I’ll borrow your blessing.”

. . . . . . .

In a flash, it was two o’clock.

Pei Yi obediently followed Bo Yueming to the exclusive conference room and sat down.

Relevant personnel came in one after another, carrying notebooks and materials.

Then assistant Lin Zhong opened the door and entered the room, walking up to Pei Yi with three exquisite bags of food. “Little Sir, look! Juice, pudding, and egg tarts—”

As Lin Zhong spoke, he placed the desserts in front of Pei Yi one by one like treasures, and didn’t forget to say a sentence at the end.

“Boss Bo asked me to buy it for you.”

“…….”

Pei Yi looked at the row of his favored desserts before him and was ready to make a move on them, but was at the same time in disbelief—

Such a serious occasion?

Messed up by a bunch of food for him to eat?

Was this appropriate? This was not appropriate, ba!

While thinking about it, Pei Yi looked at Bo Yueming beside him and blinked in confusion. “Er-ge?”

Bo Yueming took in this cute look and pretended to be serious, “Eat quietly later, and don’t make trouble when you shouldn’t talk.”

“…….”

Fine, ba.

It turned out that he was afraid his “little fool” would talk nonsense, so he stuffed his mouth with sweets in advance.

Pei Yi accepted the order, and deliberately didn’t react for a long time before behaving well. “Oh.”

Bo Yueming motioned and said in a low voice, “Stretch out your hand.”

“Ah?”

Bo Yueming repeated, “Stretch out your hand.”

Pei Yi was unclear, so he glanced at the gradually arriving staff and slowly spread his hand under the cover of the table.

Bo Yueming reached over with his clenched right hand and pretended that he couldn’t find the location of his palm. “You come over here.”

“……”

Becoming increasingly puzzled, Pei Yi spread his palm toward Bo Yueming’s fist like a kitten probing with its claws, and lightly touched it with his fingertips.

Rustle.

Seven or eight toffees fell heavily into his palm.

“…….”

Pei Yi was dumbfounded. He had no idea how Bo Yueming had conjured up these candies.

Bo Yueming looked at Pei Yi’s small head with a “question mark” on top, and his eyes hidden under the glasses smiled a little more.

He seemed to relax, and closed his hand, explaining in a low voice, “Put them away. If you want to eat them in the future, don’t ask for them from others.”

Ah?

Had he said he wanted candy?

Pei Yi forgot his casual teasing in the bathroom for a moment, but still honestly put these toffees in his pocket. He wouldn’t turn away candies given for free.

Lin Zhong, who was sitting in the back as an assistant, watched this scene and silently shook his head—

As he was “supervising” outside the bathroom just now, he heard Pei Yi fail in his request for toffee from Li Yuan, so he secretly reported the matter to Bo Yueming when he returned. 

As a result?

When Mr. Bo heard about this, he went directly to Mr. Yan’s water bar and took away all the toffee used for coffee!

Yes! There was not one left!

---

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Chapter Thirty-One <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Thirty-Three

T/N: Thank you to VC3 and Allison for the Kofi donations! Here is the regularly scheduled chapter, along with two bonus chapters, one for each of you.

The 16th floor of the Jinmao Building in the Imperial Capital’s top central business district, where the Chinese G.M. branch was located.

Li Yuan came out of the main entrance of the building. He lowered his eyes and carefully looked at the tentative contract in his hands that had been through preliminary screening, and the anxiety in his heart was at last relieved for good.

He grabbed a bottle of mineral water from a vending machine and quickly drained half the bottle, sitting in the open-air rest area outside.

Li Yuan’s thoughts turned, and he couldn’t wait to share the news with his collaborator, Will. He opened the Youtu app interface—

“Will, are you there? I just came out of G.M. Our game project has passed the first round of screening!”

The status displayed on the chat page was “Logged In,” and within half a minute, the other party sent a reply: “The first round of preliminary screening? Is there another competitor shortlisted?”

Li Yuan had guessed that Will would ask this question, so he simply typed the answer by voice, “En, they plan to invest in and track five projects in the second half of the year. We were a little late in delivery, so now there is only one place left.”

He paused, and a glimmer of light flickered in his eyes. “Their Executive Director was not there today. I just took the project material book and explained briefly……”

G.M. intended to get involved with the game industry in China, so at the end of the screening, Li Yuan and another game studio group were left, and the two sides would have a second round of competition next Friday.

At that time, it would not only be the Executive Director, but the company’s Chief Operating Officer and high-level shareholders behind the scenes would also be present at the venue to give their opinions.

In other words, next Friday was the key node that would determine whether their “The Last Fog” could bring in investment.

Li Yuan was both nervous and looking forward to it. If he could really get the support of a large venture capital company like G.M, it would be much better than the small investments he received in the past!

On the other side, Will learned of the situation and asked another essential question, “What is the name of the other game studio? How much do you know about them?”

There was a fitting old saying — know your enemy and yourself, and you can win a hundred battles.

When it came to the competitor, Li Yuan’s expression was joyous. But before he could explain to Will on the other end, a light greeting came from in front of him.

“Hey, Mr. Li, you haven’t left yet?”

Li Yuan raised his head, and his expression returned to the indifferent and arrogant attitude that only appeared to the outside world. “En, just sitting casually. President Ke and Director Xiang have just come down?”

The two young men standing before him were Ke Ming and Xiang Nansheng from Youming Studios. The former was responsible for the game project structure and the external operations of the studio, and the latter was in charge of game development.

They had co-founded “Youming Studios” when they were in college. Over the years, they had developed six or seven small games with explosive style, and could be regarded as an emerging game studio with relatively good momentum in the circle. They had also successively recruited many employees with excellent skills.

Li Yuan had searched for good original mini game IPs, and there was a brief confrontation with Ke Ming. Of course, the process was not very pleasant—

The other party had twice snatched the mini game projects that Li Yuan was interested in at a higher purchase price.

“Young Boss Li, how can you only drink this kind of mineral water?”

Ke Ming sat opposite Li Yuan without waiting for an invitation, and told the person next to him, “Nansheng, go buy two cups of coffee. It’s rare to meet Mr. Li, let’s chat.”

“…….”

Xiang Nansheng pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and walked away resignedly.

In the fairly spacious open-air rest area, only Li Yuan and Ke Ming were left there.

Ke Ming crossed his legs, leaning leisurely on the lounge chair. His contemptuous gaze swung from Li Yuan’s face to the contract of intent on the table. “I haven’t seen you in three or four months, Mr. Li’s skills have improved a lot, ah.”

He had actually created another original game, and even got a contract of intent from a large venture capital firm like G.M.

Li Yuan took out his cigarettes and a lighter with a pear-shaped metal casing from his pocket, and pressed heavily on the contract of intent. He didn’t have time to go around in circles with him. “If Mr. Ke has anything to say, he might as well say it directly.”

“Young Boss Li, since you’re being direct, I won’t talk nonsense.” Ke Ming sat up slightly and proposed, “How about giving up this competition and giving me the copyright of this game?”

Li Yuan gave an indifferent smile. “Mr. Ke, what nonsense are you speaking?”

Ke Ming’s eyes shifted slightly, and he was no longer polite. “Young Boss Li, my proposal is for your own good. Your ‘Dawn’ has no chance of winning against my ‘Youming.’ No matter how good the project in your hands is—”

He paused for two seconds, and the words he spoke were bordered with dark thorns.

“Either it will make a very small splash, or it will simply rot.”

“Otherwise, why do you think those game makers in the past gave up working with you and came to me instead?”

Li Yuan lowered his head and silently took out a cigarette.

He played with the lighter and circled it around his fingertips, then clicked and lit the cigarette in the end.

Ke Ming watched his movements, and the calculation and shrewdness of a businessman flashed in his eyes. He continued to lobby, “You came here alone to attract investment and maintain the small, broken company of ‘Dawn.’ I’m tired just looking at you. Why don’t you change your career and spend your energy on other things?”

“Why not just bring this game to Youming? I will give you the best treatment.”

Li Yuan let out a snort.

Watching the embers of the cigarette burn little by little, he said, “Boss Ke, the future of the game in my hands, the fate of my company, and the fact that I am attracting investment alone, I won’t bother you to worry about these things. Do you know why?”

“Because—”

Li Yuan took a drag of his cigarette and stood up, picked up the contract of intent, and walked around the table in front of Ke Ming. He bent down slightly and slowly blew the smoke into the other’s face.

Then, he threw out three words arrogantly, “You’re not worthy.”

Ke Ming was choked by the smoke, and his expression changed. “You!”

Li Yuan turned around and left without giving his opponent a chance to fight back.

He bumped into Xiang Nansheng, who was coming back from buying coffee, and did not forget to sting with his poisonous tongue, “Director Xiang, let your boss drink these two cups of coffee at once so as to wake himself up, lest he continue to dream and talk nonsense during the day.”

“…….”

Ke Ming’s face turned green when he heard this, but he could only watch Li Yuan walk away.

. . . . . .

“Meow-wu~”

Inspector, who was sleeping in the cat nest, turned over and let out a soft whine.

Pei Yi finished docking the last game copy of “Joyful Spirit.” Looking at the settlement payment that Party A made on Youtu’s back end, he finally breathed a sigh of relief—

The two games “Joyful Spirit” and “Cloud Realm” sold one after another and added a sum of money to his account. However, he still had to make persistent efforts and continue to develop and write new mini-game projects.

Pei Yi turned back from his short-term work and re-opened the chat interface in the background.

The chat between him and Li Yuan was interrupted fifteen minutes ago. Could the other party have been delayed by something?

As the developer of “The Last Fog,” Pei Yi naturally valued this project, so he sent another message, “Why haven’t you responded? Did something come up?”

Three minutes later, Li Yuan continued the conversation that had dropped off—

“Next Friday’s competitor is Youming Studios. This studio has always stayed in the mini-game circle, but is more well-known. This time, it should be the same as us and also intends to develop a large game series.”

Although it was a preliminary screening, the people in charge that included Li Yuan and Ke Ming still needed to explain the core of their projects.

When the screening was conducted in the afternoon, Ke Ming ranked first.

Perhaps because he had extra confidence in his own game project, he spoke in detail before everyone.

Pei Yi clicked on Li Yuan’s fifty-nine second recording and listened to the relevant news the other party had received. The game project Ke Ming and Youming Studios had as the core of their recruitment and investment was called “Alien Beasts,” and the concept could also be considered applause-worthy—

Due to the improper operation of a xenobiotic experiment in Country X, a large number of mutated organism samples were scattered around, which shortly affected humans and spread to the entire world.

The “protagonist” in the game was the only normal person known so far who was affected without mutating.

Not only that, but his blood could also attract many strange beasts to submit to him. Based on this setting, every time the protagonist of the game broke through a level, he needed to domesticate or destroy the alien beasts inside.

To put it simply, you must fight monsters to get through dungeons, and then approach the original research base step by step to discover the ultimate secret of the mutations.

The voice explanation soon came to an end, and Pei Yi’s eyes flickered when he heard the game setting.

In the next second, Li Yuan questioned from the other side, “Will, do you feel that the background of this game is similar to our ‘The Last Fog?’”

Pei Yi had long noticed the similarity of the background setting, but there would be differences in the gameplay of the two games in the later stages.

However, it should be for this reason that G.M.’s project department considered choosing one of the two.

Yet the background setting was not what Pei Yi cared about the most. At this moment, he felt that there was a sort of indescribable subtlety to the game “Alien Beasts,” but he couldn’t figure out where this feeling came from.

Pei Yi continued to ask, “What are the highlights of their game? Have they been revealed?”

Li Yuan replied on the other side, “It should be the game modeling of various animal shapes. I have seen their print media photos that they provided, and although there is no way to know the effect of the three dimensional imaging, the printed designs were very unusual.”

Pei Yi’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Be more specific.”

“For example, in the designs of the creatures such as butterflies, the thickness of the specially-shaped wings was much more than that of normal ones, and the edges were sharp blades. Other parts of the wings had chewing mouths of various sizes, with fangs when they were opened.”

Li Yuan truthfully told what he knew, “The design drafts of the other beasts were in the hands of the person in charge of the screening. I couldn’t see clearly.”

“…….”

Pei Yi stared at the string of messages sent by Li Yuan, and at once found the reason for the subtle feeling in his mind.

Using his memory, he found an ID nickname on his watch list – Dehydrated.

After finding the corresponding user avatar, he immediately clicked in. His fingers flew down the keyboard quickly as he took a screenshot and sent it to Li Yuan.

“The butterfly model you mentioned, is it similar to this one?”

On the other side, Li Yuan slowed down for several seconds. “Yes! It’s pretty much the same, how did you know, Will?”

Pei Yi scoffed and made up his mind.

“We don’t have enough funds now, and we can’t compete in the modeling and procedural technologies in the short term. The focus of next Friday will still be on the plot structure and the market audience that can be developed by future series updates.”

Li Yuan: “En, I understand.”

“Don’t worry about the rest, I will keep an eye on everything.”

Pei Yi didn’t want to put too much psychological pressure on Li Yuan, who was on the front lines. He added, “As for next week’s two-choice competition, we just need to do our best, there’s no need to force a good result.”

After all, if they couldn’t get investment from G.M., they could also seek other partners.

The precise and powerful sentence was enough to establish a sense of security among cooperative allies.

Li Yuan on the other side did not mention his experience of being belittled and inconvenienced by Ke Ming, but also firmly replied, “Okay.”

The short but productive chat ended.

Pei Yi clicked into the “Dehydrated” personal interface again, and after carefully examining it from top to bottom for a long period of time, he opened the chat box with the other party and took the initiative to send a message:

“Great God, are you there? I have something I want to check with you about.”

. . . . . .

There was a rustling movement from the cat nest.

Inspector, who had finally awoke, walked to Pei Yi’s feet and rubbed back and forth coquettishly, making a continuous comfortable purr.

Pei Yi lifted it into his arms and stroked his pet’s head twice. “Come on, shall we go downstairs and play for a while?”

“Meow!”

Pei Yi deliberately messed up his hair, and then led Inspector downstairs.

He turned the corner of the stairs and unexpectedly found that Bo Yueming and Uncle Kai were in the living room at the moment.

Hearing the familiar footsteps, Bo Yueming promptly located Pei Yi on the stairs, but quickly realized something and shifted his eyes away from the other party’s gaze.

As usual, he asked uncertainly, “Pei Yi?”

Inspector slid down from Pei Yi’s arms and quickly ran to Bo Yueming’s side, then continued to act coquettishly~

Bo Yueming’s hand first touched the sofa next to him, and after trial and error, he touched Inspector’s soft fur and asked Uncle Kai, “Did Pei Yi come down?”

Uncle Kai looked at Pei Yi, who was slowly walking down the stairs and pretending not to understand anything. “Little Sir, why are you just standing on the stairs? Are you tired from your nap? Come down quickly.”

Pei Yi nodded with messy hair, not forgetting to give a small just-woken-up yawn, and walked down with a sleepy expression.

It wasn’t until he approached the living room that he realized that there was a brand new pair of guide glasses on the coffee table. The exterior frame was stylishly designed as always, but the color had been changed to tea black.

It looked like a pair of high-end sunglasses.

Pei Yi stared at the new glasses for a moment, properly showing confusion on his face.

“Little Sir, the doctor said that the Second Young Master’s eyes cannot be stimulated by strong light, so he ordered another pair.”

Uncle Kai immediately gave an explanation, and asked with a smile, “Are they good-looking?”

Pei Yi pretended to earnestly study Bo Yueming’s face. “Good-looking.”

With this mixed-race face, what part of it didn’t look good, where did it not look attractive?

Bo Yueming lowered his eyes and rubbed Inspector’s head, hiding the clarity and smile in his eyes.

After nearly a week of adaptation and examinations, his eyes had basically recovered. Shadows and dizziness would only occasionally occur, and his eyes would be sore and tired if he used them for too long.

Of course, these were not big problems. He just needed to combine work and rest, and slowly recuperate to return to his best condition.

Bo Yueming no longer needed the so-called guide glasses. 

As for the fact that his eyes were sensitive to the light, which could easily prolong his illness, that was just his excuse to the outside world.

Bo Yueming needed to take advantage of his “eye disease” and make everyone, including Bo Guancheng, completely relax their vigilance against him, then wait for the opportunity to pay back the pain he suffered some time ago — and more.

The reason why he needed another pair of glasses was because he feared that his “seeing ability” would sometimes be underdeveloped and uncontrolled in front of Bo Guancheng and others, and he might accidentally expose his secret. The black lenses were more likely to cover up his actual situation.

“Uncle Kai, put them away first, ba.”

Other than Uncle Kai, Bo Yueming didn’t mention the recovery of his eyesight to anyone.

The more people who knew, the more likely it would cause unnecessary trouble.

As for Pei Yi, Bo Yueming purely wanted to accompany him to act, and see just what kind of medicine the other was selling in his “playing the fool” gourd.

Uncle Kai suppressed the joy in his heart and put them away properly.

In the next second, assistant Lin Zhong walked in with a tablet.

He stood at the edge of the sofa and seriously reported the next work arrangement. “Mr. Bo, I just received a call from G.M.”

“They said that there will be a final selection for the game project next Friday. As a high-level shareholder, are you going to participate in the voting?”

“…….”

Game project? Final selection?

When Pei Yi heard this, he couldn’t help casting his gaze over.

Bo Yueming caught this “abnormal” movement from the corner of his eye, but didn’t expose it. “En, Yan Cen told me. Let’s arrange it.”

Now that he had temporarily lost his position in Bo Group, he naturally wanted to pay more attention to G.M.’s investments.

Lin Zhong nodded. “Okay, then. I’ll put it in the itinerary.”

As soon as the words fell, everyone heard Pei Yi suddenly call, “Er-ge.”

Bo Yueming tilted his head, continuing to control the degree of eye contact. “En?”

Pei Yi moved closer to Bo Yueming, saying cautiously and with implicit expectation, “I, I go too. Play games.”

“Play games?”

Bo Yueming responded after a few seconds, following Pei Yi’s way of speaking in the past. “I’m going to the company to work seriously, not to play.”

Facing that explanation, Pei Yi continued pretending to be confused. “I go! Play!”

The game project “The Last Fog” was equally important to Pei Yi. Not to mention that their competitor, Youming Studios, still had some strength and standards.

Pei Yi’s thoughts at the moment were very simple and clear—

If Bo Yueming was personally going to the G.M. branch to vote next Friday, then he’d better take this opportunity to follow by his side to take a look and know the final result as soon as possible.

Bo Yueming reconfirmed, “You want to follow me to the company?”

Pei Yi nodded hastily, and kept using the words “play games” as an excuse for his foolishness.

“…….”

Bo Yueming frowned slightly.

Since his eyesight had recovered, he had become increasingly certain that Pei Yi was “playing the fool,” but the other party’s performance in the past had been measured, and he never messed around with this kind of business.

Besides, he had never mentioned G.M. in front of Pei Yi, so why did the other party suddenly want to go? For whom?

Bo Yueming suddenly remembered his answer to Lin Zhong, and his heart felt sour again. “Do you want to play games, or meet Yan Cen?”

Pei Yi, who was pretending to be silly, was stunned. He said slowly, “Huh?”

Why was Yan Cen involved?

Uncle Kai and Lin Zhong looked at each other tacitly, and simultaneously chose to leave the room so that the two could have some private space to talk.

Pei Yi shook his head in incomprehension, then continued to hum, “I, I want to play.”

Bo Yueming refused. “No.”

G.M. was a business, not a place to mess around.

“…….”

Hearing Bo Yueming’s resolute refusal, Pei Yi sighed deeply inside.

Playing the fool didn’t work, and being good also didn’t work!

The villain was indeed the most difficult to attack!

It seemed that he still needed to find another way to follow up on this investment competition, which would be difficult.

The atmosphere gradually became silent.

Pei Yi was discouraged and resigned to his fate, but finally struggled a bit, “I want, want to accompany Er-ge.”

“……..”

Bo Yueming’s steadfast thoughts suddenly cracked, and then silently disintegrated in an instant. He glanced at Pei Yi, and then quickly looked away, his heart feeling a little itchy—

His mouth was aggrieved and coquettish, and he didn’t forget to stroke the cat in his hand?

So he was bullying a “person who couldn’t see,” but dared to put all his thoughts on his face when there was no third person! He didn’t know how to play the fool even a little bit!

Why did he want to accompany him?

Who would believe such a lie?

Bo Yueming thought about it silently, then looked at the frustrated kitten who was gradually lowering his head, and changed his tone. “You can.”

“But since you said you want to accompany me, you have to obediently follow the whole time, and you are not allowed to run around without my permission. Can you do that?”

“…….”

Why did he suddenly agree?

Another small question mark appeared on Pei Yi’s head.

But he had been waiting for this opportunity to “accompany” him, and would go as long as he was allowed. He didn’t care about what rules and regulations there were!

At this thought, Pei Yi quickly nodded. The frustration in his eyes vanished, and there was even a faint glint of success.

Bo Yueming had a panoramic view of this scene. He held back his helpless smile, and sat on the side while pretending not to see it.

The two had their own thoughts and tried their best to hide them.

Uncle Kai returned after putting away the glasses. “Little Sir, there is still some time before dinner. Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?”

Pei Yi remembered that his purpose for going downstairs was to look for something to eat since he was hungry after working long hours.

Uncle Kai met Pei Yi’s expectant eyes and offered, “There is freshly made pudding and honey cake in the kitchen. Which would you like to eat?”

Pei Yi felt sweetness on the tip of his tongue when he heard it, and with the firm idea of ‘adults don’t have to choose,’ he pretended to be well-behaved and raised his head to answer—-

“Want both!”

The expected answer appeared.

It was only when eating sweets that the kitten did not wear the slightest disguise.

Bo Yueming let out a short laugh, then quickly restrained himself before Pei Yi could notice the flaw.

He coughed and motioned to Uncle Kai calmly. “En, get him a little of both.”

---

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Chapter Thirty <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Thirty-Two

Liu Xian’an actually didn’t know the specific situation in Sanshui City right now, but he knew which situations might occur, and for each possibility, the corresponding treatment methods were carefully listed. This was why the whole plan seemed so long. However, because the plan was so long, it couldn’t be helped – after speaking, he could only use his arms to gesture as far as possible, trying to convince His Royal Highness Xiao Wang through visual effects.

The result was of course useless.

Liang Shu said: “You’re not going.”

“But this can reduce the casualties of war, which is good for both the common people and the Yan army,” Liu Xian’an said. “And even if A-Ning and I do not succeed in persuading one person after sneaking into the city, it will at least save the prince a few days’ rations.” Thus, no matter how you looked at it, this was a good business that could make money rather than losing money.

Liang Shu didn’t expect that the entire plan could be cut from this angle. He naturally knew that due to Lu Xiang’s corruption, there was a serious shortage of food in the army. This was also one of the reasons that Sanshui City must be captured quickly. But no matter how short of food they were, the reason for going to the enemy camp in order to save a mouthful of food was too bizarre.

He asked: “Do you know what sort of life a refugee lives?”

Liu Xian’an replied: “I know. Unkempt, deprived of food all day long, filthy and smelly. But the prince can send a few more people with me. This can somewhat act as a deterrent, and I will not be bullied easily.”

“What if someone asks about your identity?”

“I’ll just say that I’m from Yayue Village, and I’m going to Qingyang City to join relatives,” Liu Xian’an said. “Although Yayue Village was also affected by the floods this time, because it is very close to Wanhe City, the local officials moved the entire village there early, and none of them drifted abroad, so no one will expose me.”

“You’re a villager, and A-Ning can be considered a younger brother, but what about the guards?”

“There used to be many villagers living in Yayue Village, which is a village of doctors,” Liu Xian’an said. “I’ll pretend to be an ordinary doctor from a wealthy family. Bringing my younger brother and assistants with me won’t be out of place, and the prince doesn’t need to send too many people with me.” He calculated, “Three will do.”

Liang Shu couldn’t laugh or cry: “I haven’t agreed yet, but you have clearly arranged the number of people.”

“But the prince will definitely agree with me after weighing the pros and cons.” Liu Xian’an mentioned that he was thirsty, and before he could look for water, Liang Shu had already handed over the cup. 

“On the march, there is only the one.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Liu Xian’an said. “When the sages lie drunk in the bamboo forest, they don’t know which wine cup is which. I often drink with them.” He bowed his neck to drink water, and his neck was as smooth and graceful as a crane’s. Liang Shu, as the lead commander, naturally knew that if at this time someone could infiltrate Sanshui City and instigate a rebellion, it would be beneficial and without drawbacks for the whole war. And Liu Xian’an was indeed capable of doing all this.

However, it was one thing to know, and another thing to personally send him to the refugees and to Sanshui City. Liang Shu looked at Liu Xian’an, and waited until he finished drinking the water before asking: “Is there no better way?”

Liu Xian’an shook his head: “There is not.”

Liang Shu was familiar with the art of war, and knew that there was not. This was already the best way to defeat the enemy that he could think of right now, but he still frowned with dissatisfaction: “You are forty-eight thousand years old, why can’t you think of a better way?”

Liu Xian’an thought that this person could really make trouble out of nothing, but he still dealt with it with a good attitude. Yes, ah, yes, ah.

Liang Shu laughed angrily and stretched out his hand, calling to him, “Come here.”

Liu Xian’an set down the water cup and walked over. Liang Shu grasped his waist with both hands, wanting to get closer to him in this moment where the candlelight was restless and people’s hearts were anxious. But the tenderness and worry in his heart hadn’t had time to ripple out when his fingers seemed to be pierced by the sharp teeth of a kitten: “Hiss!”

Liu Xian’an swiftly moved his hand away: “There is a needle. I didn’t have time to get it just now.”

Liang Shu stretched out his hand: “It’s bleeding.”

A round drop of blood hung on his fingertip, only slightly worse than a mosquito bite, but Liu Xian’an still helped him bandage it very cooperatively, using his own handkerchief to tie a grand knot.

Liang Shu asked: “Can you protect yourself?”

Liu Xian’an nodded: “En.”

Liang Shu sighed: “I will dispatch three masters to protect you. If there is any danger, don’t worry about anything, and come back as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” Liu Xian’an said.

After a moment, he spoke again: “While I’m not around, the prince must take his medicine on time.”

In fact, he didn’t really want to go to Sanshui City. It had nothing to do with whether he would suffer or not, and nothing to do with the danger. Rather, it was mixed with the emotion named “reluctance to part” in many poems. In short, at this moment, there was no trace of the solemnity of defeating the enemy alone between the two. On the contrary, there was a bittersweet farewell, an inch of tenderness and a little parting tune. Liu Xian’an exhaled slightly. Although as far as he was concerned, there was always a Royal Highness Xiao Wang in the three thousand worlds and he could see him any time he wanted, that was different from the one in front of him, after all.

The night was already very deep.

At this time, it was not appropriate to talk about love. Even if it was necessary to pull the Sleeping Immortal from the sky and clouds back into the world of mortals, Liang Shu also wanted to catch him steadily with a beautiful and prosperous country, instead of the devastated and suffering territory in front of him, so he swallowed his words back.

A-Ning was taking a nap in the tent. When he heard movement outside, he ran to have a look, and just happened to meet the prince sending his young master back.

“Rest early,” Liang Shu said. “I will send you into the city after I arrange the manpower.”

Liu Xian’an nodded, watched Liang Shu leave, and returned to the tent with A-Ning.

A-Ning asked: “The prince promised to let the young master go to Sanshui City?”

“Yes,” Liu Xian’an said.

“Then why doesn’t the young master look happy at all?”

“Because I don’t want to go to Sanshui City, but I must go.” Liu Xian’an wiped his face with a handkerchief. “And I don’t want to be separated from the prince.”

A-Ning commented: “The second half of the young master’s sentence sounds a bit strange.”

Liu Xian’an didn’t think it was strange. After hastily washing, he lay back under the blanket and calculated the days with A-Ning. If everything went according to plan, under the smoothest circumstances, it would take at least half a month for the Yan army to break through the city.

Half a month was really too long.

A-Ning wondered: “A long time? Even in the history books, fighting a battle in half a month is considered very fast and capable. Moreover, when the young master was in a daze before, he often stayed that way for half a month and then shook his head and said after recovering that it was only a short while.”

Liu Xian’an said: “It’s not the same.”

A-Ning got to the heart of the matter. What is the difference?

Liu Xian’an couldn’t tell what was different. It seemed that the only difference was that there was now a Liang Shu. He pondered for a while and then said to A-Ning: “His Royal Highness Xiao Wang has many injuries on his body.”

“When marching and fighting, everyone gets hurt,” A-Ning said. “Once, the prince was stabbed in the ribs with a scimitar, and it is said that he fell into a coma for ten days. The military doctors were at a loss, and Lieutenant General Gao was so anxious that he went to the desert to find a witch to help.”

“How do you know so much?”

“Because the young master always rides a horse with the prince recently, and I have nothing to do, so I go chat with others.”

Everyone liked A-Ning very much. They felt that he was clever, hard-working, and capable, and he looked very fair, so they told him many things about marching and fighting. Liu Xian’an exhorted: “Then write it down first, don’t forget. When you are free, tell me all about the prince.”

A-Ning asked: “You only want to hear about the prince? But the stories of other people are also very interesting.”

Second Young Master Liu flatly refused: “I don’t want to hear about other people.”

A-Ning choked for a moment. That…..that is also fine, ba.

He put out the candle, got under another blanket, and soon fell asleep. He wasn’t nervous about entering Sanshui City, and slept soundly and peacefully until the next morning. It wasn’t until there was a rustling sound outside the tent that he opened his eyes and gently lifted the corner of the blanket, planning to wake his young master after preparing the washing utensils.

As a result, he was halfway up when he heard a faint voice behind him: “I didn’t fall asleep last night.”

A-Ning was unprepared, and almost jumped up in fright: “Young Master!”

Wrapped in a blanket, Liu Xian’an squeezed out a nasal “En.”

A-Ning’s heart was beating wildly and hadn’t slowed down yet, but the fact that it didn’t slow down didn’t delay his shock: “Insomnia?”

Liu Xian’an nodded slowly.

A-Ning’s eyes widened, and he asked again uncertainly. The young master would actually suffer from insomnia? He was someone who could fall asleep when walking by the edge of the pond, ah! He was very worried, and grabbed his wrist, testing it for a long time, but found nothing unusual. Then he dragged him to a bright area outside the tent and checked him over and over again. Gao Lin saw this from a distance, and asked the prince wonderingly, “What are they doing?”

Liang Shu glanced to the side. “Why don’t you ask them yourself?”

“Then I’ll ask.” Gao Lin started to leave, but Liang Shu said, “Get back here.”

Gao Lin folded his arms. Look, ba, I just knew it. I must avoid arousing suspicion in the future.

Liang Shu was unwilling to talk nonsense: “Go and find Wang Fan, Wang Guan, and Zhou Yi.”

“The three of them?” Gao Lin stored away his teasing. “What, is something the matter?”

“It’s not a big matter, nor a small matter.” Liang Shu glanced in Liu Xian’an’s direction. “He’s going to Sanshui City.”

Gao Lin was taken aback for a moment. When he could react, he said in disbelief: “The prince agreed? That is no place to take a rest. Although the Wang family brothers and Zhou Yi are all first-class masters, there are tens of thousands of rebels inside the city. They hate the Yan army deeply, and are rather careless…..well, never mind, ba.”

“Then you go and persuade him,” Liang Shu said. “Persuade him to stay, and I will note your first-class merit and give you as many mansions and fields as you want.”

Gao Lin: “…….”

He still remembered the other’s sonorous and forceful speech when he went back to find A-Ning, “Will the disciples of Baihe Mountain Village retreat because of difficulties?” It was like he was stepping on the moral high ground while he himself was stepping in mud. To this day, the feeling of shame still lingered for a long time, and he could hear echoes of it when he dozed off. So he promptly changed the subject and asked: “What will he do in Sanshui City, instigate a rebellion?”

Liang Shu nodded.

“That’s one method,” Gao Lin said. “I think Second Young Master Liu is really capable of subduing others without fighting. That man surnamed Huang is cruel and arrogant, and he doesn’t have any brains, so he should be easy to clean up. Maybe we won’t even have to fight in this battle, and the other party will take the initiative to surrender.”

Liang Shu said, “What, you don’t think it’s dangerous, so you won’t go to persuade him?”

Gao Lin said, there is still danger, it’s only that even the prince couldn’t persuade him.

If I go, but can’t persuade him, it’s equal to not going at all.

Is it okay if I just seem like I’m going to persuade him?

---

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Chapter Forty-Four << Table of Contents >> Chapter Forty-Six

T/N: Thank you to Jackile for the Kofi donation! Here’s a double update for you.

Since His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was born, he had continuously seen all kinds of things in this world and cultivated a heart like a dead pool. Even in times of the greatest crisis or change, he could still remain calm, but at this moment, an undercurrent was stirred up by the drawing in front of him. Gao Lin in particular didn’t know what was going through his mind, so he added a sentence to sweeten the deal – A-Ning said that this was the landscape painted by Second Young Master Liu.

What landscape, it must be worthy of careful appreciation and taste, refreshing and full of beauty, heart, and infatuation.

All of this towered above a landscape. Gao Lin felt that it was too late to return to the royal city. If he changed his status as a prince into a wandering cavalier, without the burden of royal responsibilities, they could make their bows tomorrow.

He poked his head forward, wanting to look at it again, but Liang Shu closed the drawing calmly. But all in all, Lieutenant General Gao’s eagle eyes could keenly spot wolves in the depths of the desert. He still caught a trace of something extraordinary, and thought in shock, what did I see, is that the prince half dressed?

Second Young Master Liu is so unruly!

Liang Shu asked: “What expression are you wearing?”

Gao Lin adjusted his facial features slightly and called attention to it again, but the prince remained calm in the midst of chaos, smiling anew like a person bewitched.

Liang Shu was in a good mood and was disinclined to fuss. He pressed his slender fingers onto the stack of rice paper and felt the remaining warmth of the embers, the touch making his heart feel equally warm. Gao Lin’s matchmaking business had been a great success. He had already sketched in his heart his future plans and the leisurely day when he returned to his hometown to specialize in the business of love. The corners of his mouth lifted in a grin – it was only that before he could fully smile, a vanguard officer limped over to him, and said that Sanshui City was currently shouting slogans and practicing drills day and night, torches blazing in the sky. It seemed that the common people throughout the city had joined the ranks of the rebels.

Gao Lin let out a deep breath. All the festive thoughts that had been accumulated just now were wiped out in one moment. Liang Shu handed the portraits to Gao Lin and took the military report himself. The vanguard officer snuck a look at the prince’s expression and boldly said: “Rumors have spread everywhere in Sanshui City, and the common people have been deluded, thinking that since they are all dead anyway, they might as well…..”

He didn’t dare to continue talking, but Gao Lin knew that the rumors spreading around were nothing more than using the tragedy of Qingyang City as Gu worms, moving the time of the city’s slaughter from before the city was conquered to afterward, and changing the murderers from the desperate rebels to the Yan army. As soon as people of Sanshui City heard this, they felt that they would die if they could not defend the city, so they had no choice but to take up swords and spears and fight to the death.

He said: “All right, be careful on the road next time, look at you falling down like a grandson.”

“…….Yes.” The vanguard officer was a little puzzled. Why didn’t Lieutenant General Gao sound like he was angry at all? However, he didn’t have the guts to take a closer look, so he hurriedly retreated.

Liu Xia’nan was lying in the grain cart sleeping, when he was abruptly jolted awake. He stuck his head out and asked sleepily: “Uncle Li?”

The coachman explained rather embarrassedly: “Sorry, ah, Second Young Master Liu. The prince has commanded us to travel twice as fast as before, so I must not slow down. You should use more hay as padding, so as not to hit your head.”

Why speed up all of a sudden? Liu Xian’an got out of the grain cart and rode to find A-Ning. He happened to have just finished dealing the the vanguard officer’s fall injury, and heard him say what had happened in Sanshui City.

“It seems that women and children are already soldiers there,” A-Ning said. “The fire oil at the gate of the city is burning, and everyone’s hatred reaches the sky.”

“Put yourself in someone’s shoes. If you were living life and suddenly encountered a natural disaster, and after finally taking refuge in a city you thought was safe, you learned that the Imperial court was going to send troops to slaughter everyone, you should be full of hatred.” Liu Xian’an said, “The common people are just easily bewitched and in fear for their lives, they don’t really want to kill all the officers and soldiers.”

“Then what do we do now?” A-Ning asked.

Liu Xian’an also didn’t know. The generals in the history books all had their own personalities and styles of play, so he rode his horse and asked Liang Shu how to fight in this situation.

Liang Shu replied: “We’ll fight using our previous plan.”

Liu Xian’an nodded: “Okay.”

Liang Shu stretched out a hand and pulled him onto his horse: “I thought you were here to persuade me that the people in the city are innocent, so it is best to be conciliatory and convince them to surrender.”

“The common people are innocent, but when marching and fighting, everyone should listen to the general,” Liu Xian’an said. “I also listen to the general.”

Liang Shu asked: “If the general was a fatuous fool, would you listen?”

Liu Xian’an ignored his assumption: “Your Highness is not.”

Regarding this question, although he could start from the causal cycle of destiny and talk about it all day, he was too lazy to talk about it now. He was still thinking about the upcoming battle and fighting according to the previous plan, which was to attack and break through the city. Sanshui City could not be compared with Qingyang City. Its terrain was extremely open, and was an important town with roads open in all directions. This was considered an advantage in peace and prosperity, but a disadvantage in wartime, because there were no natural barriers.

The Yan army could smoothly advance through Sanshui City all the way, no matter how large the number of rebels in the city was, and refugees could never be the opponents of a standard army. Not to mention the leaders on both sides. One was half a bandit, and the other was the general who led hundreds of thousands of Dayan’s troops.

Liu Xian’an gave a slight sigh.

Liang Shu said: “I will give orders before the battle to avoid casualties as much as possible.”

“To avoid casualties, you must be merciful, and if you are merciful, you will be hurt yourself.” Liu Xian’an turned his head. “The prince loves the soldiers like his sons, so would he give such an order?”

Liang Shu smiled: “You do understand me. However, as long as one has a normal mind, one’s attitude will always be different when facing common people in distress and facing an actual enemy army, so you don’t have to worry too much.”

Liu Xian’an placed his fingers on the saddle and thought for a while, then asked again: “Did the prince send someone to release the news?”

Liang Shu tightened the reins, reducing Xuan Jiao’s speed a little: “What?”

“The news of the city’s massacre was sent out by the prince on purpose, right? Otherwise, it would be impossible for it to spread so fast.” Liu Xian’an spoke again, “The people in Qingyang City were massacred because they refused to join the rebel army and just wanted to live in hiding. For the rebels, they had no value and could only become fish on the chopping board. So if all the common people in Sanshui City spontaneously take up arms and join the rebels out of fear, becoming Huang Wangxiang’s helpers, at least they won’t be massacred by Huang Wangxiang again.”

“The people in Qingyang City were unarmed, so the people in Sanshui City must at least have a knife in their hands for self-defense. I can’t give them away, so I must let Huang Wangxiang do it,” Liang Shu said. “Although I have caused more trouble for myself, this is the fastest way to solve the problem right now. The battle of Sanshui City must be resolved quickly. Otherwise, the longer it drags on, the more people will defect to the third city occupied by the rebels, and momentary hesitation will inevitably bring greater casualties.” He straightened Liu Xian’an’s wind-strewn hair. “Stop thinking about these bloody things. Go to your avenues and find a few pleasing old men to play chess with and listen to music, all right?”

Liu Xian’an thought, that’s no good, because I’m not in the mood.

Liang Shu turned to look at him.

Liu Xian’an slightly turned his head to the other side.

Liang Shu continued sideways.

Liu Xian’an continued to twist.

Thus, Lieutenant General Gao watched for a long while his own family’s prince flirting with another family’s young master in broad daylight, in front of the army.

He gave a troubled sigh.

Although our Xiao Wang Palace has always been undignified, this is too undignified.

We at least have to try to look like it, ba.

When resting that night, A-Ning asked while grabbing the needles: “Why does the young master also have a headache?”

Liu Xian’an sat upright under a tree. Why can’t I have a headache? Not only does it hurt, but it hurts so badly.

A-Ning stuffed a cushion behind his waist: “After the battle, the people in Sanshui City will know that the massacre of the city was not done by the prince, and that it was all a misunderstanding.”

“But that will also be after the battle.” Liu Xian’an supported his chin to prevent his neck from being too stiff. “Before the battle and during the battle, the common people will regard the Imperial army as the real enemy.”

“There is no other way.” A-Ning turned the needle. “If the common people are unarmed and only consume food but refuse to fight the Imperial army, then in Huang Wangxiang’s eyes, being slaughtered is their only value. It is safer to join the rebels, and of the two powers, the prince will cause less harm.”

Liu Xian’an thought for a while, then made up his mind and said: “How about you go to Sanshui City with me.”

Without hesitation, A-Ning said, “okay,” without asking why.

Liu Xian’an stood up and went to look for Liang Shu.

“Young Master, Young Master!” A-Ning chased after him anxiously. “You haven’t taken the needle out yet!”

Liu Xian’an took it from the top of his head and hastily inserted it into his belt.

Liang Shu had managed to go to bed early tonight, and before he could fall asleep, he heard the soldiers outside whispering: “Second Young Master Liu, the prince has already gone to rest.”

The words “Second Young Master Liu” were nearly equivalent to ten pots of strong tea for His Royal Highness Xiao Wang today, capable of instantly refreshing his mind. He put on his clothes and went out: “What is the matter?”

“Nothing, Your Highness, you go to bed first. I’ll – ai?”

Liang Shu carried him into the tent and poured a cup of water: “Speak.”

Liu Xian’an’s gaze unconsciously fell on his open robes, and he felt that it was different from the dreams. But due to the intensity of the light and shadows, he couldn’t see clearly, so he simply squinted his eyes.

Liang Shu invited: “Why don’t I take it off for you to see?”

Liu Xian’an accepted: “That’s fine.”

Liang Shu gathered up his robes to cover up all of the old and new scars: “Never mind, it’s closed today, no spectators. Let’s talk about business.”

Liu Xian’an moved a chair over and sat down: “I want to go to Sanshui City with A-Ning.”

Liang Shu’s hand holding the water cup paused for a moment: “Your reasoning.”

“I’ll go take a look at the situation there,” Liu Xian’an said. “Sanshui City is still accepting refugees in a steady stream, and it shouldn’t be difficult to get in.”

“It’s not difficult, but you also don’t have to,” Liang Shu said. “I have sent people in to spread rumors, and they will send back news regularly.”

“But they can only spread rumors, not convince people,” Liu Xian’an said. “I want to try. Even if I can only persuade ten or twenty people, it will be beneficial to the Imperial army.”

“Not to mention ten or twenty people, even if it is one or two hundred people, I will not allow you to go to the city to take risks.” 

Liang Shu placed the water cup back on the table. “Stop thinking about these things, drink the water and go back to sleep.”

Liu Xian’an fought to win him over: “But I already have a very long plan.”

Liang Shu asked: “How long?”

From one end to the other, Liu Xian’an drew a distance of about ten feet.

For a plan, that was very long.

---

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Chapter Forty-Three << Table of Contents >> Chapter Forty-Five

Qin Yishun got off work early, and it was only six o’clock when the two arrived at the restaurant’s parking lot.

Pei Yi looked at the cup of coffee that Qin Yishun had put into the vehicle’s small refrigerator, and looked at him in a daze.

Qin Yishun said, “Let’s eat first, Brother will drink it later.”

This cup of coffee was the first “gift” that Pei Yi had given him after many years. Qin Yishun regarded it as very important, and didn’t want to just treat it casually and drink it up.

Pei Yi nodded and let Qin Yishun make his own arrangements.

Seeing his obedient and well-behaved appearance, the always restrained Qin Yishun couldn’t help but reach out and rub Pei Yi’s head. The soft and delicate hair touched his palm, and the tickle brought by it softened the bottom of his heart.

Qin Yishun’s stern indifference, which he couldn’t lose in thousands of years, only vanished in front of his little brother. “Let’s get out of the car and eat.”

Because Pei Yi had come so suddenly, Qin Yishun was unprepared and could only temporarily book a high-scoring restaurant through his friends. The name was quite literary: “Desert Rose.”

Qin Yishun reported his relevant information, and after the manager confirmed it, he personally led the two of them to a private room upstairs.

“Mr. Qin, it is like this, because your reservation was last minute, we could only arrange the spare box at the end of the second floor for the time being, and the space will be slightly smaller.”

“I’ll arrange for the waiters to move your seats as soon as another guest box becomes available, is that all right?”

“It is.”

Qin Yishun was rightfully direct. He had heard that the food in this restaurant was good, so he wanted to bring Pei Yi to try something new.

As for the location, it was only the two of them. As long as the environment of the spare room wasn’t outrageous, then there was no problem.

The three of them took the elevator to the private box area on the second floor.

On both sides of the corridor was a “desert kiln” design, but the walls were covered with blooming roses of various colors, and the doors of the boxes were arranged in a staggered manner and named after the different names of various roses.

The overall atmosphere was the same as the name of the establishment, especially literary and artistic.

Pei Yi followed Qin Yishun, quietly observing the layout.

Suddenly, somebody stopped him from behind. “Little Mister Pei?”

This familiar voice reached his ears, and Pei Yi paused. He could only turn around—

Yan Cen, whom he hadn’t seen in a while, was standing at the corner. The light from behind was fragmented, casting a layer of gentle light and shadow across his profile and making his aura even more like untainted moonlight, especially outstanding.

There was a hint of surprise in the eyes hidden under gold-rimmed glasses, and Yan Cen walked steadily toward Pei Yi. “It’s really you, ah? Why is Little Mister Pei here tonight?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he met Qin Yishun, who had stopped as well.

The gazes of the two sides collided midair, seemingly calm but with completely different thoughts.

Yan Cen pushed his glasses up lightly and took the lead to break the deadlock. “Little Mister Pei wouldn’t have come to this restaurant alone. May I ask who you are?”

“Qin Yishun, Pei Y’s cousin.” Qin Yishun made the introduction cleanly, his eyes questioning him back.

“It’s the first time we’ve met. My name is Yan Cen. I’m Yueming’s good friend, and I met Little Mister Pei at a banquet before.” Yan Cen paused, and his eyes fell back on Pei Yi again. “By the way, Yueming shouldn’t know that Little Mister Pei is here, right?”

“……..”

Pei Yi dropped his eyes, feeling a bit guilty.

After he found Qin Yishun, in order to avoid making any mistakes, he only asked Uncle Kai to briefly explain the situation to the other party, and naturally didn’t know if the latter had conveyed it in his place.

Yan Cen had some understanding of Pei Yi’s situation. Seeing that he was silent, he could only look at Qin Yishun again. “Mr. Qin, is it just you two?”

Qin Yishun gave a slight nod.

Yan Cen took two steps forward and bypassed them, then simply pushed open the door of a box to the side. “It just so happens that Yueming is here tonight. How about we get together in the same box?”

When these words came out, Pei Yi’s heart skipped a beat.

In the exquisite private box, Bo Yueming and a bright and beautiful-looking woman with long hair were alerted by the sound outside at the same time.

“Yan Cen, didn’t you say you were going to make a call? Why did you hang around for so long?” The long-haired woman at the door got up and walked closer to investigate, and saw the people outside. “Who are these two?”

Yan Cen smiled and notified his friend with impaired vision, “Yueming, I happened to meet Pei Yi and his cousin, who also came to this restaurant for dinner.”

A trace of surprise flashed across Bo Yueming’s face, and he got up to approach with his weak eyesight and sense of direction. “Pei Yi?”

“…….”

God!

The world was a little too small!

How could they meet by chance while having a meal!

Pei Yi, who was called out, shrank his neck unnoticeably and said nothing.

Qin Yishun obviously had not expected this situation. He turned slightly to block his little brother. “Second Young Master Bo, shouldn’t you have known about Xiao Yi coming to see me?”

After all, with Pei Yi’s ability alone, he definitely couldn’t run out to find him independently, so he could only rely on the Bo family’s driver to pick him up.

When Bo Yueming heard that sentence, there was a trace of something subtle in his eyes.

Yes?

Shouldn’t he have known?

Qin Yishun didn’t know what Bo Yueming was thinking, and his gaze remained on the faces of Yan Cen and the long-haired woman for a moment. “It seems that Second Young Master Bo, Mr. Yan, and this lady have something important to discuss? Xiao Yi and I won’t bother you.”

“It isn’t a bother.”

Bo Yueming intercepted in time and didn’t forget to introduce, “Song Ci is our business partner, and she is also responsible for dealing with Sun Yelong’s affairs. Tonight, I’m specially hosting a dinner to thank her for what happened before.”

“Other than that, there are no other matters.”

There was a bit of weight to the last half of the sentence, which seemed to deliberately emphasize the explanation.

When Pei Yi heard this fairly familiar name, he remembered something from the original text.

Song Ci’s appearance in the book was very minor, but the few descriptions were brilliant. She was an absolutely independent career-oriented strong woman, and was currently the chief operating officer of G.M.

Song Ci’s parents were both doing business in Germany, and the family had some connections.

Not long ago, Yan Cen got in touch with her when she was still abroad. After finding the right contacts and probing them again and again, Sun Yelong’s “criminal evidence” was in hand.

Yan Cen pushed up his glasses, hiding a smile without saying anything.

Song Ci slightly restrained the curve of her lips and silently watched Pei Yi behind Qin Yishun—

She knew a little about Bo Yueming’s “forced” marriage, and at first she felt angry and helpless for her friend. 

But Pei Yi’s face in front of her was cute and fair, his actions and words were nothing out of the ordinary, and he was nothing at all like the fools and lunatics she had seen before.

Song Si revealed a smile again, and helped to certify, “Yes, I just returned to China today, and in addition to Bo Yueming’s thanks, this dinner can be regarded as the two of them welcoming me back. If you two don’t mind, let’s sit together?”

Qin Yishun calmly refused. “No.”

After finally getting the opportunity to have dinner with his little brother, he was unwilling to send Pei Yi to Bo Yueming.

Bo Yueming seemed to have expected Bo Yueming’s refusal, so he suddenly said, “Pei Yi, what time did you go out today? Who sent you out?”

“……..”

The thing that should not be said was said! He was done for.

Pei Yi, who had snuck out of the house, did not dare to answer. He feared that if Bo Yueming asked any further questions, even Qin Yishun would become suspicious.

Thus, he quickly walked to Bo Yueming’s side, grabbed his wrist, and shook it, playing the fool to change the topic, “Eat tasty things. Er-ge, I’m hungry.”

His voice was soft, and the last three words were a little coquettish.

Bo Yueming set aside his questions and took the initiative to hold his wrist. “Mr. Qin, since Pei Yi wants to stay here, what about you?”

Qin Yishun gave another cold internal scoff.

He didn’t know why, but he felt that Bo Yueming’s question stunk like he was showing off! He actually abducted his little brother with just a few words!

Qin Yishun maintained his expression. “Then let’s eat together.”

Unsurprised by his answer, Bo Yueming lightly tapped Pei Yi’s wrist with his fingertips, gesturing, “Come, sit with me.”

In the room was a square dining table surrounded by four sofas, so that apart from Pei Yi and Bo Yueming, the other three people could each occupy a spacious seat.

But unexpectedly—

Qin Yishun approached directly and then took up a generous space to the left on Pei Yi’s seat. “Second Young Master Bo, I’ll squeeze in here. I’m afraid it will be inconvenient for Pei Yi to eat alone, he needs to be taken care of.”

The implication was that he looked upon Bo Yueming with disdain for not being able to help him.

Bo Yueming didn’t refuse due to the other party’s status as an older brother. “Mr. Qin, feel free. There’s no need to squeeze.”

The formerly spacious sofa was filled by three people. Pei Yi, who was caught in the middle, looked left and then right. With an extremely guilty conscience, he became more honest and well-behaved, not daring to move.

Yan Cen took an electronic menu from the manager and handed it to Qin Yishun. “Mr. Qin, we ordered before. Can you see if anything needs to be added?”

Qin Yishun was straightforward, and added after a quick glance, “I’ll take a seafood platter, and add an extra serving of shrimp. Pei Yi likes it.”

The manager had a good eye.

He knew that the guests in this box were not common people, and noticed Pei Yi’s special behavior. “Then, would you like something to drink? We have orange, mango, and other freshly squeezed juices, and Mr. Yan just ordered a bottle of champagne.”

Upon hearing that there was alcohol, a glint of anticipation shone in the depths of Pei Yi’s eyes, and then was extinguished from the left and right.

Qin Yishun said, “Water is fine.”

Bo Yueming immediately replied, “Freshly squeezed orange juice, Pei Yi is allergic to mangoes.”

“…….”

Angry.

But he couldn’t speak.

Pei Yi, who was deprived of champagne once more, dared not speak out, and let the ones on the left and right decide for him.

The dishes were promptly served.

Qin Yishun himself was in no hurry to eat, and while wearing gloves, he peeled the fresh shrimp and crabs on the platter and put them into his little brother’s bowl one by one. “Xiao Yi, eat more.”

Pei Yi really liked to eat seafood, and it was a rare time when he didn’t have to peel it himself. He looked at the bowl that was filled with seafood in a short while, and the depression from not being able to drink disappeared.

“En!”

It was a simple one-word answer, with joy in the rising tone.

There was a hint of a smile in Qin Yishun’s voice as he continued to communicate with him patiently. “Eat quickly, I’ll peel as much as you want.”

Seeing the bowl full of crab and shrimp meat, Pei Yi thought that he shouldn’t be so heartless, so he picked up a peeled piece of shrimp and brought it to Qin Yishun’s mouth.

“Ah—”

“For me?”

Qin Yishun could hardly restrain his smile, completely forgetting that this shrimp was peeled by himself.

Recalling this, Pei Yi was obviously embarrassed, so he just picked up a few more shrimp and put them back into the other party’s bowl. He didn’t speak, but his clear meaning was—

Brother, you eat too.

Qin Yishun glanced at the “neglected” Bo Yueming on the right, and suddenly had a bit more of an urge to show off. “En, our family’s good Xiao Yi still knows how to treat his brother.”

Bo Yueming listened to the simple brotherly interaction, and the line of his jaw seemed to tense.

Having worked with him for many years, Yan Cen noticed this and met the eyes of Song Ci, who raised her glass knowingly. “Yueming, let’s have a drink together?”

“No, I need to drink less for the sake of my eyes.”

Bo Yueming came up with a suitable reason, then fumbled blankly to pick up the cup on the table. “I’ll drink juice like Pei Yi.”

As he spoke, he took two sips.

“……..”

Pei Yi watched helplessly as Bo Yueming picked up his cup, and even stopped eating the shrimp in his hand. “Huh?”

Bo Yueming asked, “What’s the matter?”

Pei Yi hesitated for a second. “Wrong. It’s mine.”

“Hm? I took your cup?” Bo Yueming asked back, only there was no obvious surprise on his face. “Then you drink my cup.”

Pei Yi hadn’t drank from this cup yet, so he nodded. “D-doesn’t matter.”

A gleam of light flashed in the depths of Bo Yueming’s eyes, and he suddenly mentioned, “You don’t seem to care about this sort of thing. You used the same spoon to feed me pudding last time.”

“…….”

Fed pudding with the same spoon?

How was that different from an indirect kiss?

The strength of Qin Yishun’s grip increased, instantly crushing a shrimp’s head.

On the sidelines, Yan Cen silently watched the confrontation and took a sip of champagne, his guess further confirmed. His friend had actually fallen in love with Pei Yi?

Where was the eating in this situation before him, ah, it was obviously a silent exchange between brother-in-law and brother-in-law!

Looking at it, Qin Yishun was rather partial to protecting Pei Yi, his little brother. It would definitely not be easy for Bo Yueming to gain the approval of his “brother-in-law” in the future.

. . . . . .

This improvised dinner came to an end before nine o’clock. Yan Cen and Song Ci had both drunk liquor, so they called for drivers to go back.

At the side entrance of the restaurant.

Qin Yishun looked at Pei Yi in front of him, and before he could speak, he heard Bo Yueming see the guests off first. “Mr. Qin, please go back. Pei Yi can just leave with me.”

Qin Yishun didn’t give in. “Young Master Bo is being courteous. Rest assured, I will send him back myself.”

“Brother.”

Pei Yi looked at Qin Yishun and said simply and clearly, “Bye-bye~”

“…….”

Qin Yishun was stunned for a moment, and felt a little depressed. “Xiao Yi, why don’t you want Brother to take you home?”

Pei Yi sucked the last mouthful of double layer milk custard brought out from the table into his stomach, then looked contently at Qin Yishun and advised, “Too far, going to bed late isn’t good.”

The Bo family manor was a bit far from here, and even father from where Qin Yishun lived. If the other party insisted on sending him back, it would take nearly two hours at least.

Anyway, he and Bo Yueming were going to the same place, so why should Qin Yishun have to go back and forth?

After spending this period of time together, Bo Yueming already understood Pei Yi’s way of thinking. “Mr. Qin, Pei Yi feels that the journey back and forth is too long and would waste time and energy, and that going home too late will affect your rest.”

He paused for a moment, and said as if to assuage him, “Pei Yi is thinking of you.”

Qin Yishun naturally understood this point. When he heard this sentence, his severe expression smoothed out a little. “Of course I know Xiao Yi is thinking of me.”

Pei Yi had already felt the full force of Qin Yishun’s “brother complex,” and said with a smile, “Bye-bye~”

Qin Yishun was infected by his little brother’s smile. Despite how serious his face was, he couldn’t hold back anymore and gave a faint smile, rubbing Pei Yi’s head. “Okay, I’ll listen to Xiao Yi.”

After speaking, he looked at Bo Yueming again. “Second Young Master Bo, I will trouble you.”

Bo Yueming gave a faint nod. “It’s no trouble.”

Qin Yishun didn’t procrastinate any longer. He turned around and walked toward the parking lot.

It wasn’t until he sat back in the vehicle that he remembered the undrunk coffee in the refrigerator, and quickly took it out with the dome light on.

Qin Yishun, who never liked to drink coffee, raised the cup and took a sip. The bitter liquid instantly filled his mouth, making him frown uncontrollably.

This coffee was worse than traditional Chinese medicine! The mouth was bitter, but the heart was sweet!

When the coffee was held in his big hand, it looked like just a small cup. Qin Yishun inexplicably thought of Pei Yi’s small figure, and suddenly felt that the cup in his hand looked a little cute.

En, his little brother gave it to him, and he really liked it the more he looked at it.

This cup of coffee must be commemorated!

The cup sleeve was soaked with water. Qin Yishun took a paper towel and wiped the outer wall of the cup until it shone, then picked up the phone—

Using his amateur camera technique, he took several pictures in a row and then selected the most satisfactory one.

He clicked on his circle of friends, where he had never posted any updates, then uploaded the photo and typed while smiling:

“Coffee from my little brother. Good night.”

—Whoosh!

Not long after it was sent out to his circle of friends, he received likes and replies from former comrades-in-arms, friends, and company subordinates, and the first comment was extremely mocking—

“Captain Qin, is the sun rising in the west today? Drinking coffee late at night? You call that a good night?”

Qin Yishun replied solemnly: En, I’m saying goodnight to my brother.

After replying, he forcefully “liked” and continued to drink the coffee.

. . . . . .

Forty minutes later, the car parked in the villa’s garage.

Driver Lao Fu turned around and reminded, “Mr. Bo, Little Sir, we’re home.”

Bo Yueming opened his eyes and ordered, “Understood. Lao Fu, you get out of the car first, and tell Uncle Kai that he doesn’t need to come down and wait. Pei Yi and I will come up later.”

Pei Yi was taken aback, and paused halfway through taking off his seatbelt.

For some reason, he suddenly senses the oppression of a coming storm.

Driver Lao Fu glanced at Pei Yi, but still obeyed his boss’s orders and got out of the car, leaving without looking back.

The car door slammed, making Pei Yi’s heart jump.

“……”

Pei Yi looked at Bo Yueming, who was slowly turning toward him, and planned to strike first, “Er-ge, I’m sleepy.”

“Sleepy?”

Bo Yueming located Pei Yi’s figure with the help of the dim dome light. “I’ll ask you two questions, and I’ll let you go to sleep after asking them.”

Pei Yi was struck silent, and accepted his fate.

Contriving this and that, he was able to coax Qin Yishun, who was a brother-protecting madman, but he still couldn’t escape the keen mind of the “villain” Bo Yueming.

Who would have thought there would be such a coincidence? They met at every meal.

Pei Yi cursed his luck and lowered his head, quietly awaiting Bo Yueming’s response, and hummed in affirmation.

Hearing his reluctant tone, Bo Yueming suppressed his helplessness and inwardly set up his questions. “You ran out secretly today. It wasn’t your elder brother who picked you up, isn’t that right?”

“……”

Pei Yi silently admitted it.

Bo Yueming asked again, “Where did you get the money?”

Pei Yi shook his head and said nothing.

He had some spare change on WeChat, so he secretly applied for a bank card when he went out today for convenience.

Bo Yueming allowed the silence to spread, and the suspicion in his heart was gradually confirmed—

Pei Yi was not a “fool.” He at least had the ability to go out and find someone independently.

Or he had just pretended from the beginning. That was why when dealing with Bo Guancheng, Bo Wang, and others, he always used the most “foolish” and blunt remarks to stab them.

As for why he was pretending to be a fool? Bo Yueming had no way of knowing for now.

However, Pei Yi had never done anything to hurt the Bo family since entering the Bo residence, and even gave him timely comfort when his heart’s defenses were weak.

Bo Yueming carefully distinguished his drooping little head, and suddenly didn’t want to poke at Pei Yi like this.

His eyesight was gradually recovering.

Since Pei Yi loved to play and act for a “certain purpose,” Bo Yueming wanted to act with him. He would see what this little cat wanted to do in the end.

“……..”

Pei Yi, who thought he had done something wrong, felt his heart beating like a drum.

He did not fear the heavens or the earth, but he was afraid of the unspeaking villain.

Glancing covertly at Bo Yueming, he gave an uncertain hum, “Er-ge?”

“In the future, don’t run around without telling me. Whether you want to find Mr. Qin or your mother and sister, you must tell me. I will have driver Lao Fu take you there with bodyguards.”

No matter whether Pei Yi was intentionally pretending or not, no matter if he had the ability to protect himself, Bo Yueming didn’t want him to be in danger, and he didn’t want to have a repeat of what happened at the celebration banquet.

Not only did Bo Yueming not blame him, but he even explained himself patiently and considerately.

Pei Yi tried hard to distinguish Bo Yueming’s tone, and after confirming that the other party didn’t notice his loopholes or investigate deeply, the big rock on his heart was dropped again.

To be honest, it was very comfortable to stay with the Bo family. He was just on the right track to make money now, and he couldn’t leave yet.

At this thought, Pei Yi nodded honestly. “En.”

When Bo Yueming heard his honest and well-behaved voice, he said with deep implications, “If I find you sneaking away again, you will be punished.”

“…….”

It went in Pei Yi’s right ear and out his left. He was not afraid of Bo Yueming’s “warning” at all, and was even thinking up countermeasures.

Anyway, Bo Yueming hadn’t reached his time of recovery yet. If he could run the first time, he could run the second time. It was just that he couldn’t take risks like today before the necessary time.

The light of the headlights was extremely dim, and Bo Yueming only felt that his vision was going dark and then bright again.

Suddenly, the area he was concentrating on became clear, and Bo Yueming captured a face that couldn’t be fairer, far more cute and good-looking than he had imagined.

At this moment, Pei Yi had his head lowered and was secretly playing with the seatbelt with his fingertips.

“……”

When they met for the first time, it turned out that the kitten looked like this.

Bo Yueming was stunned for a few seconds. The corners of his mouth rose. “Pei Yi, did you hear that?”

As soon as he spoke, the person in front of him yawned a bit and nodded like a chicken pecking rice, saying perfunctorily, “En, en, en!”

*

T/N: Ah, Qin Yishun is my ideal man. Strong, capable, and kind.

---

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Chapter Twenty-Nine <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Thirty-One

The stars were a little sparse this night, but it was fortunate that the moon was surprisingly large, shining brightly in the sky and illuminating the surrounding fields in silvery-white light. It was rather romantic.

Xuan Jiao was eating dry grass leisurely at the side. Liu Xian’an found a flat stone and sat down with Liang Shu. He was capable of watching the moon for a whole night without speaking, but His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was not. The prince’s shameful spring love was originally like a flame, but was at this moment further strengthened by the night and the moonlight, expanding to the point of boundlessness. Not to mention thinking, even sitting was precarious.

And at this precarious moment, Liu Xian’an took the initiative to grasp his hand. Liang Shu’s heart stopped beating. The soft, cool touch from the dream overlapped with reality, and he turned his hand almost without thinking, taking all of the other party’s thin, white fingers into his palm.

“…….” Liu Xian’an was puzzled. “I want to test His Royal Highness Xiao Wang’s pulse.”

He hadn’t had time to reveal his tenderness when, bang, he was jabbed with a pole. Liang Shu released his hand and said expressionlessly: “Don’t test it.”

Liu Xian’an let out an “oh” and didn’t insist. He continued to look at the moon on his own and ignore him.

A while later, Liang Shu handed over his wrist.

Liu Xian’an pursed his lips, placed his fingers on the other party’s veins, and tested for a while before saying: “There is nothing serious, but you are too tired and need a good rest.”

Liang Shu asked: “Then why did you let me go out in the middle of the night?”

Liu Xian’an retracted his hands into his sleeves: “Since sedatives are useless, you might as well do something you enjoy. Otherwise, lying in bed all the time worrying will not benefit your body. If you adjust your mood, your sleep will naturally become more regular.

Liang Shu turned his eyes back toward the distant mountains: “Can getting married cure insomnia?”

Liu Xian’an was decisive: “It cannot.”

“Is that written in a book?”

“I’ve witnessed it myself.”

Not to mention elsewhere, there were living examples in Baihe Mountain Village. Since his uncle married, he had been suffering from serious and minor illnesses. He quarreled with auntie every day, red in the face, and hurt from head to toe. He took several cylinders of tranquilizing medicine, showing that getting married couldn’t cure any disease, and that it was very likely to aggravate previous symptoms.

Liu Xian’an said: “Besides, one attribute of love is that it always makes people toss and turn. How could it make people sleep peacefully?”

Liang Shu grasped the back of his neck: “Speak logically, you’ve never been in ‘love’ before.”

Liu Xian’an was massaged very nicely, both sore and comfortable: “It’s all written in books.”

Liang Shu moved his hands lightly: “Let’s hear how it is written in the books.”

Liu Xian’an thought about those stories and poems that had been passed down through the ages. Almost none of them were not full of sadness, or how long it took for love to become hate. He frowned as he thought about it, and didn’t want to elaborate, so he just gave a perfunctory: “It’s troublesome anyway.”

Liang Shu asked: “So you’re not going to like anyone, and even when getting married, ‘anyone is fine?’”

Liu Xian’an replied, that’s about it.

Liang Shu knocked his head in dissatisfaction.

Liu Xian’an dodged sideways: “What about the prince?”

Liang Shu replied: “Anyone is fine.”

“The Fei Kingdom princess?”

“No.”

“Princesses of other countries?”

“Also no.”

Liu Xian’an thought, so what kind of ‘anyone’ is this, you obviously have a lot of requirements.

Liang Shu continued to massage his neck for him: “Did those white-bearded old men come out again?”

“No, I’ve been too busy lately to take care of them.” Liu Xian’an moved on the stone. “I only think about them occasionally before going to sleep at night.”

But because His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was always on guard there with a sword, the Three Thousand Worlds were safe and secure. He could organize his thoughts without any distractions and without rush, and when encountering problems that he didn’t understand, he wouldn’t waste time on insignificant problems. This was because His Royal Highness Xiao Wang would always appear in a while, then say impatiently with a fierce expression: “Don’t think about it if you don’t understand it.”

So Second Young Master Liu really didn’t try to. He allowed him to lead him around by his sleeve to go look at the trees, look at the palace, ride a white crane, and fly around every world freely.

The moonlight was beautiful tonight, so he selectively picked out some of these dreams and told them to Liang Shu in reality, where they were both wearing clothes. In the dao, the two would travel together or drink, and sleep next to each other under the peach blossom trees when drunk, leisurely and indulgent.

Liang Shu nodded: “All right. When the war is over, I’ll take you to drink with me, get drunk, and do all the things in your dreams.” As for the white-bearded old men destined to be repeatedly scolded, there was also a group of ready-made ones in the Imperial court, which were not difficult to find.

But Liu Xian’an figured that he still couldn’t do “all of them,” because in his dreams, besides the peach trees, there was also a hot spring beneath a waterfall. He actually welcomed His Royal Highness Xiao Wang to relax and bathe in the Three Thousand Worlds when he was tired, but he really didn’t want to dream up too many details. Therefore, every time he awoke from the dream, he would feel slightly distressed for a while, not knowing how he himself had become more and more wild and disrespectful. In order to solve this problem, Second Young Master Liu had no choice but to think desperately when he was awake. He could fill the hot springs with dense white mist, build a circle of screens, construct a wall reaching the sky. He even drew a lot of pictures of His Royal Highness in bathrobes, and would look at them before going to bed, but it was no use. Once the big dream struck, the areas that should be meticulous and detailed were still meticulous and detailed.

How distressing.

Liang Shu felt that the way he was sighing with his hands clasped together looked like the frowning cat in the Imperial gardens, so he stretched out his hand to pet him.

Liu Xian’an didn’t hide either. Instead, he was so sleepy that he yawned.

Liang Shu called Xuan Jiao and took him back to camp.

Gao Lin also didn’t sleep, and when he heard the news, he snuck into the commander’s tent: “How did it go?”

Liang Shu sat on the bed: “Letting you be a lieutenant general is really a waste of talent.”

Gao Lin hastened to be modest, he was only average, ba. He never would have thought he would have such amazing potential in the field of matchmaking. He dragged a cushion over and sat cross-legged: “What did Second Young Master Liu say?”

Liang Shu said: “That he is too lazy to get married, and he has no intention of marrying anyone.”

Gao Lin’s smile froze for a moment, and then he promptly stood up and tried to slip away, but failed, so he could only complain: “Why, though. I asked A-Ning, and Second Young Master Liu has never cared about other people’s preferences before. It seems he doesn’t even know the preferences of Master Liu, and has never prepared sugar for other patients.”

Such was the case that the amount of sweet root and dried hawthorn was very limited during the march, and even those thirteen or fourteen-year-old soldiers couldn’t get a bite of sweet and sour from Doctor Liu. At most, they could get a philosophical muddled speech, such as, “If you think that the medicine in front of you is sweet, then it will be sweet.” It was simply dull and drowsy, with double the pain.

Gao Lin said: “The prince’s medicine is so delicious that it can be savored, does this not count as deliberate? A-Ning said that in order to make the bitter taste less bitter, he would taste it every time and personally decoct it. Anyway, if he cares so much about a person, they are either his actual father or he loves them to death and must marry them.”

Liang Shu felt that today was the day he had heard the most from Gao Lin since meeting him.

But frankly speaking, he himself didn’t think that Liu Xian’an’s “neither love nor desire” tonight would definitely last forever. After all, he was a Sleeping Immortal who had been floating alone in the sky for forty-eight thousand years. It would take him a lot of effort to return to the world with a clear mind and learn about love.

Thus, he had mercy and didn’t continue to find fault. He waved Gao Lin out of the room, lay down on the bed alone, and fell asleep peacefully.

Liu Xian’an didn’t sleep, but A-Ning had rested before and was not sleepy now, so he asked him: “What are you thinking, Young Master?”

“I’m not thinking about anything.” Liu Xian’an lay on his back under the blanket, propping up his upper body slightly. “I’ve been dreaming about the prince lately.”

A-Ning thought this was normal, because they saw the prince every day. 

Liu Xian’an stretched out his hand and gestured for him to lean his ear closer to the side of the bed, then lowered his voice: “I dreamed that the prince was bathing.”

A-Ning also didn’t think this was too strange, and was puzzled at most. It seemed that at the very beginning, the young master dreamed that the prince was bathing, yet after knowing each other for so long, the prince had not yet come out of the pool.

Liu Xian’an drew a picture in the air with his finger: “He stood in front of me with no clothes on.”

A-Ning took a breath of cold air this time: “Scary!”

Liu Xian’an sat up: “Aiya, it’s really not scary, it’s just……I don’t want to dream, but drinking calming soup doesn’t seem to help.”

“But why do you dream of this?” A-Ning also climbed onto the bed and sat down. “People say that dreams are things we think about day and night, but the young master has never thought about the prince not wearing clothes. It’s so strange.”

Liu Xian’an replied innocently: “En, I haven’t.”

A-Ning patted the pillow: “Then lie down, Young Master. Let me tell you some other stories. Listening to them as you fall asleep, maybe you won’t dream of the prince again.”

Liu Xian’an lay down according to his words. A-Ning took out the soothing ointment and massaged his temples, then picked out a rather boring and hypnotic story written by a pedantic scholar, about a fox fairy repaying a favor.

Repaying a favor was nothing more than getting married and having a child. Liu Xian’an yawned and soon fell asleep. A-Ning’s voice continued into the dream, and the scholar and the fox fairy played the gongs, drums, and trumpets so that the whole village came out to watch. Red silk paved the floor and colorful lanterns hung outside the door, but he had no time to watch the excitement. He ran all the way to the waterfall, just in time for His Royal Highness Xiao Wang to step out of the hot spring, holding an eye-catching three feet of red silk in his hand.

And the surrounding green mountains and water had already turned into a wedding hall decorated with lights and festoons. Liu Xian’an thought in a daze, could it be that the prince wants to get married?

He turned his head and looked around, wanting to see where the welcoming team was, but the white mist rose again. The sound of trumpets became louder and louder. Liu Xian’an couldn’t bear the noise, so he simply rode on Xuan Jiao and ran away. As he ran, there was suddenly another person behind him. 

Therefore, he woke up from the dream covered in cold sweat, his heart beating extremely fast.

A-Ning hadn’t gone to sleep yet, and was taken aback: “Young Master dreamed of the prince again?”

Liu Xian’an looked at him for a moment, pulled the blanket to cover his head, and said faintly: “Stop telling stories in the future.”

If a story wasn’t told, he would just stand on the shore at most. After telling the story, they stuck together and rode a horse for a long time. Liu Xian’an sighed silently and buried his face deeply into the pillow, feeling extremely sorry for His Royal Highness Xiao Wang.

He didn’t have a good rest all night, and couldn’t walk steadily the next day. Liang Shu rode over: “Shall I take you for a ride?”

Liu Xian’an was listless at first, but when he heard this sentence, he immediately shivered: “No need.”

“No need?” Liang Shu wondered, “Why aren’t you lazy?”

Liu Xian’an pointed casually: “I’m going to sleep in the carriage.”

Liang Shu watched helplessly all the way as he climbed in the grain cart. He ran very fast and almost fell in the middle, so he called Gao Lin over.

Gao Lin went to ask A-Ning.

A-Ning was sorting out the drawings done by his young master, a stack of His Royal Highness Xiao Wang wearing a bathrobe. When a person suddenly broke into the tent, he was startled and quickly put his hands behind his back: “Lieutenant General Gao.”

Gao Lin glanced at his hands: “What is that?”

“Nothing.” A-Ning took two steps back. “It’s a landscape painting done by my young master. He won’t allow others to see it, so I’m burning it.”

Gao Lin nodded: “So it’s a landscape.”

After asking a few more casual questions, he turned around and left the big tent. At this time, the army outside had already departed. This tent had to be dismantled immediately, so A-Ning hurriedly stuffed the paintings into the fire, picked up his luggage, and chased after them.

As he walked forward, Gao Lin picked up the spark-covered ball of paper behind his back and went to offer the treasure to his prince.

Liang Shu asked: “What is it?”

Gao Lin replied: “How could I dare look?”

Liang Shu opened a drawing, and Lieutenant General Gao, who didn’t dare to look, immediately stretched his neck closer. After seeing it clearly, he was shocked on the spot: “Isn’t this you, Your Highness?”

The drawing turned out to be true, neat, and attentive, but it was burned to a mess. Gao Lin had originally just stolen it back as a landscape painting, intending to comfort his prince in his lovesickness, but he never expected that he had picked up a basket of gold. What too lazy to get married? Why don’t you hurry back to Wangcheng to prepare for the happy event?

---

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Chapter Forty-Two << Table of Contents >> Chapter Forty-Four

After Bo Yueming went to the hospital, Pei Yi stayed and had dinner with Su Wan. Pei Yuan, who had led a group out on a business trip, happened to return home that night and was very angry to hear of the events of the past two days.

However, after this encounter, both the mother and daughter’s affection for Bo Yueming increased greatly.

After all, both of them had very simple beliefs—

As long as the other party could protect Pei Yi, and even if he could only give the child a moment of stability, this was good.

Even if the “marriage” relationship between the two was broken in the future, they could still bring Pei Yi back to live together.

In addition, they could both see that Pei Yi was willing to live with Bo Yueming.

Shu Wan had originally wanted to stay with Pei Yi, but facing Bo Yueming, who came to pick him up in a timely manner, she retracted that thought.

There was enough time.

As long as Pei Yi was happy and willing, as a mother, she would let him do as he pleased.

At ten o’clock in the evening, Pei Yi came out of the bathroom after taking a shower at home.

He was wearing a very absorbent bathrobe and didn’t bother to take it off for a while, half-reclining in bed to let the after-shower heat dissipate.

Knock, knock.

There was a knock on the door.

Lying at the end of the bed, Inspector promptly pricked up its ears and didn’t forget to notify Pei Yi who was lying on the bed, “Meow~”

Pei Yi was amused by the cleverness of his beloved pet, and then there was a question from the door, “Pei Yi? Are you asleep?”

It was Bo Yueming’s voice.

Pei Yi had originally thought that it was Uncle Kai delivering milk to him before bed, and was a little surprised. He glanced over at the cute bear pajamas next to the bed, and then at the extremely comfortable bathrobe on his body, and simply got up.

Approaching the door, Pei Yi donned his habitual well-behaved expression and opened it.

Dressed in black pajamas, Bo Yueming stood outside the door, holding the familiar warm milk in one hand and a small bag in the other.

Pei Yi’s eyes shifted uncertainly from the milk to Bo Yueming’s face. “Er-ge?”

Where was Uncle Kai?

Why did Bo Yueming deliver the milk himself?

“Uncle Kai knocked on the door for a long time with no response. I told him to go back first.” Bo Yueming followed the outline of the unclear scene before him and passed over the milk in his hand steadily. “Your bedtime milk. Drink it.”

He had gone to the hospital for an examination in the afternoon, and it just so happened—

Shu Yucheng’s broomstick had hurt his shoulders and the back of his neck, as well as the back of his head, but fortunately did not hit anything vital. On the contrary, it “promoted” the healing of his eyes inadvertently.

At this moment, Bo Yueming’s eyesight was no longer mottled. Instead, he could already see the blurred outlines of objects, like the highest degree of myopia, and he could occasionally see better when he concentrated with all his strength.

But the doctor still suggested—

Especially in this critical period of recovery, he couldn’t rush to stare at things, lest he damage his eyes too much.

Pei Yi didn’t know what was going on in Bo Yueming’s mind. He just took the warm milk obediently and drank half the cup, pretending to enjoy it very much.

When Bo Yueming heard his hum, a slight curve appeared at the edges of his lips. “Just showered?”

As he spoke, he subconsciously glanced down, and then fixed his gaze uncertainly for a moment.

Pei Yi failed to notice the change in Bo Yueming’s eyes, and replied confidently, “En!”

“……..”

Bo Yueming asked, “Have you changed back to your pajamas?”

Pei Yi hesitated for two seconds, looking at the bathrobe he hadn’t changed out of.

Very quickly, the feeling of guilt accompanied by ‘Bo Yueming can’t see’ dissipated completely, and he played the fool to the end, “En! Little, little bear. Uncle Kai gave it!”

“En.”

Bo Yueming gave an inaudible laugh, suppressing the surprise in his heart. He could still only see vaguely right now, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t see anything—

At the least, he could distinguish between pajama pants and the pale legs that shone white under the lights.

Pei Yi thought he was being appropriately perfunctory, so he silently stopped drinking and left a half cup of milk. “Er-ge?”

Bo Yueming understood his subtext, and made a request. “Give me some medicine, my shoulders and the back of my neck are still swollen.”

“…….”

Pei Yi was stunned for two seconds, and reminded, “Uncle Kai.”

Shouldn’t Bo Yueming’s first reaction be to ask Uncle Kai for help with such matters? He still remembered the first time he broke into the bathroom suddenly and offered to help with medicine, when Bo Yueming refused.

Bo Yueming grasped the small bag tightly with his fingertips and handed it over. “Uncle Kai is tired today, come on.”

The other party was injured while protecting him, after all, so Pei Yi naturally couldn’t sit idly by. The moment he had the anti-inflammatory medicine in hand, he suddenly thought of something and hummed unhappily.

“I can’t.”

“…….”

Bo Yueming got stuck, and was slow to react for a while before he understood what Pei Yi meant. Last time at Old Mr. Bo’s birthday banquet, Li Yuan’s finger was slightly injured, and Bo Yueming said a few words in front of Yan Cen and the others—

“Pei Yi can’t handle this sort of thing well.”

“You can’t, the bandage will have to be changed again if you deal with it.”

He didn’t expect that the kitten would be so vengeful, and could still use these two sentences now.

Bo Yueming held back a helpless smile. “You can, I said the wrong thing last time.”

“En.”

That was about right.

Pei Yi was praised, and his fur was stroked the right way, so he took Bo Yueming’s wrist. “Let’s go.”

Bo Yueming had originally wanted to tell Pei Yi how much his eyesight had improved, but after feeling the delicate touch on his wrist, he suddenly didn’t want to explain it.

He pretended to still be visually impaired, and slowly followed Pei Yi to the sofa in the small living room.

The two people sat on the sofa.

Pei Yi opened the small medicine bag on his own, and then heard Bo Yueming’s reminder, “Uncle Kai said there is a spray that is red and white. You spray it for me, and then apply the ointment.”

After speaking, he simply and neatly unbuttoned the pajamas on his upper body.

Pei Yi naturally knew the steps of applying medicine and was holding the spray to secretly study the amount, so when he raised his eyes, he realized that Bo Yueming had exposed his back.

He was in a hurry last time in the bathroom, and Pei Yi, who was standing at the door, didn’t have time to look very carefully.

Now, looking closely, he realized that the muscle contours that Bo Yueming had previously hidden beneath his clothes were smoother and more superior than he had imagined, but also not exaggerated.

Pei Yi stared straight at them, and his heart was secretly sour.

Comparing the two people angered him to death.

The staring gaze was so straightforward and intense that it seemed to burn a hole in that back.

Sensing all of this, Bo Yueming was inexplicably a little nervous, and his voice was faintly tense, “Pei Yi, the spray. Did you find it?”

Pei Yi unconsciously swallowed, and regained his senses.

There were only three or four anti-swelling medications in the bag. Pei Yi shook the spray can, and when he saw the red and swollen right shoulder and back of his neck, his suppressed hostility surged up again—

Shu Youcheng, that smelly and shameless thing!

If he had known earlier, he should have broken his ribs this afternoon! Then he and Chen Yuyin could enter the hospital as patients side by side!

Thinking of this, Pei Yi remembered Shu Wan and Pei Yuan’s thoughts about the current villa at the dinner table tonight.

To be honest, not only the mother and daughter, but even Pei Yi himself didn’t expect that the owner of the villa would be Bo Yueming.

“Er-ge.”

Pei Yi chose simple words to express himself. “Thank you. The house, we don’t need it.”

Originally, Shu Wan and Pei Yuan had thought about “spending money to rent a house” as long as their finances allowed them to afford it, and the landlord of the villa was also willing to rent at this price, so both parties could feel at ease with one another.

They only found out today that it was Bo Yueming behind the house.

The only reason the other party was willing to “rent out” must be because of Pei Yi. Coupled with the “marriage relationship” between the two, this house could not be defined by a “leasing relationship.”

What’s more, Shu Wan and Pei Yuan understood — if they lived too well, they would only attract covetous weasels.

Bo Yueming was taken aback. “Why?”

Pei Yi shook his head and said, “Mom says, not good.”

Bo Yueming was silent for a while, and understood Shu Wan’s thoughts through Pei Yi’s words.

Long before Uncle Kai helped the mother and daughter move into the villa, Shu Wan and Pei Yuan repeatedly asked whether the “rental price” was true. Even the master bedroom and study on the second floor were never opened and used, presumably because they didn’t want to be greedy.

When taking Pei Yi home tonight, Uncle Kai also secretly told him — the mother and daughter had cleaned up the villa to look brand new, and there was no smell at all.

Bo Yueming had his own sense of propriety in this matter. “I have kept that villa unused for a while. If people can live in it, I’m not unhappy.”

Pei Yi shook his head and made a sound of refusal.

In addition to the considerations of the Shu Wan mother and daughter, Pei Yi also had his own set of considerations. Right now, he was “pretending to be crazy and act the fool,” and had received enough care from Bo Yueming.

And the original owner’s relatives were his relatives alone now, not the other party’s responsibility. He himself would work hard and earn money so that Shu Wan and Pei Yuan could live a good life.

In addition, if the mother and daughter lived in Bo Yueming’s house for a long time without conscience, how could he escape in the future, ah?

Inconvenient, absolutely inconvenient!

Bo Yueming didn’t know Pei Yi’s inner thoughts, and didn’t want to force the issue and make things difficult. He touched his shoulder that was still hurting and directed, “Come on, here, spray this side.”

The topic passed by.

Pei Yi obediently followed suit and sprayed the anti-swelling medicine evenly on the red and swollen skin, bringing a cool, icy sensation.

Bo Yueming was about to reach up and rub it in with his hand to heat it up, but Pei Yi, who was worried about the wound, was a step ahead —

The naturally warm palms and fingertips came into contact with the liquid medicine and gently rubbed, forming a strange tactile sensation of ice and fire on his back. As the rubbing technique gradually intensified, the heat began to penetrate into the skin.

The original stimulation of the medicine was hardly worth mentioning.

Bo Yueming smoothly retracted his hand, his breathing short and tight. He silently felt the force on his back and recalled everything that had happened during this period, then suddenly realized a possibility that he had ignored.

It was just that his eyes were not fully healed yet, so he had no way to prove this conjecture for the time being.

Pei Yi rubbed arbitrarily and earnestly for a while, and after determining that the heating effect of the medicine was gradually rising, he continued pretending to be ignorant. “…….Done.”

Bo Yueming reached out again and gestured briefly. “There is a medicinal patch in the box, stick it on.”

Pei Yi once again took out the corresponding medicine, tore off the dust-proof outermost plastic layer, and slowly pasted it onto the red and swollen area.

After finishing, he was afraid that it would not stick firmly, so he automatically pressed hard on the outer edges of the medicine patch with his fingertips.

Those fingertips along the outermost edge of the patch were like a kitten pawing over and over, and the tingling sensation was followed by an uncontrollable heat.

Bo Yueming’s back stiffened, and he suddenly turned around and grabbed the hand that had no intention of making trouble. “Pei Yi, enough!”

Taken off guard, Pei Yi leaned forward and the tips of their noses brushed past each other lightly.

For a brief moment, there seemed to be an illusion of a kiss.

“…….”

“…….”

Bo Yueming looked at the blurry face that was so close at hand, and there were unstoppable waves in his eyes.

Pei Yi fell into those eyes, belatedly realizing the inadvertent contact between them just now. “Er, Er-ge?”

Bo Yueming captured the tension in his voice that was different from before, and as if to test his inner guess, he followed the faint breathing and pushed forward another half inch. “En?”

The tips of their noses seemed to rub against each other again, like the intimate prelude to a kiss.

Pei Yi finally broke free from the restraint around his wrist, realized that his movement was too big, and made up for it, “I, I’m sleepy.”

Bo Yueming squeezed his empty hand and seemed to understand something, but pretended nothing had happened. “En, you did very well, go to sleep early. Good night.”

There was a hint of a smile hidden in that rare gentle tone, as if he was coaxing a child, making the eardrums tremble with numbness.

Pei Yi’s mind went blank for a moment, and he almost couldn’t bring up the cute mask he was accustomed to, so he got up and fled in a hurry.

The bathrobe curled up in a small arc with the movement, and it seemed that his calves became more slender and white before he disappeared through the door in an instant.

Swish.

Bo Yueming heard the sound of the door closing. Sitting alone on the sofa, he pondered for a long time, and only then did he let out an obvious laugh, extremely amused.

He seemed to have accidentally discovered a kitten who could act.

. . . . . . .

Having returned to the room, Pei Yi hastened into the bathroom to wash his hands.

It wasn’t until the cold water covered his palms and the heat from the medicine melted away that he broke free of that speechless state.

Pei Yi looked at himself in the mirror and reached up to rub the tip of his nose. It was as if there was still a trace of temperature there that didn’t belong to him.

“Meow-wu~”

Inspector’s coquettish call sounded, and Pei Yi looked through the mirror’s reflection—

The pet was crouching outside the bathroom door with only its small head sticking through and watching his every move, ridiculously cute.

Pei Yi laughed and turned around to walk out. “What are you squatting here for? Let’s go.”

Inspector took a few steps outside and worked hard to jump from the ground to the chair, and then from the chair to the computer table. “Meow!”

Pei Yi followed its instructions, only to find that his computer was making a very quiet ding-dong noise.

It sounded like it should be a message from the Youtu forum website.

Pei Yi opened the back end of the website that hadn’t been closed and found that there were indeed unread messages on the message notification in the upper right corner.

He gave Inspector’s clever little head a quick rub and leisurely opened the message from Li Yuan—

“Mr. Will, are you there?”

“I’ve sent the relevant investment declaration list to G.M.’s official email, and it just so happens that they are looking for a new investment project these days, so they sent me a reply soon after. It said that the preliminary project screening will be carried out next Wednesday and that I, as the project leader, can go there directly.”

At the same time, Li Yuan also sent a project competition advantage analysis form.

Pei Yi accepted and clicked on the corresponding file, glanced over it, and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

In all honesty, Li Yuan’s work efficiency was far better than he had imagined.

“En, I read it.”

Li Yuan on the other side seemed to have been waiting for his reply, and after a moment, he sent a large paragraph of pre-edited text—

“Mr. Will, what city are you in? Please excuse me, but I think that since we want to formally become partners, we should meet up. If you are not in the Imperial Capital, I can take the time to fly to the city where you are.”

“I know you want to hide your identity, and also said before that any project should be carried out online, but forgive me for being a little apprehensive.”

“After all, this project is not only about your creativity and development, but is also related to the final direction of Dawn Games. I can accept failure after hard work, but I don’t want to find out that after working hard, I am making wedding dresses for other people.”^[1]

“This may be a bit blunt, but isn’t the first step in a partnership to be honest and trust one another?”

Pei Yi read the words sent by Li Yuan without any aversion or dissatisfaction.

Looking at it from the standpoint of the other party, he could understand his concerns at the moment—

After all, Li Yuan was the one working hard at the front of the stage, compared to him, who was working behind the scenes.

If he couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the partner, and couldn’t confirm that the story of “The Last Fog” came from his original work, it might be a planted time bomb that could explode future cooperations.

Simply relying on chatting and communicating on the webpage could not completely wipe out this concern.

It was just that since Pei Yi lived in Bo Manor now, and was with Bo Yueming and Uncle Kai and others every day, it was not an easy task to go out under their noses.

What’s more, he didn’t think that now was a good time to remove his disguise for outsiders.

—Ding-dong.

The notification sound came again. “Mr. Will, what do you think?”

Pei Yi recovered from his deep thoughts and answered after some consideration, “I am also in the Imperial Capital, so we can meet, but I decide the time and place.”

“The situation on my side is quite unique. I may temporarily not be able to contact you, but I will try my best to meet you before G.M.’s preliminary screening next Wednesday, is that okay?”

On the other side, Li Yuan responded very simply, “Okay. I’ll follow your arrangements.

. . . . . . 

Four days later.

Li Yuan looked at the three-character signboard of “Mingxiang Pavilion” in front of him, and reconfirmed the detailed address sent by Will on his phone, quite surprised.

He had originally thought that the official meeting between the two of them would be held in such a common place as a coffee shop or restaurant booth, and didn’t expect that it would be an antique teahouse.

Li Yuan confirmed the time agreed on by the two of them and entered the teahouse early.

It was a working day, and at this point in the afternoon, there were almost no other guests in the teahouse.

The proprietress at the front desk was wearing a very charming cheongsam and greeted with a smile, “Hello, Sir. Welcome to Mingxiang Pavilion.”

Li Yuan nodded. “Hello, I’m……”

The proprietress seemed to already know his identity. “Mr. Li Yuan, isn’t it?”

Li Yuan was startled. “Ah, yes.”

“Please follow me to the box on the second floor. A seat has been prepared for you.” The proprietress led Li Yuan upstairs and brought him into the designated small tea room.

Wood shutters were used to splice the surrounding walls to make partitions, and there were small potted plants. A pear blossom picture representing the name of the box was also placed, along with a solid wood tea table and a brewed pot of tea, making the environment very comfortable.

Li Yuan stared at the picture of pear blossoms with a smile on his naturally indifferent face.

The proprietress was as amiable as before. “Mr. Li, please take a seat. If you have any needs, you can press the electronic bell on the table.”

“Thank you.”

The compartment door closed again.

Li Yuan sat down, and had just picked up the teapot to pour tea for himself while he was waiting, when he heard two knocks from the box next door.

Dong—Dong—

At the same time, there was an accompanying address, “Young Boss Li.”

The voice was young and melodious.

Li Yuan’s hand pouring the tea shook, and he came to a realization. “Is it Mr. Will? When did you get here?”

Pei Yi, who was sitting in the tea room next door, heard his unconcealed surprise and pursed his lips. “It’s me. I got here just a little earlier than you.”

Bo Yueming and Uncle Kai had something important to do, and went out early in the morning. He carefully avoided the sight of the driver, Lao Fu, and others, and snuck out through the backyard of the villa and over the wall.

Pei Yi guessed that Li Yuan would arrive early, so he came earlier, and confirmed with the proprietress to arrange everything for the two adjacent tea room boxes.

To be frank, he still didn’t want to meet the other party directly.

The reason for choosing this place was also to make sure that no strangers would overhear their conversation at this time during a working day.

“Young Boss Li, I apologize for ‘meeting’ you this way. My situation is special, but since I dared to come here in person, I just want to take one more step to assure you—”

“I am definitely your trusted partner.”

When Pei Yi was playing the fool, he would make his voice small and pretend to be gentle and well-behaved. But now, he used his original voice that he was most comfortable with, and along with the acoustics of the box’s wooden walls—

In this way, Li Yuan, who had met him as two different people, didn’t hear anything wrong.

“Young Boss Li, for “The Last Fog Version 1.0,” I am only in charge of the project as a plot architect.”

“I will provide you with the complete creative story and infrastructure before the official launch. There will be no loss of contact during the development period, and in the places where efforts should be made, I will never be perfunctory.”

“And I will promise that before officially launching “The Last Fog 2.0,” I will let you see my ‘true face.’ At that time, you can reconfirm whether or not I am qualified enough to be your partner.”

Li Yuan silently judged the credibility of Will’s words, and his intuition told him the same thing as the first time—

This man was trustworthy.

And the game “The Last Fog” constructed by him was very likely to be the last rope to pull back Dawn Games.

Pei Yi accepted the silence from the other side and asked after waiting an appropriate amount of time, “Young Boss Li, what do you think?”

He and Dawn Games had already reached the edge of the cliff. Why not try this last chance?

Li Yuan made a final decision. “Okay!”

“Then replace the wine with tea, and we’ll wish each other a happy cooperation. By the way……” Pei Yi paused and assumed a serious attitude for talking about proper work, “Let me discuss with you the characteristics of the game ‘The Last Fog.’”

Li Yuan chuckled and lightly tapped the solid wood table with his teacup. “All right.”

. . . . . .

The two discussed for nearly an hour and a half before stopping.

Pei Yi glanced at the time. “Young Boss Li, I came here first and still have some personal matters to deal with.”

Upon hearing this, Li Yuan responded quickly.

After the formal communication with Will, his confidence in the setting of the game “The Last Fog” had greatly increased, and he was also eager to go back and improve his investment declaration plan.

Seeing that Pei Yi next door did not move, Li Yuan said belatedly, “Mr. Will, shall I go first?”

Pei Yi didn’t stop him. “En, we’ll connect online.”

“Okay.”

Li Yuan opened the tea room box and went out. When passing by the room where Will was, his footsteps stopped unconsciously. 

They were separated by one door.

Li Yuan only needed to reach out and push it lightly, and he could see Will’s true face. But he was very clear that if he really did this, it would directly hurt the trust of the partnership between them. 

The footsteps outside the door stopped and then walked on, gradually drifting away until they disappeared.

Pei Yi drank the tea in his cup, and his approval of Li Yuan increased by another degree—

Since he dared to come here today, he was secretly prepared for Li Yuan to distrust him and push the door in, but the other party’s actions just proved how sincere he was about this cooperation.

That being the case, Pei Yi was naturally willing to treat future cooperation with one hundred percent seriousness and prowess.

The time on the phone displayed three thirty in the afternoon.

Pei Yi broke free from his working state and continued with the next steps of his plan—

Bo Yueming would absolutely find out if he snuck out like this, so he thought of a way to get away with it.

He found the company address that Qin Yishun had sent him two days ago, and planned to ask his nominal big brother to take him out.

Even if Qin Yishun and Bo Yueming met, they probably wouldn’t be able to chat much given their personalities.

If they talked less, his secrets would not easily be revealed.

After confirming that Li Yuan was far away from the shop, Pei Yi immediately got up and left.

. . . . . .

As the largest independent risk-related company in China, STS provided consultation and corresponding protection for various security incidents—

From small residential properties, private stores and business districts, to the protection of celebrities and famous residences, enterprises and related private individuals would be escorted, alerted, and even rescued in the face of natural or human-made disasters.

Because of his outstanding abilities and demeanor, Qin Yishun had received this job invitation after retiring from the army to serve as the new manager of the STS Imperial Capital Headquarters.

After comprehensively considering his suitability for this job, Qin Yishun accepted.

The most direct reason was that the company was in the Imperial Capital, which allowed him to understand and take over Pei Yi’s situation at any time.

Knock, knock.

There was a knock on the door.

The intern assistant cautiously entered the office after receiving a cue. “Boss Qin.”

Qin Yishun had only been in the office for five days, and with his serious demeanor and extremely rigorous work style, he had shocked several departments under him.

Without raising his head, Qin Yishun handed over the coffee on the side, explaining simply, “Again, I don’t need coffee made for me during work hours, I only drink tea or plain water.”

Something as bitter as coffee was something he never could get used to.

The intern assistant was relieved, and nodded hastily. “Okay, Boss Qin. Then I’ll replace it for you now.”

The next second, there was another knock on the door.

Secretary Ai Ling approached and spoke, “Mr. Qin, the front door downstairs called to say that there is a young boy named ‘Pei Yi’ waiting for you in the lobby.”

Qin Yishun abruptly raised his head, a hint of uncertainty on his sharp features. “What?”

Secretary Ai Ling continued, “Because he didn’t make an appointment, the front desk wasn’t sure about your work schedule, so…..”

Before she could finish her words, Qin Yishun quickly walked out of the office under the two gazes of the intern assistant and secretary.

He was like a gust of wind passing by.

The intern assistant blinked uncertainly. “Sister Ai Ling, was Boss Qin just smiling?”

Secretary Ai Ling was also dumbfounded. “Did we……see it wrong?”

. . . . . .

In the lobby downstairs, Pei Yi was sitting patiently on a sofa in the rest area.

He was afraid of delaying the other party’s serious work, so he didn’t call directly, but went to the front desk while pretending to be well-behaved and reported his name.

Pei Yi thought at first that he would certainly have to wait for a while, but he didn’t expect that within five minutes, there would be a rush of footsteps—

Qin Yishun approached him quickly with a little surprise and disbelief.

“Xiao Yi! What are you doing here? Did Bo Yueming have someone send you over?”

Pei Yi’s eyes lit up, and he gave a reason with a bit of embarrassment, “Brother, eat tasty things.”

Qin Yishun remembered what he had promised his little brother a week ago. He was accepting a new job this week, and almost forgot the time when he was busy, which made Pei Yi come to him in person.

Regretful and happy at the same time, he completely forgot that Pei Yi hadn’t answered the second half of his question, and simply acquiesced to this reason.

Bo Yueming was a caring person to have sent Pei Yi to him for a get-together.

Qin Yishun looked at his little brother and was completely relieved of all work fatigue. “Yes, Brother promised you. I’ll take you out tonight, okay?”

“En!”

Pei Yi received the answer he wanted and handed over the bag he had carried all the way. “Here.”

He thought that since he had come to look for Qin Yishun, he should bring him a little something.

Qin Yishunw was stunned. “Xiao Yi, you’re giving this to me?”

Pei Yi nodded, pretending he didn’t talk much, and forced the bag into Qin Yishun’s hands.

Feeling that giving small gifts was too deliberate and clever, he had decided to start with the most everyday things.

He thought of Bo Yueming’s cup of coffee every morning and felt that Qin Yishun was the same type of person, so after leaving the tea shop, he deliberately sought out a coffee shop to buy this cup of coffee.

Pei Yi himself couldn’t enjoy the delights of coffee, but hoped that Qin Yishun would still accept it.

Qin Yishun suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, but the smile at the corners of his mouth still exceeded the norm a bit. Until he took out a cup of iced Americano from the bag.

“……..”

Qin Yishun’s smile paused for two or three seconds. After meeting his little brother’s starry eyes, he completely abandoned his customary principles he had just explained in the office, and was appropriately decisive—

“You know me well, Brother likes drinking coffee the most!”

---

[1] If you make wedding dresses for other people, you are doing all of the work without getting the benefits. ⮐

---

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Chapter Twenty-Eight <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Thirty

After the rebels slaughtered all of the common people in the city, they killed themselves with their own swords, leaving curses one after another before they went. In the next life, they would be born as hungry wolves and tigers, and kill the royal family and all the dog officials. Some of the rebels who slit the throats of the common people but not their own were captured alive by the Yan army, and tremblingly confessed the matter to Gao Lin.

“It’s also possible that in their next lives, the world will be stable,” Liu Xian’an said slowly. “Piles of beautiful clothing everywhere, a surplus of pearls and silk clothing in every household. There is also cured wine, chicken, and pork in the village houses, and the fragrance of rice and flowers spreads ten li away. Anyone who goes there can ask for a meal. So there is no need to have hatred anymore, no need to be a wolf or a tiger, they can just be peaceful people in peaceful times.”

Peaceful people in peaceful times. Gao Lin was rough and accustomed to life, but at this time, for some reason, these words suddenly hit his heart. With a lump in his throat, he quickly found an excuse to slip away elsewhere and ponder the good old days of peace and prosperity.

It took the soldiers two full days to bury all the corpses of the common people, and Qingyang City was almost emptied. Liang Shu did not escort Lu Xiang back to Wangcheng. Instead, he took him to continue westward, locked in an improvised prison cart, to see the devastation of the surrounding fields with his own eyes.

The noontime autumn sun was still so hot that people became dehydrated. From Lu Xiang’s birth until now, when had he ever suffered such crimes? He knew that this was a lynching that violated the laws of Dayan, but had no courage to object, because he knew that Liang Shu really would dare to kill him before the emperor issued the order.

That was a lofty, cruel, and violent lunatic.

. . . . . .

Liu Xian’an pressed Liang Shu’s head down: “Don’t move.”

As of late, when he was resting at night, he often came to give Liang Shu acupuncture. The soldiers around him were all moved, and lamented that His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was so ill that he looked like a hedgehog, yet he still had to march day and night. He really worked hard.

Liang Shu also felt that he worked very hard. From the head, all the way to the shoulders and neck, he couldn’t move. He looked like a half-carved wooden man who could only sit upright, a tingling sensation running down his back from time to time. Under the guise of passing by, Gao Lin looked back and forth three or four times, and at last found a time when Liu Xian’an was not around, trotting all the way over to ask: “Your Highness, do you want me to think of an excuse for you to slip away early tonight?”

Liang Shu’s face was also pierced with needles. He haughtily and stiffly spat out a sentence: “No need.”

Was it true or false that there was no need? Gao Lin was still worried. If it were before, he would not have such doubts. After all, everyone in the palace knew that when His Royal Highness Xiao Wang saw an acupuncture doctor, it was as if seeing a ghost. If he could be willing to sit there honestly and get stabbed, it must be because it really worked. But it was different now. Now, his prince was full of shameful thoughts, and Lieutenant General Gao felt that he had the responsibility to ask clearly whether this was treating a disease or losing one’s head over lust, lest the battle be imminent and the commander be unable to do his job properly after being pricked numb.

Liang Shu said: “Scram.”

Gao Lin didn’t scram. Not only did he not scram, but he also sat down and continued to make trouble. Liang Shu didn’t feel much pain at first, but when he saw this person standing before his eyes like a pillar, he immediately felt uncomfortable everywhere. Seeing that a second “scram” was already on his lips, Gao Lin interjected in a timely manner: “I have observed the past few days, and I feel that Second Young Master Liu is also very concerned about the prince.”

Liang Shu grudgingly said “En,” and decided to give him a few more chances to spit out ivory.

But facts proved that Gao Lin’s ivory quantity was not much, and after saying “very concerned,” he immediately turned the topic to military affairs and war. Even the half-dead Lu Xiang in the prison cart was carried out by him, and all the forces in the dynasty were carefully analyzed for a long time. Liang Shu really didn’t want to listen, but he had to, so he could only brace himself and deal with it. In the end,  Second Young Master Liu turned back in time, and only then did His Royal Highness Xiao Wang’s ears quiet down for a moment.

Liu Xian’an set down the things in his hands: “What are you talking about, Your Highness?”

Liang Shu said: “War.”

Liu Xian’an felt that he needed to have a talk with Gao Lin. In the future, it would be best to keep talk of war to the daytime, lest all the needles for calming nerves be in vain. Liang Shu sat on the soft stool and let him remove the needles from his head one by one. He also didn’t know if it was truly effective, if the medicinal scent of the other party’s sleeves was too good-smelling, or if his hands were too beautiful, but in short, the headache that Gao Lin’s mouth gave birth to just now really did go away. Instead, there was a sort of relaxed fatigue that seemed to make him float, and he could immediately go to sleep if he closed his eyes.

Liu Xian’an put away the silver needles and watched Liang Shu lie down before returning to the other side of camp. A-Ning poured hot water for him to wash and said: “It’s getting colder and colder these days.”

“The terrain of Sanshui City is high, so it will be colder,” Liu Xian’an said. “Divide the cold proofing medicinal materials prepared before into small packets, so that they can be used at any time. I will prepare the prince’s portion myself.”

“Okay.” A-Ning said with a smile, “Young Master, I’ve found that your relationship with the prince is getting closer. Uncle Li, who raises horses, said today that he has never seen anyone who dared to hold the prince’s head and put needles in it. Everyone admires you very much.”

“I’m a doctor.” Liu Xian’an sat by the fire. “However, the prince has been thinking too much recently, and he has been tense and unable to relax. Relying on medicine and acupuncture can treat the symptoms, but not the root cause.”

“If you think too much about heart disease, you need heart disease medicine.” A-Ning propped up his cheeks. “It’s best to find some good events to make the prince happy, so that he’s not always thinking about the war.”

The words were correct, but in these stormy marching hours, with rebels ahead and refugees behind and Baihe still leaking water like a sieve from time to time, not to mention finding a happy event that could enter His Royal Highness Xiao Wang’s eyes, even just finding one family holding a wedding banquet was harder than climbing to heaven.

A-Ning offered to undertake the task: “I’ll ask Lieutenant General Gao! He has been staying in the northwest for so many years, so he must know the prince’s preferences better than we do.” Having said this, he stood up and tiptoed over to look into the distance. Gao Lin happened to be talking to someone, so he trotted over immediately.

“Just in time.” Gao Lin pointed. “A pheasant is roasting over there, do you want to eat some?”

“I won’t eat, I came here to ask something,” A-Ning said. “What does the prince usually like?”

Gao Lin immediately sobered up a bit. Wait a moment, why did you come over to ask this for no reason? Combined with his prince’s unspeakable dream……he grabbed A-Ning’s arm and asked in a whisper: “Is it your family’s young master who wants to know?”

A-Ning was thoroughly confused by his excitement and eagerness: “Yes, it’s my family’s young master who wants to know.”

Gao Lin said: “Good, good, good, very good.”

A-Ning was more and more puzzled. Why was it so good?

Gao Lin was inexperienced in matchmaking, far less proficient in this than in killing people. Facing the red string that came out with great difficulty from his prince, he didn’t dare to say a word, for fear of messing it up, so he tried to put it off: “I have to think about it.”

A-Ning was greatly shocked. Think about it?

Gao Lin resolutely explained that the prince was usually busy with war and rarely revealed his personal preferences, and Gao Lin himself was careless, so he had to recall carefully.

A-Ning returned to his young master and relayed these words to him, saying: “I don’t know why, but Lieutenant General Gao seemed very happy.”

Liu Xian’an didn’t understand either. What was there to be happy about? The master and servant murmured together for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that he was probably happy about something else.

And Gao Lin was still feeling emotional at this time. He had thought it was his prince’s own wishful thinking and unrequited love, but he never expected that there would now be signs of mutual affection, what a great story, ah! He would have reported the good news at once, but the soldiers told him that the prince had already drank a bowl of calming soup and gone to bed, so he had no choice but to hold back his words. He couldn’t sleep the whole night, and the next day, he ran around energetically with dark circles beneath his eyes.

Liang Shu said: “Have you been cursed, or were you beaten?”

Gao Lin had an unfathomable expression on his face, and after finishing his report on military affairs, he approached mysteriously: “Your Highness, there is a happy event.”

His breath fell on his neck when he spoke, raising goosebumps all over Liang Shu’s body. He said in a panic: “Stand up straight and speak loudly.”

Gao Lin said: “This matter must not be spoken of loudly.”

Liang Shu frowned: “What kind of happy event cannot be spoken of loudly?”

Gao Lin cleared his throat. This is what you asked me to speak of loudly, ah! So he raised his voice and said: “Last night, Second Young Master Liu sent A-Ning to come to me and ask what  the prince – cough, cough, cough!”

Before he could finish speaking, Liang Shu grabbed his collar and dragged him to a secluded place. A generation of famous generals almost died on the spot, and he was forced to say: “He asked what?”

Gao Lin suffered such an unearned disaster and said with his last breath: “He asked what the prince likes.”

Liang Shu’s eyebrows twitched slightly: “Oh?”

Gao Lin firmly grasped the moment to take a breath, and after recounting what A-Ning asked him in detail, he said: “I thought about it carefully. A-Ning went back and joined the Second Young Master again, and they talked for a long time. They must have been talking about the prince.”

Liang Shu said calmly: “Why ask this?”

Although Gao Lin was a bachelor, he knew what should be done: “Naturally because of concern.” This kind of inference was very reasonable, ah. If someone didn’t care or have affection, why would they care about what someone else liked?

Liang Shu was in a good mood.

“Then how should I answer?” Gao Lin was still pondering this. “I can’t honestly tell Second Young Master Liu that the prince likes to hunt wolves in the desert, right? That sounds too much like looking for trouble. I saw when the matchmakers in Yueya City were proclaiming marriages to old bachelors, everyone knew that the crooked melons and split dates^[1] were painted with a layer of glossy varnish, praising them up to the sky.”

But there was no way to say he liked poems, songs, instruments, chess, or calligraphy and painting. The slightest mistake would expose him, which would be even more embarrassing.

Gao Lin didn’t usually think about it, but now that he listed them out, only then did he realize that his prince was so ignorant.

He suggested, I have a xun here, why not learn to play it now, at least it is an instrument, and playing songs about homesickness in the northwest sounds very lonely and tragic, which is very moving.

Liang Shu said: “So you feel that at this time, this lord can spare an hour every day to go to a deserted place eighteen li away and learn to play the xun by himself?”

Gao Lin: “……Then we can think up something else.”

Nothing that required learning, nothing cruel, nothing shameful, nothing revealing.

With great difficulty, they landed on the same thing.

A-Ning ran to find his young master: “Lieutenant General Gao came looking for me just now.” He was almost out of breath. “He said that when the prince was in the northwest, he liked to go to the depths of the desert to view the stars and sky.”

This was a “hobby” that Gao Lin thought up after almost digging out his brain. It was a simple one. Almost everybody would look up at the sky, and it had the same lofty loneliness of playing the xun. Also, one did not just look up at the sky, but it must be accompanied by some thinking, didn’t this immediately raise his quality? Speaking or not speaking, he looked like a romantic poet, fundamentally different from desert ruffians who liked to beat wolves.

Sure enough, Liu Xian’an was also moved, and thought of the northwest described by the poets, with its vast expanses and sea of stars.

This was not a desert, but there were equally beautiful places to view stars. So he approached Liang Shu and offered an invitation: “If the prince suffers from insomnia in the middle of the night again, he can come look at the stars with me.”

Liang Shu said in a dignified way: “All right.”

Then he lost sleep that night.

Although Liu Xian’an was called out from under his blanket, he was not angry, as he could sleep during the day or at night. He just wondered, didn’t the sleep medication work just fine a few days ago? Why did it fail tonight?

Liang Shu placed the man on Xuan Jiao’s back and took him into the wilderness.

They looked at the stars.

---

[1] “Crooked melons and split dates” are people who are deficient in some way. ⮐

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Chapter Forty-One << Table of Contents >> Chapter Forty-Three

Four years later, at the turn of spring and summer, Zhao Xuan passed away.

Although his life had been recovered after the assassination, the injury was deep-rooted, and he required medicinal concoctions every day to maintain his health.

Since the crown prince was young, he could only continue to be diligent regarding politics, on his feet early in the early morning and allowing himself no rest until late at night. His health went from bad to worse, and when he finally fell ill a month ago, medicine was ineffective.

Lying on the hospital bed, Zhao Xuan still did not forget state affairs, convening with ministers to discuss policies that benefited the country and the common people every day, and rarely mentioned his own affairs.

He only said a thing or two in front of people close to him.

On this day, Zhao Xuan intentionally kept Zhao Yelan and Yan Mingting behind. After first discussing border issues with Yan Mingting, he coughed loudly and gave a wan smile: “No need to be so sad. You blocked an arrow for me before and saved my life, allowing me to live for so many years…..perhaps this is my fate, and I would have this result sooner or later.”

Zhao Yelan frowned.

“It is said that before death, a person will constantly recall his own life.” The corners of Zhao Xuan’s mouth twitched. “I’ve thought for a long time, and found that my memory is only clear after getting to know you. I don’t want to remember earlier things, they are all unbearable memories. What happened after, I don’t want to think about too closely. I feel that I was gradually addicted to the power struggle, and even nearly lost a friend who had been with me for many years.”

Zhao Yelan turned his face away. Yan Mingting walked up to him and pulled his head against his chest, patting him lightly.

Zhao Xuan looked at them and smiled. Many things were difficult to see through the fog, and you would only notice them once you were out of the game. If these two people were not in harmony, or either one of them had a rebellious heart, his country would be in chaos again. 

At this time, Sun Muyun brought the crown prince to visit. The prince was cute and clever, with a personality more stable than his age, perhaps because of the temperaments of his father and Grand Tutor. But facing his mother concubine and the General, he became a little mischievous and naughty.

Zhao Xuan touched the crown prince’s head, smiled, and said with some difficulty: “From now on, this child will be handed over to you. Please help me take care of him for a few more years.”

Zhao Yelan looked at him and seemed to know what his intentions were. He said: “This is a large matter, it had best be discussed with the other ministers……”

“No need, I’ve made up my mind. It’s just a waste of words to discuss it with them, they’re only staring at the throne under me.” Zhao Xuan coughed a few times. “Let this matter go, I only trust you now. If he’s a good-for-nothing, you must teach him a lesson for me. If he’s not cut out for it, you can replace him if you want, but I hope you can treat this mother and child kindly……”

The next day, Zhao Xuan was in good spirits and made a rare appearance at morning court. This time, he only spoke of his own affairs and nothing else, addressing the Imperial mausoleum and the specifications for the funeral.

However, in the end, he announced a decision that shocked everyone.

—Zhao Yelan was to be promoted as Regent, temporarily acting in the crown prince’s stead to handle state affairs.

This move undoubtedly set off a huge wave of public opinion among the court and the people.

There were few heirs in the harem. Other than the crown prince, there were only two princesses, all by Sun Muyun. After Zhao Xuan’s death, the throne would naturally be in the pockets of those people with aspirations.

Now Zhao Yelan, who was not part of the royal family, was given the post of Regent. It was tantamount to handing over the country to others, not to mention that Zhao Yelan was not one who was content to be idle. Who could be given this huge power and not be tempted?

However, Zhao Xuan did his best to resist all the arguments, and after proclaiming his Imperial decree, he went to the harem and had lunch with Sun Muyun. Then he took a nap in bed that afternoon, and never woke up again.

After the national funeral was held, Zhao Yelan took the seat of Regent in an orderly manner. The Crown Prince ascended the throne, and there was a chair for one of high status placed at the front of the throne room, which was Zhao Yelan’s seat.

Everyone was a bit unresponsive at first, looking at Zhao Yelan and then looking at each other. It was Yan Mingting who spoke first, asking if the Regent could organize the surplus soldiers in the capital into the Imperial Guard.

Kan Chuan then asked how the vacant official positions should be filled.

Seeing this, the other people could only slowly adapt.

The most comfortable was Yan Mingting. Usually, coming to morning court was the thing he disliked the most. He would get up early and return just in time to go to the Imperial Academy, so the two of them could only see each other at night.

Now it was different, and they could get up early together and go home together.

He stared intently at the person who was sitting at the front of the hall at this moment. His demeanor was natural and poised, quite dignified, and he remained calm in the face of other people’s difficulties. It was really hard to think that just half an hour ago, this fellow was still lying in bed, closing his eyes through the whole process of getting ready entirely through Yan Mingting’s help. He didn’t even want to walk, lying lazily on top of him and scolding him for not letting him sleep more.

Whether it was the Zhao Yelan who was willful and unbridled, or the Zhao Yelan who was lazy and coquettish, only he, Yan Mingting, could see it.

It took more than three months for Zhao Yelan to make the ministers surrender, and he also asked Yan Mingting to send troops to frighten the vassal kings who were starting to move around. Thus, he was firmly seated, and the court returned to calm.

However, there was controversy amongst the public.

Rumors came from an unknown source, saying that Zhao Yelan had wolfish ambition and coaxed the little emperor every day in order to replace him without needing a single soldier!

Yan Mingting found out as soon as the rumor spread. After all, he was now more free than Zhao Yelan.

He didn’t let the news reach Zhao Yelan’s ears, and didn’t believe that Zhao Yelan would replace the crown prince at all, but there was one thing that he kept in mind.

At night, after the two had finished enjoying themselves, Yan Mingting tapped his finger on the bridge of his nose and finally restrained himself enough to ask: “Why did Zhao Xuan ask you to be the Regent? It isn’t that his royal family has no other children. He has a fifth younger brother to the south, so it shouldn’t be your turn, ba.”

Zhao Yelan glanced at him and said: “You pig brain, no matter how distant the children of other clans of the royal family are, they have the same blood, and it would be even more difficult to compete for the throne. If there were to be a legitimate reason, then the country left for the little emperor would be taken away by others.”

“He wasn’t afraid of you taking it away?” Yan Mingting said sourly, “Or did he feel guilty toward you, and even if you took the country away, he didn’t care?”

“Why wouldn’t he care, he was just settling his affairs and making a bet.”

“Betting that you would have a conscience?”

“Betting on our relationship,” Zhao Yelan said. “In the few days before his death, do you know why he called the two of us together from time to time?”

Yan Mingting pondered: “He was envious?”

Zhao Yelan smiled helplessly: “He wanted to make sure our relationship would last forever. Only in this way could he rest assured handing the crown prince and country over to me temporarily, because as long as our relationship lasts, we will have no heirs.”

If Zhao Yelan really wanted this country, what was the use of taking it away for a few decades when he had no one to take over when he grew old? If he only wanted to enjoy power in those intervening decades, then he could enjoy it as the Regent, and had no need to be charged with conspiracy to usurp the throne.

And Zhao Xuan had continuously told Zhao Sui to listen to Zhao Yelan for the sake of the overall situation, so that the relationship between the two could be harmonious and Zhao Yelan could help the little emperor more attentively.

Plus, Zhao Xuan was far-sighted enough to give Zhao Yelan a death-exemption plate^[1] without telling everyone, so that Zhao Sui would not turn against him when his wings grew stronger. This plate could save him from death, and it could also be regarded as repaying Zhao Yelan’s kindness to the Zhao royal family.

“He was dedicated after sitting on the throne and only lived comfortably for a few days.” Zhao Yelan sighed and turned his head to look at him. He found that he seemed to have gotten rid of that sort of life only after getting married. “It’s very good now, I don’t want to worry about those things like him…..”

“En, our lives should be a little more relaxed.” 

Yan Mingting picked him up and put him in bed, wrapping him tightly with a quilt and kissing his forehead.

The next day was a rest day. It was still early spring, and the weather was a bit cold. Zhao Yelan stayed in bed until noon before being pulled up by Yan Mingting.

“I heard that the market is very lively today, let’s go shopping together.”

“What is there to do?”

“You’ve been very busy recently, and you haven’t gone out with me for a long time,” Yan Mingting said rather sadly.

Zhao Yelan glanced at him, and reluctantly agreed.

Yan Mingting dressed him up thickly, and after having lunch together, cheerfully took him to the streets.

If they were going to the streets, just go to the streets, what was he doing with a basket?

What’s more, it was on Zhao Yelan’s forearm.

“What is this?” Zhao Yelan said coldly.

“We’re going to buy a lot of things, so I brought a basket to put them in.” Yan Mingting chuckled and led him to the busiest market.

When the common people saw Zhao Yelan, their expressions were a bit strange. When the rumors started these past two days, some people thought he might not be a good person, and now they looked at him with a bit of inquiry.

Zhao Yelan also noticed everyone peeking at him, but subconsciously thought that these people found his act of carrying a basket strange.

Then the common people discovered that Zhao Yelan had entered the vegetable market with Yan Mingting, and after a while, handfuls of green vegetables filled the basket, greener than Zhao Yelan’s face.

“You just came to buy these?” Zhao Yelan asked.

Everyone saw that Zhao Yelan was about to get angry, then heard the General say: “Yes, ah, I just want to eat these, let’s buy a few.”

Then Zhao Yelan held back his anger.

Really obedient, ah, the common people thought.

Not long after, Yan Mingting was drawn to a nest of chicks and squatted down to stare at them, saying with a happy smile: “You choose a few that you like.”

“What is there to choose? Won’t they all go in the pot when they grow up?” Zhao Yelan could smell the odor from a long distance away, and covered his nose with a handkerchief, giving him a few glances. “Can’t you let the servants come buy them?”

The onlookers felt that Zhao Yelan was about to lose his temper. This looked like the original treacherous official, ah, wouldn’t he be even more terrifying now that he was Regent?

“The servants’ purchases were unsatisfactory, don’t you want to pick them yourself?” Yan Mingting gestured him over. “Come and have a look, they’re very cute.”

Zhao Yelan didn’t go.

Yan Mingting held one and walked up to him: “Pet it?”

Zhao Yelan took a glance and found that it was indeed much cuter now than an adult chicken, so he touched it with a frown.

The chick: “Chirp chirp!”

“Hurry and finish buying so we can go.” Zhao Yelan just wanted to finish quickly.

“Then buy them all.” Yan Mingting picked up a basket of chicks and suddenly turned to look at him. “Have you brought any money?”

“……..” After Zhao Yelan paid the money, it really stunk to death, so he hurriedly left that place.

But Yan Mingting lagged behind, chatting with the people around him casually.

“General, why did you come to buy vegetables yourself, ah?”

“Because he wanted to go out with me. It couldn’t be helped, he’s so clingy.”

“Why isn’t Zhao-daren walking with you?”

“He’s in a hurry to go back and eat……and make steamed buns. The buns he makes for me are very delicious.”

“He can make steamed buns?”

“En, he learned specially for me!”

“Really? Which of you usually has a higher status at home?”

“Of course it’s me! If he is disobedient, I will…..” Yan Mingting waved his fist.

“Whoa! The General is mighty!”

Not a few days after, the news that Zhao Yelan and Yan Mingting went to the vegetable market together spread all over the streets and alleys. Compared with the unknown matter of whether he would seize control of the country, they were more interested in the odds and ends happening in front of them, and everyone spread the word vividly and colorfully.

When it reached Zhao Yelan’s ears, the news had become like this—

It was said that Zhao Yelan was beaten every day. He had to repair the roof tiles when the house leaked and also work in the kitchen. He served his husband and was very obedient, so he never dared condemn people. Hey, the General is truly mighty! 

He learned this from the mouth of the little emperor. When he was taking the little emperor to review memorials, he heard Zhao Sui call in a childish voice: “Taifu.” Zhao Sui was still more used to calling him by his title as the Grand Tutor.

“Taifu, it’s getting dark. If you don’t go back, aren’t you afraid of being beaten?”

Zhao Yelan: “ ? ”

“You must be working hard. You help me deal with government affairs every day, and you have to cook when you get home.” After Zhao Sui said this, he continued with some distress, “If the General really beats you, you can tell me, and I will help you vent your anger!”

When Yan Mingting came back from his work in the evening, he saw Zhao Yelan’s cold expression, and the other party asked in an interrogator’s tone: “Where did you go?”

“I w-w-w-went to drink some wine with the Minister of the Ministry of War.” Yan Mingting took the initiative to admit his mistake, “I’m sorry, the next time I drink, I will come back early!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Zhao Yelan narrow his eyes slightly and take out a short knife. Feeling that something was wrong, he hastened to squat down obediently, explaining in detail: “It was really just drinking, all big men and not a single girl!”

Zhao Yelan scoffed and sat lazily on the edge of the bed, playing with the dagger with the tails of his eyes slightly raised: “Let me ask you, where did the rumors come from?”

Oh, it wasn’t about the drinking. Yan Mingting heaved a sigh of relief, but didn’t dare to stand up: “They, they came from my dog mouth.”

Zhao Yelan walked in front of him and looked at him with a haughty expression, his eyes lingering on his face as he thought of ways to punish him.

Yan Mingting’s throat tightened. When he looked at him like this, he felt a little distracted, and he reached out and pulled this person onto his lap. “Madam, please take the seat of honor, you don’t have to get up early tomorrow.”

“…….” Zhao Yelan raised his eyes. “You are not allowed in my bed for three days.”

“…….” Yan Mingting suddenly picked him up and put him on the nearby table, leaning over to kiss him. “Then right here it is, ba.”

Later, this rumor that had just been spread among the people was shattered by the daily life of the General’s Mansion. The common people deeply believed that as long as Zhao Yelan was with Yan Mingting, General Yan would keep him under control and he would cause no trouble at all.

But gradually, everyone discovered that it was Yan Mingting who made more trouble. And as for who was in charge in this family, it was still up for discussion.

But that was all for later.

According to historical records, the official career of Zhao Yelan could be described as tumultuous. From a nobody to the position of Regent, he assisted the Emperor by participating in and discussing state affairs. During the decade when the old emperor changed to the new, the common people lived and worked in peace and contentment, the court recruited talented people, embankments, roads, and canals were built, taxes were reduced, and commercial channels were opened up so that all nations could come to the court.

Ten years later, he resigned from the position of regent, and Emperor Zhao Sui, whom he had personally taught, took over the country. He continued to follow his Grand Tutor’s policies and pushed the dynasty to its peak.

Apart from Zhao Yelan’s legendary official career, the aspect most discussed by later generations was his love affair with General Yan Mingting.

Although the two were both men, one civil and one military, they helped run the country and suppressed rebellions. Marrying because of an Imperial decree, they got to know each other and fell in love, never abandoning each other, and this became a good story passed down from generation to generation.

According to unofficial history, after Zhao Yelan retired, he went with Yan Mingting to travel the mountains and rivers.

Someone once saw them making tea and food in the countryside, laughing and cursing, so very happy; it was also seen that they drank fine wine and tasted delicacies high in tea houses, sharing worldly experiences.

No matter what sort of record, time constantly passed, and places constantly changed.

In this long life, it was truly difficult to find an intimate and understanding friend.

The only constant was that Zhao Yelan would always have Yan Mingting by his side.

*

T/N: That’s the end, everyone! Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the journey! There are a whopping total of 13 extras coming up, including a 6-part alternate storyline showing what might have happened if ZYL really faked his death.

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[1] A death-exemption plate (免死金牌) is a plate  bestowed by the emperor, allowing one to be exempt from the death penalty. ⮐

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Chapter Ninety-One <<Table of Contents >> Extra 1: Birthday

The weather was gradually getting warmer. There was no need for heavy cloaks anymore, but mainly light, thin clothes, which helped Li Yucheng’s Jiangnan silk shop make a fortune as people rushed to buy soft, comfortable, and breathable fabrics.

In the evening, Yin Pinglu took the time to come to the General’s Mansion, just in time to meet Zhao Yelan, who had returned from the Imperial Academy, and check the accounts with him.

The two talked about business in the study, but it was very lively outside. Zuo Ran and He Cuizhang were dueling in the courtyard.

Yan Mingting lay on a reclining chair, watching them fight. He held a bunch of grapes in his hand and said a few words from time to time, greatly enjoying it. 

According to Yan Mingting’s words, if he stayed in the mansion every day, he would truly be too idle.

Zhao Yelan first found Mrs. Qin to chat with him and relieve the boredom, but the old lady was so fond of gossiping that she nearly led Yan Mingting astray. Zhao Yelan had no choice but to invite the old lady to return to the back mountain, and and invited a storyteller to come to the mansion.

When he heard the scene where Zhao Yun charged in and out of the enemy ranks seven times,^[1] Yan Mingting waved his hands and said that he didn’t tell it well enough. He snatched the other’s xingmu from his hand, placed it on the table, and began to speak endlessly to the storyteller.

As soon as Zhao Yelan returned to the mansion, he saw the storyteller and the servants squatting in the courtyard, listening to Yan Mingting vividly tell a battlefield story. It was so eventful and exciting that even he couldn’t help but stop and listen for a while, and at night, he was still asking what happened next.

But the storyteller was not paid, with the justification that he had only come to listen to a story, and a different storyteller was brought in who was a young girl.

This time, it was not about the bloody battlefield, but an emotional story that moved heaven and earth. Yan Mingting was fascinated by it, and could not extricate himself from it.

As a result, Zhao Yelan looked at him a few more times and said: “Fellow, put away your dirty little thoughts.”

Yan Mingting was swatted at by him, and he said: “Do you know who you’re beating? A prestigious general, a man favored by the heavens. No one else dared do this to me, you were the first. Very good, I’ll make you pay.”

“…….” Zhao Yelan tugged his ear and smiled wickedly. “Hehehehe, fellow, are you trying to attract my attention in this way? Very good, you’ve succeeded. Next, I’m going to kiss you.”

Zhao Yelan pushed his face away.

Unfortunately, the female storyteller was also fired.

But fortunately, Yan Mingting’s body was healing well. He ate a lot and gradually gained weight, and was no longer as thin as he was at the beginning. Yan Mingting dared to look in the mirror now. At one point in the past, he was so ugly that he couldn’t bear to look, yet Zhao Yelan never left, and he was so moved that he had to kiss him forcefully.

Zhao Yelan: “Scram.” The aftereffects of listening to an opera were so severe?

Today, He Cuizhang happened to come to talk with Yan Mingting about some serious business. After the talk, they bumped into Zuo Ran, who had come to accompany Yin Pinglu, and the three of them chatted outside. Yan Mingting looked around and suddenly said: “Let’s have a competition, ba.”

The two people: “Why do you want to compete all of a sudden?”

“I haven’t supervised you for a long time, and I want to inspect how you’re doing now,” Yan Mingting said without a change of expression.

He called it an inspection, but it was actually a show.

After the two finished, he set down the grapes and wiped his hands. “Zuo Ran has made progress. He Cuizhang, you can stop going so easy on her next time.”

Zuo Ran refused to admit defeat, and said: “It’s because I have memorized too many books recently, and delayed my practice time.”

While they talked, the two people in the study emerged. Zhao Yelan said: “It’s getting dark, let’s go eat first.”

As soon as they sat down at the table, Li Yucheng rushed in, shouting: “Zhao Yelan, I thought of another way to make money! You see if it can be done!”

As he spoke, he squeezed beside Zhao Yelan, and Yan Mingting squeezed him back out. “Go, go, go. Do not speak when eating or sleeping, don’t you know? Finish eating and then talk.

Li Yucheng pouted and sent a meaningful look at Zhao Yelan, signaling him to deal with this fellow.

A smile flashed through Zhao Yelan’s eyes, and he said: “Eat your meal first, ba.”

Li Yucheng: “…….” Life is bitter.

In June, after the doctor’s examination and a full recovery, the first thing Yan Mingting did was rush to the training grounds to exercise, then he went to the Imperial Academy to pick up Zhao Yelan and go home.

“There are really no problems?” Zhao Yelan confirmed again and again.

“Not any more!” Yan Mingting patted his chest. “Don’t worry, I just came back from the training grounds. Although I have to catch up to where I was before, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been active, I can catch up with practice.”

“That’s great.” Zhao Yelan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and his teetering heart finally stabilized.

At night, the two lay in bed and talked, and Zhao Yelan yawned several times but insisted on not sleeping.

“Since you don’t want to sleep, let’s do something else.”

“Do what?”

“Didn’t you say……” Yan Mingting turned over and put his hands on his sides, looking down at him with a smile, “…..Anything?”

“…….”

Ever since Yan Mingting began to recuperate from the detoxification, they hadn’t done such things. The main reason was that Zhao Yelan feared something would go wrong and delay his recovery, so it was strictly prohibited, and he was pure-hearted and ascetic.

Now, it seemed that he had fully recovered, and he was outrageously full of vim and vigor.

Of course, he was no monk, and naturally had needs. So even if he was aware that Yan Mingting was asking the question while already knowing the answer, he still replied proudly, “Anything.”

“What kind of anything?” Yan Mingitng asked with a smile.

“Such nonsense.” Zhao Yelan grasped his chin, lifted his head, and kissed him.

While breathing heavily, Zhao Yelan faintly heard the sound of clappers being beaten outside and pushed the person away a little, his chest rising and falling slightly. He asked, out of breath: “What time is it?”

“June thirteenth, midnight.” Yan Mingting’s eyes brightened.

Zhao Yelan looked at him with a slight arc to his eyebrows: “Fangli, it’s an auspicious birthday.”

“En. This year’s birthday wish is still the same as last year’s. That we spend every birthday together in the future.”

“En……hmm!”

In the early morning, the sun shone into the room. Zhao Yelan was already fully dressed, and after eating longevity noodles with Yan Mingting, the guests arrived.

Not only friends, but also many colleagues. When everyone heard that Yan Mingting had recovered, they all came to visit and celebrate his birthday.

This time, Yan Mingting couldn’t refuse their kindness again. They had spent time together for a year and were very familiar with each other, so a rather lively banquet was set up.

It lasted until the afternoon, and the General’s Mansion was bustling. Yan Mingting was busy greeting the guests when he suddenly realized that he hadn’t seen Zhao Yelan for a while, so he went to Housekeeper Qin and asked where he was.

Housekeeper Qin whispered back to him: “Didn’t all the guests bring gifts? My lord went to check on them.”

“…….”

For some reason, Yan Mingting burst out laughing. It was as if he was seeing that person who was addicted to the gift money on their wedding night again.

The guests gradually dispersed. Yan Mingting sent them out the gate one by one, then turned to look for Zhao Yelan, but he was nowhere to be found. So he headed to the storeroom again, but there was still no sign, so he asked: “Where did he go?”

Housekeeper Qin thought for a moment, and then said: “He and Xiao Gao seem to have gone to Zhao Mansion.”

“Zhao Mansion?”

At this time, the Zhao Mansion was much more deserted than in previous years, and there were usually only a few servants to clean and maintain it.

When Zhao Yelan stepped into the mansion again, he felt as if he had been in another world. Looking at the rather exquisite rockery, he unexpectedly felt that there was not enough vitality, and that he should add a chicken coop or a fish pond to make it livelier.

Amused by his own thoughts, he returned to his previous bedroom, which was still clean and tidy. After looking around, he sat down by the window and admired the scenery in the courtyard until Yan Mingting appeared in his sight.

Yan Mingting also wore ocher-colored clothes today, which Zhao Yelan chose for him. He had a similar outfit that he had worn on his birthday last year that Yan Mingting liked very much, so Zhao Yelan had gone out and had one made for him, which he didn’t wear until today.

This person usually only wore black and silver clothes. Suddenly putting on brighter clothes, he was even more flamboyant. 

However, Yan Mingting had still worn a more dazzling color. The vermillion wedding robes had made Zhao Yelan’s eyes light up at first sight, as if his heart had been touched at the time.

“Look at that flower. It rained heavily last year, and it almost wilted. I thought it must have withered.” Zhao Yelan waited for him to approach the window before pointing to the flower outside the window and saying so.

“It looks pretty good now, ah,” Yan Mingting said.

“Yes, it’s unexpectedly strong.” Zhao Yelan smiled to himself, remembering the moment he had just received the Imperial decree of marriage. Comparing himself to a flower on a rainy day, he only felt that he was at the end of his rope, and never expected that the clouds and fog would be lifted away to reveal the sun.

At this thought, he suddenly recalled another thing and asked: “At that time, I asked Xiao Gao to send you some broken flowers and withered willows. Did you ever receive them?”

“I received them.” Yan Mingting was a little moved. “I received your kindness.”

Zhao Yelan looked bewildered: “What do you mean?”

“The fallen flowers for desire, and the broken willows to express love, ah,” Yan Mingting said.

“…….”

Zhao Yelan looked at him slowly. Why didn’t I know there was such a meaning?

No wonder this fellow was so confident when they first married. It turned out that he made a mistake a long time ago.

Just as he was thinking, he heard the sound of boxes being rummaged through. He turned his head and saw Yan Mingting poking around his bedroom.

“It’s the first time I’ve been in this room,” Yan Mingting said with novelty. He later found several sachets stored in the room, and upon picking them up, he smelled the scent of sweetgrass. He tossed it out immediately, just as he had tossed out the one in the General’s Mansion a few days ago.

Zhao Yelan smiled helplessly: “Do you know why I wore sweetgrass when we got married?”

“Why?”

“I just thought, ah, if you were an ugly monster with bad conduct, I would poison you to death first, and at worst, we would die together.”

“Whoa!” Yan Mingting patted his chest in fear. “Fortunately, I am handsome and dashing, and a family man.”

Zhao Yelan walked out of the bedroom and across the bluestone slabs step by step, thinking back to the spring of last year. He wore wedding robes as he walked down this path, and aside from the red before his eyes, he could only see the slabs under his feet. He didn’t know what obstacles and difficulties would appear ahead, and didn’t know where he would end up.

At this time, a big hand suddenly reached out from the side and landed in the center of his vision, and he took it without thought.

“Your mansion is really elegant.” Yan Mingting gazed around.

There was just a bit less of a human touch.

Zhao Yelan had only lived in the Zhao residence for a few years, and hardly talked with the servants. It had a cold appearance each day, and there were no friends to visit, so it was even more quiet and deserted.

The two walked outside the gate. Zhao Yelan entered the sedan chair, and Yan Mingting followed.

After a while, Zhao Yelan lifted the curtain and looked outside. Someone spotted him and smiled at him before getting back to business. 

“Last year, when I was sitting in the wedding sedan chair, many people cursed me on this street,” Zhao Yelan said.

Yan Mingting was taken aback for a moment, and then realized that this street was the one the other party had taken when they married. He said: “Not anymore.”

“Of course, I was cursing you in my heart.” Zhao Yelan smiled.

“Actually, I also…….”

Zhao Yelan swiftly glanced at him.

“Actually, I didn’t know what to say!” Yan Mingting promptly changed his words and raised his hands halfway in the air, making a gesture of surrender. “At that time, I was waiting for the sedan chair in the mansion. My mind was full of guessing what you might look like, and whether we would still recognize each other.”

Zhao Yelan put away his murderous gaze and said calmly: “And then?”

“Then I realized that you had grown even more good-looking. I recognized you at a glance, but it is a pity that you didn’t recognize me.”

“You should be glad I didn’t recognize you, ba. If you still looked like you did when you were young……”

“Forget, forget, forget about my ugly face!”

The sedan chair slowly returned to the General’s Mansion. Yan Mingting got off the sedan chair and then reached his hand through the curtain. The familiar scene somewhat stunned Zhao Yelan, and the corners of his mouth hooked up.

Compared with last year’s hand, this hand had a few more scars. Zhao Yelan took it and was led to the door by him. He asked: “I was wearing a veil and couldn’t see other people. Did any of the guests look at us and mock us?”

“To be honest, they were all there to mock us,” Yan Mingting sighed. “I couldn’t wait to grab your veil and cover my head, but no, as the host, I had to be dignified.”

“…….”

A very sumptuous dinner had been prepared in the mansion, and the two of them retired to their room after eating.

Zhao Yelan took out his congratulatory gift, a safety talisman.

“You don’t have to worry about food or clothing, and after much deliberation, I still wanted to give you health.”

Zhao Yelan hung the safety talisman on him and said: “This is the talisman I prayed for you last time in Lingyun Temple. I wish for you to stay safely by my side in the future.”

“I will.” Yan Mingting touched the talisman solemnly. This was what Zhao Yelan had begged for after crawling all day and risking half his life.

Zhao Yelan pressed his hand again: “Don’t move.”

Yan Mingting froze, and then saw him take out two concentric knot bracelets. They were made with red rope, and one was tied around his wrist to cover the scar.

The other was handed to Yan Mingting. He slowly put it on for the other party, and it made his slender white wrist look even more attractive.

The two red bracelets were like the red line of fate, holding them together in perpetual unity.

“Wait……the thing you’ve been working on for the past few days, is this it?” Yan Mingting suddenly realized, “You made these yourself?”

Zhao Yelan gazed at him silently.

“Really, ah?” Yan Mingting was amazed, and took his hands to rub them. “Hard work, hard work, it’s been really hard on these hands. I will definitely wear this for the rest of my life!”

The two gazed at each other for a long moment, and Yan Mingting remembered something else. He went out for a moment, and when he returned, he held a jug of wine in his hand and said with a smile: “We haven’t drunk the wedding wine yet. How about we make up for it today?”

Two cups of wine were placed on the table. Zhao Yelan walked over and the two picked up their cups, crossed their arms, raised their heads, and drank it all in one gulp.

Zhao Yelan wrinkled his face and set the cup down, looking at him faintly: “Very strong wine.”

Yan Mingting averted his eyes guiltily. 

“You know I’m not a good drinker.” Zhao Yelen narrowed his eyes slightly.

“That is…..I just think you’re very provocative when you’re drunk, and you take the initiative to say a lot of love words.”

“Sleep in the study tonight.” Zhao Yelan drove him out.

Not long after, Yan Mingting dove in from the roof, kissed that blushing and sweating person, and asked in a low voice: “Mengting, who is your favorite person?”

Zhao Yelan bit his lower lip, refusing to speak.

Yan Mingting liked his appearance very much. His eyes revealed love and desire, but he was very proud and arrogant, waiting for his devout believer to offer him everything.

And Yan Mingting was willing to be his only believer in this life.

“Mengting, I love you, I will never leave you.” Yan Mingting continued to kiss him.

“En, my love will never change.”

Zhao Yelan caressed his cheek. There was light in his eyes, and this man stood in that light at all times.

The two of them tangled together, and Zhao Yelan grasped a strand of black hair: “Fangli, let’s grow white hair together.”

“All right, it’s a deal.”

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[1] This is a famous scene from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. ⮐

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Chapter Ninety <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Ninety-Two