General’s Gown

Yan Changqing didn’t expect Helian Rongchuan to say such things and his eyes widened. In his mind, he was on the sparkling Jiaolu River and saw Helian Rongchuan riding a small boat and falling lightly behind him. He held a reed in his mouth with a smirk at the corner of his mouth, and the bloody kiss at the bottom of the river… 

So what he felt when he said sorry to Helian Rongchuan before he turned to the attacker without hesitation, he knew very well in his heart. 

But now, the more he knew his feelings at the time, the more chilling and ridiculous he felt. 

Coincidentally, his hand touched a smooth hard object just touched a smooth hard object on his hand. Without looking at it, he raised his hand and smashed it at Helian Rongchuan. 

With a bang, Helian Rongchuan’s eyebrows were split open, a small bood gash splitting at the seams, and blood flowed down his cheeks. A small copper incense burner was knocked over to the ground, with a little bit of blood on it’s edge. 

Yan Changqing’s eyebrows throbbed, and he turned his head away. 

“Regret?” Yan Changqing said coldly: “If you give me another chance, I will kill you with a single sword.” 

Helian Rongchuan smiled bitterly. He had already expected that when he asked this question at this time, he would only receive a response like that from Yan Changqing. However, his demeanor was of a stunned man watching his first love shatter before him.. Helian Rongchuan wiped his bloody forehead, reached for the medicine bowl, scooped up a spoon to his lips and blew softly: “No matter what, drink the medicine first, okay?”

A steaming bowl of medicine lay in front of Yan Changqing. Helian Rongchuan smiled and said, “This is the first time I’m serving a person to drink medicine. Master Yan, can you give me some face?” 

Before his words were finished, Yan Changqing didn’t even lift his eyes and knocked over the medicine bowl beside the table. 

Helian Rongchuan seemed to have anticipated the fate of this bowl early on, and without frowning, he poured another bowl: 

“Master Yan is afraid of the bitterness? Don’t be afraid, I have prepared yummy candy. Just drink the medicine then you can suck on them.” 

Ridiculous, did he treat him like a child? 

Yan Changqing turned his head and closed his eyes, not wanting to look at Helian Rongchuan. But his chest was heaving violently because of the anger and humiliation. 

The room fell silent. Yan Changqing was holding his body, when he suddenly felt an itchy, warm touch on his right shoulder. He opened his eyes, and it turned out that Helian Rongchuan was gently kissing the arrow wound on his right shoulder through the white gauze. 

“You–!” Yan Changqing’s face flushed at the moment, and he gritted his teeth but he was tightly held by Helian Rongchuan and his shoulders were trembling slightly. 

“Does it still hurt?” 

Helian Rongchuan’s eyes drooped, looking at Yan Changqing’s right shoulder that was wrapped in layers: 

“I chose the thinnest arrow. The wound should not be deep. The arrow is not poisonous. But when the numbing medicine inside you from the arrow fades, you may feel a little pain.” 

Is it guilt that was revealed in those exquisite, amber-like eyes? Distress? 

Yan Changqing suddenly felt his blood run cold. 

“I’m sorry, I promise, this is the last time I will lie to you.”

His slender fingers gently stroked the strands of Yan Changqing’s dark and soft black hair that lay curled at his neck. Helian Rongchuan sighed lightly and raised his head. He drank the concoction in the bowl, pulled Yan Changqing’s chin suddenly, and poured it into his mouth from his own. 

“–Mm!” Yan Changqing frowned, but couldn’t dislodge the kiss no matter how hard he struggled. There was no longer anything to fight back with. His heart was beating violently, and his fury made him want to explode. But there was nothing he could do. 

Helian Rongchuan’s fingers clamped his jaw tightly, forcing him to open his lips and teeth, and swallow the concoction mixed with the saliva of the two. The concoction slid along the corners of Yan Changqing’s lips, dripping into his thin and protruding neck, making it look inexplicably sensational. 

A kiss that was almost suffocating, both gentle and domineering, entangled with irresistible lips and tongue. For a long time, Helian Rongchuan did not let go of him. Yan Changqing turned his rapidly paling head away. He panted violently, his long eyes turned crimson with affront, and he hated that he didn’t have a sword in his hand, and he couldn’t pierce Helian Rongchuan with it. 

Helian Rongchuan was not afraid at all. He stroked Yan Changqing’s black hair lightly with good humour. It was strange that this man had such an ill  temper, but his hair was so soft. 

“This is the border village between Yan Kingdom and Dongyun, named Xixia Village. If it must be classified, most of it still belongs to the Yan Kingdom.” 

Yan Changqing was taken aback. So he was still in Yan territory? In other words, he still had a great chance to escape? 

Helian Rongchuan walked to the door, paused, and continued: 

“If you want to kill me, take your medicine, heal your wounds, and I will give you a chance.” 

————————————- 

Yan Kingdom Imperial City. Wende Hall.

Yan Emperor Murong Xiu had just left the morning court. He hadn’t changed his court clothes of the dragon clouds and red, gold, silver threads. He only took off the tall and heavy crown. He wearily kneaded his eyebrows. The shadow under his eyes had actually been much heavier these previous few days. This young emperor, in front of hundreds of civil and military officials of the entire dynasty, had always looked majestic and sophisticated. Even in the face of arrogant and stubborn senior officials, he had never shown the slightest timidity. Only after court, did he occasionally show such fatigue and powerlessness. 

The great eunuch Liu Quan lowered his eyebrows, carrying a slightly steaming azure-glazed tea cup and cautiously stepped forward to say: “Your Majesty, you haven’t fallen asleep for a few nights, and you haven’t eaten breakfast this morning. Would you have your breakfast now, or—?” 

As he raised his eyes, he glanced at Zhang Jian, who was standing opposite the Privy Council. The meaning couldn’t be clearer. 

However, the second-ranking minister Zhang Jian didn’t pay attention to Liu Quan at all. He stepped forward and said a little hurriedly: “Your Majesty, you also heard it in the court today. Regarding the disappearance of General Yan escorting the snow temper stones back home, everyone…everyone is still waiting for your stance.” 

Murong Xiu took the tea cup and took a sip. He didn’t look up and said slowly: 

“Oh? Waiting for Zhen’s stance? I think you are just waiting for Zhen to adopt your stance.” 

A cold sweat broke out on Zhang Jian’s forehead, and he said hurriedly : “Chen dares not.” 

“You dare not.” Murong Xiu coldly snorted, “But those old and stubborn officials dare.”

Zhang Jian hesitated, and said: “But Your Majesty, the senior officials, they really did say things that made sense. You…” 

He trailed off, Zhang Jian only dared to mutter the next sentence in his heart and did not ever dare to say it out loud. However, who didn’t know it clearly in court? The emperor was young and had only been on the throne for five years. The emperor finally cultivated a few cronies and wanted to win the game, but it was unfortunate that the one who was the most popular and the most deterrent turned over in the gutter. 

Who would have thought that the invincible Silver-masked King of H*ll Yan Changqing would have been appointed as the third-rank general Yunjun at the age of seventeen, and he would have disappeared on the way home from escorting the temper snow stones? Even the twenty ships full of temper snow stones had disappeared from the border overnight. 

As soon as the news spread back to the court, it exploded. The ministers prattled a lot, but the most overwhelming opinions were basically  of those from the veteran ministers. One after another, their opinions were basically unified: 

General Yan was probably not missing, but had defected.