General’s Gown

 Chapter 37 The Desert Kiss Part 2 

Three days later, King Dongyun became seriously ill and was unable to go to court. Suddenly, Helian Tao held the military and political power, and the scene was unparalleled. 

Everyone knew that Dongyun was about to change. 

The court officials were talking in private spiritedly. Those who stood on the wrong team hurriedly resigned and kept their heads, while those who stood on the right side, rushed to the crown prince’s palace to show their loyalty. 

Today, in the entire Dongyun Dynasty, the most leisurely person was probably the ignorant second prince Helian Rongchuan. The veteran officials in the court had some contempt toward him, and some were puzzled, but most of them hated that he failed to meet their expectations and touched their gray beards and sighed. 

Alas, one was born so clever, but refused to learn and only caused trouble. After finally marrying the princess, they hoped he would curb his attitude, but they never thought he would marry an assassin that almost took the life of his own father. 

Although it was rumored that he had merit in helping protect the King, blocking the deadliest blow for King Dongyun, afterwards, they didn’t see him serving at the bedside of King Dongyun to please him. From beginning to end, it was the crown prince kneeling down in front of King Dongyun and looking after him endlessly.

Alas, the only great credit that can compete with the crown prince, he had let go of so easily. Rotten wood cannot be carved, nor can it be carved! 

Helian Rongchuan didn’t hear the sighs of the old ministers. He lashed out his horse whip, and like a burst of smoke, he came out of the palace and came to the edge of a cliff outside the city. 

With a long neigh, the horse stopped less than ten feet away from the cliff, and stepped on its hooves a little nervously. The cliff here was steep, and the rocks at the foot were all black and dark red. It seemed that every stone was filled with human blood. 

The vultures hovered above his head with a stern voice. On the edge of the cliff stood three or four Dongyun executioners in black. They heard the horse and turned their heads and bowed in salute. 

Helian Rongchuan swayed over and looked at the death row prisoner who was kneeling on the edge of the cliff with a black cloth on their head, then said, “You guys go, I will do it personally.” 

A heavy gold ingot was smoothly thrown at the execution leader. The leader picked it up with a shy face, and his whole face squeezed together with a smile. He thought that Helian Rongchuan hated to part with the No. 1 beauty of Nan Yao, so he personally came to see his little lover for the last time. He hurriedly withdrew. 

The black cloth fell, revealing Xuanji’s pale face. She was tortured, scarred, and even though she was an extremely beautiful person, she was a little in a sorry state at this time. What’s more, less than three inches behind her was the abyss where countless dead bones were buried——Diegu cliff. (Cliff of layers of bones)

Diegu cliff, to punish sinners. Any special offender that the Dongyun imperial family found difficult to deal with would be thrown into this valley. They call it in the glorified name of “setting free’, but actually it was just being thrown into this abyss, but where is there any possibility of survival and being free? It was just fattening the vultures that eat dead human flesh and blood in the valley.

After all, Xuanji was the daughter of Nanyao’s clan, so Dongyun ordered her to be thrown off the cliff because she was not easy to deal with publicly. 

Xuanji glanced tremblingly behind her, the last bit of blood on her face faded away, but she still spoke unwillingly: “Good, you are here, now even as a ghost, I can be a ghost with understanding. I want to ask you, when did you discover my plan?” 

Helian Rongchuan looked at her and just smiled faintly: “From the moment you rescued me under the cliff of Qixia Village.”

Xuanji’s eyes widened in disbelief. Impossible! Whether it was the time or place when she found Helian Rongchuan, she planned and pondered it countless times in advance. How could it be discovered at the beginning? 

Six years ago, King Dongyun led a dozen brothers in the Helian clan and traveled all over the country. They had once stayed in a beautiful valley for more than half a month. This valley was called the Valley of Beauty. As the name suggests, there were many beautiful people. However, after the departure of these dozen imperial clan members, the Valley of Beauty was turned into scorched earth in a fire. All the beauties were also missing. 

It was once rumored that the women of the Valley of Beauty were not only beautiful, but also extremely strong-tempered. Because they refused to become those nasty people’s playthings, they were all burned to death in the valley by the depraved kings and nobles. 

However, this was just a legend. The national power was declining, and the Nanyao kingdom’s Lord, who had always relied on Dongyun for assistance, had no guts, and had no intention of arguing about the lives of one or two hundred civilian women with the powerful Dongyun kingdom.

As a survivor of the Valley of Beauty, Xuanji didn’t know how much pain and shame she had endured before she walked to King Dongyun and drew the blade of revenge. How could it be possible that the opportunity she had finally grasped, the countless plans planned day and night, had been seen through by Helian Rongchuan in the first place? 

Helian Rongchuan sighed when he saw her expression of irritation, and gently unbuttoned his shirt, revealing half of his strong chest. Two inches below his collarbone, there was a purple-black arrow wound that had not yet healed completely. 

“If you didn’t say that sentence, maybe I would really believe you.” 

Xuanji was stunned for a moment, not knowing which sentence she had said that made herself leak the filling. 

“I remember that after you saved me, you once said to me that my wounds were not healing because the person who shot my arrow was extremely vicious. In order to kill me, he even smeared the arrow with poison. But as soon as you said this, I knew that the person who hindered my recovery must be you.” 

“Why?” 

Xuanji asked unwillingly. Indeed, she deliberately delayed Helian Rongchuan’s injury, and wanted to take care of his serious injury, and enter the Dongyun Palace to assassinate King Dongyun. But every time she added medicine to Helian Rongchuan’s wound to delay healing, she was extremely cautious and measured. Except for herself, even the closest maid never knew that she was secretly applying the medicine. 

How could Helian Rongchuan discover it in the first place? 

“Because you don’t understand, the person who shot me with an arrow was actually saving me.” 

Helian Rongchuan’s eyes suddenly became soft, and he took out a small kit from the skirt of his clothes. A small silver arrow. That day, Helian Rongchuan was injured by this arrow and fell into the valley. 

“Since he was saving me, how could he pick a poisoned arrow?” 

Xuanji’s gaze was stagnant: “Why do you still keep this thing?”

“For you, it is just a cold arrow. But to me, it is the treasure of the world. Why not keep it?” 

Helian Rongchuan’s mouth evoked a smile. So many sharp silver arrows, why did it lose its power while being held in the hands of Yan Changqing, the No. 1 archer of the Great Yan Kingdom, and only shot him half an inch above his chest? Helian Rongchuan’s fingers gently stroked the cold arrow, as if stroking the face of a lover, and the corners of his eyes and eyebrows were nostalgia and tenderness that Xuanji had never seen before. 

For some reason, seeing him showing such an expression, Xuanji suddenly felt a sourness in her heart that she had never had before: “It turns out that your Royal Highness has long had a person you admired. Xuanji is proud to be Nan Yao’s first beauty and there are countless men who would want to grovel under my skirt. Yet I didn’t expect that in your Highness’s heart, I can’t compare to that person.” 

Xuanji faced Helian Rongchuan’s handsome profile, and a bit of longing and reluctance suddenly appeared in her heart that had regarded death as home: 

“It’s a pity, Xuanji will never have a chance to see them, the sacred person who lies in His Royal Highness heart.” 

She closed her eyes and walked to the edge of the cliff step by step.

Just one leap and it would be all over. 

Even if she was not reconciled, even if she has regrets, it will be over. 

With two sneers, the rope broke, and the arms that were tied back suddenly loosened. Xuanji opened her eyes in disbelief, and looked back at Helian Rongchuan, her voice trembling: “You–?” 

Helian Rongchuan tucked the horse’s rein into Xuanji’s hand and said, “Let’s go.” 

Xuanji tremblingly climbed onto the horse’s back, suddenly coming back from the gates of H*ll, feeling at a loss for a while.

“Twenty miles westward, there is a pavilion where your subordinates are waiting for you.” Helian Rongchuan smiled faintly: “In the final analysis, we Dongyun had wronged your clan. If there is a chance in the future, we will make it up to you again.” 

Xuanji stared at Helian Rongchuan’s face, as if she had only met the man in front of her for the first time. She looked at it for a long time. After a while, she closed her eyes in pain, and when she opened them again, tears filled her beautiful eyes, with hatred, unwillingness, and attachment. 

Without further ado, Xuanji raised her whip and rode away. 

Helian Rongchuan turned around and looked at the crown prince Helian Tao, who appeared behind him somehow, a gorgeous white gold silk auspicious cloud robe against the cliff’s gale. Just a few days after he took over the power of supervising the country, Helian Tao’s gray-brown eyes had a look completely different from his previous gentle and humble appearance. 

“You called the shots without authorization and let her go?” Helian Tao said. 

“Xuanji is just the knife that you and I borrowed to kill.” Helian Rongchuan raised his eyebrows disapprovingly: 

“Since the goal has been achieved, why care about the whereabouts of the knife?” 

“With Xuanji’s assassination plan, His Royal Highness finally got it. You won your coveted military and political power, not long after, it would become the throne. And I also avenged my mother. This is the best of both worlds, isn’t it?” 

“I feel that I can’t see through you more and more.” Helian Tao paused, then spoke slowly.

Helian Tao watched Helian Rongchuan step by step enter the Dongyun Palace, and gradually grow into a seemingly unruly, but cold and scheming little wolf cub. He and this younger brother had the same deep thoughts, and they had both had their own ulterior motives for King Dongyun, thus they hit off. But recently, whether it was the previous Jiaolu river ship hijacking plan or Xuanji’s assassination to make King Dongyun hand over military and political power in advance, Helian Rongchuan’s cooperation with him was no longer as close as before. Helian Rongchuan always had various reasons for doing things that made Helian Tao puzzled or suspicious. For example, he desperately wanted to save the life of General Yan and he blocked a fatal wound for King Dongyun.

What happened to him? 

Helian Rongchuan interrupted Helian Tao’s meditation and said: “I remember that you promised me that after taking power, you will fulfill my two wishes.” 

“For the surviving people in Qixia Village, I have secretly sent someone to arrange it, and all the dead will be buried.” Helian Tao said: “This is your first wish. Then, now, do you have your second wish?” 

“Yes.” 

Helian Rongchuan heard the arrangement of Qixia Village, feeling a little relieved. He looked at the distant sky in the south, and a trace of worry and faint expectation flashed in his deep amber eyes. 

“Has the crown prince heard that the southern border of Yan Kingdom has suddenly been hit by an earthquake, and Beirong is harassing them making it so the people have no way to make a living?”

Helian Tao nodded, somewhat puzzled by Helian Rongchuan’s intentions. 

“I ask the prince to give me enough manpower and food to go to Monan for disaster relief.” 

Helian Tao thought he had heard it wrong, and laughed blankly: “Are you kidding?” Before the words fell, he saw Helian Rongchuan acting solemnly. He couldn’t help but be stunned. 

The sky was vast, and an eagle was flying fearlessly through the black and gloomy clouds in the south. 

How can he get the eagle flying above in the sky? It was not by breaking his wings, nor hiding him in a delicate cage. 

Helian Rongchuan stretched out his hand, and lightly painted the vigorous outline of the spread-winged eagle, then ​​with a very calm tone he said: 

“At this moment, he must need me.”