Ch16 - In the future… I’ll protect you

Bone-piercing is a heroic horse breed. When he followed his master to the battlefield, what kind of danger and peril had he not gone through? The most serious time was when his leg was pierced by an infantry’s long spear. It was thanks to the shin guards that his leg wasn’t broken, but due to the wound infection afterwards, he almost didn’t survive. It was also that time, his general fell off his back and had his face wounded by the enemy’s commanding general.

In this bone-piercing horse’s eyes, Ma San’s intimidating look with bow and arrow in hand was nothing threatening. He didn’t bother to listen to Du Ci’s order. Instead of running, he shook his head and dashed forward like a fighting bull. 

Du Ci was shocked. Ma San on the other side was also stunned by the sudden change in the situation. When he regained his wits and let go of the arrow, the horse had already rushed to his face. It raised its legs and mashed both Ma San and his bow into the ground.

Ma San’s shoulder was dislocated. His face got cut by the broken bowstring. He lay on the ground and didn’t move for a long time.

The horse was still not relieved. It kicked a few more times, directly knocking Ma San unconscious.

“Neeiighh–!” The yellow horse swayed his big tail, stomped his hoofs and shook his head, looking very proud. 

Du Ci grabbed its mane, momentarily didn’t know how to react. As soon as the tension in heart loosened, his vision went black, “No, we have to go…more people will…come.”

His voice gradually weakened. The whole person collapsed on the horse and slid down. Right at this time, a dark figure jumped out of the forest, still carrying the coolness of night and vapor of cold dew, he embraced Du Ci in his arms before the person fell off the horse.

“Baoyu?!” Qi Nanke was shocked and angry. He touched the bloody shoulder with one hand, his heart tightened, “What happened…”

When he saw the fainted man on the ground, Qi Nanke immediately understood. He carefully put Du Ci down to check the wound on his shoulder. Du Ci’s eyes were red with grievance, his voice trembled, “It hurts…”

Seeing Du Ci like this, Qi Nanke’s sense of reason broke. A nameless anger surged in his chest, he wanted to crush and smash the perpetrator who did this into pieces.

“I’ll vent your anger for you!” Qi Nanke glared at the man on the ground. He grabbed an arrow and stabbed Ma San in the shoulder. Ma San was jerked awake because of severe pain. Before he could make a sound, Qi Nanke stabbed down once more. The arrow pierced his thigh. Ma San could only hug his leg and scream voicelessly.

Qi Nanke hit the other party unconscious and left him there to bleed, while he carefully unbuttoned Du Ci’s shirt, revealing the bloody wound.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“Bear with it.” Qi Nanke noticed the little prince’s hands were bloody and full of blisters, they were shaking from pain.

Qi Nanke’s face was even paler than the little prince at this moment. The little prince stared at him without blinking, then opened his mouth, “Who are you?”

Qi Nanke, “…” 

The little prince was in pain but still tried to smile, “Just kidding. You looking like this…is also very good, huh?”

Qi Nanke caught two hares and a few fish and hung them on his belt. His upper body was naked, the hem of his pants was a little wet. The sturdy muscles were taut and strong, but his front chest was full of old wounds. Although it looked ferocious, it was more heart-rending.

Perhaps he found a source of water somewhere, Qi Nanke had taken a bath and shaved. Once the stubble beard was shaved and the worn-out look was washed, his skin didn’t look so dark anymore. Du Ci could see a little shadow of the former young general.

Still the same thick eyebrows, the same deep, slightly curved eyes. 

The gray pupils showed a bit of peculiarity. Although there was a scar on the side of his face, it did not hinder his heroic spirit. The Qi Nanke now had more mature charm than the cold youth in the past. Compared to his young and delicate self, he now possessed a much greater majestic, decisive, and oppressive aura.

Du Ci looked at him through haziness and suddenly laughed. His bloody hand trembled as it raised up, but because he was afraid of pain, it didn’t reach the other person’s face. The past youth and the man in front of him slowly merged into one, “Still the same. You actually haven’t changed much after all.”

For inexplicable reasons, Qi Nanke’s nose suddenly felt sore.

Du Ci tried his best to distract himself from thinking about the pain, “After the banquet that day, I went to find you, do you remember?” 

Qi Nanke’s lips pursed. He stared at Du Ci’s wound intently and didn’t respond.

The knife slowly dug in. Du Ci trembled, he gasped, “I thought you were beautiful and good at martial arts. I wanted to get to know you. In the end though, the eyes of the people in the Duke’s mansion all grew on top of their heads and didn’t bother to look at me. Hey, was I so annoying?”

Du Ci thought for a bit then continued, “Maybe I was. You said I talked too much.”

Qi Nanke suddenly remembered. After a banquet many years ago, because he had stood out too much and offended the emperor, his mother kept scolding him on the way back. He was still young back then and didn’t feel convinced. He held back his temper, put on a stern face, and quietly felt upset. 

When he arrived at the palace’s gate, a child in blue peacock robe stopped him. The unhappy him didn’t pay much attention to what the child said and only thought his endless chattering was very annoying, so he said, “Why do you talk so much? Who are you?”

The little prince who just arrived was unfamiliar with Dasheng’s etiquette, and Qi Nanke didn’t recognize him either. As soon as Qi Nanke said it, he was scolded by his mother, “Insolent! This is Shu Shi’s little prince. Your Highness Du Ci! Apologize to him!”

Even though that’s what the princess said, as a princess of Dasheng, she felt that they were of higher standing than Du Ci who was just a hostage. She raised her chin slightly and looked at the child, “My lord, please don’t take offense, my son has always been outspoken.”

Du Ci looked at the impatient Qi Nanke and felt a little sad, but he still put on a smile, “It’s okay. It was this little prince who offended him by not introducing myself first.” 

Douding beside Du Ci widened his eyes, “His Majesty has already introduced the little prince at the banquet, it was him who…”

Du Ci pulled on Douding. Douding pursed his lips and shut up in dissatisfaction.

The princess glanced at Douding, then gently flicked her sleeves, “If there is nothing else, little prince, we will leave first.”

Du Ci glanced at Qi Nanke again. Qi Nanke had just been scolded by his mother earlier. Then just when he was about to leave the palace, some random Shu Shi’s people stopped him and got him another scolding. At this moment, his heart was very upset, so he naturally wouldn’t give Du Ci a second look. 

Du Ci could only push on, “I saw that brother Qi was very good at martial arts. I just want to chat a little.”

He still held a little hope and said with a smile, “Brother…”

Qi Nanke was impatient. He held his fists and bowed, “My lord, forgive me, it’s already late today, I have to escort my mother back and can’t accompany you.”

Du Ci closed his mouth and nodded awkwardly, “O, okay.” 

Qi Nanke picked the arrow head out. When he raised his head to look at Du Ci, the little prince’s face was full of tears, he was crying silently.

Qi Nanke’s heart trembled. He thought about the gorgeously clothed child who was embarrassed and stood at the palace’s gate under the moon that day. After that banquet, he followed his father to guard the border, and easily forgot such an encounter ever took place.

On the other hand, the other party has always remembered him, always put him in his heart, and even tried to find a way out for the Qi family.

Qi Nanke wasn’t sure what kind of emotions he was currently going through. He felt like there was a bell ringing in his chest, so loud it filled his ears with thumping noises. Then, when he came back to his senses, he realized it was the sound of his own hard beating heart. 

“Alright.” Qi Nanke’s voice was a little hoarse, tinged with such gentleness that he didn’t even notice, “I’ll send you back to Royal City after you took the medicine. Don’t worry about anything.”

Du Ci passed out without saying a word.

Qi Nanke carefully applied hemostatic medicine, then opened Du Ci’s mouth and fed him a painkiller he often took on the battlefield. Afterwards, he took a sip of water in his mouth, pinched the little prince’s lips open, and fed him the water mouth to mouth to push the pill down. Finished, Qi Nanke tore another part of his clothes, put medicine on his hands, and carefully bandaged the other person’s wound.

He only took his eyes off for a while and this person already got hurt like this. 

Qi Nanke sighed. His finger rubbed against the other’s soft lips which were slightly white, “Sorry for ignoring you that day. In the future… I’ll protect you.”

Whether the little prince heard it or not, it was unknown.