The Glory After Rebirth

Chapter 237: Just the Two of Us

The King Hui was thrown into the Court Prison; the Imperial Concubine De was placed under house arrest in the cold palace (a palace where an emperor installs members of the imperial family who do something wrong); all those involved in the attempted usurpation by the King Hui were subjected to thorough search of their abodes and confiscation of their property. What the future held for the King Hui was an execution in private.

Shan Congwen had gone for wool but come home shorn. The Great Yue taking advantage of this opportunity claimed a considerable amount of indemnity. Had it not been for a dispatch from the emperor of the Wan Kingdom, a border province of the Wan Kingdom would have to cede a city to the Great Yue.

Shan Congwen left the Great Yue with his tail between his legs. Waiting for him in the Wan Kingdom were fierce condemnations and severe punishments. It could be said that his diplomatic mission had turned out to be a complete failure.

In the meantime, Yuwen Tong improved very quick. Maybe because the King Hui’s maniac attempt at exterminating the whole imperial court had distracted people in the capital city, when they finally shifted the focus of attention from the King Hui’s crime to other matters, Yuwen Tong had already “regained” his mobility, and he even went to the imperial palace to express his gratitude to the emperor.

Even court physicians of the imperial hospital were astonished by how quick Yuwen Tong had made such a recovery, but no matter what, it was a fact that Yuwen Tong’s “wounds” had healed very soon.

The assassins that had ambushed the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces of the Great Yue had also been found to be sent by the Wan Kingdom. Shan Congwen, who had already left the Great Yue, was unable to defend himself even though he wanted to.

The Ling Mansion finally found itself in peace again. Ji Yin personally checked the residential compound and confirmed that those secret bodyguards had left. As regards the perimeter, secret bodyguards out there could only gather some basic intelligence about who went in and out of the Ling Mansion and when. Other information was beyond their reach, and they were by no means powerful enough to perceive the presence of a kung fu expert like Ji Yin without seeing him directly.

After bringing down the King Hui and forcing Shan Congwen into returning to the Wan Kingdom with a humiliating defeat, both Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang felt relaxed and delighted.

“It turns out that you were right – the Crown Prince did make his appearance,” said Ling Zhang, gnawing at a peach.

Yuwen Tong raised his hand and wiped the juice from the corner of Ling Zhang’s mouth with his thumb, staring at Ling Zhang’s rosy lips, passion building up in his eyes. He said, “Those courtiers might have forgotten about him had he not put in an appearance that day.”

Ling Zhang didn’t notice that Yuwen Tong was gazing at him like a hungry wolf at a lamb, his eyes glinting. “You said that the Crown Prince might have made some underhand arrangements. What did you mean by that?”

Yuwen Tong, who had ascertained the truth about a lot of matters these days, replied, “The reason why Shan Congwen tried to kill you was because Zhou Mingci meant your death as a precondition for their cooperation. It’s true that we made an enemy of Zhou Mingci by having the Ninth Princess punished, but it was because of the suggestion of Zhou Mingci’s aide that he suddenly requested Shan Congwen to kill you, and this aide was planted in the King Hui’s residence by the Crown Prince.”

Ling Zhang, finding this message very unpleasant, finished the peach in three gulps and said in a cold voice, “Why did the Crown Prince do that? He and I have no history.”

“He has no history with you. He just wanted the King Hui to infuriate me,” remarked Yuwen Tong.

A flurry of thoughts flashed across Ling Zhang’s mind and with that he frowned, “Will he connect you with the downfall of the King Hui?”

Yuwen Tong said, “He has no proof. Besides, given that so many court physicians and the emperor personally confirmed the severity of my injuries, he has no choice but to accept it as true even if he doesn’t want to.”

Ling Zhang inclined his head, feeling slightly relieved. “That’s good to know.”

“What about the prophecy?” Ling Zhang asked.

Yuwen Tong twisted his head aside and cast a mysterious smile at him. “Prophecy? What prophecy?”

Ling Zhang, slowly lifting his eyebrows, came to understand what Yuwen Tong meant, but about the head star-watcher…

Yuwen Tong confided in a muted voice, “The head star-watcher never made any prophecies. That messenger faked it. He is just an insignificant messenger, for whom it’s very easy to quietly go underground. Even if someone traced it to that part, they wouldn’t be able to find anything.”

It’d merely been a trick to make the whole thing more complicated and bewildering. Let them have some fun guessing.

Thinking about this, Ling Zhang still couldn’t help but stare at Yuwen Tong for quite a while. Yuwen Tong, who had been growing increasingly aroused with his eyes on Ling Zhang, succumbed to the temptation moments after Ling Zhang’s unblinking gaze rested on him, threw his arm around Ling Zhang and instantly drew him into his embrace, kissing him.

The kiss didn’t last long before their desire overpowered their self-restraint. The two of them did the same thing they did in the bathroom that day, and Ling Zhang’s legs were limp when it was over.

This time Yuwen Tong also tentatively gave Ling Zhang’s privates a gentle touch, feeling fully satisfied and content.

Ling Zhang’s countenance was as pink as a lotus flower.

When the two of them recovered themselves, Ling Zhang said, “My arm injury has almost healed, and it’s time I went back to the Imperial College.”

Yuwen Tong hadn’t been able to spend much time with Ling Zhang in private when pretending to be injured, and it’d only been a couple of days when the two of them had their carefree life back, so he was unwilling to let Ling Zhang return to the Imperial College so soon. He said, “You still want to learn formations from Mr. Ji, don’t you? How about we go to the manor? Just take a few more days off from school.”

Ling Zhang’s eyes lit up. “I can do that?”

Yuwen Tong said, “Why can’t you? Just tell them your arm still hurts. Surely they won’t dare pressure you to go back.”

On hearing this, Ling Zhang could barely keep from leaving right away. “Then let’s get going.”

Seeing that his interest was piqued, Yuwen Tong added, “But Mr. Ji still has to give lessons in the Imperial College. He took several days off from work because of me, and I don’t think he could spare any more time.”

Ling Zhang was somewhat disappointed.

Yuwen Tong consoled him in a slow voice, “Although Mr. Ji won’t be able to be with us in the manor, we can go there ourselves. You may first digest what Mr. Ji taught you previously, and then return to the Imperial College to consult Mr. Ji after you master all of it.”

Ling Zhang gave it some thought and felt that Yuwen Tong had got a point, so he nodded. “All right.”

Yuwen Tong, pleased, playfully nibbled his rosy cheek once again, holding him tightly. “We go there today.”

The manor was very quiet, and it’d be just the two of them.

Yuwen Tong gave some instructions to his subordinates and then had a message delivered to the emperor, saying that he was going to his manor to nurse his injury. The emperor, having no reason to stop him, gave his approval.

Yuwen Tong in contentment took Ling Zhang to the manor. Zhao Shude, as usual, was waiting for them at the front gates. “Marshal, Childe Ling.”

“Uncle Zhao,” smiled Ling Zhang, greeting Zhao Shude.

After serving Ling Zhang for a day during his last stay in this manor, Zhao Shude was now more genial to Ling Zhang than he’d been the first time they’d met. “Have you recovered from the arm injury, Childe Ling?”

Seeing he didn’t ask about Yuwen Tong’s injury, Ling Zhang thought that Zhao Shude probably was aware Yuwen Tong hadn’t really been wounded, so he replied, “Almost. I ate all those goodies you delivered to my place. Look, I even gained some weight because of them.”

A faint smile broke across Zhao Shude’s serious face and he said, “We’ve raised quite some rabbits lately. I’ll have them cook some for dinner and you may give it a try.”

Ling Zhang was happy to hear this, looking at Yuwen Tong.

Yuwen Tong said to Zhao Shude, “We’ll be staying here for a few days. Is there anything else apart from rabbits?”

Zhao Shude answered, “Yeah. We raised a lot of livestock in the rear. They’re all over the place.”

Yuwen Tong was fairly pleased with it. After entering the manor, he and Ling Zhang went to the Roosting Dragonfly Pavilion first and spent the whole afternoon there fishing. Dinner was fish soup and various dishes made with rabbit. Ling Zhang overate without noticing like the last time.

Yuwen Tong happily took Ling Zhang outside for an after-dinner walk. Ever since faking his injuries previously, he had missed out on several after-dinner walks, so of course he had to catch up on them.

The weather was getting increasingly hot these days. There were more trees in this manor than there were in the residential compound in the capital city, so it was cooler here. As a night breeze blew by taking away with it the stuffiness that had been lingering for a whole day, Ling Zhang felt so comfortable that he slightly narrowed his eyes.

When passing a pond where frogs were croaking, Ling Zhang casually commented, “I think it’s going to rain tomorrow.”

Yuwen Tong said, “Given how sultry today is, there’s probably going to be a heavy shower tomorrow afternoon. We may go to the hill in the rear when it does. There’s a pavilion overlooking this whole area.”

After giving it a brief moment’s thought, Ling Zhang feeling it a good idea agreed.

Yuwen Tong was thinking that he would have Ling Zhang all to himself in that pavilion, and maybe they could do something else apart from enjoying the beautiful rain. The very thought of this gave him a twitch of arousal. He let out an unnatural cough, bridling his imagination that was going wild, telling himself to show some patience.

Ling Zhang was unaware of what had just occurred to this man beside him. The pleasant, bracing night breezes made him feel fully relaxed and comfortable, and at this moment there wasn’t anything of complexity in his mind. He was just amazed by the feeling of happiness walking side by side with Yuwen Tong was giving him. This was something he had never expected before. Recalling that he might not have made Yuwen Tong’s acquaintance had he not tried to call off their engagement after rebirth, that their current relationship was actually the result of a strange twist of fate, he felt that what people called destiny was such an indescribably intriguing thing. At the thought of this, his eyes flickered towards Yuwen Tong beside him in spite of himself.

Sure enough Yuwen Tong immediately sensed this glance at him that Ling Zhang sneaked. Though Ling Zhang’s eyes merely grazed him and it was at night, Yuwen Tong still saw it distinctly.

In this glance was so much more than there seemed to be that for an instant he was stupefied, and when he was back to his senses, he and Ling Zhang had been in a lip-lock for quite some time, his arms holding Ling Zhang around the middle.

It struck Yuwen Tong that he might not be able to wait until the next day – he wanted to do something else right now.

Ling Zhang, feeling Yuwen Tong’s physical response, held him around the waist instead of pushing him aside.

What was he waiting for when they were having such a moment? As chance would have it, after walking for a while, their stomachs didn’t feel as stuffed now, so Yuwen Tong held Ling Zhang’s hand and started walking back. Halfway to the courtyard house, he let out a curse in a frustrated low voice and then pinned Ling Zhang to the trunk of a big tree in a corner. Arms around Ling Zhang, he lowered his head and nibbled from Ling Zhang’s neck all the way downwards, clenching Ling Zhang’s collar between his teeth to undo his clothes, so urgently as though there was some kind of fire burning inside him and he had to do something immediately to put it out.

Originally Ling Zhang had been feeling pretty cool, but Yuwen Tong’s feverish passion infected him and he was now feeling rather hot as well.

One of Yuwen Tong’s hands, in particular, was rubbing his hips and waist in a very restless way, which immediately jogged Ling Zhang’s memories of the previous few times the two of them had made intimate contact. He could feel his cheeks burning, but was subconsciously cooperating with Yuwen Tong.

Yuwen Tong, taking this as an incentive, was rid of all misgivings…

Soon the hush beneath the tree was broken by loud breathing.