“Chan Siru, you, you…” Lu Xiao stared ferociously at Chen Siru, his chest violently undulating, his teeth gnashing loudly.
His gaze seemed like he wanted to devour someone, simply extremely frightening.
Qiu Yutong was truly frightened that in the next moment, his little disciple would have people drag this Lord Chen, who was seeking death, out to be beheaded.
Also, even though Chen Siru cursed him, something “toy” and similar words, Qiu Yutong didn’t feel insulted. He only felt a little… 囧.*
[T/N: That word is to represent an emoticon that signifies embarrassment and the like.]
Eh, his position today was extremely awkward… Qiu Yutong extremely awkwardly thought for quite a while but still felt that regardless of his identity now, it’s said that “Teacher for a day, father for life.” He felt some responsibility to advise this little disciple.
Just as he was hesitating, not knowing how to open his mouth, Lu Xiao said sternly, “Someone, drag Chen Siru outside for Us…”
Chen Siru braced himself, not looking the least bit afraid.
Qiu Yutong would obviously be scared and quickly coughed lightly, doing his utmost to soften his voice, trying to soothe his little disciple’s violent mood, “Please calm down, Your Majesty. No matter what, Lord Chen is devoted and loyal.”
Lu Xiao trembled finely then said hoarsely, “What, you want to beg for mercy on his behalf? Do you… also feel that what he said is right? I should pick a concubine and open the branches and spread the leaves for the Lu family, become a perfect emperor? Right, and that phrase, putting the country first, is it?!”
He had even forgotten to call himself the royal “We”.
Qiu Yutong was stunned; he didn’t mean this.
“Your Majesty…” He hesitated for a moment, scared that he would say the wrong words and make Lu Xiao explode even more, then he would directly drag Chen Siru out to be beheaded. So he chose to speak in a vague and compromising manner, “Your Majesty is still young, in the prime of one’s life, this matter can be considered at length, no need to be forced.”
Lu Xiao stared intently into his eyes as if he were contemplating the meaning of his words.
Qiu Yutong felt afraid when Lu Xiao looked at him like that. It was unknown how long had passed, but Lu Xiao slowly calmed down, looking down and indifferently saying, “Yes, no need to be forced.”
Seeing Lu Xiao calming down with great difficulty, Chen Siru was instead someone who wasn’t afraid of death and looked up, saying loudly, “The Chen family has been loyal for many generations, this Chen doesn’t require some witch* to beg for mercy on my behalf!”
[T/N: In this context: someone who has managed to bewitch the emperor and cause disaster to the country.]
Qiu Yutong didn’t know whether to cry or laugh
“Bang!!” A crisp and clear sound. Lu Ciao ferociously broke the bowl of medicine in front of Chen Siru, pieces of porcelain flying everywhere.
“We will not kill you,” he enunciated each word clearly, “Get out.”
Chen Siru stared hatefully at Qiu Yutong as if he saw an evil witch that brought disaster to the country. A trickle of blood slowly seeped out from the top of his lean and thin face.
He slowly stood up and said heavily, “Your Majesty, loyal advice is ugly to hear, there is a knife above the word lust*. This subject has nothing more to say, this subject withdraws.”
[T/N: The top of the word for lust 色 looks similar to the word for knife 刀.]
After Chen Siru withdrew, Lu Xiao kept quiet.
Qiu Yutong was also extremely embarrassed, for a moment, the room was completely silent.
Qiu Yutong was silent for a while before hesitatingly saying, “Your Majesty, why not I move back into Feicui Courtyard. That would be more comfortable.”
“… comfortable?” Lu Xiao muttered.
His voice was very soft as if he were talking to himself.
Qiu Yutong didn’t understand and Lu Xiao had shut his eyes again, saying lowly, “Since you saved Our life, suffered from the cold and was even injured. Staying in Jingxin Palace is more convenient for Us to take care of you. Chen Siru’s dirty words, you don’t need to pay attention to.”
“Then I’ll move back to the west wing, that’s fine right? Sleeping here is really too…”
“Wait until you’re healed, then we’ll speak again,” Lu Xiao directly interrupted him.
“Oh,” Qiu Yutong felt extremely helpless. His little disciple had been stubborn since young, once he made a decision, it was very hard for people to change his mind, so it was better to drop the subject.
Silence descended into the room, Qiu Yutong slightly shifted his lower body and put some distance between the two of them.
Lu Xiao unconsciously lifted an arm, wanting to pull him back, yet disappointedly put his arm down.
Qiu Yutong explained, “I just drank the medicine and it feels as if I had too much heat in my body, so I feel a little hot.”
After explaining, Qiu Yutong also felt a little baffled, why did he have to explain this thing? Before, he was sick, and for the sake of warming himself up while he was unconscious, some hugging was fine. Now, he had woken up already, so two men hugging tightly would always be strange.
Lu Xiao stuffily said, “En.”
After such a tussle, Qiu Yutong felt the sweat stick to his skin, so he said, “I feel like wiping myself, call Xiao Xizi over.”
Lu Xiao was slightly shocked, “What?”
“…” Qiu Yutong felt that after he woke up, communicating with Lu Xiao became harder. He could only restrain his temper and explain, “My body doesn’t feel comfortable, I want to wipe myself, let Xiao Xizi come over and serve me.”
“You want… to wipe yourself?” Lu Xiao finally understood his meaning and then frowned, “Who is Xiao Xizi?”
“The little eunuch that takes care of me,” Qiu Yutong was powerless and simply wanted to roll his eyes. “My back hurts and I have no strength, if I don’t ask him to help me wipe my body, then am I supposed to let you serve me instead?”
Just as his words dropped, he realised that his words were somewhat disrespectful. He could simply be dragged outside and beheaded.
Lu Xiao didn’t actually erupt, only sitting stiffly for a while before suddenly standing up and walking towards the bathhouse.
Qiu Yutong hadn’t reacted yet when Lu Xiao walked back into the bedroom, carrying a basin of hot water.
Qiu Yutong, “…”
This youngster had personally gone to carry hot water?
Lu Xiao put the hot water on the table at the head of the bed. Then, as if he didn’t know what to do, he looked up at Qiu Yutong.
“Help me up first, I need to take off my clothes,” Qiu Yutong said helplessly.
Lu Xiao stiffly helped Qiu Yutong up then, he stood at the side like a block of wood. When Qiu Yutong saw this, he didn’t expect Lu Xiao to serve him. This youngster had never served someone before, absolutely hopeless.
He shook his head and started to expend a great deal of effort to take off his clothes.
Lu Xiao turned away, not daring to look at him.
Qiu Yutong casually threw his inner robes onto the end of the bed. He looked at the bandage snow-white bandage on his body, and couldn’t help but frown.
How was he going to wipe this…
Lu Xiao was silent for a while before he sat beside Qiu Yutong and said lowly, “Lie down, We will help you wipe.”
“Oh,” Qiu Yutong honestly lay down.
Lu Xiao hesitated and first soaked a bar of soap into the water then started from the neck, slowly drawing circles. As he moved around, he used a hot towel to gently wipe away the excess foam, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin.
Qiu Yutong was so comfortable he let out a sigh.
Lu Xiao became rigid and his hand paused.
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” Lu Xiao said hoarsely.
He didn’t know how long but he had finally finished wiping the back and shoulders. Lu Xiao covered his face and flipped QiuYutong over, stiffly wiping his chest and four limbs.
“That’s enough, many thanks to Your Majesty.” After his body was wiped, Qiu Yutong felt a lot more comfortable.
Lu Xiao didn’t utter a word so Qiu Yutong looked at him in suspicion. Lu Xiao immediately turned his head away.
Qiu Yutong laughed inwardly. As expected, this youngster had little desire like a monk. Even looking at another’s body made him uncomfortable.
Lu Xiao was silent for a moment, before he said gloomily, “We will change your medicine.”
Qiu Yutong’s back was injured very severely, and was covered in layers of bandages. Imperial Physician Li had warned repeatedly that his medicine must be changed everyday.
Qiu Yutong nodded, “That’s also good.”
Lu Xiao let him lie on the bed, then carefully and cautiously peeled off a bit of the gauze.
The gauze was slightly sticking to the injured skin. It hurt so much Qiu Yutong let out a soft hiss.
Lu Xiao’s hand paused, “Is it very painful?”
Qiu Yutong stayed silent, restraining himself from saying anything disrespectful, “That was eighty flogs, Your Majesty.”
Lu Xiao bowed his head and stared at the layers of snow-white bandages on the back and unconsciously clenched his fist, his voice trembling slightly, “I, I…”
He paused and seemed like he had no courage to continue.
Qiu Yutong sighed, “Your Majesty, this is all in the past, let’s change medicine first.”
Lu Xiao took a deep breath, as if he were doing his best to calm down. Then, he picked up a handkerchief and soaked it in the basin then carefully wrung it dry. After that, he carefully and cautiously used the handkerchief to moisten the edges of the bandage. Then, before the water could soak through the bandages, he gently pulled them open.
He repeated this over and over again, almost using up two hours. The bandages on Qiu Yutong’s body were finally taken off.
A large expanse of the wound that he couldn’t bear to see was revealed to Lu Xiao.
On that frail back, there wasn’t a single intact piece of skin, everything was badly mutilated.
Lu Xiao picked up the Jinchuang medicine pot and sat by the bed rigidly, his face extremely pale, as if he didn’t know where to start.
Qiu Yutong waited for half a day then couldn’t help urging, “Your Majesty, can you hurry up? It’s a little cold.”
Lu Xiao forced out a sound of acknowledgement, scooping out some ointment, and put it on with extreme gentleness.
His application of the medicine was extremely unskilled, his finger was continuously trembling faintly. This body was also extremely delicate and Qiu Yutong was sometimes in so much pain, his vision would go black. He forcefully remained silent, inwardly scolding this evil disciple repeatedly thousands of times.
This youngster was sent from the heavens to torture him!
With great difficulty, the medicine application was done. Lu Xiao picked up new bandages and gently wound it around his body.
After such torment, when it was finally done, Qiu Yutong gave out cold sweat in pain while Lu Xiao wasn’t any better, his face didn’t have a smidgeon of colour and his entire person seemed dazed.
Qiu Yutong lay back on the bed in extreme dejection, like a squashed eggplant. He dispiritedly thought, with such a situation now, was he still able to scale the wall to find San-Shixiong?
……
The days passed quickly. In an instant, over half a month had passed, and it was the first month of the year, it was the new year.
Lu Xiao had always been diligent and frugal; he did not like to celebrate the new year. Daning Palace was also not decorated with coloured banners and lanterns. Besides a few palace maids who did some paper cuttings and stuck them on their windows, there was no celebratory atmosphere.
It was a sunny day today and the sun was warm.
秋雨桐斜倚在卧房窗边的矮塌上，一边晒着太阳，一边看着一本狗血话本，大概内容是一个侠客如何飞檐走壁潜入皇宫，救出了青梅竹马的妃子，暴打了狗皇帝之类云云。
Qiu Yutong reclined against the chair* beside the window, sunbathing as he read a dog-blood novel. It was about a chivalrous hero who infiltrated the imperial palace and saved his childhood sweetheart who was a concubine, beating up the dog emperor and so etc.
[T/N: it’s a large chair/long bed-ish kind of furniture.]
Seeing that the dog emperor was beat up, Qiu Yutong felt amused, and couldn’t help glancing at Lu Xiao beside him.
Lu Xiao was currently behind his desk, criticising the reports with his head lowered, completely unaware that Qiu Yutong was silently cursing him. Recently, after finishing court, he wouldn’t go to the study room. Rather, he moved the reports over and would critique them in the bedroom.
Qiu Yutong silently laughed for a while before he felt bored again. He casually flung the book away and sighed in low spirits.
Lu Xiao immediately stopped writing, “What is it?”
Qiu Yutong felt that it was impossible to say that he had read too many books recently and there was no lack of chivalrous heroes who had secret access to the imperial palace’s harem, but none of them were ones he could emulate.
For example, the hero from the book just mentioned relied on his exceptionally qinggong* to enter and leave the palace. But even though Qiu Yutong’s injury was slightly better, he could only walk with difficulty, leaping from rooftops and scaling the walls was not possible yet.
[T/N: Literally light technique, that skill where people can just kind of… glide… in chinese drama.]
Also, his method not very reasonable, what putting on makeup to pretend to be a palace maid, what bribing an eunuch, what hiding in manure jars… peipeipei*, forget this last one.
[T/N: the sound of spitting to express disgust.]
Lu Xiao gentled his voice to ask again, “Does your wound hurt?”
“No,” Qiu Yutong had a sudden inspiration, “It’s just that I’ve been in the house for too long so I feel unbearably stuffy.”
Lu Xiao thought about it. “Why not, We accompany you to row a boat in Bihe lake? Or go to Pure Frosted Jade courtyard and admire the snow?”
Qiu Yutong licked his lip and probed, “Your Majesty, I want… I want to see the lanterns in Dragon Gate street during the Lantern Festival, okay?”
San-Shixiong was staying in Juanlian Alley. Dragon Gate street was the capital’s most lively street and was only a few alleys over from Juanlian Alley. He could rush over in an hour.
Qiu Yutong simply felt that his idea was too clever.
In the recent days, because Lu Xiao had sentenced him to be flogged 80 times while he had saved him on Qixue Terrace, so Lu Xiao felt extremely guilty and constantly pampered him in every possible way.
In this way, Lu Xiao would most likely not reject his small request. As long as he left Daning Palace, with so many people on the streets during the Lantern Festival, he could slip in casually and wound’t it be like a fish entering the sea of a bird into the sky?
Lu Xiao stared at him for a moment before saying lightly, “You only want to see the lanterns?”
Being stared at by those pitch-black eyes so silently, he didn’t know why, but Qiu Yutong was suddenly anxious. Inexplicably, he had the feeling like he was seen through, as if he were unable to escape.
These words had left his mouth and it was hard to take them back now. He could only brace himself and force out a dry laugh. “Of course, what else does Your Majesty think I’d do?”
Lu XIao looked down and didn’t utter a word for a long time.
Just as Qiu Yutong didn’t think he would reply, Lu Xiao suddenly said, “Alright, We promise you. Before that, We want to bring you to a place.”
