Ah Fu pushed open the palace door in a panic and strode over, “Your Highness!”
Wen Chan saw him and hurriedly got out of bed, “Did you keep a night watch in front of my palace hall yesterday?”
“Yes.” Ah Fu looked confused, but he still replied, “One person in the first half of the night, and another person in the second half of the night. It is well arranged for every night.”
“Then why did no one answer when I called for help last night?”
“This……” Ah Fu was stunned for a while. But after thinking about it for a while, his face suddenly changed, and he said, “Your Highness, oddly enough, even though the thunder was clearly sounding last night, this slave slept very soundly, and he almost mistook the time when I got up early this morning.”
“Is it only you, or was everyone in this palace like this?” Wen Chan frowned.
“This slave doesn’t know.” Ah Fu saw that his face was not good and asked cautiously, “But the subordinates who were on night duty last night lazed off?”
Wen Chan shook his head. He stepped back, pointed to the bed, and said, “An assassin came to the palace last night and wanted to take my life. But no matter how I called, no one in the palace responded. In desperation, I had no choice but to run out of Xiyang Palace.”
When Ah Fu saw the blade of the knife on the bed, he knelt down on the ground in fright, “This slave deserves to die for his sin, and I hope Your Highness will punish me!”
“Don’t rush to beg for forgiveness.” Wen Chan said, “I thought that all the people in the palace were killed by the assassin. Now it seems that you all should have been drugged with some kind of knockout drop, which caused you all to lose consciousness.”
“Is Your Highness injured?!” Ah Fu asked anxiously.
Wen Chan suddenly thought of Liang Yanbei, who was dressed in clothes whiter than snow last night. For a moment, those beautiful eyes flashed in his memory, and his left shoulder suddenly ached violently, causing his face to distort.
“Your Highness!” Ah Fu screamed.
Wen Chan only felt that the pain in his left shoulder was getting stronger and stronger. He staggered two steps and sat on the bed. He hurriedly opened the front of his shirt and was shocked to find that his shoulder, which was obviously still in good condition, was wrapped in circles of white gauze at this time.
The colour of the blood spread through the gauze, and the unbearable pain came from there.
Wen Chan was dumbfounded. When did this wound appear?
In retrospect, he was indeed stabbed by the assassin last night. But when he woke up this morning, the first thing he did was check the wound, but it didn’t exist at all.
In addition to this pain, it appeared suddenly, and it only appeared after Liang Yanbei was mentioned.
Wen Chan frowned and fell into deep thought. His face showed both confusion and disbelief.
Seeing this wound, Ah Fu was so frightened that he felt as if his liver and gall bladder were being torn apart, and he kowtowed three times with three ‘bang bang bang’ sounds, “This slave deserves to die! This slave deserves to die!”
“Don’t panic!” Wen Chan had a grave expression and said in a calm voice, “Ah Fu, now I will leave you with three things. Listen to me.”
Ah Fu looked up at him with eyes that were blurred with tears.
“Firstly, go to the imperial hospital to invite the imperial physician, and at the same time send someone to report to the Emperor Father and release the news that I was seriously injured by an assassin.”
“Secondly, find the leftovers from last night’s dinner in the palace and show them to the imperial physician when he comes. Remember not to let other people in the palace know.”
“Thirdly, call all the secret guards who stayed outside the hall last night to come see me. If you can’t find them, go to the Sixing Palace Hall and lead people to look for their bodies.”
Ah Fu’s face froze, “Your Highness, you mean……”
“If it’s as I expected, I am afraid, with those secret guards, everything bodes ill and there are no positive signs1fig. inauspicious; everything points to disaster.” Wen Chan closed the lapel of his shirt, “Publicize my assassination in the capital, and then close the door to visitors. No one is allowed in.”
“Including……”
Ah Fu was seriously recording what he had just said. When he heard this hesitating word, he looked up in confusion and saw that he had a complicated expression, “Including Liang Yanbei.”
“This slave will remember it!” Ah Fu kowtowed again and hurriedly got up, “Your Highness, lie down and rest. This slave will go and invite the imperial physician first.”
Wen Chan made a sound in response and endured it. But in the end, he couldn’t bear the pain in his shoulder and gasped.
Ah Fu ran out of the palace quickly after he finished speaking. Wen Chan sat on the couch and untied the tied white gauze layer by layer, revealing the hideous wound.
The wound had been sprinkled with medicine. So the blood had already clotted, and it was a little black.
The appearance of this wound was too weird, which made Wen Chan a little scared.
The news that the Ninth Prince faced an assassination attempt spread throughout the capital in just one day.
It was rumoured that the Ninth Prince was seriously injured in bed. He was relying on the medicine of the imperial physician to hang on, and he was still in a coma. The emperor was furious about this matter and ordered a thorough investigation into the assassin, and sealed off half of the palace.
Later, there were rumours that the Ninth Prince did not panic when he encountered the assassin. And he snatched the assassin’s blade to kill them, and then escaped alive from the mortal danger2a narrow escape / to survive by the skin of one’s teeth.
In short, it was a hot topic.
Wen Chan, who was the central figure of the rumours, was sitting in his bedroom and staring at the parrot in the cage, “Say, what the hell are you?”
The parrot didn’t react at all. It just stood there stupidly, occasionally moving its head.
“Don’t pretend. I know you’re not an ordinary bird. Now there are only the two of us here. I’ll give you the chance to confess.” He continued.
This time, the bird didn’t even move, as if it had turned into a statue.
“Very good.” Wen Chan sneered, “Don’t think I can’t do anything to you just because you’re playing dumb. Be careful, or I’ll have someone burn your feathers and stew them in soup!”
Wen Chan was busy making fiendish threats when he suddenly heard a slight noise coming from the window. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the window that was originally closed was suddenly opened.
At this time, Wen Chan, who had only experienced an assassination, was like a bird that gets startled by the mere twang of a bow. He quickly stood up and stared at the window.
The next moment, a man in a black robe rolled in from outside the window and landed steadily and nimbly. Wen Chan was so shocked that he gaped and wanted to shout at the top of his voice for help.
However, when he took a closer look, he found that the person who came was not an assassin, but Liang Yanbei.
After he stood up, he closed the window gently with his hands. His black eyes moved around the palace hall and stopped at Wen Chan’s face. “Your Highness, who were you talking to just now?”
The moment Wen Chan saw him, his breathing became rapid. He first took a closer look at him and saw that he was no different from usual before saying, “You…… How did you come in through the window?”
“It’s because you shut yourself in and don’t see anyone, so I resorted to this desperate measure.” Liang Yanbei didn’t treat him with the formal courtesy accorded to a host at all. He untied his black cloak while walking over and casually put it on the table. He glanced at the parrot and smiled, “You are not talking to this bird again, are you?”
“You dare to trespass into the Xiyang Palace?!” Wen Chan asked in surprise.
It was precisely the time when they were searching for the assassin, and Liang Yanbei dared to sneak in. If he were caught, it would be a serious crime.
“Quickly go back!” Wen Chan said fiercely.
Liang Yanbei pouted with grievance, “Your Highness, I was worried about the injury on your shoulder. So I came dodging layers of guards.”
Wen Chan muttered to himself irresolutely for a moment and then tentatively asked, “How do you know that my shoulder is injured?”
Liang Yanbei glanced at him strangely, “Is Your Highness joking? I saved you last night, and I carried you all the way back to the palace. I also gave you a simple treatment for your wound.”
Wen Chan was stunned, “Do you remember?”
“Of course, I remember.” Liang Yanbei took out a few small porcelain bottles from his sleeves, “I brought medicine from the Situ family, which is very effective. Your Highness, take off the gauze, and I will apply the medicine to you.”
He watched Liang Yanbei open the porcelain bottles one by one, and he couldn’t help but take two steps back. The pair of golden eyes from last night appeared in his mind. He took a breath and plucked up the courage to ask, “Liang Yanbei, you are not a monster, are you?”
Liang Yanbei looked up in surprise when he heard this, and he did not know whether to laugh or cry, “Your Highness, what nonsense are you talking about?”
“I’m not talking nonsense. I am asking you seriously.” Wen Chan defended himself.
“Oh, I know.” Liang Yanbei thought about it carefully and said with a smile, “Just because I kissed you last night, you suspect that I am a monster?”
Wen Chan’s hand shook in shock. He didn’t expect him to speak so bluntly. He could say even such disgraceful words so lightly. So he was dumbfounded for a while, “You……”
Liang Yanbei walked towards him, “Are you scared?”
“Ridiculous!” Wen Chan took a breath in anger and tried to calm down, “Do you know what you are talking about?!”
“I know.” Liang Yanbei approached him step by step, “I like Your Highness very much. I fell in love with you the first time we met. That’s a feeling from my heart. I can’t control it.”
“Maybe your liking for me is merely an illusion that was given birth from a deja vu that you feel with me and not the kind you said. You need to calm down.” Wen Chan saw him approaching and couldn’t help but step back.
In his previous life, Liang Yanbei once said that his liking for him was to drink and chat with him happily, and his liking for Situ Zhoulan was that he wanted to marry her into the family.
Wen Chan had already suffered a loss once, and he would never suffer it again.
“It seems that Your Highness is quite knowledgeable about these things. So you can give me some answers.” Liang Yanbei said, “Every time I see you, I always want to hug you. When I get close to you, I always want to kiss you. My eyes are nevertheless always fixed on you. When I see you talking and laughing with others, I always want to know what you are talking about and why you are laughing so happily……”
Wen Chan’s heart beat faster every time he heard a word until the back of his foot kicked the chair. He had no way to retreat, so he sat down and looked up at Liang Yanbei, unable to move his eyes away.
“You are usually calm and can get along with anyone. But you are extremely wary of me. The more you reject me, the more I want to get close to you. And the closer I get to you, the more likeable you become. By the time I came to my senses, I had already fallen too deep, and there is only you in my eyes.”
“Your Highness.” Liang Yanbei leaned down and whispered, “What kind of love do you think I have?”
Wen Chan looked at him at a loss.
Suddenly, he remembered that after Liang Yanbei returned to the capital from Jin Ling in his previous life, he rushed to the palace covered in dust3fig. travel-worn, knelt in front of him, and said powerfully and resonatingly, “Your Majesty, I, your servant, ask to marry the daughter4(honorific) of the Situ family of Jin Ling. I hope Your Majesty will bestow on me the marriage.”
At that time, Wen Chan was still rejoicing in his return, but he was struck by this thunderclap from the clear sky5fig. bolt from the blue and his heart and lungs were in sharp pain.
Wen Chan was most reluctant to recall the scene of that night, which was the beginning of Liang Yanbei abandoning him.
“I don’t know……” Wen Chan said absentmindedly.
At that time, he was so unwilling to let go. But Liang Yanbei was hell-bent on marrying Situ Zhoulan, and the court councillors were trying their best to force him to accept a concubine. The imperial family of Wen was finally revived with great difficulty, and only Wen Chan was left in his bloodline. He was without the freedom to act independently and had no way out.
But he didn’t expect that the person he loved deeply in his heart would stand in front of him one day and say to him: I like you very much, and I have liked you since the first time I met you.
This was something he had been looking forward to but did not dare to think about. It was a scene that he had been dreaming about repeatedly.
The emotions in his heart gushed out. Wen Chan’s nose became sour, his eyes quickly became hazy, and tears fell without warning like that. He hurriedly turned his head, flustered, and wanted to wipe it off with his sleeves.
“Crying again?” Liang Yanbei said with a smile, “What’s there to cry about? I like you. Does that make you so sad?”
Wen Chan glared at him when he heard the words. But with tears in his eyes, the killing power was very small. He said hatefully, “Liang Yanbei, you are so confident. So you must be secure in and have backed some knowledge that you must have heard from me last time when I made a mistake and got drunk. That’s why you dare to do this.”
He frowned slightly and said innocently, “After you got drunk that time, you cried when I asked you. I really didn’t hear anything.”
“Sure enough!” Wen Chan knew that he would not sleep so well after getting drunk that night, and he also woke up in Liang Yanbei’s room. He must have been tricked by him to talk a lot.
Just when he was about to say something harsh, Liang Yanbei suddenly held his face with both hands and leaned over to seal him with a strong kiss.
The duration was very short, and after blocking all his words and stirring up his emotions, he left promptly.
Wen Chan was so shocked that the fingertips of his hands trembled, his eyes widened enormously, and he said with a red face, “How dare you! How dare you! You offended your superior like this. Aren’t you afraid that I will punish you for your crime?”
Liang Yanbei didn’t care about this soft threat at all. He licked his lips very brazenly, with an unobstructed expression of a wish to continue. He smiled and said, “Your Highness can punish me as much as you want. But before that, Your Highness has to take off your clothes first, and I will change your medicine.”
As he said this, he went to pull the front of his shirt.
Translator’s corner
I wonder if Liang Yanbei has any magical powers.
Thank you so much for reading the chapter. If you liked my translation and wanna support me, you can comment down your thoughts or send me a Kofi.
KO-FI
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