BVAHEDLA[W Chapter 32
by VolareChu Li-fei stood silently in place.
The sunlight outside the window was just right, warming him and making him feel comfortable. Compared to the scorching summer in the dream just now, everything hadn’t reached the point of no return. The conversation with the emperor was ostensibly a voluntary exchange. But in reality, both of them understood that once the arrow was fired, there was no turning back. Beneath the calm lake, undercurrents were already surging, and time would only accelerate the catalysis of the contradictions between them.
“Royal Uncle…don’t ignore me.” Lu Mo-chen’s voice sounded, with a hoarseness from his recent recovery from illness, and a faint sob, making him seem particularly fragile.
The sunlight shone on Chu Li-fei, giving him a soft glow. But Lu Mo-chen felt that the distance between them was getting farther and farther, and he couldn’t help but increase the strength in his hand. Because he had just woken up, he couldn’t control his strength very well, leaving a deep wrinkle on Chu Li-fei’s sleeve.
Feeling the strength coming from his sleeve, Chu Li-fei felt as if a cat was scratching at the tip of his heart. Looking at Lu Mo-chen’s weak appearance, the initial defense disappeared in an instant.
He looked at the other party helplessly and with pity. The timid and forbearing look of the little Lu Mo-chen in the dream gradually overlapped with the youth’s moist eyes.
Chu Li-fei sat down again on the edge of the bed, gently covering Lu Mo-chen’s eyelids with his hand, and said softly, “Sleep, I won’t leave.”
Darkness struck again, but this time, Lu Mo-chen felt exceptionally at ease.
In the past, he had walked alone in the darkness, and others had looked at him coldly, taking pleasure in humiliating him.
What he woke up from in the darkness was a body full of wounds and an empty slate.
When he was young, he would sit alone under the corridor late at night, swallowing his grievances and pain. He looked up at the round moon in the sky, expecting the dawn to arrive.
But later he gradually understood that the rising sun would not shine on him, the dazzling sunlight was blocked by the broken red walls, and the warm temperature was also isolated by the hateful body.
But this time, the darkness came with a cold fragrance, and he would no longer feel lonely and afraid.
He would reach out and grasp that bright moon tightly in his hand.
It was already late at night when Lu Mo-chen woke up again.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Chu Li-fei sitting by the bed, seemingly holding something in his hand.
He tried his best to suppress the joy in his heart and propped himself up.
Feeling the movement coming from behind him, Chu Li-fei put down the letter in his hand, stood up and helped Lu Mo-chen up, and then took the water glass from the small table next to him and handed it over.
Lu Mo-chen took a sip of water from Chu Li-fei’s hand before he felt much better.
Chu Li-fei thought that Lu Mo-chen would take the cup, but he never expected that he would grab his hand and drink. His hand trembled subconsciously, and the water droplets splashed out, sliding down the back of his hand, leaving a dark mark on the brocade quilt.
“Royal Uncle, what time is it now?”
“It’s the third quarter of Hai time. What’s wrong?” Chu Li-fei put the teacup back on the table and raised his eyebrows to ask.
“Hai time…” Lu Mo-chen murmured in his mouth. He remembered that the last time he woke up was during the day, and it looked like the sun had just risen not long ago. Wouldn’t that mean that Chu Li-fei had been guarding him for nearly 7 hours?
“Thank you for your hard work, Royal Uncle.”
“It’s nothing.”
For a moment, the two fell into silence.
Lu Mo-chen wanted to say something, but he didn’t know how to start.
While his eyes were wandering, his sight was suddenly attracted to the letter that Chu Li-fei had put aside. He saw that the side with the handwriting was placed face down by Chu Li-fei, and then pressed down with a book to prevent it from being blown away by the wind.
Coincidentally, a gust of wind blew, and the candlelight in the room flickered for a moment, and a corner of the letter paper was blown up.
In the flickering light and darkness, Lu Mo-chen saw the signature on the letter – Lin Su.
Lin Su? Lu Mo-chen silently repeated these two words in his heart, and several faces flashed in his mind.
Finally, he finally matched this name with a face with a scar on his forehead.
He remembered that Lin Su was Chu Li-fei’s deputy general.
And the scar on his forehead was said to have been left when he was a child because he was too playful and bumped into a pillar.
Lin Su’s family could not be considered a prominent family. His ancestors and fathers had served as fifth-rank civil officials in the court, but they were not very talented, so they stopped there.
It was Lin Su himself who, because he was too naughty when he was a child, his family sent him to the army after some discussion. He happened to be under Chu Li-fei’s command.
Originally, Lin’s parents only hoped that Lin Su could restrain his temperament in the army and never really expected him to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy himself, after all, he was the only child in the family.
But he didn’t expect Lin Su himself to follow Chu Li-fei to the Northwest without saying a word, and he repeatedly made outstanding achievements and was quickly promoted and appreciated by Chu Li-fei. Now he has also been granted the title of Marquis.
If he remembered correctly, it was Lin Su, this deputy general, who was taking care of everything in the army when Chu Li-fei returned to the capital this time.
Then what did he write in the letter he sent at this time? Did something happen on the border?
Lu Mo-chen frowned slightly and thought, but he didn’t dare to ask Chu Li-fei what had happened. First, if it was a military secret, then it would definitely be inconvenient for him to know. Second, his relationship with Chu Li-fei had just eased, and he didn’t want to regress the relationship between the two back to the original because of this kind of thing.
Although he didn’t mean to see it.
Chu Li-fei’s heart was also in a mess at this time, and the reason was also because of the letter that Lin Su had just sent him.
The letter mentioned that what the Third Prince’s party of Ji State wanted to find was not an item at all, but a person!
And this person was the Third Prince himself. This also explained why the people of the Third Prince’s party focused all their attention on finding things, and even did not hesitate to give power to the Second Prince.
According to the news Lin Su brought him, the Third Prince’s party of Ji State was attacked by the Second Prince’s party a month ago, and lost a lot of manpower, and retreated all the way to the border between Ji State and Great Yan.
And the Third Prince disappeared at this time. There were rumors that he had already fallen off a cliff, his body was disfigured and unrecognizable, and he might have been eaten by vultures long ago, leaving no bones left. There was also a rumor that the Third Prince himself had secretly sneaked into Great Yan to avoid the pursuit of the Second Prince, slowly lying dormant, waiting for the day to make a comeback.
Lin Su believed that the second rumor was more credible. Today, he found several Ji State people trying to sneak into Great Yan at the border between the two countries. Presumably some of those with high martial arts skills or those who were good at disguise had already entered Great Yan early.
According to the calculation of time, it was possible that they had arrived in the capital now.
Lin Su also said in the letter that he would continue to pay attention to this matter. As soon as there was any movement, he would send the letter through carrier pigeons to remind Chu Li-fei to be more careful in his actions in the capital.
Chu Li-fei lowered his eyes, which looked like he had other things on his mind in Lu Mo-chen’s eyes. The warm yellow candlelight flickered on his face, projecting his figure lonely on the wall, flickering and dimming with the shaking of the candlelight.
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
The two people in the room were both shocked, as if they didn’t expect anyone to come to visit so late at night.
Chu Li-fei raised his voice: “What’s the matter?”
Wang Jian-guo’s voice sounded outside the door: “Replying to the Prince, Young Master Ning has something to ask for.”
Chu Li-fei frowned. At this time, what would Ning Yan be looking for him for?
To be honest, he didn’t really trust Ning Yan, but since he was someone sent by Lu Yuan-jing, Chu Li-fei was unwilling to trust him.
Another point was that Ning Yan was too good at observing words and expressions, even more so than those old ministers who had been immersed in the court for many years and were used to flattering others.
So after returning from Yan Yue Pavilion that night, he arranged for him and Liu Shuo-yu to live together in a corner of the Wang residence, some distance away from his bedroom.
Speaking of which, he hadn’t seen them for almost half a month.
Chu Li-fei frowned slightly, but still stood up.
He planned to take a look. With Ning Yan’s personality and planning, it might really be something important.
Seeing that Chu Li-fei couldn’t wait to get up to see Ning Yan as soon as he heard Wang Jian-guo’s message, a faint jealousy couldn’t help but rise in Lu Mo-chen’s heart.
“Royal Uncle, don’t go, stay and accompany me, okay.” Lu Mo-chen’s heart was twisted so much that he couldn’t wait to tie Chu Li-fei and himself together, but he still put on a pitiful look on his face.
Chu Li-fei: “I’ll be right back.”
Lu Mo-chen clenched the corner of the quilt, and the jealousy couldn’t be hidden: “But Royal Uncle, that Ning fellow sees you in the Wang residence every day, but I’m usually in the palace, and it’s not easy to be with you. Can’t you accompany me?”
“Who said that?” Chu Li-fei asked in confusion: “When did I see him every day?”
Hearing this, Lu Mo-chen’s eyes lit up. Chu Li-fei meant that he didn’t see that Ning Yan often? Thinking of this, he immediately let go: “Then Royal Uncle, go and come back quickly, I’ll wait for you here.”
After speaking, he buried himself in the quilt.
Chu Li-fei was shocked by the contrast before and after Lu Mo-chen, and didn’t understand what had happened. Seeing the huge mass of quilt on the bed, he sighed helplessly: “Such a grown man…”
Chu Li-fei stepped forward to help him lift the quilt, saving him from suffocating himself, before turning around and leaving.
Outside the door, Ning Yan in a blue shirt looked like he had been waiting for a while.
Chu Li-fei approached: “What are you looking for me for?”
Ning Yan smiled, like a fox: “Naturally, it’s something that the Prince is interested in.”
Chu Li-fei didn’t speak, just looked at him like that.
Ning Yan knew that he should stop while he was ahead, and didn’t sell any more secrets: “Does the Prince still remember that Li Yun-ping?”
Li Yun-ping? Chu Li-fei naturally remembered. In his previous life, Li Yun-ping killed him, and this Xu Zhi-lin also put in a lot of effort.
“What’s wrong?”
Just then, Chu Li-fei seemed to hear some noise from the bedroom.
He exchanged glances with Ning Yan, and the two nodded to signal, and ran over together.
Chu Li-fei opened the door. There was no one in the room except Lu Mo-chen lying quietly on the bed.
Suddenly, his sight moved to the table next to him. He saw that the letter paper under the cup had quietly folded up a small corner.
Chu Li-fei picked up the letter paper, frowned tightly, and carefully examined it for a moment.
At this time, his nose seemed to smell something, like the fragrance of some rouge.
He brought his nose closer to the letter paper, and the smell became stronger.
“Heh.” Chu Li-fei folded up the letter, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Lu Mo-chen again became extremely cold: “From tomorrow onwards, this Prince will send you back to the palace. This Prince never thought that you would use such a trick. How is it, seeing this Prince being played around by you, you should be very happy.”
After throwing down these words, Chu Li-fei left with Ning Yan, leaving Lu Mo-chen alone sitting on the bed in confusion.
He had no idea what had happened in the short few minutes just now.
He remembered that Li Yun-ping came not long after Chu Li-fei left. He naturally hated Li Yun-ping and didn’t have a good face for him.
But he couldn’t stand the fact that Xu Zhi-lin pretended not to see it. He approached his bed step by step, and the words he uttered made him very disgusted.
While observing his expression, Xu Zhi-lin described to him in a serious manner how he usually got along with Chu Li-fei in the Wang residence. Thinking about it now, Xu Zhi-lin just wanted to anger him.
But what was the purpose?
Was it to distract him?
Could it be that the letter really wrote something terrible?
But it didn’t seem to be the case.
Xu Zhi-lin didn’t show any interest in the letter.
Then could it be that he wanted to alienate him and Chu Li-fei?
But why was this? Last time in Yan Yue Pavilion, Xu Zhi-lin could see that Chu Li-fei didn’t like him at all.
Now that the relationship between the two had just eased, it had dropped to freezing point again.
But now it seemed that Chu Li-fei didn’t like Xu Zhi-lin either. Then why did Chu Li-fei redeem him in the first place?
Lu Mo-chen’s eyes darkened, and he only felt that there were countless mysteries behind these things.
He seemed to have thought of something again, and his eyes became firm again.
He would clear them up sooner or later, so that Chu Li-fei would no longer misunderstand him.
Chu Li-fei outside the door was a little regretful. He seemed to have been too impulsive just now. He convicted him without even asking Lu Mo-chen.
But in his previous life, those two people did kill him.
He was now more and more certain that those two dreams might be his previous life.
According to the plot and the memories of his previous life, Chu Li-fei rescued Lu Mo-chen from the deep palace, taught him to grow up, and even helped him win the throne in the end.
In any case, he had done Lu Mo-chen a favor.
He hated betrayal the most.
Originally, when he was in the world of cultivation, if it wasn’t for the betrayal of his close relatives, he would never have fallen into the abyss of demons.
Therefore, he was so angry when he learned that Lu Mo-chen was in contact with Xu Zhi-lin.
After calming down, he turned his gaze back to Ning Yan next to him.
“You continue.”
Since parting from the Wang residence, Lu Mo-chen had not seen Chu Li-fei for almost half a month.
He had wanted to go to the Wang residence to see him, but he was stopped at the door.
Out of desperation, Lu Mo-chen thought of a way.
If the dream he had in the Wang residence was real, then it was Chu Li-fei who took the initiative to ask his father for the favor and brought him by his side.
Lu Mo-chen still remembered that his personality was not very good at that time.
Since this was the case, he would take the first step this time.
He came outside the Hall of Diligent Government and waited for the announcement.
After the last incident of blocking the knife, Lu Yuan-jing seemed to remember that he still had such a son, and he had a bit of a good face for him.
Lu Mo-chen quickly explained his intention.
He said that he wanted to learn martial arts with Chu Li-fei, so that he could better protect his father and defend the country.
“Please fulfill my wish, Father.”
Lu Mo-chen said it in a very eloquent manner, with a solemn and plausible appearance.
Learn martial arts with Chu Li-fei?
Lu Yuan-jing thought of the past again. He was not good at martial arts and was often scolded by his master. Later, Chu Li-fei spared his own time to teach him bit by bit. In this way, Chu Li-fei could be regarded as half of his master.
Lu Yuan-jing didn’t know what he was thinking of. After pondering for a moment, he still agreed.
Just as Lu Mo-chen was about to receive the decree and thank him, he heard Lu Yuan-jing ask again:
“When did you meet Chu Li-fei?”
Lu Yuan-jing looked at him like that, with a look of nostalgia seeming to drift in his eyes.
But before Lu Mo-chen could answer, Lu Yuan-jing gave up.
“Forget it.”
“Since this is the case, then We will hand over the case in the suburbs of Beijing to you and Prince Qin to investigate thoroughly.”
“Speaking of which, that case has something to do with you.”