Your Highness, Why Has No One Praised You for Having a Sweet Tongue?
Chu Zhang was tied up like a zongzi and thrown at Lu Ronghuai’s feet.
“Lu Ronghuai, This Crown Prince is the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Chu. If you behave so rudely, are you not afraid the Kingdom of Chu and the Kingdom of Lu will fall out?”
Lu Ronghuai crouched down and looked at Chu Zhang with playful interest. “What is there for This Prince to fear? This Prince is neither Emperor nor Crown Prince. It is not This Prince’s turn to worry over such matters.”
“Do not think too highly of yourself. This Prince has never placed a mere Kingdom of Chu in his eyes.”
Chu Zhang was furious to death, yet he had no way to refute him.
Because what Lu Ronghuai said was the truth.
Chu was weak and Lu was strong. It was precisely the fear of annihilation that had driven the six kingdoms to band together, offering tribute to Lu each year.
If the Kingdom of Lu truly meant to tear all civility aside with them, then even if all six kingdoms joined forces to attack Lu, their chance of victory would still be only half.
“Ah-Yuan, come here.” Lu Ronghuai beckoned to Chu Yuan and pointed at Chu Zhang on the ground. “However he bullied you before, you may now bully him back the same way.”
“Chu Yuan, if you dare harm This Crown Prince, my Imperial Father will certainly not spare you.” Chu Zhang glared up at him with venom as he watched him approach.
Lu Ronghuai kicked him over with one foot. “Who are you speaking to? You have neither rules nor manners. In future, whenever you see Ah-Yuan, you are to address him with utmost respect as Prince Consort Li.”
Chu Zhang let out a howl of pain.
He rolled over on the ground, dirt covering his body. That kick had struck his shoulder blade with searing pain, so much so that it seemed the bone itself had cracked.
Chu Yuan stood before him, looking down from above.
He spoke neither hurriedly nor slowly. “I am now Prince Consort Li. What can the Lord of Chu do to me?”
The veins on Chu Zhang’s forehead stood out. “Today’s grievance, one day it will be returned to you twofold.”
Since he had already been beaten, Chu Zhang simply tore off the last of his disguise. He did not believe they truly dared go all the way. He was, after all, the Crown Prince of Chu. However arrogant Lu Ronghuai might be, he would never truly take his life.
“Certainly. This Prince will wait.” Smiling, Lu Ronghuai stepped on Chu Zhang’s fingers and even grinding down with deliberate force.
“Your Highness may handle it.” Looking at Chu Zhang, whose face had twisted from the pain, Chu Yuan said.
Lu Ronghuai withdrew his merciless foot. “Ah-Yuan is afraid?”
A small, mischievous curve touched Chu Yuan’s lips. “No. This subject simply does not possess Your Highness’s strength, and his skin is too thick.”
Lu Ronghuai set his foot back down again and assured him, “Rest easy. This Prince will make certain he never forgets it for the rest of his life.”
Half an hour later.
Chu Zhang was hanging from a tree. His robes had been beaten to rags and dangled from him in strips. He no longer had the strength to even groan, his head drooping as though half-dead.
Lu Ronghuai glanced at Chu Zhang hanging above, then at Ning Yuqiang tied to the trunk of the tree and kindly offered one remark.
“The smell of his blood will soon draw wild beasts over. The two of you had best pray for your own good fortune.”
With that, he drew Chu Yuan onto the horse and prepared to take him to another place for amusement.
Ning Yuqiang watched helplessly as he turned and left. He was dressed in black, his mouth stuffed shut, and Xian Feng had even cut down branches to block the front of him. If anyone happened to pass by, it would be difficult indeed to notice him.
Tears welled into his eyes. In that instant, countless grievances and hatreds flashed through his heart. At last, he understood clearly that Lu Ronghuai had never cared for him.
He had accompanied him for so many years, only to end up with this result.
He hated it. He hated it so very much.
“Your Highness, in truth, this subject never suffered any great loss at Chu Zhang’s hands.” As the two of them strolled through the forest, Chu Yuan turned his head to look at the man.
Sunlight fell through the shade of the trees, casting light and shadow across the sharply carved lines of his face.
“An arrow loosed in the open is easy enough to dodge, it is the small men who are hardest to guard against. A petty man like Chu Zhang has too many sinister tricks. How could one evade them every single time? Ah-Yuan must have suffered no small amount.”
“It was not so bad,” Chu Yuan said, his brows relaxing, a playful expression appearing upon his face. “Before this subject was ten, this subject was also a little tyrant in the palace.”
“Is that so? Such a beautiful little tyrant, and now you have become so well-behaved.” He bent down and kissed Chu Yuan’s soft cheek.
“Fragrant, soft, and sweet.”
“... Your Highness, why has no one praised you for having a sweet tongue?”
Lu Ronghuai fell silent for an instant.
“Is it not possible that I have simply never said such things to anyone else?”
Chu Yuan gave a deliberate sigh. “Then that is truly a pity. If all under heaven knew that Your Highness had such a face, how would those rumors still find believers?”
Lu Ronghuai narrowed his eyes, wild and unrestrained arrogance filling them. “Let them believe what they will as they please. It is enough that Ah-Yuan believes in me with all his heart.”
“If this subject did not believe in Your Highness, then just now by the lake, this subject would not have wagered with him.”
Lu Ronghuai straightened where he sat and asked in a probing tone, “Speaking of that, when you heard those words from him, did you feel jealous at all?”
“No.”
He answered too cleanly. Lu Ronghuai seemed to choke on the reply and went silent for a long while.
“...” Lu Ronghuai’s voice turned low and hoarse, dissatisfied with that answer. “Think on it again properly.”
Hearing the disappointment in his voice, Chu Yuan smiled through his eyes and said lightly, “Your Highness does not like him, so this subject would not be jealous.”
“What if I did like him?” he asked, with the air of someone determined to be contrary.
Chu Yuan softened his voice. “Then even if this subject were jealous, it would be of no use.”
Lu Ronghuai closed his eyes and let his head droop onto Chu Yuan’s shoulder, giving little hums and grumbles to express his displeasure.
“You do not love me. You are not even jealous.”
“Prince Li!” Someone came riding fast through the forest ahead toward them.
Lu Ronghuai raised his eyes with cool indifference. “What is it?”
The newcomer was the captain of the guards. He cupped his hands to Lu Ronghuai. “This subordinate greets Your Highness. A moment ago, a servant from the Young Lord Ning’s household came looking for this subordinate, saying he could not find his young master. Has Your Highness perhaps seen Young Lord Ning?”
“Oh, This Prince has.” Lu Ronghuai answered carelessly.
The captain asked, “May this subordinate ask where Your Highness saw the young lord?”
“Over there.” Lu Ronghuai lifted his arm and pointed north. “Young Lord Ning should be near the cave hunting tigers.”
After offering his thanks, the captain led his men off toward the north to search.
Lu Ronghuai lowered his eyes slightly and said in an even voice, “However he treated you at the time, let him now have a taste of the same.”
Chu Yuan was taken aback. “Your Highness has avenged this subject, and this subject is grateful beyond words. It is only that this subject worries about the Marquis of Xuanning...”
“Sooner or later, I was always going to come to this step with them. Ah-Yuan need not worry.”
Lu Ronghuai lifted a hand and drew an arrow from the quiver. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it directly into the grass.
“What is it?” Chu Yuan asked.
Lu Ronghuai dismounted, led the horse over, and drew back the arrow from the grass. At its tip was skewered a wild pheasant with bright tail feathers.
“Back when I was on campaign outside, I would sometimes sneak away to hunt mountain pheasants. Today Ah-Yuan may sample my skill at roasting chicken.”
Standing below the horse, Lu Ronghuai smiled and raised the pheasant in his hand. Suddenly, his expression changed sharply. He spun and left the place where he had just been standing.
Almost at the same moment, an arrow struck into that patch of ground. The arrowhead glimmered with a strange blue color.
Lu Ronghuai leapt back onto the horse at once and, shielding Chu Yuan in his arms, urged it forward at speed.
From the undergrowth behind them, more than ten black-clad, masked men silently emerged and pursued them without pause.
Xian Feng darted forward and blocked their path. The clash of blades rang through the forest, rising and falling one after another.
The horse ran very quickly. Chu Yuan was held tightly within Lu Ronghuai’s arms. Beside his ears roared the rushing wind. Turning his head, he looked at Lu Ronghuai’s firm, severe jawline and heard beside him the man’s steady, powerful heartbeat.
At such a moment, when killing intent lay thick on every side, he felt not the slightest fear.
Taking advantage of a momentary gap where no one had caught up behind them, Lu Ronghuai lowered his head and spoke quickly to him. “These people have come for me. I will send you to a safe place first, then turn back and deal with them.”
He did not dare let Chu Yuan remain in such danger. If anything happened to him, even in the slightest, Lu Ronghuai would be unable to bear it.
Chu Yuan understood what he meant and obediently nodded. “Mm. Your Highness must also take care.”
Lu Ronghuai’s eyes went cold and deep. “Ah-Yuan, no matter what you hear in a moment, do not look back.”
“Your Highness?”
“Take hold of the reins yourself when the moment comes. They will not trouble you. Go and find the guards stationed outside the forest.”
Ahead, deep in the forest, more than twenty men already stood waiting for him with swords in hand, as if they had long since been there in expectation.
“So this is where they were waiting for me.” Lu Ronghuai let out a cold laugh, drew his sword, and at the same time kicked the horse’s flank. The horse lunged forward at once.
He flipped down from the horse, and the black-clad men came at him all at once.
Making use of the length of his legs, Lu Ronghuai kicked away the two black-clad men blocking the path before him and cleared the way for the horse to rush through.
Chu Yuan was sprawled over the horse’s back. Both hands clutched the reins tightly. Though the violent jostling made his whole body ache, he did not dare slacken.
He struggled to look back. In the dense forest, Lu Ronghuai was already surrounded by more than twenty masked killers. Within the flashing blades and crossing swords, the man moved with fierce precision and bold strength. Faced with such a disparity in numbers, not the slightest fear or hesitation showed upon his face.
This was a Lu Ronghuai he had never seen before, killing intent pressing thick around his body, his swordlike brows and heroic eyes shining, hot-blooded and unrestrained.
Chu Yuan wished to look longer, yet layer after layer of trees blocked his view. With regret and worry, he drew back his gaze and began considering the plight now before him.
He did not know how to ride. Though he called to the horse several times, it never slowed. In the end, he could only pull hard on the reins, little by little forcing the horse to slow.
At last, after great difficulty, he reined the horse in. He had not yet had time to breathe in relief when from the dense woods beside him there suddenly rang out the roar of a wild beast. Judging by the sound, it was very close.
The horse was startled by that roar, grew agitated, and nearly threw Chu Yuan from its back.
Chu Yuan soothed the horse and took hold of the reins, preparing to leave. Then, with a violent rustling of branches and leaves, a huge black bear with thick fur and a savage face burst from the woods and blocked his path.
It roared at Chu Yuan, sharp fangs showing in its mouth, and charged toward him in a frenzy.
“Hyah!” Chu Yuan clamped his legs around the horse’s belly and, with the greatest strength of his life, yanked the horse around and fled back the way he had come.
He had not run far. He trusted that with Lu Ronghuai’s hearing, he would certainly catch the sound of the bear.
The black bear pursued madly from behind, roaring without cease. It had clearly taken Chu Yuan for prey. Great streams of saliva dripped from its mouth, and its paws tore deep furrows into the earth as it ran.
This bear had clearly lived for many years and was far more cunning than an ordinary bear. Seeing that Chu Yuan’s horse was running faster and faster, it actually raised its forepaw, struck down a tree as thick as a man’s arm, hoisted it up, and hurled it toward Chu Yuan.
The horse gave a shrill cry as the tree branches struck its rump and hind legs, and its speed plainly slowed.
The black bear struck down another tree and swept it over in a frenzy. Chu Yuan was hit by that savage force and knocked from the horse’s back.
He fell hard to the ground and let out a low groan. Had there not been bushes beneath him, he feared every bone in his body would have been shaken apart.
Fierce light glinted in the black bear’s two eyes. Moving on all fours, it rushed toward Chu Yuan, an excited roar sounding from its mouth.
Chu Yuan could not move. When it came before him, it stood there like a mountain, so near that he could smell the rank stench rising off its fur.
As the bear raised its paw to strike, Chu Yuan let out a helpless, wry smile and closed his eyes.
In the end, he still had not managed to escape it.
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Yuanyuan: Calling Lu Dog.
Lu Dog: Your Didi hero is on the way.
0 Comments