An Dezhong knew he had asked what he should not have and did not dare make another sound. Trembling, he finished drying the emperor’s hair and quietly withdrew.
Shang Yinyu did not know how to change the ending of being killed by Qiao Beiji on the dragon couch, so he picked up the memorials on the desk again.
He needed to understand the current situation well, and then think of a way to break it.
It was now the tenth year of Tianxi. Great Xia’s famous generals were withering away, firearms could not yet be produced in large quantities, and the neighboring Jin was watching like a tiger.
Shang Yinyu was not worried about Jin. He knew that Qiao Beiji was a disciple of the late General Qiao and a born general, and he also knew that the Firearms Battalion would not disappoint his expectations and, within five years, would produce hot weapons enough to change the situation of the world.
He was just troubled by Qiao Beiji.
Why did I touch Qiao Beiji in the first place?
Because he was steady and handsome, and I’m a face-lover? Because his body was strong, and the close-up instruction on the training ground made the blood swell? Or because he always shielded him, and several times kept him safe and unharmed?
There were too many reasons to like a person. Shang Yinyu had long since been unable to remember what madness had seized him back then. In any case, after he took Qiao Beiji in the Begonia Bath, everything was out of control.
And Qiao Beiji rarely expressed his thoughts in front of him. When that cold, hard face was stained with passion and desire, and those thin lips let slip sounds that plucked at his heartstrings, Shang Yinyu had no way to judge whether the other was glad or disgusted.
Usually, if he wanted to know a little of what Qiao Beiji thought, he had to wait until the other was drunk.
Qiao Beiji could not hold his liquor. As a shadow guard he had not touched a drop, and after becoming a general his tolerance had not improved much.
That day at Yumen Pass, the emperor had come in person to reward the three armies. The other soldiers drank wine by the bowl and ate meat in big mouthfuls, but seeing Qiao Beiji’s difficult look, he quietly had the strong liquor swapped for Peach Blossom Smile.
It was only a flower wine that women in their boudoirs drank for health, yet it still left Qiao Beiji drunk and dazed.
That night in the general’s tent, Shang Yinyu removed the armor and clothes of the general, whose eyes shone with a flowing light and whose face was flushed. He asked Qiao Beiji about his ideals and aspirations, and Qiao Beiji answered, “May the world be at peace, and the seas calm and the rivers clear.”
Shang Yinyu learned what Qiao Beiji sought, gave him the chance to fulfill his wish, and completely ended the relationship.
Qiao Beiji led troops and took Jin. When Great Xia’s banners fluttered over the Jin capital and the peaceful world Qiao Beiji wanted was in place, only then did he stand on the opposite side from him.
Qiao Beiji was that capable of enduring.
When Qiao Beiji was a shadow guard, he had taken him for two years, and in the half year Qiao Beiji was in the Imperial Guard he had also often summoned him to serve.
After that Qiao Beiji went to the army camp and the front line, and he had even laid him down on the table in Yumen Pass, full of Qiao Beiji’s soldiers, in the general’s tent guarded by Qiao Beiji’s personal troops.
Qiao Beiji had endured for that long, and only when the world was settled did he show his edge to him, defying his imperial edicts and taking the Imperial Guard’s military power from him.
Qiao Beiji’s endurance was not a bad thing for Shang Yinyu. In the previous life, the other had had so many chances and had not moved against him, so now he did not need to worry that Qiao Beiji would rebel at once because of the hot spring incident.
As long as his life was still there, there would always be a way.
Shang Yinyu looked at the memorials for a while, had the Military Council hand up the secret documents of the recent period, and checked them one by one against the events in his memory.
By the time he finished reviewing the relevant lessons, night had fallen.
There was a swishing sound in his ears. Shang Yinyu had been engrossed before; now he put down the secret letter and looked out the window, and only then discovered that it had begun to rain outside at some point.
Shang Yinyu got up and walked out of the imperial study. Looking at the palace in the night rain, he was a little dazed and hardly knew what day it was.
The few days before his rebirth had had the same weather. The autumn rain had come and gone for more than half a month. Fortunately, in the years after Shang Yinyu took the throne he had focused on repairing the river channels, so Great Xia had not suffered widespread floods.
On the day Qiao Beiji entered Ganlu Palace at night, a rain had just fallen, and the air outside was extremely cold and clear.
That night Qiao Beiji had stood by his couch for a long time, so long that the osmanthus scent on him was covered by the dragon saliva incense of the bedchamber, so long that the chill on him was dispelled by the warmth of the room, so long that he had almost fallen into deep sleep, and only then had Qiao Beiji reached out a hand to him…
Shang Yinyu withdrew his gaze, looked at the chief eunuch following behind him, and told An Dezhong to bring the remaining memorials, saying: “Back to the bedchamber.”
Palace attendants immediately came forward holding umbrellas. The emperor’s procession went to Ganlu Palace, the bright lamplight like a long dragon, lighting the whole road.
Back in the bedchamber, he first took his meal. Faced with a table of dozens of dishes, Shang Yinyu only tasted each one lightly.
One of Shang Yinyu’s few hobbies was fine food, but as a prince he had been poisoned in a dish and nearly lost his life. Since then, even with attendants specially assigned to test for poison and taste the dishes, he held to the principle of never eating more than three bites of any dish.
After the meal, Shang Yinyu had the attendants present the memorials he had brought back.
Most of this batch of memorials were just greeting notes with no real content, yet they still had to be answered.
Listening to the pattering rain outside the hall, Shang Yinyu reclined lazily on the couch and reviewed them with the vermilion brush.
Governor-General of Liangguang: “These are local specialties of Liangguang, called lychees, offered to Your Majesty.”
Shang Yinyu: “I know. This thing is of no use. Do not send it again.”
There was no Consort Yang in his palace, so why send lychees?
Shang Yinyu actually wanted to add “From now on, don’t send pineapples, bananas or mangoes either,” but thinking that with the previous line he surely would not send random specialties again, he did not write it.
A certain Provincial Governor: “On the nineteenth of the tenth month, may I come to offer birthday congratulations to the emperor?”
Shang Yinyu: “The Qianqiu Festival has passed. There is no need to come.”
Governor-General of Huguang: “Is Your Majesty well?”
Shang Yinyu: “I am well.”
Governor-General of Tianfu: “This is how it rained in xx in the tenth month.”
Shang Yinyu: “Understood.”
…
A whole table of greeting notes, and Shang Yinyu reviewed them until deep in the night.
After putting down the last memorial, Shang Yinyu moved his wrists and neck, somewhat nostalgic for the days when, on the dragon couch, leaning against Qiao Beiji’s chest, he had listened to Qiao Beiji read memorials to him in a steady, calm voice.
Such days were probably hard to have again, and it was more practical to plan to get a secretariat team set up soon.
But just thinking of Qiao Beiji made Shang Yinyu look up involuntarily at the beams of the bedchamber.
Qiao Beiji was still his shadow guard now, and he did not know whether the other was on night duty today.
He and Qiao Beiji had once had a tacit understanding: whenever the other was on night duty, if he looked up at the beams, he could find at a certain spot a small piece of black clothing corner.
As long as he called out “Nineteen” once more, that person would drift down and kneel before him to take orders, and so Shang Yinyu could take his shadow guard commander onto the dragon couch.
“Is Your Majesty going to rest?” Chief Eunuch An Dezhong bowed and presented a cup of tea, bringing Shang Yinyu back to himself.
Shang Yinyu shook his head slightly. Perhaps because he had been stimulated by the rebirth, although it was deep into the night, he had no sleepiness.
Shang Yinyu told An Dezhong to bring a pot of Peach Blossom Smile.
An Dezhong went off to carry out the order, somewhat surprised. His Majesty could be said to be unbeatable at drinking, any strong liquor like drinking water, so why suddenly want this kind of light health wine?
“Your Majesty, this is the Peach Blossom Smile brewed this spring.” An Dezhong presented a small pot of Peach Blossom Smile and a luminous cup.
Shang Yinyu nodded and had An Dezhong lead the attendants out.
When the bedchamber was empty, Shang Yinyu tapped his finger lightly on the table and called in a low voice the name Qiao Beiji now had.
“Nineteen.”
Of course he had no intention of pulling Nineteen onto the dragon couch; he just wanted to use the wine to talk about life with him.
First get Nineteen drunk, ask how far they had gotten in the Begonia Bath, then probe his thoughts, and best of all, take the chance to beat him up to vent his anger.
Barely had the words fallen when a black shadow drifted down and knelt respectfully before Shang Yinyu’s desk.
But that person was not Nineteen.
Shadow Thirteen reported in a low voice: “Reporting to Your Majesty, the commander is still kneeling at Huaqing Hall. Shall this subordinate go summon him?”
Shang Yinyu was slightly stunned. The rain outside had grown heavier, splashing on the eaves and the ground with a rushing sound, as if Heaven were washing this palace, and the wind blowing in brought a roomful of coolness.
Nineteen… surely wouldn’t be stupid enough to be kneeling right outside the Begonia Bath?
“Call him to me.”