While he was wiping himself down, Miao Shuang finished eating his noodles — unfortunately, Qi Yan’s body wasn’t looking too good right now, which killed his appetite, so he ate without really tasting anything.
He came over to help Qi Yan wipe his back. Qi Yan lowered his head, his bony shoulder blades jutting out even more prominently.
The towel passed over his spine, and Miao Shuang’s hand slowly moved downward. He stared at the crisscrossing scars, his expression hard to read. “I’ll find a way to help you get rid of these scars, but there are too many of them — I can’t deal with them all in one or two sessions, so it’ll have to be gradual.”
Qi Yan didn’t particularly want to be bitten by bugs for no reason, so he said tactfully, “You don’t have to. I don’t mind.”
“…Who cares whether you mind?” Miao Shuang narrowed his eyes. “If you’re going to be a human puppet, you need to have the self-awareness that comes with it. Don’t get injured on me again in the future — do you have any idea how troublesome it is to repair?”
Qi Yan pointed at the wound on his own lips. “Then what about this?”
He’d already felt the pain while eating noodles just now.
“Only I’m allowed to injure you,” Miao Shuang said righteously. “No one else is allowed to — including yourself.”
“…” Qi Yan was so angered he laughed.
He’d never met someone so unreasonable before — perhaps the word “barbarian” had its own logic to it after all.
He asked coldly, “Done wiping?”
Miao Shuang wiped his back over and over, then tossed the towel back into the basin and found a clean set of clothes to drape over him.
Qi Yan lowered his head to tie the sash at his waist, but with only one usable hand, he couldn’t manage to tie it no matter how long he tried. Just then, Miao Shuang suddenly grabbed his hand and hugged him from behind.
Qi Yan frowned. “What now?”
He turned his head to look at him, and Miao Shuang happened to lean in at the same moment — for an instant their noses were almost touching. The excessively close distance made Qi Yan’s breath catch slightly, and then he heard Miao Shuang’s voice right next to him:
“Does the General care this much about me kissing him? Bringing it up again and again — could it be that this is a sensitive spot of yours?”
As he spoke he leaned in closer still, brushing his lips against Qi Yan’s, gently licking at the wound on his lip.
Qi Yan abruptly jerked to the side: “??”
When had he ever brought it up again and again?
But this reaction of his only confirmed Miao Shuang’s suspicions further, the smile at the corners of his mouth widening. He reached out and gripped his jaw, forcibly turning him back, his fingertip landing right on his Adam’s apple, pressing hard on that small dark mole.
“…!” An indescribable itchy-painful sensation surged violently through him, a sharp stimulation exploding in his mind — Qi Yan nearly blacked out, his vulnerable spot subjected to such treatment, suffocating pain mixed with an inexplicable thread of pleasure, making every hair on his body stand on end, both terrifying and good at once.
He felt that sooner or later he was going to be tormented to madness by this damned Miao person and his damned bug. Bracing against the weakness welling up from the depths of his bones, he tried to push him away, but heard his voice again, right against his ear. “Was what the General said this morning serious?”
Qi Yan’s body froze.
His throat ached and itched; he coughed twice, and said hoarsely, “What did I say?”
“…You wouldn’t have forgotten, would you?” Miao Shuang’s eyes turned a bit strange. “Then let me remind you — loyal to the sovereign, or loyal to the people?”
Qi Yan: “!!”
The memories blurred by his high fever all came flooding back into his mind at once. His heart pounded violently from the shock, and almost instantly he had seized Miao Shuang’s hand in return, his thumb pressing hard against the pulse point on his wrist.
Miao Shuang sensed the killing intent radiating off him, but didn’t dodge or flinch — he even bit Qi Yan’s earlobe with relish. “If your internal energy were still intact, I’d already be a dead man right now. Pity.”
Qi Yan: “…”
He slowly released his hand, the chill around him gradually dissipating, and he calmed back down. He asked in a low voice, “Are you going to report me to His Majesty?”
“Then right now you should be on the execution ground, being sliced apart into eighteen hundred pieces by the executioner.”
Qi Yan was held from behind and couldn’t see his face, but he sensed that his expression right now was probably rather pleased.
“If I were executed by slow slicing, wouldn’t that be something you’d be happy to see?”
“I’m not the one responsible for executing you — what would I have to be happy about?” Miao Shuang’s hand moved downward, slipping into his clothes, covering the scar on his chest burned by a branding iron. “Besides, what good would that do me?”
“If you granted His Majesty’s wish, he’d naturally give you everything you want.”
“I want him to let my people live, to give us some room to survive — can he give me that?”
“A vast and mighty nation, boundless imperial grace, the most exalted sovereign, whose golden words are law — why not?”
“I’m not that stupid,” Miao Shuang said, pinching something and rubbing it hard. “He’d order a bloody massacre of the entire Miao Village just for the sake of a mere Sacred Gu, and wipe out the entire Qi family who had served Great Yong loyally for three generations, torturing you — a general who protected the nation — into this state. Do you really think he cares whether the likes of us bugs live or die?”
His fingertips pressed down hard, his nail squeezing that spot until it flushed red — it was hard to say whether he hated Qi Yan or the emperor more. “Trying to bargain with a tiger for its hide leads only to death. The General himself should understand this deeply.”
Qi Yan, unable to bear the itching pain, tried to pry his hand away. “What’s the use of you telling me this?”
“Although you and I share the same bed but dream different dreams, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Even if we’re not friends, there’s nothing stopping us from scheming together — and once our goal is achieved, we can go our separate ways.”
“The enemy of your enemy?” Qi Yan sneered. “How do you know I’m standing on your side, rather than being loyal to His Majesty?”
“If you hadn’t said those words, I would indeed have thought you were a foolishly loyal idiot — after all, you endured such abuse without a single word of complaint, accepting it, enduring it, bearing it, and it’s hard not to suspect you have some kind of special kink.”
The veins on Qi Yan’s forehead throbbed visibly; he finally wrenched his hand away. “Get away from me!”
“General, you do have a weakness in my grip now,” Miao Shuang let go of what was above, his hand moving downward instead, loosely grasping. “I’d advise you to think it over carefully before refusing — better not to actually provoke me.”
Qi Yan, furious beyond measure, gritted his teeth, at the end of his patience. “Aren’t you afraid I’m a second Ji Yuan?!”
“…That’s a bold thing to say — but I like it,” Miao Shuang laughed. “If you really are a second Ji Yuan, that’s fine too — I’ll just kill you. Since you’re not loyal to your sovereign, I’m not loyal to ‘my sovereign’ either.”
The Gu worm inside his body gave a faint throb of pain. Qi Yan closed his eyes.
This Miao person was truly a madman.
The now-dead chieftain of the Miao Village had harbored boundless ambition, but this Great Shaman was even worse — unwilling to submit to Nanzhao, and even going so far as to rebel against the Great Young Emperor. Could it be that this fellow intended to set himself up as king?
But there was one thing he wasn’t wrong about — at least for now, their goals aligned… It was also his own carelessness, letting his true feelings slip out like that. Since things had already come to this, he could only play along for now.
His tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed, his tone returning to calm, and he moved the other’s hand away. “The Great Shaman thinks too highly of me. I’m a crippled, powerless wreck of a man with both legs ruined and all martial arts lost, stripped of military command and office, with family and friends scattered and gone, all alone in the world — even if I’m not loyal to my sovereign, so what? It was just momentary frustration, words vented in a bad mood. Don’t take it too seriously.”
“Huh?” Miao Shuang narrowed his eyes, feeling rather like strangling him. “Didn’t I already say I can cure you?”
“Yet this method of yours doesn’t seem to be having much effect,” Qi Yan raised his right hand, his five fingers curled unnaturally; the stiff pain in his tendons made it impossible for him to straighten his fingers. “It seems almost worse than not treating it at all.”
Miao Shuang clicked his tongue impatiently. “I already said it’ll take at least three to five days—”
He paused, then changed his tone. “If you’re really in such a hurry, it’s not impossible — I could try to help loosen your tendons, so you recover faster. But don’t go begging me for mercy when it hurts.”
“You think I’d still care about a little pain like that?”
“Good,” Miao Shuang grabbed his hand, pulled off his wrist guard, and unwound the bandage. “Then let’s do it.”
****
Lai Fu had been standing at the door for a while now.
Yesterday the Madam had arranged with him that he should come at this time every day to massage the General’s legs. Although he didn’t know whether the General, being seriously ill today, would still need the massage, he came anyway.
As it turned out, before he could even knock, he heard strange sounds coming from inside.
“Can’t you be gentler?!” That was the General’s voice.
Hearing that the General was all right, awake, and even had the strength to speak, Lai Fu felt quite relieved, but…
“Can’t take it already?” That was the Madam’s voice — he seemed to be exerting himself, his voice coming out somewhat broken. “You’re the one who wanted this. Why is it that when I satisfy you, you still pick and choose?”
Qi Yan: “…Enough! Stop, it’s going to break!”
Lai Fu: “……………………”
Wait, that’s not right.
Just this morning the Madam had said the General was deathly ill — how could it be, barely two hours later, that this was happening again?!
That advice he’d given the General yesterday — the General clearly hadn’t taken any of it to heart at all!!