CH 29

Chapter 29

The heat wave gradually rose, as if in the middle of summer.

Like a flower bud with dewdrops blooming into an extravagant beautiful flower, it released a fragrant and sweet scent, making the people who inhale it to sniff it together with the collected nectar.

It looked like a delicious berry, being crushed without restraint until a sweet and rich juice burst out, pouring on one’s dried soul.

Li Yuanmin only felt that he couldn’t help himself even the slightest bit.

He saw the endless darkness, so black that it was soaked in ink, blocking all his senses. He seemed to be drowning, unable to breathe and he could only open his mouth in vain.

Very sad, it was very sad.

At the moment of suffocation, he seemed to hear a bang in his ears. Something shattered, and a white ray of light in front of him instantly illuminated all the darkness, bursting out colorful gorgeous fireworks.

His soul suddenly floated in mid-air.

For a long time, he heard Ni Lie’s deep and low voice calling out to him in the sky full of fireworks, softly and eagerly.

“Your Highness…..Your Highness…..”

His consciousness returned to his body, and all his senses gradually recovered.

He had gone out of control.

Li Yuanmin abruptly burst into tears, and suddenly hugged Ni Lie’s neck.

“What’s wrong with me?” He choked with sobs, losing his head out of fear, “What’s the matter with me?”

He looked at the wet and in complete shambles mattress. He was ashamed of himself. He wanted to explain that he had never been like this before. He was detached since he was a child as he was most afraid of causing trouble for others. He was a well-behaved and sensible person. As far as he remembered, he had never been in such a sorry state before.

The confused two people didn’t understand what it meant at the time. They just flusteredly hugged each other. Ni Lie was also dim-witted. There was a worried expression on his face: “I will call the mansion physician over.”

“No,” Li Yuanmin refused to let him go. He pulled the mattress that stained his loss of control and threw it on the ground, like he was throwing away the memory of his embarrassed sorry figure in the same manner. He was in a frightened and undecided state. He completely didn’t have his usual calm and upright aristocratic appearance. He was just in a state of panic and pressed on Ni Lie’s head, acting shamelessly like a child: “Can’t look, you can’t look.”

“I won’t look,” Ni Lie embraced him, and pressed his lips to him distressingly, “Do you have any other discomforts in your body?”

Li Yuanmin’s face turned red. He used the back of his hand to push away the sweaty hair sticking to his cheeks. He shook his head, touched his chest, and said worriedly, “Your heart is beating too fast, it almost reached your throat.”  

Ni Lie released him, grabbed his arms, then pressed his ears to his thin chest. Sure enough, it was thumping and jumping about wildly inside.

“How can this be anything good?” Ni Lie became anxious.

“Hug me,” Li Yuanmin embraced him, hiding in his bosom. Thinking of the feeling of having his soul fly away and scatter just now, he was a bit alarmed: “I will be fine after resting a bit.”

He buried his face in Ni Lie’s neck, and there was a large amount of sweat dropping on the tepid wheat-colored skin of his cheeks, but he didn’t mind it at all. The familiar breath from the youth’s body had a magical power. It soothed him, and slowly his heartbeat gradually eased down.

After taking a bath, Ni Lie carefully wiped his hair with a dry cloth.

Li Yuanmin has been slowly relieved from losing his head out of fear just now. Seeing Ni Lie’s unsure look and knowing that he was still worrying about the matter just now, his face couldn’t help but heat up. He immediately touched his hand.

“You go back, I will sit here to catch some wind and rest a bit….If there is something wrong, there is still the little boy servant here.”

Li Yuanmin has been accustomed to the tranquility because he has lived in the cold palace since he was a child. There have always been no other people in this courtyard. After Ni Lie came here during the night frequently, it was even more quiet as there remained only one little boy servant stationed for orders.

“I will stay here tonight,” Ni Lie didn’t give him any chances to refuse, “I will leave early in the morning.”

Li Yuanmin sighed, knowing he was still worried about himself, he complied with him.  When Li Yuanmin finished, Ni Lie jumped directly into the bath bucket he had just washed, washed his body in a hurry, got up and wiped himself dry quickly, then he laid down next to Li Yuanmin’s side.

Li Yuanmin only felt a heavy weight beside him, then he was embraced into a warm bosom. Soon after, Li Yuanmin’s head was pressed against his chest, listening carefully to his heartbeat.

Li Yuanmin sighed and fished out his head: “Don’t worry, I’m fine now…”

He kissed his forehead, “Probably for several days…” He couldn’t help but glance at him, blushing, “Just don’t mess around like this in the future and it’ll be fine.”

With Ni Lie’s first taste of the feeling, his energy was vigorous. Sometimes he was aroused from day time until the sky turned dark, until midnight where he could finally have him. Even though Li Yuanmin had always indulged him, it was inevitable that there were times where it was hard to endure.

He hugged the young man’s waist tightly, “Go to sleep, you have to get up early tomorrow.” ”

Ni Lie kissed him and pressed the delicate and boneless body into his arms, and a touch of worry appeared in his eyes.

The scorching sun was up in the sky and the huge training ground was illuminated with a layer of floating shadows.

Zhou Dawu wiped a handful of warm sweat from his face, and raised his hand to fan himself, he stepped to the side of the tall young man standing next to him.

“ I think that’s enough for today, let them go have dinner. ”

Ni Lie glanced at the field and nodded.

Zhou Dawu yelled, clapped, and allowed the mansion soldiers to go to the dining room to have a meal. He pulled out the water bag, drank a few sips of water and threw it out to the side. He took off his gown, twisted it fiercely, a handful of sweat.

He couldn’t help but complain: “This terrible sun! ”

He took his clothes and rolled it into a twisted pretzel on his shoulder. Then, recalling that he could go home to eat a bowl of ice cream made by his wife soon, his heart couldn’t help but be elated.

Originally, as the deputy general of the Guangan Mansion, he must always reside within the mansion. But, since his wife got pregnant, in order to make them comfortable, the King Guangan bought a house and hired an old woman and allowed them to move out. He was a military man from the capital, but he had already become a genuine Lingnan son in law now.

Lingnan women were different and not reserved like those from other places. They were extremely direct and straightforward. To think at that time, he had just casually saved a woman who fell into the water, and that same evening, that woman came to his door and made a solemn vow to marry him.

However, he was a rough man. His face turned red among everyone’s roar of laughter, not knowing what to do.

Thinking about the past, the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but smile. Ignoring the person in front of him for a while, he almost bumped into them.

He raised his head. Ni Lie was holding a long stick and swung his chin towards the training platform.

Zhou Dawu couldn’t help but sigh, thinking that this was the first time ever that he had ever come to him to swap pointers.

Ever since he beat this boy off his horse when he was thirteen years old, he had never looked for him, and Zhou Dawu’s mind felt odd about this.

“Are you sure? ”

Before he could finish speaking, Ni Lie had already swiftly rushed forward. And after two to three moves, Zhou Dawu was put in a difficult situation and forced to the side of the armor rack. He angrily spit a mouthful of saliva, got rid of the cloth on his shoulder, grabbed a long stick from the rack with his hand and came forward to face Ni Lie.

After a moment of sparring, accompanied by a heavy thud, Zhou Dawu fell to the ground with his stick. He grimaced and touched his tailbone, then heard the person in front of him coldly shout: “Again!”

Zhou Dawu gritted his teeth and picked up the stick, but this time, it was even faster. Before he could even see clearly, he flew out again, and before he could get up, there was a burst of strong wind and the thick and long stick suddenly crossed in front of him. It stopped half an inch in front of the tip of his nose.

Zhou Dawu was both in pain and anger: “You little youngster just wanted to mock me, right?”

He swore while standing up, rubbing the sore spot on his buttocks, limping. How did he know that these few years without fighting exchanging moves, this boy unexpectedly progressed to this frightening stage already. In any case, he was also regarded as a top master whether in the capital or in Lingnan, yet he was nothing more than a young child in front of him. He was secretly envious in his heart, and once again angrily teased him: “You little boy is too strong, in the future, find someone else to make fun of! I have no time to pay attention to you!”

Ni Lie collected the stick and stood straight in front of him, not explaining anything, only silently standing still.

Zhou Dawu rubbed for half a day, then finally eased up. His heart could feel something was fishy. Was the young boy ever like this before? To have a face that didn’t allow anyone to get close, but also showed a desire to talk yet not speaking?

During these years that he’s been in contact with him, Zhou Dawu more or less understood a little bit about his taciturn and stuffy nature. Thus, after a little contemplation, he knew that Ni Lie had some matter that he needed help with from him. He immediately circled his fingers around the wine cup and poured it into his mouth, “Are you looking for me for something?”

Sure enough, the taciturn person in front of him immediately put away the long stick.

Zhou Dawu sighed in his heart, thinking, this eighteen-year-old stinky boy is really awkward. He needed to find him to discuss something, but did not talk about it directly. Instead, he approached him and beat him first. If he didn’t know his temper, he would have already formed a grudge.

He roasted him in his heart, shook his head and put his arm around his shoulder, “Let’s go, there’s a small tavern on the West Street. Let’s go and take a look.”

After they’ve eaten and drunk to their hearts’ content, Zhou Dawu hummed a folk tune and went to his home. He just stepped into the courtyard door, when something pounced twice on his two legs, one on the left and one on the right, both of them hugged.

It was a pair of his children, the eldest Brother Jun was only four years old, and younger Sister Rong had just passed one year of age, carrying a tiger’s head with her saliva dropping down, walking and jumping staggeringly, she was very cute.

Zhou Dawu squatted down to take the pair of children into his arms. Then he gave a big kiss to both of them, on the left and right. The benign looking old woman on the side came up with a smiling expression.

“Master is back.”

Hearing the movement outside, the hall’s curtain was lifted, and a capable and beautiful woman came out, with anger on her face: “You still have the nerve to come back, is this still your house?”

Zhou Dawu’s face tightened, and he hurriedly handed over the the sister and brother duo in his hand to the old woman. He stepped forward, swallowed his saliva and coaxed: “Of course, how could it not be? Isn’t this because I was pulled away by Ni Lie boy to eat and drink wine?”

Jiang Shi sneered, “Lying without blinking an eye. Your commander Daren is always coming and going alone, and he’s as cold as a block of ice. Would he take the initiative to ask you to eat and drink wine? Do you think your wife is really that stupid?”

“Aiyo! If I lied to my wife, I will have a sore tongue and pus on the soles of my feet!” Zhou Dawu repeatedly begged for forgiveness. Taking his wife into the doorway, he raised his eyebrows mysteriously, “Do you know what that boy came to ask me?”

Zhou Dawu took Jiang Shi’s hand, bowed his head and quietly whispered a few words.

Jiang Shi’s face turned red in shock: “Is it true?”

Zhou Dawu smiled: “This is the iron tree blossoming. This boy unexpectedly didn’t know where to hide his heart, I bet he still hasn’t eaten that person!” 

The people in Lingnan are open, the guard between men and women were not so severe. It was not surprising to find men and women intentionally coming into contact with each other.

Jiang Shi glanced at him angrily, with a little displeased expression. Perhaps he was somewhat unrestrained under the alcohol’s influence or he was somewhat aroused by the questioning of the seemingly cold-hearted boy.

He pulled on Jiang’s sleeve and smiled, “Wife, we haven’t in a few days…”

He didn’t finish speaking when he immediately cried out in pain. He touched his arm, and looked at the face that greeted him with ridicule, “Jiaojiao, why must you be so hard on your husband?”

Looking around, the old woman had already taken the pair of children to the backyard for their afternoon rest, without needing any explanation and had shut the door.

A few words of mockery from Jiang Shi immediately came from inside the door, and the words were blocked instantly after.

The willow trees in the courtyard were stirring gently in the wind, and the heat wave was floating and drifting.