Deep in the night.
Smooth skin rubbed together, exchanging a few wisps of light heat.
Meng Huan’s hair was wiped clean by a handkerchief and smoothed behind his ears, revealing his fair face and tender earlobes. He rested on the crook of Lin Bozhou’s neck, curled up with his feet like a kitten, and nodded his head while asleep.
This journey to drink this medicine almost resulted in somebody’s death. Lin Bozhou was vigorous and lively, but Meng Huan was tormented.
When Meng Huan was half awake, he saw the bare shoulders and neck of the man before him, frowned, and raised his hand to hook Lin Bozhou’s collar. “Have to maintain moral character.”
“……”
So as to not be seduced by him again.
Meng Huan’s fingers turned over and patted him with a slap. “Sleep!”
In the darkness, Lin Bozhou silently raised his lips.
He approached Meng Huan’s ear, murmuring, “This husband will go to court tomorrow. Will Huan Huan allow it?”
Meng Huan froze. “Really go, ah……”
“I have something to discuss with His Majesty. I will come back after the discussion.”
Meng Huan was clearly so sleepy that he didn’t want to say anything, but he still pouted. “That’s fine.”
Lin Bozhou’s fingertips touched his face, feeling the folds of his brow, and the corners of his lips could not help but gently lift a little.
Muttering, he was really displeased with him.
Lin Bozhou was brought up with Confucianism and taught proper etiquette. If not for his eyes, he might have become a man with the highest integrity of mind and body. But after the eye accident, more and more shadows squeezed into Lin Bozhou’s heart, yet he could not release them in front of his father and mother.
He then enjoyed hunting, preferring the blood and screams when arrowheads struck prey through the throat. He also liked to drop his reasoning in the power struggle to kill, and he could feel some of his sanity returning at that time.
He possessed vast unknown darkness and twisted lust after taking off his clothes. The endless ugliness after losing his eyesight …… all of which Meng Huan was aware of when he was lying by his side.
It felt surprisingly good to have all of yourself accepted.
Lin Bozhou couldn’t help but laugh aloud as he momentarily swam in the current darkness.
–
Early in the morning, the spot beside him was empty.
Meng Huan woke up and groped around in a slight daze. Sitting on the bed alone, he resembled a widow.
You Jin said, “The prince has gone to court.”
“……”
Meng Huan pinched his eyebrows and remembered the words that Lin Bozhou leaned over and whispered in his ear last night, and his lips couldn’t help but purse a little.
The prince’s residence seemed empty and quiet again, and his heart felt particularly lost. The boredom did not last long as someone from the yamen sent a letter. “The foreign murderer was caught, and the yamen sent a yamen runner to ask the princess to identify him.”
Meng Huan originally propped up his head in a daze. When he heard this sentence, he became excited. “Let’s go take a look.”
The yamen runner respectfully said, “After Your Excellency and the Prince came that day, the local magistrate immediately ordered us to search the whole city without delay. We caught the man last night in Piao Xiang Restaurant’s inn in the east of the city. This morning, we deliberately invited Your Excellency.”
Meng Huan asked, “How many people were caught?”
“According to the first eyewitness, there is more than one person, but others have not been caught for the time being. After this person has been tortured into confessing, he will definitely reveal his accomplices.”
Meng Huan arrived at the yamen.
The man had changed into a prison uniform and was kneeling on the ground next to other people who had come to identify the killer. He seemed to have been heavily tortured, with blood oozing from his back, his hair in disarray, and a pair of hawk-like eyes staring half-dead at the front of the hall.
The yamen runners beside him looked angry, and someone kicked him in the face.
“Bastard!”
“I really want to kill him.”
The local magistrate also looked grave. “Yesterday, when our yamen runners went to arrest him, he killed two of them.”
Hearing these words, Meng Huan’s chest shook with infinite surprise, and he turned to the local magistrate. “Someone from the yamen actually died in the line of duty?”
“Mm. These foreigners have no etiquette or culture, but all are brave and strong with beastly habits. This man……” The local magistrate walked around and used his boot to hook up his chained hands. “His palms are extremely thick with calluses from holding swords and riding horses all the time, and he kills without mercy. He is not like ordinary foreigners who come to the capital to do business, but rather more like soldiers in the foreign army.”
Soldiers of an army?
The connection with An Chui, who would eventually rebel, would be even greater.
Meng Huan had a rare emotional turmoil. After leaving the yamen, he gestured to You Jin, “We have to tell Lin Bozhou about this.”
You Jin was not surprised that he called the prince by his name. “Then let’s go back to the residence?”
Meng Huan: “Not back to the residence. Go outside the palace and wait for him to leave the court.”
Meng Huan had just left there one moment, and in the next moment, another person came to the yamen, wearing the clothes of ordinary people. But his face was refined, and he walked slowly; it was evident that he was deliberately trying to conceal his identity without being recognized.
He walked up to the yamen and asked the yamen runner on duty. “Is your yamen’s local magistrate, Lu Pan, in? Please ask him for a meeting.”
Lu Pan was the local magistrate for hearing the foreigners’ beheading case.
The yamen runner was angry. “The local magistrate is busy. Not everyone can see him! Get lost!”
The man looked calm and was not annoyed by his anger but pulled out a letter from his sleeve and said in a muffled voice, “This is something our master asked to be delivered.”
The yamen runner looked down and took a look.
The letter was signed and stamped.
When he saw the words, his face turned pale with cold sweat falling on a hot day. He almost wanted to slap himself and hurriedly ran inside.
“This lowly officer will bring attention to this.”
