CH 18

The golden guards had picked up the Zhong family brothers, and the news quickly spread throughout the Western Regions. The Zhu Xingli master and apprentice cheated money by fortune-telling all the way, so of course they knew about this kind of news.

Lin Xin was a little surprised that the young Shen Qingque didn’t tell his father about this, and even wavered about returning to Shen Lou’s side. But he couldn’t let his master go, besides growing up beside Shen Lou had too many variables.

Hearing what Lin Xin said, Shen Lou lowered his eyes and stopped talking, then he quickly put on his middle coat and outer shirt, obviously not planning to change his inner shirt.

With nothing to look at, Lin Xin resisted the urge to tease Shen Lou, then he turned around in a gentle manner, and picked up the rapier on the table. The two hadn’t seen each other for many years, and after all, it was just a few days of childhood friendship, there was nothing to talk about, so let’s start with the “token of love”.

“I was very worried about you.” While Lin Xin had nothing to say, he suddenly heard Shen Lou say such a sentence, and looked back at Shen Lou in disbelief.

“What did you say?”

“I’ve been looking for you.” Shen Lou walked to Lin Xin’s side and looked down at him. Lost and regained, gained and lost again, such ups and downs were really not a beautiful experience.

Lin Xin’s eyes widened slightly, it really didn’t look like something Shen Qingque would say.

“Xinxin, Master asked me to bring you something.” There was a heavy knock on the door, breaking the weird atmosphere in the room.

Lin Xin smiled apologetically at Shen Lou, then he turned around to open the door, and stretched out his hand to give Jian Zhong a push, “Who are you calling?”

Jian Zhong smiled and handed a new tea set to Lin Xin. Although Lin Xin started earlier than him, he was actually several years younger than him. So, he still couldn’t treat Lin Xin as a senior brother, and always called him Xinxin out of selfishness.

Lin Xin didn’t take the tea set and beat him directly.

“Hey, don’t make trouble, it will be broken in a while!” Jian Zhong tried to avoid it, but Lin Xin’s moves were always fast and ruthless, and he only hit tricky places, so he was hard to guard against.

“Clatter!” The obsidian tea set on the tray finally got off the plate when it was hit by the third move. A hand with a bony joint stretched out, pulled the tray away and twirled a flower in the air to catch the cup.

“Your senior brother?” Shen Lou casually put the tea set on the table, and looked coldly at Lin Xin’s fellow disciple, the future His Royal Highness the King of England[1] – Feng Zhong.

“It’s Junior Brother,” Jian Zhong rubbed the place where he was beaten, and raised his hand in salute, “I’m Xia Zhong.” Obviously, when he was in the main hall just now, the elder son didn’t look at him at all, and he didn’t remember him calling out to senior brother.

The senior brother in the previous life turned out to be a junior in this life. Shen Lou nodded slightly, and returned the salute, “As a junior, you should respect your senior brother, how can you just call him by his name?”

“Uh, the son has taught me a lesson.” Jian Zhong smiled sarcastically, conveyed the few words from his master, and then ran away in a hurry. His Royal Highness, the eldest son of Huan Xinghai, seemed to be very hostile to him.

Zhu Xingli asked his second apprentice to give Shen Lou a message, and had asked him to have a cup of tea with him after unpacking, emphasizing that Lin Xin was not allowed to follow.

Lin Xin pursed his lips, saying that he also wanted to drink tea, but he knew that the first thing his master would do was to ask Shen Lou for a drink. Because he hadn’t tied his hair yet, his master never allowed him to drink alcohol, and Zhu Xingli, who had no one to accompany him to drink, was always quite lonely.

People in the Northern Territory drank spirits all the year round, so they were naturally good at drinking. It was rare for him to meet someone from the Shen family, so it was unavoidable for him to drag Shen Lou to have a drink or two.

The pear blossom wine buried last year must be just right for tasting. Zhu Xingli took out a set of jasper double-ring cups and filled them to the brim.

Shen Lou picked up the cup, paid respect to Zhu Xingli, and drank it all in one gulp, “Second Uncle Zhu called his nephew, do you have something to say?”

“Looking for you to have a drink,” Zhu Xingli leaned on the bamboo couch carelessly, then he said lazily, “Has your father picked up the words[2] for you?”

“Not yet.” Shen Lou responded, raising his hand to pour wine for Zhu Xingli. Men tied their hair when they turned fifteen, at twenty they were capped[3], and they should take their words when they were ready to start a family. But if the son gained wisdom early, or was needed to establish a family earlier, he could take the words at his fifteenth birthday like the brothers of the Zhong family.

Zhu Xingli was a little surprised. The son, who was able to go to the battlefield at the age of twelve, was surely mature enough to start a family. Shen Qirui didn’t give him a name and raised him as a child. Presumably, he felt that he was not in good health, and was afraid that taking words too early would weaken his luck, thinking this, he suddenly felt it was funny, “Shen Qirui, that five-year-old man, still cares about this.”

Shen Lou had nothing to say. He wanted to take the words, but this time he was rejected by his father, which caused Zhong Youyu to laugh at him several times.

The two of them drank up a small jar of peach blossom wine, but Shen Lou was still only blushing and breathless, Zhu Xingli was amazed when he saw it, “My boy, your drinking capacity is as good as your father’s, come here, have another jar.”

It was rare for him to meet someone who could drink, so Zhu Xingli’s interest was soaring, and he asked the guards to dig out another jar and changed the wine bowl to drink.

Peach blossom wine tasted sweet, but it required a lot of stamina. After drinking three more bowls, the strength of the last jar of wine rushed to his head. Zhu Xingli’s eyes gradually turned crimson, and his words began to drift, “Xunlu… You should have heard that Lin Zhenghan didn’t find the Luli vein, but everyone in the world thought he did, including the emperor and your father.”

Shen Lou paused slightly while holding the wine, “Yeah.”

“I have no other requirements here, only one, that you are not allowed to say a word about Xin’er.” His casual tone suddenly became cold, and Zhu Xingli’s eyes with the corners of the phoenix-tailed eyes became clear and transparent and he did not seem even halfway drunk.

“I didn’t say it six years ago, and I won’t say it now. I definitely won’t let A Xin fall into the same position as the brothers from the Zhong family.” Shen Lou raised his hand to pour wine for Zhu Xingli. The heirs of the princes were not willing to live in Beijing for a long time. It was naturally not a good thing to live under the Emperor and serve as slaves or hostages.

“You understand better than your father,” Zhu Xingli slumped down on the couch again, steam filled his eyes again, and he hummed a little tune, as if the sober person just now had never existed before, “Rong Xi Sui Xi, hanging down Xixi, your father was not a good person when he was a child[4].”

“…”

He returned to Lin Xin’s bedroom smelling of alcohol, but the other person in the room had already fallen asleep, however he slept obediently on the inner side of the bed, leaving the left half for him.

Shen Lou sat on the edge of the bed watching him, then he slowly stretched out his hand, and touched that warm side face. He was obviously a monkey, but he wanted to pretend to be cute in front of him, and he didn’t know what he was thinking.

Lying down wearing all his clothes except for the outer shirt, he raised his hand and rubbed the center of his eyebrows. As his spirit became weaker and weaker, he slept less and less, and was always awakened by various nightmares, and he couldn’t tell the past life from the present when he woke up.

The Jiang Zhong seen in the daytime coincided with the Feng Zhong in his memory. The man who cut the autumn radish and the spring breeze with Sanxian[5] was the current emperor. At first, Jian Qiuluo didn’t know the identity of this person, but later the emperor admitted that he wanted to admit her into the palace, and she flatly refused.

Sanxian, who liked to roam freely in all corners of the country, did not care about the position of imperial concubine, and the emperor did not force it. It wasn’t until later when Lin Xin killed his master, that the two brothers were found by the emperor. The emperor’s surname was Feng, so Jiang Zhong’s surname was changed to Feng, and the name he was given by the Emperor was Ying, because he was handsome.

It was just that the relationship between the two brothers was very bad when they first entered the palace. They all said that it was because Lin Xin killed the master and was thus sealed the hatred between them. Until that day…

Shen Lou took a Star stone carved into a deer to look for Lin Xin, thinking to make amends for breaking his jade pendant.

“You have to pay me back, I want the Star stone carved by you yourself.” Thinking of Lin Xin’s red eyes, Shen Lou’s fingertips were itchy, and he couldn’t help rubbing the deer in his hand, as he hid it in his sleeve.

With his hands behind his back, he bypassed many rockeries.

“Xinxin!” King Feng Ying’s voice came from behind the rock. Taking a closer look, he saw Feng Zhong, who was dressed in the prince’s uniform, hugging Lin Xin tightly, his face full of pity and affection. Lin Xin leaned in Feng Zhong’s arms sullenly, without saying a word, with his back to Shen Lou, making him unable to see his expression clearly.

His hands hidden in the sleeves were clenched so tightly that the fingertips turned white.

He failed to send out the Star Stone deer, and the little thoughts in his heart were thrown to the ground and smashed to pieces.

“Don’t you know? Lin Bu Shou is born a dissolute man, he doesn’t shy away from meat and vegetables, so many beauties the crown prince gave him, both male and female, he took them all.”

“Tsk, I heard that he also had an affair with the King of England.”

Yingying and Yanyan[6] about him filled the surroundings, while the flirtatious Lin Xin followed everyone and blinked at him frivolously.

His uncontrollable anger directly woke up Shen Lou, and he opened his eyes, but then he felt the warmth beside him, with a sweet breath of green dates spraying on the side of his neck. At some point, Lin Xin had rubbed into his arms again.

The heart that was hanging in the air fell to the ground, Shen Lou sighed lightly, tilted his head slightly, and put his chin on the head of the person in his arms.

“Hmm…” Lin Xin woke up with a moan, and found himself sleeping in Shen Lou’s arms, and moved away in feigned surprise, “I’m sorry, I didn’t sleep well, did I disturb you?”

“No.” Shen Lou shook his head.

“Why are you sweating?” Lin Xin stretched out his hand and touched it, then sat up. A person who cultivated immortality had a strong body, so there was absolutely no reason for him to sweat in the middle of the night.

Shen Lou stretched out his hand and pushed him back under the quilt, “It’s okay, I had a nightmare, go to sleep.”

“How old are you, you still sweat from a nightmare!” Lin Xin couldn’t help rubbing his hand on his pillow to laugh at him, “Hahaha…”

He asked Shen Lou whether he was afraid of the dark now, but worried that he would not sleep with him tomorrow if he was annoyed, Lin Xin could only swallow the teasing words and stare at Shen Lou with crooked eyes. It wasn’t until Shen Lou fell asleep again that the smile disappeared suddenly.

Repeated nightmares were a sign of weak soul power. Lin Xin blew on Shen Lou’s eyelashes to make sure that he was really asleep, and quietly stretched out his index finger, tapped lightly between his brows, slowly pulled it away, and drew out a very thin trace of soul power. With a light breath, the hair-thin soul power suddenly broke and disappeared.

Why are you so weak! Lin Xin frowned tightly. If he guessed right, Shen Lou’s soul must have been severely injured in his previous life, just like those whose souls were crushed by him, such that the damage to their souls had directly continued in this life.

The author has something to say:

Small theater:

Xinxin: Woohoo, you broke my deer, you pay for it!

Loulou: Don’t cry, don’t cry, I’ll carve another

Fan A: Xinxin, this is the golden deer I bought for you

Fan B: Xinxin, this is the silver deer I bought for you

Loulou: This is the stone deer I carved for you, which one do you choose?

Xinxin: Of course I… want the golden deer! ~(≧▽≦)/~

Narrator: (Music) Listen to the sound of heartbreak~~