Chapter 52

Soon, Qin Ce had no time to think about love problems.

Because the capital had declared martial law, he couldn’t mix into the city last time. But because of the recent disaster, an influx of displaced people had gathered at the city gate, sending the defense guards into chaos, it was a good opportunity to sneak in.

He made up an excuse to leave Zhang Jia, and disguised himself as a guard to easily mix into the palace.

The emperor had a lot of loyal ministers in the palace, if he died and the little prince quickly followed, the ministers would inevitably get suspicious and cause a lot of trouble. This made the Queen Mother bide her time, waiting for her son to succeed the throne and then slowly drug the prince, so he could follow in his father’s footsteps.

Qin Ce smoothly entered the palace and was about to collect the small prince when he was accidentally spotted by some patrolling guards, causing a city-wide search.

At the same time, Zhu Jia’s servant brought him some news. Shen Wei Hou Shizi’s Vice Lieutenant General and his search requirements were very consistent. He was 6ft tall, looked dignified, had a strong build, and had a smoking habit, in fact, in the army, he was nicknamed ‘old smokey’.

Zhou Yun Sheng was overjoyed, he spent a lot of money to bribe some of the capital’s guards to allow him into the city. He rented a room in an inn near the Lieutenant’s mansion and patiently waited.

He waited for a whole day, but the man never showed up. He felt quite frustrated. Tweety and Lushi ate their lunch and then returned to their rooms to rest.

“Sir, your bath is ready, please get in.” The inn keeper moved the bath screen and exposed a tub filled with hot water, but also baskets full of petals.

“What’s this?” Zhou Yun Sheng pointed to the baskets, his mouth twitched.

“This was prepared by your maidservants for your bath to be fragrant. I’ll help sprinkle some into the bath.”

Tweety and Lushi thought that their young master had traveled into the city to meet his lover, naturally, their imaginations had ran wild. Zhou Yun Sheng was amused, he threw two silver to the too diligent inn worker, then stared stupidly at the floating petals.

Forget it, he could even give birth now, why should he care about this kind of thing? He grinned, took off his clothes and slowly sank into the water. A few minutes later, the window behind him was suddenly forcefully pushed in, a masked man entered the window frame, then froze, staring at him.

More precisely, he was staring at the Zhusha Zhi between his eyebrows.

“…. You’re a Ger?” The shadowed man asked.

“…Little Black?” Zhou Yun Sheng twisted his eyebrows. He heard messy footsteps running around downstairs, then the man quickly shut the window and jumped into his bath, sinking himself to the bottom of the barrel. Fortunately, the water was covered with petals, hiding everything underneath them.

The door came crashing down, and a row of soldiers rushed in, waving around their swords. They pushed away the screen to find a terrified young man, clutching his chest, staring at them with wide eyes.

“Who are you? Why did you break into my room? I’ll tell you right now, I’m the fiancé of Zou Army’s Commander, Fei Wenhai, if you offend him, you’ll have hell to pay!!”

Zhou Yun Sheng didn’t say this without reason. The Queen Mother had control over the five squadrons in the You Army, and was trying to win over the Zou Army to help with her fight against Qin’s Army. She naturally didn’t dare offend any of the army commanders. Plus, Commander Fei was an upright nobility and he was indeed planning to marry a second wife.

The person in the tub was extraordinarily beautiful, and because of his rage, his cheeks were filled with color, and the dot between his eyebrows was red like a drop of blood. Such a stunning beauty could only belong to a rich noble. Several soldiers constantly looked back for another peek as they retreated to behind the screen. They checked under the bed, wardrobe and any other places where a person could hide, then piled out.

Tweety and Lushi quickly locked the door behind them.

Qin burst out of the water, gritted his teeth and asked, “You’re engaged to Fei Wenhai?”

“Nope. It was just a ploy.” Zhou Yun Sheng casually waved away his concerns. He jumped out from the tub and leisurely put on his robe. He’d never been anything but a man, he wasn’t shy in front of Qin Ce.

Qin Ce stared at his very firm buttocks and slender straight legs. His nose heated up and two lines of blood actually started trailing out, his crotch was also painfully tight, like it was about to explode.

Zhou Yun Sheng tied his belt, walked barefoot to his table and poured some tea, he asked, “Why are you suddenly here? You’re even being chased by officers. Did you do something bad?”

“…It’s hard to explain.” Qin Xu immediately washed away the nosebleed, but he didn’t dare stand-up from the tub. He didn’t want the huge sea-creature to be found out by the young man.

Zhou Yun Sheng already knew all the events that would happen, he naturally wasn’t interested in perusing further. Even if he didn’t know, he wouldn’t expect Qin Ce to tell him the truth. He walked to the tub again and smiled, “How about we make a deal?”

“What deal?” Qin Ce carefully breathed and forced himself not to look at the man’s body, which was clearly outlined under his damp robe.

“I’ll help you escape the hunt, and you’ll forget about me being a Ger.”

“Why not just let people know you’re a Ger?” Qin Ce looked at him. He pushed down his excitement as he added, “Since I’ve seen your body, I should be responsible.”

“If you’re ‘responsible’ for me, then what would Zhang Shulin do? Don’t you guys already have a fixed engagement? Do you fancy acting like a king, warming up as many beds as you can? Where do you get off on such a big ego?” Zhou Yun Sheng sneered.

He added, “I don’t need you to be responsible, I have a sweetheart already. Frankly, I came to Beijing just to meet him.”

Qin Ce wanted to explain his relationship with Zhang Shulin, but was stunned by the last sentence. He flinched as if someone had inserted a knife into his chest, cut a circle around his heart and pulled out his beating heart, squeezing it to mush. He hated himself for hastily promising himself to Zhang Shulin, but he hated the person Zhu Ziyu fell in love with even more. He’d do anything to meet that person and tear them to pieces.

“Who’s your sweetheart? I wonder if I can have the privilege of meeting them.” He asked nonchalantly, face expressionless, but his heart was planning a murder.

“Wait for me to meet him, then ask me this again.” Zhou Yun Sheng said, feeling depressed.

You haven’t met him yet? Good, he will disappear forever. Qin lowered his eyelids, blocking the blood thirsty glint in his eye. After soaking in the cold water for a long time, he climbed out of the tub and took the clean clothes the young man handed to him.

The two people were vastly different in size, the fabric stretched tightly on Qin Ce, sketching out his muscular frame. Zhou Yun Sheng quickly glanced at him, then looked away, he felt a little uncomfortably hot. This man, just like his lover, was also a walking hormone dispenser.

“I’m taking the bed, you take the floor.” He took out a set of extra bedding from the cupboard and threw it at Qin Ce’s feet.

“Naturally.” Qin Ce quickly spread out the bedding. After a while, he suddenly said, “There’s one thing I have to correct. My name is not Little Black, it’s Qin Ce.” What a disgraceful nickname! What did Zhang Shulin take a military commander for, a dog?

Zhou Yun Sheng cheerfully chuckled, “I heard you, Little Black.”

Qin Ce’s eyes flashed, but he unexpectedly didn’t complain. It was the same name, but Zhu Ziyu was calling it, and he was even willing to walk into a fire if it’d satisfy him. It seems he’d really reached the point of no return.

After laying down the bedding, the two men put out the light and laid down to sleep.

With his beloved person in close proximity, Qin Ce couldn’t rest his mind. His mind was assaulted by fantasy after fantasy. His breathing gradually increased, then he turned around and stared at the resting silhouette.

His lower body was getting painful, he’d finally reached his endurance limit. He was about to suggest his ideas to the young man, when the man suddenly spoke, “You keep tossing and turning, can’t sleep?”

“… Yes, I rarely sleep near other people, I’m feeling out of sorts.” Qin Ce froze, he breathed slowly to adjust his agitated state.

“Me too. But let’s try to sleep, we have to get out of town tomorrow morning.”

“How will we get out of town?”

“A disguise of course.”

“Disguised as what?”

“…”

Qin Ce talked to the young man while his hand was comforting his lower body. His mind was occupied with Zhou Yun Sheng’s red cheeks and misty eyes. He had strong self-control, even if his body and soul were trembling for the young man, his breathing was stable.

Zhou Yun Sheng laid out tomorrow’s plan, then innocently fell asleep.

Qin Ce finally released, but, like a wolf that was finally let out after being locked up for long, he couldn’t be satiated.

The next day, Zhou Yun Sheng made Tweety buy some cosmetics. With his superb skills, he changed Qin Ce into a sixty year old man, face full of wrinkles and all, even his neck and other exposed skin were loose. His hair, eyebrows and beard were all grey, he had a bent body, and staggered with every step, like he was on the verge of death. Even if Qin’s father and mother were standing in front of him, they wouldn’t recognize him.

They both took the carriage out of the city. Zhou Yun Sheng didn’t cover his Zhusha Zhi and wore heavy gold jewelry to compliment his beauty. The city gate guards only slightly questioned the two before letting them out of the city.

When they were nearing the village, after determining that no one was trailing them, Qin Ce grabbed Zhou Yun Sheng’s arm and said, “Cover up your Zhusha Zhi.”

He didn’t want anyone to discover this secret before he could stabilize the situation. Zhu Ziyu could only be his.

“I will, it’s none of your concern.” Zhou Yun Sheng gave him a stunned look.

“Cover it now.” Qin Ce didn’t relax.

Zhou Yun Sheng couldn’t understand his thought process, but he took out the powder to cover it anyway. Qin Ce was finally satisfied, he hoped out of the carriage and ran ten miles to the barracks.

After discussing the plans with his lieutenant, he returned to Zhang home at night.

Zhang Shulin felt very happy when he saw him, but didn’t rush in like usual, he stood still and exposed a tangled expression.

Zhang Jiarui bluntly asked, “Brother Little Black, did you recover your memories? What is your identity? Someone just quietly sent us a few hundred pounds of rice and a roll of silver, they said it was to return our kindness.” This kindness could only be because they saved Little Black.

“The rice and silver tickets are for you. My identity is inconvenient to say right now, but you will find out in the future. Don’t tell this matter to others, you might provoke evil.” Qin Ce’s face was indifferent, as if the honest Little Black never existed.

Zhang Shulin was frightened, he immediately nodded and promised to keep things a secret.

Zhang Jiarui guessed intently, put two and two together, then asked, his eyes bright, “Then… does your engagement to my brother still count?” If this person was really the missing Wei son, then Zhang Jia would hit the jackpot, he’d also be able to easily gain a foothold in society.

“It doesn’t count.” Qin Ce didn’t hesitate to deny.

Zhang Jiarui’s expectations crashed, he angrily opened, “How unexpected, the dignified army commander was such a villainous man.”

“You’re very smart, but you’re the type that enjoys being smart. Those kinds of show offs always die the fastest.” Qin Ce expressionlessly replied, “I really did promise, but I won’t miss out on a lifetime of happiness for a careless promise. There are many ways to repay kindness, it’s not worthwhile to use my own body as compensation. I had amnesia, not brain damage. If you are really smart, you’ll obediently accept my repayment and won’t try to start something. I have the means to make you regret it.”

Zhang Shulin realized that the person in front of him was the Wei Shizi, a frighteningly powerful army commander, rather than the honest Black he once knew. He nodded, his eyes red.

Zhang Jiarui felt resentment, but he also knew that you couldn’t use an egg to break a stone. He had no choice but to let go of this golden ticket.

Qin Ce bid the Zhangs farewell, then disappeared silently into the night.

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T/N:

Zou – Left

You – Right

These right and left refer to political affiliations.