Chapter 12

Ye Shu wasn't certain whether Jin Wang believed him.

But from that day forward, Jin Wang had stopped coming up with new ways to test him, and his attitude had improved considerably.

Proof that the performance that day had been a success.

…Except for the epic-level embarrassment in the bathing pool.

Ye Shu didn't consider himself someone who couldn't keep his lower half in check — he could only say that an appreciation for beauty was universal.

Jin Wang was, after all, an exceptionally beautiful person. Being pressed up against the pool wall and kissed by such a beauty in the buff — not having an involuntary reaction would have been the strange thing.

Right. Exactly like that.

Ye Shu convinced himself of this and continued to play the role of the sovereign's betrothed bride-to-be without a guilty conscience.

Of course, he had never given up on escaping either.

It was just that the Xixia spies had been rounded up and killed off by Jin Wang — that avenue of escape was thoroughly cut off.

He would have to come up with some other idea for getting away.

"What are you thinking about again?"

The sound of hoofbeats approached. Ye Shu lifted his head. Jin Wang tossed his bow to an attendant, his handsome eyes filled with displeasure. "We brought you out here to hunt and get some exercise. And here you are — slacking off?"

"…" Exercise through hunting his foot — he couldn't even draw the bow.

Ye Shu set down his warm sour plum drink and said pleasantly: "Your Majesty, this subject does not know how to hunt."

As he spoke, several attendants in the distance were hauling off Jin Wang's latest kills.

Ye Shu swept a glance their way — mountain goats, red deer, wild rabbits — a varied haul of no fewer than a dozen animals.

Some of the prey hadn't yet stopped breathing when the attendants drew a blade across their throats. Blood splattered three feet in all directions.

The campsite reeked of blood, and Ye Shu had already been sick once from the smell.

His face was pale and he still felt faintly nauseated.

"If you don't know how, then learn." Jin Wang brought his horse to a halt in front of Ye Shu and extended a hand toward him. "Come up. We will teach you."

Ye Shu was somewhat reluctant. "But…"

"The Office of Punishment still owes you twenty strokes, doesn't it…"

Ye Shu, decisively: "I'll learn."

They hadn't gone back to the palace, so naturally Ye Shu had never made it to the Office of Punishment to receive those twenty strokes. And Jin Wang showed no inclination to press the matter — he simply brought it up from time to time to make Ye Shu's life uncomfortable.

Jin Wang smiled with satisfaction, bent down, grabbed Ye Shu, and hauled him up onto the horse, pulling him into his arms.

He took the bow from an attendant and urged the horse toward the forest.

It was deep into autumn, yet today was a rare fine day.

The sunlight was warm and gentle. Ye Shu drew in a deep breath of the pleasant forest air, and the nausea driven into him by the smell of blood finally receded a little.

…At least he wouldn't vomit on Jin Wang.

Jin Wang drew his cloak around Ye Shu, enclosing him fully within his arms. Catching sight of the young man's pale complexion, he suddenly thought of something. "Since when do you faint at the sight of blood again?"

Ye Shu startled. "I… I've always been like this."

"Mm, We remember." Jin Wang nodded. "When you were small you could never bear such things — you could be frightened into a dead faint by just a cut finger."

His tone shifted, and he continued: "But We also remember — the year before last, when you supervised the Imperial Examinations. One of your Hanlin scholars had been taking bribes, and you had him beaten to death at the palace gates. By the time We arrived, the man was already dead — nothing left but a pool of blood all over the ground."

"You weren't frightened of human blood that time. We thought you must have gotten over it."

"…"

The original host's methods were really not much better than the tyrant's.

Ye Shu let out a dry laugh. "Maybe… maybe I was too furious at the time to think straight."

Jin Wang only smiled and made no comment.

The forest was quiet. Jin Wang had instructed the attendants not to disturb them, and not a single person dared follow.

The two of them rode together on one horse, moving silently through the woods.

A rustling came from the brush to the side. Jin Wang reined the horse in, and his right hand silently settled on the bow.

They held their breath and waited. A moment later, a gray wild rabbit hopped out from the undergrowth.

The stretch of forest they were in was part of the imperial hunting grounds, where game was regularly stocked — rabbits, sheep, deer, foxes, and other small creatures with little danger to them, for the capital's nobility to practice their skills.

There was of course another section of the hunting ground where jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards roamed, but Jin Wang had brought Ye Shu out today simply to lift his spirits, and had no intention of heading that way at all.

"Prey is here. Give it a try." Jin Wang guided Ye Shu's hands to grip the bow, then pulled out an arrow and pressed it into his hand. "Don't worry — We have come first in every hunt, never missing a shot. With Us personally teaching you, you're sure to get it."

Jin Wang placed his hands over Ye Shu's, setting the arrow to the string. "Keep your arms level, shoulders down, just like this…"

Jin Wang taught carefully, his voice low and deep. The position pressed the two of them close together — Ye Shu could even clearly feel the warmth of Jin Wang's breath as he spoke.

Though he was loath to admit it, ever since that day in the bathing pool, something subtle seemed to have shifted between him and Jin Wang.

The most obvious sign was… he couldn't stand this man being this close to him.

The tips of Ye Shu's ears burned. He inconspicuously shifted sideways a little.

"Stop fidgeting — look where you're aiming." Jin Wang's low reprimand came right beside his ear, and he was pulled back.

Ye Shu lurched straight into Jin Wang's chest and went rigid instantly.

The thing he'd just bumped into with his back… what was that?

Jin Wang's body seemed to tense for a moment too. Ye Shu desperately tried to lift his upper half away, and shifted his waist uneasily, but was held even more firmly in place by Jin Wang.

"…I said stop moving." Jin Wang's voice had taken on a hoarse edge.

Ye Shu's voice came out trembling with nerves: "Then you — don't… don't be so…"

He couldn't get the words out.

Just from a bit of rubbing and he was already this… worked up. Was this dog emperor on something?

Neither of them could spare any more attention for the rabbit in front of them. The rabbit turned its head left and right, then dove back into the brush and disappeared.

Jin Wang set down the bow and said mildly: "Seducer."

"…Huh?"

Jin Wang was more blunt: "You're seducing Us again."

"…Huh??" Ye Shu was speechless at his shamelessness. He tried to reason with him. "Your Majesty, you were clearly the one who— fine, fine, I'm a seducer, can you please stop poking me?!"

"No." Jin Wang put away the arrow, his voice unruffled. "Whose fault is it for being a seducer."

The next morning after the day Ye Shu had cried and made a scene, Jin Wang woke up with regret.

He had actually let this man shed a few tears and reduced the sentence for attempted regicide down to twenty strokes of the rod?

And with one stroke a month at that?

Jin Wang couldn't believe himself, and very nearly wished he could go back to the previous evening and cut down the lust-addled version of himself.

But a sovereign's word was his bond — having promised not to kill him, he couldn't go back on it.

In any case, this person couldn't get up to anything too outrageous right now.

Except… blatantly seducing him every single day.

Little minx.

The atmosphere in the forest grew increasingly strange. The undeniable sensation at his back grew more and more distinct. Ye Shu's ears were burning red, and then — a tingling, buzzing sensation shot up his spine like a current and burst at the back of his skull.

Jin Wang's lips had landed on the small mole behind his ear.

"!" Ye Shu had never known he was so sensitive there. His composure cracked, and a low, involuntary sound slipped out.

He couldn't see what was happening behind him, but Jin Wang could see perfectly clearly.

That small mole flushed a vivid red at a visible pace, its color lush and ripe, impossibly inviting.

"How is it that you're so…" Jin Wang raised his hand to touch it.

He hadn't missed a dose of the medicine — so why was it still…

Ye Shu's limbs were going somewhat weak. A certain uncontrollable impulse gradually began to take the upper hand, and he turned his head helplessly to look at Jin Wang.

The sweet-tart fragrance of green plum drifted through the forest.

"You really are…" After a long moment, Jin Wang sighed with a smile, and pressed him close. "Don't be afraid. We are right here."

He was just about to lean in and kiss Ye Shu when, at that very moment, a sound came from deeper in the forest.

Before Ye Shu had even processed what was happening, Jin Wang whipped the bow up, nocked an arrow, and shot it at a concealed spot in the treetops.

A figure tumbled from the branch and landed in an ungainly heap at the horse's feet.

The horse was startled and reared up on its front legs. Ye Shu lost his balance and fell backward, slamming hard into Jin Wang's chest.

Both of them let out a muffled grunt.

Jin Wang pulled the reins taut, patted the horse's mane, and swiftly calmed it.

The disruption had at least partially cleared Ye Shu's head. He grabbed the saddle and inconspicuously inched away from Jin Wang.

…Only to be yanked back firmly.

Jin Wang's gaze fell on the figure on the ground clad in dark assassin's garb, and he narrowed his eyes. A thread of cold killing intent leaked through.

No one had ever dared interrupt him at such a moment before.

The assassin had taken an arrow to the shoulder and struggled painfully to stand. "…Worthless tyrant — even as a ghost I won't let you go. I'll die here to avenge Chancellor Ye!"

…Excuse me, who are you?

Jin Wang arched an eyebrow. Ye Shu returned a look of pure innocence.

This time it really had nothing to do with him.

A squad of imperial guards quickly emerged from the trees and surrounded the assassin.

A sovereign's enmity runs deep — within and without the capital, there was never a shortage of people who wanted his life.

The imperial guards were no strangers to handling assassins. Seeing displeasure on His Majesty's face, and noting the languorous, besotted look of the person in his arms, they immediately understood that they had interrupted something. Fearing the sovereign's wrath, the guard at the front drew his blade at once, intending to cut the man down.

Jin Wang suddenly spoke. "Wait."

One arm around Ye Shu, one hand on the reins: "Ask him who he is."

A guard pressed the blade to the assassin's neck. "Speak."

The assassin said coldly: "…Someone who wants your life."

That voice sounded vaguely familiar. Ye Shu suddenly said: "Lift your head."

The assassin heard that voice and snapped his head up. "Young— Young Master?"

The assassin was about the same age as Ye Shu — no more than twenty or so. That fine-featured face was smeared with blood, a knife scar slicing across the side of his face, the wound already scabbed over.

That face — Ye Shu remembered it.

The very first day he had transmigrated into this world, the first face he had seen upon waking in the tent had been this person's.

Ye Shu called out tentatively: "…Changyuan?"

Changyuan was being held in place and couldn't break free, but his eyes went red. "Young Master — it really is you… So you're— you're not dead…"

"I…"

Ye Shu was just about to say something when his expression suddenly froze.

Beneath the cloak, Jin Wang abruptly gave his side a measured pinch.

The scorching heat of that palm passed through the fabric without restraint. Those hands lingered at his waist and abdomen and showed signs of probing further.

And the sensation at his back — far from having subsided — was, if anything, growing more insistent.

It dawned on Ye Shu belatedly just how precarious his position was. His legs had gone soft, and yet Changyuan was still pressing on: "Young Master, how did you come to be here? I thought you'd long since been… been executed. What on earth is going on?"

"…"

"Beloved subject — your trusted aide is asking you a question. Why don't you answer him?"

Jin Wang's tone was perfectly level. The hand hidden beneath the cloak was making its way toward places that ought not to be touched, his expression one of half-amusement. "What a deeply moving scene of master and servant loyalty. It moves Us so, so, very, very much."

Ye Shu: "…"