Chapter Eleven

Perhaps he was exhausted from running around during the day, because not long after Zhao Yelan calmed down, he fell asleep.

Yan Mingting stared at him intently. Compared with his appearance when he was young, today’s Zhao Yelan was more and more outstanding, with a sort of eye-catching, radiant beauty. But he was always wary of others, his eyes were always cold, and his brow was always furrowed. However, what he himself didn’t know was that the more his aura warned people away, the more aggressive and unique his beauty would be.

Yan Mingting’s mood was very complicated. He didn’t know how this unseemly marriage would develop in the end, and also didn’t know what exactly Zhao Yelan had done. The stories told by outsiders were vivid and colorful, but he only trusted his own judgment.

Asleep, Zhao Yelan lost his indifferent expression. His nostrils fluttered, his thin lips straightened, and at the moment, the mole under his eye nestled on his face obediently and quietly, like an unguarded child.

“Could it be you?” Yan Mingting murmured.

He sighed deeply and slowly closed his eyes.

Presently, Zhao Yelan, who had appeared to be sleeping all this time, opened his eyes. His eyes were clear, and he frowned habitually……

What did that question mean?

His gaze wandered around Yan Mingting’s body, and then fell onto his bound hands and feet, his face sinking like water.

Zhao Yelan didn’t sleep well that night. His hands and feet were bound and there were things on his mind. When he was about to fall asleep, he heard the crowing of a cock.

After repeatedly turning from side to side all night, when Yan Mingting opened his eyes, he met a resentful and bitter gaze.

“You……woke up very early today. Not bad, not bad, keep it up,” Yan Mingting praised.

Zhao Yelan wished he could peel off his skin……but the other person had knives and swords, and a high position.

How annoying.

“Get up, it’s time for morning exercise.” Yan Mingting quickly got off the bed, put on his clothes in two or three moves, and picked up his wrist guards to buckle them on his wrists.

Zhao Yelan stared at his wrists. Seeing that he jumped on the spot twice after putting on the boots, he couldn’t help but suspect that there were also hidden weapons in the boots.

“Why are you still not moving?” Yan Mingting turned to look at him.

“How do you expect me to move!” Zhao Yelan abruptly raised his voice.

Yan Mingting was stunned for a moment, then remembered. Lifting the quilt and seeing the bound hands and feet, he showed a more astonished expression than Zhao Yelan and reached out to untie the rope for him: “You were tied up like this all night?”

“What do you mean? You wake up and want to renege on your debts? Whose work is this?!” Zhao Yelan rebuked.

“No, I thought you’d untie it, it’s a slipknot.” Yan Mingting pointed at the rope teasingly, pulled it tightly, and let it go.

“……”

Zhao Yelan froze for a moment. Last night, he only cared about pulling out his hands, and gave up when he failed. He never expected Yan Mingting to have a hidden skill.

As soon as the rope around his ankles was untied, Zhao Yelan kicked him. Yan Mingting didn’t dodge, and he kicked him a few more times.

The bed creaked.

Seeing that he couldn’t be bothered to kick any more, Yan Mingting’s eyes stopped on his wrists and ankles. There were light red marks on the tender skin. Looking a little miserable, he asked, “Are you going to do morning exercises today?”

“Go to hell.” Zhao Yelan turned over and tugged the blanket hard. A gust of cold air rushed in, and then he felt Yan Mingting tuck him in.

“Alright, then I’ll go first, everyone is still waiting for me.”

After the door closed, Zhao Yelan looked at the sky outside. It was still dark, so he lay down and started drifting back to sleep.

He vaguely smelled a pungent fragrance, and his ankle felt cool for a spell. He subconsciously pulled his foot back under the blanket, but it was caught by a hand. He immediately sat up vigilantly and found Yan Mingting holding his foot. 

Face to face, Zhao Yelan looked up with a frown: “What are you doing?”

“Applying medicine.” Yan Mingting stretched out his hand, and in his palm was a small medicine bottle. “When we march and fight, injuries are common. This medicine works well.” 

Zhao Yelan glanced at his chilly ankles. There were also traces of medicine being rubbed into his wrists, so he snatched the medicine bottle and examined it carefully, asking, “What kind of medicine is this? Call the doctor, I want to test it.”

“You don’t think I’m poisoning you with this, do you?” Yan Mingting was amused. “If I wanted to harm you, would it be necessary to use such a roundabout way?”

Zhao Yelan shrugged his shoulders. “Better safe than sorry.”

“Don’t worry, if you died as soon as you entered the General’s Mansion, how could I explain it to the Emperor and others?” Yan Mingting took back the medicine bottle, held his other ankle, and squeezed his calf. “Relax.”

Zhao Yelan didn’t move anymore, quietly watching his hands rub back and forth on his ankle. The medicinal oil was cold to the bone, and gradually warmed between those palms. His stiff, tense legs eventually relaxed.

It just smelled too bad. He didn’t like it.

A servant girl knocked on the door. It was getting late, and they should be waiting for the masters to awaken.

“Come in,” Yan Mingting said.

Two cleaning maids opened the door and entered, and saw Zhao Yelan sitting on the bed with his black hair hanging down his shoulders while the General rubbed his feet.

The maids looked at each other, seeing surprise in the other’s eyes.

They didn’t understand, why did these people sometimes confront one another and sometimes love each other so much? Were all great men so capricious? 

“Are you done?” Zhao Yelan urged impatiently.

“At once.” Yan Mingting called it a day and put the medicine bottle away, getting up to wash his hands. “Get up and take a few steps?”

Zhao Yelan got up, looked down and stretched his ankles, then went to wash and change clothes expressionlessly.

After Yan Mingting washed his hands, there was nothing else to do, so he leaned against the door and waited while watching Zhao Yelan, bored to death.

Zhao Yelan changed into light yellow robes, which caused his skin to look fairer and his beauty and elegance to surpass others. He also chose a sachet with a stronger fragrance to wear, to suppress the scent of the medicinal oil.

He sat in front of the bronze mirror while the maid bound his hair. Raising his eyes, he met Yan Mingting’s in the mirror and they looked at each other silently, each with their own thoughts.

The two people went to have breakfast together, but Zhao Yelan didn’t want to talk to him, so he went back to the room after eating quietly.

The servants secretly gathered to mutter to each other.

“Did you just see that? The general’s neck! Was bitten! There were tooth marks!”

“Of course I saw it! I also saw the red marks on Zhao……furen’s wrists!”

“So it’s not just my illusion!”

“Are they……?”

The group of people seemed to have discovered some terrible secret, endlessly shocked. Then they were interrupted by the passing Housekeeper Qin: “What are you doing here? Don’t you have work to do?”

They quickly dispersed, and Housekeeper Qin looked around while muttering in a low voice: “In the end……young people really know how to play.”

Housekeeper Qin suddenly felt that he was very old and couldn’t understand what these young people were thinking. But considering it carefully, Zhao Yelan was born so stunningly beautiful, so it was understandable for the General to be confused and infatuated.

As old as he was, he still had some experience.

“Looks like I need to prepare some hot water for the night.”

In the bedroom, Gao Tan came back from outside and said happily: “My lord, I bought cherries today.”

A basket of bright red cherries sprinkled with drops of water looked very delicious.

Yan Mingting reached out to grab some, but was slapped away by Zhao Yelan: “Take your hand away, you are not allowed to eat.”

“Stingy.” Yan Mingting quickly snatched a handful and slipped out of the mansion.

“My lord, do you not want to go get them back?” Xiao Gao asked quickly.

“No need.” Zhao Yelan picked up a cherry, and when he squeezed it hard, the pulp split open and the juice flowed down. He narrowed his eyes slightly. “I have something else to tell you.”

Yan Mingting didn’t come back until evening.

When going to bed, the two lay side by side with books in the middle to separate them, each covered with a blanket.

The candle light was dim, and neither of them fell asleep. Yan Mingting was thinking about something, and Zhao Yelan was staring at the roof, wondering what he was thinking.

After a while, he sat up suddenly, crossed over Yan Mingting to get out of bed, and then lit the incense.

“Why are you lighting this stuff again?” Yan Mingting sneezed helplessly, then got up and pinched out the incense.

Zhao Yelan lit it again, and Yan Mingting extinguished it again. 

Zhao Yelan lit it again, and Yan Mingting extinguished it again. 

After several repeats of this, Yan Mingting simply carried him to bed and pressed his legs over the other’s to keep him from moving, and said in a low voice: “Hush, go to bed, stop making trouble, there is someone on the roof.”

Zhao Yelan blinked, and suddenly shouted loudly: “Xiao Gao!”

“My lord, I’m here,” someone outside the door responded.

Yang Mingting looked at him in confusion as he pushed his legs away, calmly walked to the door, and said inexplicably: “It’s very late, it couldn’t be that you want to eat some fruit again, do you?”

Then he heard Gao Tan standing outside the door and answering honestly: “My lord, I have been guarding for two hours, and there is no one on the roof, not even a bird.”

Zhao Yelan looked back at Yan Mingting.

Yan Mingting was dumbfounded. His eyes darted and he sat up in embarrassment, pulling up the curtain casually as he said with a guilty conscience: “Hey, look, the holes in this bed curtain are so small and unique.”

“Yan, Ming, Ting!”

A moment later, there was a commotion in the room, and Housekeeper Qin, who was lingering nearby, heard the movement. From a long distance, he could see two shadows entangled, going from east to west and back to east again. The General also yelped from time to time, and it could be seen that the situation was intense.

Housekeeper Qin blushed and shouted: “Xiao Gao, what are you doing at the door, is this something you can watch? Hurry up and help deliver the hot water!”