Chapter Seven

The person who was still asleep heard someone calling his name, opened his eyes drowsily, and saw Yan Mingting’s face. He didn’t react for a while: “Why are you here……”

“You’re in my room,” Yan Mingting answered.

“……” Zhao Yelan glanced at the sky outside. It was as black as thick ink. He rubbed between his brows. “What time is it?”

“Maoshi,[1] it’s time to train.”

Zhao Yelan closed his eyes, turned his back to him, and cursed inwardly. The world suddenly spun and he woke up abruptly to find that he was no longer in the warm bed. Instead, he was suspended above the floor, his body carried on a pair of shoulders.

“What are you doing! Put me down!” Zhao Yelan was fully awake and beat Yan Mingting’s back hard.

Yan Mingting said nonchalantly: “We’re going to stretch your lazy muscles.”

Zhao Yelan kept calling his name, and the other party stopped at the door, turning back. He had just breathed a sigh of relief when the other party pressed him onto the bed, put on his boots and cloak, and then picked him up again.

The guard at the door was startled when he saw the general carrying a man out: “General, is there a thief?”

“Yan Mingting! Let me go, you hear me!” Zhao Yelan cursed, out of breath.

“It’s nothing, not a thief, just the Furen.[2] Go get my horse and we’ll go out.”

As soon as Zhao Yelan landed firmly on his feet, Yan Mingting dragged him onto the horse’s back. With a cry of surprise, he grabbed his arm in a panic, and then roughly pushed it away.

“Don’t move around, be careful not to fall.” Yan Mingting laughed. “This fall would hurt so much, you might break something.”

Zhao Yelan was frustrated: “Isn’t there a sedan chair in the majestic General’s Mansion?!”

“Why would you want to sit on that thing? It has to be carried, and it’s very boring, how can it be relaxing and comfortable? Hold on tight.” Yan Mingting grabbed the reins, clamped the horse’s belly with his legs, and vanished on the wide road in an instant.

The cool wind rushing by blew across Zhao Yelan’s face, cold and painful. The speed of the horse was so fast that it was impossible to see the road ahead. He simply closed his eyes and listened to the beating of his own heart as he sat on the back of a fast horse for the first time. His body was not used to it, and he felt unspeakably nervous for fear of falling off.

They went all the way without speaking.

“Here we are.” Yan Mingting stopped, dismounted first, and stretched out a hand to him. “Come down.”

Zhao Yelan glanced at him sharply. As soon as he stretched out his hand, he found that it was still trembling slightly and he retracted it again, holding the reins motionlessly, like a silent stone lion.

“If you don’t come down, my subordinates will arrive soon.” Yan Mingting laughed.

Zhao Yelan’s face turned cold, and he gave him his hand expressionlessly. Just as he stepped on the stirrups, he was easily carried down and his waist was measured, only to hear Yan Mingting sigh: “Let me just say that you have poor stature, your waist is too thin, and you can’t even subdue a horse.”

Zhao Yelan raised his eyes, smiled slightly, and fiercely stomped on his foot.

When the subordinates rushed over, they saw their general standing at the gate of the training field, hopping with one foot in his arms. They hurriedly stepped forward to ask what happened.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Yan Mingting waved his hands and said nonchalantly, “Let’s all go in.”

The group of people nodded, only to find that there was an additional person. His face was so pale, but his cheeks were stained red, likely from anger.

“General, why did you bring Zhao……ah, furen here?” Zhong Yuehong was puzzled.

“He wants to practice martial arts to keep fit, so I brought him to train together,” Yan Mingting said.

Nonsense!

Zhao Yelan was angry, but he didn’t want to argue with others in front of a group of strangers and lose his elegant demeanor for no reason.

The soldiers in the training grounds had already stood up in an orderly manner. Yan Mingting led the group of people inside and heard a loud shout: “General!”

“This is the capital, not a camp, so don’t wake up the common people.” Yan Mingting asked these men not to speak loudly and to go down and lead everyone in training, then led Zhao Yelan around in front.

The soldiers’ feet were planted firmly, but their heads sprung up like bamboo shoots, one after another, scrambling to look at the people in front of them.

They heard that the pale and tender person next to the General was the General’s wife. He looked sick, coughing twice from time to time, but he was a person who was a gentleman in front of others while doing bad things in the dark, and the common people scolded him, cursing him to die early. Unexpectedly, on the second day of the wedding, the General pulled him over to train together early in the morning. The General was really amazing, ah!

While the soldiers were observing Zhao Yelan, Zhao Yelan was also watching them. This group of people suffered more and were more useful than the Imperial guards in the capital. The Imperial guards had long been supported by Imperial funding. The commander used to take a lot of money to curry favor with him, and it could be seen that there was a lot of greed for ill-gotten gains.

“Zhao Yelan, come here.”

Zhao Yelan turned around. When he saw Yan Mingting, he became inexplicably angry, and said coldly: “Who allowed you to call me by my name?”

“Then what should I call you? Furen?” Yan Mingting smiled.

Zhao Yelan’s expression became even more unsightly, utterly unable to put up with it. Yan Mingting took the initiative to come over and say: “How about it? Let’s see, shouldn’t we get started?”

“Start……what?” Zhao Yelan glanced at him blankly. Then a leg suddenly squeezed between his, exerting force from left to right, and his legs were forced to separate. After stabilizing his figure, his shoulders were pressed down by a pair of hands.

“Train your body well.” Yan Mingting stood behind him and said, “Lower your legs a bit, and keep your waist straight.”

Zhou Yelan wanted to resist and was about to stand up, but the other party used force indiscriminately and pushed him down even deeper.

His legs couldn’t support the weight of the two of them and he almost fell backwards, but it was easy for Yan Mingting to hug his back, saying sarcastically: “Even my family’s chickens are stronger than you.”

Enraged by these few words, Zhao Yelan looked sideways at his smug, smiling face. He raised his hand and was about to lash out, but heard the sound of a blade being unsheathed – – Yan Mingting held a sword in his hand, and when he lifted his thumb, a part of the sword came out of the sheath, shining coldly.

The eyes of the two met, and neither of them would give in. After a moment of confrontation, Zhao Yelan turned his head silently.

– – A wise man submits to the circumstances.

Yan Mingting nodded happily, and continued to guide his movements and adjust his posture.

This side was conducting two-person training, but the soldiers on the other side couldn’t hear what they were talking about. They only saw the General bring his new wife to train with everyone, already not coveting the conjugal bed, but bullying the new wife fairly and justly……. Ah, correcting the Furen’s actions was really admirable, and he was worthy of being their indomitable General!

The soldiers stepped steadily, as easy as eating or drinking, but Zhao Yelan was not like that.

After just a quarter of an hour, his legs were shaking and his back was sweating. The sheen of sweat on his forehead and the back of his neck caused his hair to stick, making him very uncomfortable.

Yan Mingting came over to inspect: “En, not bad, there’s finally a little color in that face.”

Zhao Yelan gave him a fiercely cutting look, pondering how to make this fellow kneel down and beg for mercy.

Not long after, a little bit of light appeared in the sky, and the whole city began to wake up. The common people rose in the morning to start freshening up, and the officials went to court one after another. The streets were soon full of people coming and going, stepping on the age-worn flagstones and talking about today’s events.

The soldiers were finally able to fight loudly. Yan Mingting divided them into several teams to practice in turn. After observing for more than half an hour, he finally remembered the person who had been left out. Standing on the platform and looking around, he asked, “Where’s Zhao Yelan?”

“He left early,” Zhong Yuehong said.

“Why didn’t you remind me?”

“He threatened me with his official authority, and I dared not disobey.” After speaking, Zhong Yuehong jumped into the training team and picked a strong person to compete against.

Yan Mingting glanced at the gate of the training grounds and didn’t know how Zhao Yelan got back.

Obviously he went back in a sedan chair. Zhao Yelan saw Yan Mingting going to the platform to divide the teams, so he left the training field in a fit of anger and hired a soft and comfortable sedan chair. After sitting down, he coughed a few times and pounded his aching thighs, then laid back to nap.

After the sedan chair stopped, he woke up and opened the curtain to take a look. Realizing that he had habitually ordered it to go back to the Zhao Mansion, he sat back in the sedan chair and did not leave for a long time.

In a daze, he heard his name from the mouths of passers-by outside.

“Did you see the special ceremony yesterday?”

“Of course, it was a huge scene, but it’s a pity that it was for the eunuch Zhao Yelan.”

“Eunuch?!”

“You don’t know yet, ah? There have been such rumors in the market for a long time. I didn’t believe it at first, but marrying him to the General now is just for convenience. Look at his white and clean appearance, what sort of man is like him, dressed up beautifully and with the fragrance of cosmetics all over his body? He is also in his twenties and has never married a wife, so maybe he can’t have sex.”

“No wonder, he walks slowly and his voice is mostly delicate and cute, but I don’t know if the General was scared by his appearance last night, hahaha.”

As the voice faded away, Zhao Yelan lifted the curtain and gestured to the two guards at the gate of the Zhao Mansion.

Seeing that it was him, the guards hurried forward to listen to his orders.

“Eunuch Gao is short of manpower. Those two looked quite clever, suitable for errands. Take them to Eunuch Gao.” Zhao Yelan turned his head and pointed to the two figures walking away.

“Yes.”

After returning to the General’s Mansion, he realized that the place was in chaos.

Early in the morning, the maids had knocked on the door, only to find that there was no one in the room. They searched around anxiously, but to no avail, and for some reason a quarrel broke out.

Xiao Gao brought a group of servants from the Zhao Mansion to ask the General’s Mansion where he was, while Housekeeper Qin and the maids suspected that the new master had murdered their General.

The two sides argued endlessly, until Xiao Gao discovered Zhao Yelan’s figure and hurried forward: “My lord, where did you go early in the morning?”

Zhao Yelan asked him sullenly: “Why did you sleep so long today?”

Normally, Xiao Gao would wake up if there was a little movement, but today when he was taken away by Yan Mingting, he especially raised his voice and Xiao Gao didn’t show up for a long time.

“I drank some wine at the wedding last night.” Xiao Gao knew he was wrong, and walked around him. “Are you alright, my lord? Are you injured?”

Zhao Yelan was exhausted to the point of weakness and couldn’t censure him anymore, so he walked to the room with a lack of interest and ordered: “Prepare some hot water, I want to take a bath.”

Xiao Gao immediately took people to make preparations, but because it was a new environment, he had to find a few maids from the General’s Mansion to go with him.

Housekeeper Qin followed behind Zhao Yelan. Seeing that he didn’t intend to bring it up, he asked cautiously: “May I ask Furen, where did you and the general go? Where is the general now?”

He was answered by a violent slam of the door.

Housekeeper Qin, embarrassed at being rejected, went to the guards at the gate for questioning. The guards were the first group after the change of shift, and remembered that their colleagues had jokingly mentioned that the General had carried his new wife out to play.

Just as Housekeeper Qin breathed a sigh of relief, he choked up inexplicably – – why did that sound like the General was going to kill someone to silence him?

At the end of the hour, Yan Mingting returned home on horseback. As soon as he entered the gate, he saw maids and servants coming in and out with hot water, in a mad rush. He stopped a maid casually, and seeing her holding a pot of delicate and beautiful flower petals, he wondered: “What are you all doing?”

“Answering the General, it is Furen who wants to take a bath.”

“He needs these things……to take a bath?” Yan Mingting picked up a petal, turned around, and walked into the room with a complicated expression.

Behind the screen was a large wooden barrel. The servants took turns pouring hot water, and the petals were sprinkled in together. Xiao Gao tested the water temperature and nodded: “My lord, it’s ready.”

Zhao Yelan sniffed the smell on his body. As soon as he got behind the screen and took off his outer clothing. Yan Mingting rushed in hurriedly. He subconsciously covered a certain part of his back, then realized that there were still clothes covering him and put down his hands, looking at Yan Mingting with an unworried expression: “Get out.”

“I just want to look.” Yan Mingting turned his head to look into the barrel and saw the petals floating on the water. There was also incense and candied melons and fruits beside the barrel, exceedingly enjoyable.

He heard from the maid that Zhao Yelan ordered the freshly picked flower petals and melons and fruits, but where could the General’s Mansion get rose petals? So she had to go outside to look for them, and she would be taught a lesson if she was late, so she was in a hurry.

“What? Never seen such a thing?” Seeing his surprised gaze, Zhao Yelan asked with a half-smile.

“I’ve never seen such inspired and meticulous bathing with my own eyes,” Yan Mingting said.

“What do you want to say? That I’m not like a man?” Zhao Yelan casually leaned on the edge of the barrel. The veins in his hands were bulging and there was a storm brewing in his eyes, just waiting for a thunderclap before capsizing people.

Xiao Gao, who was familiar with him, stood silently a little farther away at this time. An angry lord was not to be offended.

In the dead silence, Yan Mingting finally withdrew his gaze from the barrel and said: “What do you mean, not like, you are a man yourself, ah. What I want to say is……I want to try this too.”

Zhao Yelan frowned slightly. His dangerous eyes were caught off guard and disrupted, and he glanced at him with incredulity, unable to believe what he just heard.

“So this is the petal bath, ah.” Yan Mingting fished in the water curiously. The petals lay softly and comfortably in his palm, exuding a slight fragrance. “Softens the liver and awakens the spleen, soothes qi and activates blood, clears stagnant blockages. I’ve been wanting to try it for a long time, it’s just that it would be strange and embarrassing in the barracks, but now I have a chance.”

Zhao Yelan hadn’t recovered from his astonishment when he saw him take off his outer clothing. He quickly stopped him, saying: “Get out of here!”

“What’s the matter, with so much water and petals, it’s a waste to wash alone.” Yan Mingting invited, “We’re both big men, what are you afraid of? Come, let’s do it together, ah.”

Zhao Yelan pressed his forehead, gritted his teeth, and said: “Xiao Gao, light some more incense!”

Yan Mingting thought to himself: Not good!

After a while, Housekeeper Qin saw his General running out of the room in disheveled clothes while sneezing and yelling, “If you won’t let me, then don’t let me, why pull out a hidden weapon!”

Housekeeper Qin didn’t know who would be the first to kill the other.

– – – – – – – – – –

The author has something to say:

Yan Mingting: I also want to wash in fragrance together ~~

Zhao Yelan: Disgusting.

Housekeeper Qin: Let’s make a bet and see who gets stabbed first?

Yan Mingting: ? The fierce man draws his sword.jpg.

[1] Mǎoshí (卯时): 5-7am according to the system of two-hour subdivisions. ⮐

[2] Furen (夫人) is applied to a married woman’s name. Basically, ‘Mrs.’ Many people will use this title from now on when referring to Zhao Yelan. ⮐