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Yang Feng did his best to suppress his furious blush while Lan Jue, noticing this and glaring at his uselessness, directly kicked him out.
Chu Xiang smiled gently at him, as if he was saying something exceptionally tender. “Just think of this as my meeting gift for Your Majesty to show my sincerity, alright?”
Turning back to look at Chu Xiang, his eyes seemed to conceal roiling lava but his voice was as steady as before when he asked, “How do you plan to take it back?”
“Your Majesty’s absence is an opportunity for the Lord of Eastern Tang, but it may not be a certain disaster for us either.”
Fortune and misfortune depended on each other, opportunities coexisted with crises. The principality’s lord wasn’t in his territory and so could not control its foundation, but at the same time, they could do many things from the outside. Even if the nobles of the capital looked down on the Lord of Western Tang, he was still a legitimated vassal king, not some powerless commoner.
Lan Jue: “Why?”
“There are two ways. First, if we can make the Grand Princess or even the emperor himself personally order the land returned — in this way, we can continue to keep a low profile and slowly build our strength, but we all know that this is too hard. There is no reason to cut off the Lord of Eastern Tang, he has made no mistakes. The current lord, Jing Ronghan, is a confidant of the emperor, who wasn’t reprimanded even though he claimed sickness and didn’t come to the capital when summoned. It is unlikely for this plan to succeed.”
“Then the second plan?” Lan Jue asked, nodding.
The young man who sat on the daybed revealed a soft smile, yet what he said was: “The second plan is much simpler, just kill the Lord of Eastern Tang.”
‘Kill’, he said this so dispassionately that even Lan Jue was surprised at the chill rushing through his body. Other than that, however, there was no sense of blood when he said it, as if it was just another common method.
“Western Tang and Eastern Tang were originally one — if the Lord of Eastern Tang dies, even if the emperor wants to appoint a new lord, they could never be as fast as our Western Tang taking over. By that time, the central government’s grasp on the vassal states will weaken, such that even if we expose our ambitions, there are so many other territories also rising up that it won’t matter if we add one more,” Chu Xiang explained slowly. “It must be said that human lives aren’t precious here, it won’t take much for the aristocrats to also become fish on the chopping board. Or–”
Chu Xiang was thinking of a specific action plan; even without a chip in his brain linking him to an AI, his mind still turned quickly. However, Lan Jue suddenly gestured for him to stop.
“There’s no rush,” he interjected, “change your dressings first.”
“Huh?”
The two fingers resting on his neck were many times softer than the blade tip from that night.
Chu Hexing, who had been dozing off, was the first to jump up. “Oh yes, gege, how did you get it? It looks like a knife was stuck there, did you meet assassins again?”
Glancing lightly at Lan Jue, Chu Xiang answered vaguely, “You can say that.”
This made her as angry as a pufferfish. She gritted her teeth. “That blind bastard, if I find them I’ll rip out their intestines and tie it around their neck at least ten times–”
Chu Xiang almost laughed out loud at the sight of Lan Jue, standing behind Chu Hexing’s back, touching his abdomen then touching his neck.
However, the captain, who had excellent acting skills, recovered in time and slapped Chu Hexing’s head lightly. “No swearing.”
“Oh…” The girl scratched her head with a bright red face. “I’m used to arguing with people, in the future… I won’t in the future…”
Lan Jue, sitting nearby as he watched Chu Hexing change Chu Xiang’s bandages, asked, “How old are you this year?”
“I’m fourteen!” she answered.
“The same as my son,” he nodded, “you’ll be friends.”
At this, Chu Xiang interjected, “How can my sister and the young lord… ow…”
Lan Jue snorted and said nothing, but the air pressure around him instantly increased.
“Okay, I’ll definitely go easy on him and not fight!” Chu Hexing said enthusiastically, not noticing a thing.
Lan Jue kept his smile toward the girl. “You might not be able to beat him. That boy grew up herding horses on the grasslands — his mother was a slave in charge of training horses when she was young, and after her husband died, she joined the army using his name to earn money in order to support her son. Even I may not be able to win against her, and she was the one who taught her son how to fight.”
“Wow, that’s amazing!”
Chu Xiang silently supported his forehead — why was his little sister so violent? He hoped she wouldn’t become a fighting maniac like Han Yi in the future.
“Forget it, I’ll do it.” Looking at Chu Xiang’s neck which had been wrapped into a dumpling, Lan Jue straightforwardly grabbed the bandages from Chu Hexing’s hands.
Chu Xiang rushed to stand. “How can I bother Your Majesty with this? I–”
“Shut up,” Lan Jue ordered coldly. “Don’t move.”
“…Yes sir.”
He undid the wrappings which Chu Hexing had made a mess of and exchanged them for new ones, in addition to carefully smearing the wound with medicinal ointment. Although this place couldn’t compare to the 28th century, it had a history vastly different from what Chu Xiang learned at the Academy; for example, the medical treatments available in this world were quite advanced. This ointment was said to have some strange purifying effects and possibly included the juices of a magical plant, it made Chu Xiang very comfortable after applying it.
He even narrowed his eyes and lifted his chin, so Lan Jue inexplicably… felt like he was teasing a white cat, only to once again recall the memory of this person holding him and calling him beautiful. He had perfect etiquette, Lan Jue thought, but beneath the surface, he could tell at a glance that this man wasn’t as respectful of power as he presented himself.
He suddenly felt a little irritated, Lan Jue disliked hypocritically refined young masters like this.
His hands subconsciously increased their strength, causing Chu Xiang to grunt lightly, unsure why Lan Jue suddenly became angry.
Lan Jue cleared his throat. “Fortunately, the wound isn’t infected. You only need two more days of medicine before it’s cured.”
He also ordered Yang Feng, who was standing outside the door, to invite a physician to check it regularly.
After thinking for a moment, Chu Xiang said, “Your Majesty, you should be careful of assassins for the next few days, since the Lord of Eastern Tang may hire people to kill you. Nowadays, the world is in chaos and assassins run rampant in the capital. We cannot ignore it.”
“Mn,” Lan Jue nodded.
* * *
Licheng, the capital of Western Tang, in Jinzhou.
When Tang was split into two, the flat, fertile plains were divided into Eastern Tang, and today it was still a land of plenty where canals flowed through lantern-lit towns; whereas Western Tang, separated from Eastern Tang by a single river, had undulating mountains and rugged terrain interspersed with lush forests. In addition, its western border was adjacent to a vast steppe from which foreign tribes often invaded.
Licheng was located in a wooded area and trees shaded the interior densely, so people also called it the Leafy City.
The city had been Western Tang’s capital for less than ten years and their lord was only 24 years old, both principality and lord were young. Their foundations weren’t solid at all. In addition, the lord’s heir, Lan Nian, was only an adopted son.
The teen stood on a table in the main hall with his robe tucked into his belt, wielding two daggers in his hands as he confronted the guards. His teeth were bared, revealing his canines, and the corners of his mouth were stained with blood which didn’t belong to him. Not far away was a guardsman clutching at his neck and gasping for breath as blood flowed from between his fingers. The boy was like a little wolf cub from the steppes who had grown up eating lambs.
In the center of the hall was a nobleman of around forty years old stroking his beard as he said to the people around him, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this wildling was brought by the old woman my nephew married, he’s not part of our Lan family at all.”
The person next to him was dressed like a scribe. “The Lan family was once revered before the incident, and although now cannot compare to then, at least the roots are still there. It is unthinkable for someone so uncultured to be part of the Lan family, it’s nonsensical for the Lord of Western Tang to appoint him as the heir,” he said, waving a folding fan.
“Very true. Back then he was only fourteen but he married a woman over twelve years older than him, the woman even had a child only ten years younger than him, isn’t this just messing around! Thank goodness that the woman died not long afterwards.”
Up on the table, Lan Nian’s sneer was the spitting image of his father’s. His voice was quite hoarse since it was in the process of changing, so he sounded like a wild beast as he roared, “Lan Jing, you’re so stupid, will Eastern Tang really let you be Lord of Western Tang after killing my father and I? And give you a pile of money? Has your brain been flooded for you to believe it?!”
“You mutt, I’m your uncle, has your father not taught you respect?”
“Respect is for humans, my father said before, just a sword is enough for animals!” Lan Nian said loudly.
The scribe from Eastern Tang clicked his tongue and the nominal royal uncle suddenly felt he couldn’t show his face.
“Come!” Lan Jing thundered, “Take him down for me!”
The guards advanced.
“Let’s see who dares!” Lan Nian shouted in response, “I am the Young Lord of Western Tang, the only son of Lord Lan Jue. If anyone dares to touch me, when he returns, the lord will wipe out your whole family!”
The soldiers froze — Royal Uncle Lan Jing was after all just the Royal Uncle, the lord of the principality wasn’t present. Lan Jing had mobilised private soldiers to surround the young lord’s residence in the name of ‘helping the lord clean up his dirty bloodline’ but who knew if the lord would endure this? The confidants who knew the inside story weren’t at ease either, everyone in the territory knew of Lan Jue’s feats on the battlefield. Could Lan Jing’s troops really stop the lord?
“Stop daydreaming, attack!”
“Just try it!” Lan Nian shouted again.
Lan Jing couldn’t move Tang’s army, he could only control his own private soldiers. Despite there being several hundred men present, in the end they weren’t professional soldiers, so he could only grit his teeth and watch as Lan Nian successfully bluffed them into a retreat.
“I’ll do it!” He grabbed a sword and wanted to charge, but Lan Nian waved his dagger and his two companions also bared their teeth, looking as if they would bite him to death as soon as he got close enough.
“Master, no…” Lan Jing’s followers hurriedly grabbed hold of him, saying, “What if the lord comes back…”
“Trash!” Lan Jing was furious, but the guards around him all looked so timid that he was also affected, so he had no choice but to snarl viciously, “You watch these three brats carefully!”
Author:
In order to deal with Chu Xiang’s little sister buff, Lan Jue digs out his son as an assistant.
Lan Nian vs. Chu Hexing, round one, Lan Nian is imprisoned, Chu Hexing is third wheeling. Chu Hexing wins!
Lan Jue: What’s the use of having a son (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Lan Nian: Believe it or not, I’ll defect to the enemy camp! You widower!
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