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Chu Xiang’s fever subsided by the next day, though he still felt a little groggy when he opened his eyes. Crisp sunshine filtered through the window, still chilled from last night’s rain. Thankfully his neck didn’t hurt much. It’s good that there’s no morning training or patrols in ancient times, he thought as he huddled under the quilt and refused to get up.

He seemed to have had a… very, very long dream last night. In the dream, there were the stars, his comrades, his AI who always bickered with him… and what else? He couldn’t remember much of it. Rubbing his painful temples, he decided to not think about it.

As soon as he moved, a sound came from the doorway where Chu Hexing was peeking in. She let out an ah, then quickly brought in a basin of water.

“Gege, I’ve brought you water for washing your face!”

“Little Xing…” Chu Xiang began, his voice still a little hoarse, “Why did you get up so early?”

“Oh, just wash your face quickly, I’ve made breakfast for you, my congee is really tasty you know. Even Lord Lan drank a bowl just now, if it weren’t for him helping feed you medicine last night, I wouldn’t have let him!” she said.

“Wait…” Chu Xiang held his forehead again, Lan Jue fed him medicine? Lan Jue was a lord from ancient history, could it be so easy to increase his favorability? It must be a bug! Oh, actually it wasn’t completely unreasonable — Lan Jue did grow up in the border regions instead of in a nobleman’s manor with strict etiquette, he might have even rolled around with little beggars as a boy.

But, Chu Xiang thought with a headache, I didn’t say weird things while I had the fever, right? If he had spewed out 28th century combat jargon, they might think he was crazy, or more likely, they would think he had been possessed and tie him up then throw him into a river to see if he would float.

“Don’t tell me you stayed up all night!” Chu Xiang exclaimed, surprised at the clothes Chu Hexing wore.

Chu Hexing shook her head. “I napped at the door several times.”

“How can you sleep outside my door!”

She blinked and said, matter-of-factly, “Gege is sick, of course I need to look after you!”

“You…” Shaking his head, Chu Xiang couldn’t resist pinching her face a few times. “Don’t do this. I’m several times your age, I don’t need a child looking after me.”

With both his lifetimes put together, he could easily be mocked as an old man, but it wasn’t false either. Even if human lifespans were greatly extended in the 28th century, he had already flown through the stars for over two decades.

“Gege, if you don’t let me do anything, then won’t I turn into a little piggy!” Chu Hexing pouted. “Since you won’t let me be your bed servant, I can at least take care of your daily chores!”

“No,” he stated, extremely seriously. Although it would be a long journey to reverse a feudal girl’s thinking, it was absolutely impossible for him to treat a young child as a maid. “If you want to do something, I can teach you how to read and write, or how to do arithmetic.”

“Huh? But girls shouldn’t learn that, otherwise no one will want them in the future,” Chu Hexing said doubtfully.

“Nonsense.” Chu Xiang tapped her head, whoever dared to say that in front of Spec Ops Team Leader Shao Yun would definitely experience the pleasure of being torn to pieces. He couldn’t help showing a warm smile at the thought of his comrades, stunning Chu Hexing.

After thinking for a while, he said gently, “Little Xing, no one can choose their birth circumstances, but we can choose what we do with our lives, not just follow what others want. Where I come from, everyone has the chance to grow up safe and happy, and everyone can choose who they want to be. You can choose the gardens or the starry sky, girls can also choose to step onto the battlefield. I know that right now, here, many people have told you that you can’t do this, can’t do that… but they’re wrong. I don’t want this world to always be like this, and it certainly won’t always be like this.”

At the girl’s bewildered expression, he deliberately teased her. “Otherwise, what am I here for?”

Chu Hexing was stunned — it was the first time she had ever heard such shocking words — but she quickly had her own understanding of it. “Really, you’re telling the truth? Um… that’s right, since you’ve descended to earth, how can you still be a Xingjun if you don’t change something! Yeah, there are lady Xingjun in the sky as well, right?!”

…Feudal superstition was still useful once in a while. Chu Xiang thought that Captain Shao Yun probably wouldn’t mind being called that, she was dramatic enough for it.

So he nodded, “Of course.”

“Wow!” Chu Hexing was very excited.

“So do you believe me or not?” he asked her, smiling.

“I do!” Chu Hexing bounced on the spot. “Gege is right, so if I learn to read, I can also help with gege’s things, right? Then I can teach more children to read, and after that writing poems won’t just be something for nobles, right?”

Another voice cut in from outside the door. “You do need to learn your words. And if you want to learn archery or how to ride horses, I can arrange a tutor.”

Lan Jue strode through the doorway, causing Chu Hexing to jump nervously. She knew that this was the monarch her brother now followed, he had a prestigious position and she should kneel, but she had always felt petty towards nobles so she stood still with her mouth pouted. Who knew that Lan Jue would vigorously rub her hair, making her face flare into a blush.

Chu Xiang hurriedly moved to stand, but Lan Jue easily pushed him back down.

The image of this man with crimson cheeks and hazy eyes flashed in his mind, so he was somewhat cold when he said, “Lie down, don’t croak before getting my things done.”

…Your Majesty, can we say something more auspicious? Chu Xiang smiled bitterly. “Yes, thanking Your Majesty for your concern.” He carefully examined Lan Jue and found nothing unusual in his face.

However, his little move did not escape Lan Jue’s eyes. This person was confused by the fever yesterday and likely did not remember what he did, he was only worried… Lan Jue looked at the young master who had regained his dignified appearance and inexplicably thought of when he said ‘beautiful’ in that delicate tone, it was just… exactly as frivolous as a prodigal son, yet people could hardly refuse him.

“I’ll make sure my brother eats his medicine on time!” Chu Hexing piped up.

Lan Jue chuckled, and as he did so a small dimple appeared at the corner of his mouth, making him look rather cute and entirely incompatible with his identity as the lord of a principality. Chu Hexing’s feelings towards him instantly reversed.

“You’re too skinny, practising martial arts can strengthen your physique,” he said to her.

Maybe it was because Lan Jue was being so amiable that Chu Hexing lost any grudge she had against him due to his noble status within the span of a few sentences. Now her eyes lit up as she excitedly asked, “Can my brother also do it?”

Lan Jue gave Chu Xiang a sideways glance. “Too old.”

Moreover, people typically became weaker when they were drunk. All his subordinates could knock down a few walls if they drank too much, but this person could only hug his quilt…

Chu Xiang: “…His Majesty is right… But Your Majesty, you don’t seem to mind girls learning martial skills?”

“Why can’t they?” Lan Jue asked rhetorically. “Ten years ago when I was fourteen, my lord father wanted to see a successor before he died, so I chose a consort from the people closest to me. She had once been an officer of my vanguard who went through life and death together with me, so she was willing to do me this favour.”

Perhaps it was due to the environment he grew up in, but Chu Xiang was certain that this era would never produce a second Lan Jue who disregarded his status like this, who could even call getting married a favour–

Chu Xiang suddenly became interested. He remembered that the Lord of Western Tang did have a marriage, and it was also known that his consort was a widow twelve years his senior who already had a child, with the child being only ten years younger than Lan Jue.

In the current world view, marrying a widow from a humble background — according to rumours, her family were servants who trained war horses — to take her as his consort was tantamount to ‘ignoring etiquette and tradition’, which firmly stamped him as a barbarian. However, this incident happened a long time ago, when the Lan family was still in exile, so they wouldn’t have been able to marry in a noble daughter even if they wanted to.

“I feel sorry for the late princess-consort,” Chu Xiang said, “she was a heroic woman. Please accept my condolences.”

Lan Jue nodded and was about to say something when Yang Feng suddenly announced himself from the door.

“My Lord, a message from home.”

Lan Jue frowned and took the letter.

“It’s from the young lord.”

Upon opening it, Lan Jue’s expression instantly turned as cold as frost.

Yang Feng’s face also changed drastically, as if he had seen a ghost.

There was a bloody handprint on the letter.

It was a youth’s handprint. Judging from the handwriting, which wasn’t beautiful but also wasn’t particularly sloppy, Chu Xiang judged that the bloody handprint was only used to show urgency, not because the author was in any kind of life-threatening situation. However, Lan Jue wasn’t so calm.

He read through the letter ten lines at a glance.

“Very good,” he sneered, “Royal Uncle allied with the Left General and locked Lan Nian up in the palace, it seems they plan to kill me on my way back?”

“Then isn’t the young lord in danger!” Yang Feng exclaimed.

“Fortunately, those old bastards have never taken Little Nian as my descendant, so they won’t deliberately endanger his life,” Lan Jue said.

“Your Majesty,” Chu Xiang suddenly said. “Your Majesty once said that the country is in the grips of a disaster. With all due respect, the geographical environment of Western Tang isn’t very good and its treasury isn’t particularly full either. It can be said that any lord appointed there would be disturbed by all manner of things, and their lives won’t be as good as that of wealthy businessmen living carefreely in the capital.”

“You dare–” Yang Feng began angrily.

But Lan Jue held up a hand to stop him, and nodded. “You’re right.”

“Before Your Majesty set out, did you not make any conjectures or preparations?”

“As you say, Western Tang has little money or power, so I never thought that Royal Uncle would have the intention to seize power, and neither did I make much preparation for it.”

“Then why do you think he suddenly wants to seize power?”

Lan Jue looked at Chu Xiang with a frown.

So Chu Xiang continued, “The Lord of Eastern Tang is reaching the end of his life and did not come to this year’s Spring Banquet. It has always been his dearly held wish to be the lord of all of Tang, look, isn’t it a good opportunity now?”

Lan Jue: “Do you think that Eastern Tang promised them benefits?”

Chu Xiang: “Western Tang is barren. Rather than be a hard-working lord, it would be better to take the money and live a life of leisure.”

“So you think that Eastern Tang promised Royal Uncle a lot of money to make him help them?”

“They may also be using him,” Chu Xiang offered. “Since Western Tang itself has no real assets, it cannot be just a General of the Left and an idle royal relative who are behind this.”

Except for those with special obsessions or people like Lan Jue who truly cared for his land and people, no one who desired wealth would want Western Tang.

“My Lord, shall we go back immediately to rescue the young lord?” Yang Feng asked.

“…” Chu Xiang truly wanted to curse, but fortunately, he held it back. He forced himself to be calm as he said, “How many people do you have? You only remember that the young lord is in danger, but the target this time isn’t him. Your young lord tried every means to send out a letter to remind you that there might be an ambush on the road, but you want to run straight to your death?”

Chu Xiang internally rolled his eyes, this civil servant! Couldn’t civil servants just obediently do logistics!

“You know very well how many soldiers and horses Western Tang has,” he said.

“But without me there, Royal Uncle cannot mobilise the army.”

“He doesn’t need the army,” Chu Xiang retorted. “How many people are with you now?”

“Only Yang Feng serves me openly, there are ten following secretly,” Lan Jue calmly answered.

“Even if your skills are great, if they take you by surprise, just a hundred ordinary soldiers can defeat you, no? So you must not return to Western Tang now,” he said, “you are in the open, we don’t know where the ambush will be, we don’t even know the specific method. Moreover, how do you know they won’t take action in the capital?”

“Then, how do you think we should deal with it?”

“We’ll solve it at the source. Your Majesty, Tang has been divided for too long, it’s time to take it back.”

Author:
Lan Jue: I’ve been hooked!
Chu Xiang: When? What did I do???
Chu Hexing: Debuff from the bro-con little sister, activate!!!
……
Don’t worry, although Captain Chu’s performance is a little tragic, the text is definitely sweet! Take my lost teeth as proof!

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