Lin Qingyu watched Gu Fuzhou finish his medicine and he even examined his pulse for him afterwards. âThe Sky Spider Poison in the generalâs body is almost completely gone. There should be no side effects.â
Gu Fuzhou had been anticipating it for a long time and said indifferently, âYour father stayed by my side in Yongliang, so of course, there couldnât possibly be any problems.â
Lin Qingyu heart moved slightly. There was something heâd always wanted to ask Gu Fuzhou, but⌠Lin Qingyu glanced in the direction of the door and said, âItâs getting late, this humble official will be going back first.â At the end, he didnât forget to remind him, âGeneral, you must remember to lift your weights.â
Being stared at by two pairs of eyes from the Tianji Camp, Gu Fuzhou could only let him go no matter how reluctant he was. âAlright,â he said, sounding as though he had nothing to live for, âIâll lie down for another hour and then Iâll go and lift weights.â
Lin Qingyu stood up. He heard movement from outside the door. Another person from Tianji Camp had come. Seeing this, Gu Fuzhou sat up from the bed, his tone containing faint excitement. âItâs not yet time for them to change guards.â
If it wasnât to change the guards, thenâŚ
They saw the newcomer say something to the two and the three of them together entered and knelt down in salute to Gu Fuzhou. One of them said, âHis Highness the Crown Prince has strengthened the defenses around the capital, adding more patrols. The security of the Generalâs Mansion will be taken care of by the guards in the future. We will be returning to the Tianji Camp.â
Lin Qingyu breathed out a long sigh of relief. He felt like a wide panorama had opened before his eyes. Gu Fuzhou smiled slowly, âYouâve all worked hard. Take care, I wonât be seeing you out.â
As soon as the Tianji Camp guards left, before Lin Qingyu could say anything, the man behind him scooped him up and embraced him into his arms, forcing him to sit on the bed.
When Gu Fuzhou first returned to the mansion, the bed was still a hard plank bed. He couldnât bear this kind of grievance and immediately had Yuan Yin change it to a big bed. It was piled with soft beddings and was even covered with cool silk. Sleeping on it in summer, it was both soft and cool.
However, Lin Qingyu only felt the softness. Gu Fuzhouâs body was like a stove. Held in Gu Fuzhouâs arms, his whole body felt hot.
âQingyu, Iâm back.â Gu Fuzhou said, voice deep, âIâm sorry, Iâm so useless. I got back late.â
Lin Qingyu closed his eyes and lightly patted Gu Fuzhouâs back. âI know. Youâve been working hard.â
âAll that hard work was useless. I still wasnât able to come back on time.â Gu Fuzhou was brooding over this matter and he couldnât help but swear, âDamn that Xiao Cheng! He truly is worthy of being the protagonist. Heâs so f*cking hard to fool â forget it, letâs not talk about him. Hugs first.â
The arms around Lin Qingyu increased in strength. Lin Qingyu was hugged so hard that he could hardly breathe. Just as he was about to ask Gu Fuzhou to let go, he heard him sigh, âThis heart is beating so fastâŚâ
Lin Qingyu instinctively retorted, âMine isnât.â
âI meant mine.â Gu Fuzhou said contentedly, âBut this time, no matter how fast my heart beats, I wonât faint.â
Memories flooded into his heart and Lin Qingyu also laughed. âWell, if you donât let go, Iâll faint.â
Only then did Gu Fuzhou let him go. Gu Fuzhou sat cross-legged on the bed and Lin Qingyu sat by the bedside. The two stared at each other for a while under the dim candlelight. Gu Fuzhou was first to lower his eyes. With his current complexion, even if he blushed, Lin Qingyu wouldnât be able to tell.
Lin Qingyu carefully looked at Gu Fuzhouâs current face. He had a robust silhouette and deep facial features. It was a completely different style from that of the previous handsome son of nobility. Only those eyes remained dazzlingly brilliant, bright like stars.
Lin Qingyu saw that there was a shallow scar on the end of his eyebrow; it missed his eye by the barest bit. This mark looked very new. He must have gotten it two or three months ago.
Lin Qingyu raised his hand, stroked the scar with his fingertips and asked, âHow did you transmigrate into General Gu?â
Gu Fuzhou sighed. âI donât know, I was quite frightened when I woke up.â
The time he woke up after his first death, he saw a classical beauty in a wedding dress. The second time, he saw a burly man in a tent. The gap was simply too big and with the poison circulating in his body, he almost died on the spot. It was not until he faintly caught sight of his father-in-law that he knew that he was still in the Dayu, that he was still in a world with Lin Qingyu in it.
His strong desire to survive kept him going for that two additional days that his father-in-law needed to find the antidote and pull him back from the gates of hell.
âGenerals who are deployed to the battlefield cannot go back to the capital without an imperial edict. They canât even write a letter to their family. I knew that I wouldnât be able to go back within a short amount of time, so I first recognized your father as my adoptive father and mentioned this matter in my report. My thinking was that once Xiao Cheng knows that you are my adopted brother, he shouldnât do anything excessive to you.â
Lin Qingyu remembered all the things that happened in the past half a year and said, âMy identity as General Guâs adopted brother has indeed saved me from a lot of trouble.â But that was only when Xiao Cheng was sober. On Jingchunâs birthday, after getting drunk, Xiao Cheng had wanted to use force on him. If it wasnât for Shen Huaishi, he probably wouldnât be able to see Gu Fuzhou right now.
âLater, I kept begging to go come back to the capital but those two idiots, the emperor and Xiao Cheng, just wouldnât let me.â Speaking of this, Gu Fuzhou grew furious. At that time, his heart was burning with anxiety. He suffered insomnia for the first time in his 18 years of life. He couldnât sleep well all night and he lost a lot of his hair because of it. âBefore I knew it, it was soon going to be a hundred days since my death. I had no choice but to find a way to let you know first that Iâm still alive.â
Lin Qingyu said, âSo, there was never any secret letter from Xixia. You made it all up.â
âThatâs right. But when I returned to the capital, I noticed that ordinary people had never heard of âif odd, change; if even, remain the sameâ. I knew then that Xiao Cheng hadnât done as I asked. When I asked you the secret code under the watchful eyes of Tianji Camp, you calmly said that youâd never heard of it. I guessed that you must have known about it early on.â
Lin Qingyu nodded. âI heard this code from a little eunuch in Qinzheng Hall on the hundredth day since your passingâ
âIt took til the hundredth day for you to hear it?â Gu Fuzhou felt a little distressed, âThen were you very sad at the time?â
Lin Qingyu paused. âIt was fine.â
Gu Fuzhou looked at him. âDid you cry?â
Lin Qingyu shook his head.
Gu Fuzhou breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, âWhat a cruel heart, Imperial Physician Lin. You didnât shed even a single tear for me.â
Lin Qingyu said softly, âYou came back, didnât you?â
âItâs me, Iâm back again.â Gu Fuzhou gave a boundless sigh. âFrom now on, I will be by your side and live a life of leisure until I die.â
At the word âleisureâ, Lin Qingyu didnât know whether to be moved or be dumbfounded. âSince youâve already sent the secret code to the capital, why were you so anxious to come back? You should know that your actions were too suspicious and given how overly-suspicious Xiao Cheng is, he definitely wonât let you go.â
âI know, there wasnât anything I could do about it. First off, I couldnât guarantee that the code would have reached your ears; secondâŚâ Gu Fuzhou hesitated, âI vaguely remembered that Princess Jingchunâs birthday is in summer.â
Lin Qingyuâs expression changed slightly. âI should have died on the day of Jingchunâs birthday, right?â
âHow did youâŚ?â Gu Fuzhou widened his eyes, âDid Xiao Cheng lay his hands on you?â
âEn.â Lin Qingyuâs tone contained a trace of grievance that even he himself didnât notice, âHe grabbed my arm.â
Gu Fuzhou let out a âf*ckâ and asked, âWhich arm?â
Lin Qingyu stretched out his left hand. âThis one.â
Gu Fuzhou held his arm in his arms and rubbed a couple of times. âDid he touch you anywhere else?â
âNo.â Lin Qingyu sneered, âIn the middle of trying to force me, he changed targets and forced Shen Huaishi instead.â
Gu Fuzhou was silent. Thousands upon thousands of words came together into one phrase: âThat â piece â of â dog â sh*t.â
âHow did I die originally?â Lin Qingyu asked, âWas it by Xiao Chengâs hand or was it by Shen Huashiâs sword?â
âYou wanted to die with Xiao Cheng but halfway through Shen Huaishi appeared. He blocked the fatal blow for Xiao Cheng. When you saw that your assassination attempt had failed, you didnât hesitate to swallow the poison youâd preparedâŚâ Gu Fuzhou couldnât go on. Even if it was just the original plot, he still couldnât accept it.
Lin Qingyu said indifferently, âIt does sound like something I would do.â
Gu Fuzhou said regretfully, âI should have made up my resolve to come back sooner.â
âWhen you said âmade up your resolveâ, did you mean to letting my father give you the Sky Spider Poison?â
Gu Fuzhou confessed bitterly, âI didnât want to, but if I hadnât, I wouldnât have been able to come back at all.â
Lin Qingyuâs Adamâs apple bobbed. âNonsense.â
Gu Fuzhou smiled. âYour father helped me control the dosage of the Sky Spider Poison. As long as I could return to the capital on time, it would have been fine. Donât worry, everything was within my plan.â
Everything including being monitored by the Tianji Camp; he had also expected it. In fact, Tianji Camp hadnât started monitoring him just when he returned to the capital. He had sent dozens of letters of resignation in a row, which already aroused the suspicion of the emperor and Xiao Cheng. Back then, the shadow guards of Tianji Camp had already infiltrated Yongliang and had followed him ever since.
He thought about making himself known to Lin Qingyu as soon as he came back. Even under the eyes of Tianji Camp, it wasnât impossible to forcibly make themselves known to each other. But Xiao Cheng was thoroughly investigating the people around him and he had already gotten his father-in-law involved. He didnât want to throw suspicion onto Lin Qingyu as well, so he had to endure for the time being.
It was a pity, the feeling of missing someone wasnât something that he could hide and with how smart Lin Qingyu was, in the end, he still recognized him. Lin Qingyu knew the current situation and did not act rashly. The two of them had been acting with tacit understanding for so long and it was only now that they were able to free themselves.
Lin Qingyu was silent for a moment and asked, âYou did all this, even taking on the risk of poisoning yourself, just to come back to see me?â
Gu Fuzhou said without hesitation, âIf not for that, then for what?â
Lin Qingyu closed his eyes, turned his head and stopped looking at him.
âQingyu?â
ââŚâ
Gu Fuzhou saw that the corner of Lin Qingyuâs eyes were red. For a while, he was at a loss. Then, he smiled, âActually, itâs not entirely for you. Didnât I tell you? My days in Yongliang have been so hard and tiring. I had the lives of the 300,000 troops of the Zhengxi Army weighing down on my shoulders. Even when I tried loafing on the job, my conscience would feel uneasy. If I had to suffer another day of that, I think a year would have been shaved off my life.â He took hold of Lin Qingyuâs hair and played with it in his hand. âMy desperate return was also for my own sake.â
Lin Qingyuâs rare feelings of tenderness disappeared instantly. âAs expected of you.â
âItâs me, itâs me. So donât be sad, donât cry.â
Lin Qingyu said indifferently, âI didnât cry when you died, why would I cry now that youâre alive.â
For the past several months, Gu Fuzhou had been a duck driven onto a perch. He knew the importance of retreating when the enemy advanced and advancing when the enemy retreated. If Lin Qingyu was doing all that he could to remain calm and composed; he had to expose him. âSomeoneâs eyes are red, but I wonât tell you who.â
Lin Qingyu: ââŚâ This person really hadnât changed at all.
At this time, Yuan Yin hurriedly ran in. âGeneral, someone has come from the palace. He says that the Emperor has ordered you to have an audience with him.â
Gu Fuzhou was taken aback. âHis Majesty? Are you sure itâs the Emperor, not the Crown Prince?â
âIt is undoubtedly from the Emperor.â
Gu Fuzhou looked at Lin Qingyu. âIsnât the Emperor seriously ill?â
Lin Qingyu stood up and calmly straightened his official uniform, âI saved him.â