Chapter 110
By the time Yuwen Min received that letter, five days had already passed.
The last time he had someone deliver a letter home, he had deliberately not written back to him. He wanted him to know his place—to make it clear that he was still angry about that matter.
Yet the moment he saw this letter, no matter how much anger Yuwen Min had harbored in his heart, it all melted away like water.
He murmured as he read the letter aloud: “I miss how good you are to me. I miss your outer robe, miss your white socks, and the scent on your body…”
He tugged at his armor, exposing the top of his white socks, and before he knew it, laughter escaped him.
After folding the letter neatly, he tucked it into the front of his inner robe and then muttered softly, “You even miss my socks, yet you still dare say you don’t like me. You’re just stubborn with your words. Wait until I return…”
He could not help but think again of the night before he left for the battlefield, of the madness they had shared in that small courtyard.
It had been daytime, and also because that day he had been a little too unrestrained, and even more so because he had been greedy for his body.
He had shamelessly taken his fill of that beauty.
He had a body that utterly captivated him. His slim, narrow waist made him look nothing like someone who had already given birth to a young lord.
His legs were slender and straight, supple and long.
His shoulders were slightly thin, which only made him want to cherish him more.
His lower abdomen was flat and smooth as a mirror—there was truly no sign that he had already given birth to Ah Chan.
When had he, without realizing it, quietly put Ah Chan into his belly?
The moment these thoughts arose, Yuwen Min’s blood began to boil, as though he were about to burst into flames.
He had to end this campaign as quickly as possible; a sudden idea took shape in his mind.
Waiting like this was simply too torturous.
He wanted to go back and see him, to make him tell him in person exactly what was going on!
Yuwen Min could not wait another moment. Without another word, he threw open the tent and called to the deputy general outside, “Sound the horn—assemble the troops!”
Far away in the capital, Lu Hanzhi sneezed, rubbed his nose, and inexplicably felt that Yuwen Min was scolding him.
Well, let him scold him then!
What had happened before truly had been his fault. He had hidden it from him for so long; in the end, he would still have to tell him.
But thinking about it carefully, this was also unfair to Ah Chan.
If he really left one day and left behind a child who was believed not to be his own for Yuwen Min to raise, then the position of crown prince would probably never fall to Ah Chan.
He was clearly a child of destiny, one who stood upon the Seven Stars. If he were to miss the throne because of his momentary concealment, that would truly be rather embarrassing.
These past two days, Lu Hanzhi had been especially prone to losing focus, and whenever he did, his thoughts would wander wildly.
Yuwen Jue had noticed it as well. That day, he pulled him over to take a look at the prototype of the Eight-Ox Ballista he had made.
It could not yet be put to use, as the triggering mechanisms had not been installed.
Seeing how distracted he was, Yuwen Jue stepped forward and said, “If you have things to attend to, you should go take care of them first. Do you have some new business that needs handling?”
Lu Hanzhi shook his head and replied, “Not really. It’s just… these past couple of days, I haven’t felt very energetic.”
Yuwen Jue asked, “Not very energetic? Didn’t sleep well at night? Are you worried about Ah Min?”
Lu Hanzhi shook his head again and waved his hand. “I’m fine, Second Sister-in-law. Let’s continue studying the ballista. I think it could be made even bigger! The bolts could also be thicker! That kind of… ballista that uses an entire small tree trunk as a bolt—can you imagine it, Second Sister-in-law?”
Yuwen Jue’s eyes lit up, and he said, “Good! I’ll have them make it larger right away!”
Lu Hanzhi walked a full circle around the small ballista cart, thinking to himself that this was a siege weapon—how could it be so tiny?
As soon as he thought of siege weapons, a new idea suddenly occurred to him. After pondering it briefly, he leaned over and quietly gave an instruction to the officer in charge of military equipment.
The officer accepted the order and left without the slightest doubt.
It seemed that Yuwen Min had already given instructions—within Prince Chu’s personal guard camp, his words still carried considerable weight.
The personal guard camp was located in the eastern suburbs, not very far from the southern outskirts.
After inspecting the ballista, Lu Hanzhi and Yuwen Jue boarded a carriage together and headed for the estate.
Lu Hanzhi had just bound a new plot of land and had not yet gone to check it out.
It was the perfect opportunity to take his Second Sister-in-law along to see what sort of thing he had bound this time.
As expected, the system did not disappoint him. This time, what it had bound was once again something that made him want to cough up three mouthfuls of blood.
Lu Hanzhi stared at the small earthen mound before him—barely about ten square meters in size—and his mood became exceedingly complicated.
Although Yuwen Jue did not want to dampen Lu Hanzhi’s enthusiasm, he still could not help clearing his throat and asking, “This is what Hanzhi was referring to as… a big business?”
Lu Hanzhi swallowed hard, feeling as though the way he had overturned this time was a bit too spectacular.
He cleared his throat and said, “Ahem… well… Second Sister-in-law! Although it looks quite ordinary on the surface, but… but…”
Yuwen Jue immediately understood and spoke up, “Did Hanzhi discover a mineral vein here?”
Lu Hanzhi nearly wanted to cry. If there really were a mineral vein here, then after digging for kaolin for so long, he would not have unearthed nothing but a few pieces of low-value quartz jade—there had been no precious metals at all.
Around the capital, all gold and silver mineral veins were already firmly under imperial control.
If a vein could be found in the southern outskirts, that would truly be seeing a ghost in broad daylight.
Yet Lu Hanzhi insisted on saving face despite his suffering, and said with a mysterious expression, “What it is—I’ll keep you in suspense for now, Second Sister-in-law. When it finally reveals its true form, you can come and see it for yourself!”
Across from him, Yuwen Jue’s mouth twitched. Clearly, his unspoken thought was: why didn’t Han’er wait until it was dug out before asking him to come?
After all, being jolted around outside all day was truly exhausting for someone who was eight months pregnant.
There was no helping it—Lu Hanzhi suppressed the urge to curse the system and could only first escort his heavily pregnant second sister-in-law back to the residence.
As soon as he returned to the manor, he received another family letter sent by Lu Xuzhi.
Once again, there was not a single word from Yuwen Min.
Lu Hanzhi’s face flushed red as he asked the courier, “Um… did Wang Ye say anything?”
The courier smiled and replied, “Report to Wang Fei, Wang Ye asked this humble one to pass along a message. He said, ‘Let’s see how he behaves.’ This humble one doesn’t understand it—Wang Ye said you should figure it out yourself.”
Lu Hanzhi: “……”
Figure it out my ass.
Lu Hanzhi was a little angry. How petty was this man, exactly? What would it take for him to forgive him?
Even though he was annoyed, Lu Hanzhi still replied to Yuwen Min’s letter with care.
This time, he did not write song lyrics. Instead, he drew a picture.
Lu Hanzhi worked in a design-related field, so his simple line drawings were fairly decent.
He drew two chibi-style little figures—one was himself, and the other was Ah Chan.
Ah Chan was holding a small pinwheel, toddling forward on his short little legs as he ran in the wind.
Children really did change every day. Yuwen Min had been gone for only half a month, yet Ah Chan could already take a few steps on his own with those short legs.
Perhaps because he ate well and grew sturdy, Ah Chan looked far more mature than most children his age.
For some reason, as he kept drawing, Lu Hanzhi suddenly felt like crying.
In the end, he drew a picture of a family of three, with Yuwen Min holding both him and Ah Chan in his arms—it looked extremely warm and tender.
After finishing, he stuffed the drawings into the envelope and handed it to the courier.
Just as he was about to turn away, the courier stopped him and handed him another item—a calling card—saying, “Wang Ye instructed that this calling card be delivered to Your Highness.”
Lu Hanzhi took the card and said, “Oh? Alright, let me take a look.”
With Luan Feng supporting him, Ah Chan toddled over, his unsteady gait resembling the zombies from Plants vs. Zombies.
Lu Hanzhi was amused by Ah Chan, stepped forward, and picked him up, saying, “Careful—there might be pea shooters ahead. Did you put on your bucket helmet?”
Ah Chan looked confused, reached up to touch his hat, and said, “Hat-hat…”
Seeing the little tiger hat perched on Ah Chan’s head, Lu Hanzhi smiled, set him on his lap, and opened the calling card to read it.
As he read, Lu Hanzhi slowly frowned.
“Shi Dingkun, Cao Jianwen, Shu Yu, Lin Naixiong, Qin Ling…”
Looking at those official names one by one, Lu Hanzhi felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
He suddenly recalled content from the later part of the original novel. The tyrant emperor Zhenghao—Yuwen Min—after killing Yuwen Mingji and seizing the throne, had spent nearly every day executing people.
The names on this list were precisely those he had killed back then.
At first, Lu Hanzhi had thought that the tyrant killed without reason—if he disliked someone, he killed them.
But now that Yuwen Min had suddenly given him this list, did that mean these officials truly had problems?
Yet Lu Hanzhi genuinely could not figure out what their issues were, because they did not belong to the same faction.
Some were from the Crown Prince’s faction; others were aligned with the imperial uncle.
Some had even openly or covertly sided with Yuwen Min, showing goodwill toward him.
The entire list contained dozens of names.
From top to bottom, nearly the entire court was included.
Lu Hanzhi did not quite understand why Yuwen Min had suddenly given him this list.
If all these people were problematic, then fewer than half of the officials would be innocent.
Back then, after Yuwen Min finished killing them all, the court had fallen into utter panic.
Those who could feigned illness; those who could retired. At the lowest point, only a dozen or so officials still attended court.
Perhaps it was because this tyrant had killed everyone who needed killing and completely excised the rot from Great Zhao. When the Crown Prince later ascended the throne, he inherited a ready-made, clean court.
When the imperial examination was opened again, batches of young and talented officials entered service, and Great Zhao once more brimmed with vitality.
Regardless of whether these officials truly had problems, Lu Hanzhi decided to observe them secretly for the time being.
He put the calling card away, feeling that his current situation was like a snowball rolling downhill—growing larger and harder to unravel.
Plotlines kept emerging one after another, and his head began to ache.
At that moment, all he wanted was to shut the door and sleep with Ah Chan until the end of time.
But he understood that this was a critical period for both him and Yuwen Min. He had to be fully alert and could not allow him to be distracted on the front lines.
Yuwen Min was at the front to prevent foreign invasion, while he himself had to stabilize the internal turmoil.
On Yuwen Mingji’s side, an internal informant had finally been planted.
It had been extremely difficult to establish this connection, but at last, they could learn what his next move would be.
According to the original timeline, Great Zhao should have been facing enemies on all sides at this point, with rebellions erupting in multiple places.
Now, with the Rong family army guarding all directions, only the western frontier was in turmoil. Things were being maintained remarkably well.
So then—what method would Yuwen Mingji use to seize power?
As Lu Hanzhi held Ah Chan and pondered deeply, a young servant suddenly ran in to report, “Young Master, a shop called Wan Ji Fragrance Pavilion opened across from Han Ji Fragrance House today. All the customers have gone there. Shopkeeper Yu is busy at Han Ji Paper Workshop, and early this morning, our paper warehouse was set on fire by thieves. The fire was extinguished, but an entire stock of our finest bamboo-pattern paper was ruined.”
Lu Hanzhi stood up and frowned. “What did you say?”
Damn, damn, damn—when it rains, it really pours.
Your favorite BL chaos wouldn’t be possible without coffee… lots of coffee….
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