Chapter 57
When the arrowhead was suddenly extracted from the wound, Tang Shu shifted his hand slightly, and blood gushed out at once.
Bright red blood spilled rapidly along the firm lines of the other person’s chest and abdomen—it was a shockingly visceral sight.
Qin Zheng furrowed his brows, his eyes filled with an uncontrollable worry.
He had grown up in the military and had seen countless injuries, even sustained many himself, both serious and minor. But for some reason, this time, despite the wound not being on his own body, he felt a piercing pain deep in his bones—one that threw him off balance.
“Hold him tight. Wait until the bleeding stops,” Tang Shu instructed.
Qin Zheng didn’t dare to move and quickly refocused, tightening his hold on the person in his arms.
Tang Shu first applied medicinal powder to Qi Jingheng—or rather, Qi Jingchuan’s—wound. Then he took a clean square cloth and pressed it firmly over the injury. In just a short while, the cloth became soaked in blood, which quickly seeped through, dyeing Tang Shu’s hands red.
“Why isn’t it stopping?” Qin Zheng frowned and asked.
“What are you panicking for? Never seen someone get hurt before?” Tang Shu shot him a sideways glance.
Qin Zheng had no choice but to keep quiet, though his face remained full of unease.
After a while, the blood soaking through the cloth gradually slowed, finally seeming to stop.
Tang Shu then took a bandage and wrapped it a few times around Qi Jingchuan’s body, securing the wound.
“Ah…”
Perhaps he tied it a bit too tightly, because Qi Jingchuan let out a pained murmur unconsciously.
“Can you be more gentle?” Qin Zheng spoke up.
Tang Shu glared at him and retorted, “Sure, how about I go softer so all his blood can spill out?”
Qin Zheng was rendered speechless and could only close his mouth again.
But while Tang Shu’s words were sharp, his hands became noticeably gentler. Qi Jingchuan didn’t make another sound after that.
“Don’t lay him down just yet. Keep him steady for a bit until the medicine fully kicks in,” Tang Shu said as he finished bandaging and began packing up his medical kit. “He’s not fully conscious right now. Try not to let him move too much.”
“Mm,” Qin Zheng responded softly. He lifted his sleeve to wipe the cold sweat from Qi Jingchuan’s forehead.
But since Qi Jingchuan still wore a disguise mask on his face, there wasn’t much sweat there.
Qin Zheng hesitated for a moment, then reached out and gently brushed over Qi Jingchuan’s temple.
Finding the edge of the mask, he slowly peeled it off.
As the disguise mask came away, Qi Jingchuan’s handsome face was revealed.
His eyes were tightly shut, brows slightly furrowed, his complexion pale as snow. Yet the sharp contours of his features were still familiar to Qin Zheng. It was just that after all these years, the once-youthful boy now carried a maturity and calmness of a grown man—something that made him feel a bit unfamiliar.
But more than that unfamiliarity, there was a sense of long-lost closeness.
A moment later, Tang Shu said, “You can stare at him later when you’ve got time. For now, it’s safe to lay him down.”
There was a clear teasing tone in his voice. Qin Zheng felt a flicker of embarrassment on his face, but quickly composed himself and helped Tang Shu lay Qi Jingchuan down gently. Fortunately, Tang Shu had treated the wound well, and after all the handling, the injury didn’t start bleeding again.
Qin Zheng pulled a thin blanket over him carefully, then dipped a cloth in warm water and silently sat beside him, wiping down his body. Although Qi Jingchuan wasn’t fully conscious, he hadn’t completely passed out either—his mind was hazy, but he retained a faint awareness. Feeling someone cleaning him, he instinctively reached out and grabbed that person’s wrist.
When he opened his eyes and saw that it was Qin Zheng, he let go and drifted back into a dazed sleep.
Tang Shu prescribed some medicine and sent someone to boil it.
A little while later, Xiao Shan and Guo Zi came in and tidied up the mess inside the tent.
When Ji Qingzhou entered, he saw Qin Zheng sitting silently by the slumbering Qi Jingchuan, his gaze fixed intently on the man’s face.
“He… is Qi Jingchuan?” Ji Qingzhou asked.
“Mm.” Qin Zheng let out a soft response and said, “He really had me fooled. I didn’t even recognize him.”
There was a hint of melancholy in Qin Zheng’s voice as he spoke. Ji Qingzhou didn’t press for details, but he could guess that Qin Zheng was likely feeling disappointed in himself for not recognizing someone he once knew. If they had known each other in their youth and shared a bond, yet even after spending so much time together since reuniting, Qin Zheng hadn’t seen through the disguise—it would certainly leave anyone unsettled….
Especially given that lately, Li Zhan had stationed Qin Zheng at Qi Jingchuan’s side, and the two of them had been in each other’s company almost every day.
And who knew if, in front of the disguised Qi Jingchuan, Qin Zheng had revealed any personal thoughts he hadn’t wanted Qi Jingchuan to know…
If Qin Zheng had mistaken the disguised Qi Jingchuan for the princess and spoken about Qi Jingchuan in front of him—that mental image alone was enough to make Ji Qingzhou cringe from secondhand embarrassment.
“He must’ve intentionally hidden it from you this time, which is why you didn’t recognize him,” Ji Qingzhou said. “Sometimes the more you know someone, the easier it is for them to deceive you—because they know exactly what you’re familiar with. As long as they tweak those details, it’s not hard to fool you.”
“I didn’t really know him. I had almost forgotten him,” Qin Zheng replied.
Ji Qingzhou could tell Qin Zheng wasn’t in the mood and didn’t push the topic. Instead, he took the opportunity to glance at Qi Jingchuan.
Qi Jingchuan’s features carried a trace of foreign descent—his nose was high-bridged, his features sharp and defined, giving him a strikingly heroic look. When he had disguised himself as Qi Jingheng, his skin had appeared very fair. Now, seeing his true appearance, Ji Qingzhou noticed that his complexion was actually a few shades darker than Qin Zheng’s.
“How did he get injured by an arrow?” Ji Qingzhou glanced at the arrowhead that Tang Shu had removed from Qi Jingchuan’s body. The shaft was broken off halfway—it had clearly been snapped deliberately.
Qin Zheng’s gaze turned cold as he replied, “For this round of martial contests, aside from designated guards, none of the soldiers were allowed to carry weapons—especially not during the banquet. After I taught that person a lesson, he flew into a rage and snatched an arrow from a patrolling guard’s quiver…”
Ji Qingzhou immediately pictured the scene in his mind. After being humiliated by Qin Zheng, the assailant grew furious. While passing by a patrolling guard, he caught sight of the quiver slung on the guard’s back. That flash of murderous impulse, mixed with alcohol, pushed him to grab an arrow and lunge at Qin Zheng. For easier force, he even snapped the shaft in half. What he hadn’t expected was that Qi Jingchuan would react so quickly and step in to take the hit.
“I remember you once said… Qi Jingchuan’s martial skills were nowhere near yours. How did he manage to react faster than you?” Ji Qingzhou asked.
Qin Zheng’s expression froze. He lowered his eyes to look at Qi Jingchuan and said, “Back when we used to spar, I was always the one who lost…”
Ji Qingzhou: …
If he remembered correctly, Qin Zheng had always boasted that he was the one who won—he’d even said Qi Jingchuan used to cry after getting beaten!
So it turned out Second Young Master Qin had been bluffing all along?
Ji Qingzhou couldn’t help but imagine a scene: Qin Zheng, puffed up with pride, telling the disguised “Qi Jingchuan” something like—“Your brother used to lose to me all the time. He cried after every sparring match.” And Qi Jingchuan, wearing his disguise, just quietly listened to Qin Zheng brag to his face…
Once Qi Jingchuan woke up, wouldn’t that be awkward!
Ji Qingzhou snuck a glance at Qin Zheng. Seeing how sour his expression looked, he felt both sympathetic and a little amused.
That night, the entire military camp was tense after the incident with Qi Jingchuan being stabbed.
Li Zhan first ordered all those involved—or even loosely connected to those involved—to be detained. Then, he summoned Western Camp’s commanding officer, Xiao Tengyun, to his tent. After Xiao Tengyun was taken away, he never returned, throwing all of Western Camp’s soldiers into a state of anxiety.
Later, even the uninvolved soldiers from Western Camp were placed under control by Li Zhan’s men.
With Xiao Tengyun gone, the Western Camp soldiers dared not act rashly. By the time they realized what was happening, it was too late to resist.
“The camp’s really stirred up. A lot of people are carrying torches and combing through the Western Camp’s tents. It looks like they’re searching for something,” Xiao Shan reported to Ji Qingzhou after returning from outside. “At first, it was just people from Wang Ye’s side. But I saw that later, even those from the Capital Camp joined in.”
Ji Qingzhou looked puzzled and asked, “Searching for something in Western Camp’s tents?”
“Yeah,” Xiao Shan whispered. “I heard people say it’s because Commander Xiao’s men might’ve colluded with an enemy nation… Wang Ye’s men found something in their tent…”
Ji Qingzhou: …
But the Dayu Dynasty wasn’t even at war right now—what enemy nation?
And who would be stupid enough to bring proof of collusion with foreign forces to an event like this?
What exactly was Li Zhan up to?
Just then, Guo Zi entered behind Xiao Shan, carrying a bowl of medicine freshly prepared for Qi Jingchuan.
Tang Shu brought the bowl of medicine close, sniffed it, then turned to Qin Zheng and asked, “You feeding him, or should I?”
“I’ll do it,” Qin Zheng replied.
He took the bowl, tested the temperature, and scooped up a spoonful to feed Qi Jingchuan. But Qi Jingchuan was still unconscious, and the medicine just wouldn’t go down. After struggling for a while, only a small amount managed to make it into his mouth—while nearly half of it spilled.
“Do you even know how to feed medicine?” Tang Shu frowned. “He’s lost so much blood—his life is practically hanging on this bowl. If you spill another half, forget it. He might as well go straight to the Underworld and drink the soup of forgetfulness at the Naihe Bridge*!”
Note: it’s Chinese folklore about underworld and reincarnation.
Qin Zheng’s face turned sour at that. Without saying a word, he picked up the bowl, tilted it back to take a mouthful himself, then leaned down, pinched Qi Jingchuan’s jaw, and fed the medicine to him mouth-to-mouth.
Tang Shu: …
Ji Qingzhou: …
Ji Qingzhou turned his head to glance at the young emperor. Thankfully, the little one had already dozed off on the low couch, sleeping soundly.
By the latter half of the night, the camp had finally quieted down.
Just as Ji Qingzhou was about to fall asleep, the flap of the tent was suddenly lifted—Li Zhan stepped in from outside.
His gaze swept around the tent, then he walked over to the bedside where Qi Jingchuan was lying.
Qin Zheng had been holding out for most of the night. His nerves were still taut, and his eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion.
“Is the wound serious?” Li Zhan asked.
Before Qin Zheng could respond, Tang Shu spoke up, “He’s lost quite a bit of blood, but if we take good care of him, it shouldn’t be life-threatening.”
Only then did Li Zhan relax. His eyes paused briefly on Qin Zheng’s face before he said, “The attacker has already been executed. Along with him, several others from Western Camp who were involved in the plot have also been dealt with.”
Hearing that, both Qin Zheng and Ji Qingzhou were taken aback.
True, the attacker had wounded two princes and deserved death—but this incident had clearly been unexpected. Why was Li Zhan using the word “plot”?
“Plot… what plot?” Qin Zheng asked.
“A plot to harm the Liang Kingdom’s prince… an attempt to provoke tension between Dayu and Liang Kingdom,” Li Zhan replied coldly. “Dong Dong’s men searched Xiao Tengyun’s tent and found secret correspondence between him and the Di Kingdom. The Di people had long known Qi Jingchuan was in Dayu and were scheming to assassinate him here. That way, it would damage diplomatic ties between Dayu and Liang Kingdom…”
Only then did Ji Qingzhou realize—the “enemy nation” Xiao Shan had overheard them talking about earlier must have been the Di Kingdom.
The Di Kingdom was located at the northeastern border of Dayu, sharing borders with both Dayu and Liang Kingdom, though its relations with Liang Kingdom had always been tense…
Even so, with that historical backdrop, Li Zhan’s explanation still felt too far-fetched.
Because both Ji Qingzhou and Qin Zheng knew full well—the original target had been Qin Zheng. Qi Jingchuan had only taken the arrow for him.
“Wang Ye plans to use this incident…” Ji Qingzhou started to speak but trailed off halfway.
But Qin Zheng had clearly thought of the same thing. Given how shaky the explanation was, the only possibility was that Li Zhan had planned this all along. He had everything ready, and tonight’s incident merely gave him the excuse to push things forward a little sooner.
“Will this really work?” Ji Qingzhou asked. “Just a few letters of correspondence—isn’t that a little too flimsy?”
Qin Zheng added, “And everyone present tonight knows the one they tried to attack was me—not Qi Jingchuan.”
Li Zhan responded coolly, “Aside from the Capital Camp, the only other people present tonight were from Western Camp.”
That immediately made things clear to Qin Zheng. The Capital Camp would obviously back them, and as for Western Camp—Li Zhan would make sure they didn’t get a chance to speak.
At this point, the two of them had basically pieced it all together—
Li Zhan had originally planned to frame Western Camp for colluding with a foreign enemy, using Qi Jingchuan’s identity as leverage. There was no doubt Qi Jingchuan had already reached some agreement with him in advance.
But because of Qin Zheng, an unexpected variable had emerged tonight.
So Li Zhan simply used that variable to push his plan forward.
However…
Ji Qingzhou frowned, thinking to himself: there are so many holes in this story. Could it really hold?
What he didn’t expect was—Li Zhan didn’t care about having a flawless plan. What he wanted was precisely a situation full of flaws.
Xiao Tengyun could never have imagined that in a single day, he would fall into such a trap and lose everything.
From a commanding general of the prestigious Western Camp, Xiao Tengyun had suddenly become a prisoner awaiting trial—accused of colluding with a foreign enemy.
“Utterly ridiculous!” Xiao Tengyun glared at Dong Dong, his eyes filled with fury. “Does Wang Ye really think it’s that easy to slap someone with the charge of treason? Do the civil and military officials of the court look so easily deceived? Who would believe that someone like me would commit treason against the state based on a few mere letters? Wang Ye’s actions are truly absurd!”
Dong Dong gave a slight smile and replied, “A few letters aren’t enough to convict someone?”
Seeing that faint, meaningful smile on Dong Dong’s face, Xiao Tengyun’s expression instantly changed—something seemed to dawn on him.
“Has Commander Xiao forgotten?” Dong Dong asked. “How was the Second Prince imprisoned back then? And why was Grand Tutor Ji’s entire family punished? Wasn’t it also because of a few letters and some so-called witnesses with questionable credibility?”
Indeed, the events of those years had started when Xiao Tengyun had taken the initiative to report the former commander of the Western Camp and had turned over correspondence between that man, the Second Prince, and Grand Tutor Ji. That had led to the Second Prince’s house arrest and the Ji family’s collective downfall.
Though many at the time had known that a few suspicious letters and shaky testimony couldn’t truly prove anything, the matter had still been settled with that verdict. Xiao Tengyun never imagined that in such a short time, Li Zhan would use the exact same tactic against him—returning his own methods back at him!
The same unconvincing letters. The same unfounded witnesses. The same overwhelming charge!
Cold sweat broke out across Xiao Tengyun’s face as he said, “What does Wang Ye mean by this? He should know what truly happened back then… If the late emperor hadn’t already had such intentions, how could someone like me, a mere deputy general, have dared go that far…”
“So what you mean to say is, you’re pushing the blame for those past actions onto the late emperor?” Dong Dong countered.
“I… wouldn’t dare,” Xiao Tengyun replied. “I want to see Wang Ye! I must speak with him!”
“I’ll pass your words along,” Dong Dong said as he turned to leave the tent. “But whether he’ll see you or not—that I can’t say.”
Left behind in the tent, Xiao Tengyun stood frozen, his face ashen.
It was only then that he truly realized—Li Zhan intended to overturn the case against the Ji family.
What goes around comes around. Retribution never misses its mark… And that day had finally come…
On the other side of the camp, Li Zhan wrapped the sleeping young emperor in his outer robe and gently picked him up.
Ji Qingzhou reached out and tugged at Li Zhan’s robe, carefully shielding the young emperor’s head to keep him from catching a chill in the wind once they stepped outside.
“Wang Ye,” Qin Zheng suddenly spoke up, “before Qi Jingchuan came to Dayu, had you already planned all of this?”
“…You should ask him yourself when he wakes up,” Li Zhan replied, glancing at Qin Zheng.
Qin Zheng lowered his gaze to look at Qi Jingchuan. Seeing that his face was so pale it had almost lost all color, he sighed and didn’t press further.
“Wang Ye, in your original plan… was Qi Jingchuan supposed to be stabbed as well?” Ji Qingzhou asked after they exited the tent.
Holding the young emperor in his arms, Li Zhan replied in a deep voice, “Originally, it was going to be done by a shadow guard. He wasn’t meant to be injured this seriously.”
“No wonder,” Ji Qingzhou murmured.
If what Qin Zheng said was true, and Qi Jingchuan’s martial skills far exceeded his own, then under normal circumstances, he might very well have dodged that attack. Ji Qingzhou couldn’t help but wonder—did Qi Jingchuan take that arrow more as a way to help Li Zhan push the plan forward, or was it because he was too worried about Qin Zheng to think clearly?
“Do you think I’m ruthless?” Li Zhan suddenly asked.
“To deal with people like that,” Ji Qingzhou replied, “there’s no need to follow the path of a gentleman anyway. But there’s one thing I don’t quite understand—why would Wang Ye choose to accuse Xiao Tengyun of colluding with the Di Kingdom?”
From Ji Qingzhou’s perspective, if Li Zhan wanted to bring Xiao Tengyun down, it should’ve been an easy task. To go through all this trouble and pick such a heavy accusation—it certainly packed a punch, but it also felt a bit excessive.
Not to mention, it had involved Qi Jingchuan as well. It was an operation on a very large scale.
“Because Xiao Tengyun… does have some history with the Di Kingdom,” Li Zhan said.
“You mean he’s truly in contact with them?” Ji Qingzhou asked.
Li Zhan’s gaze turned cold. He said flatly, “Not at the moment.”
Ji Qingzhou paused, startled. Not at the moment? Did that mean… he might be in the future?
Then he suddenly understood. Since Li Zhan had lived through a previous life, he must have known many things that were going to happen. In that previous life, Li Zhan had not cleared the names of the Ji family or the Second Prince, so Xiao Tengyun presumably lived out his days in peace.
Over the following years, Xiao Tengyun must have done something that made Li Zhan wary.
That action probably involved the Di Kingdom, which meant it also related to the Liang Kingdom…
It was precisely for such reasons that Li Zhan convinced Qi Jingchuan to cooperate with him.
As for how Li Zhan persuaded Qi Jingchuan, that remained unknown.
“Second Young Master Qin and Qi Jingchuan…” Ji Qingzhou suddenly remembered the rumors he had overheard at the banquet and asked, “Did they once share a deep friendship?”
Li Zhan raised an eyebrow and asked, “What would you consider a deep friendship?”
“Something like… being willing to take an arrow for the other?” Ji Qingzhou answered.
Li Zhan glanced at Ji Qingzhou, then countered, “Then do you think the friendship between you and me is deep?”
Ji Qingzhou stopped in his tracks, his expression suddenly turning strange.
Li Zhan regretted having asked so abruptly, thinking maybe he had been too eager.
Judging by Ji Qingzhou’s face, it looked like the question had startled him…
“You…” Li Zhan began cautiously, thinking of how to ease the mood, but then felt his arm grow heavy. Ji Qingzhou had lifted his hand to hold onto Li Zhan’s arm, standing still and frowning silently for a long moment.
Seeing Ji Qingzhou remain still, Li Zhan also stopped, letting him hold his arm without resistance.
After a while, Ji Qingzhou gave Li Zhan a strange look and withdrew his hand.
“What’s wrong?” Li Zhan asked.
“Nothing… nothing at all…” Ji Qingzhou avoided Li Zhan’s gaze, looking a little flustered.
Li Zhan felt a sudden unease and stepped in front of Ji Qingzhou protectively. He said in a low voice, “Whatever’s on your mind, don’t keep it bottled up… No matter what it is, if you want to know, I will tell you.”
Ji Qingzhou lowered his head, seeming uncomfortable.
Unconsciously, he reached out and gently touched the young emperor’s head in Li Zhan’s arms, as if trying to distract himself from his nervousness.
Li Zhan saw he was reluctant to speak and didn’t press him, but deep down he was curious.
Ji Qingzhou’s expression earlier had been too strange to ignore.
Li Zhan truly hoped they would never again fall into the same awkward situation they had before. The thought of Ji Qingzhou hiding a secret so long, trembling in fear and unable to confess, made Li Zhan’s heart ache.
From now on, he would never allow that to happen again.
“Don’t you trust me?” Li Zhan asked softly.
“No…” Ji Qingzhou looked up briefly, then quickly averted his eyes.
If the light had been brighter, Li Zhan would have noticed how red Ji Qingzhou’s face had become. But since it was too dark outside, Ji Qingzhou’s nervousness and awkwardness just looked like avoidance.
“If you trust me, then why…”
“My belly… just moved,” Ji Qingzhou muttered quietly.
Li Zhan was startled. “What?”
“The child…” Ji Qingzhou turned his head to avoid Li Zhan’s gaze, speaking vaguely, “Just now… it suddenly moved…”
Li Zhan: !
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