I Rely on Beauty to Stabilize the Country Chapter 85

Chapter 85

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The Emperor is in my arms.

The Emperor, is, in, my, arms.

Gu Yuanbai sat at Xue Yuan’s desk, stunned by this line of text for a long time.

When he finally came to his senses, the paper kite was already destroyed in his hands.

Alright, Xue Jiuyao.

How many more things have you done that I don’t know about?

Gu Yuanbai thought that after giving Xue Yuan a severe punishment, he would have been obedient and respectful from that day on. Not only respectful, not only rational, but he could even go as far as to fly a kite with a line of words like this and dare to let the guards fly the kite for him.

With such audacity, why didn’t you go fly your d*mn kite in the rain?

The paper kite crackled under Gu Yuanbai’s grip. He suppressed the anger in his heart and tore off the piece of paper with Xue Yuan’s handwriting on it, tucking it into his sleeve. He would make Xue Yuan pay the price for this sentence he wrote for himself. Throughout the process, Gu Yuanbai kept thinking, you’re quite bold.

The Emperor in my arms, he will remember it.

After crushing the remnants of the kite, Gu Yuanbai, with a cold face, was about to leave Xue Yuan’s room. However, as he stood up from the chair, his peripheral vision caught sight of something under the bed.

Approaching slowly, Gu Yuanbai saw something placed under the bed – a delicately crafted wooden box, appearing to be heavy and precious. Placed here, Gu Yuanbai couldn’t help but smile wryly, feeling that it was not simple.

“Tian Fusheng.”

Tian Fusheng entered with a eunuch, and Gu Yuanbai pointed under the bed. “Take out what’s there.”

The eunuch crawled under the bed and took out the object, respectfully placing it on the table. Gu Yuanbai approached and took a look. The box seemed to have gathered some dust over the month since Xue Yuan had left. Following orders, the eunuch wiped away the dust from the box, and Tian Fusheng stood by, squinting curiously at the contents inside.

With a creak, the wooden box was opened.

Gu Yuanbai looked inside and said after a moment, “Jade?”

Long and slender pieces of jade, varying in thickness, with one end rounded and the other flattened, appeared to be of good quality, but the shape was extremely peculiar.

Gu Yuanbai raised his hand to pick up a piece for a closer look but was swiftly stopped by Tian Fusheng, who was suddenly trembling with sweat on his forehead. “Your Majesty, this jade has gathered dust and is not clean.”

Gu Yuanbai glanced at him and said lightly, “What is this?”

Tian Fusheng nodded repeatedly, unable to speak. His mouth opened many times, but he couldn’t utter a word.

The fact that Lord Xue prepared the yushi in his room and hid it so deeply was self-explanatory. Look, even though the Emperor doesn’t favor Lord Xue, Lord Xue is already prepared to receive the Emperor’s favor. This tough man usually hides in his room and secretly uses the yushi. If the Emperor found out, would Lord Xue still have the face to see him?

But when the Emperor asked a question, Tian Fusheng had to answer. Just as cold sweat trickled down his temples, a servant from the Xue Mansion suddenly reported from outside the door, “Your Majesty, the Madam of the house has sent some tea. Would you like to have it now?”

Gu Yuanbai glanced outside for a moment. Tian Fusheng quickly went out to receive the tea and brought it back, saying, “Your Majesty, Lord Xue’s room is small. Would you like to go outside to enjoy the tea?”

Gu Yuanbai hadn’t forgotten about the box of jade. He stared at Tian Fusheng for a while, then snorted coldly, “I’ll ask you later.” He ordered someone to take the box of jade away.

Whatever made Tian Fusheng so tongue-tied, and especially if it was related to Xue Yuan, Gu Yuanbai intuitively felt that it wasn’t something that could be openly discussed. He decided to take the item back to the palace and investigate it thoroughly.

It must have been back in a familiar place. The two wolves that Xue Yuan had trained were extremely excited. Before Gu Yuanbai could even taste the tea from the Xue Mansion, these two wolves grabbed his clothes and led him straight to the wolf pen.

The wolf pen was deep inside the Xue Mansion. After the two wolves howled, the wolves in the pen began to bark incessantly, banging against the locked wooden door. The wooden door rattled from the impact, and the guards around Gu Yuanbai’s complexion changed suddenly, ready to retreat.

However, the farther Gu Yuanbai was from the pen, the more agitated the wolves became. Their howls were filled with fierceness, getting louder and louder.

Gu Yuanbai searched his body but couldn’t find anything that could make them so excited. Servants from the Xue Mansion hurried over, and when they saw the two adult wolves tugging at Gu Yuanbai’s sleeve, their eyes widened in fear. “Y-Your Majesty!”

The guards reassured them, “These are the two wolves that Lord Xue sent to accompany His Majesty. There’s no need to worry. Come and see, what’s going on with these wolves in the pen?”

After the servants regained their composure, they hurried forward to check the situation of the wolf pack. Gu Yuanbai remembered what Xue Yuan had said. He had said it so beautifully, claiming that all the wolves in the mansion had been trained and would obey the Emperor’s commands. But now it seemed that they were all unruly and far from what Xue Yuan had described.

Gu Yuanbai made a mental note about Xue Yuan once again.

After the servants approached, the chief of the guards whispered, “Your Majesty, you should leave first under our protection.”

Gu Yuanbai’s hands were behind his back, and his sleeves were caught by the mouths of the two wolves, hooked by their sharp teeth, preventing him from leaving. He gestured to the chief with these two pests blocking his way, “How can I walk with these two bothering me?”

They insisted on Gu Yuanbai approaching to take a look, so Gu Yuanbai went ahead. The closer he got, the more excited the wolves became. When he arrived in front of them, the wolves were already lying on the fence, scraping it with their sharp claws. Strangely, each wolf’s neck was wrapped with a white porcelain bottle.

Gu Yuanbai stared at the white porcelain bottle and suddenly reached out to pull one off from the nearest wolf’s neck. Amidst the gasps of the onlookers, he calmly removed the lid of the bottle, revealing a rolled-up piece of paper inside.

The bottle opening was too narrow for the paper to be easily removed. Gu Yuanbai simply threw the porcelain bottle to the ground. A palace attendant picked up the paper from the shattered pieces and respectfully handed it to the Emperor. Gu Yuanbai took it and leisurely unfolded the paper.

“Is His Majesty coming to see my wolves at home because the teeth of those two wolves are broken, or because His Majesty misses me?”

Gu Yuanbai abruptly closed the paper, clenched his fingers, narrowed his eyes, and his brows sank dangerously.

Xue Jiuyao.

***

Xue Jiuyao led his troops day and night, carrying with him the bag of spoiled bathing water, which he couldn’t bear to throw away.

Camping outdoors, traversing mountains and rivers. The only rest time was before going to sleep, sometimes the officers gathered together, talking implicitly about their wives and daughters at home.

As they spoke, someone asked Xue Yuan, “General, you’re traveling far north this time. Your wives and daughters at home must be very reluctant, right?”

Xue Yuan sat by the fire, his tall figure illuminated by the flickering flames, appearing both distinct and obscure.

Hearing this, the commander, who had been as hard as a rock these past few days, finally showed signs of softening, “I have no wife, nor do I have children.”

The people around him were surprised, “You haven’t married?”

“If I remember correctly, General, you’re already twenty-four, right?”

Xue Yuan’s patience increased a bit at this moment, “His Majesty is also unmarried.”

“His Majesty…” Someone chuckled twice, “His Majesty is still young.”

“His Majesty is young, and I am not old either. As a subject, naturally, I must think of His Majesty.” Xue Yuan couldn’t help but curl his lips, half serious and half jokingly, “If His Majesty hasn’t married, then I must accompany him.”

“If His Majesty takes a wife, will the General also take a wife?” someone beside them laughed heartily. “General Xue must be worried.”

Xue Yuan’s lips tightened, exuding a chilling air.

Others didn’t see his expression and continued to laugh and joke. Someone asked Xue Yuan, “General, don’t you have someone in your heart?”

Xue Yuan thought to himself, why wouldn’t he?

He had even kissed and touched his beloved. Envious, right? But what’s the use of envy when his beloved didn’t acknowledge it?

The more Xue Yuan thought about it, the more he felt d*mn frustrated. Just as he was feeling frustrated, his ears twitched, and he suddenly looked up to see scattered sentries rushing towards him on fast horses, torches flying. When they saw Xue Yuan, they shouted, “General! Locusts are attacking!”

The officers immediately stopped their laughter, stood up, and skillfully went to organize the troops. Xue Yuan took his sword, mounted his horse, and followed. “The deputy general should send someone to guard the provisions. We’re getting closer to the northern frontier, and the locusts are approaching rapidly. We must not let any food be lost!”

The deputy general bowed solemnly, “Yes!”

Xue Yuan mounted his horse, and with a stride from Liefeng, he dashed out like the wind. He suppressed his feelings and buried the image of the emperor’s face in his mind. With a scruffy beard on his face and hands calloused from holding the reins, he rode on.

As he rode into the darkness, at the very last moment, he suddenly thought, out of place, whether his efforts to make Gu Yuanbai remember him had been effective, whether they would be of any use.

***

Extremely effective.

Gu Yuanbai was so angry with him that he couldn’t sleep for most of the night.

He forgot about investigating the unknown jade piece brought back by Xue Yuan. Instead, he was faced with twenty-three pristine small porcelain bottles. These bottles were imprinted with various patterns, and their quality was ordinary. Some even had slight cracks.

Gu Yuanbai looked at these bottles, knowing that Xue Yuan couldn’t produce anything of value. Nevertheless, he smashed each bottle one by one and took out rolled-up pieces of paper from inside.

The sentences on these pieces of paper were ambiguous, testing the boundaries repeatedly. Twenty-three notes, plus the one Gu Yuanbai had received during the day at the Xue Mansion, almost formed a peculiar love letter.

However, the person writing the “love letters” was fundamentally not a refined scholar. As the messages progressed, they became more aggressive, the surface submission more hypocritical, and finally, they even reminisced about the past, mentioning the night in the cave and that kiss.

“The Emperor’s dragon root is as warm as jade,” the words on the paper were particularly bold. “I greatly enjoy touching it, and it looks quite delicious too.”

The last few sentences actually made Gu Yuanbai feel something.

He had been content with a simple life for several years, and his last folly was already five or six months ago. Gu Yuanbai read through the notes without changing his expression, but when he tried to move on, he found it incredibly dull.

He swept the notes aside to the side of the pillow, pulled up the blanket, and covered his head.

After a while, he sighed deeply.

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