Chapter 4 - His Majesty Catches A Flower Thief1 (1/2)

Above the river, a small boat drifted away with the waves.

Xue Yuan stood at the bow of the boat with a gloom look. At the back, Chang Yuyan, the son of the Deputy Chief of Dali Temple2 leisurely enjoyed a cup of wine all by himself. When he saw the other’s atrocious appearance, he said with a laugh, “Turns out, your younger step-brother3 didn’t catch a blight?”

The corner of Xue Yuan’s lips rose as he gently laughed, “Yuyan, what do you call it? He played tricks on my mother’s body. I4 nearly killed him when I went back to the house today.”

Chang Yuyan laughed heartily, “Even implicated your father to be penalized by salary cut and let your father and you be scolded by the emperor in front of all officials.”

Xue Yuan smiled deeper, “You don’t say! As soon as he went home, he spared with me. He also told me to look for a chance to admit mistake with the little emperor next time.”

Chang Yuyan laughed silently.

This guy, Xue Yuan, looked human with the manner of a dog5, but his temper was even more brute than a dog. There was a smile of a gentleman on his face, but what he thought might be some kind of vicious and harmful things.

This person was even heaven-daring and had no rules and virtues. If General Xue hadn’t paid close attention to him, Xue Yuan could seriously cut up his younger step-brother and throw him out to feed the wolves. He was not at all afraid of other people’s criticism and moral scolding.

The son of a great general turned out to be a bandit leader.

Chang Yu Yan said, “You’d better simmer down a bit. There are many people in the capital keeping an eye on you.”

“If I ride a horse in the downtown can be described as an act of crime,” Xue Yuan said, “I’ll pile up a Jingguan6 in front of their doors some other day, so that they know what is called a crime.”

“You can’t pile it up even if you want. It’s not a battlefield. Where would you find so many heads to make a mountain?” Chang Yuyan poured himself another cup of wine. Half-reclined on the board, he recited a poem aloud, “Silk skirt with lotus-leave patterns of pure color and good cut, lotus flowers bloom on both sides of the picker’s face. Randomly, they enter the pond and disappear from sight, only their singing tells that there are souls coming out7.”

Xue Yuan said, “Where are the lotus leaves? And neither is this the lotus season.”

Chang Yuyan: “Although there are no lotus leaves, I saw a lotus face.”

He pointed to a handkerchief floating not far from the boat. “If I’m not wrong, the handkerchief should be embroidered with a portrayal of a beautiful lady.”

Xue Yuan picked up the oar and fished up the handkerchief. It was silk-woven, soft and smooth, and didn’t stick on the hand even wet. Xue Yuan squinted. After seeing the pattern on it, he smiled with a deep meaning.

Chang Yuyan curiously asked, “Is it a portrayal of a beautiful lady?”

“No,” Xue Yuan laughed horrifyingly, “it’s a portrayal of a dragon.

*

Gu Yuanbai, who was reading through the memorials8, suddenly felt cold on his back.

He frowned. The attendants had changed his handwarmer timely, brought hot tea, and made the fire in the brazier inside the palace hall more blazing. For people who were in good health, the temperature was already very hot. The palace maids and eunuchs were already sweating, but Gu Yuanbai felt that the temperature was just right.

He tightened the exquisitely carved handwarmer in his hand. With a wave of his brush, he got up after criticizing the last memorial and asked people to tidy up the table.

The young emperor had a weak body and looked like he had not yet reached 20 years old. Gu Yuanbai tried several times to solve the physiological needs of men, but he lost his appetite every time he looked at that tender pink and sparse hair down there.

The color and shape were very nice and smooth, which could even be called delicate. However, putting it on Gu Yuanbai himself was a glaring blow to his male self-esteem.

It was so delicate that it turned red with a rub and wilted no matter how it felt.

Gu Yuanbai stood at the window and sighed deeply.

Since Gu Yuanbai dispatched Tian Fusheng, he was attended by a little eunuch. The little eunuch said cautiously, “What’s bothering Your Majesty?”

Gu Yuanbai was about to speak when he heard the noise outside the palace hall. He frowned, “What is happening outside?”

As soon as his voice fell, someone ran in and announced, “Your Majesty, an assassin has been caught outside.”

Gu Yuanbai’s complexion abruptly darkened. The Captain of the Imperial Bodyguard, who guarded him on the side, had even a darker complexion than his.

*

It was already dark when he finished criticizing the memorials. The assassin dressed in all black and his tracts were strange. If Gu Yuanbai had not thoroughly purged the imperial court long ago, and that the Forbidden Army and the Imperial Bodyguards worked diligently, they might not have discovered this person.

Gu Yuanbai sat high behind the official correspondences. His voice was like the cold wind on the twelfth lunar month, “Who sent you?”

The assassin was pressed to the ground and cried out for injustice, “Who will send a flower thief to be an assassin? Your Majesty is a good judge. This little one is blinded by lust and simply mustered the courage to enter the palace to have a look.”

Gu Yuanbai: “A flower thief picking in Zhen’s palace? Which flower do you like in Zhen’s palace?”

The emperor’s tone was heavy. There weren’t any imperial concubines in the Imperial Palace. The flowers could only befit the palace maids in the Imperial Palace.

The assassin exerted himself to look in the direction of the emperor. The young emperor was so angry that his lips were red, his tragus9 were filled with blood, and his eyes contained ice belted with anger. Everywhere was a sight to behold, which made anyone be dazzled and could not afford to miss any.

The assassin opened his mouth wide as he looked at the emperor in shock. His face abruptly turned red. He lowered his head and did not reply.

Captain of the Imperial Bodyguard rushed forward and kicked the assassin. The assassin grunted. With a sudden burst of strength, he overturned several Imperial Bodyguards that suppressed him but was instantly pressed by more people.