Chapter 26 - His Majesty watches the show (1/2)

In Gu Yuanbai’s eyes, Xue Yuan looked like a disobedient, aggressive beast.

A crazy beast like that aroused Gu Yuanbai’s thirst for adventure and danger. He didn’t have the physical condition required to tame an Akhal-Teke horse, but Xue Yuan was different.

Gu Yuanbai was interested, and even determined to conquer his will. As he watched Xue Yuan tame this horse, his desire to conquer, which had been growing over the last three years, made him ponder about how he could tame Xue Yuan as well.

The best scenario would be for Xue Yuan to become obedient and admit his defeat, his madness smoothed out by Gu Yuanbai. Gu Yuanbai thought that would be a successful conquest.

It took Xue Yuan two quarters of an hour to crush the proud Akhal-Teke horse with his body.

The horse was so exhausted that it couldn’t rear back to toss him off, allowing Xue Yuan to hold the reins and direct him towards the young Emperor.

Gu Yuanbai watched the fierce horse approach. Xue Yuan, sitting on the horse, smiled condescendingly. “Your Highness, this official has succeeded in taming the horse.”

After such a hard struggle, the horse’s neck was sweaty, and the soaked fur had a luxurious gleam like blood. Gu Yuanbai was extremely happy. He stroked the horse’s neck, and he could faintly see the blood running under its skin.

“Good horse,” praised the Emperor. “It’s worthy of its reputation of being worth a thousand li.”

The Akhal-Teke neighed and swished its tail.

Xue Yuan grinned, leaned down from the horse and stretched out a hand towards Gu Yuanbai. He asked respectfully, “Your Highness, why not come for a ride with this official?”

The guard captain asked with a serious face, “Official Xue, are you sure that the horse has been properly tamed?”

Xue Yuan smiled slightly, too lazy to pay him any mind.

Chu Wei frowned, disapproving of the man’s wild attitude.

Gu Yuanbai was happy with the opportunity, and he said with a smile, “We have a good horse before Us, how can We not give it a try?”

The only issue was that this was a newly tamed horse, without a saddle or stirrups, so Gu Yuanbai just took Xue Yuan’s hand directly. Xue Yuan held it and pulled him onto the horse’s back just with his arm’s strength.

Gu Yuanbai sat steadily, stroked the mane of the horse with a smile, and grabbed the reins in Xue Yuan’s hands without hesitation. The young Emperor was so domineering that Xue Yuan had no choice but to stretch out his hands around the Emperor’s waist to maintain hold onto the rein as well.

“Your Highness.” He smiled unpleasantly. “Will you throw me away after using me?”

He didn’t have the reins, and there was no saddle on the horse. The moment the horse began running, Xue Yuan might fall off the horse.

Gu Yuanbai’s lips twitched and he didn’t reply. Instead, he held onto the horse with his legs, snapped the reins and said, “Go!”

The Akhal-Teke horse that was worth a thousand li let out a bray and ran off.

The palace attendants at the sides ran in a panic, watching the Emperor and Official Xue driving towards the wide horse paddock.

Sitting behind the young Emperor, Xue Yuan held onto Gu Yuanbai’s waist, and the Emperor’s black hair hit him in the face. Xue Yuan turned his face away, but he didn’t avoid it.

Even though the black hair was hitting his face, Xue Yuan didn’t feel uncomfortable. It was probably because the young Emperor was too clean, so even his hair smelled nice.

Xue Yuan inhaled the scent for a minute, and he felt like it cleared his heart and calmed the air, making his previous dark mood disappear.

Chu Wei had good eyesight. He spotted Xue Yuan’s actions clearly, and it made the bile rise in his throat.

He stared at Xue Yuan coldly, gripping the brush firmly in his hand.

Since he was handsome, many men favored Chu Wei. Chu Wei had always thought their gazes were disgusting, like a sticky insect crawling all over his body. Chu Wei hated cutsleeves1 the most, and he hated people who only paid attention to his appearance.

Although he wasn’t homosexual, he knew about the concept because he had been approached in the past. The Emperor wasn’t like him. He had the power, the status, and the identity as the Lord of the Great Heng dynasty and master of the Imperial palace. Who would dare to look at the Emperor with eyes like that?

This Xue Yuan clearly felt safe thinking that the Emperor wouldn’t suspect him, and for that reason he was acting this bold and reckless.

He was clearly hiding nefarious intentions towards the Emperor!

Chu Wei had a dark look in his eyes.

The guard captain was still worried and sent someone to bring them some horses. Before he could get to one of the horses, however, he saw the newly appointed scholar from the Xiuzhuan Academy suddenly set his paper and brush aside, come over to grab a horse and jump on it, his robes flying around him. After he got on the horse, Chu Wei apologized to the guard captain. “I’ll go on ahead.”

And he spurred the horse to start galloping. After a moment of confusion, the guard captain also mounted his horse quickly and chased him, heading in the Emperor’s direction.

The palace horses were also good, but they had been raised to be docile and were carrying heavy saddles, so, naturally, when galloping they were inferior to the thousand li horse.

Gu Yuanbai was galloping against the wind, as if flying with it. The spring sunshine covered the area, and the warm yellow afternoon glow made the Imperial city look golden. The Akhal Teke horse ran between the high walls, but Gu Yuanbai felt as if he were riding across grasslands.

With clouds hanging low in the sky and thousands of miles of grass all around them, the horses in the grasslands were strong and powerful. Gu Yuanbai had been there before, riding horses across the field, but it had been too long since that time, so long that he suddenly felt the need to go there to see the grasslands again.

The lands of the border nomads would sooner or later become part of the Great Heng’s territory, and their horses would run on it.

After the horse stopped, Xue Yuan took the reins. “Your Highness?”

Gu Yuanbai came back to his senses, and then noticed a slight pain between his legs. After thinking about it, he decided he was probably worn out.

“Send for an imperial doctor.” Gu Yuanbai admitted his weakness frankly. “We think Our skin was damaged.”

Xue Yuan frowned and immediately got off the horse. He reached out and held Gu Yuanbai to help him down. After the Emperor stood on firm ground, Xue Yuan knelt down on one knee and tentatively brushed his fingers across the Emperor’s thigh. “Here?”

The inner thighs had the most delicate skin.

Xue Yuan had wide fingers, and they were long and rough. Gu Yuanbai tried to feel them and shook his head. “No.”

It wasn’t a convenient way to figure it out. Xue Yuan was about to lift up his robe when Gu Yuanbai pressed his head. “Official Xue, what are you doing?”

Xue Yuan smiled. “I’m inspecting Your Highness’ wounds.”

“And what will you do after inspecting the wound?” Gu Yuanbai felt that Xue Yuan, in trying to be diligent, was a bit stupid. “Could you possibly treat Us with your bare hands?”

Xue Yuan’s position, with his head being pressed down, made Xue Yuan feel uncomfortable. “If Your Highness doesn’t want me to look, this official will get up obediently.”

”

”

Gu Yuanbai replied, “That’s not what We asked.”

The young Emperor was really delicate and didn’t have much strength. The palm that he was holding Xue Yuan’s head with was, in fact, weaker than a wolf cub pouncing at him. However, Xue Yuan still enjoyed the young Emperor’s superficial weakness hiding a strong interior. It made him interesting and fun.

Therefore, even if it was a bit uncomfortable, Xue Yuan was very helpful. “Of course, this official can’t bandage Your Highness’ wound. But, at least, after seeing the wound, this official will know the extent of the injury and not feel too guilty.”

Gu Yuanbai was amused by the word ‘guilt’. “We are the one who got on the horse, and We are the one injured. Official Xue has no reason to feel guilty about it. We are not someone that would wrong others for no reason.”

“It is as the Emperor says,” Xue Yuan replied. “Your Highness, can you still walk?”