Chapter 33 - Bathroom Lord’s Promise (5) (2/2)

Well, I won the bet. Bathroom Lord passed out first.

It was still dark, and I could not see where he was hurt. What I could do was to hold him tightly, floating with the current.

Further down, the river finally widened and the float became eased. After drifting for a while, the roaring river turned peace like a shy girl, shining in the moonlight.

I let go of my hands and feet, only a hand around his neck, and then leaned on the river, quietly floating along the serene river slowly. The river was quiet, so was my mind.

I thought, at this time as long as I let him go, he would be no longer a threat to me. I could go back to find Qi Sheng, and continued to play the role of the Crown Princess Zhang shi, until Qi Sheng ascended to be the Emperor. Then I would choose a few beautiful girls in the Palace, and together with Lv Li, to move to a distant Palace where I could live a well-off life until death.

It could also be counted as “safety and sufficient supply for provisions and clothing.”

I loosened my fingers and closed them, again and again, but I couldn’t get rid of him finally.

I was afraid that what I let go of was not only him, but also my own conscience.

After drifting for a long time in the evening, we finally landed on a beach at daybreak. My hands and feet had been so paralyzed that I couldn’t feel them at all, but I still dragged him out of the water.

There were many trees along the riverside, so I chose a place to take shelter from the wind. I lay him down on the beach and examined his wound. The bruises and scratches on him were too many to count, and there was a rather deep knife wound near his shoulder blade which had turned white after soaked in the river for a long time.

Fortunately, his limbs were not broken. I looked over his ribs carefully again, and seemed it didn’t injured that severely.

I had a sigh of relief and thought about binding up his wound. But when I checked him again, only found that the sharp rocks had torn his clothes so ragged that there was no any complete piece of cloth used as the bandage.

But my clothes was rather complete, especially the yellow satin inside. Tearing my own clothes into rags might work it. I took off the clothes, picked clean part of the clothes to tear off to wrap him up. Comparing to Bathroom Lord, my condition was much better than his, my sword wound in the chest was not deep, and since applied medicine, I wouldn’t feel hurt even it was soaked into the water. Nothing was serious except for a few bruises and scratches on my arms and legs.

He was lying quietly beside. Although he did not wake up, his breath was still smooth. I feared what if it caused wound inflammation, he would get a high fever. What I feared always came around me. After a while, I heard his breath becoming faster and faster. He had a high temperature, but his teeth were chattering and his limbs were curled up all together.

I squatted beside him, silently looking at him, hesitating whether to try the method I had seen on TV, which was to strip myself to cover him! I didn’t know if it worked or not. It was not because of any psychological barrier, in this case there was no big deal for two men hugging together, but considering the IQ of those screenwriters, I finally gave up this attempt. Instead, I walked to the river and soaked the cloth in cold river water, which could do him the physical cooling.

It was not until the sun rose high that his temperature gradually dropped. I was finally relieved. After a while, he opened his eyes, but did not speak, only silently looking at me.

I began to worry that the fever took a toll on his brain.

“You surprised me,” he said hoarsely.

I patted the dirt on my ass, turned around and looked through the pile of tattered clothes. “You also did something beyond my expectation.” I replied casually.

I tried to find something I could wear, but failed. Finally I could only smack my lips, picked out some rags and wrapped them on my feet first.

He watched me with silence.

I turned back, narrowed my eyes and looked at him for a moment, and said sincerely: “After the accident of last night, no matter what calculation you are on, we got through life and death event, so I sincerely advise you that you’d better give up competing for the imperial throne, otherwise sooner or later you would be doomed.”

He tried all his best to sit up on his elbows, squinting at me, sneering: “Why do you say so?”

I went to his side, crossed legs to sit down, and said: “Military power! Although you are a favored prince, you have no military power in your hand, while Qi Sheng has it. He is the Crown Prince, appointed by Cheng Emperor. Even if the Emperor does not like him, as long as he does not craft a conspiracy against him, the Emperor will not abolish him for the sake of the stability of the imperial court.”

This was also the reason why I decided to continue to work with Qi Sheng before, although the present Emperor had weak character, he was not a fatuous and self-indulgent ruler. He knew the importance of a Crown Prince, who couldn’t be abolished as he wished.

He did not speak, only looked at me coldly.

I thought myself confessed everything without any reserve, hence there was no need for me to avoid his gazing, so I looked at him back.

Finally, he dodged my sight, and said with a faint smile: “Do you think that if I quit competing I could survive? They have forced me to do that step by step. If I compete, there might be a gleam of hope, but if I quit, I would be doomed. ”

I felt that I had no comment on the topic, so I stopped speaking. I stood up, saying: “I am hungry, you wait here first, I will go to see around to find some food, and get some water back from the river.

I was about to leave after saying that, when I heard him calling out after me, “ah –“