After some time, Ling Zhang who had finished a bowl of noodle began to feel sleepy. He sat there for another few moments and his eyes became somewhat unfocused, but he still tried his best to keep his eyelids from drooping.
Yuwen Tong’s attention had been on Ling Zhang all along. Though his eyes didn’t seem to be fixed on Ling Zhang all the time, he still immediately noticed the dreamy look on Ling Zhang’s face. He knew Ling Zhang well and could tell without a second thought that Ling Zhang had had his fill of food and drink and was now sleepy.
Yuwen Tong looked out of the hall into the sky to gauge the time. This banquet had lasted long enough, and it wouldn’t be the last one. During the next few days, there would be several other banquets, so Yuwen Tong rose to his feet.
The moment he stood up, all the others naturally looked in his direction.
“I feel sleepy, so I’m going to call it a night. You may continue enjoying this banquet.”
“Have a safe trip home, Your Majesty,” chorused all the officials.
Yuwen Tong descended the stairs, walked up to Ling Zhang and gave him a wink.
Ling Zhang, whose drowsiness was instantly driven away by the officials’ reply in unison, saw Yuwen Tong’s wink and hastened to stand up to follow him. Before leaving, he told Miao Shiba to take some men and escort his family back to the Ling Mansion safely.
“Consider it done, Childe Ling,” said Miao Shiba.
Ling Zhang drew abreast of Yuwen Tong and the two of them left the great hall together.
After leaving the great hall, they kept walking forward for a distance, leaving the babble of voices behind them. As he breathed the fresh air, Ling Zhang’s mind felt much clearer.
Seeing Ling Zhang was slowing down, Yuwen Tong turned around and took his hand. “Hurry up. The night wind is chill. You drank a lot of wine, and you might catch a cold if you’re exposed to this wind for too long.”
Ling Zhang caught up with him and they progressed shoulder to shoulder. “You drank a lot of wine as well, didn’t you?” he said.
“Hey.” He suddenly raised his voice and observed happily, “Although it’s been a tiring day, I think we both enjoyed ourselves a lot.”
At the sight of Ling Zhang’s starry eyes which were gleaming with delight, intense longing started to flood Yuwen Tong in waves. In a low and deep voice, he replied, “Yeah.”Read manga at our MangaBob.com
Then he reached out an arm, swept Ling Zhang into his tight embrace and began kissing him uncontrollably.
Seeing this, the guards behind them hastened to back away.
Ling Zhang gave a chuckle and put his arms around Yuwen Tong’s neck, his lips parted…
Yuwen Tong’s eyes instantly became feverish with desire. He quickly stretched out his other arm and scooped Ling Zhang up. Carrying him on the crooks of his arms, he rapidly returned to the Infinite Fortune Palace.
The two of them were both quite weary, but fatigue was never a problem for them when they were turned on.
…
After a long sex, the two of them lay motionlessly on the bed, holding each other.
Ling Zhang was half-asleep. Cuddling him, Yuwen Tong was still kissing his sweaty cheek. He moved Ling Zhang’s forelock aside and lightly wiped the sweat from his brow and the corners of his eyes. “I anticipate the wedding ceremony more than I did the enthronement ceremony.”
At the banquet earlier tonight, Ling Zhang had refused to sit beside him, so he could only gaze at him and hadn’t been able to touch Ling Zhang from start to finish.
“Um,” Ling Zhang dreamily mumbled. In fact, he didn’t even know what he was agreeing to, let alone what Yuwen Tong had just said.
Yuwen Tong gave a hollow chuckle. “So you agree.”
“Let’s get married tomorrow…”
Ling Zhang had no idea what kind of suggestion he had just groggily made that he would bitterly regret having made later. It was probably because he heard Yuwen Tong mention something about him anticipating the wedding ceremony more that he subconsciously said these words.
Though aware that holding the wedding ceremony the next day was not workable, Yuwen Tong still rejoiced in the knowledge that Ling Zhang looked forward to their wedding as much as he did.
“Back at the time when my grandfather and my parents passed away one after another, I believed that providence must dislike me very much to have had subjected me to that many pains, but now I’m really grateful to providence for sending you to me. I’m luckier in this incarnation than I was in the last one,” muttered Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang had fallen into a fairly deep sleep and couldn’t hear a single word of Yuwen Tong’s.
“So you must stay by my side at all times. You must not leave or walk too far away from me.”
“Um.”
A feeble and faint grunt was heard and with that Yuwen Tong immediately looked down at Ling Zhang, but the latter was not awake at all, and he’d given that grunt in a completely unconscious way. It was so light as though it had never existed.Read manga at our MangaBob.com
“I’ll take that for a yes.”
Yuwen Tong carefully pecked him, shifted his position, closed his eyes and soon fell asleep as well.
There were a whole bunch of matters he would have to wake up early in the morning to attend to.
…
In the Ling Mansion.
Ling Zhaowu was sitting in his courtyard house, drinking alone.
Ling Zhaowen walked inside. “You’re still awake, Big Brother.”
Ling Zhaowu said, “It’s pretty late. Why did you come here instead of keeping Caiwei company?”
Ling Zhaowen stepped to the table, took a seat and replied, “Because I figured you might not be able to sleep tonight, what with what happened at the banquet.”
Ling Zhaowu lifted his eyebrows and looked at him. “How do you know that?”
Ling Zhaowen responded, “Apart from anything else, we’re blood brothers. Besides, I watched Zhang’er grew up, and I’ve been treating him like my own son. I had a hard job bringing him up, and now, Yuwen Tong’s taking him away from me.”
Ling Zhaowu gave a chuckle, pouring his brother a small cup of wine. “You want to have a drink with me?”
Ling Zhaowen sniffed at the wine. “This is almost as good as the wine they served at the banquet tonight. Why have I never seen you drink this kind of wine before?”
“I bought it only earlier this day. People of the Taibai Tavern preserved it for years and have just taken it out of their wine cellar,” explained Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhaowen took a sip of the wine and savored it with obvious relish. “Brother, it surprises me you’re so familiar with the capital city. I asked some people who’d lived here for a long time, and I found that even they had no knowledge of many of the things you know about.”
Ling Zhaowu asked, “So you’re here to investigate me?”
Ling Zhaowen said, “We’re brothers. Of course I’m not here to investigate you. Just tell me the truth.”
Ling Zhaowu said, “Well, I sort of have been to this city before. I heard about some of those things on my way here. The one who told me those things was a native of this city who was born and grew up here. There are many things unknown to out-of-towners. I just went there to try my luck, and it turned out I was in luck. Now I can see that that person didn’t lie to me.”
Ling Zhaowen observed, “It would seem fate was kind to you, Brother.”
Ling Zhaowu sighed, “If that was the case, I wouldn’t have been separated from Zhang’er and you guys for that long.”
Ling Zhaowen said, “But our family has been reunited anyhow, and now I want nothing more than to see you and Zhang’er have a good life.”
Ling Zhaowu raised his hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m not worthy of a brother like you.”
Ling Zhaowen didn’t like this remark and told him off for it. After that, he added, “If you say something like this again, I’ll never have another drink with you.”
Ling Zhaowu said, “I apologize, Brother. Don’t be mad.”
Ling Zhaowen was astonished. Many years ago, when the two of them had been little boys, Ling Zhaowu had always coaxed him this way whenever he’d been angry. Recalling this, Ling Zhaowen felt a twinge of sadness. Finding this both funny and annoying, he said, “It surprises me you still remember that.”
“How could I forget it?” said Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhaowen sighed, “Time really flies. Zhang’er is a grown man now, and after some time he’ll be the empress of the Great Wen. Sometimes I couldn’t help wondering whether this is a good thing for him or not. Previously, the reason why we insisted he marry Yuwen Tong was because at that time Yuwen Tong was a marshal, a military officer, but now things have changed so fast, and I’m not so sure we did the right thing.”
Ling Zhaowu said, “I could tell what kind of person Yuwen Tong is, and I believe we can trust him to take good care of Zhang’er.”
Ling Zhaowen naturally also knew that Yuwen Tong was trustworthy. It was the emperorship that he didn’t trust. Yuwen Tong’s identity had changed, and a lot of things had changed with it.
“Time will prove everything, and no matter what, we’ll always be at Zhang’er’s back,” said Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhaowen gave a smile. “You’re right. It’s no good thinking about these things at this point in time.”
“You should go back. It’s late. Caiwei must’ve got worried,” said Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhaowen gave a bob of the head, gulped down the rest of his wine and rose to his feet. “I came here with the intention to offer you a few words of comfort, but I ended up being comforted by you, Brother.”
Ling Zhaowu said with a smile, “I’m your big brother after all.”
Smiling, Ling Zhaowen took his leave. Ling Zhaowu thought about something for quite a while and eventually returned to his room.
…
This was a night when the whole nation joined in the jubilation. The night market of the capital city lasted the whole night, and the next day most people overslept.
Ling Zhang, who hadn’t gone to the night market to have fun but had stayed in bed having fun with Yuwen Tong until very late, was no exception.
The sun was high up in the sky already when he opened his eyes. At the sight of the light, he came to know that he had probably slept until noon once again.
Yuwen Tong wasn’t in, presumably busy dealing with government affairs in the hall.
For the moment they were still staying in the Infinite Fortune Palace, but many daily necessities had been replaced with new ones worthy of emperorship.
Ling Zhang glanced around the bedchamber which struck him as both familiar and strange, scratched his head and then got out of bed to wash and change.
On guard duty in the doorway were still Yuwen Tong’s personal bodyguards. None of those eunuchs and palace ladies would be given the permission to enter the imperial bedchamber until all arrangements were finalized.
This allowed Ling Zhang more freedom and quiet. Miao Shiba and the others on duty outside didn’t enter to disturb him. It was shortly before lunchtime that Miao Shiba walked inside and asked, “Would you like me to have them serve lunch, Childe Ling?”
“Okay. I do feel hungry. Where’s Yuwen Tong?”
“Sire is still in the consultation hall. There’s another banquet in the Taiqing Palace this noon, so Sire is not coming back for lunch. He wanted me to tell you not to eat only meat, that you need to have more vegetable,” replied Miao Shiba.
The corners of Ling Zhang’s mouth twitched in spite of himself. This was so embarrassing. “What’s the banquet about?”
“It’s about discussing the terms of the peace agreement with the diplomatic corps of the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom,” answered Miao Shiba.
“Haven’t they negotiated about it already?” Ling Zhang was puzzled.
“Originally a peace accord was supposed to be negotiated in Youzhou, but Jiang Ke and the others managed to delay it until after the enthronement, so the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom instructed their diplomatic corps to do it right after sending their congratulations to Sire,” explained Miao Shiba.
Ling Zhang inclined his head. He had been so busy lately that he had almost been knocked senseless and forgotten these things.
“What kind of terms did they agree on?”
Miao Shiba responded, “I don’t know anything about that for the moment. Sire said that he’ll definitely have the Luohai Kingdom pay dearly for their deeds, that others matters can wait, for currently our first priority is to have our country recover from the aftermath of the war, and we’ll launch an attack on them when we’re at full strength again.”
Miao Shiba disclosed such a shocking message in a very calm tone of voice, and Ling Zhang almost choked on food because of it. Though Miao Shiba knew that Yuwen Tong had such a plan, saying it out without any misgivings made Ling Zhang feel that Miao Shiba was quite a daredevil.
“Okay, I see. Have you guys had lunch? If you haven’t, you may go and get something to eat. I could use some quiet,” said Ling Zhang.
“Yes, Childe Ling,” answered Miao Shiba, intending to leave.
“Wait. The diplomatic corps of the two countries are here. What about the others? They still haven’t come to the palace?” asked Ling Zhang.
“They’ll come in the afternoon. Sire told them to sober themselves up first and come to the palace in the afternoon,” replied Miao Shiba.
Ling Zhang looked out of the window into the sky to gauge the time. Recalling that he had slept until noon and was in no position to judge other people, he lowered his head to eat, making no more remarks.
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