Ling Zhang didn’t give it much thought when Miao Shiba told him that he had orders from Yuwen Tong to stay by his side protecting him. After all, back when he had been in the Imperial College, it had been Miao Shiba who followed at his heels acting as his personal bodyguard.
“Have the servants deliver some soup and fruits to the consultation hall in the afternoon to help the courtiers beat the heat,” instructed Ling Zhang, looking through the window at the sun in the sky. The weather had been uncommonly hot during the past couple of days, particularly in the afternoon.
“Yes,” Miao Shiba answered and then asked, “You’re not going there personally, Childe Ling?”
The Marshal… Uh… Sire had ordered him to keep constant watch on Childe Ling. His big brother had told him that it was because Childe Ling’s keeping something back concerned Sire, but he believed that in the final analysis, it was because Sire was too busy to personally stay by Childe Ling’s side and thus was somewhat worried. If Childe Ling could show his face more often in front of Sire and let Sire see him, Sire would be less worried.
But unexpectedly, Ling Zhang shook his head. “Every time I go there, they are interrupted. It’s too much trouble. Just have the eunuchs deliver them to the hall. And, have the chefs in the Infinite Fortune Palace prepare them. Also, those delivering them must be our own men. Don’t assign the task to eunuchs serving in other palaces.”
Miao Shiba was somewhat disappointed to see that Ling Zhang was not swayed. “Rest assured, Childe Ling, all Sire’s food is from the Infinite Fortune Palace. Under no circumstances will we let any outsiders get close to it.”
Ling Zhang gave a nod but then flicked a glance at Miao Shiba, a faintly peculiar expression on his face. He felt weird every time he heard them address Yuwen Tong as ‘Sire’… Maybe it was because he was still unaccustomed to it. After some time, when he got used to it, things should be better.
It was indeed very hot in the consultation hall in the afternoon, so some basins of ice were placed in the hall. On top of that, the hall was very high and spacious, so overall staying in it was not unbearable.
When eunuchs of the Infinite Fortune Palace delivered soup and fruits to the hall to beat the heat, Yuwen Tong immediately looked out of the hall, but after waiting for quite a while, he only saw Miao Shisan lead some eunuchs inside, and Ling Zhang was nowhere to be seen. His brow instantly corrugated in a frown.
Miao Shisan was observing his master’s countenance while leading the eunuchs into the hall. Seeing that his face was, predictably, a little sulky, he came to know that he had made a mistake by not having convinced Childe Ling to come. His master appeared rather unhappy and might vent his anger on them. Next time he must convince Childe Ling to come personally!
The busyness seemed to make time go much faster. When the courtiers in the consultation hall finally felt tired and stopped talking, their faces were inevitably etched with weariness. Also, night had fallen.
“Let’s call it a day. You may all go back and get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll start the consultation an hour later than scheduled, so that you people may have more sleep and recharge better,” said Yuwen Tong.
The group of courtiers expressed their gratitude and then took their leave one after another. Even the Right Prime Minister, who had always been the most motivated of them all, left, because he was too fatigued to think about government affairs any longer.
Yuwen Tong was still sitting bolt upright, tidying up the desk. Suddenly, his ears pricked up and with that he looked through the window.
A familiar figure passed the window, soon reached the doorway of the hall and entered.
“I saw those courtiers leave, so I came here. How did it go? Have you figured out how to settle the matters you’ve been discussing?” said Ling Zhang after entering the hall. He walked up to the desk to help Yuwen Tong put away the memorials to the throne and other stuff on it, and then asked him, “Are you tired? You want something to eat?”
Yuwen Tong lowered his eyes, instantly grabbed Ling Zhang’s hand which had a memorial in it, and held it motionlessly.
Ling Zhang was baffled. “What’s the matter?”
“You didn’t go out of the palace this afternoon?” Yuwen Tong raised his eyes to look at him.
“No. I had someone bring me a map of the imperial palace. We’ll be living in this place, and currently you’re pretty busy, so I figured maybe I should read the map first. All things in this palace are strange to me, and I need to familiarize myself with them one by one as soon as possible, so that I’ll be able to handle things with efficiency in the future,” answered Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong seemed to be touched by one of Ling Zhang’s words. Although he was still in the same position, both the look in his eyes and his facial expression changed slightly. Ling Zhang could distinctly tell that Yuwen Tong’s mood had instantaneously lightened.
Ling Zhang looked at him in perplexity. “What’s wrong?”
He had suddenly brightened as though he had hit pay dirt.
Yuwen Tong softly squeezed Ling Zhang’s hand, took the memorial from it and casually put it down on the side. “Let’s just leave it and go back. I’m hungry.”
Ling Zhang was somewhat bewildered by his sudden change of mood. “It’s a total mess.”
“I’ll come back later to read and comment on a couple of memorials and then tidy the desk up in passing,” said Yuwen Tong.
On hearing that Yuwen Tong would come back here at a later hour of the night, Ling Zhang looked sideways at the night sky outside and found that it was actually quite late already. He held tightly on to Yuwen Tong’s hand which was holding his. “I’ll be here keeping you company,” he said.
A smile curled the corners of Yuwen Tong’s mouth, who was in an even better mood now. “Okay.”
The two of walked back to the Infinite Fortune Palace hand in hand, had dinner, rested for a while and then slowly strolled back to the consultation hall to help with digestion.
Yuwen Tong let Ling Zhang sit beside him to help him sort memorials. Ling Zhang, who had done this kind of thing during the past couple of days, skillfully started sorting the memorials on the desk. He leafed through every one of them and then classified them according to the urgency of them. Those that needed special handling had been sifted out from the pile by Yuwen Tong, who was reading them and giving remarks.
It took Ling Zhang quite some time to finish looking through all the memorials. When he had sorted all of them, he had begun to feel a little groggy. All these issues were of importance, the solutions to which had to be decided as a matter of urgency and would be proclaimed in the form of edicts before or at the enthronement. None of these memorials were about trivial matters, which meant all of them had to be taken seriously.
A twinge of melancholy swept over him in spite of himself. Being an emperor was so tiring.
He twisted his head around to look at Yuwen Tong who was raptly commenting on a memorial. Gazing at Yuwen Tong’s straight back and the calm look in his eyes and his unperturbed strokes, he was gradually fascinated without realizing it. There had been very few occasions when he had seen this side of Yuwen Tong. When not faced with enemies on the battlefield, Yuwen Tong turned out to be a pretty good politician with unique perception of politics. His vision, astuteness and resourcefulness outshone that of most politicians who had been engaged in politics for many years. His strokes were vigorous, his every character unhurried.
It was very quiet in the hall. The only sound apart from the cracking of the wicks was Yuwen Tong writing on memorials. One of them was attentively commenting on documents, and the other was staring in fascination, unable to pull himself back to the present.
When Yuwen Tong finally finished writing comments on it and intended to take another one, he briefly paused, lightly put down his writing brush, pivoted around and looked at Ling Zhang who was gazing fixedly at him as if in a trance. In the pair of bright eyes was his distinct reflection, nothing else. Intense affection came flooding over him and he reached out a hand to sweep Ling Zhang, who was in a daze, into his embrace…
When Ling Zhang came to himself, he found himself panting heavily with his head rested on Yuwen Tong’s shoulder. That long deep kiss just now had almost disembodied his soul. Both their bodies were scalding. Yuwen Tong was cuddling him so tight as though he were trying to break his waist.
“Let’s go back,” croaked Yuwen Tong through gritted teeth.
Ling Zhang tried to struggle to his feet. “There are still some memorials left…”
“I don’t care.” Yuwen Tong, without giving the memorials a single glance, rose from his seat, scooping up Ling Zhang with his strong arms, and strode towards the doorway.
It was not until he walked through the doors of the hall that Ling Zhang came to realize the situation. “Put me down. If somebody sees us–”
“What could they possibly do about it? We’ll soon be a married couple,” said Yuwen Tong, still proceeding.
Ling Zhang patted his shoulder and breathed, “Stop it. Put me down. How am I supposed to show my face in this city if word gets out?”
Yuwen Tong paused, his lips pressed together. Eventually he put Ling Zhang down, clasped Ling Zhang’s wrist and quickly drew him towards the Infinite Fortune Palace.
Ling Zhang secretly gave a gasp of relief and then hastened to keep pace with Yuwen Tong. If truth be told, he was somewhat surprised that Yuwen Tong actually heeded his words and put him down.
The reason why Yuwen Tong had put Ling Zhang down was not that he was afraid of being seen by anybody. In fact, the consultation hall and the Infinite Fortune Palace, along with the buildings nearby, had all been encircled ring upon ring by his personal bodyguards, so he didn’t at all have to worry that somebody might intrude into this area unbidden and see the two of them. He’d put Ling Zhang down because he suspected that if he kept carrying Ling Zhang forward, Ling Zhang would go berserk midway and he wouldn’t be able to bring Ling Zhang back to the Infinite Fortune Palace.
Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong entered the Infinite Fortune Palace in haste. The guards on duty, who were sensible enough to know what was going on, had walked aside. After the two of them entered the palace, the gates were closed.
…
The two of them squirmed passionately in bed for a very long time. It struck Ling Zhang that Yuwen Tong was somewhat different on this day, that he was evidently more eager than usual, and his movements were more vigorous. Ling Zhang couldn’t bear it and instantaneously fell asleep when it was over.
Yuwen Tong had some hot water delivered into the bedchamber, wiped Ling Zhang’s body clean, applied some ointment, massaged his waist and back and helped him change into clean clothes. Then he put Ling Zhang onto a clean, soft bed and pulled a thin quilt over his belly.
It was after doing all this that he went to bathe. Then he put on his clothes, walked to the outer hall, summoned Miao Shiba and asked, “What did he do this afternoon?”
Miao Shiba answered, “Childe Ling was reading a map of the imperial palace, mainly studying the layout of it.”
“Be specific.” Yuwen Tong flicked him a glance.
Sensing the brooding air that Yuwen Tong’s eyes were emanating, Miao Shiba was faintly taken aback and hurriedly started to give a more detailed account of what Ling Zhang had done. Yuwen Tong asked some further questions about Ling Zhang’s words, facial expressions and bearing. It had never crossed Miao Shiba’s mind that Yuwen Tong would ask about it in such a minute fashion. Fortunately for him, he, like all other bodyguards, had received special training. Having subconsciously lodged these details firmly in his mind, he answered all the questions one by one.
After hearing his answers, Yuwen Tong pondered for a while and then said, “You may leave.”
Miao Shiba took his leave without more ado. When he was outside the palace, he was still somewhat surprised.
It had been Ling Zhang who had some soup and fruits delivered to the hall to beat the heat, and after that, he had also asked Miao Shisan whether Yuwen Tong looked tired or not, and how the atmosphere in the hall was like. Before dark, he had instructed Miao Shisan to keep watch on the activity in the consultation hall. On being informed that the courtiers had left, he had hastened to the hall to help Yuwen Tong sort memorials. Ling Zhang had also been the one who specially had the chefs prepare a dinner consisting of dishes all of which were suitable to eat at night and to Yuwen Tong’s liking…
Every one of these matters seemed to be trivial, but all of them had something to do Yuwen Tong, and Ling Zhang had gone to the trouble of taking a personal interest in each and every one of them. It didn’t really seem to be very much different than usual, but from these things, Yuwen Tong had got a feeling that something had changed, that Ling Zhang manifestly cared about these things more than he used to. In other words, Ling Zhang cared more about him now, as though there was something Ling Zhang was not telling him…
