an ancient chinese story

9

2 months later-

jing yi had gotten accustomed to his new life. jing yi woke up early, prepared for the day and went to feng leng's room to wake him up. he went and lightly shaked the general as calling out didnt work. just as he had shaked the general, the general turned around and caught jing yi in his embrace. 

"let me sleep for awhile."

feng leng said smiling because of the jingyi's pleasant scent and small stature with in his arms. even though he had already woken up when jing yi had called him, he was waiting for this moment.as always jing yi  blushed from the close  proximity and pushed  feng leng's chest to get out of his arms. but feng leng restrained him.

"stay with me for a while." with that order jing yi could only try to calm his rapidly beating heart and stay still.  this was now the daily routine of the master and servant.in the beginning there was nothing that jing yi had to do but later gradually  every responsibilities for the general's service was shifted to jing yi, making him really a personal maid.

after having stayed for a while. jing yi helped feng leng with preparations for the day. jing yi served the breakfast and helped feng leng with the attire for the morning court. as jing yi  was carefully tying the knot of his robe, feng leng could see jing yi's face more clearly and couldnt help but remark, " you are truly beautiful." which left jing yi's face resembling a tomato. jingyi could only hurry up to finish the work . and as always feng leng hugged the smaller boy before departing for the court and also reminded not to get out of the general's courtyard. which jing yi replied with a smile.

jing yi looked after the garden behind the courtyard as pass time whenever feng leng was out. and just as he was watering the plants he mind wandered off to the thoughts of the old man and, bai and chun. he could only hope that the old man was living well. he was getting homesick for awhile but for now he could only suppress the desire to go home. he counted the days he had been living here for and was surprised how fast 2 months flew by.

and he also thought of how fast he had gotten so close to the general. he was happy to serve the general who he found to be kind-hearted , intelligent and diligent despite his looks. he also remembered how physically close they had come to be to each other. he thought that maybe this is how the general really is. that he liked skinship.

today, it seemed the general was going to be late. without  feng leng to serve, jing yi had pretty much nothing to do. he was idly roaming around when he saw a zither laying around in one of the rooms. he exclaimed at his new finding. he could finally ease his boredom. he went straight to the zither and played the zither looking outside the garden. 

though jing yi knew nothing much of the other things, zither was a very familiar instrument to him. it was his mother who taught him to play.it was one of many things that are left by his mother. he played the songs that he learned from his mother.

after many years, the silent residence of the general was filled with music which soothed every soul present there. every one  was entranced by the music, so many came to the source of the music. seeing a beautiful person though veiled, playing a zither made a dazzling scenario. everyone was gathering around unnoticed by jing yi as his eyes were closed. soon the servants dispersed as feng leng had come.

feng leng was surprised to see his little one being able to play the zither so skillfully. he continued to listen while constantly looking at jing yi and the turmoil from the court vanished.

when jing yi finally came out from trance, he was surprised that it was already dusk. and when he turned around he was shocked to see feng leng sitting right beside him.

"from now on always play the zither in the afternoon for me."

jingyi nodded and blushed to have been found in that situation. so he quickly set the zither back where he found it.

the zither was of feng leng's mother who had died when he was young. up until now, no one was allowed to even touch the zither other than for cleaning. feng leng's mother's death was a big secret in the residence.  the servants didnt even dare to talk about the incident. 

jing yi heard this much from the maid that was assigned to him. jing yi felt sad for feng leng as he found that both had shared the same mate of losing their mother.

just like that the once cold and distant general seemed to be so much more closer and familiar to jing yi with each passing day with the general. and unknown feelings to jing yi grew more and more .

---

in the court, the ministers had proposed the emperor to grant the great general feng leng to take in concubines. despite his age, the general hadnt taken in any concubines and also never was rumoured to have a lover. trying to show that they were just concerned for the general, many ministers were actually targeting to get their daughters to marry the general for many reasons. the most common of them was to make a stronger stand in the court with the support of the general. 

feng leng had instantly denied to do so but the emperor worried that his general and most trusted friend would live a lonely life, made a decree for the selection of concubines for general feng leng without consulting the person. after the selection at least 1 wife and 5 concubines were to be selected.

the previous search for girls with specified looks done by royal edict was known to all but all knew that no one was selected through that though many beauties had gone. it was a mystery to all as they never knew why the search was done and also why it was suddenly stopped.only the emperor and feng leng knew. but as the emperor himself didnt question feng leng and stopped any speculations about the matter, so all didnt dare to make any more comment on the mysterious search. no one knew that it was a request from feng leng to the emperor. and the search was rather successful.

and even though the emperor knew that feng leng had found the person. he still thought that feng leng should at least get more concubines to keep the ministers  at bay and also that a great general such as feng leng should have more concubines.

 the ministers rejoiced in the news and the one who was happy the most was probably the left minister who had set his eyes on feng leng for a long time. but every advances he made were turned off by feng leng. so with this chance, the left minister was sure to make the most of it.